Greece, or Hellas, consisted of a number of small states, speaking the same language, and worshipping the same gods. Almost the whole of the Ægean coast of Asia Minor was occupied in early times by Greek Colonies, which supplanted those of the Phœnicians of Tyre and Sidon. The southern portion of this seaboard was occupied by the Dorians, and the northern by Ionians. In the course of time other Greek settlements were made on the Black Sea and Mediterranean Coast of Asia Minor; as well as at Syracuse, Gela and Agrigentum, in Sicily, and in Etruria and Magna Grecia in Italy. These colonies appear to have reached a higher state of art at an early period than Greece itself. The ascendency in art in Greece was enjoyed by the Dorians circa, 800 B.C.; after which Sparta took the lead, but was in turn excelled by the Ionians, when Athens became the focus of Greek art, and attained a degree of perfection in that respect that has remained unequalled to this day. Athens was destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes, 480 B.C.; but under Pericles (470-29 B.C.) Greek art reached its culmination.
The abundant, although fragmentary, remains of Grecian architecture, sculpture, and the industrial arts, show most vividly the artistic feeling and culture of the early Greeks, with their great personality and religious sentiment, in which the personal interest of the gods and goddesses was brought into relation with the life and customs of the people. Their myths and traditions, their worship of legendary heroes, the perfection of their physical nature, and their intense love of the beautiful, were characteristic of the Greek people, from the siege of Troy to their subjection by Rome, B.C. 140. The almost inexhaustible store of Greek art, now gathered in the British Museum, and in other European museums, furnishes one of the most valuable illustrations of the many glorious traditions of the past. The vitality of conception, the dignity and noble grace of the gods, the consummate knowledge of the human figure, and the exquisite skill of craftsmanship, are here seen in the greatest diversity of treatment and incident.
The work of Phidias, the most renowned of Greek sculptors, is largely represented in the British Museum by noble examples, showing his great personality, wonderful power, and his remarkable influence, upon contemporary and later plastic art.
The Parthenon, or temple of the goddess Athene, which was built upon the Acropolis at Athens by Ictinus and Callicrates, B.C. 454-438, was enriched with splendid works of sculpture by Phidias. Many of the originals are now in the British Museum, forming part of the Elgin Marbles, which were purchased from the Earl of Elgin, in 1815. The two pediments of the temple contained figure sculpture in the round, larger than life size. The Eastern group represents the birth of Athene, and the western group the contest of Athene and Poseidon for the soil of Attica. The fragments of these pedimental groups are now in the British Museum, and, though sadly mutilated, show the perfection of sculpture during the Phidian age.
The continuous frieze upon the upper part of the cella wall, under the colonnade or Peristyle, was 40 feet from the ground, 40 inches in height, and 523 feet in length. It was carved in low relief, the subject being the Panathenæic procession, the most sacred and splendid of the religious festivals of the Ancient Greeks. This frieze, with its rhythm of movement and unity of composition, its groups of beautiful youths and maidens, sons and daughters of noble citizens, its heroes and deities, heralds and magistrates; its sacrificial oxen, and its horses and riders are doubtless the most perfect production of the sculptor’s art. Each figure is full of life and motion, admirable in detail, having an individuality of action and expression, yet with a unity of composition, appropriate to its architectural purpose as a frieze or band.
The Parthenon, however, was but the shrine of the standing figure or statue of the goddess Athene, which was 37 feet high, and formed of plates of gold and ivory, termed Chryselephantine sculpture. Probably owing to the intrinsic value of the material, this work of Phidias disappeared at an early date.
Among the examples of sculptured marbles in the British Museum is the beautiful frieze from the interior of the Temple of Apollo at Phigaleia, erected by Ictinus, B.C. 450-430. This frieze, which shows an extraordinary vitality and movement, is 101 feet long, and consists of 23 slabs 25½ inches in width, the incidents depicted being the battle of the Greeks and the Amazons, and the contest between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ. The dignity and reserve of the Parthenon frieze is here replaced by activity and energy of line and an exuberance of modelling.