ASIATIC TERRACOTTAS IN THE LOUVRE MUSEUM
About half a ceniury ago the learned German archaeologist, Eduard Gerhard, directed the attention of his pupils to the interest which Greek terracottas hâve for the history of ancient art. If Gerhard had lived as long as his well-known Belgian friend, Baron de Witte, he might hâve seen a single figure from Tanagra reach, in a Paris auction, the price of â-1,200, and would gladly hâve acknowledged that his advice had not remained unnoticed. Indeed, the rage for Greek terracottas has been the prevailing passion of amateurs and muséum officiais in Europe for the last ten years, and many a fortune has already been built on thèse fragile and costly relies of Greek industry. It is not my purpose to relate how the Bœotian necropolis of Tanagra was discovered by some Greek peasants of Staniatais about the beginning of 1870, and with what marvellous rapidity the famé of the Tanagrsan terracottas spread from Athens to Paris and from Paris to the rest of Europe. The taie of the discoveries in Tanagra would be, on the whole, a very sad one. If they hâve enriched most of the collections in Europe with a large number of masterpieces, justly styled by a French poet Praxilèles de vUrine, they hâve in return led to the irretrievable destruction of a far greater quantity of figures, broken to pièces by the hasty and ignorant peasants who used to dig by night secretly, for fear of attracting the notice of the Greek Government. When the Government did interfère it was too late : 3,000 tombs had been blindly plundered, nobody had taken note of the exact contents of each grave, and the few places in the necropolis which had yet remained untouched afforded but little opportunity for systematic archaeological research. Ever since 1874 the necropolis has been guarded by a body of Greek soldiers, and secret digging has been absolutely
1. Articles publiés dans une Revue de New- York, Tke Nation^ 24 septembre et !•' octobre 1885.
suppressed ; but officia] digging bas yielded meagre resuUs, and the necropolis of Tanagra, tbe finest and ricbest in tbe Greek world, may now be considered as exbausted. The scanty information which could be gathered from the peasants as to the course of their lucrative labors bas been embodied by Messrs. Rayet, Martha, Lûders, and Haussoullier in four inleresting papers; but their statements are more calculated to excite curiosity and regret than to satisfy the requirements of those who, while admiring the torracottas of Tanagra, are eager to know when and how the choicest pièces bave corne to light.
It is only by an unexpected chance that the splendîd necropolises of Asia Minor bave not, or hâve not ail, shared the fate of the Tanagraean tombs, by falling a prey to reckless tymhorychia^ as the Greeks of ancient days used to style the practice so familiar to their degenerate descendants. As early as 1842 an English gentleman in Smyma,Mr. BorrelU possessed a few beautiful spécimens of terracotta figures discovered in lonia. In 1845 Messrs. Ainsworth and Barker enriched the British Muséum with a large collection of fragments from Tarsus, where they had been found, heaped up and broken to pièces, in a kind of Monte Testaccio outside the town. A French traveller, M. Langlois, proceeded to the same place in 1852 and brought a number of valuable spécimens to the Louvre. But ail thèse, as well as a few gilded heads purchased in Smyma by M. Piot, and described under the name of " terracottas from Sardes " by M. F. Lenormant, were only fragments and did not altract much notice. It was not until 1876, when figures from Tanagra began to get rare in the markets of Athens and of Paris, that the Asiastic terracottas made their appearance in the world of amateurs and archseologists. About fifly figures, quite différent in style from the Bœolian ones, were brought to Europe, and, professedly discovered at Ephesus, found their way to the Berlin Antiquarium and the private collections in Paris. Encouraged by their success, th Greek dealers subsequently sent a large number of so-called Ephesian figures, to Ihe great surprise of Mr. Wood, who, having digged for six years in Ephesus, had never met there with a single fragment resembling the figures which were now assigned to the metropolis of lonia.
