Chapter XII: Introduction (1)

Portraiture is associated with the earliest attempts at representing living objects, both in sculpture and in painting. Even amongst savages we find resemblances, carved or painted, or both, of the human form, generally grotesque, but always presenting an idea of Art. With the advance of civilization, the demand for portraits increased, as the knowledge of the means available for painting and sculpture improved. Men in authority, or possessed of great wealth, or renowned by deeds of arms and feats of strength, became the first subjects for the art.

That the Egyptians early practised portrait-painting, is evident from the discovery of mural sculpture, at a date anterior to the time of Rameses, representing painters delineating men and animals, and sculptors carving out of granite the very figures reproduced in another material, in the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace. Herodotus records the fact that Amasis sent his portrait painted on wood to Cyrene as a present; and some portraits of this kind were found in the tombs at Thebes. On comparing the heads of Rameses and Amenoph, several of which are to be seen in the Egyptian court, the individuality of each is at once perceived. Rameses has an aquiline nose and thin lips, while Amenoph has the turned-up nose and thick lips of the African.

In Clarac’s “Musée de Sculpture,” are collected many accurate engravings of the portraits of the Egyptians contained in the Louvre, which, according to this authority, are all verified, as many as eighty-six of them having their names attached. In the Imperial Library, at Paris, there is a collection of a hundred Chinese portraits of great antiquity. They were brought from China by the well-known Jesuit missionary, Père Ameot. Pauthier, author of a History of China, refers to these portraits, and considers them to be those of celebrated men and women living at a period long anterior to Confucius.

Croesus, King of Lydia, had the image of his baking woman set up in gold: and Herodotus has preserved the names of two Argive youths, Biton and Cleobis, who for their piety in drawing their mother, the priestess of Juno, to the temple, when the oxen for her car in a great solemnity did not arrive, had their statues placed by their countrymen at Delphi.

To the Greeks, indeed, we owe the finest examples of portraits in Sculpture. Their temples, forums, and other public places, as well as their private dwellings, were ornamented with the busts and statues of heroes, kings, poets, orators, and others distinguished by their achievements. Many of these examples have fortunately been rescued from destruction, and preserved to the present time.

The Romans, although not themselves, either by the gift of Heaven, or by their own tastes, artists, were great patrons of art. Many a rich Roman citizen had the court of his house converted into a kind of forum, which he adorned with his favourite portrait statues. From the precious ruins of Ancient Rome--from her temples, palaces, villas--countless statues and busts have been dug out. Her tombs also were furnished with portraits, busts, and statues, recumbent, or in other postures.

In all times, and in all countries, we note a desire to perpetuate the memory of the dead; and the pious as well as humane intention was carried out in various ways. The Egyptians enclosed their mummies in wooden and stone cases, carved and painted in order to resemble, more or less, the inhabitant within. The tombs of Etruria are usually surmounted by a half recumbent statue, which although but rudely representing the features and attitude of life, clearly reveal the intention to produce a portrait of the deceased person, but never--which became the custom in after ages--as though he were dead.

From the employment of sculptured portraits upon the monuments of the dead, and from the use of other images in the funeral rites, such representations came to be called “busts,” from the Latin word _Bustum_, signifying a tomb, or rather place where the burning of the body took place. Since the majority of persons could not afford a statue, the less expensive memorial, consisting of the head and shoulders, was the more generally adopted; and hence the name now current amongst us.

Portraits played a still more important part in the economy of the ancient Romans. Images, or rather masks, made in wax and representing their ancestors, were kept by the Romans in the vestibules of their houses, placed in cases formed like temples, and there constantly exposed to the notice of the family and of visitors. When a member of the family died, these masks were worn by the friends who assisted at the funeral, as were the dresses and robes of office belonging to the ancestors whom they personated. After the ceremony, the images were faithfully restored to their sanctuaries in the vestibule.

Another use of portraiture was originally peculiar to the Greeks, but it became subsequently adopted by other nations. We refer to the practice of painting upon a metal shield the portraits of a family--often with the father in the centre--and of hanging it up as sacred to the gods. There are similar portraits extant, in _terracotta_, of Demosthenes in exile at Calauria, and of Thales. The ancients also painted portraits on wood in encaustic, and some portraits formed in mosaic still exist.

In proportion to the growth of luxury, and to the development of the arts, do we find the increased employment of portraiture. Every kind of work was decorated with a portrait. This was especially the usage of the Greeks under the successors of Alexander, at Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamus; and with the Romans, towards the close of the Republic, and under the Emperors.

Engraved stones of seals and rings are exceedingly valuable in enabling us to identify antique busts and statues; their hardness having preserved them from injury. Very frequently they give the impression of being most accurate portraits. In the Greek Court is a large collection of casts of these extremely interesting works, which merit careful examination. Many of the heads are wonderfully beautiful--far surpassing in execution any similar work of the present time.

In like manner the portraits upon coins, being connected with writing, have been most useful in contributing to the knowledge and naming of antique busts and statues. Of these illustrations also, the visitor is enabled to study a very complete series from very early times.

The universal taste for portraiture exhibited by the ancients, and the encouragement to art which the vast wealth of many enabled them to afford, soon led to the formation of a gallery of portraits in every house of importance. Such a gallery contained portraits, both sculptured and painted, of great men in art, science, letters, and arms, and was called “The _Pinacotheca_.” The desire to render such a collection as complete as possible, led to the production of an infinite number of copies from those originally taken from the life: just as with us, houses are adorned with plaster-casts of the busts of Wellington, Shakspeare, and Milton.

It will now be understood how it has happened that so large a number of portrait-busts have remained to us from antiquity. Unless they had been multiplied in the manner described, the acts of ignorance and the accidents of time would have effaced all record of the features and aspect of the good and great in ancient story. Most of the works, executed in metal, were melted down and converted into money. One valuable mine, however, was happily discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum, completely preserved, and was removed to the Museum at Naples, where it still exists. Of several, so recovered, we possess fine copies in the Crystal Palace.

