DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0283
CHAPTER XVI
literature and painting : the epic
The relations of poetry to art offer a subject of great in-
terest to the student of the classics. The subject was brought
fully before the learned world by Lessing in his Laocodn.
The Laocodn has become a classic both in Germany and in
England; and it still keeps the interest which always attaches
to the first thorough study of an important subject by a great
man. But Lessing's knowledge of Greek art was closely lim-
ited. The history of ancient sculpture had in his time barely
been sketched, and Greek painting was practically unknown.
One cannot, therefore, be surprised to find that many of his
dicta no longer hold. His theories have the same relation to
modern archaeology which the theories of Adam Smith have
to modern economics.
Our present subject is especially the relations which may be
observed between vase-painting and literature. This is a mat-
ter concerning all whose education is on classical lines.1
We must begin by endeavouring to put out of our minds the
modern relations between poem or tale and the representations
1 The most important general work on this subject is still Robert's Bild
undLied; some of the papers of Jahn and Brunn are full of suggestion. Mr.
Huddilston's Attitude of the Greek Tragedians towards Art may also be consulted.
In late years it has occurred to several publishers to issue editions of the Greek
and Roman writers with illustrations, largely taken from ancient vase-paintings.
I am sorry to say that this has seldom been done by adequate authorities or in
a satisfactory fashion. Hill's Illustrations of School Classics is a good exception.
Engelmann's Bilderallas zur Ilias and zur Odyssee (English edition by Anderson)
is also a work of a competent authority. Most of the vases which bear on
literature are figured in Baumeister's Denkmaler.
263
literature and painting : the epic
The relations of poetry to art offer a subject of great in-
terest to the student of the classics. The subject was brought
fully before the learned world by Lessing in his Laocodn.
The Laocodn has become a classic both in Germany and in
England; and it still keeps the interest which always attaches
to the first thorough study of an important subject by a great
man. But Lessing's knowledge of Greek art was closely lim-
ited. The history of ancient sculpture had in his time barely
been sketched, and Greek painting was practically unknown.
One cannot, therefore, be surprised to find that many of his
dicta no longer hold. His theories have the same relation to
modern archaeology which the theories of Adam Smith have
to modern economics.
Our present subject is especially the relations which may be
observed between vase-painting and literature. This is a mat-
ter concerning all whose education is on classical lines.1
We must begin by endeavouring to put out of our minds the
modern relations between poem or tale and the representations
1 The most important general work on this subject is still Robert's Bild
undLied; some of the papers of Jahn and Brunn are full of suggestion. Mr.
Huddilston's Attitude of the Greek Tragedians towards Art may also be consulted.
In late years it has occurred to several publishers to issue editions of the Greek
and Roman writers with illustrations, largely taken from ancient vase-paintings.
I am sorry to say that this has seldom been done by adequate authorities or in
a satisfactory fashion. Hill's Illustrations of School Classics is a good exception.
Engelmann's Bilderallas zur Ilias and zur Odyssee (English edition by Anderson)
is also a work of a competent authority. Most of the vases which bear on
literature are figured in Baumeister's Denkmaler.
263