Six Greek sculptors / by Ernest A. Gardner.

  • Ernest Arthur Gardner
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Six Greek sculptors / by Ernest A. Gardner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    far beyond anything that has gone before. So far as mere technical skill is concerned, this advance may be partly attributed to the wonderful progress among Greek sculptors, and especially in the Athenian school, that is the characteristic of the age. But it is no more possible to attribute the pediments and frieze of the Parthenon to such general progress than it is possible to attribute the Prometheus or the Agamemnon to a general advance in literary skill and appreciation. In both cases alike we must see the work of individual genius ; and it is impossible to suggest as the author any other than Phidias, who made the colossal statue within the temple, and who was associated with Pericles in the direction of all the artistic activity that was at this time expended upon the Athenian Acropolis. Apart from architectural sculptures, we also find a change in the statues of the gods of the same period, and may well infer that this change was due, mainly or in part, to the influence of Phidias, and to the colossal masterpieces that were regarded in ancient times as his representative works. Here, however, we are on more difficult ground ; for Phidias was surrounded by a group of sculptors of similar aims and tendencies—Agoracritus, Alcamenes, and others, whose work was sometimes hard to distinguish from his own ; and it is uncertain how much we must concede to the personal qualities of these F
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