282 Br. Charles Waldstein [April 13, 



conventional. Still, it was the palsestra that led the artist down to 

 nature, and if it naturally be above all in the nude male figure, the 

 central task is still accomj)lished, and the extension of this attainment 

 to other " unathletic " objects is a necessary sequence. For it is a 

 well-known truth, felt by all artists, that whoever has the power of 

 drawing or modelling accurately and with truth to nature a nude 

 male figure, can render with the same correctness whatever he sees 

 before him, provided it engrosses his interest and occupies his atten- 

 tion and practice for some short time. 



We have now seen how the first great task in the development of 

 Greek art has been accomplished chiefly through the agency and 

 influence of athletic games. The artist has been brought from con- 

 ventionality and the abstract symbols of gods down to nature and 

 man. The next great task, as we have before put it, is to lead the 

 artist away from nature, through nature to the ideal. There really 

 was some danger that Greek art would not rise higher than the mere 

 accurate rendering of nature, which would lead to extreme realism, 

 and, through the final stage of overdone technical skill, to a speedy 

 degeneration. In Myron there is evidence of this danger. His 

 statues, such as that of the famous cow, were praised for their extreme 

 realism almost leading to deception ; and in the excessive movement 

 which he put into some of his statues, such as that of the Diskobolos, 

 even according to the testimony of the ancients, there was an element 

 of sensationalism which, if it had swayed Greek art, would have led 

 to a rapid decline. In order that Greek art should ever reach the 

 height which it actually did, and which, as I pointed out to you at 

 the beginning, is the cause of its persistency of influence even down 

 to our own times, it must add the ideal to nature gained — establish 

 the natural ideal of the human form. 



There can be no doubt that in the fulfilment of this second great 

 purpose the heroic spirit of the past Persian wars and the enlighten- 

 ment and culture of the Periclean age were most effective. It pre- 

 disposed the people towards the appreciation and accomplishment of 

 great works, raised them above the sphere of mere individual interest 

 into that of great common purposes and aspirations, gave them that 

 characteristic feeling for width and grandeur, the real and most 



eloquent expression of which is to be found in the art of Pheidias. 



Yet in a more direct and immediate way the palaestra was again 



instrumental in leading art to make this great step. 



If the artist has been led to appreciate and study nature and to 



endeavour to render it accurately in his works, this may lead him at 



last to imitate most minutely what at the time he sees before him. 



This may be excellent practice ; but it will never create great art. 



For the individual man is imperfect, and the rendering of those 



imperfect forms will not satisfy the feeling for law, order, harmony, 



or design inherent in the human mind, the primary im23ulse to all 



artistic creation. 



The palaestra was the real school for the Greek artist : here he 



