DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0009
PREFACE
A STUDY of the technique of a particular period of art is
not necessarily a dull cataloguing of methods and tricks
and conventions. The way in which a statue is made may,
indeed, afford no little insight into the mind of the maker. For
technical methods are bound to affect the style and outlook
of the artist and so lead to modifications in his aesthetic
intention. If technique is limited and poverty-stricken, then
style will be equally limited and perhaps equally poverty-
stricken. Invention in technical methods, on the other hand,
can encourage freedom of style, though if that invention be-
come too fertile it may lead the artist to prefer technical per-
fection to everything else. And this has, in fact, happened in
every important period of artistic activity.
The intention of this book is to examine in the fullest
detail the various technical methods used by the Greeks in
the making of stone and bronze statues in order that the
reactions of style upon technique and of technique upon
style may be established and analysed. In the process some
important chronological results emerge. If the date of the
introduction of certain tools into the full use of the sculptor
can be established, it follows that valuable chronological data
are at once available. I have attempted in the following pages
to make it clear what research is possible on these lines.
It is obvious that a work of art cannot be taken as a fait
accompli if any critical study of it is to be made. It must be
looked at both from the point of view of its maker and of
those who behold it. The tendency for many years past has
been to look at Greek sculpture from the purely historical
point of view and to disregard the methods employed in its
construction by Greek sculptors. This leads to fruitful
results and, coupled with a balanced judgement of style and a
critical analysis of stylistic qualities, to a satisfactory con-
sideration of the whole affair. But it still leaves the sculptors
A STUDY of the technique of a particular period of art is
not necessarily a dull cataloguing of methods and tricks
and conventions. The way in which a statue is made may,
indeed, afford no little insight into the mind of the maker. For
technical methods are bound to affect the style and outlook
of the artist and so lead to modifications in his aesthetic
intention. If technique is limited and poverty-stricken, then
style will be equally limited and perhaps equally poverty-
stricken. Invention in technical methods, on the other hand,
can encourage freedom of style, though if that invention be-
come too fertile it may lead the artist to prefer technical per-
fection to everything else. And this has, in fact, happened in
every important period of artistic activity.
The intention of this book is to examine in the fullest
detail the various technical methods used by the Greeks in
the making of stone and bronze statues in order that the
reactions of style upon technique and of technique upon
style may be established and analysed. In the process some
important chronological results emerge. If the date of the
introduction of certain tools into the full use of the sculptor
can be established, it follows that valuable chronological data
are at once available. I have attempted in the following pages
to make it clear what research is possible on these lines.
It is obvious that a work of art cannot be taken as a fait
accompli if any critical study of it is to be made. It must be
looked at both from the point of view of its maker and of
those who behold it. The tendency for many years past has
been to look at Greek sculpture from the purely historical
point of view and to disregard the methods employed in its
construction by Greek sculptors. This leads to fruitful
results and, coupled with a balanced judgement of style and a
critical analysis of stylistic qualities, to a satisfactory con-
sideration of the whole affair. But it still leaves the sculptors