Meanwhile forgery had been at work, and suspicion soon began toarise both in Berlin and in Paris as to the genuineness of the new-comers. It is very interesting to follow, in the archœological periodicals of that time, the varions opinions expressed by learned scholars on this most délicate matter. M. F. Lenormant remarked that some of the Ephesian terracottas were copies from Fogelberg and Thorwaldsen ; M. Rayet maintained that the greater number of them were genuine, but that none had been discovered at Ephesus. Messrs. Rayet and Lenormant likewise acknowledged that the genuine figures must proceed from several necropolises in the neighborhood of Smyrna; but, as little or nothing was known about their site, many people came to think that the
several necropolises were only Ihe sevei*al workshops of able forgeps in Athens, Conslantinople, and Smyrna. At the Paris Exhibition in 1878 a number of Asiatic terracottas appeared in the glass cases of the Trocadéro Palace beside the most admirable spécimens from Tanagra; public attention was especially drawn to the latter, and the Asiatic ones were almost left aside, or considered as suspicions intruders.
The most unfriendly judge of Ephesian terracottas was, at thaï moment, M. Adrien de Longpérier. This illustrious scholar, who had been dircctor of the Louvre under Napoléon III., indulged during the last years of his life in a most alarming hypercriticism. Il was Longpérier who used to say Ihat, out of a dozen engraved gems purporling to be Greek, eleven were modem and the twelfth a forgery. He never liked to state his scepticism too openly, but made no secret about il to his friends, who soon divulged his opinion and often exaggeraled it wilh the rashness of confident admirers. A Paris dealer, M. Hoffmann, had just then received an important collection of Asiatic figures; the rumor spread Ihat M. de Longpérier pronounced them to be forgeries. M. Hoffmann immediately appealed to M. Waddinglon, the Ihen Minister of Foreign Aiïairs, who retained, aroid the absorbing duties of politics, that enlightened taste for archaeology which bas given him so high a rank among European scholars. M. Hoffmann knew that M. Waddinglon had many friends in the Levant, and mighl easily secure reliable information about Ihe discovery of terracotlas in Asia Minor. Accordingly, M. Waddinglon \\Tote to M. Arislides Ballazzi, a rich merchant in Conslantinople, who possessed exlensive properly in the neighborhood of Smyrna; in relurn, he received a few lerracolta figures, idenlical in style with some of Ihose wich had previously reached Paris, and which, M. Baltazzi asserled, had been discovered on an estale of his belwen Pergamon and Phocaea. The Greek genleman added that if such figures interesled French archaeologists, he willingly consenled to put al Iheir disposai the Greek necropolis included wilhin his estale.
Such were the circumstances which forlunalely led to the excavations al Myrina by the French School al Athens. But before proceeding to give an idea of thèse excavations, we must relurn le the suspecled terracottas to which we are indebted for M. Waddington's intervention.
In my opinion , the greal mass of Asiatic figures which exisled in Paris previous to 1880 may be classifîed as follows : 1, whoIesale forgeries, manufaclured in Athens; 2, partials forgeries, consisling ofgenuîne heads, arms, legs, or bodies, arbitrarily uniled, by skilfui hands, to fragments of other figures or to made-up malerial ; 3, many genuine heads and some very few entire statues from Mount Pagus, in Smyrna; 4, figures from Pergamon, Cyme, and Myrina. The Greek dealers in Smyrna and in Athens invenled the legend about the necropolis ofEphesus in order to diverl Ihe attention of Turkish officiais from the real headquarters of Iheir researches, Hence 11 happened that a volume was pu-
blished in Berlin under the title of " GriechischeTerracolten vonTanagra und Ephesos/' in which the so-called Ephesian terracottas are nothing but much-restored figures from Smyma and the neighborhood of Phoca^^.
