Religion & art: a study in the evolution of sculpture, painting and architecture, by Alessandro della Seta

Religion & art: a study in the evolution of sculpture, painting and architecture
by Alessandro della Seta
1914

PREFACE

44 Man would never have set himself the task of representing men because of the beauty and nobility of their form. The form of men appeared beautiful and noble because it had served to clothe the gods. Man therefore possessed art because he had religion ; but he possessed a great art, such as the Greek and Christian art, because when the sense of magic was destroyed he vivified these religions by a content of myth and history."

THIS phrase, which closes and sums up Delia Seta's book, also gives its keynote and its theme. The author traces the rise of art from magical and ritual observances, and leads us on to behold its liberation from the yoke of magic, first by the influence of the Greek spirit, and later by the still more potent influence of Christianity. Never, since the application of scientific methods to the criticism of art, have conclusions, whether as to the origins or the ultimate fate of art, been applied within so wide an area of phenomena. Delia Seta begins with the epoch of the mammoth and the reindeer, and traverses the vast spaces that lead from the magical carvings and paintings of Bruniquel or Altamira to the Renaissance and modern times. The vastness of the synthesis and the novelty of the views expressed induce me to accept the author's invitation to contribute a few preliminary remarks to the English edition of his book. Readers unfamiliar with the train of ideas set astir by Delia Seta may welcome a brief indication of its most salient features. On the other hand, those already at home in questions of Religionsforsckung and in modern problems of aesthetics will, I trust, neglect these introductory pages and attack straightway the substance of the book.

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The Italian edition appeared early in 1912, a date useful to bear in mind in view of the many recent books dealing with approximately the same subject. Its title (in the original Religione e arte figurata) might lead one to suppose that the author was exclusively concerned with art as the expression of the human form. But so keen and vigorous a thinker as Delia Seta knows that the time has long passed when research in the domain of aesthetics could be restricted to any one of its branches. His examination of plastic art in relation to a people s culture and religious beliefs is invariably accompanied by a brief but penetrating inquiry into the parallel phenomena of literature, of music, or of dancing. Dancing has loomed large hi speculations as to the origins of art. The evolution of the choros of Greek tragedy from the mimetic dance, for instance, exemplifies in brief Delia Seta's root idea that art, as it rises from the phase of ritual, despoils itself of its magical character in order to become pure aesthetic manifestation.

One by one, Delia Seta marshals the peoples of antiquity and makes them reveal the sources of their religious ideas and the art which helped to give these ideas force. Among primitive races, and others powerless or unwilling to throw off the yoke of magic, art has a practical and utilitarian purpose : man creates the images of those objects over which he desires control and for which he asks divine protection (ex-voto). In the second stage he fashions the image the idol, or the power which he desires to bring within his reach that so he may cajole or coerce it into granting the needed protection. This magical art, in other words, has in view self-preservation both for now and hereafter, and remains indifferent to the dealings of the divinity with man in the past. But self-preservation, "the strongest interest of human nature," brings with it, as Cumont has well observed, " faith in a personal survival of the soul and even of

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the body." * Consequently the art of peoples in what Delia Seta calls the " iconolatrous " stage tends in large measure to remain a funeral art, in which every effort is made to ensure the survival of the dead by surrounding him with objects imitated from reality and by fashioning an image into the closest resemblance of himself, as though this likeness were a sure pledge of his survival. The Egyptians, owing to their constant preoccupation with life after death, pushed the possibilities of this magical art to the furthest limit. Delia Seta incisively sets forth and analyses the differences between the art of Egypt, of Babylon and of Assyria, and of the Kreto-Myceneans, and shows why each race in turn even the rich Minoan civilization that contained in germ so much that went to make the greatness of Greek art failed to throw off the tyranny of magic. Among the Eastern peoples a tendency to symbolism was to a certain extent the obstacle to development, since symbolism checks the growth of the mythopoeic spirit of that power to reflect about the relations and the acts of divine beings t which was to prove the liberator of art. The Jews alone stood from the first outside the magic circle, but a Judaic figured art was made impossible by an over-exalted monotheism which raised the divinity too far above the sphere of man and resulted in a horror of images. Thus the incomparable historical material of the Bible found no expression in art before the advent of Christianity. But Christianity, by bringing the divinity down to earth and making this divinity a subject for art, enabled monotheism to take the step which the Hebraic conception of religion had made impossible.

The first decisive step towards the liberation of art from the magic phase J was to be taken by the Greeks. In Greece

* F. Cumont, Oriental Religions (Eng. trans., p. 43).

t " Myths are the outcome of reflection of reflection about the gods and their relations to one another or to men or to the world." Jevons, Idea of God in Early Religions, p. 33.

I Delia Seta's use of the word " magic " as equivalent to religion in its earlier stages will probably not commend itself to every reader. Dr. Frazer's

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/ art was inspired by a religion which strove from the first to substitute for the worship of the god's image, the contemplation of the divine nature as revealed in his acts ; hence the rise of a new mythological art, unconcerned with the ultramundane existence of the dead and projected towards a past where play the deeds of heroes and of gods. The part played by the Homeric poems in forming what we may call the historical conscience of Greece is dealt with afresh in a vigorous passage. The Homeric poems, however, could only bring about partial emancipation, and Delia Seta well defines Greek art as a superb compromise between the popular demand for image

w and votive statue and the aristocratic preference, on the part of the more cultured, for narrative mythological subjects. It was the triumph of Greek art to lift itself gradually from the sphere of ritual into that of religion. To a coarser imagination, it is true, the grand ceremonial carved on the frieze of the Parthenon might appear the direct negative of Delia Seta's view, or be held to mark a retrograde step towards the magical function of art. But to Delia Seta the frieze is the grand exception that proves the rule. It represents, he argues, the successful effort of genius to divest the rendering of a processional scene of the magical character necessarily attaching to all ritual. The contrast established by our author between the spirit of the procession that enfolds the cella of the Parthenon and the similar scene on the enclosing wall of the Ara Pads Augustce is perhaps the best that has yet been said of the difference between the art of Greece and that of Rome. These pages should help to a saner view of Greek religion also. To judge, as too often happens, of the religion of an educated Greek of the Periclean age from stray and obscure survivals of primitive ritual is like making the average English churchman responsible for primitive customs still in vogue among certain

attempt to differentiate magic from religion is familiar to readers of the Golden Bough; see R. R.Marett, " From Spell to Prayer," in The Threshold of Religion, p. 33 ff. ; cf. Jevons, Idea of God, p. 117 ff.

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English country-folk, or the average Roman Catholic for the obscure superstitions of the peasants of the Abbruzzi.

The art of Etruria, like that of Latium, Delia Seta considers as little more than a slavish imitation of the Greek. In Etruria we see Greek art forms brought into the service of a religion that asks for protection in the present, and of a ritual of the dead which, like that of ancient Egypt, strives to secure assurance of a future life. Both aims were incompatible with the ideas that inspired the borrowed art, which, accordingly, was early degraded to purely decorative uses. This might likewise have been the fate of Greek art in Rome, had not Rome discovered a new motive force in the Imperial idea, which, by giving a central theme to the art of the Empire, was to bear it along once more in an ascending line, leaving the purely Greek element to follow on another track which led eventually to decay. Professor Delia Seta has done me the honour to quote in support of his theories views which I have expressed in my book on Roman Sculpture. But here our paths diverge; for while Delia Seta believes that the central theme called into existence by the Imperial figure was to die with the Empire and to remain sterile for the after development of art, my own belief is that the influence endured long as an underground current maybe, yet| destined to rise again to the surface and to govern the principles of plastic art from the early Renaissance onwards. I hold firmly that centralization was Rome's greatest, perhaps only, contribution to the treasury of art forms she had taken over from Greece.

In discussing the rise and development of Christian art Delia Seta breaks definitely with the false notions that have clouded our appreciation of the art forms of early Christianity. Much, it is true, had already been done towards this end by Von Sybel in his Christliche Antike, where the subject was brought for the first time within the sphere of the other arts of antiquity. A remarkable result of modern research round and about early Christianity is to bring out its inde-

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pendent character. Cumont has repeatedly warned us against too hastily concluding that analogies between certain early Christian practices and Mithraic rites are necessarily proofs of plagiarism or imitation ; * Delahaye has finally disposed of the theories which used to link the cult of the early Christian martyrs to that of the pagan heroes, t Now Delia Seta, while fully admitting the subsequent debt of Christian to pagan form, vindicates for the earliest Christian art even for the paintings of the Catacombs, which have been treated with such contempt by students both of pagan and of later mediaeval art a vivid originality. The poverty of form, so striking to those who came to Christian art from the crowded figures of the reliefs of the later Roman Empire, is, Delia Seta maintains, not necessarily a proof of artistic incapacity, but the result of conscious rejection of everything superfluous or unnecessary to ideas which seek expression in a direct and simple symbolism. This symbolic art, -however, was too closely shadowed by the old Judaic horror of images to be capable of vital development. In order that Christian art might rise from this restricted sphere to accomplish its glorious destiny, it was first to sink to a lower plane, where attention became^ once more focussed on the Divinity as the source of ^ protection for both present and future. Thus later mosaics as well as much cathedral sculpture have a theurgic or, as Delia Seta calls it, an iconolatrous purpose.J Throughout the Middle Ages up to the revival of art under Giotto, the divine image is placed, as in primitive art, in direct relation to th<

* F. Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithras (Eng. trans, by McCormack), (p. 188 ff.).

t Hippolyte Delahaye, Legendes Hagiographiques, p. 187 f. ; Les Origin du Culte des Martyrs, p. 467 ; cf . " Castor et Pollux dans les legend* hagiographiques," in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiii., 1904.

\ Here again many, like Professor Marucchi in his otherwise sympathetic review of Delia Seta's book (Nuovo Bullettino di Archeologia Gristiana, xvii., p. 253 f .), may object to the word " iconolatrous " as applied to any image of Christian worship, the images, according to Catholic dogma, having always remained merely symbolic.

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worshipper, and is unconcerned with the attendant figures within picture or relief. The emancipation in this case, as in that of Greece, is brought about under the quickening of the historic spirit, and Dante plays in the formation of the new ideals of Christian art, but on a grander scale, the part ( assigned to Homer for the art of Greece. Once more art becomes narrative and is devoted to exhibiting the nature of the Divinity as manifest in His dealings with man in the past ; even so great a scene as that of the Last Judgment, which, if any, might appear concerned with the future, is conceived as peopled, in Dantesque fashion, with figures taken from I history. The infiltration of Greek ideas helps the regeneration of art, but the limited aims of classical antiquity were soon to be outstripped. Under the influence of Christianity art was increasingly called upon to concentrate its efforts on the rendering of the spiritual and moral side of human nature, hence I even the efforts of Praxiteles and of Skopas appear as mere child's play when compared to what was attained by the high Renaissance in facial expressiveness. But this effort after expressiveness tends in its turn to over-emphasize the human j element, till in the seventeenth century art finally drops its ' connection with religion ; but with this divorce figured art loses its primary source of inspiration, and the only vital art forms left to us in modern times are portraiture and landscape. Such in brief, and with much that is 'of the first importance necessarily omitted, is the outline of the synthesis which, under the semblance of a history of art, is in reality a profound philosophy of art in its relation both to history and religion.

