The The-Ban-Attic School

There was a third school of Greek painting, that called the Theban-Attic, and of this we read that there was "a great ease and versatility, and an invention more intent upon the expression of human emotion," but no painter of this school made any very great advance. At length we come to Apelles, the most famous of all Greek painters. He, although already well known and highly thought of, went to the Sikyonian school,to study under Pamphilos, and we afterwards hear of him as court painter to Alexander the Great. We are told that at court his " mission was to celebrate the person and the deeds of the king, as well as those of his captains and chief men." This was at any rate legitimate historical painting. Woltmann and Woermann say, "In faithful imitation of nature he was second to none; he was first of all in refinement of light and shade, and consequent fulness of relief and completeness of modelling." And again we read, "Astonishing technical perfection in the illusory imitation of nature" distinguished Apelles. Thus we see that the great aim of the greatest of Greek painters was to paint nature exactly as she is, or as glib critics would say, to paint "mere transcripts of nature." Contemporary with Apelles was Protogenes, whose aim was to reach the "highest degree of illusion in detail." The cycle of development seemed now to have reached its highest point, and as the naturalistic teachings fell into the hands of inferior men, they were abused, and Woltmann and Woermann tell us the imitative principle was not kept subservient to artistic ends, and in the hands of Theon of Samos the principle of illusion became an end in itself, and art degenerated into legerdemain. This same tendency is now showing its hydra head, and in London, Brussels, and other places are to be seen inferior works hidden in dark rooms, or to be viewed through peep-holes. We only want the trumpets of Theon or the music of the opera boufle to complete the degradation. Following Theon, and probably disgusted with his phantasies, came painters of small subjects; the rhyparographi of Pliny, or the rag-and-tatter painters, " who painted barbers" shops, asses, eatables, and such-like." "We see, therefore, that about B.C. 300 . . . Greek painting had already extended its achievements to almost all conceivable themes, with the single exception of landscape. Within the space of a hundred and fifty years the art had passed through every technical stage, from the tinted profile system of Polygnotos to the properly pictorial system of natural scenes, enclosed in natural backgrounds, and thence to the system of trick and artifice, which aimed at the realism of actual illusion by means beyond the legitimate scope of art."

"The creative power of Greek painting was as good as exhausted by this series of efforts. In the following centuries the art survived indeed as a pleasant aftergrowth, in some of its old seats, but few artists stand out with strong individuality from among their contemporaries. Only a master here and there makes a name for himself. The one of these whom we have here especially to notice is Timomachos, of Byzantium, an exception of undeniable importance, since even at this late period of Greek culture he won for himself a world-wide celebrity."

Apelles.

Protogenes.

Theon.

The rhyparographi.

Timoma-chos.

Greek landscape painting.

Decadence.

Fabius and Ludius.

Decadence, however, had already set in, and we find that Timomachos neglected the study of familiar subjects, and returned to the so-called imaginative style, producing such works as "Ajax and Medea,' and "Iphigenia in Taurus." Curiously enough, it was during this period that the only branch of painting not yet tried by the Greeks, namely, landscape painting, was attempted. Woltmann and Woermann suggest a reason for this new departure when they say, "We can gather with certainty from poetry and literature that it was in the age of the Diadochi (the kings who divided amongst them the kingdom of Alexander) that the innate Greek instinct of anthropomorphism, of personifying nature in human forms, from a combination of causes was gradually modified in the direction of an appreciation of natural scenes for their own sake, and as they really are"' Landscape painting, however, did not reach any great perfection, for we are told it "scarcely got beyond the superficial character of decorative work." With this period ends the true history of Greek painting, though it still lingers on, and becomes so far merged into that of Roman art that between the two it is not possible to draw a line of distinction. Roman art had a character of its own, and even two painters, whose names, Fabius and Ludius, and in the case of the latter whose works, have been handed down to us; but the works of Ludius do not appear to have been more than decorative work.