ANCIENT ART.
xlvii
who attracted to herself ali the elements of ancient art, the names
of^many celebrated Greek sculptors would have remained mere
phantom sounds.
At no period, not even the earliest, can Rome have been ab-
solutely and entirely beyond the influence of Greek culture and
art; but at first this influence was felt only faintly and indirectly.
Roman authors themselves maintain that ali the artistio under-
takings of the first centuries of Rome were performed by Etruscans
or after Etruscan models. Artists or works of Greek origin were
of only occasionai oc currence. The earliest Importation of Greek
Works of Art on a large scale did not take place until after the
capture of Syracuse in 212 B.C. Then for the first time, says
Plutarch, Roman eyes were opened to the beauty of Greek art.
Thenceforward every fresh victory of the legions on Greek soil
brought fresh spoils of art to Rome. Capua and Tarentum, Eretria
and Macedonia, Corinth and Athens were ali laid under the artistic
tribute. When Paullus ^milius triumphed over Macedonia in 167
B.C., two hundred and seventy waggon-loads of statues and pictures
— the spoils of seventy cities — swelled the victor's procession
in Rome. Works of art, which were at first carried off only as the
proofs of victory, gradually became more and more prized for their
own sake. Everyone who laid claim to a tincture of letters sought,
by force or fraud, by purchase or exchange, to obtain works of art
for the adornment of his palace, his villa, or his library. The con-
noisseur and the enthusiast, the ostentatious and the fashionable
competed, just as they compete to-day, to raise the prices of re-
cognized works of famous artists. Even under the emperors Greece
continued to be the artistic emporium of Rome. Works of ali kinds
were brought to Rome under Augustus, stili more under Caligula,
most of ali under Nero. Thus there were collected at Rome Greek
works of every epoch and of every school, works of the highest ex-
cellence and others of mediocre value, originals from the chisels of
the great masters, and copies executed to order. At first the selection
was dictated by chance or, rather, by the greed oi acquisition. If
any works were preferred to others, they were those that were im-
posing, costly, or striking. Gradually, however, connoisseurship
and a criticai taste were developed; but unpretending or archaic
works received little attention unless some historic event or anecdote
was connected with them. On the other hand the desire to possess
what others possessed flourished ali the more; and when the origin¬
als were unattainable, copies, and if possible full-sized copies, were
eagerly sought. Dozens of copies of especially popular statues exist
at the present day. Frequently the costly bronze statues were re-
produced in the cheaper marble. The value of these copies naturally
varies very much; some of them are very inferior.
Greek Art had passed through many vicissitudes before it
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