In the country which has produced Andrew Lang and Robertson Smith, Tylor, Frazer, and Farnell, and where the works of Reinach, of Yrjo Him and of Cumont probably find their largest public, the attempt of Delia Seta to

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reconcile the study of religion with that of art is certain to command attention. The book re-establishes to my mind the balance between the exclusively formal study of art initiated in Germany and the interpretative methods introduced under the auspices of comparative mythology. Delia Seta's book further marks a reaction from the once potent doctrine of Kunstwolkn, which represents plastic form from its earliest beginnings as the result of an inherent impulse towards artistic creation, as though the cave-dwellers of Altamira had broken the tedium of long winter evenings by producing, out of their love of art, animal paintings a la Paul Potter. No such weighty pronouncement on the connection between art and religion as this of Delia Seta's has appeared of late years, if we except the masterly article on Greek Religion contributed to Hastings's Encyclopaedia, in which Dr. Farnell formulated the direct and vital influence of Greek religion upon Greek art. Delia Seta differs, as we have- seen, from most writers on the beginnings of art in that he is not unmindful of its high destinies. By a fortunate coincidence the translation of his book appears only a few months after Dr. Spearing's Childhood of Art, where many of the same problems are discussed, though Dr. Spearing leaves off with the Greeks. Both writers are alike animated with the desire to penetrate primary causes, but neither of them remains confined within the magic circle of origins. As Dr. Spearing well puts it, "Art and literature may have had their origin in poor or mean desires, but their true function is to ennoble the desires that gave them birth, and to lead the world to the perception of still higher things." Were this the place for criticism, one might perhaps venture to regret that Delia Seta links "the perception of these higher things" too exclusively with what he calls arte esemplificativa, with the reflective or contemplative art born of the mythopceic spirit. Yet parallelism or frontality the solemn structural quality which placed the Divinity in direct relation to the worshipper, produced statuary form of matchless strength

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and beauty. May not the informing spirit of this theurgic phase, cleansed of all magic and superstitious intention, shine forth again under the auspices of knowledge and lead to new and as yet unexplored heights of artistic expression ?

,i> III

Be these things as they may and I feel bound to indicate other points of view, not discordant but complementary we must admire the soundness of Delia Seta's main thesis, the delicacy and breadth of his insight, the vigorous exactitude of his reasoning ; it is the whole outlook of archaeological study which is vivified by the principles he has discovered at the root of artistic expression. In his recent inaugural address on his appointment to the Chair of Archaeology at the University of Genoa,* he himself traced the rise of the archaeological spirit to the Greeks, and argued in the spirit of his book that the archaeological temperament was necessarily alien to peoples who, like certain Oriental races, were solely preoccupied in their vast industrial and artistic production with utilitarian and magical ends, and thereby unconsciously held back mankind from the search into the secret of its own concatenation with the past. With the birth of the historic spirit due to Greece ^ the outlook changes, and archaeology and history become the great factors which enhance man's sense of life by prolonging it upwards into the past. In Delia Seta's reiterated assertion that the absence of the historic sense is the mark of untutored races, futurist doctrine finds its severest condemnation.

The book is that of a young and ardent spirit ; it also strikes one as that of a mature thinker. Inspired by the example of Winckelmann, who searched out and published monument after monument, till he felt ready to build up his mighty history of the antique, Delia Seta has shown by pre-

* " L'Archeologia dai Greci a Winckelmann e a noi," published in Nuova Antologia, February 1, 1913.

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liminary studies his competence to deal with the minutest problems of archeology. As a philologer of the first order we find him writing on the Homeric question ; * as a classical archaeologist he has published many of the most important monuments discovered in Rome of late years ; t as the collaborator of Professor Colini in the reorganization of the Museum in the Villa Giulia he has rearranged on a comprehensive basis the protohistoric finds from the Tomba Barberini at Palestrina| and the matchless collection of terra-cottas from the temples and other sites of ancient Latium. Above all must we bear in mind that in a monograph published as far back as 1907, under the title of La Genesi dello scorcio nelt arte greca, Delia Seta laid the foundations of the present book. In the earlier work he, as a worthy pupil of Emmanuel Loewy, examined the causes which led the Greeks to the discovery of foreshortening and thereby to emancipation from the rigid parallelism of primitive art.

At a time when every effort is being made to restore the intellectual alliance between England and Italy (now, as ever, la mere savante de toute Renaissance], this book should

* His earliest publication was, I believe, an essay on evolution in epic poetry published in the Rivista d' Italia, 1902. A paper entitled " Achaioi, Argeioi, Danaoi nei poemi omerici " was published in Rendiconti della R.Accademia dei Lincei, 1907. I may also note here his paper on the Sphinx of Hagia Triada (Rendiconti della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1907), and two papers on the Shell and the Disc of Phaistos (ibid., 1908 and 1909) ; an article, 'E v-rroftoXfje and e (/TroX^ewe, was contributed to the Saggi di storia e d 1 Archeologia offerti a G. Beloch, 1910.

t Thus he published the fine archaic Greek statue of the Villa Borghese (Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale, 1908) ; the Niobid from the Sallustian Gardens (Ausonia, 1907) ; a statue of Heracles in the Malatesta Collection (Vita d' Arte, 1910); the group of " Nysa and the Child Dionysos" in the Lante Collection (Vita d' Arte, 1908).

J Delia Seta has laid the basis for all future study of these finds in an article of the Bollettino d' Arte for 1909 (" La Collezione Barberini d' Antichita prenestine ").

Della Seta's " parallelism " is equivalent to the " frontality " of Julius Lange, and to the " unidimensionality " of Loewy.

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be welcome as affording the proof of the vitality and promise of Italian scholarship. Coming so soon after Benedetto Croce's Estetica (likewise before the English public),* it shows that in the field of constructive criticism, as before in that of creative art, Italy is destined to hold high rank among the nations of Europe.

The English edition is enriched by additional chapters on architecture ; but owing to my departure for America I was unable to see either these or any of the translation of the book. I have to thank Dr. Farnell for kindly correcting the proofs of this Preface during my absence from Europe.

EUGENIE STRONG. January, 1914.

* Aesthetic, a Science of Expression and General Linguistic, translated m the Italian of Macmillan & Co., 1909.

, from the Italian of Benedetto Croce by Douglas Ainslie. London :

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . 27

I RELIGION, MAGIC AND PLASTIC ART . . . .33

Art inspired by religion Magic Art an instrument of magic Suppression of the magic function in art.

ART OF UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES . . . . .49

Animism and theism Totemism Magic art Form in magic art Magic character of literature, music and dancing Lack of historic sense in uncivilized peoples.

Ill

EGYPT . . . . . . . . .69

Unity of Egyptian civilization Origin, nature and aspect of the gods Scanty mythology of the gods Absence of a heroic mythology Funerary conception Works of art inspired by religion Direction given to the representation of the gods Impulse given to funerary art Isolation of Egyptian religion Egyptian architecture Egyptian literature.

ASSYRIO-BABYLONIA . . . . . . .120

Contrast with Egyptian civilization Origin, nature and aspect of the gods Mythology of the gods and heroes Funerary conception Religious art Dynastic art Assyrio- Babylonian architecture Assyrio-Babylonian literature Hebrew monotheism.

17 B

Contents

PAGE

MYCENJEAN CIVILIZATION . . .150

Extension, period and origin of the Mycenaean civilization The gods, their symbols and images Demons and their aspect Funerary conception Characteristics of Mycenaean art Mycensean architecture Relations between Mycenaean and Greek civilization.

GREECE ......... 174

The gods in the Homeric poems Funerary conception in Homer Absence of religious art in Homer Independent origin of Greek art Votive figures and images in Greek art Religious decorative art Characteristics of mythological art Subjects of mythological art Course of mythological art Frieze of the Parthenon Idealism of form in mythological art Idealism of form in the figures of the gods Decadence of mythological art Mythological influence upon the votive offering Elogium of mythology Funeral pottery Funeral stelai Mythology in funerary art Greek architecture Gree~k literature.

VII

ETBUBIA . . . . . . . .245

Greek gods and myths in Etruscan art Funerary art Characteristics of Etruscan art The portrait Decadence of Etruscan art Etruscan architecture Etruscan literature.

VIII ROME 266

Religious art of Latium Art of Imperial Rome The gods and myths of Roman art Subjects and characteristics of Imperial art Funerary art Latin and Roman architecture Roman literature Passage from Roman to Christian art.

BUDDHISM . . 292

Absence of Brahmanic art Buddhism Buddhist art and its origin Symbolism in Buddhist art Development of Buddhist

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PAGE

art in the direction of iconolatry Absence of a funerary art Form in Buddhist art and its derivatives Buddhist architecture Indian and Buddhist literature.

CHRISTIANITY ........ 319

Christianity as a funerary religion Cult images Symbolic and allegorical art Subjects of cemetery paintings Composition and form in the cemetery paintings Subjects, composition and forms r) in the sarcophagi Didactic and exemplary art Subjects and forms in exemplary art Iconolatrous art Course of iconolatrous art Persistence of historical subjects The religious renaissance Narrative art Subjects of narrative art Character of the subjects in narrative art Statuary, relief and painting in narrative art Spiritual expression in narrative art Cult images in narrative art Christian architecture Christian literature.

CONCLUSION ........ 396

INDEX . 401

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. 160. MARCUS AURELIUS SACRIFICING . Frontispiece

PIO. INSET AFTER PAGE

1. MAMMOTH. (Bruniquel) . . 58

2. WILD GOAT. (Mas-d'Azil) ... .58

3. HORSE. (Espelugues) 5 8

4. HEADS OF STAG AND CHAMOIS. (Gourdan) . . . . . . 5

5. DEER. (Mas-d'Azil) . .... 5

6. REINDEER AND SALMON. (Lorthet) . . . . . . . 58

7. ANIMALS PAINTED ON THE ROOF. (Altamira) .... 58

8. DEER AND SMALL BISON. (Altamira) . . . . . . . 58

9. WILD BOAR GALLOPING. (Altamira) ...... 58

10. BISON STOPPING. (Altamira) ........ 58

11. HATHOR. (Dendera) ......... 76

12. HATHOR. (Dendera) ......... 76

13. HATHOR. (Karnak) ......... 76

14. NUT IN THE FORM OF A COW. (Tomb of Seti I) . . . -76

15. NUT IN THE FORM OF A WOMAN. (Tomb of Rameses IX) . . . 80

16. HUNEFER BROUGHT TO THE JUDGMENT OF OSIRIS. (Papyrus of Hunefer) . . 80

17. DEAD MAN BEFORE THE TABLE OF OFFERINGS. (Coll. Bissing) ... 92

18. REAPING. (Sauiet el-Meitin) ....... .92

19. CATTLE LED FROM THE PASTURE. (Giseh) ...... 92

20. HUNTING AMONG THE PAPYRUS. (Giseh) . . . . . -94

21. FISHING AND TAKING WATERFOWL. (Saqqarah) .... .94

22. WOMAN GRINDING CORN. (Museum, Florence) .... .96

23. WOMAN KNEADING BREAD. (Museum, Florence) ..... 06

24. BEARER OF OFFERINGS. (Louvre) ..... .96

25. HORUS. (Amada) ........ .96

26. THOTH. (Sebua) .......... 96

27. SET. (Karnak) .........

28. ANUBIS. (Surarieh) ......... 96

29. KHNEMU. (Tura) ......... 96

30. SEBEK. (Karnak) .......... 96

31. SEKHET. (Silsilis) ......... 96

32. BAST. (Edfu) ...... . .96

33- SERAPIS. (Vatican) 96

34- isis AND HORUS. (Louvre) ..... .96

35' SYMBOLS OF BABYLONIAN DIVINITIES. (Louvre) ..... 136

36. STATUES OF THE GODS IN PROCESSION. (British Museum) . . . .136

Illustrations

INSET AFTER PAGE

37.' SHAMASH AND KHAMMURABI. (Louvre)

3 8. NABU-APLU-IDDINA BEFORE SHAMASH. (British Museum) 39 RELIGIOUS CEREMONY BEFORE THE GOD SIN. (British Museum) .

