fME ! p [ ! u Wm OF TH E I ' ^BMiaittiM^liMuaMi^WKift^^ m'^^^iv-^fA'i'^'t.xwk'i^ifm T THE LT^'' ^ ^ BRIGHAM YOU I - . , ; VERSlTY PROVO, UTAH Vx,. at Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Brigham Young University http://www.archive.org/details/sevenwondersofwoOOIond / THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD WITH %\im |.^S0ciaimns in %xt anir fbtorg ILLUSTRATED BY W. HARVEY LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET MOiNTHLY MAGAZINES FOK THK HOUSEHOLD. j I ^ EVERY BOY'S MAGAZINE ... 6^. I EVERY GIRL'S MAGAZINE , , , 6a. LITTLE WIDE AWAKE . .3^. '7r^. THE LIBRARY , ^ivlGHAM YOUNG UTJTVERSITZ PROVO, UIAH PREFACE. Althouoie llio popularity of tlie present volame has given the publishers little reason to be dissatisfied, still it lias been thought advisable to re-model the whole, and not only to make many corrections in the style of diction, but to introduce numerous additional illus- trations from the best and most recent sources. The work may, indeed, be almost looked upon as a new publication, and, it is hoped, as a not unuseful contri- bution to the manuals of art which are so essential in teaching the first rules of correct taste, and in enabling us to distinguish accurately between the styles adopte at diflerent times, and by different nations. It is much, however, to be regretted, that our real information as to these " seven wonders," which have, probably from a taste for the mysticism of the number seven, been set forth by the concurrent voice of history as the specimens, par excellence, of what the ancients could achieve, should be so limited as it is. Of some -of them scarcely a vestige remains : of others we have IV PllEFACE. m\y traditional memorials, not always written in tlie 6est taste or by the most competent authors. It may likev/ise be matter of some question, whether the " seven wonders of the world " are not of greater historical than aesthetic value. The Great Pyramid, for example, has little by which to r^c^mmend itself to notice, save its gigantic size and tho direful prodigality of human life and labour expended in its construction. The Tower of Babel is too much an architectural enigma for us to venture to speculate even on its pro- bable form, while the very idea of the Colossus at Ehodes involves a feeling of the ludicrous, scarcely agreeable to the dignity of art, or the genuine principles of taste. The application of means to an end is too much sacrificed in these vast undertakings. We may wonder at the extravagant magnificence of the people who could construct them, but, with few exceptions, the cui bono becomes an awkward question, and we feel that they have conduced but little to rendering man- kind wiser or happier. So many allusions to ancient art—critics, and writers occur in the following pages, that a brief notice of a few works which form our leading authorities on the sabject, will, it is hoped, not be unacceptable. The science of criticism wonld seem to have been upplied to works of art at a period long subsequent to its use in judging of literature and poetry. Although Herodotus, the earliest of extant Greek historians, dwells frequently upon works of art, especially build- PREFACE. V ings, many of wliicli live solely in the history which has rendered them such full justice, still he has no idea of attempting to classify them according to peculiarities of style, or to draw analogies between the works of different men, times, or countries. To say that a building is square or circular, that it is " very wondrous and beautiful," or some such general remark, IS, for the most part, the limit of his criticism. Of the abstract principles—of the beau ideal of a work of art, considered in its own integrity of design, and without reference to the material, he knows nothing. Nor is this wonderful, if we recollect the infantile state of the arts in those countries with wliich this noble old traveller was most conversant. Perspective, even in its linear form, was but little known, while •of the receding points, which produce the aerial tones in a picture, no idea seems to have beelrentertained till within the last three or four centuries. Grand, gaunt, and often grotesque, the sculptures of Babylon or Egyptian Thebes were suggestive of little, save the quaint symbolism they embodied. The same feeling that led the Egyptian to adore the Nile as the great mother and nourisher of the country, also incited him to look with reverence on the many grim forms which embodied the idea of the great fertilizing power. All the powers of nature found their representatives, in- congruous enough at times, but still suggestive to the mind of the beholder. But of that beauty which is