During the reign of Hadrian in Rome (A.D. 120), art enjoyed a revival--a Medicean period. A multitude of works of every kind were produced, and portraiture was carried to its height through the very zealous loyalty to which sculptors gave way, in their desire to flatter their imperial and magnificent patron, by representing the members of his family as so many gods and goddesses. The like encouragement was afforded under the dominion of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 140), and his adopted son, Marcus Aurelius; followed, unfortunately, by the destructive propensities of the odious Commodus, who would have limited portraiture to the representation of his own face.

We see the first efforts of portraiture in Christian art, in the representations--sculptured and painted--of saints in the early ages of the faith. Some examples of these will be found in the Byzantine and Mediæval Courts. A certain conventional form was adhered to in all these works, in which we remark especially a general elongation of the face and features, as if the aim had been to impress upon them the natural effects of emaciation from penance and fasting, the body and limbs being also subjected to the same treatment. The eyes are always almond-shaped, half closed, and sloping upwards from the nose. The portraits of Justinian, Theodora, Nicephorus, and Charles the Bald, on the façade of the Byzantine Court, bear evidence of their authenticity.

In forming our idea of an individual portrait painted in the early Christian period, we must never forget to allow for the formalities by which an artist of that time was inexorably directed. Statues and pictures were then produced (as indeed they are to this day by the monks of Mount Athos,) in accordance with rule and system--a sort of holy heraldry. At the time of which we now speak, we trace no general and popular use of portraits, such as we observed amongst the ancients, although they were still to be found in the hands of the most wealthy and cultivated. These were of an expensive kind, in mosaic and in miniature painting, the latter style being frequently employed when a valuable manuscript or missal was copied for presentation, and a portrait of the author or donor was usually painted upon it.

Mediæval portraiture shows a considerable advance upon the Byzantine, but is still inferior to the antique and to the portraiture of our own time. It was confined, almost exclusively, to monumental effigies, in which the artist was constrained to present the lifeless form, in the stiffness of very death--whether sleeping the sleep of eternal peace, or kneeling in the attitude of prayer. Some of the finest examples are to be seen in the Mediæval Court: of these more than one are doubtless portrait-statues of the time. The same may be said of some of the effigies of the Knights Templar, which exhibit great individuality, having been executed in a very hard kind of marble, that has well retained the features originally carved out of it. Busts of this period are exceedingly rare; inasmuch as portraiture of the kind was not in accordance with the religious feeling of the age. We must be content to take the effigies of mediæval art as portraits of the time; treated, of course, after certain conventionalities, but nevertheless truthful and most interesting.

The art of portraiture revived under the creative genius of Giotto and Orcagna, and of the great men of the _Renaissance_--Domenico Ghirlandaio and Giovanni Bellini--until it reached the highest dignity and beauty in the superb works of the mightiest of the mighty Italians--Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Titian. The most remarkable portraits of this period are paintings, and are therefore not to be found in large numbers in the Crystal Palace. In the beautiful gallery, however, of copies from the old masters, will be found several fine examples. In the Renaissance and Mediæval Courts, will be seen some of the statues from the tombs of Maximilian and Albert of Saxony--the finest portrait-statues of their kind. In the Italian Court, too, there are the immortal monumental statues of the Medici, and a superb bust of Cosmo de’ Medici by the inimitable Cellini.

The antique statues and busts described in the following pages are from

THE VATICAN, AT ROME,
THE CAPITOLINE MUSEUM,
THE NAPLES MUSEUM,
THE FLORENCE GALLERY,
THE LOUVRE,
THE BERLIN MUSEUM,
THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

THE PORTRAIT GALLERY.

ANTIQUE PORTRAITS.

GREEK COURT.--SOUTH SIDE-COURT.

POETS AND DRAMATISTS.

[28]1. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._

[Born, probably B.C. 850. Place of birth unknown.]

A majestic antique Bust. The kingly and venerated Patriarch of all Poets, for the western civilization--or, the sound of a Name! The two wonderful poems which bear down this name--whatever signifying--through the lapse and revolutions of time, preserve, as it were, the image of an extinct world: although of a world, perhaps less than half real, and more than half ideal:--for the manners _were_: the persons and events may, or may not have been: and the gods and goddesses of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” were, we know, only a believed-in, waking dream. But, by the potency of the song, the picture lives! The war, imaginary or no, raging between the Hellespont and the foot of Mount Ida, remains, to the educated memory of the nations, like the beginning--if not of the world’s, yet of its western half’s--history. And those heroes and heroines, with their high actions and their deep passions--the unrolling, embroidered web of their fortunes and fates:--the king of men, Agamemnon,--the swift-footed son of the sea-goddess, Achilles,---the sage, long-lived Nestor,--the shrewd, enduring Ulysses,--Ajax, a tower in the fight,--Diomed, favoured of Minerva present beside him in the storm of spears;--and that grey-headed, imperial sire of Troy, with all his falling sons, Priam,--the gallant and good Hector,--the loving and faithful Andromache,--the aged, too fruitful mother, Hecuba;--even the fatal and criminal, but divinely beautiful Helen--Is it not a strange magic that dwells in the creative thought of the poet, and in his modulated words, and that thus, in a language, and with manners, a faith, an age--all so long since dead and gone--can, as if reviving all, render those Shadows, to us--now, here--the earliest objects of a wondering and aspiring enthusiasm:--the first enkindlers in our bosoms of that glowing, intense, comprehensive, and intelligent sympathy, which transports us out of the central self, and beyond the close-drawn horizon of our own particular life, to feel the conditions and to understand the spirits of all our fellow men? Let the theory be true, which denies to these incomparable works an individual author--which supposes them woven together of many songs, first sung in many places, by many singers; let the benignly august, fillet-bound head before us, be--that which only at last it can be--a conjecture of the Grecian chisel;--we see at least here how the consummated art of sculpture has chosen to express, in corporeal form, the one soul of power which animates those immortal twins of poesy. We see in what shape of a human head, crowned with its own irradiations, the fountains of all song might have sprang. We see what the living and wandering minstrel of Greece, beloved and honoured wheresoever, in hall or on green, he and his harp came,--what the individual Homer, for whose birth seven cities contended, and whom in the after-day the land numbered amongst her half-divine and worshipped heroes--WOULD HAVE BEEN:--or, WAS!