Litlle is known as yet about the discovery of terracottas at Pergamon and Smyma. I royself picked up, on the slope of the acropolis of Pergamon, a few fragments of terracotta figures, and noticed many places there where graves had previously been opened ; but the German archœologists who spent four years on the site, hâve not succeeded, so far as I know, in discovering the Pergamenian necropolis. It is reported, however, that a good number of figures were collected during the last campaign and claimed by the Turkish Government; whether Ihey were found on the acropolis or elsewhere, I am unable to tell. Strange lo say, the same uncertainty prevails about the exact origin of the terracottas found in Smyrna. The dealers in antiquities, who are very numerous in that city, are certainly very well informed aboutit, but if you question them, they will invariably give some vague answer or try to mislead you . I believe that only a very small number of Smyma terracottas hâve been discovered in graves, most of thèse having been dug up by treasure-seekers in the Byzantine perîod ; this accounts for entire figures being so exceedingly scarce. The heads and other fragments which are to be seen in muséums hâve been picked up somewhere on MountPagus, among the rubbish heaped up by previous explorers, who attached no importance to terracottas. The Louvre possesses a very rich collection of heads, which was purchased in 1882 from an English gentleman in Smyma; but no regular search whatever bas ever taken place on Mount Pagus, and the récent planting of vineyards on the slope of the hill renioves ail hope of a methodical investigation. This is very much to be regretted, as the terracottas from Smyrna are generally copies from statues of the Alexandrine period, and surpass in beauty of style ail the figures from other parts of Asia Minor.
It is useless to enumerate the difl'erent sites in the neighborhood of Smyrna which hâve yielded, or are said to hâve yielded, similar terracottas, as none of them, excepling Tarsus, bas ever been seriously explored. For the last ten years arcbseological magazines and books on art bave repeatedly published interesting terracotas as discovered in Grynium or in Gyme. In fact> the necropolis of Grynium is utterly unknown, and the greater number of figures assigned to Cyme either come from Myrina or from very modem workshops. Up to the year 1880, no mention is lo be found of the burial-ground of Myrina, where diggings had, however, laken place for ten years or more. This proves how admirably the dealers in Smyma understand keeping secrets, and accounts for most figures having been sent to Europe witb quite arbitrary indications of origin. In 1880 I dug in Cyme for two months, and only found there terracottas of a very common style; the finer fragments I could collect did not bear the slightest resemblance to most of the so-called Cymœan terracottas
in continental collections. The latter are generally large groups, which appear to hâve been stuck together from very numerous fragments. Strangely enough, no fragment is missing, and the heads, especially, are always in a perfect state of préservation. Now, any one who bas witnessed diggings in a Greek necropolis, kno^^s that entire terracotta figures are very seldom to be met witb, and that the greater part of them seem to hâve been purposely mutilated when buried in compagny with the dead. Moreover, the Cymœan groups are covered with a kind of yellowish varnish, alternating with large white spots and exceedingly \ivid colors on the heads and attributes of the figures. Again, the draperies are quite différent from what might reasonably be expected : instead of the bold and simple movements familiar to Greek sculpture, we find a mass of minute folds which recall the wrinkled surface of a troubled sea.
Now, thèse Cymœan groups are of uncommon bcauty and size, some of them numbcring five or six figures worked out with the utmosl accuracy. For a year or two past they bave been simply styled " Asialic terracottas, " and the dealers bave dropped the name of Cyme, just as they had previously suppressed the suspicions name of Ephesus. One thing is, however, quite certain : the groups in question come neitber from Cyme nor from Ephesus. It is whispered among dealers and amateurs that the real origin of thèse figures is kept a secret by some privileged diggers, who naturally wish the Turkish Government not to interfère with their business. The precious statuettes find their way to Europe in passing through Athens, but no one can tell what route they bave followed on their way to Athens from Asia Minor. A German archœologist, von Duhn, recentiy pubiished in the Archâologische Zeitung two very beautiful groups of the Cymaeo-Ephesian class, representing a young maiden led by Hermès to Ch^ron's boat — a représentation not uncommon on white lecythi discovered in Attica. Herr von Duhn, justly struck by so close an analogy, ventures to suppose that the so-called Asiatic groups, and particulary the two spécimens he describes, originate in Attica and not in Asia Minor; they are styled Asiatic by the dealers, on account of the severe laws exisling in Greece against secret digging and the export of antiquities. The German scholar may be right, and even more so than he himself seems to believe. I agrée with bim in thinking that thèse celebrated groups come from Athens, but I am by no means certain that they were discovered in tombs.