4 0. CONTESTS OF GILGAMESH AND EABANI (?). (British Museum)

41. CHARM TABLET AGAINST DISEASES. (From Hamah)

42. SARCOPHAGUS FROM HAGHIA TRIADA . l $ 2

43. RELIGIOUS CEREMONY BEFORE THE BILOBATE SHIELD. (Fresco from Mycenae) . 152

44. RELIGIOUS CEREMONY BEFORE SYMBOLS. (Ring from Mycenae) . . 152

45. SACRED EDIFICE. (Fresco from Knossos) . J 52

46. SACRED EDIFICE. (Gold plate from Mycenae) 154

47. APPEARANCE OF A DIVINITY. (Gold ring from Knossos) . . 154

48. VOTIVE IMAGES FROM THE SANCTUARY. (KnOSSOs) . 154

49. SERPENT CHARMER. (KnOSSOS)

50. DOVE GODDESS. (Mycenze) J 54

51. CYBELE BETWEEN THE LIONS. (Ring impression from Knossos) . 154

52. GODDESS WITH BIRDS. (Gem from Vaphio) . 154

53. IMAGINARY CREATURE. (Gem from Crete) . 158

54. IMAGINARY CREATURE. (British Museum) i5 8

55. THE WOMAN-EAGLE. (Ring impression from Zakro) i5 8

56. THE MAN-GOAT. J 58

57. THE BIRD MASK. ,, l &

58. DEMONS. SHELL FROM PHAISTOS. (Kandia) . . 15$

59. DEMONS. FRESCO FROM MYCEN^) . . 15$

60. DEMONS PERFORMING LIBATIONS. (From Mycense) . . 158

61. DEMONS PERFORMING LIBATIONS. (Gem from Vaphio) . 158

62. DEMON. (Impression of a ring from Knossos) . . 158

63. PERSEUS CARRYING OFF THE GORGON'S HEAD. (Temple of Thermos) . . 206

64. HERAKLES STRUGGLING WITH TRITON. (Frieze of the Temple of Assos) . . 206

65. EUROPA ON THE BULL. (From Selinus) . . 206

66. THE DIOSCURI AND APHAREID^). (Delphi) ...... 206

67. PERSEUS CUTTING OFF THE GORGON'S HEAD. (Selinus) .... 206

68. HERAKLES AND THE CERCOPES. (Selinus) .... . 206

69. CONTEST BETWEEN HERAKLES AND APOLLO. (Delphi) .... 208

70. TROJAN FIGHT. (Delphi) . . . . . . . . . 208

71. WAR OF THE GIANTS. (Delphi) ....... 2O8

72. SACRED MARRIAGE OF HERA AND ZEWS. (Selinus) . . . . . 2O8

73. ATHENA FIGHTING WITH A GIANT. (Selinus) ..... 208

74. ARTEMIS AND ACTION. (Selinus) ....... 208

75- HERAKLES AND THE AMAZON. (Selinus) ...... 208

76. HERAKLES AND THE HIND. (Delphi) . . . . . . .210

77- THESEUS AND THE AMAZON. (Delphi) ...... 210

78. HERAKLES AND THE LION. (Athens) . . . . . . .210

79- THESEUS AND THE SOW. (Athens) . . . . . . .210

80. CENTAUROMACHIA. (Theseion, Athens) . . . . . . .210

81. HERAKLES AND THE CRETAN BULL. (Olympia) 2IO

82. HERAKLES AND ATLAS. (Olympia) ... ... 210

83. CENTAUROMACHIA. (Olympia) ... 212

84- CENTAUR AND LAPiTH. (Metope of the Parthenon) 212

Illustrations

PIG. INSET AFTER PAGE

85. CENTAUR AND LAPiTH. (Metope of the Parthenon) . . 212

86. AMAZONOMACHIA. (Temple of Apollo, Bassae) .... .212

87. CENTAUROMACHIA. (Temple of Apollo, Bassae) ... . 212

88. AMAZONOMACHIA. (Temple of Artemis Leukophryene, Magnesia) . .214

89. GIGANTOMACHIA. (Altar of Pergamos) ... . 214

90. PANATHENAIC FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON . . . 214

91. ZEUS OF OTRICOLI. (Vatican) ....... 218

92. LUDOVISI HERA. (Rome) . . . . . . . . 2l8

93. ATHENA OF VELLETRI. (Louvre) . 2l8

94. ARTEMIS OF VERSAILLES. (Louvre) ....... 2l8

95. APHRODITE OF CNIDOS. (Munich) . . . 2l8

96. DEMETER OF CNIDOS. (British Museum) . . 218

97. HERMES OF PRAXITELES. (Olympia) . . ... 22O

98. LUDOVISI ARES. (Rome) ........ 220

99. APOLLO BELVEDERE. (Vatican) ....... 22O

ico. POSEIDON OF MELos. (Athens) . .... . 220

101. BEARDED DIONYSOS. (Naples) . . . 22O

102. THE YOUNG DIONYSOS. (Rome). . . ... 22O

103. CHIARAMONTI HEPHAISTOS. (Vatican) ...... 22O

104. ASKLEPIOS OF THE PIRAEUS. (Athens) .... . . 22O

105. VOTIVE RELIEF DEDICATED TO THE NYMPHS. (Athens) .... 222

106. VOTIVE RELIEF DEDICATED TO ASKLEPIOS AND HYGEIA. (Louvre) . . . 222

107. FUNERAL PROCESSION. (Athens) ....... 222

108. DEPOSITION IN THE TOMB. (Athens) . . . . . . .222

109. VIEWING THE CORPSE. (Berlin) ....... 226

110. HYPNOS AND THANATOS PLACING THE DEAD MAN IN THE TOMB. (British Museum) 226

111. HERMES CONDUCTING THE DEAD MAN TO CHARON. (From Trachones) . . 226

112. OFFERINGS AT THE STELE. EIDOLON OF THE DEAD. (British Museum) . . 226

113. HADES WITH MYTHICAL PERSONAGES. (Munich) . . . . .228

114. STELE OF THE TWO SISTERS. (Louvre) . ... 228

115. STELE OF A WARRIOR RUNNING. (Athens) . . .228

116. STELE OF PHILIS. (Louvre) .... . . 228

117. STELE OF DEMOKLEIDES. (Athens) . . 230

118. STELE OF DEXILEOS. (Athens) ... . 230

119. STELE OF ONESIMOS, PROTONOE, NIKOSTRATE AND EUKOLINE. (Athens) . . 230

120. SIRENS CARRYING AWAY THE EIDOLA OF THE DEAD. (Harpy Tomb) . . 230

121. SLAYING OF THE SUITORS. CALYDONIAN HUNT. (Gjolbashi-Trysa) . . . 232

122. OFFERINGS. (Nereid Monument) ....... 232

123. SIEGE OF A CITY. (Nereid Monument) . . .232

124. FIGHT WITH ORIENTALS. (Nereid Monument) . . .232

125. AMAZONOMACHIA. (Mausoleum) ....... 234

126. SARCOPHAGUS OF THE MOURNING WOMEN. (From Sidon) . . 234

127. SARCOPHAGUS OF ALEXANDER. (From Sidon) ...... 234

128. HEADS OF SATYRS AND MAENADS. (From Falerii Veteres) . . . 246

129. WARRIORS FIGHTING. (From Falerii Veteres) . . 246

130. CANOPUS. (Chiusi) ...... .250

131. STELE OF LARTHI ANINIES. (Florence) . 250

132. SARCOPHAGUS FROM C^RE. (Rome) . 250

Illustrations

INSET AFTER PAGE

I33. JOURNEY TO THE WORLD BEYOND THE TOMB. (Veil) . 250

1 34 . DEAD WOMAN CARRIED TO THE WORLD BEYOND THE TOMB. (Louvre) . - 250

135. ACHILLES LYING IN WAIT FOR TROILUS. (Tarqilinii)

136. HUNTING AND FISHING. (Tarquinii)

137. WRESTLING AND JUGGLING. (Tarquinii) .

138. BANQUET. (Tarquinii) .

139. DANCE. (Tarquinii) .

140. FUNERAL DANCE. (Chiusi)

141. FUNERAL PROCESSION. (Chiusi) - 2 54

142. GERYON BEFORE HADES AND PERSEPHONE. (Tarquinii) . 254

143. THESEUS IN HADES. (Tarquinii) . 254

144. ARTEMIS AND ACTION. (Volterra) 256

145. ULYSSES AND THE SYRENS. (Volterra) . 2$6

146. LAR. (Rome) . 2 5 6

147. JUNO OF LANUVIUM. (Vatican) . 268

148. ARTEMIS OF EPHESUS. (Rome) 268

149. SACRIFICE OF MiTHRA. (Vatican) . - 268

150. ALTAR FROM OSTIA. (Rome) . 268

151. CASALE BASE. (Vatican) . .270

152. ARA PACIS. (Florence) . 270

153. ARA PACIS. (Rome) . 270

154. SACRIFICE TO APOLLO. (Arch of Constantine, Rome) . 276

155. SACRIFICE TO DIANA. (Arch of Constantine, Rome) . 276

156. SACRIFICE TO SYLVANUS. (Arch of Constantine, Rome) . . 276

157. SACRIFICE TO HERCULES. (Arch of Constantine, Rome) . . 276

158. RELIEFS OF THE ARCH OF TRAJAN. (Benevento) ... . 276

159. RELIEFS OF THE ARCH OF TRAJAN. (Benevento) . 276

161. ROMAN HUSBAND AND WIFE. (Vatican) . . 280

162. EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A MAGISTRATE. (Florence) .... 280

163. FIGHT BETWEEN ROMANS AND BARBARIANS. (Rome) . . . 280

164. GIGANTOMACHIA. (Vatican) .... .280

165. SLAYING OF THE NIOBIDS. (Vatican) ....... 280

166. RELIEF AT JAMALGARHI. (Lahore) ...... 304

167. RELIEFS OF THE STUPA OF BARHUT. (Calcutta) ... .304

168. RELIEF OF THE STUPA OF AMARAVATI ...... 306

169. FRESCO FROM CAVE TEMPLE OF AJANTA ...... 306

170. DANIEL, THE GOOD SHEPHERD, ETC. (Cemetery of Lucina) . . . 330

171. THE GOOD SHEPHERD, ETC. (Ccemeterium Maius) . . . . .33

172. ADAM AND EVE, ETC. (Cemetery of SS. Peter and Marcellinus) . . 330

173. MOSES, THE MAGI, LAZARUS. (Cemetery of S. Domitilla) . . . .330

174. SARCOPHAGUS OF jUNius BASSus. (Vatican) ..... 340

175. SARCOPHAGUS WITH BIBLICAL SCENES. (Lateran) . . . . .340

176. SARCOPHAGUS WITH BIBLICAL SCENES. (Lateran) . . . .340

177. COMING OUT OF THE ARK. (Vienna Genesis) . . . . .348

178. RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. (Rossano Gospel) ..... 348

179. MOSAICS OF THE ARCH, S. MARIA MAGGIORE. (Rome) . . . .348

1 80. DOOR OF THE CHURCH OF S. SABINA. (Rome) ..... 350

181. PULPIT OF s. MASSIMIANO. (Ravenna) . . . . . .350

Illustrations

PIG. INSET AFTER PAGE

182. MOSAICS OF THE APSE, S. PUDENZIANA. (Rome) . . 352

183. MOSAICS OF THE APSE, SS. COSMAS AND DAMIAN. (R25

INTRODUCTION *

THE relation between religious ideas and the works of plastic art inspired by them vary considerably. The power which a people of low culture attributes to its idols is very different from that recognized by modern civilization in a Christian image. The idol serves to protect its possessor in the present and the future, it is endued with a constant and renewable magic power ; the Christian image records a past action of the Divinity and has only the force of example.

The passage from one extreme to the other marks a radical change of value in the work of plastic art. Art had arisen with a magical scope, to act, by means of her productions, upon nature and, whether by compulsion or persuasion, upon the superior beings who held dominion over nature. She renounced this object to aim at one substantially different that of placing the Divinity in the beauty of His form or in the nobility of His works before the eyes of the believer, substituting action on the spectator for action on external nature, visible or invisible. In this change is summed up and revealed in concrete fact all the progress of the human soul rising from timid primeval religious ideas to the high moral teaching of historic religions.

I intend to pursue the track of this conquest and follow

This book is derived from a course of lectures on archaeology and the history of art given by me at the University of Rome in 1908-9. In order to preserve the original expository character of the work bibliographic notes are reduced to a minimum, so that the evidence of research may seem to have been suppressed. This was done, however, in the interests of the reader, in order to give him a complete idea of the links which unite religion and art rather than a learned discourse on separate facts.

