DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9188#0050
I
34 The Lamps of Greek Art
Keats has expressed the Greek sense of art in an immortal
line, ' A thing of beauty is a joy for ever '. It was the over-
flowing gladness which lies at the root of creation and evolution
which took eternal form in the painting and sculpture of the
Greeks and inspired all their works. The same irrepressible
joy which gives colour to the flowers, sweetness to the fruit,
song to the birds, and sexual desire to mankind reached here
one of its most perfect manifestations. The life of the Greeks
was by no means one of unmixed happiness. Each city was
not unfrequently at war with its neighbours ; and the penalty
of complete defeat was sometimes the razing of its walls, the
slaughter of its men, and the enslavement of its women. Disease,
even plague, constantly ravaged the land ; and the resources
of modern surgery and modern anaesthetics were not present
to curb their ravages. The life of the majority in country huts,
and still more in the slums of the cities, most of all in the mines,
was rougher and more sordid than is the case in the modern
world, in countries in their normal state. And the people had
not even that hope of a blessed hereafter which sustained the
people of the Middle Ages. Yet under all these clouds, their
spirit was hopeful and aspiring. And their art reflects ever the
brighter side of things. Surely they were wise and right. We
seek out works of art not to foster pessimism but to inspire
optimism, not to show us the world of nature on its repulsive
side, but to reveal to us how much underlying beauty is to be
found in it. ' 'Tis life not death for which we pant, More life
and fuller that we want.'
At the same time, Greek art in some forms was extremely
serious and keenly alive to the darker side of existence. The
Greeks invented tragedy, the poetical reflection of the severity
of fate. Would any modern audience be found, which would
be prepared to sit for a whole summer day listening eagerly
to the grand expression by such poets as Aeschylus and
Sophocles of the power of Nemesis, the instability of all
34 The Lamps of Greek Art
Keats has expressed the Greek sense of art in an immortal
line, ' A thing of beauty is a joy for ever '. It was the over-
flowing gladness which lies at the root of creation and evolution
which took eternal form in the painting and sculpture of the
Greeks and inspired all their works. The same irrepressible
joy which gives colour to the flowers, sweetness to the fruit,
song to the birds, and sexual desire to mankind reached here
one of its most perfect manifestations. The life of the Greeks
was by no means one of unmixed happiness. Each city was
not unfrequently at war with its neighbours ; and the penalty
of complete defeat was sometimes the razing of its walls, the
slaughter of its men, and the enslavement of its women. Disease,
even plague, constantly ravaged the land ; and the resources
of modern surgery and modern anaesthetics were not present
to curb their ravages. The life of the majority in country huts,
and still more in the slums of the cities, most of all in the mines,
was rougher and more sordid than is the case in the modern
world, in countries in their normal state. And the people had
not even that hope of a blessed hereafter which sustained the
people of the Middle Ages. Yet under all these clouds, their
spirit was hopeful and aspiring. And their art reflects ever the
brighter side of things. Surely they were wise and right. We
seek out works of art not to foster pessimism but to inspire
optimism, not to show us the world of nature on its repulsive
side, but to reveal to us how much underlying beauty is to be
found in it. ' 'Tis life not death for which we pant, More life
and fuller that we want.'
At the same time, Greek art in some forms was extremely
serious and keenly alive to the darker side of existence. The
Greeks invented tragedy, the poetical reflection of the severity
of fate. Would any modern audience be found, which would
be prepared to sit for a whole summer day listening eagerly
to the grand expression by such poets as Aeschylus and
Sophocles of the power of Nemesis, the instability of all