The question remains whethcr Asiatic groups are patchwork or original achievements — whether some parts of them or the whole must be assigned to a récent period of Greek history. This difûcult problem cannot be met with a gênerai answer. I hâve seen groups belonging to either ciass. But this is only a personal and subjective view of the matter. 1 sincerely hope that tha mysterious necropolis may yet be discovered — somewhere perhaps between Ephesus and Cyme — and that its discovery
will oblige me to confess that I am a very poor judge of Greek terracottas. I will now confine mysclf to the description of the burial-ground in Myrina and of tiie discoveries made ttiere, quarum pars parva fui, and which hâve no mystery whatever connected with them.
Mr. Baltazzi*s estate is sîtuated on the borders of the ifigean, about halfway between Smyrna and Pergamon. The chief viilage within its boundaries is Ali-aga, lying five miles south of the ruins of Myrina, which are now a désert place called Kalabassary. The town of Myrina is familiar to numismatists for its fine siiver coins, but scarcely anything worth notice is known about its history. It seems to bave been a quiet provincial city, politicaily thrown into the shade by its two powerful neighbors, Cyme and Pergamon. The necropolis of Kalabassary extends over two adjacent hills, one of which is crowned with the ruins of an ancient acropolis. The site was first visited in 1861 by M. Pullan, who spent some hours there on his way from Ali-aga to Elœa. M. PuUan reports that he collected on the spot a few coins of Myrina, but says nothing about the necropolis, which had not yet been dîscovered. This only happened about ten years later, when the hills surrounding Kalabassary began to be ploughed. At first the peasants took no heed of the terracottas, and broke them lo pièces. One man, however, carried olT a little figure to Ali-aga, and gave it to his child for a doll. This attracted Ihe notice of M. E. de Baltazzi, the proprietor's brother, who was living at the time in Ali-aga; he immediately went to Kalabassary, and proceeded to make regular excavations in the necropolis. Afler having collected a number of figures, he commenced digging at Cyme, the site of which was not yet, as is now the case, planted with vines, and discovered some statuettes which he told me were of archaic style. Unfortunately, he was not aware of the arlistic and commercial value of Greek terracottas, which only just then began to excite interest in Europe. Some spécimens from Myrina were sent to M. ArisUdes Baltazzi, the proprietor, at Constantinople ; the rest were left unguarded in the house at Ali-aga, and, after M. E. de Baltazzi*^ departure, were stolen and soldat Smyrna, whence the figures made their way to Athens and Paris. When M. Waddinglon, as we bave related before, wrote to M. Baltazzi to inquire about Asiatic terracottas, this gentleman could only send him the few figures which he had previoulsy secured in his town seat on the Bosphorus. Meanwhile, the peasants of Kalabassary» wh6 had become acquainted with the dealers in Smyrna, began to collect terracottas on their own account; thus it happened that a great many figures were sent to Europe préviens to 1880, and enriched private collections under the name of Cymœan, Grynaean, Phocœan, or Ephesian. Ever since 1883, when the French excavations were interrupted, the peasants hâve contînued to dig secretely upon the spot, and terracottas from Myrina are by no means rare in the cur rent traffic in antiquities.