Introduction

it along two branches that of art intended for the needs of life and art intended for the needs of death terrestrial art and

funeral art.

In this study it will be possible to distinguish the links which bind religious concept to the image in the field of religions so different as the animism and elementary theism of uncivilized peoples up to the elevated doctrines of Buddhism and Christianity. This variety of relation will explain the different aspect of each art, for characteristic of form and choice of subject, rise, arrest, or decadence, are in great part the result of the position which art has had to assume with regard to the religious idea. Thus also light will be thrown upon both the rigid traditionalism of Egyptian art and the progressive idealism of Christian art.

In the second place, we shall be able in the same field to comprehend the greatness of Greek civilization and Greek art, for this transformation in the character of the work of plastic art, this gradual loss of magic power, is due to Greek art. Buddhist art and Christian art have advanced farther in the same direction only because they have reaped the fruits of her conquest. The world of myth which was the chief fount of inspiration for Greek plastic art, and which is regarded by the superficial observer as the fanciful and unsubstantial fruit of a vivacious spirit, will then appear in its just value as that which has prepared the way amongst human kind for the religions of history, which, besides fixing the past actions of the gods, would influence man by their example.

But beyond the special problems proposed in this work I hope to make clear the high importance of plastic art in the origin, development and diffusion of religion. For, we note it once for all, religion enters more easily into the heart of uncultured man through the eyes than through the ears, much more by means of plastic art than by written tradition or oral communication. If we ask a man of the people what he thinks of the immortality of the soul and of the world beyond the tomb, we always find that his ideas are vague and confused,

Introduction

if, indeed, he has any ; but if we ask what is the god whom he worships like, the answer will be clear and exact : it will be the description of the sacred image most familiar to him that on which his eyes have rested morning and night for years and years, that to which he has confessed his hopes and griefs, of whom he has asked help, and to whom he has promised rewards.

These are some aspects and those amongst the most notable in the history of religions which cannot be properly understood unless due attention is paid to plastic art. For instance, there has been much questioning as to how much of the doctrine of Greek philosophy has passed into the Christian religion, as to how far the Phcedo of Plato has contributed to give form and substance to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul ; there has been much discussion as to the Semitic and Grseco-Roman dualism represented in the earliest times of the Church by the figures of S. Peter and S. Paul, and it has been said that Christianity grew from being a Semitic sect to a world-wide religion only because S. Paul, a Roman citizen, was able to purge it of all those complicated and often repugnant practices which formed the basis of the Judaism of that time. But plastic art, which forms the true and essential element of separation between the Hebrew religion and the Christian religion at its first origin has not been brought into the field as an argument to give weight to the evidence of the influence of Grseco-Roman civilization.

Yet the first chapters of Christian art are a faithful mirror of the contrast between the two tendencies Semitism with its aversion to images and paganism with its need of them, a subject of strife which agitated the earliest communities. The primitive symbolism, the appearance of certain biblical scenes with an allegorical value only, and then the complete triumph of an actual figuring of biblical facts and of the life of Christ show the end of this struggle and the ultimate victory of the pagan tendency. This victory is due to the force of Grseco-

Introduction

Roman plastic art, for, though it is true that neither the Divinity nor the saints have taken the form and outward appearance of the gods and heroes of the Greek Olympus for the Semitic world and the Grseco-Roman world had nothing in common in their inherited ideas, and therefore nothing in common in the conception of their higher beings it is undeniable that from this struggle rose the spring of Christian art, and that this art owes its human and historic character to the religious art of the pagans. And in the history of the Christian religion there are other important facts from the struggle of the Iconoclasts to the Reformation which, openly or not, show the strong influence which plastic art has had upon her fate.

In the same way Buddhism, a religious conception which held in its doctrines elements in open discord with representation of figures by means of plastic art, has created this art for itself through contact with the Greek world, and the earliest monuments of Buddhism reveal in their tendency to symbolism that internal strife prevailed until the tendency to representation of figures obtained here also a complete victory. And if Buddhism has conquered the whole of Asia as Christianity conquered the whole of Europe, this is due to the fact that its missionaries, who took their way to Korea and China, as tradition tells us, set off armed not only with sacred books, but also with images and idols.

There is, then, a whole page in the history of the human soul which can be traced out on the basis of plastic art. And as form and scope are indivisible elements in a work of art and man only began to mould, carve, or trace forms after a fixed intention led him to do so, we shall find that, if beauty of form is the object aimed at by certain kinds of art during certain periods, the first and principal object of plastic art was the protection of man in life and in death, and that utility was aimed at before expression. No search need be made therefore for secondary causes, which up to a certain point consist of all the external conditions in the midst of which a work of art comes into being, but a

Introduction

search for the fundamental cause, the inspiration which came to it from its destined scope, and an inquiry into the profound difference with which religious inspiration has acted on different peoples in different periods, may explain how from the rude drawings and idols of uncivilized races man has attained to the creations of Phidias and of Michelangelo.

RELIGION AND ART

RELIGION, MAGIC AND PLASTIC ART

Art inspired by religion Magic Art an instrument of magic Suppression of the magic function in art.

the numerous theories as to the origin of art have one weak point in common, that is, they are speculations of philosophers rather than the deductive and inductive conclusions of the historians of art based upon an extensive comparison of monuments.

If, instead of formulating abstract theories, we take a comprehensive view of all the works of art that the spirit of man has produced from the dawn of civilization to the present day, in both uncultured and cultured communities and in the different strata of those communities, it will be found that there exists in every individual, and therefore in every people, either actively or in potentiality, the imitative faculty which may induce him in certain circumstances to reproduce in outline or substance natural objects or beings, that is, to produce drawings or statuary. But while the causes which may induce the creation of an image are as numerous as the needs of man, from ornament to a game, plastic art in the true sense of the word that is, a collection of monuments connected with each other by affinity of style, not only of one individual, but of a whole people, a collection of monuments which is

33 c

Religion and Art

the product of several generations is only found when plastic art has been inspired by religion.

All the art of the human race is essentially religious art: from the Chaldaean to the Egyptian, from the Mycenaean to the Greek, from the Assyrian to the pre-Buddhistic Chinese, from the Mexican to the Peruvian, there is no exception. Even that characteristic art of the prehistoric period, the art of the reindeer epoch, which appears concerned only with a naturalistic reproduction of animal life, has, as has been shown, a magical character,* that is, it has been used in the service of a religious conception. And if during the historic period two new great schools of art have arisen Buddhist art and Christian art they have arisen only through the inspiration of new religions.

Acknowledging this religious foundation in all systems of art, we must recognize that this art may also have produced non-religious works, which corresponded with other needs of man's intelligence than his religious - sentiment. But in the forms of art which seem to have been most affected by these non-religious needs, as with Greek art, the works which have absolutely no link, however slender, with religion constitute an absolute minimum.

Thus we find that some systems of art, such as Greek or Christian art after they had made progress, sought to humanize their religious works and bring them nearer to man in the reproduction of form and the expression of feeling. But when this religious inspiration was diminished the decadence of art set in. At the moment in which the human and the religious elements are in most exact equilibrium, so that the human element offers its most perfect terrestrial forms for the representation of the divinity, after a gradual process of improvement, from the features of the face to the limbs, from the limbs to the drapery, we have the culmination of art : in Greek art this period is from the fifth to the fourth century B.C.,

* S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, Paris, 1905, i. 125 ff. ; Orpheus, Paris, 1909, p. 162 f.

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

the period from Phidias to Praxiteles ; in Christian art it is in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, from the time of Giotto to that of Michelangelo. At the moment when the equilibrium was disturbed through the overpowering of the religious element by the human, so that earthly forms stifled the divine element beneath the show of skilful work, there persisted for a time a triumph of art in its formal aspect, when immense efforts were made to compensate by external accentuation for the lack of inspiration : in Greek art this is shown in the earliest Hellenistic creations, in Christian art by the works of the seventeenth century. But this last triumph is inexorably followed by decadence, for religious art, beyond an exaggerated representation of what is human, has before it only rigidity and death : the late Hellenism and the modern period have marked the end both of Greek art and of Christian art. With this period of decadence there may exist, or it may be followed by, a passion, which we may term senile, for the work of the primitives ; for an erudite and refined age is capable of being blind to clumsiness and awkwardness of form in its gasping admiration for that true inspiration which it is conscious of no longer possessing. But these phenomena of archaistic Greek art and of modern pre-Raphaelitism are the last sign that that art, as religious art, is dead for ever. It may follow with increased ardour the non-religious path of the historical painting, of genre, of landscape, or of portrait painting, it will probably seek for theological compensation in abstract personification and abstruse symbolism, but religious art it will never be again.

Art will then never arise and develop among men unless it has a foundation in religion. Art absolutely profane in origin, art born to satisfy the aesthetic taste of the spectator, art which seeks for expressiveness rather than for the material utility of its products, even if this be a spiritual utility, is inconceivable in human history and has absolutely never existed.

Religion and Art

If there have been peoples who, for whatever reason, have never possessed religious art as, for example, the Hebrew nation, who were forbidden to make representations of the Deitythese peoples have possessed absolutely no plastic art. And when a people like the Phoenicians, who had no religious art of their own, wanted for economic reasons to produce art for the purposes of commerce on the shores of the Mediterranean, they were unable to create such an art for themselves, so raked up a mixed collection of subjects from the art of their neighbours, Egyptian, Mycenaean, or Assyrian. In Persia, too, where the less severe rule of Islam permitted the use of images, art became a tributary to Buddhist art, either by the direct road from India or by the return road from China.

If, however, plastic art forms an important part of civilization, the sublimity of a religion cannot be measured by the ^ plastic art to which it gave life. There are some religions, | such as that of Egypt, which, while possessing only slight j moral value, have produced, as it were, an orgy of art ; and * others, such as the Hebrew religion, which possess a high moral standard, have closed the way to any plastic representation whatever. We shall see presently that an excess of art production may indicate a somewhat materialistic conception of religion, and that the forbidding of any image may be an indication of spirituality. It is true also that there were nations such as the Roman (Plut, Numa, 8), the Celtic, the Germanic (Tac., Germ., 9), who rose to a high level of civilization yet were still without any form of religious art,* and obtained it only through the inspiration of another art and another religion.

Having acknowledged religion as the chief inspiration of plastic art so long as the latter is not simply the external element necessary to every religion, we must see in what

* S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, i. 146 f. ; Orpheus, pp. 147, 165 f., 192 ff.

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

manner their relation arises and is established. How can religion induce a man to reproduce by line or solid things or beings ? To understand this we must take into consideration the feelings and ideas aroused in man by contact with the phenomena of nature. Uncivilized man sees himself surrounded by useful or harmful animals who move, eat, and sleep like himself, and to which he must therefore attribute a life and soul such as he feels in himself. Further, he sees himself surrounded by natural phenomena, the course of the sun, lunar rotations, thunder, wind, or rain, which he does not explain to himself, but which, as they apparently consist in motion similar to that which characterizes animal life, are regarded by him as things having life and spirit. Uncultured man is thus brought to an animistic conception of the universe, and is inclined to attribute a spirit even to the objects which are not endued with motion to everything, in fact, which surrounds him, so long as it presents itself to him with the characteristic of individuality.

But at the same time man forms a theistic conception, through which he considers things, beings, the phenomena of nature, not as endued with a spirit and will of their own, but as guided and dominated by higher beings. These beings are imagined as possessing human or animal form, or else they have floated in the fancy of the believer in a vague extra-human or superhuman appearance. And from an elementary polytheism the human mind has, by various stages, risen to a monotheistic idea that is, the idea of one single omnipotent being holding complete dominion over the universe.