[Although modern antiquaries agree with Pliny that busts of Homer are
apocryphal, yet there can be no doubt this is the true Greek
conventional portrait of that poet. A headless marble was dug up
inscribed with his name and shortly afterwards the head itself was
found in the same hole, and it fitted precisely to the marble
previously discovered. The bust, so found, is now in the Naples
Museum. The same head is constantly found in other representations of
the ancient poet. The head is bound with the “strophium,” an ornament
given by the Greek artists to their gods and heroes. The attitude of
the head would seem to express the blindness with which Homer,
according to tradition, was afflicted. This bust is from the marble in
the Stanza dei Filosofi of the Capitoline Museum, Rome.]

[28] The objects forming the Portrait Gallery in the Crystal Palace,
are numbered in red figures throughout.

2. ARCHILOCHUS. _Greek Poet._

[Born at Paros, about B.C. 700. Killed in battle, about B.C. 635]

A satirical poet of great renown, whose acrid pen spared neither friend nor foe. A writer also of licentious verse. Fragments only of his compositions have come down to us. To him is attributed the invention of the Iambic measure, and he shares with Thaletas and Terpander the honour of establishing lyric poetry in Greece. The victors in the Olympic games were accustomed to sing one of his hymns in their triumphal procession. The countenance of his statue denotes impudent boldness.

[The two early poets united: a mode of portraiture adopted by the
Greek artists when two celebrated men were of the same country, and
of kindred pursuits, as Herodotus and Thucydides, parallel historians;
Metrodorus and Epicurus, philosophers of the same sect (see No. 20).
This double terminal or Janus was found at Rome on the Celian Hill: it
is now in the Vatican. The ends of the noses are modern, as are some
other parts in the Homer. That portraits of Archilochus existed so
long after his death is proved by the existence of an inscription in
the Analecta of Thucydides written for his portrait.]

2A. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._

[For life see No. 1.]

3. ÆSOP. _Writer of Fables._

[Born in Phrygia, about B.C. 620. Died about B.C. 560.]

The reputed author of the fables to which his name has been for centuries attached. According to the general account, he was originally a slave, and gained much notice for his wit, and especially for his talent of communicating useful maxims in the form of apologues. His talent procured him favour at the court of Crœsus. He is said to have been thrown from the top of a rock and killed, by the priests of Delphi. His fables, at first preserved by tradition, were at a later period converted into Greek and Latin verse by Babrias and Phædrus. We have them in Greek prose, told naturally and in the utmost simplicity. In stature Æsop is described as small and hump-backed, with a prominent stomach and pointed head, yet the intellectual expression of his countenance is not that usually given to dwarfs.

[From the very remarkable half-figure in marble in the Villa Albani,
at Rome; the whole of which is of great antiquity. It has been
maintained that Æsop was not deformed, inasmuch as the circumstance is
not mentioned by writers, before the time of the Greek monk, Planudes
Maximus. There are, however, traditions affirming his deformity, and
Plutarch, in his Feast of the Sages, makes him sit upon a low stool at
the feet of Solon. The countenance has a thoughtful and elevated
expression. Lysippus sculptured the portrait of Æsop to be placed
amongst the sages of Greece at Athens. Phædrus refers to this work,
and the celebrity of the man is fixed by the fact that the court
sculptor of Alexander employed himself upon his statue.]

4. HOMER. _Great Epic Poet of Greece._

[From the marble. Once in the Capitoline Museum; now in the Louvre.]

5. EPIMENIDIES. _Poet and Prophet of Crete._

[Flourished about B.C. 596]

St. Paul in his Epistle to Titus (i. 12) is supposed to allude to Epimenides. But little more than his name and existence are known, apart from tradition. About B.C. 596, he was invited to Athens, in order to stay the plague brought upon the city by an impious outrage committed by Cylon, one of the Athenian rulers, on the altars of the Acropolis. Succeeding in arresting the pestilence, he augmented his already great fame--but he refused any other reward beyond the goodwill of the Athenians in favour of the inhabitants of Gnossus, where he dwelt. He was a native of Crete.

[From the marble in the Vatican. One of the conventional portraits of
the ancient Greek poets. The closed eyes are to represent the sleep
which tradition says he fell into for fifty-seven years.]

6. ÆSCHYLUS. _Tragic Poet._

[Born at Eleusis, in Greece, B.C. 525. Died at Gela, in Sicily, B.C.
456. Aged 69.]

The founder of Greek tragedy as it existed in its greatness. He introduced a second actor upon the scene, and gave dramatic interest to his act, by rendering dialogue the most important element in the play. He improved the masks and dresses of the actors, and raised the character of the choral dances. The scenes painted under his direction were, it is said, the first in which the idea of perspective was maintained. Sublimity and magnificence characterize the style of his tragedies, in which the action and plot, with an unparalleled simplicity of structure, move on, in commanding and stern strength, to their catastrophe; supported by grand imagery, with diction wrested to the height of energy and solemn passion. The characters drawn by Æschylus are as lofty as the language which they speak. We almost yearn for the simple voice of Nature as we listen to the sustained thunder-tone of this great master. His mind seems ever attuned for discourse with the Gods; yet in the “Prometheus,” though dealing with a demigod, he describes with awful power, human suffering and human passion in its saddest and most thrilling aspect. The family of Æschylus were remarkable for their valour, and he himself fought bravely at Marathon and Salamis. He was an actor in his own plays.