Early in Ihe îmmmer of 1880 M. Poltier and myself were sent lo Myrina by the direction of the French Scbool in Athens, with the object of exploring methodicaliy the necropolîs, which bad bitberto been abandoned to unscientific pillage. Our excavations lasted, witb some interruptions, till the monlh of October, 1882, when a great misfortune put an end lo them : the young archffologist, M. Veyries, to whom the continuation of the work had been intrusted, fell ill in Myrina and died at Smyma. Our firman, too, had now expired, and a final division of our booty was effected : one third of the discoveries was given over to the Turkish Government, one third to M. Baltazzi, and the rest to the French School. M. Baltazzi most generously abandoned his share to the Schoo], which now possessed a collection of more than 900 figures, vases, bronzes, and other objects. The unfortunate lerracottas which fell into the hands of the Turks were carried ofT to the Tchinly-Kiosk Muséum in Constantin nople, where they bave been treated with utter neglect and most arbitrarily restored. The rest of the collection was transferred to Athens, whence the choicest part of it, numbering about 500 pièces, was sent to the Louvre. A spécial room bas been devoted to the spoils of Myrina and will be opened to the public about the 15th of October. Reports on the excavations, accompanied by photographs, hâve been pubUshed in the Bulletin de Correspondance HeUéniquCt the journal of the French School in Athens; and a volume embodying the results of the whole campaign is now in préparation, together with a gênerai catalogue.
Our chief object during the diggings was not to discover a great many terracottas, but principally to ascertain the manner in which they were disposed in the graves. The dead were generally buried, rarely incînerated ; when this was the case the terracottas seem to bave been bumt on the same pyre with the body. Many tombs contained small tablets of bronze on which the name of the deceased is inscribed en pointillé. About nine graves out of ten yielded no objects, or nothing but pallry earthenware; others, especially children's graves, were brimful of terracottas, as many as fifly having been discovered in a single tomb. The ofTerings are not arranged in any order, but lie pell-mell in thepit, especially about the head and the feet of the deceased. The survivors certainly had no désire, as was the case in Etruria, to adorn the sepulchral restingplace on the model of the tcrrestrial dwellings. It even seeras certains that they often smashed the statues before throwing them into the grave, for the head of a figure bas many times been discovered at a great distance from the body. In numberless cases the head or some limb was broken ofT and not to be found in the grave, which proves that the mutilations bad taken place before the burial.
The sepulchral fumiture of the tombs comprises two classes of objects : the domestic implements which may bave belonged to the deceased, and the votive ofTerings brought by bis relations and frîends. In the first class we notice strigils, bronze mirrors, vases of every shape, glass impie-
menls; ia the second, which is the more iinporlanl, we flnd lorracottas, coins, very thin golden and silver jewels, amulets, beads, etc. Many of Ihe former give us a curions insight inlo the perfection of Greek potlery at that period, viz. : in Iho three centuries whicii elapsed between the death of Alexander the Great and the Christian era. Wilh the exception of a few archaic and a few iate sepulchrcs, the 5,000 graves which we opened in Myrinaail belong to the Alexandrine and Greco-Ronian epoch, when the city seems to hâve reached the highest degree of wealth and prosperity.
The Myrinaean coi*oplastSy or manufacturers of terracottas, were certainly influenced by the models of their brethren in Tanagra. The same fact has already been noticed in Cyrenaica and in Southern Ilaiy, and goes to prove that Ihe moulds used in Tiknagra freely travelled through Ihe whole HeJlenic world. Almost identical figures bave been discovered in Myrina and in Tanagra : the différence of style is only due to the retouching and painting, which seems to hâve been more carefully done in Bœotia than eisewhere. Among the^figures of Tanagrœan style that hâve been discovered in Myrina, we may mention hère an admirable set of fourteen draped maidens, ail found in a single grave, which, when placed in a certain order, take the gênerai aspect of a triangle, and remind one of the sculptured figures on the pediments of Greek temples.
