DOI article:
Essay II: The spirit of the art of Pheidias, in its relation to his age, life, and character
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0070
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ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[II.
This is distinctly not the case. However interesting and
attractive one supreme moment of exertion may be, if it be
essentially transient and momentary, it is not suited to a
material like stone or bronze, the most striking characteristic of
which is the lasting and unaltering, which we cannot and need
not ignore. Myron has expressed with most perfect skill the
one moment preceding a violent though no less trivial1 act;
yet he cannot chain this moment of pause, without appearing to
lengthen indefinitely the duration of the supreme exertion, or
to limit, in our minds, the durability of the material. Both
these suppositions are absurd, and therefore the untrained and
naive spectator is quite right when he wishes that " that youth
would throw the discus and have done with it," however in-
teresting the statue may be to us in many ways.
Those aspects of life, then, which are in themselves merely
momentary and evanescent, as well as those which are essentially
individual, which do not necessarily recur, because they do not
affect or concern general life (and that is at the bottom of
the meaning of trivial), are not suitable for expression in
monumental material. The sculptor must seek, and must
have the natural feeling for, the monumental aspect of life,
that within life which is most lasting; and these aspects are
to be found both in physical life and in spiritual life.
In physical life the most lasting is the most general. The
idea 'man' suggests longer duration to us than any particular
man or group of men, a race more than a tribe, a tribe more than
a family, and a family more than an individual man. In physical
life the idea of disease, or even of cessation of life, is suggested
to us really by some deviation from the normal constitution
of the conditions of life. The more normal any individual
organism, the more does it suggest continuance of organic
existence. Now what we call individuality in contradistinction
to generality when speaking of human beings, consists really
in certain deviations from the general run of normal beings.
The incorporation of all these normal conditions of physical life
1 We must not, however, forget that the athletic sports which to us are mere play,
partook to the early Greeks of a religious character, and that no act connected with
the sacred games was to them really trivial.
ESSAYS ON THE ART OF PHEIDIAS.
[II.
This is distinctly not the case. However interesting and
attractive one supreme moment of exertion may be, if it be
essentially transient and momentary, it is not suited to a
material like stone or bronze, the most striking characteristic of
which is the lasting and unaltering, which we cannot and need
not ignore. Myron has expressed with most perfect skill the
one moment preceding a violent though no less trivial1 act;
yet he cannot chain this moment of pause, without appearing to
lengthen indefinitely the duration of the supreme exertion, or
to limit, in our minds, the durability of the material. Both
these suppositions are absurd, and therefore the untrained and
naive spectator is quite right when he wishes that " that youth
would throw the discus and have done with it," however in-
teresting the statue may be to us in many ways.
Those aspects of life, then, which are in themselves merely
momentary and evanescent, as well as those which are essentially
individual, which do not necessarily recur, because they do not
affect or concern general life (and that is at the bottom of
the meaning of trivial), are not suitable for expression in
monumental material. The sculptor must seek, and must
have the natural feeling for, the monumental aspect of life,
that within life which is most lasting; and these aspects are
to be found both in physical life and in spiritual life.
In physical life the most lasting is the most general. The
idea 'man' suggests longer duration to us than any particular
man or group of men, a race more than a tribe, a tribe more than
a family, and a family more than an individual man. In physical
life the idea of disease, or even of cessation of life, is suggested
to us really by some deviation from the normal constitution
of the conditions of life. The more normal any individual
organism, the more does it suggest continuance of organic
existence. Now what we call individuality in contradistinction
to generality when speaking of human beings, consists really
in certain deviations from the general run of normal beings.
The incorporation of all these normal conditions of physical life
1 We must not, however, forget that the athletic sports which to us are mere play,
partook to the early Greeks of a religious character, and that no act connected with
the sacred games was to them really trivial.