[From the marble in Stanza dei Filosofi, of the Capitoline Museum, at
Rome.]

7. SOPHOCLES. _Tragic Poet._

[Born at Colonus, in Attica, about B.C. 495. Died probably at Athens,
B.C. 405. Aged 90.]

In Sophocles, Æschylus found a rival and a conqueror. When Cimon (B.C. 468) returned from the Isle of Scyros, with the ashes of Theseus, the first play of Sophocles (“Triptolemus”) was preferred to the composition of Æschylus, who in chagrin retired to Sicily. From this time Sophocles stood alone, until he, in his turn, met a successful rival in Euripides. In 440, he produced “Antigone,” for its calm beauty, and the pure picture of heroic, feminine self-devotion, one of the finest antique tragedies extant, and the occasion of his promotion through the favour of Pericles. In the person of Sophocles was represented the ideal of Greek perfection. He was very beautiful; he excelled in gymnastics, music, and dancing; in temperament he was calm and contented; in disposition kind and cheerful; he had a ready wit, a serene piety, and intellectual grandeur. His tragedies have an advantage over those of Æschylus, in being essentially human; they appeal to the feelings of an auditory, and are written in a less magniloquent style than that of the sublime father of Greek tragedy,--to whom, however, Sophocles lay under the obligations of a pupil to his instructor. Both are profound masters of their art.

[This bust is from the Capitoline Museum, and is identified by another
in the Vatican--found in 1778--on which all the letters of the name
remained, except the SO. It was for a long time called PINDAR,*
because of the inscription; Bottari has proved it to be Sophocles,
whom it completely resembles. Compare the Lateran statue, No. 325,
standing in the great Transept, near the monument of Lysicrates.]

*. PINDAR. _Greek Poet._

[Born probably at Thebes, about B.C. 522. Died there, about B.C. 442.
Aged about 80 years.]

The most famous lyric poet of Greece. Sent at an early age to Athens, he became the pupil of Lasus. He sung the victors in the Olympic, Nemæan, Pythian, and Isthmian games,--the great festivals of assembled Greece. Forty-five of these odes of triumph are all that have descended to us; they are characterized by great boldness of style, spirit, and trumpet-toned enthusiasm, but the brilliant diction does not escape obscurity; and the modern student often follows with difficulty the excursive wing of “The Theban Eagle,” through the wide regions of Hellenic mythology. Pindar’s earliest extant work was written in his twentieth year. He is described as a man of strong religious feelings, and a devout worshipper of the gods.

8. ÆSCHINES. _Greek Orator._

[Born in Attica, about B.C. 389. Died in the Isle of Samos, B.C. 314.
Aged about 75.]

One of the greatest Greek orators. Was at the battle of Mantineia (B.C. 362), and distinguished himself at the battle of Tamynæ in Eubœa (B.C. 358). Afterwards entered into political life, and became a partizan of Philip of Macedonia. Accompanied Demosthenes on two embassies to Philip, and was accused by Demosthenes of betraying the interests of the state to that monarch. The speech of his accuser and his own admirable defence are extant. His last great public act was the prosecution of Gtesiphon for illegally proposing to present Demosthenes with a golden crown for his services to the state. Demosthenes defended the accused, and the speeches of the two orators delivered on this occasion are also preserved. The prosecution failing, Æschines at once went into exile (B.C. 330). As a popular leader and orator worthy to be called the rival of Demosthenes. He lacked the vehement passion and powerful invective of that consummate master, but his lucid arrangement, his facility and perspicuity, have never been surpassed.

[For an account of this statue, so long called Aristides,* see
Handbook to Roman Court and Nave, No. 326.]

*. ARISTIDES. _Athenian Patriot._

[Born (uncertain). Died about B.C. 468.]

His unbending integrity procured him the title of “The Just.” Was at the battle of Marathon (B.C. 480), where he fought bravely. Opposed to the extreme democratical party in Athens, headed by Themistocles, by whose influence he was banished (about B.C. 483). He was still in exile at the time of the sea-fight of Salamis (B.C. 482), but he raised a band, and fought for his country in this battle. Recalled by the Athenians from banishment, and commanded their army at the battle of Platæa (B.C. 479). His sense of justice spotless: his self-denial unimpeachable. At his death he was very poor, although he had borne the highest offices of the State. The Athenians became more virtuous from the contemplation of this bright example. It is related that in the representation of one of the tragedies of Æschylus, a sentence was uttered in favour of moral goodness. The eyes of the audience turned involuntarily and at once from the actor to Aristides.

9. EURIPIDES. _Greek Poet._

Born at Salamis, B.C. 480. Died in Macedonia, B.C. 406. Aged 74.]

