Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/344

328 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. ornament is the same in both. True, a couple of vases have been picked up in Caria which testify to the effort the artist made in order to step beyond a simple combination of lines, and draw his inspirations from living nature, whilst Lydian ceramic industry affords no example of so ambitious an aim. This, we maintain, is purely accidental : a lucky hit which attended on the Carian ex- cavations. In fact, it would be preposterous to assume that what was achieved at Idriasand Mylasawas impossible in a capital such as Sardes ; the more so that the same taste and the same methods obtained throughout the south-western part of this region. The remark applies in full to jewellery. Thus golden plaques, hammer beaten, have been found as plentifully in Caria as in Lydia, proving, moreover, that here as there the precious metal was put to the same uses. The human and animal form appear only on a brace of vases that were dug up with others at Tralles ; all the specimens from the environs of Halicarnassus have no other than geometric forms. The only sensible conclusion to be drawn therefrom is that certain pieces were more elaborately wrought than others, and that forms of a higher order were selected for the decoration. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that Tralles stands on the border between Lydia and Caria ; hence the personal orna- ments that have been brought to light there may be carried to the account of either indifferently. If we have assigned them to Lydia, it was because their elegance and richness awoke in our mind the remembrance of the proverbial opulence tradition ascribed to the subjects of Crcesus. No traces of sculpture have been discovered in Caria or Lydia. Some authorities hold that the lacuna could be easily filled up. Not a few of the archaeologists who have busied themselves with the origins of Grecian art are inclined to attribute to the Carians those tiny, shapeless statuettes that are found in vast numbers in and out of the Cyclades (Fig. 243). 1 According to them, such pieces are the work of the Leleges and the Carians, and date from those far-off days when these people sailed over the ygean in every direction, and peopled its islands and the coasts of Pelo- ponnesus as well. We will confine ourselves for the present to the following prejudicial remark : Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, 1 Tiesch was the first to broach the notion ("Ueber Paros und Parische Inschriften " in Abhandlungen der Muenchener-Akademie, 1834, p. 585, P. A.). Cf. L. Ross, Archa. Aufsaetze, torn. i. p. 855 ; Vorgriechisches Graber, pp. 52, 53.