162 T H E A R T OP T H E G R E E K S .
and Babylon, we must still admit the early influence of Egyptian (Saitic)
and oriental art over Greece. A peculiar school of ancient sculpture,
to which the invention of casting statues is attributed, developed
itself in the island of Samos between the 30th1 and 55th Olympiad
(657-557 b . c.) extending from the time of Psammeticus of Egypt
to the epoch of Croesus of Lydia, and Cyrus of Persia; and history
contains many evidences of the intercourse of the Samians with the
kings of Egypt and Lydia, and with the merchants of Phoenicia.
The types of the coins of Samos,—the lion’s head and bull’s head,—
are similar to the Assyrian representations. As to the Egyptian
influence, Steinbiichel justly lays peculiar stress upon the rude archaic
type of the silver coins of Athens with the helmeted head of Minerva,
which was persistently retained by the republic even in the times of
her highest artistical eminence. It certainly shows the eye, represented
in the Egyptian front-view, whilst the angle of the lips is
raised, and smiles in the later pharaonic manner. All the earliest
coins and bas-reliefs of Greece are characterized by the same peculiarity,
and some of them retained even the Egyptian head-dress in
slightly modified forms. The anecdote preserved by Diodorus
biculus, concerning Telecles and Theodoras of Samos,(who are said
to have made a bronze statue in two halves, independently of one
another, which upon being joined were found to agree perfectly),was
likewise explained by the invariable rales of the Egyptian canon;167
though, according to our views, it has nothing to do with Egypt, and
owes its origin probably to the traces of chiselling that removed
the seam of the cast all along the figure, and which being of a different
color from the unchiselled surface of the statue, was mistaken
for ancient soldering. '
The indubitable connexion of Greece with Egypt, under the Saite
dynasty, could not fail to have great influence on art. The Greeks
gained from that quarter their acquaintance with the different
mechanical processes of sculpture, carving, moulding, casting, and
chiselling. though, too proud to acknowledge their debt to foreigners,
they attributed the invention of the saw and file, drill and rule, to
the mythical Cretan Daedalus, or to the Samian Theodoras, the
elder, at any rate, to artists natives of the Archipelago in proximity
with Egypt. It seems, indeed, that the opening of Egypt gave a sudden
impulse to sculpture and painting among the Hellenes: for nearly
all the earliest works mentioned by the ancients belong to^this period,
with the exception, perhaps, of the casket of C ypselos, and of the
Diodob., i, 98:—60 f. Mülusb, Archéologie, § 70, 4.
t h e a r t o p t h e G r e e k s . 163
w utHucmea oy uypseios at Olympia.168 The
athletic statues of A r r h a c h io n 169 (53 Olympiad), P r a x id am a s (58
- ^ x m o s (Si 01.), at Olympia, of C l eo bis and B iton, at
fw W ( 01.), of H armo dius and A risto geiton, at Athens
(67 01.), all works of the Samian school, (and among them the
works of art dedicated by Alyattes and Croesus to the Delphian
temple), were the result of the intercourse with Egypt: and, from the
description of some of them, as for instance, the statue of Arrhaehion
we see that their rigid attitude must have resembled the Egyptian
statues. Still, whatever be the foreign influences on the beginnings
of Greek art, nobody will ever take the most archaic Greek relief for
a specimen of Egyptian or Assyrian art. Though such Greek rudiments
are less elaborate than the royal works of Thebes, Nineveh, or
Persepohs, they have a peculiar national style unmistakably Greek.
The earliest of all the existing Greek marble reliefs is the fragment of
a throne found in Samothrace, now in the Louvre ; [41] which certainly
Fig. 41. Fig. 42.
belongs to the beginning of the
Vlth century b . c.m andis probably
contemporaneous with the PaniJ-
thenæn vases172 characterized by
the figure of [42] M in e r v a . Both
of them are rude, and influenced by
the Egyptian style. Still, the long
and straight nose, thé prominent
chin, and the absence of individualism in the representation, are all
as distinct from Egypt as from Assyria.
prove thatboth these arohaio
S f f l E f f P 5- - i«., i.