At whichever of these conceptions a people may have arrived, common to them all is the desire to explain the reason of the capacity for action of objects or beings. And as man measures the worth of all that surrounds him by the benefit or the harm which he receives therefrom, there has naturally arisen in his mind, with the animistic or theistic idea, the idea

Religion and Art

of assuring to himself the dominion over all these wills which populate the universe. In the animistic conception he considers the things, phenomena, or beings which surround him as so many separate wills ; he has seen the necessity of bending to his own benefit the beneficent wills and of neutralizing the evil wills that is, he has proposed to himself to exercise upon these wills his own will for attraction or repulsion, in fact, to perform direct magic. In the theistic conception, on the other hand, knowing that he cannot directly impose his own will, because the dominion of the universe is in the hands of higher beings, he seeks to exercise upon these higher beings the magical attraction which he is conscious of not being able to use directly over nature. It is impossible to imagine the Divinity without thinking of His power of action, and therefore of a human action intended to guide the action of the Divinity. Man rises to the conception of God because he feels the need for His power ; he creates for himself a religion that is, a cult and rites because he wants to set that power in action.

And the means of action in every religion, even in those which seem the most elevated, is magic ; it may be a spiritual magic instead of material, a magic which instead of constraining implores, but it is always a case of an individual bending to his own advantage all that is beneficial in his surroundings and hindering all that may injure him. The uncultured people that performs magic functions to make the rain fall or to keep oft some misfortune, and the cultured people that prays to the Deity with a similar object, perform work not greatly differing in quality: though the one acts directly, the other indirectly; the one constrains, the other causes to constrain ; one thinks he is strong, the other knows he is weak ; the one commands and the other implores.

It is very true, too, that even in the theistic conception the invocation is often in reality a masked command, and it is not uncommon at the present day to see uncultured people of the lower orders pass from prayer to threat, and

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

even to violence against a sacred image, when the latter seems tardy in granting the request made. Similarly, when modern magicians exercise their art in the midst of a society of advanced culture, they often do not perform their magic functions directly upon beings and things, but under the influence of the theistic idea they turn to the spirits on whom those beings or things depend, and, for the most part, flatter and invoke rather than constrain them ; that is, they work in the same way as the official religion, though upon spirits not recognized by the latter but usurping its authority.

Magic, therefore (on this point I depart from the prevailing opinion), is not in itself a conception of the universe which has preceded the religious conception * or a means of action necessary only in the animistic stage, t but is the means used in every religious conception to induce nature, or the beings which preside over nature, to fulfil those actions of which man has need. Only it assumes different forms and degrees according to whether it is used in the service of an animistic conception or of a theistic conception. In the first case it is constrained to multiply itself in continuous functions : every object, phenomenon, or being in nature representing an inimical force to be overcome or a friendly force to be attracted, the magic power expends its energy in a thousand battles ; in the second case, on the contrary, it has only to ingratiate itself with certain good spirits and defend itself against certain evil spirits, and can therefore concentrate its force in a more restricted and more intense struggle. But in the one and in the other case it is a question of fighting fighting to attract and to repel.

Thus magic at the origin forms the fulcrum of every religion, and remains latent as a sediment in the minds of the less cultured believers even in the highest forms of religion. It is,

* J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (third edition), London, 1911, i. 233 ff.

t S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, ii. xv ; Orpheus, p. 32 f .

Religion and Art

in fact, preserved, under the form of invocation, among the means made use of in every religion. Even when man has risen to the conception of a perfectly good and just God, whose conduct will therefore not be subject to the will of man, prayer, that request for help which might seem irreverent when addressed to one who has no need for such appeal, shows its magical character and its primeval origin the persuasion inherent in the mind of man that the higher beings on whom he depends will not work unless he induces them to action.

The religious idea, then, is but a utilitarian conception of the universe, and magic embraces the whole of the wide field of the means by which useful benefits may be atArt an in- tained. These means are countless : from the simple Magic. thought to the expressed word, from the mimetic movements of one's own body to actions done upon others, all may be, if the intention - is present, instruments of magic. Man who wishes ill to his enemy can wish him ill by merely thinking it, or can express the wish in an imprecation ; he can reproduce by a mimetic action of his own person, or can carry out upon objects or other beings, ceremonies which tend to the same end, for the indispensable element in a magical function is the will to succeed in the intent.

But plastic art by its very character, by its capacity for reproducing in its formal aspect all that exists in nature, offers, more than any other field of intellectual activity, prime material for the practice of magic.

If under an animistic conception one would bring good or harm on some person, magic would be able to compass this intent if possession were obtained of a small portion of his body, such as hair, nails, or teeth, or of his clothing, and an incantation by action or speech were performed over this. But success in such a case would be still more to be relied on if the incantation could be performed not only on these small particles but upon a figure which should contain them, and should nearly resemble

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

the person in question. The figure is all the more necessary when the personal elements are not there, and then the resemblance of this image to the individual to be benefited or harmed is the only guarantee that the magic spell will be successful. Numerous examples of these elementary figures produced for magical purposes are found among modern peoples of low culture,* but evident traces are met with also in the life of ancient civilized nations, and remarkable instances are known in the lowest strata of modern communities. The comic satire of Horace (I, viii) relates how a Priapus by a nasty joke put to flight Canidia and Sagana, who were performing incantations by means of two figures of wool and wax. Priapus had certainly not much reason to laugh at the two old witches, for he had been placed in the field for a magical purpose that of frightening away thieves ! And who does not know that similar practices are daily carried on by credulous persons with similar figures to bring harm on an enemy or to obtain the love of an indifferent person ? Dante immortalized the witches of this type in the Inferno (xx, 121, ss.)

"Vedi le triste che lasciaron T ago, La spola e il fuso, e fecersi indovine ; Fecer malie con erbe e con imago."

And in the animistic conception, as in every other religious system, not only the needs of life are the subject of magic practices in connection with plastic art, but also those of death. To supply the spirit of the dead with the things he may need in the life beyond, as he had needed them in this life, was most easily managed by working magic upon figures representing in material form the object of these needs.

In the work of plastic art intended to serve for magical use under an animistic conception both for the needs of life and the needs of death we must point out two chief characteristics.

* J. G. Frazer, op. cit., i. 55 ff. 41

Religion and Art

One is their utilitarianism. The work was not created from a desire to reproduce the surrounding world with an aesthetic intention, but solely for use. It is a different kind of usefulness from that served by the same persons when they made an arrow-point or spearhead ; it was a spiritual kind of utility, but it appeared to them not less necessary than the material utility of the weapons. If, in fact, they believed that by magic practices carried out by means of figures they could obtain good hunting or good fishing, or could overcome their private adversary or public enemy, these figures would seem to them not less useful than the weapons they would use in the real act.

The second important characteristic of the work of art made with magical intent is its temporariness. It is not created to recall a past deed, but to act in the present and the future. Human life, in fact, in all its branches rises and takes its way occupied by the thought of making safe the present and the future ; only when this side of the horizon is seen to be safe does it turn to contemplate the past or compose its history.

Even under a theistic conception, magic makes use of plastic art. When man for his own benefit proposes to perform magical practices upon the higher beings who hold dominion over nature, plastic art comes largely to his assistance.

If there are higher beings or a higher being capable of regulating all the things in the universe, it is necessary to obtain their image in order to exercise more nearly upon them, by invocations and prayers or other functions, that masked violence which may induce them to turn to the benefit of the supplicant all that over which he holds sway. Here, then, is the origin of the idol, of the image, whether it be the small image which every one possesses for himself or a single image which protects the whole community.

The object of the making of an idol is not to be able to contemplate its features but to assure oneself of its protection. Some, indeed, may turn to the idol to thank it for benefits

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

received in the past, but it is kept with jealous care and honoured chiefly for what it can give now and in the future.

But besides these images another wide field of plastic art is displayed in religion. As under an animistic conception magical functions are performed by man upon objects, animals, or beings of the universe by means of their images, it is necessary under a theistic conception to dedicate to the divinity these figures, that they may be substituted for man in these functions. And from this arises that artistic production which we term the ex voto. The believer places in effigy under the direct action of the god those things and those beings which need his protection. He can dedicate his image if he requires this protection in a wide sense, or he can dedicate an image of a part of his person if it is diseased and he wishes it to be cured by the god, or in the same way he can dedicate images of the animals from whom he derives sustenance and for whom he desires protection and increase. By the dedication of these images he is sure of magically influencing the divinity so that the latter in his turn will act upon the real beings with compelling power. And if he wishes to ensure the unrestricted protection of the divinity for himself, for his family, and for his property, he has only to dedicate an image of the god himself, since this image will be at all times at his service exclusively. This is the point at which the image and ex voto meet, for the ex voto assumes the functions of the image.

Essentially characteristic of these products of plastic art is their utility and their destination to a present or future action. They appear, in fact, to be a necessary element for inducing the god to exercise his beneficial action : they are, as it were, a security for this action of the deity.

It is nevertheless true that besides the ex voto by means of which something is asked of the deity for the future, there is also something which is done as thanks for a past favour. But we must distinguish between the two cases : either the figure

Religion and Art

dedicated by vow is the payment of a debt contracted mentally or verbally, and which was to be paid only after the favour had been obtained, or it is a gift which without previous promise is offered out of gratitude. In these two cases it seems as if the ex voto tends to lose its character of future destination to make room for a past element recollection. But this is only apparent. As in the first case it mattered little whether the debt were paid at the moment of the vow or after the benefit was received, if the dedicator, possibly lacking confidence even in the gods, substituted for the confident formula : " I give, that thou mayest give," the doubtful form : " I will give when thou hast given " ; the fact is that the divinity has been asked for his protection in the future. For the second case, that of the spontaneous votive gift, it must be allowed that the wish to record the past protection of the gods enters into the matter, but in substance the dedicators wish to ensure this protection for themselves for the future as well as the past. They know that if they had forgotten to make the gift they would have incurred the anger of the gods, so it did not signify if the vow were formulated : the ex voto is owed when once the gods have given their help. This ex voto is also essentially protective.

But if man could allow himself to be suspicious as to the beneficial power of the gods in what he expected from them during his life, and sometimes only paid his debt after the work was done, he had to have full confidence in their power in all connected with the destiny of man after death. There he had no control.

Under the theistic conception, when a man had once placed his whole life beneath the protection of the deity there was all the more reason to expect that this protection would be extended beyond this life, and in death when direct action was no longer possible. If the dead man needed to eat, drink, sleep, or move, and to do all this for a length of time which may be regarded as interminable, the deity only could help him.

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

In fact, it might be easy for the survivors to procure those natural things which he needed once or sometimes, but to provide for an infinite period was possible only to the omnipotence of the gods. But the work could be made easier to the gods, art could be brought in to help, by placing near the dead man the image of that which he needed, offering to the deity the means of transforming into the reality that which was only represented by an image. The gods in this case are asked to perform a magical action. And the field of this funerary art was not limited to the most urgent, material needs of the dead man, but was extended to the more or less complicated fate which destiny assigned to him in the other world : plastic representations might help him on his journey and bring him happiness in the world beyond. It is not possible in every case of funerary art to say how far the survivors who dedicated these images relied on the direct magic force of the images, and how far they considered the intervention of the gods necessary to explain this magic force : probably it was not clear even to the dedicators themselves. But what they doubtless did believe was that once these images were offered they would for ever supply the wants of the dead man.

If we consider as a whole all this religious art it will be seen that it rests on one single principle, that of imitative magic. Man believes that things which are outwardly similar are equally alike in internal construction and power of action. It is an art which originated in a mental illusion and from an erroneous application of the laws of causality.

Utility and future destiny are the essential characteristics found in the art which came into being for magical purposes in the service of animistic or of theistic religion, either in the field of art intended Junction in for the protection of the individual in life or

1 in that intended for his protection in death. What gods

1 45

Religion and Art

and men did in the past does not affect this form of art. And some forms have stopped at this stage great systems of art like that of Egypt, whose monuments are counted by tens of thousands.

But an art arose which turned its face from the future to the past, and instead of works of utility rather created works of beauty, which were to be preserved by time for the joy of all an art which cast off the magic cloak which weighed it down and found interest, not in that which the gods promised to men in the future, but in that which they had done in the past ; which cared not for the future of men beyond this earth, but for the actions done by them in life, and therefore shows different content from all earlier forms of art. This was Greek art. Two other forms of art, the Buddhist and the Christian, inherited what Greek art had attained to, and have in many cases carried its principles even further.

