Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller.

  • Karl Otfried Müller
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient art and its remains, or, A manual of the archaeology of art / By C.O. Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    227/664
    painting. The councils, among which that of lUiberis (about 300) was the first to occupy itself with such matters, were on the whole more hostile to plastic than painted images. Comp. Meander K. Gesch. ii. s. 616. Jacobs Acad. Reden i. s. 547 f. Griineisen iiber die Ursachen u. Granzen des Kunsthasses in den drei ersten Jahrh. n. Chr., Kunstbl. 1831. N. 29. In P. C. Miiller De genio £Evi Theod. p. 267 sq. Passages from Chrysos- tom and others on the state of art. 3. There were images of Christ pretty early, for Alexander Severus had Christ in his Lararium; afterwards the Carpocratians had such images, with which even heathen superstition was carried on in Egypt. (Reuvens Lettres h. Mr. Letronne i. p. 25). On the other hand the Edessa image was an invention, and the statue of Paneas, with the woman of Samaria, probably a misunderstood antique group (Hadrian and Juda;a, according to Iken). The Christ-ideal was developed on the whole much less by sculpture than by mosaics and paintings. A Christian painter who tried to transform it into the Jupiter Ideal had his hand withered, according to Cedrenus p. 348. Par. Theodoret Exc. hist. eccl. i, 15. [On the origin of Christian art, and its religious ideals, from a consideration of the earliest works of Christian sculpture, and later Greek painting in Sicklers u. Reinhart's Almanach aus Rom. i. s. 153—196.]—Rumohr in especial shows how Christian art long remained antique in technical treatment and forms, having only taken another direction in its subjects, Ital. Forschungen i. s. 157 ff.—What is here said is mostly borrowed from Rumohr's excellent book; and R. Rochette in agreement therewith shows in his Discours sur I'origine, le developpement et le caractSre dea types imitatifs qui constituent Fart du Christianisme, P. 1834, how, after the first indeterminate and characterless attempts, certain ideal types of the Saviour, the Virgin, and the Apostles were formed at an early period under the influence of ancient art; but that the subjects which were foreign to antiquity—the representations of sacred sufferings—the Cru- cifixion and the Martyrdoms, did not enter into this world of art until the seventh and eighth centuries. DESTRUCTION OF WORKS OF ART. 214. After all this, it is not to be denied that the removal 1 of the seat of empire to Byzantium was productive of baneful influence on the arts in Italy; that to ancient art in general 2 Christianity was not less injurious, as well in consequence of its internal tendency, as from the natural and necessary hos- tility of its external position; and that the invasions and 3 conquests of the Germanic tribes were also destructive, less however from intentional demolition than from the natural effects of incursions, sieges, and subjugations; for the Goths especially, who were of an honourable nature and susceptible of cultivation, can scarcely in any instance be charged with wanton destruction of works of art and historical records. The vast amount of distress arising from wars, famine, pesti- 4