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

the influence of Near Eastern and Egyptian arts, and also in the emphasis placed on the
role of the sculptor as the agent of the technical improvement of Greek sculpture. Also
Boardman’s assertion that the artist consciously strove for images taken from life not
only presents his view of naturalism as the desirable goal of Greek art, but also recalls,
albeit with heavy alteration, Löwy’s idea of consciously acquired memory images by
artists.
Additional evidence for Boardman’s conception of Greek naturalism as technical
improvement derives from his discussion in Greek Sculpture. The Classical Period. Here
he conceives of a direct connection between technical progress and gradual stylistic
change as opening the road to the Classical revolution. At the same time, the challenge
of working in marble, and naturalism as the principal aim of Greek art, both seen
previously, emerge as two highly important points of his theory:
The physical turmoil of Greek history in the early decades of the fifth century was
answered in Greek art by what appears to be sure and steady progress, and the
gradual changes in style encouraged effortlessly, it seems, a revolution in the
sculptor’s approach to his craft.
In less than a hundred and fifty years the Greek sculptor had perfected his
technical command of the medium in which most of the finest Archaic sculpture
was executed—white marble. It is not an easy material, nor, on reflection, can we
judge it an obvious choice for the execution of images in relief or in the
round….It lends itself to clear, sharply defined masses and pattern no less than to
subtlety of contour and even, as later generations were to discover, to the
expression of the soft, the vaguely defined, the sensual. The Archaic sculptor
explored its potential in creating three-dimensional patterns which represented the
human body. Style evolved slowly, as technique improved, and the changes,
which must have been admitted because the results were more satisfying and the
functions of the figure were thus better served, also led to renderings which were
closer to life, closer (for the whole body at least) than any achieved by other
ancient cultures. Not that there is anything inherently good about realism in art,
but once the Greeks discovered how much more it could express than the
conventions, symbols and patterns of Archaism, they made a virtue of it. 84
84 J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture. The Classical Period 20.
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