By first considering systematically the art of uncultured peoples, ancient and modern, and then following in historical sequence the variations of art among the Egyptians, ChaldaeoAssyrians, Mycenseans, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, Buddhists, and Christians, we shall understand the gradual evolution which has reduced and cancelled the magical character of art. We shall omit the religions and art of Peru and Mexico, because they have been arrested at the magical stage, and though they may have reached great perfection of form, their ideas remain those of an uncultured people. On the other hand, by studying the history of the religion and art of the three civilized continents of the ancient world, where they are in direct contact with the Mediterranean, we shall see how human society advanced beyond these ideas.

We must not, however, forget that different degrees oJ culture are found in different strata of the same society and that the people of the lower strata have often the same needs and ideas as the people whom we tern

Religion, Magic and Plastic Art

uncivilized. We shall therefore see that while the higher grades of society gradually discard the magical characteristics of art, the lower classes remain tenaciously attached to them, and thus preserve contemporaneous testimony of events which have happened successively. While Greek art, for example, in the fifth century had created for the divinity a glittering aureole of myth, the peasants still put up their votive tablets in the popular sanctuaries dedicated to the deities of health and prosperity, to ensure the future protection of the god. While in the fourth and third centuries skilled Greek artists came to decorate the temples of Etruria with terra cotta statues representing mythical subjects, more humble artists continued to produce for the crowd roughly made images of parts of the human body that the gods might be induced to cure the real ones. And during the whole period of the development of Christian art, while sculptors and painters with most perfect mastery of form perpetuated pious legends, the faithful believers paid their most devout worship to the rough images held by tradition to be miraculous, because to these images was attributed a magic power which the others did not possess. Art interests the people not by its beauty but by its utility, and it is natural that this should be, for when a religious image is admired for the perfection of its form, religion is absent or is only an accessory.

There are, in fact, two rocks between which flows the stream of religious art. One where the image of the divinity is honoured for its magic power, capable of exercising a compelling force over nature, and therefore identified with the divinity himself; the other where the image of the divinity is admired for its beauty, and is therefore regarded as a purely human creation that can in no sense be an intermediary between God and man. The lower classes of society strike on the first rock the higher classes on the second, as we may still see daily.

It is easy to understand that a people that has reached

Religion and Art

a spiritual conception of the divinity would see how its artistic representation, and in general any application of plastic art to religion, would tend to materialize it either in a magical or aesthetic sense, and would therefore forbid the use of any image or would allow the representation of the deity by symbols only. We shall see in the history of Mediterranean civilization that this tendency is represented especially by the Semitic race, that it characterized the art of the Chaldeans and Assyrians, that it deprived the Hebrews and Mahomedans of any plastic art whatever, that it directed the course of primitive Christian art, suggesting certain symbolical forms, that it supplied the spark to the fury of the Iconoclasts and had no small share in the Reformation.

When we consider that from its original magical function art has advanced to the creation of a Greek statue or a Christian painting, turbid though the springs of art may seem, we must admire the victory of the human spirit over fear and ignorance as shown in the effacement of the magical character of religious images and the establishment of their purely aesthetic value.

ART OF UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES

Animism and theism Totemism Magic art Form in magic art Magic character of literature, music and dancing Lack of historic sense in uncivilized peoples.

THE religious ideas of modern uncivilized peoples certainly appear to reflect the ideas which primitive men must have had of the phenomena of the universe. But these ideas have changed with time, and in many cases may have j m and followed a different path from that of the dispensations of civilized nations that is, they may have experienced involution instead of evolution, may have stopped and turned back instead of going forward.

Whether, at the moment when the human race turned its attention to the problem of the universe, all its groups held the same animistic or theistic idea that is, whether they believed that everything had a soul of its own and independent power of action, or that all things were put in motion by a superior being or beings outside them, we cannot now say, nor can we decide when that moment was. The two conceptions probably arose contemporaneously in the case of different things and beings in the minds of men, and then the different human groups, influenced by the different material and spiritual conditions in which they had to live, favoured one or other idea till it became predominant.

It is natural that these two ideas should have presented themselves to mankind at the same time, for if the animistic idea

49 D

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appears spontaneously in the case of all living beings and of some natural phenomena connected with motion, the theistic idea that of the intervention of a superior being or beings presents itself with equal probability in the case of other phenomena and of inanimate objects which are put in action only at certain times and in certain conditions. And if the external appearance of the phenomena made the animistic theory seem more probable, the theistic idea was suggested to man by the examination of his own life, the dissection of his own animism. He must have perceived that some of his actions, and above all, dreams and death, were independent of his will and must therefore be determined by outside forces. In some cases he would recognize these forces in beings and objects of surrounding nature, and would therefore fall back upon the animistic theory ; in other cases he may have been unable to identify these forces with natural beings and things, and he would therefore be inclined to the theistic idea.

We may add that the animistic idea itself being based on dualism tends to a kind of theism. If we attribute a soul that is, something individual and separable to all beings and things that surround us, the idea rises spontaneously that this soul may on occasion leave the being or thing in which it dwells. The appearance in a dream of persons living at a distance may be considered a proof of this. And this separation must have seemed necessary on the death of these beings. Then among all these spirits who populate the universe primitive man is led to imagine the same relation of subjection and dominion that exists between real beings, and when one of these spirits is recognized as possessing a superior force or authority by which he can constrain others to submit to his will, we are already on the way to theism. Indeed, one of the paths which led us to the theistic idea must have been the cult of the dead and the worship of ancestors, to whom the same authority was attributed in the after-life as they had possessed in their life on earth.

This contemporaneous origin of the two theories, the

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

animistic and the theistic, seems proved by the fact that there is no human race entirely dominated by one idea. It is a question of measuring the proportion in which one idea or the other prevails in the different social strata, but there is no uncivilized race which in its general animism does not in some small degree hold the theistic idea, if only in the cult of the heroic or deified dead, arid there is no cultured people, even of those who have risen to the heights of monotheism, which does not retain some remnant of animism.

In any case, if the two ideas appeared contemporaneously, the prevalence of animism marks a low grade of civilization, while that of theism indicates advance to a higher form of culture. As, in fact, man judges of the value of things and beings by the good or ill which he receives from them, he will under an animistic dispensation feel himself at the mercy of a number of forces working separately against him, and therefore that he is feeble before so many adversaries. Under a theistic dispensation, on the contrary, he knows that all things are in subjection to a superior being or beings, and that to live in safety he has only to gain the favour of these beings, for when he has obtained this he can feel himself master of the universe.

Theism in comparison with animism represents a smaller expenditure of human energy, and as this energy can be turned to other conquests over nature, it is easy to understand why theistic races possess the higher civilization.

Now what are the consequences of a specially animistic dispensation? As man perceives that some beings and things bring him advantage and that others bring him harm, it becomes necessary to favour the work of the former and hinder that of the others. It would seem as if the result would be the preservation of the one part and the destruction of the other. But man often has not the means of destroying what has brought him harm, and so he can only ingratiate himself with it, and protect that which is harmful in the hope that in its turn it will give him protection. Man thus estab-

Religion and Art

lishes relations with things and beings around him relations which are understood to be accepted by the other side as fatas these are spirits. Afterwards man can more or less disregard or consider superfluous some of these relations and keep to those from which he expects greater benefit or fears greater harm.

This is the stage represented in animism by the so-called " Totemism." * Totemism is a relation for reciprocal protection established by a group of men, a clan, between its members and the animals of a determined species, or a genus of plants, or a particular order of natural phenomena. This human group protects the "totem," and in its turn expects protection from it. We must note also that the form of totemism which we find now among uncivilized peoples is, like all those forms of religion which have not had the force to progress, a backward and conventionalized form of totemism. The protective function is no longer in evidence when the totem, as frequently happens, has become a part of an animal or plant from which man can expect neither benefit nor injury. Through the subdivision of a tribe, or for other reasons not evident to us, there has been, in place of the protecting and protected animal, a substitution with symbolical significance of a part of this animal, and once this symbolic value in totemism has been established, other clans may have chosen as their totem other things or parts of beings whose protective capacity seems to us no less doubtful. The members of the clan, then, see in the totem the visible sign of a hidden protective force which will have power in all the vicissitudes of life, not a single protective relation between the totem and themselves. The totem then becomes in reality a " mark," a " sign," and agrees in substance with the meaning of the word, which is taken from the language of a North American tribe.

This form of totemism, which as totemism has been involved and conventionalized, marks, on the other hand, a movement towards theism, since it recognizes the existence of a protecting * S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes et Religions, i. 9 ff. 52

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

force which acts upon the universe and has in the totem a symbolic sign only, the totem having lost its individuality. But if totemism, as it now appears among uncivilized peoples, is a transformation, however slowly effected, of the original totemism, with a tendency to attribute theistic value to the force represented by the totem, totemism must have been originally one of the many forms assumed by animism.

It is therefore a mistake to try to reduce all religions, even those which have gone through the highest form of evolution, to the least common denominator of totemism, and to try to discover traces of totemism in every religion in which theriomorphic deities or anthropomorphic divinities with sacred animals are found. A form of evolution by which the animal totem animals supply the greater number of the totemsshould become the theriomorphic divinity, and from the theriomorphic divinity pass to the anthropomorphic divinity with a sacred animal, may be found among certain races, but the attempt to find it everywhere would entail a somewhat ingenuous interpretation of the laws of evolution. In fact, once it is recognized that the animistic and the theistic conceptions arose spontaneously in the human mind, and that only for reasons peculiar to each group of men has the one or other idea prevailed among them, it is possible that with totem animals there may have arisen contemporaneously theriomorphic and anthropomorphic gods, and that only for particular causes the one or the other may have gained predominant influence.

What is, however, common to all these three forms of religion is that man attributes to his totem (whether animal, plant, object, or phenomenon), to the theriomorphic and to the anthropomorphic deity the power of doing good or harm and of using this power for his benefit or injury. Hence the necessity of directing this beneficent or maleficent action, of imposing upon the totem upon the theriomorphic or anthropomorphic deity one's own will, to work magic upon them.

Religion and Art

This compulsion may be exercised by any of the means possessed by man, but one of the most efficacious means is that of the material image. Since man cannot work a magic spell directly upon the totem or divinity, he works it upon its image as far as he can identify it with an image.

We find, therefore, amongst the various uncivilized peoples examples of totem,* of theriomorphic divinity, of anthropomorphic divinity. And we cannot say that the most advanced stage necessarily implies the existence of the preceding stages, or that to arrive at the god-man it was necessary to pass through the stages of the totem and of the god with animal features.

The common characteristic of all these figures is their protective or utilitarian power. They were made in order that upon them the magic spell could be worked, and that this could be done both now and in the future : they are therefore figures without a past and gifted only for the future.

But man can not only work his will upon the totem and upon the protecting god ; he can work it upon every thing and every being whose evil influence he wishes to neutralize or whose good actions he wishes to turn to his own advantage.

Above all, he requires to provide food for himself, and this in a low state of civilization is furnished by hunting and fishing. Man knows from experience that game is not always equally abundant : hence the necessity of using magic to ensure a plentiful supply of food.t He can, under the animistic theory, act directly upon the animals, attracting them to himself, or he can, under a theistic dispensation, act upon the god or gods to whom the animals are in subjection, to induce him to send them to him. Some peoples therefore draw figures of fish upon the sand of the shore, or carve figures of wild animals upon the trunks of trees in the place where they are going to hunt, while others take with them into the field images of the gods

* E. Grosse, Die Anfange der Kunst, Freiburg-Leipzig, 1894, p. 132 ff . t J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, i. 108 ff.

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

of hunting or fishing, to induce them at an opportune moment to send them a good supply.

