DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0127
VII
FRONTALITY IN GREEK ART
107
and animals in attitudes on which the mind never dwells, and
which are absent from art. The ordinary representations of
trotting and galloping horses in the art of all nations do not
accurately represent the horses at any moment of their course;
but are, in fact, based upon a construction which results from a
number of successive optical impressions.
The humanist and psychological character thus early im-
pressed upon Greek art marks it throughout. We have already
considered the meaning of entasis or adaptation to the eye of the
spectator, which governs the erection of the temple. In the
same way in all sculpture there is an adaptation to the eyes,
and through the eyes to the thought. The modern artist in a
relief tries to preserve the exact sizes and proportions of the
things he portrays. The Greek regarded this as indifferent.
What he thought more important, he has no scruple in repre-
senting on a larger scale, gods than men, freemen than slaves,
men than the horses which they ride; while the features of
nature, houses, trees and the like are usually omitted altogether
from the background, or, if they are inserted, appear only in
conventional or abbreviated f orm. It is not the world of photog-
raphy which he would depict, but the world as a background
to human life. Even in his use of colour, he is not concerned
exactly to reproduce the tints of nature; he strives rather
to use colour to distinguish what should be distinguished
in nature, as well as to produce a scheme agreeable to
the eye.
In a recent work, Dr. von Mach works out in great detail
this subjective or impressionist aspect of sculpture;1 he tries
to show how many of the customs which seem to us to violate
nature are really adaptations to the eye of the spectator.
For example, it is a custom in Greek friezes to place the heads
of the persons portrayed, whether they be seated, or standing
or even on horseback, at the same level. It is suggested that
1 E. Von Mach, Greek Sculpture, 1903.
FRONTALITY IN GREEK ART
107
and animals in attitudes on which the mind never dwells, and
which are absent from art. The ordinary representations of
trotting and galloping horses in the art of all nations do not
accurately represent the horses at any moment of their course;
but are, in fact, based upon a construction which results from a
number of successive optical impressions.
The humanist and psychological character thus early im-
pressed upon Greek art marks it throughout. We have already
considered the meaning of entasis or adaptation to the eye of the
spectator, which governs the erection of the temple. In the
same way in all sculpture there is an adaptation to the eyes,
and through the eyes to the thought. The modern artist in a
relief tries to preserve the exact sizes and proportions of the
things he portrays. The Greek regarded this as indifferent.
What he thought more important, he has no scruple in repre-
senting on a larger scale, gods than men, freemen than slaves,
men than the horses which they ride; while the features of
nature, houses, trees and the like are usually omitted altogether
from the background, or, if they are inserted, appear only in
conventional or abbreviated f orm. It is not the world of photog-
raphy which he would depict, but the world as a background
to human life. Even in his use of colour, he is not concerned
exactly to reproduce the tints of nature; he strives rather
to use colour to distinguish what should be distinguished
in nature, as well as to produce a scheme agreeable to
the eye.
In a recent work, Dr. von Mach works out in great detail
this subjective or impressionist aspect of sculpture;1 he tries
to show how many of the customs which seem to us to violate
nature are really adaptations to the eye of the spectator.
For example, it is a custom in Greek friezes to place the heads
of the persons portrayed, whether they be seated, or standing
or even on horseback, at the same level. It is suggested that
1 E. Von Mach, Greek Sculpture, 1903.