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THE SCULPTURE OF THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: THE AWAKENING OF IDEALISM IN ART

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Didem Demiralp

Gazi Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü

Introduction...

Think of a visitor who has been walking through the large halls of a museum... If he/ she comes across a Greek sculpture of a human shaped (anthropomorphic) god or goddess what he is going to notice will be the perfection or the beauty that the sculptor shaped thousands of years ago. It will not matter if it is an original piece from the fifth century BC. or a Roman copy. The visitor will be charmed by the idealized beauty he sees.A grandeur which took a shape on an anthropormorphic god. But one wonders if he is aware of what he sees on the statue. Probably the most important two characteristics that Greek art[1] had and gained her a unique position among other ancient civilizations:the interest to depict the human body and the tendency to beauty or strong aesthetic feelings.

A myth relating to beauty...

The tale is well known. Once upon a time a beauty contest among threegoddesses[2] of Olympos[3] was held on Ida (Kazdağ). The one who was going to be picked by the judge -Trojan prince Paris- was going to be presented a golden apple. Although all of the goddesses promised him thingsthat were impossible to reject[4],the young prince decided to give the fruit to Aphrodite. Because she promised him the most beautiful woman of Greece, Helena. Despite the catasthrophic results[5] of Paris’ decision, one thing was clear: The winner of the contest was the beauty. The perfect, enchanting beauty. It was this passion of beauty that shaped the Ancient Greek thought that was reflected in art especially in the second half of the fifth century BC.

The Judgement of Paris by Rubens

The awakening of aesthetic feelings of a nation...

It has often been said that throughout the history of Greek art, beauty and shape were the main interests of craftsmen. Otherwise they tried to express what was considered aesthetic on their creations. If one wonders how in such an early time, Greeks gained the aesthetic feelings, he must bear in mind the beauty of the natural environment of the country. It isalso obvious that the softness of the Aegean climate influenced the people who lived in the region. Just like today the sun was never missing even in winter (Mansel, 1988).These two factors were among the elements which nurtured the artistic pleasure of this nation. Greek scene had a powerful influence on the Greek eye and the Greek mind. The beauty of the Greek landscape depends primarily on light. Such a landscape and such a light impose their secret discipline on the eye and make it see things in contour and relief rather than in mysterious perspective or in flat spatial relations (Bowra, 1957).

Afterwards when the artists of the Classical period[6] aimed at the flawless beauty on their works,this interest was expressed at firston the sculptures of human shaped gods[7].Today this appearance points out another factor that influenced the early awakening of artistic pleasure in Greece.Man had a special position within the Greek thought. So when the Greeks tried to explain the natural phenomena such as rain, earthquake, storm as well as birth, death and war, they personified[8] all these concepts.Otherwise they imagined their gods in human shaped.Not only were the gods human shaped but also had humane attributes[9]. Otherwise the Olympians[10] were familiar with emotions such as love, hate, jeaolusy, enmity, etc[11]. Myths as well as the poems of Homer[12] and Hesiod[13] were full of the adventures of gods and goddesses both within themselves and with people.

Imagining the holy in human form. Raising the man to holiness.This comprehension was also probably the most important reason why one of the characteristics of ancient Greek culture had been described as Humanism[14]. A Humanism that was destined to be an Idealism[15]rather than Realism[16]. It was the second half of the fifth century BC. when the artists decoratedtheir works with perfect beautyto crown this Idealism -symbol of the age- with grandeur.

Model of Athena Parthenos

of Pheidias

On the way to Idealism... Athens[17] in the fifth century BC.

When Schiller[18] said “the artist is the child of his age” (Schiller,1999)he actually stressed the social aspect of art. Otherwise the impossibility of comprehending the art of a specific period without considering the society of the Age.So one who wants to comprehend the art of the Classical Age has to take a look at Athens of the second half of the fifth century BC. The birthplace of Idealism.

As it is well known Athens was the leader among other Greek cities in the Persian Wars[19].And after the Persians were finally beaten, Athens maintained her leader position in the whole Greece.The city was very rich not just because of the loot from the enemy and from the allied cities but also from the silver mines[20] (Boardman, 1993).

On the other hand Athens of the Age was also where democracy[21] was born for the first time in history.After the foundation of the democratic institutions,the ordinary citizengot the right to vote in the assembly[22] and could be one of the jurors in the law court[23].As a result of this appearance man was counted as much more estimableand this comprehension directed the philosophers and the artists of period towards the ideal man. While the Sophists[24] declared that man was the measure of all things, Socrates[25]called the ideal man as “virtuous”.While the mythical-tragic heroof Sophocles[26]and Euripides[27] was close to the ordinary man, Aristophanes’[28] comic character was exactly everyman. What about the sculptor? He idealized the man on the statues of majestic gods and goddesses as well as on the muscled athletes and Amazons[29] by balancing the opposed interests of absolute proportion and anatomical realism. Like his fellow playwrights and philosophers he sought a way reconciling the variety of human experience and appearance with absolute rules or forms (Boardman, 1993).