By far the greater number of statuettes found at Myrina are quite unlike the figures of Tanagra, and belong to an entirely difi'erent school of arl. In Tanagra, the prevailing type, if we consider the terracottas of the besl period, is that of a draped maiden or woman, standing or sitting in the attitude of repose. The subjects generally belong to private Hfe; nude figures of gods andgoddesses are exceedingly rare. In Myrina, on the contrary, resting or sitting figures are an exception; the statues of Venus, Eros, Bacchus, Victory and Hercules are very numerous ; and the influence of the Pergamenian school of sculpture may be traced wilh pcrfect certainty in nearly ail the more important figures. The terracottas from Myrina stand to those of Tanagra in the same relation as the Pergamenian frieze of the great altar to the exquisite statues of the Nike temple in Alhens. Again, while replicas of celebrated statues are not to be found in Tanagra, the necropolis of Myrina has yielded several copies of the Cnidian and Coan Venus by Praxiteles, of the Ilerakles type created by Lysippus, of athlètes, hermaphrodites, and other subjects, the models of which must hâve enjoyed great réputation, as we possess marble copies from them of the Greco-Roman period. Most of the larger statuettes are winged, and their movements are exceedingly bold. The draperies, too, are treated in a free style very much resembling that of the Pergamenian high-reliefs. The two most fréquent types — some tombs contained thirty or more spécimens of each — are the Siren and Eros with folded wings : but uone of thèse are of superior workmanship, and they seem to hâve belonged to the poorer sort of votive ofl'erings. Tanagraean figu-
res rarely exceed len inches in height ; many slalues from Myrina are three or four limes as large. Anolher characleristic feature is the fréquent mention of the artistes name on the basis of the lerracotla or on ils reverse, no signature having yet been discovered on Ihe statuettes from Tanagra. Finally, we must mention a considérable number of large groups, banqtiets, scènes of love, and the like, which also betray the influence of the Rhodian and Pergamenian school of sculpture, where similar complicated arrangements had corne into fashion.
Some figures might, at the first glance, be taken for works of the archaic period; but it is easy to perceive that they are only pseudo-archaic, and repeat, with intentional awkwardness or stiiïnesS: a mode! of ancient times to which religions ideas were attached. Such are a beautiftil busi of Demeter, with her hands presscd on her bosom, and many curions statues of naked goddesses, adomed with high gilded diadems, with heavy bracelets on their arms and thighs, who recall, by their childish and silly smile, the works of Greek sculpture befor Phidias. But thèse, like the imitalions of Bœotian models, are only exceptions, and by far the greater pari of. the terracottas from Myrina bear the mark of a quite definite and particular style, intermediate betwen the noble simplicity of Athenian art and the picturesque tendency to effect of the Greco- Roman school. Indeed, there exists a close analogy between many graceful terracottas from Myrina (representing Erotes, dancers, flute-players, followers of Bacchus) and the paintings discovered on the walls of the Greco-Roman villas in Pompeii.
The charming qualities of our Asiatic terracoltas are counterbalanced by many serious defects, which may be traced both in Greek literature and art afler the âge of Alexander the Great. Their grâce is not free from mannerism, nor the boldness of their movements from violence. Tbe heads are generally too small, the legstoo long and loo slender. From a purely arlistic point of view, they are certainly inferior to the delightful figures found at Tanagra; but, on the other hand, they can claim a variety of motives, an appearance of vigor and physical health, which centrast with the dreamy and almosl melancholy exquisiteness of their brethren from Bœotian tombs. On the whole, we may fairly admire a people among whom humble workmen, not unlike our manufaclurers of pal try religions emblems, succeeded in bringing forth such charming and graceful images, to shed a ray of joy and beauty on the silent resting places of the dead. Thus every new conquest of archaeology on Hellenic ground, however modest and unpretending the recovered works of art may be, adds a new lustre to the eternal radiancy of Hellenic art.
(REVUE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE, 1886, t. If, p. 77-100.)
Athènes.
Sans doute il est trop lard pour parler encor d'elles !
Les étonnantes découvertes du mois de février dernier sur l'Acropole ont déjà fait le tour de la presse, et nous nous dispenserions d'en entretenir nos lecteurs si tous les comptes rendus qu*on en a publiés, y compris les nôtres *, ne contenaient des erreurs de détail plus ou moins graves. La faute en est aux archéologues qui habitent Athènes : ils se sont tus, et ont laissé la parole aux journalistes. Au moment où nous écrivons (juin 1886) un seul article concernant ces découvertes a été écrit par un témoin oculaire qui fût en même temps un homme du métier : c'est la notice de M. Walter Miller dans VAmerican Journal of Archaeology (1886, p. 61-65)*. Nous croyons devoir résumer très brièvement cet article et les publications antérieures, sans entrer dans des discussions qui nous obligeraient à nous copier nous- même.