The father of Euripides, putting his own interpretation upon the oracle which promised that his son should be crowned with “sacred garlands,” had him carefully trained in gymnastic exercises, and whilst yet a boy Euripides won the prize at the Eleusinian and Thesean games. But the lad was soon allured from physical sports, by the fascinations of philosophy and literature. He became the ardent pupil and friend of the philosopher Anaxagoras, and the instruction thus derived is visible in many of his productions. At the age of 18, Euripides wrote his first tragedy. He gained the first prize B.C. 441, and continued to exhibit his plays until within two years of his death. He died in Macedonia, and is said to have been torn in pieces by the dogs of the Macedonian king. Twenty of his plays are extant. Like Anaxagoras, Euripides was of a serious temper, and averse to mirth. He was intimate with Socrates, and the contemporary of Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides, Pindar, Aristophanes, Æschylus, and Sophocles. To assign him his poetical rank we must look back. In the three great Attic tragedians we trace a natural progress of their theatre. In Æschylus, the stage appears attracted with predominant force to the high mythological ideas which it arose to embody: the muse stalks sublimely above the heads of men. In Sophocles, the art tempers and adjusts, with admirable equipoise, the superhuman and the human element; the spirits and hearts of men are more closely approached by the poet, still overshadowed by the heroic and the divine. In Euripides, although the story which he represents is still drawn from the same source of divine and heroic fable, the sympathy with passions, events, interests, and sufferings, incident to humanity, prevails in excess. With him, amidst strewings of beautiful poetry, and whilst penetrated with strokes of singular pathos, we too much feel that we step on our own daily and common earth. We miss the elevation of an art which should, in reflecting ourselves, lift us above ourselves: as we have experience in our own Shakspeare. Sophocles said that “he himself represented men as they ought to be, but Euripides as they are.”

[This bust is verified by another in the Louvre, and one in the Naples
Museum, which has the name of Euripides engraved on the breast. There
is also a cameo of exceeding beauty in the Louvre, on which we find
the same head. Portraits of Euripides were common at Athens, and even
as late as the 5th century his statues were to be seen at
Constantinople. A small seated statue of Euripides will be found in
the Bas-relief Gallery, No. 215. It is inscribed with his name, and
has a list of his plays, upon the slab which supports the statue. See
Handbook to Greek Court, No. 215.]

10. ARATUS. _Astronomer._

[Flourished about B.C. 270.]

A fellow-countryman of St. Paul, who quotes one of his works in his address to the Athenians. Called to the Court of Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia. He there pursued physics, grammar, and philosophy. He also versified two astronomical treatises by Eudoxus. There are many errors with much want of precision in the descriptive portions of these works, proving the poet to have been neither a mathematician nor an acute observer. As a poet, Aratus was hardly more eminent. He is wanting in originality and poetic feeling; yet his verses obtained popularity both in Greece and Rome.

[The well known head, representing, as it is supposed, the Poet of the
Stars, in the attitude of viewing the heavens. The same head is found
on medals, of which the best is preserved in the Hunterian Museum of
the College of Surgeons, London.]

GREEK COURT.--NORTH SIDE-COURT.

GREEK PHILOSOPHERS, STATESMEN, AND GENERALS.

11. BIAS. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born at Priene, in Ionia. Flourished, it is believed, about the
middle of the Sixth Century B.C.]

One of the Seven Sages; and of the four to whom alone the title was universally conceded: the remaining three being Thales, Pittacus, and Solon. His profession was that of an advocate; his philosophy was practical--the fruit of experience. Many of his sayings and doings have been recorded. He died at a very advanced age.

[From the marble in the Vatican, which bears his name and the motto:--

ΟΙ ΠΛΕΙΣΤΟΙ
ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ
ΚΑΚΟΙ.

“The majority of men are bad.”

A curious mistake of the engraver is observable in the word ΠΡΗΝΕΥΣ,
in which the I is omitted; it should have been ΠΡΙΗΝΕΥΣ, the name of
his birth-place. This bust was found at Tivoli, with that of
Periander, No. 29.]

12. THUCYDIDES. _Greek Historian._

Born at Athens, B.C. 471. Died (place uncertain) B.C. 395. Aged 76.]

This great historian, holding military command in Thrace, suffered Amphipolis to be surprised and taken by the Spartan general, Brasidas; and for this misfortune was banished by his countrymen during the space of twenty years. It would have been a greater misfortune for the world had Thucydides proved a warier soldier; for it was during his exile, that he collected with infinite care the materials of his immortal history. That history chronicles, in eight books, the events of twenty out of the twenty-seven years of the Peloponnesian War:--a record of most interesting facts. Where political and moral observations occur, they reveal great knowledge of human character and motives. The style is pregnant, precise, and severely simple. Demosthenes is said to have copied the entire history many times with his own hand as a lesson of composition. The principal actors in the war were the historian’s books of reference. As an historical monument the work is matchless. It has been always believed that Thucydides came to a violent end, but it is not known whether he died at Athens, or in Thrace.

13. SOCRATES. _Philosopher._

Born near Athens, B.C. 468. Died at Athens, B.C. 399. Aged 69.]

One of the greatest names in ethics, philosophy, and religion before the Christian era. It was the belief of Socrates that he was specially charged by the Deity to awaken moral consciousness in men. He had no school, neither did he, like the sophists of his time, deliver public lectures. But he stood in the market-places, or entered the work-shops, or visited the schools, in order to teach the people his ideas respecting the scope and value of human speculation and action. Aristophanes, the comic poet, ridiculed and misrepresented the philosopher, who proceeded, nevertheless, with undaunted perseverance. After the banishment from Athens of the “Thirty Tyrants,” Socrates was impeached for corrupting the youth, and despising the tutelary deities of the state. He was condemned, and, preferring death to acknowledging, by a supplication for pardon, that he deserved punishment, he swallowed poison. Whilst the cruel draught was performing its work, he developed the grounds of his immovable conviction of the immortality of the soul, and with his very last breath pointed to a future state, as the true recovery from impurity and disease. He left no writings behind him. We derive our knowledge of his doctrines and character, mainly from his illustrious disciples, Xenophon and Plato. He effected a grand revolution in philosophy, for he first connected with Supreme intelligence, the attributes of goodness, justice and wisdom, and the idea of direct interposition in human affairs, and recalled Reason from vain disquisitions, to the questions which come home to the business and bosoms of men. In person, Socrates was said to resemble the god Silenus. His looks were as repulsive as his life was irreproachable and perfect. His peculiar method of teaching, since called the Socratic, was, by a series of artfully contrived questions, to draw out from the mind of his colloquist the truths which lay unconsciously embosomed there, or to entangle proud and false reasoning in self-confutation.

