DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0035
II
ANCIENT CRITICS ON ART
IS
Another time Socrates visited Cleiton the sculptor,1 and
discoursed with him. "I see and recognize," he said, "Clei-
ton, that you distinguish 2 runners and wrestlers, and boxers
and pancratiasts; but how do you introduce into your statues
the lifelike aspect which especially attracts the eyes of men ?"
And when Cleiton was embarrassed, and could not answer at
once, he went on : " Surely by imitating in your work the forms
of living men, you make your statues more lifelike." "Cer-
tainly," he replied. " It is then by rendering the parts of the
body which in various attitudes are drawn up and drawn down,
and pressed together and separated, and strained and loosened,
that you make figures more like the real ones and more con-
vincing?" "Quite so," he replied. "So the imitation of the
strain of bodies doing this or that produces pleasure in the
beholders ?" "It seems so," he replied. "Must you not then
imitate the threatening eyes of those who are fighting, and the
triumphant expression of those who are victorious?" "De-
cidedly," he answered. "It is then the business of a sculptor
to represent in bodily forms the energies of the spirit."
Xenophon says that Socrates was of use to painter and
sculptor, and he explains in what way he was of use, by direct-
um them to think more of the energies of the spirit. Parrha-
sius was skilled in rendering the facts of the surface of the
human body, whether young or old. And he knew how, by
a skilful selection of the beauties of individuals, to form an ideal
type. We shall see, in a later chapter, that this procedure was
usual with artists. What Parrhasius was less alive to was the
degree to which the feelings of the spirit can be mirrored in
painting, and the emotional turn which can thus be given to
art.
In the same way Cleiton fully understood that the bodily
1 Dr. Klein has suggested that Cleiton may be an abbreviated form of Poly-
cleitus; but the statues of Polycleitus, however beautiful, are scarcely lifelike.
21 take the reading dMoious 7roie?s: the reading koXo! ovs iroicis 'you make
beautiful,' quite spoils the sense.
ANCIENT CRITICS ON ART
IS
Another time Socrates visited Cleiton the sculptor,1 and
discoursed with him. "I see and recognize," he said, "Clei-
ton, that you distinguish 2 runners and wrestlers, and boxers
and pancratiasts; but how do you introduce into your statues
the lifelike aspect which especially attracts the eyes of men ?"
And when Cleiton was embarrassed, and could not answer at
once, he went on : " Surely by imitating in your work the forms
of living men, you make your statues more lifelike." "Cer-
tainly," he replied. " It is then by rendering the parts of the
body which in various attitudes are drawn up and drawn down,
and pressed together and separated, and strained and loosened,
that you make figures more like the real ones and more con-
vincing?" "Quite so," he replied. "So the imitation of the
strain of bodies doing this or that produces pleasure in the
beholders ?" "It seems so," he replied. "Must you not then
imitate the threatening eyes of those who are fighting, and the
triumphant expression of those who are victorious?" "De-
cidedly," he answered. "It is then the business of a sculptor
to represent in bodily forms the energies of the spirit."
Xenophon says that Socrates was of use to painter and
sculptor, and he explains in what way he was of use, by direct-
um them to think more of the energies of the spirit. Parrha-
sius was skilled in rendering the facts of the surface of the
human body, whether young or old. And he knew how, by
a skilful selection of the beauties of individuals, to form an ideal
type. We shall see, in a later chapter, that this procedure was
usual with artists. What Parrhasius was less alive to was the
degree to which the feelings of the spirit can be mirrored in
painting, and the emotional turn which can thus be given to
art.
In the same way Cleiton fully understood that the bodily
1 Dr. Klein has suggested that Cleiton may be an abbreviated form of Poly-
cleitus; but the statues of Polycleitus, however beautiful, are scarcely lifelike.
21 take the reading dMoious 7roie?s: the reading koXo! ovs iroicis 'you make
beautiful,' quite spoils the sense.