“It would be difficult, connectedly, to pursue the history of ancient painting later than the eruption of Vesuvius, which, in the year 79 A.D., by a wonderful fortune, preserved for the later world the artistic treasures of three cities of Campania—Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiæ—and, at the same time, cost the life of Pliny, whom we have to thank for the greatest completeness of written description.” Thus Brunn rightly concludes his “History of the Grecian Painters,” for the works of succeeding generations, even when names of artists are attached, do not deserve to be called art, being nothing more than hasty and crude decorations; such, for example, are the servants’ rooms in the Vigna Nussiner, upon the southern slope of the Palatine, which, in recent times, have acquired some celebrity by the careless scratches of the slaves found upon their walls. The most important illustrations that have been preserved of the shallowness and roughness of this lingering art are in the tombs; and with these in painting, with the basilica in architecture, and the sarcophagi in sculpture, the boundaries of the antique and of the Christian era flow into each other, and are scarcely distinguishable. When Christianity arose from the sepulchre, it allied itself in monumental art to that stage of debasement which painting had reached in the heathen and the Christian catacombs of the fourth century; indeed, art continued still to decline through ages, until the Northern races and the life of the common people breathed into it the spirit of a new life.
GLOSSARY.
[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [Q], [R], [S], [T], [V], [X], [Z]
IT has been the translator’s endeavor to avoid technical terms wherever this was possible without detracting from exactness of expression. Of those which it has proved necessary to introduce into the present History, it is intended in this glossary to define neither words in common usage, like basilica, battlement, column, etc., nor those designations of infrequent occurrence which should be interpreted whenever employed, like the Greek and Latin names of the many divisions of the ancient theatre, bath, and gymnasion. A few of the former—as, for instance, the too often interchanged channel, flute, and reed—have, however, been given for the sake of discrimination. In these cases, and in the case of some other words which are often employed in senses too widely extended to allow of their being used without qualification in careful architectural descriptions, it has been attempted to make some advance towards precision of usage.
Ab´acus (Gr. ἄβαξ-ακος. Lat. abax and abacus, a slab. Possibly in its architectural signification from βαστάζω, to lift up, to bear). The plinth which forms the upper part of the capital—supporting the entablature by bearing the lower surface of the epistyle beam. The abacus is the crowning member of the capital, as the capital is of the column. In the Doric style it is thick and of square plan, in the Corinthian order thin and curved upon the sides.
Acrote´rion, pl. acroteria (Gr. from ἄκρος, outermost). The ornaments, such as statues or anthemion shields, placed upon the angles of the gable—whether of the outer corners or of the apex. The term is also applied to the pedestals of these ornaments.
Ag´onal, adj. (from Gr. ἀγών, festive gathering, especially an assembly met to see games; also the place of contest itself). Pertaining to a festive destination. The word agones is used for the arena itself by Grote. (For the hypothetical distinction between agonal temples and those consecrated alone to the worship of a deity, introduced by Boetticher, see p. 214.)
Ag´ora (Gr. an assemblage of the people; hence, the place where such meetings were commonly held). A public square or marketplace. Synonymous with the more familiar Latin forum.
Amphiprosty´los, adj. amphip´rostyle (from Gr. ἀμφί, on both sides; πρό, in front of; and στῦλος, column). A term applied to a temple having a columned portico at the rear (epinaos), as well as at the front (pronaos), but without lateral columns.
An´nulet (Lat. annulus, or, according to the best manuscripts, anulus, ring, terminated by Ital. diminutive). A small fillet encircling the base of the Doric echinos. The number of annulets is commonly three.