290 Dr. Charles Waldstein [April 13, 



suggestions of active vitality may be ; there are no sensational 

 momentary poses ; the modelling is broad and large, without any of 

 the tricks of craft and the display of teclmical skill which distinguish 

 the later works. 



In the next period, marked in art by the growth of individualism 

 and the gradual spread of sensuality, the palaestra is marked by the 

 most pronounced individualism and the introduction and spread of 

 professional athleticism. As the palaestra grows in importance, and 

 as the rivalry between the various states grows hotter, the interest 

 in the individual victor and his importance grow, and thus in the 

 age of Alexander the Great and of the sculptor Lysippos, when in 

 other spheres the feeling for personality ran higher, the custom is for 

 the first time introduced of erecting portrait statues in honour of 

 athletes who vanquished three times. Before this, it was considered 

 sacrilege to place the portrait of living persons on public monuments, 

 as is evident from the charge brought against Pheidias for having 

 given his own likeness and that of Pericles to two Lapiths in the 

 Amazon battle represented on the shield of the Athene Parthenos. 

 When once this innovation is introduced, towards the close of the 

 fourth century B.C., the public character of such monuments makes 

 these portraits a bridge over into more ideal arts. It will readily be 

 seen what influence this custom of athletic art must have had upon 

 the arts of portrait-painting and portrait-sculpture, and how this 

 directed the course of art towards realism. 



This greater realism is also to be noticed in the attitudes and 

 poses given to athlete statues, more momentary and less monumental 

 than they were in the great age. The same causes which led to the 

 growth of individualism effected the great change in the spirit of 

 athletic institutions. While before they were a means to a great 

 political and social end, they now become ends in themselves to which 

 all other considerations become subservient. While before athletic 

 exercise was a part of the daily occupation of the Greek youth, which 

 was meant to contribute its share to the great end of making him a 

 sound and normal being, harmoniously developed both in mind and 

 body, and thus a serviceable citizen to his state, it now, step by step, 

 becomes itself the great aim to which time, life, and aspirations of the 

 youth are devoted, and to which they are made subservient. It is the 

 step recurring in the history of athletic games in all times, the step 

 from the gentleman athlete to the professional athlete. In art we see 

 the signs of the loss of proportion in such works, which increase in 

 the next period. We hear from ancient authorities how pugilists and 

 pancratiasts were fattened up and made bulky, how muscular develop- 

 ment was exaggerated even to ugliness. In the mythical figure most 

 immediately influenced by athletic art, in Herakles, we see this in 

 later instances, where the muscular development is abnormal and 

 repulsive. The germs of the rapid decline of this great institution 

 are to be found in the fungus growth of its own importance, growing 

 till it obscured the great aim which gave it life and characterised its 