[A countenance so little expressive of wisdom and goodness, that it
might be mistaken for that of a Silenus, whom he also equalled in the
almost deformed rotundity of his figure. But this bust, which is from
that in the Louvre, and an exceedingly fine work, has been proved to
be a portrait of him by its close resemblance to the other busts of
the same subject, and to that in particular in the Farnese Collection
which bears his name, and the motto which Plato gives him (_Criton_).
Busts and cameos of Socrates are numerous. No. 13A is from the Stanza
dei Filosofi of the Capitoline Museum; it is inferior to the first
described.]

13A. SOCRATES. _Philosopher._

14. HIPPOCRATES. _Physician._

[Born at Cos, in the Ægean Sea, about B.C. 460. Died about 357. Aged
104.]

The great fame acquired by Hippocrates, would seem to have been won by a steadfast adherence to the sagacity of common sense. He had no chemical knowledge, and his acquaintance with anatomy appears to have been scanty and uncertain; yet, knowing how to turn a rare experience to account, and confining his operations mainly to the watching and assisting of Nature, he succeeded in obtaining credit for superhuman skill. His nephew, who is reputed to have possessed almost equal merit with his uncle, was murdered in a fit of jealousy, by Hippocrates, who shortly afterwards fell a sacrifice to the torments of remorse. A great number of works are extant under his name, but most of them were written by his disciples.

[From the marble in the Louvre, which has been verified by a medal
bearing the name of Hippocrates, and showing a perfect resemblance to
the head. There are several busts of Hippocrates in existence--one in
the Capitoline Museum, another at Florence, and two in the Louvre.]

15. ISOCRATES. _Rhetorician._

Born at Athens, B.C. 436. Died B.C. 338. Aged 98.]

It is said that Isocrates was the first man to describe the true value and objects of oratory. His language is the purest Attic; his style, which he elaborated with great pains, elegant and polished. As teacher of rhetoric, he became the instructor of the chief youths of his time. He composed several discourses on great political occasions, and amassed considerable wealth. He had throughout life a constitutional timidity, and a weakness of voice that prevented him from speaking in the assemblies of the people. Socrates had been one of his masters. His character appears to have been spotless.

[From the bust in the Villa Albani at Rome, bearing the name of
Isocrates. A statue of him was sculptured by Leochares for the temple
of Eleusis, and another is described by Pausanias as in the temple of
Jupiter Olympius, which statue is spoken of by Christodorus, as being
at Constantinople in his time.]

16. PLATO. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 430. Died B.C. 347. Aged 83.]

The most illustrious amongst the disciples of Socrates. The doctrines of the great teacher have descended to us chiefly through the writings of this eloquent hearer. Whence, a singular and inextricable conflict. The sturdy, keen, practical plain sense of the master, and the soaring, brilliant imagination, and subtly-dividing wit of the pupil, have come down to us mingled ever in the same composition. In these extraordinary dialogues, which display the spoken Greek of Athens in its utmost purity, beauty, and melody, how much is Plato’s?--how much is of Socrates? The two busts may go as far as any other authorities, in affording the almost discretionary reply. The lip on which, whilst in the cradle, tradition says that the bee settled--signifying the sweetness of the speech which should flow from it--is before us, in part of the answer. Plato was, in his earlier life, a poet, but gave his poetical compositions, amongst which are mentioned an epic poem and a tragedy, to the flames. He excelled in bodily exercises, being distinguished as a wrestler. He travelled much in the quest of knowledge. Like his illustrious preceptor, he taught that wisdom, under which we must comprise goodness, is the attribute of the Godhead,--that philosophy is an intellectual necessity, and, as the fountain of virtue, which it thus includes, the most estimable of all the goods within the reach of man. Abstruse and sublime, seeking to rest science and morals on an immutable basis, Plato trains the intellect more than he teaches. In reading his writings, we enter the Socratic school as hearers, as disputants. The Socrates, who constantly leads the discussion, is rather the presiding Spirit, than the Man. We come out, whatsoever else, worshipping students of the True, of the Fair, of the Good.

[From the very beautiful little bust in the Florence Gallery. He wears
the “strophium” as a mark of his great honours. This bust possesses a
great claim to authenticity, on account of the name being deeply cut
upon it in Greek letters of the antique form. There is a similar bust
in the Naples Museum, of the same size, and inscribed with the name of
Plato.]

17. ANTISTHENES. _Philosopher._

[Date and place of birth unknown. Died at Athens. Aged 70.]

He is the founder of the Cynic philosophy and flourished about B.C. 375. He taught the love of poverty and labour, the renunciation of all the pleasures and conveniences of life, and contempt for everything but virtue, in which only he allowed true happiness to consist. It is said that Antisthenes left more books than scholars. But Socrates was his friend and Diogenes his pupil. His countenance did credit to his creed: it was severe, and looked the more terrible from his dishevelled hair and hanging beard. He taught in the Gymnasium at Athens, called Cynosarges; and hence the name of his school--the Cynic.

[From the marble in the Vatican. It was found in the ruins of
Hadrian’s Villa, and is of great beauty. It resembles another bust in
the Vatican, which was found in the villa of Cassius at Tivoli, but
which is of less merit, except that it bears his name. The portrait
agrees precisely with the descriptions given of Antisthenes by the
ancients.]

18. DIOGENES. _Philosopher._

[Born at Sinope, in Asia Minor, about B.C. 412. Died at Corinth, B.C.
323 or 324. Aged 90.]