1. S. Reinach, République française du 19 mars, et Gazelle des beaux-arlSj 1886, t. 1, p. 420 et suiv. (avec trois phototypies) ; Vllluslralion du 13 mars, avec des vignettes; le Times de Londres, du 25 février et du 12 mars; le Cour- Her de VArl du 26 février: YAthenxum, 1886, 1,p. 303. La Pall Mail Gazelle du môme mois a publié des dessins des statues avec un article de M. Waldstein. Il est inutile de citer un grand nombre d'autres notices plus ou moins inexactes reproduites dans les journaux quotidiens d'Europe et de Grèce.
2. Nons recevons à Tinstant le premier fascicule d*une belle publication de M. Cavvadias, intitulée Les Musées d'Athènes^ avec phototypies de M. Romaïde^ et texte en grec, allemand, anglais et français (?). Ce fascicule contient une vue des fouilles de rÉrechthéion (pi. I) et sept phototypies d'après les statues de femmes archaïques. Les notices sont malheureusement un peu trop succinctes. [Voir deux reproductions en couleurs des statues archaïques trouvées sur l'Acropole dans \e9 Anlike Denkmâler, T, 2, 1888, pi. XIX.]
En 1877, rÉcole française avait commencé, près de TÉrechthéion, des fouilles qu'il fallut bientôt interrompre, parce qu'on ne savait que faire des terres déblayées*. M. Blondel, architecte pensionnaire de la Villa Médieis, opéra de nouveaux sondages en 1879 pour reconnaître le niveau de la roche entre le mur d'enceinte septentrional de l'Acropole et l'Érechthéion ". La Société archéologique les a repris au mois de novembre 1885; les fouilles ont commencé près des Propylées et se sont prolongées, le long des fondations d'un ancien édifice en pierre calcaire reconnu par M. Blondel, jusqu'à une quinzaine de pas de rÉrechtliéion, où elles ont été arrêtées par un mur transvei*sal perpendiculaire à celui de l'Acropole. Les découvertes les plus importantes ont eu lieu le 5 février en présence du roi de Grèce. Voici l'inventaire sommaire des objets exhumés :
Bronzes, — Nombreux fragments d animaux ; quelques figurines ailées de style très archaïque; des figures de femme d'un travail très grossier.
Marbres, — 1» Petit bas-relief mutilé représentant un (heval; bon travail archaïque, avec traces vives de couleurs sur la crinière;
2® Avant-bras d'une statue archaïque de femme, portant un bracelet, au-dessus duquel pend l'himation, richement décoré en couleurs (ornements géométriques noirs, rouges, verts et blancs) ;
3» Torse de femme, du type des Aitémis de Délos;
4® Autre torse semblable, mais plus grand; la tète, quia été retrouvée, est ornée d'une dTeçx/Tj. Le revers de la chevelure n'est pas modelé, mais indiqué en couleurs sur la surface aplanie. Dans la Stéphane étaient fixés des ornements en bronze; sur le sommet de la tête est plantée une tige de bronze verticale. Le type de la tète est strictement éginétique. Nombreuses traces de couleur et méandre peint sur l'himation (gravée dans la Gazette des beaux arts, 1886, I.p. 417);
5<» Statue équestre très mutilée, la plus ancienne de ce genre que Ton possède. Le cheval est d'un travail très supérieur au cavalier;
G^ Statue de femme drapée du type des Artémis de Délos : il ne manque que les pieds et les avant-bras (gravée dans la Gazette des beaux-arts^ 1886, I, p. 421.) Elle porte trois vêtements : un chiton en lin finement plissé, visible à la poitrine seulement ; l'himation^ fixé sur l'épaule droite et passé sous le bras gauche; au-dessus, une espèce de mantelet ou de châle. La tête est ornée d'une Stéphane. Le
1. Cf. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, t. 1, p. 51-53, 118, 359-360.
