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

Childs starts his article by highlighting the unquestioned, as he says assumption
“that the classical style is defined by an idealized rendition that is antithetical to
realism.” 91 Instead of considering these two contradictory characteristics in balance, as
Boardman did, for instance, Childs lends primacy “to the important development of
realism throughout the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.” 92 His discussion follows the
standard division of the classical style into four phases: 1) early classical (480-450 B.C.),
2) high classical or severe (450-430 B.C.), 3) late high classical or “Rich Style” (430-380
B.C.), and 4) late classical (380-300 B.C.). Although his main interest lies in the high
classical phase, all other phases attract his attention and are framed, as he says, by a
pattern of development, whose main objective is “to describe fully the complex
experience of reality.” 93
Childs interprets the stylistic change accompanying each phase in light of the
ancient Greek concept of phusis, which, as he explains, “is not simply the external reality
such as the word “nature” in English implies but a complex term that implies the
character and growth of a thing, embracing the regular pattern of change in it.” 94 On the
basis of this definition, he suggests the adoption of the idea that:
Each phase of Greek monumental sculpture is intent on the representation of
phusis; that is, the representation of the essential character of its subject, whatever
that may be. Normally it is the generic “man” or “woman.” Thus the kouros is
the phusis of man as it was understood at the time: reality is an almost static
phenomenon broken only by the potential motion implied by the forward-set left
leg. 95
91 Childs, “The Classic as Realism” 10.
92 Childs, “The Classic as Realism” 10.
93 Childs, “The Classic as Realism” 13.
94 Childs, “The Classic as Realism” 12.
95 Childs, “The Classic as Realism” 13.
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