Having been detected with his father, a banker, in some dishonest transaction, Diogenes went to Athens, where he became the pupil of Antisthenes, and adopted the Cynic philosophy. He carried his contempt for riches and the usages of society to an extravagant excess. He subsisted on charity, and slept where he could. Some doubt is thrown upon the story of his living in a tub. He said that all the vicissitudes of fortune which constitute tragedy, had been realized in him, but that patience had raised him above them all. When advanced in years he was taken by pirates to Crete, and there sold as a slave. Regaining his freedom, he revisited Athens and Corinth, and in the last-named city had his memorable interview with Alexander the Great. He inculcated morality, but despised intellectual pursuits. His disposition was kind and humorous, though his statue has an acute and caustic countenance.

[From the marble in the Sala delle Muse of the Vatican. It is verified
by its close resemblance to the head of a little statue in the Villa
Albani at Rome, representing the Cynic perfectly nude, and accompanied
by his dog. It is said that he sometimes appeared in the streets in
this state, after having anointed his body, a piece of eccentricity
that gave rise to the joke of Juvenal, that the Stoics differed from
the Cynics only in the shirt, “_tunicâ tantum_.” There is in the Villa
Albani an antique bas-relief representing Alexander the Great standing
before the Cynic in his tub.]

19. DEMOSTHENES. _Greek Orator._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 381. Died in the isle of Calauria, opposite
Argolis, B.C. 322. Aged 59.]

A chief, if not the chief of--

“Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce Democracie,
Shook th’ Arsenal, and fulmin’d over Greece,
To Macedon and Artaxerxes’ throne.”[29]

This eloquence in Demosthenes--to the modern mind, the one unrivalled exemplar of the ancient Greek oratory---was like a trained athlete, living nerve and bone. When Athens lay daunted under the successes of Philip of Macedon, Demosthenes, by the sole power of speech, roused the people to energetic warfare. His style was fit for sustaining argument on the destinies of great nations. It was simple, severe, lofty, vehement, and of irresistible power. He acquired this consummate mastery, having, by an invincible perseverance, vanquished seemingly invincible natural obstacles. At one period of his life Demosthenes was accused of receiving a bribe from Harpalus, a Macedonian General, who fled to Athens, to escape the vengeance of Alexander. He quitted Athens. Upon the death of Alexander he returned to the city; but the Athenian arms proving unsuccessful against Antipater, the ruler of Macedonia, the life of the orator was demanded by the conqueror. Demosthenes fled again--this time to the isle of Calauria--where he took poison to save himself from the swords of the soldiery. Looking upon the deep, contemplative, sad brow, figured in stone, we might well fancy that we see, gleaming there, a too real consciousness of the requital awaiting even the greatest Athenian, for services which no reward could measure.

[From the marble in the Louvre. Several busts in various collections
had been called Terence, Pythagoras, Plato, and other names, when
there were dug up in Herculaneum two bronze heads, on one of which was
the name of Demosthenes; it was at once perceived that the busts above
referred to had been wrongly named; for they one and all represented
the great orator. A very beautiful carved medallion in amethyst exists
also at Rome, which is an undoubted likeness of him. For an account of
the statues of Demosthenes see Nos. 308 and 321 in the Handbook to the
Roman Court and Nave.]

[29] _Paradise Regained._

20. EPICURUS. _Philosopher._

[Born probably at Samos, in Greece, B.C. 342. Died at Athens, B.C.
270. Aged 72.]

The system of Epicurus has been much misrepresented. He did not teach mere refined animal enjoyment. He considered indeed human happiness as the end of philosophy, and he defined happiness as pleasure,--pleasure itself being defined as perfect independence, self-reliance, and contentment. The great aim of his ethics was to point out the way to the attainment of such happiness. The habits of Epicurus were temperate and frugal. During the later years of his life, he was afflicted with much physical suffering, and he bore it with fortitude and patience. He held his celebrated school, which founded the sect bearing his name, in a garden purchased by him at Athens.

20A. METRODORUS. _Greek Philosopher._

[Born either at Lampsacus or Athens, B.C. 329. Died B.C. 277. Aged
52.]

A devoted follower of Epicurus, between whom and his disciple the closest friendship subsisted. Upon the death of Metrodorus, Epicurus provided for his children. But Metrodorus failed to do justice to the philosophy of his master; and was the first to attach to the Epicurean idea the sensual notions that have ever since, more or less, been identified with it.

[The master and his intimate friend and disciple united. Busts of
Epicurus are common. Such was the enthusiasm of his followers, that
his portrait was multiplied in every way, and even the furniture of
rooms engraved with his name. This double terminal is from the
Capitoline Museum, at Rome, and bears the names of the two
philosophers. It was dug up at Rome in 1742, when the foundations were
making for Sta. Maria Maggiore. Epicurus is identified also by a
beautiful and perfect little bronze found at Herculaneum amongst the
remains of a library of a disciple of Epicurus; which bronze is now in
the Naples Museum.]

21. ZENO. _Founder of the Stoic Philosophy._

[Born at Citium, in the Isle of Cyprus, about B.C. 362. Year of death
uncertain.]

The son of a merchant, and himself a trader. Whilst pursuing his vocation, he obtained some works on the Socratic philosophy; read them with eagerness, and resolved to abandon trade for philosophy. Became a disciple of the Cynics; then a pupil of Stilpo of Megara; then lent an ear to the expositors of Plato. After twenty years’ study and inquiry, he turned aside from all existing schools, and created one for himself. The place chosen by him for his instructions was a portico, adorned on the wall with paintings by Polygnotus, hence called “The Variegated Porch” (_Stoa Poicilē_). Thus he and his pupils were called Stoics. They placed happiness in virtue. Virtue is--to live, by the rule of right reason, a life consistent with itself and with universal nature: and lifts above _all_ consideration of pleasures and pains. The absolute moral rectitude of volition and action is the steering star. But that secured--the humanities, courtesies, and customs of life are not, after the fashion of the Cynics, to be slighted and trampled upon. Zeno commands our respect by the purity of his life. He lived to a great age, though of weakly constitution, by dint of regularity and moderation. He had a serious and thoughtful countenance, corresponding to the severity of the doctrines he taught. In his 98th year, quitting his school, he fell to the ground and broke his finger. “Why am I thus importuned?” he exclaimed. “Earth, I obey thy summons.” He went home, and strangled himself.

