What do you think?
Rate this book
Religion and Art in Ancient Greece
Greek religion may be studied under various aspects; and many recent contributions to this study have been mainly concerned either with the remote origin of many of its ceremonies in primitive ritual, or with the manner in which some of its obscurer manifestations met the deeper spiritual needs which did not find satisfaction in the official cults. Such discussions are of the highest interest to the anthropologist and to the psychologist; but they have the disadvantage of fixing our attention too exclusively on what, to the ordinary Greek, appeared accidental or even morbid, and of making us regard the Olympian pantheon, with its clearly realised figures of the gods, as a mere system imposed more or less from outside upon the old rites and beliefs of the people. In the province of art, at least, the Olympian gods are paramount; and thus we are led to appreciate and to understand their worship as it affected the religious ideals of the people and the services of the State. For we must remember that in the case of religion even more than in that of art, its essential character and its influence upon life and thought lie rather in its full perfection than in its origin.
In a short sketch of so wide a subject it has seemed inadvisable to make any attempt to describe the types of the various gods. Without full illustration and a considerable expenditure of space, such a description would be impracticable, and the reader must be referred to the ordinary handbooks of the subject. A fuller account will be found in Dr. Farnell's _Cults of the Greek States_, and some selected types are discussed with the greatest subtlety and understanding in Brunn's _Griechische Gotterideale_. In the present volume only a few examples are mentioned as characteristic of the various periods. It may thus, I trust, serve as an introduction to a more complete study of the subject; and may, at the same time, offer to those who have not the leisure or inclination for such further study, at least a summary of what we may learn from Greece as to the relations of religion and art under the most favourable conditions. It is easy, as Aristotle says, to fill in the details if only the outlines are rightly drawn--[ doxeie d' an pantos einai proagagein kai diorthosai ta kalos echonta te perigraphe.]
In a short sketch of so wide a subject it has seemed inadvisable to make any attempt to describe the types of the various gods. Without full illustration and a considerable expenditure of space, such a description would be impracticable, and the reader must be referred to the ordinary handbooks of the subject. A fuller account will be found in Dr. Farnell's _Cults of the Greek States_, and some selected types are discussed with the greatest subtlety and understanding in Brunn's _Griechische Gotterideale_. In the present volume only a few examples are mentioned as characteristic of the various periods. It may thus, I trust, serve as an introduction to a more complete study of the subject; and may, at the same time, offer to those who have not the leisure or inclination for such further study, at least a summary of what we may learn from Greece as to the relations of religion and art under the most favourable conditions. It is easy, as Aristotle says, to fill in the details if only the outlines are rightly drawn--[ doxeie d' an pantos einai proagagein kai diorthosai ta kalos echonta te perigraphe.]
140 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 28, 2007
9 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Ernest Arthur Gardner
48 booksErnest Arthur Gardner (16 March 1862 – 27 November 1939) was an English archaeologist. He was the director of the British School at Athens between 1887 and 1895.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 20, 2025
The author was a distinguished academic and archaelogist, much of whose life was spent in Greece. During the First World War he was a naval intelligence officer in Salonika and ensured the preservation of many threatened Greek archaeological treasures, for which he was later decorated by the Greek government. His daughter was a suffragette who fell in love with Rupert Brooke: a doomed romance in more ways than one. This book is interesting but too old (1909) and too short (144 pages) to be of much real use.
Ruskin thought that Greek art, unlike Florentine, had no individuality: “there is no personal character in true Greek art. Abstract ideas, yes – but no individuality.” Gardner disagrees. I think the point that Ruskin was making is that Greek art was focussed on ideal qualities of youth and beauty which don’t have the kind of characterisation of inner depth that a sculptor like Donatello was so good at bringing forth from the bronze or marble. But Gardner says – I think rightly – that no one can look at the best work of sculptors like Praxiteles and say this. He thinks Ruskin was misled by inferior later Roman copies, and also by a misunderstanding of how the Greeks understood youth and beauty in the first place.
Ultimately, one suspects Ruskin felt Greek art was not quite right because Greek religion was wrong. Health, youth and beauty are all, for the pious Christian, unimportant incidentals: for the Greek pagan, they were the very esse of spiritual truth and power.
