The greek art  

The Greeks produced a civilization which in many ways has never been surpassed0in the world. Of what they accomplished in art little remains, and we are not eve sure that what we have is the best. But what remains has aroused the admiration and astonishment of the world. There is no sculpture comparable to theirs; there are no buildings more beautiful and more admirable than those they built; there are no literary pieces superior to theirs. In fact, in literature they are all supreme- the world has produced no epic poet to compare with homer. No lyric poet to equal pindar. The greeks cultivated prose rather late, but history has no greater practitioner than herodotus and thucydides; and there is no prose, aside, perhaps from the bible, more poetic than that of plato. Of the four great tragic poets the world has produced three are greek; the fourth is shakespeare. Of their painting little has survived. But we have the statement of a contemporary art critic commenting on a paintin of helen of troy by polygnotus. " in her eyes,one could read the story of the Trojan War! "

How different was greek art from the known forms of art all over the world in those times and even today! Egypt produced an art that was unnatural, stiff in its fixity of expression. The egyptian artist were unable to work with freedom. Indian art, on the other hand, was absolutely free, but the results were strange. Consider the famous statue of Siva, an INDIAN god , represented as performing an intricate dance. The god stands, poised, arrerted in movement; the movements of the dance are represented by many heads and arms curving from the body to denote the rhythm of the dance.


Go to the next at part 2 of greek art. . .