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

Archaic and Classical phases, followed a sequential, progressive, and also predetermined
course. 73 In this way, naturalism emerges, in his theory, as the principal goal of Greek
art. Further, what enabled this goal to be achieved were two specific conditions in
reference to artists—freedom, and acquisition of skilled craftsmanship.
Gombrich emphasizes the freedom of the artists as important to the rise of Greek
naturalism—a view, which, as it has been suggested, may be reflective of his time—but
recalls also Winckelmann’s idea of political freedom fueling the development of ancient
Greek art. 74 Similarly, his highlighting of artists’ improvement in their craft bears clear
73 These characteristics are reminiscent of G. W. F. Hegel’s ideas of progression and historical determinism
in connection with art history. For a discussion of these ideas of Hegel and their tracing back to
Winckelmann by Gombrich, see Gombrich’s essay, “‘The Father of Art History’: A Reading of the
Lectures on Aesthetics of G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831),” in E. H. Gombrich, Tributes. Interpreters of
Cultural Tradition (Ithaca, New York, 1984) 51-55 and 62-66.
74 Gombrich appears to think that the freedom of the artists to experiment with images was inspired by (or
reminded him of) the freedom poets had to narrate epic events, as far back as Homer’s time. It is not
exactly clear what type of freedom Gombrich has in his mind, but his following reference to “the inner eye
of the poet,” prompts one to suggest that he means inner freedom, or perhaps mental freedom of some kind
set within cultural freedom, in general. He says, for example (Reflections 129-130): “What is the character
of Greek narration as we know it from Homer? Briefly, it is concerned not only with the “what” but also
with the “how” of mythical events. Obviously this is not a very strict distinction. There can be no recital
of events that does not include description of one kind or another, and nobody would claim that the
Gilgamesh Epic or the Old Testament is devoid of vivid accounts. But maybe there is still a difference in
the way Homer presents the incidents in front of Troy, the very thoughts of the heroes, or the reaction of
Hector’s small son, who takes fright from the plumes of his father’s helmet. The poet is here an eyewitness.
If he were asked how he could know so exactly how it actually happened, he would still invoke the
authority of the Muse who told him all and enabled his inner eye to see across the chasm of time. We do
not know whether painters and sculptors invoked a similar sanction when they first ventured into the realm
of genuine mythological narrative. But one thing was bound to follow: in a narrative illustration, any
distinction between the “what” and the “how” is impossible to maintain. The painting of the creation will
not tell you, like the Holy Writ, only that “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Whether he wants or not, the pictorial artist has to include unintended information about the way God
proceeded….It may well have been the same difficulty that restrained earlier cultures from embarking on
pictorial narrative of sacred themes. But where the poet was given license to vary and embroider the myth
and to dwell on the “how” in the recital of epic events, the way was open for the visual artist to do the
likewise. It was only this freedom that would enable an artist to tackle a subject such as the judgment of
Paris, for how could he render it without adding to the bare story?”
Regarding the freedom of the artists to which Gombrich refers, J. Elsner, “Reflections on the ‘Greek
Revolution’ in Art,” in Goldhill and Osborne, eds., Rethinking Revolutions through Ancient Greece 81, n.
37, says: “we must note that ‘freedom’ is a polemical term in Gombrich’s Cold War anti-totalitarian
libertarianism and that (after Foucault, before whom Gombrich was writing) we may take the fictions
proffered by naturalism to be themselves conventional and socially determined.” Although this point may
hold true, Gombrich’s stand cannot fail to recall the influence of Winckelmann. For the latter’s idea of
political freedom in Classical Greece enabling artists to create the most beautiful and perfect works of art,
45