Discobolus by Myron (Ancient Greek Art

Discobolus by Myron (Ancient Greek Art

In any history , and above all in the history of art , there are two main aspects , from which the subject may be considered . The subject may be either studied from the point of view of general tendencies , the development of types and ideas , their national character , and the circumstances that surrounded and fostered their growth or attention may be given to the achievements of individuals , their personality , and the contributions that they respectively made to the general progress It is true that in any comprehensive study

the two must be blended , must supplement and confirm each other . Whichever principle is followed to guide the selection and arrangement of the facts , the study cannot follow it to the entire exclusion of the other . Yet the artist is no less dependent upon external circumstances for the occasion and the material of his works . Had not the predecessors worked through generations of experiment and observation to improve the familiar types to attain mastery over the stubborn substance of marble and bronze , and to acquire and perfect a skilled technique in the treatment of the nude and of drapery , no sculptor of the fifth century could have conceived or executed the bold yet symmetrical contortions of the Discobolus . Had Myron been born a century earlier , he could no more have produced these works than if he had lived at the present day

Before the study approaches the work of this individual master , it may be advisable to take a more general survey of the character of Greek sculpture , as contrasted with earlier and later styles . No art , and especially that of sculpture , can make true progress unless it is constantly kept in touch with nature by observation . Here again the social surroundings of the Greek artist gave him an immense advantage over all others . The daily exercises in the palaestra or gymnasium and the frequently recurring athletic festivals gave him constant opportunities for observing the human form both in rest and in action This perfection of condition and of all-round muscular development with the help of a well-trained memory is one of the chief attainments of Myron . For the observation of drapery , too , he had constant opportunities in the figures that surrounded him in daily life . There he could see a variety and grace of texture and of folds such as no draping of a model in unfamiliar garments and materials could ever have suggested

It is true that the same opportunities for varied observation did not exist in the case of the nude female figure . It is perhaps for this very reason that Greek statues of this type , however beautiful in form rarely if ever impress us with the same breadth and nobility of conception as the corresponding male figures , whether of gods or men The feeling of the Greeks themselves about the matter is well illustrated by the story of Zeuxis at Croton , how the people of that town , when they commissioned him to paint a...