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

serve their arrangement in Classical Greek sculpture. Simply put, animals reveal that an
interplay of apparently differing elements is the sustained underlying model of expressing
style in the Classical period of Greek art. As the cases of the lion and the dog suggest,
these elements prove to express similarities. In the first case, for example, the similarity
refers to that between a male lion and a male human, whereas, in the second, between a
dog and a lion. On the basis of this evidence, the scholarly interpretations of the
problematic style of representations of animals in Classical Greek sculpture as a
reflection of the inability of the artists to portray accurately their subjects, lack of real
models, copying from foreign animal models, or attempting to highlight the apotropaic
function of the animals depicted do not appear to stand on firm ground. By establishing
that the logic of the Classical style in Greek art is one of combining elements in various
modes and degrees, such as inconsistency, incongruity, and contradiction animals suggest
that the generally accepted interpretation of this style as a strict imitation of the external
world does not hold true. More specifically, animals suggest that the underlying
framework of the Classical style is based on an interplay of disagreeing elements that are,
in turn, directly shaped by contemporary ideas regarding the representational subjects of
works of art. Further, since animals show that such an interplay of apparent
inconsistencies is not limited to the style of Classical art, but characterizes also that of the
art of the Archaic period, and since it extends also to the human form during these
periods, animals suggest a new example for approaching the Classical style in Greek art:
as a model based on fusion that is marked by a shift in the balance of its differing
elements as art moves from one stylistic/chronological phase to another. Representations
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