Fairbanks, Arthur: Greek art: the basis of later European art (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1933)

THE SPIRIT OF GREEK ART
the classical tradition on the one hand and on
the other hand romanticism or naturalism or
some other trend. For example, Chapu may
be called a classicist, Rodin a romanticist,
Meunier a realist. The antithesis is justified
only to the extent to which even in art of
a high order the details of indebtedness to
Greece are partially suppressed by the artist’s
sensitiveness to a totally different age. How-
ever, with our increasing knowledge of original
Greek art we must recognize that our debt to
Greece is not confined to any one school or
tendency of western art. Rodin no less than
Chapu was a devoted student of classical art,
and Meunier sought to catch the spirit of Greece
in his work. Of course Greek influence is some-
times clear, sometimes obscured in later Eu-
rope as new forces have made themselves felt
from outside, or have developed from within
under the stress of social and economic and
political changes. The ideas to be expressed in
painting and sculpture have been profoundly
modified, and new forms of expression have
been developed to meet new demands. Never-
theless, the fact remains that our civilization
has almost universally accepted the conception
of art, its method, and its significance, which
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