These are some interesting ideas but they are not clearly developed and Gardner himself is as much a product of his time as Ruskin. For example, there is a suggestion – veiled in some rather obscure prose – that nude youths were a common and noble sight in ancient Greece but nude women were not. Although this is true, Gardner’s inference – that all nude women that Greek men did encounter were essentially tarts – seems like a Victorian attitude rather than a Greek one. (See Degas’s painting “Les Jeunes Filles Spartaniques” for a different and more convincing – to my eyes – nineteenth century take).*
Growing up in the English boarding school system, we were always unconcerned with being nude in front of each other or even in front of Matron. But we would have been mortified had Matron appeared nude in front of us. Matron had some estimable qualities, but youth and beauty were not amongst them. We did not expect to see any female naked outside the precincts of the marital boudoir (unless she was a tart). So maybe I am as bad as Ruskin and Gardner. These days, one never sees anyone naked: everyone in public changing rooms is as swathed in drapery as Pallas Athene, unaware that doing the towel dance is far more undignified than dressing en plein air with regal unconcern.
* But Degas is also making the point that the Spartans were unusual in allowing women the freedom to be nude in public – and this was as much a cause of scandal to the other Greeks as it would have been to Ruskin. It’s complicated….
Ruskin thought that Greek art, unlike Florentine, had no individuality: “there is no personal character in true Greek art. Abstract ideas, yes – but no individuality.” Gardner disagrees. I think the point that Ruskin was making is that Greek art was focussed on ideal qualities of youth and beauty which don’t have the kind of characterisation of inner depth that a sculptor like Donatello was so good at bringing forth from the bronze or marble. But Gardner says – I think rightly – that no one can look at the best work of sculptors like Praxiteles and say this. He thinks Ruskin was misled by inferior later Roman copies, and also by a misunderstanding of how the Greeks understood youth and beauty in the first place.
Ultimately, one suspects Ruskin felt Greek art was not quite right because Greek religion was wrong. Health, youth and beauty are all, for the pious Christian, unimportant incidentals: for the Greek pagan, they were the very esse of spiritual truth and power.
These are some interesting ideas but they are not clearly developed and Gardner himself is as much a product of his time as Ruskin. For example, there is a suggestion – veiled in some rather obscure prose – that nude youths were a common and noble sight in ancient Greece but nude women were not. Although this is true, Gardner’s inference – that all nude women that Greek men did encounter were essentially tarts – seems like a Victorian attitude rather than a Greek one. (See Degas’s painting “Les Jeunes Filles Spartaniques” for a different and more convincing – to my eyes – nineteenth century take).*
Growing up in the English boarding school system, we were always unconcerned with being nude in front of each other or even in front of Matron. But we would have been mortified had Matron appeared nude in front of us. Matron had some estimable qualities, but youth and beauty were not amongst them. We did not expect to see any female naked outside the precincts of the marital boudoir (unless she was a tart). So maybe I am as bad as Ruskin and Gardner. These days, one never sees anyone naked: everyone in public changing rooms is as swathed in drapery as Pallas Athene, unaware that doing the towel dance is far more undignified than dressing en plein air with regal unconcern.
* But Degas is also making the point that the Spartans were unusual in allowing women the freedom to be nude in public – and this was as much a cause of scandal to the other Greeks as it would have been to Ruskin. It’s complicated….
July 12, 2016
TinInteresting presentation of art and Ancient Greek religion
This book is worth reading and presents the growth of belief in the Gods of ancient Greece along with the artistic depiction in each age. The only fault within the book is an overt insinuation that idolatry brought about the death of the GODS of ANCIENT GREECE. The cult of christianity is the culprit for this destruction effort. They failed the religion of ancient Greece has survived via the art and talent of her many sculptors and writers. Hellenismos is resurrecting from the ashes of its adversary.
This book is worth reading and presents the growth of belief in the Gods of ancient Greece along with the artistic depiction in each age. The only fault within the book is an overt insinuation that idolatry brought about the death of the GODS of ANCIENT GREECE. The cult of christianity is the culprit for this destruction effort. They failed the religion of ancient Greece has survived via the art and talent of her many sculptors and writers. Hellenismos is resurrecting from the ashes of its adversary.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews