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

valued criterion of judging works of art, and not necessarily bound to the level of
education of viewers.
As seen above, Pollitt equates realism with mimesis. He also points out that the
latter is usually translated as “imitation.” 53 Mimesis, however, is a complex concept and
its translation as “imitation” has been considered misleading for reaching a useful
understanding of its ancient meaning. 54 Pollitt maintains that, when applied to the visual
arts, mimesis “usually implied something beyond the simple process of copying a natural
model.” 55 His discussion focuses on the Platonic and Aristotelian uses of the term as
“literal imitation” and “imitation by psychological association” and draws extensively
from Gerald Else’s interpretation of the meanings of the term in early fifth-century
literature. 56
In a more recent discussion (2002) of mimesis in Classical Greece, Stephen
Halliwell considers the possibility, drawn by Aristotle’s emphasis on “things that could
occur,” (Poetics 9.1451b5), that works or acts of artistic mimesis need not always be
thought of as corresponding to specific, empirical “originals.” He states, therefore, that
“when applied to poetry, visual art, music, dance, and the like [in Classical Greece],
mimesis amounts to a concept (or family of concepts) of representation, which…can be
broadly construed as the use of an artistic medium (words, sounds, physical images) to
53
Pollitt, Ancient View 37.
54
S. Halliwell, The Aesthetics of Mimesis. Ancient Texts and Modern Problems (Princeton and Oxford,
2002) 6, n. 15, and 13, 16.
55
Pollitt, Ancient View 37.
56
Pollitt, Ancient View 37-38 citing G. F. Else, ““Imitation” in the Fifth Century,” CP 53 (1958) 73-90,
who identifies three shades of meaning for mimesis and its cognates prior to mid-fifth century B.C.: a)
“direct representation of the looks, actions and/or utterances of animals or men through speech, song,
and/or dancing,” b) “imitation of the actions of one person by another, in a general sense, without actual
miming, and c) “replication: an image or effigy of a person or thing in material form.” For a subsequent
study of mimesis, see G. Sörbom, Mimesis and Art. Studies in the Origin and Early Development of an
Aesthetic Vocabulary (Uppsala, 1966). For Pollitt’s discussion of Plato’s and Aristotle’s use of mimesis,
see Ancient View 38-41.
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