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420 APPENDIX, 21. tail. Of the character and attributes of this deity we know but little. The more abbreviated mode of representing water, the zigzag line, occurs on the large silver coins with the type of a city or a war galley (see Layard, ii. p. 386). These coins were probably struck in Assyria, not long after the conquest of it by the Persians. In Greek art the modes of representing water are far more varied. Two conventional imitations, the wave moulding and the Maeander, are well known. Both are probably of the most remote antiquity; both have been largely employed as an architectural ornament, and subordinately as a decoration. of vases, costume, furniture and implements. In the wave moulding we have a conventional representation of the small crisping waves which break upon the shore of the Mediterranean, the sea of the Greeks. Their regular succession, and equality of force and volume, are generalised in this moulding, while the minuter varieties which distinguish one wave from another are merged in the general type. The character of ocean waves is to be "for ever changing, yet the same for ever;" it is this eternity of recurrence which the early artist has expressed in this hieroglyphic. With this profile representation of water may be compared the sculptured waves out of which the head and arms of Hyperion are rising in the pediment of the Parthenon (Elgin Room> No. (65) 91, Museum Marbles, vi. pi. 1). Phidias has represented these waves like a mass of overlapping tiles, thus generalising their rippling movement. In the Maeander pattern the graceful curves of nature are represented by angles* as in the Egyptian hieroglyphic of water: so again the earliest representation of the labyrinth on the coins of the Cnossus is rectangular; on later coins we find the curvilinear form introduced. In the language of Greek mythography, the.wave pattern and the Mseander are sometimes used singly for the idea of water, but more frequently combined with figurative representation. The number of aquatic deities in the Greek Pantheon led to the invention of a great variety of beautiful types. Some of these •are very well known. Everybody is familiar with the general form of Poseidon (Neptune), the Nereids, the Nymphs and River
Title | The stones of Venice - 1 |
Creator | Ruskin, John |
Publisher | J. Wiley |
Place of Publication | New York |
Date | 1889 |
Language | eng |
Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Title | 00000482 |
Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Transcript | 420 APPENDIX, 21. tail. Of the character and attributes of this deity we know but little. The more abbreviated mode of representing water, the zigzag line, occurs on the large silver coins with the type of a city or a war galley (see Layard, ii. p. 386). These coins were probably struck in Assyria, not long after the conquest of it by the Persians. In Greek art the modes of representing water are far more varied. Two conventional imitations, the wave moulding and the Maeander, are well known. Both are probably of the most remote antiquity; both have been largely employed as an architectural ornament, and subordinately as a decoration. of vases, costume, furniture and implements. In the wave moulding we have a conventional representation of the small crisping waves which break upon the shore of the Mediterranean, the sea of the Greeks. Their regular succession, and equality of force and volume, are generalised in this moulding, while the minuter varieties which distinguish one wave from another are merged in the general type. The character of ocean waves is to be "for ever changing, yet the same for ever;" it is this eternity of recurrence which the early artist has expressed in this hieroglyphic. With this profile representation of water may be compared the sculptured waves out of which the head and arms of Hyperion are rising in the pediment of the Parthenon (Elgin Room> No. (65) 91, Museum Marbles, vi. pi. 1). Phidias has represented these waves like a mass of overlapping tiles, thus generalising their rippling movement. In the Maeander pattern the graceful curves of nature are represented by angles* as in the Egyptian hieroglyphic of water: so again the earliest representation of the labyrinth on the coins of the Cnossus is rectangular; on later coins we find the curvilinear form introduced. In the language of Greek mythography, the.wave pattern and the Mseander are sometimes used singly for the idea of water, but more frequently combined with figurative representation. The number of aquatic deities in the Greek Pantheon led to the invention of a great variety of beautiful types. Some of these •are very well known. Everybody is familiar with the general form of Poseidon (Neptune), the Nereids, the Nymphs and River |
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