[From the marble in the Sala delle Muse of the Vatican. It was
identified by the stooping attitude of the neck, a slight deformity
which is referred to by the contemporaries of Zeno. For an account of
the statue of this philosopher, see No. 327, Handbook to Roman Court
and Nave.]

22. ALEXANDER THE THIRD, surnamed THE GREAT. _King of Macedonia_, B.C. 336-323.

[Born at Pella, in Macedonia, B.C. 356. Died at Babylon, B.C. 323.
Aged 32.]

The pupil of Aristotle, and the conqueror of the world. He ascended the throne of Macedon in the twentieth year of his age. Shortly afterwards he reduced the chief cities of Greece, and rased Thebes sparing only the house of the poet Pindar. In his twenty-second year, he crossed the Hellespont, and turned his arms against the Persian king, Darius, whom he defeated. He conquered Phœnicia, Damascus, and Tyre. Taking Gaza, he passed into Egypt, subdued it, and founded the city of Alexandria. Here, in the madness of his ambition, he claimed divine honours. In 331, B.C., he again attacked Darius, and destroyed the Persian monarchy. Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, next paid homage to his arms. A change now came over the victor, hitherto temperate and forgiving. He gave rein to his passions, and committed acts of cruelty and excess. But his activity was still incessant. He advanced victoriously to the Indus, and marched back in triumphal procession to Babylon, where, still full of mighty plans of conquest, he fell a victim to intemperance, took fever and died in the thirteenth year of his reign. There was no mediocrity in the character of Alexander. His vices were great, and his virtues magnificent. His heart and mind led him to the extremes of good and evil. His lust of dominion amounted to insane passion. In accordance with his wish, his body, enclosed in a golden coffin, was conveyed to Alexandria, and there deposited in a richly adorned sarcophagus,--now supposed to be in the British Museum. The military skill of Alexander was of a high order. His movements were rapid, decided, and well-directed:--he made great use of his cavalry. His conquests rendered eastern Asia accessible to European enterprise. He retained his affection for his early instructor, Aristotle, to the last, sending, from the scenes of his Eastern conquest, strange animals for the study of the great naturalist. In Asia, to this hour, the exploits of “Iskander,” are told by the people to their children.

[From the marble in the Louvre, inscribed with his name. It was dug up
near Tivoli in 1779, and afterwards presented to Napoleon by the
discoverer, the Chevalier d’Azara. It was by this bust, aided by the
evidence of the coins, that all the portraits of Alexander were
verified. Notwithstanding the numerous statues, busts, and pictures
of this renowned conqueror which are mentioned by ancient writers,
only few now remain. One of the characteristics of the head is the
curling up of the hair at the back, as though a circlet had given the
hair that form, and it is said he was the first to wear a diadem. The
peculiar rising up of the hair in front is also a characteristic of
Alexander. A very beautiful little equestrian bronze was found at
Herculaneum in 1751, conjectured at the time to be a copy of the
statue of Alexander, by Lysippus. No. 22A, the inscription on which is
evidently modern, is from the Berlin Museum.]

22A. ALEXANDER THE THIRD, surnamed THE GREAT.

23. PHOCION. _Athenian Statesman and General._

[Born in Attica, B.C. 402. Died at Athens, B.C. 317. Aged 85.]

He rose from the ranks of the people, and soon obtained military distinction; exhibiting, whenever tried, great bravery and foresight. He was forty-five times named general. He was opposed to the Macedonians, over whom, by his moderation, valour, and prudence, he obtained signal advantages. When, in his age, Athens--placed through the rejection of his sagacious counsels at the mercy of the Macedonians--was occupied by a foreign garrison, Phocion, whose integrity was invulnerable, was suspected by his countrymen of treachery, and forced to swallow hemlock. His body was denied burial, and cast beyond the confines of Attica; yet, according to the spirit of those singular times, in which the wildest barbarity co-existed with the purest heroism, and towering ingratitude seemed to be enacted only to make way for splendid remorse, his ashes were subsequently brought back to Athens, his accusers put to death, and a statue was raised to his honour. Phocion was surnamed “the Good.” Alexander, surnamed “the Great,” endeavouring to win him from his loyalty, offered him riches and the choice of four cities in Asia. The answer of Phocion bespoke the spotless character of the man. “If Alexander really esteems me,” he said, “let him leave me my honesty.”

[From the statue, No. 324, for account of which see Handbook of Roman
Court and Nave.]

24. ALCIBIADES. _Athenian General._

[Born at Athens, B.C. 450. Died in Phrygia, B.C. 404. Aged 45.]

The nephew of Pericles, in whose house he was brought up. He was beautiful in his youth, and he maintained his beauty throughout life,--a personal advantage of which he was not a little conscious. He was the pupil of Socrates, towards whom he entertained a sincere regard and friendship to the last. He entered early into the service of the Republic, and soon distinguished himself by his eloquence and feats of arms. Accused of irreligion, he quitted Athens and took refuge in Sparta, where he betrayed the designs of his country, and also abused the hospitality of the Spartan king. Returning to Athens he gained several victories at the head of her armies, and recovered his position, but only to lose it again in consequence of his ill-success in an expedition against Andros. By order of the “Thirty Tyrants,” established by Lysander in Athens, he was at length assassinated. Alcibiades was remarkable for activity, eloquence, and address. He was very plausible, very versatile, very unscrupulous, and a great dissembler. His unabashed audacity was matchless, but it was relieved, as well as heightened, by good nature, and good humour. He was also selfish, and ambitious, and inordinately vain. He had a slight defect in his speech, and could not pronounce the letter R.