Classical Greece has always been a reference in terms of beauty. Gombrich himself, in his immortal work The history of art He falls into one of these clichés when he states that, during the century of Pericles, “the great awakening of art” began. In this sense, the eminent theorist allows himself to be carried away by the belief, so common in the West, that Greece was the pinnacle of art and beauty
Is this really so? Can we categorically affirm, as Gombrich does, that during classical Greece there was a wake up? Yes and no. If we stick strictly to the birth of a naturalistic art, yes, Athens was the reference. But can we perhaps reduce art to a naturalistic copy of reality?
The classical era also has its artistic topics, although it may seem unbelievable. In their case, and unlike medieval art (more reviled), these topics come more from the idealization that took place during the 18th century, when the supposed classical canons were recovered and the academy emerged.
In today’s article we are going to briefly review what they are. the canons of beauty on which classical Greek art was based and how they were recovered during Neoclassicism.
Nature observation
The Greek art we have in mind corresponds only to a certain period in the history of Greece; exactly, the years that pass from the so-called “Century of Pericles” (5th century BC) and the Hellenistic era (4th century BC). But the artistic journey of the Greek polis began, of course, much earlier.
If we take the first manifestations of Greek sculpture, the so-called archaic style, we will observe that the canons of beauty are very similar to the Egyptian ones Clear prototypes of this art are the Kuroi and the Korai (Kouros and Kore in singular), sculptures of boys and girls who have been considered athletes and priestesses, respectively. In all of them, we observe rigid and symmetrical canons, very close to the statuary of the Nile country.
Both korai Like the kuroi They are invariably facing each other, with a majestic aura in which there is barely any hint of movement. The volumes are forceful and static, and the anatomy is barely sketched. They correspond, like their Egyptian counterparts, to an idealized image of a concept or a character.
After the wars with the Persians and the cultural activation of Athens, something begins to change. The sculptures undergo a “naturalization”; These are no longer “dogmatic” representations of men and women, but rather obvious attempts to copy real human anatomy, with an in-depth study of the muscles, bones, tendons and all the elements necessary to build a credible body. This is what Gombrich refers to when he says “the awakening of art”: for the first time in history, human beings copy nature in a realistic way.
An absolutely idealized body
However, do the bodies of the sculptures from the 5th and 4th centuries BC correspond to real human beings? The answer is no. Because even though the Greeks of that time began an evident study of nature, The final representations are not representations of specific men and women They correspond to an ideal of beauty, which the Greeks achieved through the observation of many anatomies and through a selection of the most “beautiful” elements.
In this sense, we could say that classical Greek art is equally idealized, in line with its Egyptian and Eastern counterparts; only that its idealization is constructed in a different way. While these are based on an idea that they then try to capture plastically, the Greeks of the classical era observed the anatomy and selected those elements that should appear in an ideally perfect body.
For it, The Greeks do not hesitate to adapt their work to the viewer’s vision so that it is more beautiful The columns of the Parthenon are deliberately “twisted” so that, when looking at them, the eye interprets them as perfectly aligned. Otherwise, if the architect had built them straight, our gaze would deform them. On the other hand, and as Umberto Eco maintains in his work History of beautythe artist is also not afraid to adapt a shield to the view of whoever looks at it, precisely so that he does not perceive it as excessively flat.
That is to say, the Greek artists knew the errors of the human gaze and perspective and, in honor of beauty, they did not hesitate to change real forms. Therefore, saying that the Greeks “copied nature” is as big an error as stating that “in the Middle Ages there was no type of naturalism.” Things, as always, are not black and white.
Ethos and pathos
Proportion and harmony are key during the classical period to understand its concept of beauty. In the human body, Polycleitus establishes the canon of the seven heads as perfect measurements which brings us back to what was previously stated: that, contrary to what is believed, the Greeks also proposed an “idealized” art, not at all realistic.
On the other hand, during Classical Greece we find the predominant element in artistic creation: ethos, which, although it would strictly mean “conduct”, in artistic terms it is used to express containment. Just as it was written on the walls of the temple at Delphi: “You are welcome too much.” This is the premise that perfectly summarizes the classic ideal: harmony as containment of the always troublesome chaos.
For this reason, when the sculpture of the Laocoon, the humanists of the time were truly amazed. What was that shapeless mass of flesh that moved, struggled and contracted? Where was he ethos in that statue?
What the discoverers of Laocoon What they did not know was that this creation belonged entirely to another period, the Hellenistic, where, following Nietzsche’s theories, Dionysus replaced Apollo. In other words; In the late Greek period, which corresponds to the Macedonian conquests of Alexander the Great, the sense of harmonious containment gives way to the agitation of emotions to the pathos more genuine. The sculptures, therefore, lose that almost miraculous balance and begin to “move” and show their inner swings. Dionysus, the god of chaos, of the night, of the party, has replaced the always calm Apollo.
Feminine ideals and masculine ideals
It is a commonly accepted idea that nudes in the history of art have always featured women. This is not true, at least in the first centuries of art. In fact, if we take Greek statuary, we will surely find countless male nudes, and practically none female.
Let us remember that Greek society was eminently misogynistic. The women lived secluded in the gynoeciums of the houses and did not have access to any type of social activity, much less political. The woman’s body was a real taboo, although the man’s was not. In fact, since archaic times we have found male nudes (the famous kuroi, for example), which surely represent deified athletes. The participants in the games competed naked, and the men played naked in the gymnasium arenas. The beauty of the male nude is constantly evoked, but that of the woman is not
We will have to wait for Praxiteles (4th century BC), already from the Hellenistic period, to find the most splendid female nudes of Greece, the famous Aphroditeswhich embody, like male statuary (such as the Belvedere Apollo or the Hermes of Praxiteles) the ideal of the female body. However, unlike his companions, the Aphrodites They do not show their entire body; They often cover their genitals and legs with tunics, leaving only the upper part of the trunk visible. Other times, Aphrodite modestly covers herself with her hands and arms, in what is known as the modest Venuses.
It is in modern times and, especially, during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the female nude reaches its full potential, thanks to the recovery of classical art and the emergence of the academy. By the way, Neoclassicism made a particular interpretation of classical Greek art. To begin with, it captured the idea of the “purity of marble”; immaculately white sculptures that highlighted their silhouette. Could not be farther from the truth. Because the Greeks, like the medievals, gave polychromy a capital importance. In the same way that the Middle Ages were not dark, classical Greece was not white. It was a splendid apotheosis of colors, emerging in the midst of that forceful and magnificent ethos.
