One of the things I cherish most is the chance to connect with you—people who share a genuine interest in exploring fresh perspectives, learning from life’s challenges, and celebrating the small but meaningful victories along the way. Writing about these topics isn’t just a way to share ideas; it’s my way of continuing to grow alongside you, finding moments of joy and insight in the everyday. So, I’m grateful you’ve stopped by, and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts as we dive in together.
The simple essence of art is that it expresses the things that we feel – or that we think we feel – in a way that we can’t express or articulate ourselves in inferior forms like prose. So the poet or the novelist expresses that which would otherwise be trapped in the heart – that of ourselves or of others. And that contemporary replacement for poetry, that fill the modern humans heart, soul and mouth popular music – expresses the otherwise unarticulated tramas, hopes and desires of the generation in a way that could never otherwise articulate. The synthetic worlds of fiction and cinema create a medium which can be used as a vehicle for fears, cravings and neuroses that tell us far more about ourselves than about the fictional creations who we might follow.
So what do we learn. what do we understand when we find that the impersonal, balanced, and austere style of Polykleitos and Phidias—an aesthetic embodiment of High Classicism—did not long retain their preeminence?
Art, like all human enterprises, is seldom a static monument to an immutable ideal; rather, it is a dynamic battleground where evolving cultural, philosophical, and emotional currents collide. Art however – gives back and changes us in a way that we then feed back into how we live our lives.
In his Memorabilia, Xenophon provides invaluable insight into the state of art criticism during the transition from High to Late Classicism. Within this text, ostensibly a recollection of Socrates’ career, there emerges a telling exchange concerning the nature and limitations of mimesis—imitation in art. The great philosopher is depicted in conversation with a sculptor, Kleitos, whom some speculate to be none other than Polykleitos himself. Socrates challenges Kleitos, arguing that his statues of victorious athletes should embody not merely an abstract ideal of beauty but should also capture the inner workings of the psyche, the very essence of the soul. The interpretation of this passage remains contentious, yet its implications are profound: it signals a departure from the serene detachment of Classical form towards an art that admits pathos, emotion, and the drama of individuality.
This shift was not merely aesthetic; it was ideological. The traditional celebratory statues of antiquity were not intended as homages to the individual models who posed for them. Rather, they stood as representations of collective heroism, embodiments of civic virtue, and exemplars of arete—that lofty Greek ideal of excellence that was at once moral, physical, and intellectual. To introduce individual emotion, to break the mask of composure with an overt display of feeling, was to risk the dissolution of this ideal. Where once sculpture had been a testament to timeless, immutable virtues, it now threatened to become an exploration of ephemeral, fluctuating states of being. For the Greek polis, where art had always served the greater cause of societal cohesion, this was a concept both alien and unsettling. The grand abstraction of human perfection began to give way to the fickle and ungovernable tides of personal expression.
Stephen Halliwell, in his incisive analysis of the period, notes that within the Memorabilia itself there already exists a fundamental tension—a dialectical fissure that would reverberate through the history of aesthetics. On one side stood the conviction that representational art was inherently deceptive, a contrivance that distanced rather than revealed truth. On the other lay the emerging belief that art could indeed function as a sincere engagement with reality, a conduit through which the complexities of human experience might be both reflected and interpreted. In this paradox lay the seeds of change, the first whispers of a revolution that would render the rigid idealism of the fifth century B.C. untenable.
The triumph of pathos over austere arete did not occur overnight, but by the fourth century B.C., the transformation was well underway. With Plato and Aristotle, the philosophical scaffolding of aesthetics was erected, providing an intellectual framework that would shape artistic discourse for millennia. What Socrates had merely intimated—that art must concern itself with more than just the exterior perfection of the human form—found its full expression in a new era of sculpture and painting that dared to grapple with the turbulence of human emotion.
Of course, this entire discussion rests upon the ever-wobbling foundation of historical certainty. For there is a case to be made, whispered among skeptical classicists and hinted at by the absence of independent contemporary records, that Socrates himself may be less a flesh-and-blood figure than a literary device, a protean vessel of inquiry shaped and reshaped by the pens of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes. If so, then Socrates, like the statues of Polykleitos, is an ideal—his existence necessary only insofar as he serves the purpose of philosophical mimesis. Perhaps, in the final analysis, the greatest artistic deception of all is the one in which we are still complicit: mistaking the narrative for reality, the construct for the truth.
As always, I’m deeply thankful for your time and your company here. You’re the reason these reflections matter, and it’s humbling to know that we can journey together, learning and growing as a community. If anything I’ve shared resonates with you or sparks a new thought, I’d be honored if you’d let me know. Your insights make this space richer and remind me how lucky I am to be surrounded by thoughtful, supportive individuals like you. Until next time, take care and keep inspiring those around you.
Glossary of Technical Terms
- Arete: A Greek concept of excellence encompassing moral, intellectual, and physical virtue. I think an alloy of democratisation and jealousy has somewhat undermined this concept. Today we are told not to aim for an ideal – but simply to better our own past performance. Thus as we experience day to day fluctuations we can expect to spend perhaps half our time being dispirited by our performance. And if we are achieving a level of four and our potential is ten, then we will spend our lives being happy about climbing from five to six.
- Pathos: The expression of emotion and suffering in art or literature. The zeitgeist of contemporary “deep” culture in music, movies and literature
- Mimesis: The imitation or representation of reality in art and literature.
- High Classicism: The peak period of Greek Classical art (5th century B.C.), characterized by idealized beauty and balance.
- Late Classicism: The period of Greek art following High Classicism, which introduced more naturalism and emotional expression.
- Polykleitos: A prominent Greek sculptor known for his mathematically idealized representations of the human form.
- Phidias: A Greek sculptor renowned for his colossal statues of Zeus at Olympia and Athena at the Parthenon.
- Memorabilia: A work by Xenophon recounting the alleged life and ideas of Socrates.
- Socrates: An influential Greek philosopher known (or perhaps just portrayed) primarily through the writings of his students, such as Plato and Xenophon.
- Kleitos: An otherwise unknown sculptor referenced in Xenophon’s Memorabilia; sometimes speculated to be Polykleitos.
- Polis: A Greek city-state, the fundamental political and social unit of ancient Greece.
- Aesthetics: The branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty and artistic expression.
- Dialectical fissure: A philosophical term referring to a fundamental contradiction or division within a discourse.
- Plato: A Greek philosopher and student of Socrates, foundational to Western philosophy.
- Aristotle: A Greek philosopher and student of Plato, whose works laid the groundwork for various disciplines, including aesthetics.
- Stephen Halliwell: A modern scholar specializing in ancient Greek aesthetics and philosophy.
- Protean: Something highly adaptable or changeable, often used to describe Socrates’ shifting portrayal in literature. The protean description may reflect Socrates more as a vehicle for disparate ideas and ideals than as an actual man.