The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

the guidance of extant sculptures of animals, that what actually happens as one phase
proceeds to the other is only a shift in the balance of the differing elements that are mixed
together to form the style of an image. In other words, the tendency to combine differing
elements whether in a mode of inconsistency, incongruity, or contradiction remains the
solid mental framework of style. This proposition is in some sense in essential agreement
with the approach of William Childs, who, as noted earlier, sees the Classical style in
Greek art as the combined rendering of an objective and subjective reality that is
exemplified by representations of the human form in contemporary sculpture. In this
way, the fact that, during the Classical period, the combination of essentially non-
matching elements also extends to the human form solidifies its position as the
underlying principle of the Classical style in Greek sculpture. In light of this evidence,
the interpretation of this style as a strict imitation of the external world driven by
advancement in artistic techniques—a dominant and widely accepted view, as noted
earlier—does not appear to rest on firm ground.
1. Examples of the Scholarly Treatment of the Problematic Style of Representations
of Animals in Ancient Greek Sculpture
a. The Case of the Lion
Jeffrey Hurwit, in his discussion of the lion in relief savaging a bull crumpled
beneath it (Fig. 5) from the mid sixth-century (ca. 560 B.C.), west pediment of the temple
of Athena on the Athenian acropolis, the so-called Hekatompedon, says that it is “in
almost every way a very lionlike lion—its ferocity, claws, pose, and powerful
musculature are all convincing—except that this lion has both a mane and teats, the
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