DOI article:
No. III: The influence of athletic games upon greek art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0455
III.]
APPENDIX.
419
shading, and the gradation of tones of colours to carry this fundamental
principle to its highest variety and expressive power.
It was in the palaestra that the early painter had the centre of artistic
interest impressed upon him by the combatants whose struggle engrossed
the attention of all spectators, it was here that he had this rudimentary
form of composition impressed upon his eye by the ever-recurring
figures of the Ephedras and the Paidotribes standing on either side.
Yet not only by a p?-iori probability is this statement supported.
The monuments themselves, if carefully studied, give the weightiest
evidence. In the first place, the earliest works of art do not give us this
form of composition, it comes in with the athletic vases. Furthermore
if we analyse the later vases, even those representing subjects most
" unathletic" and of late complex forms, we can always trace this
simple schematic form here given in the pugilists, the Ephedras and
the Paidotribes. I have chosen these diagrams, serving to illustrate
quite different lectures, at random. Here you have a scene representing
the birth of Athene, here another relating to a tradition of Athene Ergane,
and in all you have the two chief figures in the centre with standing
figures on either side facing them. Sometimes the side figures are
doubled, sometimes there is but one central figure in the middle, but the
scheme remains the same. Here you have late vase-paintings with
numerous figures free and bold in composition and execution, represent-
ing an Amazonomachia and a Gigantomachia, and all this large group
resolves itself into smaller groups of the form of this early athletic vase.
However complicated and perfect the composition of a late vase, the
traces of this simplest form of pictorial composition will always be
noticed, the fundamental principle of pictorial art which was impressed
upon the eye of the artist through the athletic games of the Greeks.
What we owe to the Greek artists constitutes the principle of art even
in our time; it is the combination of nature and the ideal in the human
figure, and the principle of composition in pictorial art, both of which
were developed in him chiefly through the influence of the athletic
games, and this fact I hope to have made clear to you this evening.
From the nature of the subject dealt with in this address we have
necessarily only noticed Greek art in its expression of the physical side
of human life, leaving unobserved the spiritual side of their great works.
There is an erroneous notion abroad, started by those who have but a
superficial acquaintance with Greek art, that though the Greeks repre-
sented with perfection the physical side of beauty, they failed to render
due justice to the spirit and the soul. If sufficient time were at my dis-
posal, I believe that I could show you how erroneous is this notion. It
27—2
APPENDIX.
419
shading, and the gradation of tones of colours to carry this fundamental
principle to its highest variety and expressive power.
It was in the palaestra that the early painter had the centre of artistic
interest impressed upon him by the combatants whose struggle engrossed
the attention of all spectators, it was here that he had this rudimentary
form of composition impressed upon his eye by the ever-recurring
figures of the Ephedras and the Paidotribes standing on either side.
Yet not only by a p?-iori probability is this statement supported.
The monuments themselves, if carefully studied, give the weightiest
evidence. In the first place, the earliest works of art do not give us this
form of composition, it comes in with the athletic vases. Furthermore
if we analyse the later vases, even those representing subjects most
" unathletic" and of late complex forms, we can always trace this
simple schematic form here given in the pugilists, the Ephedras and
the Paidotribes. I have chosen these diagrams, serving to illustrate
quite different lectures, at random. Here you have a scene representing
the birth of Athene, here another relating to a tradition of Athene Ergane,
and in all you have the two chief figures in the centre with standing
figures on either side facing them. Sometimes the side figures are
doubled, sometimes there is but one central figure in the middle, but the
scheme remains the same. Here you have late vase-paintings with
numerous figures free and bold in composition and execution, represent-
ing an Amazonomachia and a Gigantomachia, and all this large group
resolves itself into smaller groups of the form of this early athletic vase.
However complicated and perfect the composition of a late vase, the
traces of this simplest form of pictorial composition will always be
noticed, the fundamental principle of pictorial art which was impressed
upon the eye of the artist through the athletic games of the Greeks.
What we owe to the Greek artists constitutes the principle of art even
in our time; it is the combination of nature and the ideal in the human
figure, and the principle of composition in pictorial art, both of which
were developed in him chiefly through the influence of the athletic
games, and this fact I hope to have made clear to you this evening.
From the nature of the subject dealt with in this address we have
necessarily only noticed Greek art in its expression of the physical side
of human life, leaving unobserved the spiritual side of their great works.
There is an erroneous notion abroad, started by those who have but a
superficial acquaintance with Greek art, that though the Greeks repre-
sented with perfection the physical side of beauty, they failed to render
due justice to the spirit and the soul. If sufficient time were at my dis-
posal, I believe that I could show you how erroneous is this notion. It
27—2