The art of Ancient Greece was and remains one of the brightest in European culture, and people of all creative professions are still inspired by it. Greek culture and art went through several stages in their development. Each historical event in Ancient Greece contributed to the achievement of something new and created a general picture of the culture of the city-states.
Classical art gave a standard of excellence within a particular genre, a standard to judge subsequent objects or events within that genre. This concept, in the narrow sense, includes the art of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (Bond 2). In a broader sense, classical art is the highest artistic achievement of the eras of the rise of art and culture of different times and people.
The main events for Ancient Greece were the victory over the Persians, a transition from concern for the physical world to concern for human society in the philosophy, and the prosperity of the power and well-being of Athens received from the Aegean union. The main consequence of the official cessation of hostilities with Persia for Greece was the statesman Pericles’ construction program. More influential than any other war was the “Invisible War” between oligarchic and democratic factions, which influenced the history of Greek cities, including Athens (Pollitt 67). The ancient Greeks created a culture based on respect, honesty, hard work, spirituality, and democracy.
The phrase “man is the measure of all things” belongs to Protagoras, the first paid eloquence teacher. One possible explanation for this phrase is that men have the power to determine the value or meaning of things by creating their reality (Pollitt 69). As another explanation, the more a person knows, the more questions they have. Therefore, a person who knows much understands that there are even more unknowns around. A person with a small outlook, on the contrary, believes that he or she knows everything because their knowledge is not enough to ask more questions about the existing skills and abilities and take them for granted.
There are three interpretations of the refinements present in the Parthenon: compensation theory, the exaggeration theory, and the tension theory. The first theory believed that the corner columns should be thicker because they are completely located in the open air and appear thinner than they are. The thin edges of the Parthenon were called “compensations” that prevented the creation of an optical illusion (Pollitt 75). The second theory involves the representation of the Parthenon as exaggerated, unequal to the true size. The latter theory presents the Parthenon as a deliberate deviation from regularity to create tension in the viewer’s mind, contradicting people’s expectations and reality (Pollitt 76). I think that these theories helped to visually facilitate the construction, correcting the errors of human vision that occur when viewing.
In his article, the author talks about racism and color prejudice in the sculpture of ancient Greece. Bond notes that most of the works were originally painted in different colors to give the marble various shades (6). Although the ancient Greeks identified people by their ethnic origin, they did not adhere to racism in sculpture and only tried to convey the different skin tones. Thus, they did not develop the idea of color prejudice, unlike modern society. The author emphasizes that it is necessary to inculcate racial tolerance in all historical disciplines and show what an important place was occupied by people of other skin colors (Bond 8). Thus, the individual’s freedom and rights that permeated ancient Greek society prevented the spread of such a problem as racism.
Modern civilization owes much of its development to ancient Greece. This relatively small state has made a significant contribution to the global culture. To this day, ancient Greek myths serve as a source of inspiration for many people and are studied and retold. The classical period is the time of the highest flowering of all forms in Greek culture. During this period, the highest standards in all types of art were created.
Works Cited
Bond, Sarah. “Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism and Color in the Ancient World.” Forbes. 2017, pp. 1-10.
Pollitt, Jerome Jordan. Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge University Press, 1972.