Archaic Kouros Critian Boy Discobolus

(Early Classical) (460-450 BC.)

Shaping an Ideal on stoneby numbers...

One of the definitions of “beauty” has always been “order, measurement and a strong harmony of the parts within a whole” Bodei (1995/2008).It seems clear that the intellectuals of the Classical Age felt the same.While Pythagoras[30] and his followers[31] thought that measure, order and number were the reasons of form (Kranz, 1984) afterwards Aristotle[32]claimed that the main species of beauty were proportion, articulation and order (Stewart, 1997). On the other hand beyond representing his subjectwith anatomical accuracy, the sculptor of the Age adorned him/her with perfect beauty that he shapedaccording to the mathematical elements such as measurement and proportion. Otherwise the ideal man of the Classical artist took a shape on stone by numbers.

As a matter of fact sculpting proportional figures was not new for the artists. The Egyptians would use a grid system to map the human form on whichthey would divide the body into twentyone pieces. Although the Greek sculptors used this technique for a while especially with the Classical period, they wanted to overcome this monotony to depict[33] the ideal man of the Age.

Canon of Polykleitos Amazon of Polykleitos

One of the most famous sculptors who shaped his subjects according to the new rules was Polykleitos[34].His -mostly bronze- original works don’t survive. But one of his statues -an athlete known as “Canon”[35]- has more than thirty copies. This was the most famous work of the artist. Because according to the ancient writers “Canon” was synonymous with the Polykleitan ideal or the perfect beauty of the Age.Galen, the medical writer of the second century AD. writes: “Chrysippus[36] holds that beauty does not consist in the elements (by “elements” are understood the properties hot, cold, dry and moist) of the body but in the harmonious proportion of the parts. The proportion of one finger to another, of all fingers to the rest of the hand, of the rest of the hand to the wrist, and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the whole arm, and in short, everything to everything else. Just as described in the Canon of Polykleitos. Polykleitos it was who demonstrated these proportions with a work of art by making a statue according to his treatise and calling it by the same title, the Canon” (Spivey, 1997). On the other hand Pliny, the Latin scholar and writer said that the sculptors after Polykleitos derived art’s precepts from Canon as if from a code of law (Sowerby, 1996).

If one of the keywords of the Canon was proportion the other one was balance. As the figure carries a spear in his left hand the left shoulder is slightly rised. On the other hand each weight bearing limb or muscle was placed in diagonal opposition to a relaxed one.

In other words the whole body was shaped through the strict division of the muscles into major and minor, active or passive, tense and relaxed (Stewart, 1997). The rhythm of the statue making an S curve was completed with the movement of the head. A posture that was going to be so admired and called as “contrapposto” by the artists of Renaissance[37] thousands of years later.

Conclusion...

When Paris abducted Helen he knew that this would be the disaster of Troy.On the other hand even the eldery of Troy-after the kingdom was sieged by the enemy- felt that Paris could not be blamed for his action. Anyone would follow the divine beauty...

Attaining the eternal beauty… It was this desirethat shaped the culture of Greece thousands of years ago. But this aim was never asobvious as it was in Athens ofthe fifth century BC.Both the philosophers and the artists followed the perfect.How about the sculptors? When their passion to depict the perfect turned into an ideal, they didn’t hesitate to crown both their gods and the ordinary man with flawless beauty. WhilePheidias adorned his gigantic Athena with precious stones, Polykleitos sculpted his athlete by numerical arrangements. When the Classical sculpture idealized the human body by crowning it with flawless beauty, Idealism in art was born…

Bibliography

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Kranz, W. (1984). Antik felsefe. (1. basım). İstanbul: Sosyal Yayınlar.

Lefkowitz, M. and Fant, M.B. (2005).Women’s life in Greece and Rome.(Third

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Kitaplığı.

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(7th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

[1] Roughly from 1000 BC to 31 BC.

[2] Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.

[3] Ancient Greeks imagined that their gods lived upon the cloudy hills of mount Olympos.

[4] While Hera promised him the kingdom of Asia, Athena promised wisdom and victory. The goddess of love on the other hand promised the love of Helena, the beautiful princess of Sparta (Lukianos, 2002).

