XIII. THE APHRODITE OF MELOS (VENUS OF MILO) 73 Picture from Photograph by Neurdein Frères XIV. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE 79 Picture from Photograph by D. Anderson XV. NIKE (THE WINGED VICTORY) 85 Picture from Photograph by Neurdein Frères XVI. PERICLES (See Frontispiece) 91 PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF PROPER NAMES AND FOREIGN WORDS 95 _Nine of the above illustrations are from photographs in the collection of the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University_ INTRODUCTION I. ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK SCULPTURE. The history of Greek sculpture covers a period of some eight or nine hundred years, and falls into five divisions.[1] The first is the period of development, extending from 600 to 480 B. C. The second is the period of greatest achievement, under Phidias and his followers, in the Age of Pericles, 480-430 B. C. The third is the period of Praxiteles and Scopas, in the fourth century. The fourth is the period of decline, characterized as the Hellenistic Age, and included between the years 320 and 100 B. C. The fifth is the Græco-Roman period, which includes the work produced to meet the demand of the Roman market for Greek sculpture, and which extends to 300 A. D. [1] See Gardner's _Handbook of Greek Sculpture_, page 42. Modern criticism differentiates sharply the characteristics of the several periods and even of the individual artists, but such subtleties are beyond the grasp of the unlearned. The majority of people continue to regard Greek sculpture in its entirety, as if it were the homogeneous product of a single age. To the popular imagination it is as if some gigantic machine turned out the Apollo Belvedere, the Venus of Milo, the Elgin Marbles, and all the rest, in a single day. Nor is it long ago since even eminent writers had but vague ideas as to the distinctive periods of these very works. Certain it is that all works of Greek sculpture have a particular character which marks them as such. Authorities have taught us to distinguish some few of their leading characteristics. The most striking characteristic of Greek art is perhaps its closeness to nature. The sculptor showed an intimate knowledge of the human form, acquired by constant observation of the splendid specimens of manhood produced in the palæstra. It is because the artist "clung to nature as a kind mother," says Waldstein, that the influence of his work persists through the ages. Again, Greek art is distinctly an art of generalization, dealing with types rather than with individuals. This characteristic is of varying degrees in different periods and with different sculptors. It is seen in its perfection in the Elgin Marbles, in exaggeration in the Apollo Belvedere, and at the minimum in the work of Praxiteles. Yet it is everywhere sufficiently marked to be indissolubly connected with Greek sculpture.