Footnote 50:[ (return) ] His. Nat., xxxv, 158.
Footnote 51:[ (return) ] Ausgrabungen zu Olympia, v, 35 and Taf. XXXIV.
To make now a definite application, it is evident that the connection between vase-paintings and painted terracottas must from the nature of the case be a very close one. But when these terracottas are found to reproduce throughout the exact designs and figures of vase-paintings, the line between the two fades away. All the most familiar ornaments of vase technic recur again and again, maeanders, palmettes, lotuses, the scale and lattice-work patterns, the bar-and-tooth ornament, besides spirals of all descriptions. In exception, also, the parallel is quite as close. In the great acroterium of the Heraion, for example, the surface was first covered with a dark varnish-like coating on which the drawing was incised down to the original clay. Then the outlines were filled in black, red and white. Here the bearing becomes clear of an incidental remark of Pausanias in his description of Olympia. He says (v. 10.): εν δε Ολυμπια (of the Zeus temple) λεβης επιχρυσος επι 'εκαστω του οροφου τω περατι επικειται. That is originally aeroteria were only vases set up at the apex and on the end of the gable. Naturally enough the later terracottas would keep close to the old tradition.
It is interesting also to find relief-work in terracotta as well as painting on a plane surface. An example where color and relief thus unite, which comes from a temple in Caere, [52] might very well have been copied from a vase design. It represents a female face in relief, as occurs so often in Greek pottery, surrounded by an ornament of lotus, maeander and palmette. Such a raised surface is far from unusual; and we seem to find here an intermediate stage between painting and sculpture. The step is indeed a slight one. A terracotta figurine [53] from Tarentum helps to make the connection complete. It is moulded fully in the round, but by way of adornment, in close agreement with the tradition of vase-painting, the head is wreathed with rosettes and crowned by a single palmette. So these smaller covering plates just spoken of, which were devoted to minor uses, recall continually not only the identical manner of representation but the identical scenes of vase paintings,--such favorite subjects, to cite only one example, as the meeting of Agamemnon's children at his tomb.
Footnote 52:[ (return) ] Arch. Zeitung, xxix, 1872, Taf. 41; RAYET et COLLIGNON, Hist. Céram. Grecque, fig. 143.
Footnote 53:[ (return) ] Arch. Zeitung, 1882, Taf. 13.
From this point of view, it does not seem impossible that pedimental groups might have fallen under the influence of vase technic. The whole architectural adornment of the oldest temple was of pottery. It covered the cornice of the sides, completely bounded the pedimental space, above and below, and finally crowned the whole structure in the acroteria. It would surely be strange if the pedimental group, framed in this way by vase designs, were in no way influenced by them. The painted decoration of these terracottas is that of the bounding friezes in vase-pictures. The vase-painter employs them to frame and set off the central scene. Might not the same end have been served by the terracottas on the temple, with reference to the scene within the typanum? We must remember, also, that at this early time the sculptor's art was in its infancy while painting and the ceramic art had reached a considerable development. Even if all analogy did not lead the other way, an artist would shrink from trying to fill up a pediment with statues in the round. The most natural method was also the easiest for him.
On the question of the original character of the pedimental group, the Heraion at Olympia, probably the oldest Greek columnar structure known, furnishes important light. Pausanias says nothing whatever of any pedimental figures. Of course his silence does not prove that there were none; but with all the finds of acroteria, terracottas and the like, no trace of any such sculptures was discovered. The inference seems certain that the pedimental decoration, if present at all, was either of wood or of terracotta, or was merely painted on a smooth surface. The weight of authority inclines to the last view. It is held that, if artists had become accustomed to carving pedimental groups in wood, the first examples that we have in stone would not show so great inability to deal with the conditions of pedimental composition. If ever the tympanum was simply painted or filled with a group in terracotta, it is easy to see why the fashion died and why consequently we can bring forward no direct proof to-day. It was simply that only figures in the round can satisfy the requirements of a pedimental composition. The strong shadows thrown by the cornice, the distance from the spectator, and the height, must combine to confuse the lines of a scene painted on a plane surface, or even of a low relief. So soon as this was discovered and so soon as the art of sculpture found itself able to supply the want, a new period in pedimental decoration began.
Literary evidence to support this theory of the origin of pediment sculpture is not lacking. Pliny says in his Natural History (xxxv. 156.): Laudat (Varro) et Pasitelen qui plasticen matrem caelaturæ et statuariæ sculpturaeque dixit et cum esset in omnibus his summus nihil unquam fecit antequam finxit. Also (xxxiv. 35.): Similitudines exprimendi quae prima fuerit origo, in ea quam plasticen Graeci vocant dici convenientius erit, etenim prior quam statuaria fuit. In both these cases the meaning of "plasticen" is clearly working, that is, moulding, in clay. Pliny, again (xxxv. 152.), tells us of the Corinthian Butades: Butadis inventum est rubricam addere aut ex rubra creta fingere, primusque personas tegularum extremis imbricibus inposuit, quae inter initia prostypa vocavit, postea idem ectypa fecit. hinc et fastigia templorum orta. The phrase hinc et fastigia templorum orla, has been bracketed by some editors because they could not believe the fact which it stated. Fastigia may from the whole connection and the Latin mean "pediments." This is quite in accord with the famous passage in Pindar, [54] attributing to the Corinthians the invention of pedimental composition. Here then we have stated approximately the conclusion which seems at least probable on other grounds, namely, that the tympanum of the pediment was originally filled with a group in terracotta, beyond doubt painted and in low relief.
Footnote 54:[ (return) ] Olymp., XIII, 21.