That this should feel the need of Death The same as those that lived Is such a Feat of Irony As never was — achieved — Not satisfied to ape the Great In his simplicity The small must die, as well as He — Oh the Audacity — Emily Dickinson
Les mer»A giant as we hoped, in truth, a dwarf; A barrel of slop that shines on Lethe’s wharf’, Which at first seemed a vessel with sweet wine For thirsty lips. So down the swift decline You went through sloven spirit, craven heart And cynic indolence. And here the art Of molding clay has caught you […]
Les mer»«Another reason for the Greeks’ unique vision may be that they lived at the crossroads of three continents, venturing from their land all over the Mediaterranean world to trade and establish colonies. This gave them, with the explorer’s boldness and the philosopher’s yearning for basic truths, the opportunity to examine the ideas of other civilizations […]
Les mer»«Why did this miracle spring from the soil of Attica rather than a mightier, richer, or more ancient civilization? No one can say for certain, but one reason may be the nature of the landscape of Greece. It is not a place of extremes. Greece is a land of unceasing variety, austere but beautiful, where […]
Les mer»«This miracle did not happen instantly. By studying the development of the human figure in Greek sculpture, we can see the perfection of naturalistic art emerging from the chrysalis of what went before. Archaic kouroi are stiff, stylized, portrayed frontally with their mystical smile. Like figures in the art of earlier civilizations, they are rigid […]
Les mer»«When reason and spirit fuse, as they did in the time of Perikles, the natural goal of the artist is to portray beauty in the image of man, but idealized. Like the philosopher and the scientist, the artist sought the essence of the thing, trying to strip away confusing details and variations to uncover the […]
Les mer»«Before the Greek miracle, the great civilizations of the world produced art that was rigid, formal, symbolic rather than realistic. In Egypt life was ruled by overwhelming forces of nature: rain, wind, sun, drought. Egyptian sculpture and architecture, such as the sphinx and the pyramids, were equally colossal, beyond the ken of mere mortals who […]
Les mer»«The ancient Greeks believed there is a divine spark to be found within every mortal. Their gods looked and acted like humans, complete with human foibles and weaknesses. This is an essential difference between the Greeks and all previous societies, which stressed that good behavior must be enforced upon men by the threat of retribution […]
Les mer»«Mortal man became the standard by which things were judged and measured. Buildings were built to accommodate the body and please the eye of a man, not a giant. Gods were portrayed as resembling human beings, not fantastic creatures. And the ruler the lawmaker and judgewas for the first time the ordinary citizen. As Sophokles […]
Les mer»«The fact that the Greeks knew the extremes of passion so well was precisely why they placed such a high value on self control. Knowing the dangers of excess, they struggled to restrain the impulses for unrestricted freedom that can make life in a community intolerable. Perikles said: «We are a free democracy, but we […]
Les mer»
