DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0210
174
GOLDEN AGE OF PLASTIC ART.
CHAPTER XVI.
GOLDEN AGE OF PLASTIC ART.
Pheidias.
ALTHOUGH we can hardly say of ancient Greece that it was
incuriosa suorum, it is a remarkable fact that we are left to conjecture
the date of the birth of a man like Pheidias, who lived in the full
blaze of the brightest period of ancient history. The person of the
artist is hidden by the dazzling splendour of his works. But we do
know that in the very nick of time, when all things lay ready to his
hand, when the long labours of preceding generations had overcome
every technical difficulty, and subjected the hardest and most stubborn
materials to the will and fancy of man ; when the materials themselves
—'marble, bronze, ivory, gold, ebony, and cypress wood'—were there in
inexhaustible abundance; when an arm)' of skilled workmen had been
collected from far and near to do his bidding ; when a boundless
field for the display of his genius and skill had been cleared for him
by the malice of the enemy, and the patriotism of his fellow citizens ;
when the voice of the whole people was calling upon him for the
services which he, of all men, was most capable and most desirous of
rendering, came Pheidias, the greatest artist of all times and ages.1
Pheidias was born probably about B.C. 500, and was therefore
ten years old when the battle of Marathon was fought; he was twenty
at the battle of Salamis, and came of age in the year of the crowning
victories of Plataeae and Mycale. We know little or nothing of his
1 Plut. Pericles, 12 : uirov yap 0X1) fiv \Wos,
X"^Kus, tK(<pas, -xpvaos, tfSfvos, Kvnapiaaos,
at S« ravr-qv imrovovaai Ka\ Karepya^optvai
Oovpyui, (ia<p(h xt'v<">" naKaicriipes nal i\4-
(jiayros (aypAfot, ttoikiKtu!, ToptvTal.
GOLDEN AGE OF PLASTIC ART.
CHAPTER XVI.
GOLDEN AGE OF PLASTIC ART.
Pheidias.
ALTHOUGH we can hardly say of ancient Greece that it was
incuriosa suorum, it is a remarkable fact that we are left to conjecture
the date of the birth of a man like Pheidias, who lived in the full
blaze of the brightest period of ancient history. The person of the
artist is hidden by the dazzling splendour of his works. But we do
know that in the very nick of time, when all things lay ready to his
hand, when the long labours of preceding generations had overcome
every technical difficulty, and subjected the hardest and most stubborn
materials to the will and fancy of man ; when the materials themselves
—'marble, bronze, ivory, gold, ebony, and cypress wood'—were there in
inexhaustible abundance; when an arm)' of skilled workmen had been
collected from far and near to do his bidding ; when a boundless
field for the display of his genius and skill had been cleared for him
by the malice of the enemy, and the patriotism of his fellow citizens ;
when the voice of the whole people was calling upon him for the
services which he, of all men, was most capable and most desirous of
rendering, came Pheidias, the greatest artist of all times and ages.1
Pheidias was born probably about B.C. 500, and was therefore
ten years old when the battle of Marathon was fought; he was twenty
at the battle of Salamis, and came of age in the year of the crowning
victories of Plataeae and Mycale. We know little or nothing of his
1 Plut. Pericles, 12 : uirov yap 0X1) fiv \Wos,
X"^Kus, tK(<pas, -xpvaos, tfSfvos, Kvnapiaaos,
at S« ravr-qv imrovovaai Ka\ Karepya^optvai
Oovpyui, (ia<p(h xt'v<">" naKaicriipes nal i\4-
(jiayros (aypAfot, ttoikiKtu!, ToptvTal.