ii)unded upon close imitation of Nature's fairest forms—* b ; ^1 PREFACE. of that freedom from stiffness and crudity of outline which now forms tlie severe test to which works of art are submitted, the eastern nations had little perception massivencss of size atoned for want of symmetry, ex- travagant richness of material supplied the absence of chastity in the conception of a subject, and Art dragged on her way, heavy in her grandeur, and hesitating strangely between the opposite stages of the sublime and the ludicrous. We have not sufficient space to enter into the deve- lopment of Grecian art out of Asiatic, but we may at once observe the immense change gained by a greater judgment in the selection of models, a recognition of the subserviency of art to nature, and a thorough ap- preciation of the poetry of motion as exemplified in the human figure. Criticism grew out of excellence. To be capable of forming a comparison, and passing a ver- dict between two or three works of art, was the first step to forming rules for the observance of posterity. Henceforth it became tlic pride of statesmen and pri- vate individuals, not only to erect works of artistic magnificence, but to group them together, and seek to realize a tout ensemble that should be the wonder and delight of every visitor. Even the most apocryphal anecdotes (and there are many) of the skill of the Greek painters prove that mankind was beginning to learn that art is only nature adapted, and that in lieu of ex- travagant arabesques, and worse than: heraldic repre- sentations of men and animals, both the painter and PREFACE. Vll the sculptor had arrived at their noblest vocation—the true poetry of art—which was to leave a Cnidian Yenus, an Apollo Belvidere, and a thousand other wondrous models, for tlie admiration and imitation of future asres. Still, the science of criticism existed rather in the materials collected than in any attempt to reduce them to a system. While Cicero and Quintilian had analyzed the nature of "verbal criticism, and while Longinus had entered deeply into the mysteries of the sublime, botli in prose and poetry, art-criticism still remained unat- tempted; and numerous as are the works on painting and architecture, to which subsequent ages have given birth, it is only within a few years that the labours of our German neighbours have really reduced the criti- cism of art to anything like a regular system. A few of our own artists have made valuable contributions towards the same end, but the field of art still remains widely open. Many labourers are yet wanted ere we shall be able to form sound and impartial judgment, even of works whose authors are long ere this mingled •wi.th the dust. Of all the authors who have described works of an- cient art, Pliny and Pausanias stand pre-eminent. It were to be wished that the Natural History of the elder Pliny were better known to English readers than it is likely to be at present. With his many mistakes and absurdities as a natu- ralist, or his frequent misconceptions of matters of h 2 VUl PREFACE. wliicli, in liis day, it was pardonable to be ignorant, we have nothing to do at present ; but the portion of his history referring to the imitative arts, comprised in the thirty-fourth and two following books of his great work, deserves some notice, and ought certainly to receive attention at the hands of the classical reader. Plaxman—^whose name must ever live in connexion with the greatest poets of antiquity—passes the fol- lowing high encomium upon this portion of Pliny's history. He remarks that " the whole is arranged Avith ^attention to the several improvements in chronological order, with such perspicuity and comprehension, that whenever, from the brevity of the work, we do not find all we wish for, yet, by attending to the information prior and subsequent, we shall easily be enabled to supply the defect from other vrri tings or monuments of antiquity." This is high praise from a high quarter, and it must be confessed that the history of art would have remained a hopeless enigma, if Pliny's ponderous folio had shared the fate of many of its contemporaries. Quiet and assiduous, yet energetic in tlie pursuit of his studies, his whole life presented one spectacle of unceasing devotion to the book of natui'e, and to pursuits calcu- lated to unfold her mysteries. Without neglecting the duties of his high political vocation, he nevertheless gave an amount of time and labour to his darling study which seems unparalleled oven in the history of literary enthusiasm. PREFACE. IX Like Kiebnhr, Pliny the elder possessed the rare ability of combining the anxieties of a public career with the researches of a student's life.