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

she should be than as she was. The idealization was nothing new since it is
almost normal in stylized and unrealistic figures such as the Archaic, but in the 5 th
century it involved adjustment of realistic anatomy in the interests of perfect
symmetry, and suppressing much expression of particulars such as individuality,
age, emotion. The realism was new, and for the first time in the history of art the
artist shows complete understanding of how the body is constructed, how to
express nuances of movement and, even more difficult, repose. 86
Anatomy and pose are those aspects of the human body that Boardman considers
expressive of the concept of fifth-century realism which, as can be seen, coexists in
balance with the antithetical concept of idealism. Although his focus on the human
figure cannot be denied, this evidence provides the opportunity to point out that his
discussions of Greek sculpture are not completely devoid of representations of animals.
His study of Archaic Greek sculpture, for example, dedicates a chapter—albeit
short (two pages)—to the subjects of animals and monsters, and starts with the following
observation: “Greek artists were hardly less observant of the animal kingdom than they
were of man, and the sculpture of the Archaic period includes several sympathetic and
accurate studies of animals at rest or in action.” 87 In addition, his view that the
development of the animal form in Greek art followed the same course as that of the
human one is evident from his commentary on a sixth-century lion from Miletus: “the
artist has excelled in rendering the rough loose pelt, delighted in the languorous sweep of
the spine, the pattern of mane, as consummate a compromise of pattern and observation
as in any kouros” (Fig. 2). 88 Also his study of Classical Greek sculpture, although it does
not specifically discuss representations of animals, does not fail to provide illustrations of
extant examples such as the bull from the fourth-century funerary precinct of Dionysios
86 Boardman, Greek Art 23.
87 Boardman, Greek Art 167.
88 Boardman, Greek Sculpture. The Archaic Period 168, fig. 267 (Berlin 1790); for a discussion and further
bibliography on this lion from Miletus, see C. Ratté “Five Lydian Felines,” AJA 93 (1989) 391, no. A20.
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