When he has provided himself with food man has many other battles with nature. Innumerable ills of body and mind may affect him, and here also art offers the means for effecting a cure. Under the animistic theory the patient is acted upon directly ; under the theistic dispensation indirectly through the gods. Thus among some peoples figures are made to represent sick people, and curative treatment is applied to the figures that the treatment may through sympathy react upon the real patient. Others seek to strike or placate the evil spirits who cause illnesses by acting upon their images, or help the sick folk by obtaining for them by means of images the protection of the gods or generally of the good spirits who put evil to flight.

The magical practices in which the use of images is a necessary element in the cure of disease are many and various. Shamanism, that form of medical treatment based on magic which is met with among many uncivilized peoples, and was, at the beginning of civilization, the mother of modern medicine, makes great use of images and the recipes of the witch-doctors these shamans are often not prescriptions of purgatives or other decoctions, but of figures to be carved or drawn for the use of the patient. From the woman who is pregnant or in labour * and the new-born child who cries too loudly, through all the varieties of disease, slight or serious, which affect humanity, even to epilepsy or madness, plastic art may be called on for help.

Finally, man has not only to provide for his own needs and to keep off illness ; he has also enemies to overcome. And whether these are enemies common to the whole nation or private enemies, art is ready to help him.t Under animistic ideas he will inflict on the image of his enemy all that he would like to inflict on the real person: he will stab it, burn * J. G. Frazer, op. cit., I, 70 ff. t Ibid., op. cit., I, 55 ff.

Religion and Art

it, cut it in pieces. Under a theistic dispensation the same result will be obtained by praying for it to the images of the god or gods: these images will thus facilitate the destruction of the enemy.

Besides those mentioned there are innumerable occasions in life in which savage man recurs to magic spells to ensure some benefit to himself or harm to others, and these magical practices are based on the productions of art. One of the most singular of these productions is the mask indispensable in religious dances, the use of which extends from America to Oceania, from Asia to Africa. And in all these productions we find the essential characteristics of magic art utility and a future destination.

But beyond the needs of life man makes use of art also at the time of death. The ideas of man as to death are extraordinarily various, but there is no people who had or has the idea that death is a complete destruction of existence. For all men, in one way or another, the individual survives his death. If there were no other reason which led to this idea of survival the phenomenon of dreams, in which the dead appear as in their actual form, would be reason enough to induce men to believe that life in some form is continued after death. Not all people have developed this idea in the same way ; all have not given the same weight to this survival ; all men have not believed in a continuous future life, but for all men death is not the absolute end of life.

Now relations, friends and enemies must all pay their tribute to death. The relation in which they stood to one another on earth is continued after death : friends and relations will confer benefits, enemies will work harm. It is necessary to facilitate the action of the former and to impede the action of the latter.

But above all, as the same relations continue after death, the dead have the same needs as in life. The dead must eat, drink, and sleep, and the survivors must help them in this, as in their turn they will hope or expect the same help from

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

those who survive them. Here is a wide field for art; it becomes a substitute for reality. Various ideas are naturally reflected by art in different ways, but whether one wishes to ensure a supply of food for the dead man, to provide for his journey to a distant world and a safe position in that world, or if one desires the help of the dead friend or relation to impede the action of a dead enemy, in every case art can provide a useful image. And under animistic ideas these images will be used directly, but under theistic ideas recourse will be had to an image of the gods to whose protection the abode of the dead will be confided. The two essential characteristics of art, utility and a future destination, appear more clearly here in connection with the needs of the dead than in any art product connected with the needs of life.

Such is the picture which, with the help of details from the life of modern savages, we can draw of the origin of plastic art. These same peoples will probably have used figures in some cases for purposes apparently not connected with religion perhaps for decorative purposes but when these productions are examined it will be seen that this non-related art forms only the smallest part of their artistic production, or that, if apparently unconnected with religion, it is united by slender and invisible bonds to the religious idea.*

The art of purely geometric ornamentation too owes its existence chiefly to religion. The decorative patterns which savages tattoo or paint upon their bodies for religious ceremonies are an example of this. And there have been nations like the Chinese who, while possessing an advanced form of art, have preserved in the decoration of their ceremonial vases the ancient geometrical designs, because to these designs a certain degree of sanctity was attributed.

If such is the origin of plastic art amongst modern uncivilized peoples, the same may be presumed in the case of the uncivilized peoples of antiquity. But the material of this art is mostly * Compare E. Grosse, op. cit., p. 191 ff. 57

Religion and Art

destructible : wood, straw, hide, or woven stuffs. Therefore a whole page of prehistoric art may have been effaced by time. Only when a prehistoric people made use of a durable material such as bone, stone, or clay has their art been preserved. We have an example of art of the reindeer period. 1 * On the bones and horns of this animal we find engraved, or carved in relief or in the round, figures of the mammoth, bison, horse, stag, reindeer, and fish (Figs. 1-6). All these figures except the fish are found in large numbers painted on the walls of caves which were inhabited during the same period (Figs. 7-10). The naturalism of these figures at first gave the impression that this people had a passion for the art of figure drawing, an aesthetic exigency somewhat surprising in so low a state of civilization. But these figures are now more correctly considered as a production of magic art. In fact, while the human figure is extremely rare, a circumstance difficult to account for if this people only practised art through a passion for form, the figures represented are chiefly those of useful animals those animals which supplied the necessities of life to the people, who probably hoped to increase their number in reality by multiplying their images on the implements they used and on the walls of their dwelling. This same custom is found among modern hunting and fishing tribes of low civilization.

That this elementary magic art marks the origin of figured art may be proved by analogous examples in the customs of the lowest strata of modern civilized communities. The people of these strata preserve, as a sediment, primitive ideas and customs. And thus while the higher classes enjoy the most refined forms of art, the lower classes commonly use images which are employed in witchcraft and magical practices. It is no longer a question of finding food by hunting and fishing, for the conditions of life are changed, and the necessities of

* E. Piette, UArt pendant TAge du Renne, Paris, 1907 ; E. Cartailhac et U. Breuil, Pemtures et Gravures murales des Cavernes paleolithiques, Monaco, 1906.

FIG. i. MAMMOTH.

From Bruniquel. (British Museum.) (Piclte, pi. 5. n. i.)

FIG. 2. WILD GOAT.

From the Cave of Mas-d'Azil. (Coll. Piette.)(Piette, pi. 50.)

Fic;. 3. HOKSK.

From the Cave of Espelugues, near Lourdcs. (Coll. Xelli.) (Piette, pi. 12.)

FIG. 4. HEADS OF STAG AND CHAMOIS.

From the Cave of Gourdan. (Coll. Piette.) (Piette, pi. 84.) [Sec page 58.]

To face p. 5.

FIG. 5. DEER.

From the Cave of Mas-d'Azil. (Coll. Ladeveze.) (Piette, pi. 57-)

FIG. 6. REINDEER AND SALMON.

From the Cave of Lorthet. (Coll. Piette.)

(Piette, pi. 40, n. 4.)

[See page 58.]

^Art of Uncivilized Peoples

life are obtained in a different manner, but the people have recourse to magic in many other circumstances of life: for love unreciprocated, for difficult pregnancy, for an incurable illness, or to satisfy an implacable hatred, the lower classes turn to magic, and this magic is often based on plastic art. The examples found here scarcely differ from those of uncivilized man. Distance of space and time signifies little when men guided by the same idea turn to the same practices.

If we study the artistic attempts of children we find proof of the existence of the magic element in primitive art. It is generally said that a child draws or models whatever most strikes his fancy; I should say that he draws or models what most excites his desires. When the art of children is spontaneous, when it is not limited to copying from a model, it often is an expression of desire is in fact magic art. Not that the child imagines that the figures which he produces can actually be transformed into the reality, but he persistently reproduces those figures which represent for him the reality most to be desired. Every man can refer to personal experiences of this kind, but a glance at the drawings of the children on all sides of us will detect the strength of this element of desire. It not only causes the little artists to prefer certain figures to certain others, but is responsible for the exaggerated proportions of certain parts of these figures. This explains why the figure of a soldier is one of the favourite subjects of a small boy, while that of a lady in full dress is preferred by his little sister ; and also why in the former figure the sword and plume are exaggerated out of all proportion, while the buttons and the pipe are not forgotten, and why in the second figure the feathers in the hat are exaggerated and the fan and parasol not forgotten.

And the element of magic, of desire, is displayed not only in the art which the child himself produces, but also in his preference for certain playthings, that is, in the relation which he establishes with the productions of art which are supplied

Religion and Art

to him in a completed state. Every one has noticed that children do not like mechanical toys toys in which figures perform a certain action and that action only. After they have amused themselves with this kind of toy a few times, they leave it to return to an old broken toy, or an old and immovable doll. Why is this ? Because toys are for a child what idols or votive figures are for an uncivilized people creatures subject to his will, creatures upon whom he wishes continually to exercise that will. Now, the mechanical toy does not leave the child free to exercise this magic power. Instead of being the master he is the slave of his toy, because the action of this toy is fixed and limited by its mechanism. And as the child wishes to command and not to obey, he soon frees himself from his tyrant. Let us ask, on the other hand, what a network of relations a small child is capable of extending between her doll and herself and the things and creatures by which they are surrounded. We think that the child is playing with her doll, but in reality she is making up a whole imaginary life and subjecting the doll to a continuous exercise of magic, consisting of obedience and resistance, of orders, prohibitions, and rewards.

And the fact that girls remain longer attached to the magic conception in their play, while boys give up their toys early to find their pleasure in the free exercise of their physical powers, not only marks the earliest detachment between the masculine and feminine minds, which becomes more and more distinct during the conquest of life, but is in perfect accordance with the different position occupied by men and women in all ages, both in religion and in relation to all the sentiments connected with the religious conception. Man denies and rebels, woman is conservative and submits* The former more easily breaks through the bonds of magic.

This elementary magic art, which we have compared with the art of the lowest stratum of modern society and with the art of children, may be presented under different aspects among

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

different peoples, just as it may display greater or less talent in the treatment of form. It may be naturalistic, or so geometric as to be unrecognizable, but the original idea determines its kind. As the figures are made only for a useful purpose, their value is recognized only by the efficacy of their action, not by the greater or less perfection of their appearance; there is no inclination to the careful study of form or attempt at approaching nature more nearly. Even when this form of art, as in the case of the productions of the reindeer period or the more modern creations of the Bushman, seems naturalistic, it is an instinctive, impressionist naturalism, determined perhaps by a special faculty of observation inherent in the people, possibly sharpened by daily contact with the animals on whom their life depends, not a progressive naturalism reached by voluntary study of nature with an artistic intention, as is the naturalism of the Hellenistic period in Greek art or the naturalism of modern art. Now, as in magic art the figure is only valued for its utility and not for its greater or less resemblance to nature, it follows that this art instinctively closes the way to gradual improvement: and as it was practised a thousand years ago, so it is still practised by the same people.

Let us add to this that magic art remains on the whole an individual art, that is, its productions are intended for single individuals. It creates separately, does not establish a tradition. Each artist recommences his work on his own account, and necessarily produces rough and primitive forms. He has too great a struggle with the first difficulties of any reproduction of figures to give time to an accurate treatment of form.

Also, when a tradition has been established in this art the results are the same. If the tradition has been established it is because of the persuasion that the images used by an ancestor are the most efficacious in obtaining the desired results. It is one of the canons of magic that to obtain good results

Religion and Art

it is necessary to keep scrupulously to the formula, not changing in any way that which has been recognized as best in that special case. Now as this scrupulous adherence to tradition extends also to the images used in magic functions, the artist will close his eyes to every invitation which may come from nature, and will reproduce his images in the traditional aspect in which they have been handed down. The productions of shamanist art, which are all made as if from a recipe, testify to this. Magic art is then a fettered art. To be able to develop, to gradually approach nature in the reproduction of form, it must cast off the magic element and become a profane art ; in other words, it would have to lose the reason of its existence.

We will now point out briefly how the religious idea regulates the life of a people and influences its other intellectual manifestations, beginning with architecture, Magic which is the first to be brought into relation with

character of , . . .

