DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0330
CHAPTER XIX
art in relation to history
Sculpture in relation to history may be considered in two
very different ways : first, we may inquire how the actual polit-
ical history of Greece is reflected in the productions of the sculp-
tor; second, how the course of sculpture runs parallel to the
history of the Greek spirit in other fields of activity.
It might be supposed that the idealizing tendency of Greek
art would make it unsuitable for recording actual facts of his-
tory — the details of a battle, the circumstances of a civic suc-
cess, and the like. There is some justification for this view,
but it must not be expressed in too absolute a way. The walls
of Greek stoae abounded in representations which were in inten-
tion historic. Micon, or Panaenus, painted in a stoa at Athens
a representation of the battle of Marathon, and Euphranor
painted the cavalry battle at Mantinea in which Epaminondas
took part. Our knowledge, however, of surviving Greek monu-
ments forbids us to think that these would be realistic repre-
sentations of "the delights and the horrors of war."
In the friezes of the beautiful Ionic monument of Xanthus,
the so-called Nereid monument, brought to the British Museum
by Sir Charles Fellowes, we find a sculptural record of an actual
siege of some unknown city in Lycia or Caria.1 Several scenes
are portrayed, — the assailants advancing against the city and
mounting scaling ladders to the assault, the general of the be-
siegers sitting in state to receive envoys from the city, the
flight or the captivity of the citizens. But though the scenes
1 Mori. d. Inst., x., Pis. 11-18, and the histories of sculpture.
310
art in relation to history
Sculpture in relation to history may be considered in two
very different ways : first, we may inquire how the actual polit-
ical history of Greece is reflected in the productions of the sculp-
tor; second, how the course of sculpture runs parallel to the
history of the Greek spirit in other fields of activity.
It might be supposed that the idealizing tendency of Greek
art would make it unsuitable for recording actual facts of his-
tory — the details of a battle, the circumstances of a civic suc-
cess, and the like. There is some justification for this view,
but it must not be expressed in too absolute a way. The walls
of Greek stoae abounded in representations which were in inten-
tion historic. Micon, or Panaenus, painted in a stoa at Athens
a representation of the battle of Marathon, and Euphranor
painted the cavalry battle at Mantinea in which Epaminondas
took part. Our knowledge, however, of surviving Greek monu-
ments forbids us to think that these would be realistic repre-
sentations of "the delights and the horrors of war."
In the friezes of the beautiful Ionic monument of Xanthus,
the so-called Nereid monument, brought to the British Museum
by Sir Charles Fellowes, we find a sculptural record of an actual
siege of some unknown city in Lycia or Caria.1 Several scenes
are portrayed, — the assailants advancing against the city and
mounting scaling ladders to the assault, the general of the be-
siegers sitting in state to receive envoys from the city, the
flight or the captivity of the citizens. But though the scenes
1 Mori. d. Inst., x., Pis. 11-18, and the histories of sculpture.
310