[5] It was rumored that the war of Troy (Hisarlık) was the result of Paris’ choice. Helena was the wife of Menelaus the Spartan prince. After Paris went to Sparta and abducted the beautiful woman, the whole Greek navy came to Troy and destroyed the kingdom to rescue Helena.

[6] Although the Classical Age of Greece was between 480-323 BC., the artists mentioned here were active in the second half of the fifth century BC.

[7] According to Jacob Burckhardt, the historian of art and culture; the gods of the Greeks of the fifth century BC. have been a canon of beauty in representing divinity and sublimity in all religions and the Greek ideal of gods has become a fact of world historical significance (Burckhardt, 2002).

[8] To show or think of an object, quality, etc. as a person.

[9] According to Pindar (522-443 BC.) the lyric poet; “Single is the race, single of men and of gods. From a single mother we both draw breath...” But he also knew that gods had infinite powers while men’s finite. So he also said; “...the difference of power in everyting keeps us apart...” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 2003).

[10] Zeus, Hera, Athena, Demeter, Hermes, Aprhodite, etc.

[11] They were even believed to eat -nectar and ambrosia- food. On the other hand they would never age or die.

[12] 9th century BC. Poet from Smyrna (İzmir). He had two epics called “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. While Iliad’s theme was the war of Troy, “Odyssey”’s was the afterwards of this fight.

[13] 8 th century BC. Poet from Boiotia (a region in Greece). In “Theogonia” he narrated the birth of gods. In his didactic poem “Erga Kai Hemerai” (Works and Days) he stressed the importance of labor.

[14] Humanism is a system of thought that considers that solving problems with the help of reason is more important than religious beliefs. It emphasizes the fact that the basic nature of human is good.

[15] The opinion that considers to shape reality according to ideas. In art to represent things or persons as better or perfect than they really are.

[16] The quality of being very like real life. Also a style in art or literature that shows things and people as they are in real life.

[17] The splendid city of the fifth century BC. One of the independent city states (polis) of Greece. Despite their common language and religion Greeks could not form a politicial union until the age of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC).

[18]Johann Christoph Friedrich (1759-1805). German poet and philosopher.

[19] Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC).

[20] At Laurium.

[21] The root of the word is demos-kratos or public dominance. Athenian democracy was limited to male citizens and later to the male who were Athenian born.

The foundation of democracy as well as the wealth of the city was crowned with a huge temple dedicated to Athena -the protector of the city- on the highest hill of Athens: The Parthenon (447-438BC). One piece of Pericles’ -the statesman- building activity. The monumental chryselephantine (gold-ivory) statue of the goddess as well as the other architectural sculptures of the building were made -or directed -by Pheidias. As the original cult statue is now lost we depend on the ancient writers to imagine it’s tremendous beauty.

On the other hand the surviving architectural sculptures of the temple which depict gods and men together symbolize another ideal of democracy: The pride of being an Athenian.

[22] Ecclesia.

[23] Heliaia.

[24] The term “sophistes” originally means a wise man or expert in some art or craft. In the fifth century BC., it came to be especially applied to itinerant teachers who travelled from city to city giving instructions for a fee. While Protagoras professed to teach arete (virtue or efficiency in the conduct of life), Gorgias specialized in rhetoric (oratory) which was one of the chief means to attain success in a democracy. But less scrupulous sophists claimed to be able to teach easy ways to success and to impart the ability to argue for any point of view without regard for morality and truth. This resulted in the terms “sophist” and “sophistic” becoming invested with pejorative connotations (Speake, 1994).

[25] Greek philosopher (469-399 BC).

[26] Greek tragedian (496-406 BC). Ajax, Antigone and Trachiniae may be mentioned among his plays.

[27] Greek tragedian (485-406 BC). Helen, Hecuba, Supplices may be mentioned among his plays.

[28] Greek comic poet (445-385 BC). Eleven of his plays survive.

[29] Mythical women warriors.

[30] Greek philosopher (580-504 BC).

[31] The Pythagoreans of the 5th and the 4th century BC.

[32] Macedonian philosopher (384-322 BC).

[33] According to Erwin Panofsky, the historian of art; Classical Greek art opposed to the inflexible, mechanical, static and conventional craftsman’s code of the Egyptians as elastic, dynamic and aesthetically relevant system of relations (Spivey, 1997).

[34] From Argos. He was active between 450-420 BC.

[35] Or rule. Polykleitos called his statue by this title. On the other hand the Romans called it by the title “Doryphoros” or spearbearer. Today some scholars identify the figure as Achilles, the Achaean hero.

[36] Stoic philosopher (280-207 BC).

[37] The period in Europe during the 14th, 15th and the 16th centuries when people became interested in the ideas and culture of Ancient Greece and Rome and used these influences in their own art, literature, etc.