DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0577
CHAPTER XXX.
INTRODUCTION. —SCULPTURE IN GREECE AND SAMOTHRAKE.
Features of the Hellenistic Age. — Wide Spread of Greek Influence. — Realism in Art. — Asiatic Influ-
ences.— Pageants. — Hephaistion's Funeral Pyre. — Sculptures associated with Landscape.—Art
in Attica. — Artists. — Kistophoros of Fitzwilliam Museum. — Dionysos. — Tombstones. — Tower
of the Winds.— Art in the Peloponnesos.—Artists. — Sikyon. — Chares. — Olympia. — Athlete's
Head. — Small Monuments. — Relief of Polybios.— Art in Macedonia. — Pottery. — Samothrake.—
Its Buildings, etc. — Nike of Samothrake.
With Alexander the Great, and his greater teacher Aristotle, begins a new
era in the history of Greece and of the world. Watching the Macedonian con-
queror, we should see him at first sweeping like a tornado over the East, over-
turning its vast empires, and shaking to their very centre its hoary civilizations.
But following in his wake we should see also the clarifying influences of Hellenic
culture, spreading now far beyond its former narrow limits, and everywhere
taking on a new and peculiar coloring. This new age, termed Hellenistic, in
distinction from the earlier, more purely Hellenic time, lasted from Alexander,
for somewhat more than two hundred years, until Roman power gained the
ascendency in the Greek world. Even before Alexander's epoch-making con-
quests, Aristotle was propounding his new philosophy, destined to do its share
m revolutionizing and shaping the character of the dawning age. The intense
striving to grasp the reality of things, which now prevailed, and the search for
the essential foundations of knowledge, paved the way for genuine scientific
research, and made this a time of reflection. Great changes in thought, lan-
guage, art, and society, attended upon the spread of the new philosophy and
°f Greek dominion. The veil of idealism, which had rested upon life, was being
torn away; and in its place the actual life of man, with all its tragedy and ter-
rible earnestness, as well as playful light-heartedness, was laid bare. While in-
fluenced by what had gone before, this age was not a feeble reflex of the earlier
passions and thoughts, nor was it a time of crude realism. We shall see that in
every department it profited by its glorious heritage, the thoughts and ideals
01 which it used and applied in a manner peculiar to the changed times and
circumstances. The interest of this time centres no longer in Greece itself:
the stage has become a far wider one, and the players upon it are not small
republics, but powerful Greek dynasties, with great resources to back them.
54'
INTRODUCTION. —SCULPTURE IN GREECE AND SAMOTHRAKE.
Features of the Hellenistic Age. — Wide Spread of Greek Influence. — Realism in Art. — Asiatic Influ-
ences.— Pageants. — Hephaistion's Funeral Pyre. — Sculptures associated with Landscape.—Art
in Attica. — Artists. — Kistophoros of Fitzwilliam Museum. — Dionysos. — Tombstones. — Tower
of the Winds.— Art in the Peloponnesos.—Artists. — Sikyon. — Chares. — Olympia. — Athlete's
Head. — Small Monuments. — Relief of Polybios.— Art in Macedonia. — Pottery. — Samothrake.—
Its Buildings, etc. — Nike of Samothrake.
With Alexander the Great, and his greater teacher Aristotle, begins a new
era in the history of Greece and of the world. Watching the Macedonian con-
queror, we should see him at first sweeping like a tornado over the East, over-
turning its vast empires, and shaking to their very centre its hoary civilizations.
But following in his wake we should see also the clarifying influences of Hellenic
culture, spreading now far beyond its former narrow limits, and everywhere
taking on a new and peculiar coloring. This new age, termed Hellenistic, in
distinction from the earlier, more purely Hellenic time, lasted from Alexander,
for somewhat more than two hundred years, until Roman power gained the
ascendency in the Greek world. Even before Alexander's epoch-making con-
quests, Aristotle was propounding his new philosophy, destined to do its share
m revolutionizing and shaping the character of the dawning age. The intense
striving to grasp the reality of things, which now prevailed, and the search for
the essential foundations of knowledge, paved the way for genuine scientific
research, and made this a time of reflection. Great changes in thought, lan-
guage, art, and society, attended upon the spread of the new philosophy and
°f Greek dominion. The veil of idealism, which had rested upon life, was being
torn away; and in its place the actual life of man, with all its tragedy and ter-
rible earnestness, as well as playful light-heartedness, was laid bare. While in-
fluenced by what had gone before, this age was not a feeble reflex of the earlier
passions and thoughts, nor was it a time of crude realism. We shall see that in
every department it profited by its glorious heritage, the thoughts and ideals
01 which it used and applied in a manner peculiar to the changed times and
circumstances. The interest of this time centres no longer in Greece itself:
the stage has become a far wider one, and the players upon it are not small
republics, but powerful Greek dynasties, with great resources to back them.
54'