Literature, plastic art because its forms also are a limitation ^ s P ace - ^ one can Sa 7 f r certain that the structural characteristics of a building depend upon the religious conception. They are determined rather by the conditions of the site, and especially by the material obtainable there. The building, like the arms, utensils, and implements made by man, has to fulfil a defensive function inherent in the actual form itself, not in the will for action added thereto by man, as is the case in works of plastic art. The hut must afford shelter as the axe must cut, and the hut and the axe perform this by virtue only of their form. Architecture and industry are, therefore, the human arts from which almost every element of magic is absent. They are in fact based upon a principle opposed to magic the exact knowledge of the laws of causality, for if the stone axe has a point and cutting edges, and the hut a sloping roof, their forms have been determined by observation of the cut made by a body with hard thin edges and of the fall of rain

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

along a sloping superficies. Elementary facts, it may be, but by this means man has understood Nature as she is, and recognized her existence without attempting arbitrarily to modify her action.

But if architecture generally speaking owes nothing to the religious conception so far as its structural elements are concerned, yet the proportions and the destination of the building, as well as the accessories and the decoration, may have been influenced by it. But even from this point of view there is little to be said of the architecture of the uncivilized races. It is indeed one of the arts least cultivated among them. The conditions of life among these peoples cause them to be satisfied with a shelter beneath rocks, caves, or simple huts. Still less do we know of the architecture of prehistoric races, for it has been in great part destroyed on account of the material used. But if we observe that in the caves of the reindeer age the magic paintings are found in the depths of the most sheltered part of the caverns, and if we notice some singular details of construction in the megalithic funeral monuments, and wonder at their gigantic proportions, which could not have answered to any requirement of earthly life, we must allow that in these cases the religious conception has also made its influence felt upon architecture. We have, however, no means of determining more precisely the degree of this influence.

The religious conception has had more weight with the other intellectual manifestations of these peoples upon their literature, music, and dancing. If we can term literature the sentiments expressed orally by this people devoid of culture, and handed down in fixed formulae from generation to generation, then we can say that their literature is of the same type as their art. Like their art, the literature has magic intention, as both with line and speech man follows the same object, asking in order to obtain. The literary productions which these uncultured people express orally from time to time are

Religion and Art

invocations, prayers, and hymns, ritual formulae which were to accompany the magic practices frequently carried out upon art images, and form a literature intended to be useful rather than to give pleasure.

Even music and dancing, both originally manifestations of the imitative instinct applied to the reproduction of sounds and the movements of natural beings and phenomena, display among the uncivilized peoples a magical character, a utilitarian character. This does not appear evident to one who considers the music and dancing of the present day apart from their historical antecedents, for no branch of human art has so completely detached itself from its utilitarian character. But one who knows what a great part music and dancing took in the life of uncivilized peoples, both in initiation ceremonies and in preparation for war or hunting, or any other event on which their well-being and safety depended, and how both the one and the other tended by their imitation of sound and gesture to assure the satisfactory result of dangerous undertakings in the future or the protection of superior beings, and who knows that there are people who spend nearly all their time in sacred music and dancing, will recognize that these two arts are originally connected in their origin with the same religious idea as that on which the characteristics of plastic art and literature depend.^

And if in the history of the human race the dance has gradually lost this magical intention, and become a purely aesthetic manifestation and in this field, as in so many other manifestations of the spirit, the greater part belongs to the Greek nation, for the "choros" of the Greek tragedy represents in its evolution the gradual rejection of the magical character of the original mimetic dance if in the same way music, from being a reproduction of natural sounds as in the beginning, has now become the expression of the most delicate sentiments of the human spirit, and in fact the voice of the * Compare E. Grosse, op. cit., p. 216 f. 64

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

soul even here Greek genius has effected much, if not the greater part all this is owing to a change in the religious idea, a change in the fundamental characteristics of civilization.

We can understand why music and dancing lost before the other arts their original value in the religious conceptions of uncivilized people, or rather how they changed their character while remaining in the service of a religious conception. Imitation by sound and gesture is one of the most elementary forms of magic ; it is one of the forms which had to be given up or altered so as to be unrecognizable as soon as a more advanced religious conception considered it too rough and primitive to succeed in its intended scope. These then are the arts which first broke away from the bonds which united them to a religious conception, and had first to find a new way of life on their own account unless they would run to meet death. They were the first human arts to become, so to speak, profane, because they were the first to put themselves in a state of dependence on religion. Plastic art, in fact, does not occupy the same position which is held among uncivilized peoples by dancing and music in the service of a religious conception, just as music and dancing no longer hold the position which plastic art has in the service of a religious conception among people of culture. The reason is simple: when a magic function is required that is, an essentially imitative function man has in his voice and his limbs the instruments necessary for the function; in plastic art, on the other hand, he must create something outside his person, must procure instruments for the function. If he wishes to bring about the death of an enemy by a magical action, it is easier to carry out the action by the movements of his own body than to draw or carve or mould a figure to serve as a foundation for this action.

Though I have said that the whole religious conception of uncivilized peoples is directed to assure the present and the

65 E

Religion and Art

future, and that all their intellectual manifestations, especially

in plastic art and literature, bear this imprint, I do not

deny that these peoples may sometimes by these

Lack of manifestations hand down the record of the past.

Historic ,1 0,1

Sense in The past, however, in the memory ot these Uncivilized p r j m ^i ve me n loses its sharpness of outline and acquires an uncertain aspect, in which the elements of yesterday are confused with those of the more distant past. The commemorative element is infinitesimal in the creations of these people. Some hymn may preserve the memory of enterprises carried out by their forefathers that is, they may have made an attempt at epic or narrative poetry ; but for the development of this kind of literature it is necessary that the deeds done in the past should appear finer and greater than those done in the present, or that can be hoped for in the future. This condition is lacking in a primitive civilization, since primitive man is compelled by the necessities of life to concentrate his forces on doing, not on remembering. The accumulation of records of the past from generation to generation would be an incumbrance quite useless for the instruction of the people, who need, above all, to know what will be of use to them in order to live. They take, therefore, from the experience of the past the teaching, the ritual formula, the invocation, all that has active force in fact, what is necessary ; but not the chance details and contingencies which in former times and occasions have accompanied the action which they continue to carry on in a word, the casual. It is of no interest to a savage to know that his forefathers conquered their enemies or had good hunting, or when this happened ; what matters to him is the means by which his forefathers conquered their enemies or obtained plenty of game the magic formula by which they fought the enemy or attracted the game. A savage turns his attention to obtaining useful things, not to remembering useless things. If the complicated magical functions in which he wastes much of his time seem to us useless

Art of Uncivilized Peoples

for the attainment of the desired object, this is owing to the false position which we take in examining his actions: he is certain that without these functions he would never succeed in his aims.

We can thus understand the rarity of the commemorative element in the literature of uncivilized races. It is certainly not entirely lacking, for these people, when they ask themselves the reason of things in the world, have many times had to make up a history of it, and have attributed some events from their past life to the higher beings whom they believe to rule over nature. This commemorative element is, however, exceedingly small in proportion to the other elements which serve to assure the present and the future.

And what is the case in literature is still more the case with plastic art. I know of no uncivilized people in whose art the commemorative element is the greater ; in fact, this element is generally wanting. No uncivilized people has ever thought of representing by form the deeds of their forefathers. Sometimes the people may have felt the need of handing down, by means of drawing or sculpture, the memory of some great undertaking which they had just carried out the Bushmen, for instance, celebrated in one of their paintings their fight with the Kaffirs in a cattle raid ; the Esquimaux have recorded their hunting and fishing but in this case the predominating idea is care for the future : the artists wished to show to their contemporaries and leave to posterity the record , of what had been done. This art is historical only in appearance: it takes up the action of the present or the immediate past to preserve it for the future. It is the same intention as that which recorded the deeds of the Pharaoh or of the reigning prince in Egyptian or Babylonian art, not that which impelled .: a Greek artist to paint the Nekyia or the taking of Troy, or : a Christian artist to represent a divine miracle. The former ; shows an occurrence of the present or of the immediate past j.- to keep the record for posterity, the latter takes a subject

Religion and Art

which happened in the distant past to place it before the eyes of his contemporaries. The former is chronicle, the latter

is history.

In conclusion, the religious conceptions of uncivilized races show in all their intellectual manifestations the thought for the present or the future, and impress a utilitarian character on the products of these manifestations. They are races without a history, and their art, when it does attempt to record anything, fixes not the past for the present, but the present for the future.

And these are the fundamental elements left by one of the most splendid civilizations and arts of antiquity, the civilization and art of Egypt. The Egyptian nation was the greatest of uncivilized peoples. This seems a paradox when one thinks of the immense store of works of art and writings left by it, but it is the truth, which appears clearly if we examine its religion, its art, and its general civilization.

Ill

EGYPT

WHEN Herodotus (II, 37) calls the Egyptian people most pious, and tries to identify their gods with those of the Greeks, he is answered by Juvenal (XV, 1-13), who considers them foolish and ridicules the objects of Uni *y of

Egyptian

their cult and their religious practices. Egyptian

religion really gives both these impressions. On the one hand, the constant care to show honour to the gods and to the dead indicates a people of deeply devout temperament, while on the other hand, the form in which this devotion was shown testifies to a low grade of culture. But modern research has neither the admiration of the Greek historian nor the irony of the Latin poet ; it endeavours to understand the nature of this religious conception, and in order to understand the later life inquires into its origins. And as for the period for which written documents are lacking we can only find the reflection of a religious conception in the sculptured monuments, we ask of these the answer to the problem of the origin of Egypt, of its whole civilization from religion to art.

But though the number of known primitive monuments

Religion and Art

of Egyptian art and industry is increased by fresh discoveries, and we are now acquainted with a period of prehistoric art before the dynastic period, the origin of Egyptian art is still obscure. This may be owing to lacunae in our knowledge of the monuments; but between the works of the prehistoric period, which display all the characteristics of an art in its infancy, and the works of the early dynastic period, in which we already find those features which are considered peculiar to Egyptian art in its whole course, there exists an abyss which there has been a vain attempt to fill by pointing out in prehistoric works certain features which are found again in a modified and improved form in the works of dynastic periods.

Until new discoveries of monuments throw a connecting bridge between the two periods of this art, a possible solution may be that the early dynastic art is owing to the immigration of a new people, which established itself in the Valley of the Nile with the prehistoric population in subjection to it and laid the foundations of the Egypt of the Pharaohs.^

And the most marked proof of the separation between prehistoric and protodynastic art is given by religion. There is no figure in prehistoric art which I will not say represents the characteristic aspect of the theriomorphic gods of the Egyptian pantheon, but which even foreshadows their appearance.

The whole of Egyptian prehistoric art in sculpture consists of small figures of human beings and of animals, t The types are few and not very characteristic. It is impossible to say for certain what is the meaning or function of these figures. Only by comparison with the art of other uncivilized races, and the fact that they are found in tombs, when they are not certainly decorative parts of utensils, could lead us to see in them a magical intention.} The figures of animals were

* Compare A. J. Reinach, IS Egypt* prehistorique, Paris, 1908, p. 36 ff. \ J. Capart, Les Debuts de VArt en Egyptc, Bruxelles, 1904. A. J. Reinach, op. cit., p. 10 f.

Egypt

possibly to provide food for the dead, and the human figures may be images of persons of his family and of his servants placed near him that they might serve him in the life beyond the grave as on earth.

Nor can we deduce much from the rough drawings of this prehistoric art, which represent boats sailing, huts, etc. To them also a magic value is attributed.

But, however doubtful are the origins, with the dynastic period begins that civilization which is held to be characteristically Egyptian, and which maintained itself for thousands of years in the Valley of the Nile, until, after being shaken by the advent of the Greeks and by the Roman dominion, it wore itself out beneath the attacks first of Christianity and later of Islam.

With the dynastic period all the elements of this civilization appear to be established in their fundamental features, from writ

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Religion & art: a study in the evolution of sculpture, painting and architecture, by Alessandro della Seta