Art and the History of Science
By Rachel Hatlestad
 Aphrodite of Cnidus, Roman marble copy of Greek statue by Praxiteles, c. 350 bc; in the Vatican Museum. Alinari-Art Resource, New York Walking Through Greek Sculpture: From Aristotle’s Memoirs (384-322 B.C) I am a historian, a philosopher and a man of nature. I love swimming near the island Lesbos observing sea life and walking around Athens enjoying the Greek sculpture. I enjoy the daily acts of gazing around and noting the magnificent nature that has surrounded me. As a product of nature, I am a man connected to all things universal. I wake up every morning to a new and exciting day, just waiting to see where my eyes can guide me! In these fragments of exploration and discovery, I have learned much about this universe we live in and how we are all limited to things universal. Nothing is by chance. We are all connected and there everything has a destiny. I am concerned with what is here on earth, in the physical world. I firmly believe in rational thoughts and not to dwell too much on the emotional. To expand my knowledge and research, I tend to have daily rituals that I attend to every day. I have been quoted before, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” On a daily basis, I usually wonder outside these confines of my habits and explore the very basic nature that surrounds me. My environment is the key to knowledge and I use my observational eyes and philosophical mind to guide me through my days of discovery. Although I observe nature and its perfected beauty, I can’t help but notice mankind’s interpretations around me. New sculpture and artworks are being composed around me and influence my daily walks. In my writings on the History of Animals, I clearly divide animals in to with blood or without blood. In my investigations I have observed that “animals we have abundant information, living as we do in their midst, and ample data may be collected concerning all their various kinds” (Aristotle 644b23) However, during my studies I never dissected humans, with blood animals, contain their rational soul in their heart. Just in the footsteps of my teacher Plato, I teach my most vigilant students, the young Alexander the great, the universal of things. There is a head sculpture of Alexander the Great done in the 4th century created by the sculptor Lysippos. Lysippos, I am aware, stated that nature was his only model. He used great mathematical scale to compose his work. (Stokstad pg. 205) Alexander the Great has been a great student. He is terrific solider and is loyal to his Greek people. As I have said before, “man is by nature a political animal”. I am proud to have been alive during the late classical period of Greek sculpture. The sculpture during my time has developed from one dimensionality like the archaic style of the Mycenaean to a realistic human form of the Greek culture. Many afternoons I have taken a stroll to the Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens. I love the classical and logical construction of the our architecture. However, I truly love the sculpture. I have said in some of writings, “all men by nature desire to know” and this seems to apply to the Greek sculptors. Sculptors seem to focus their attention on the making the human form as realistic as possible and idealized in the eyes of my people. Just like me, sculptors study the movement of the body and how weight is carried. These detailed observations made it possible to reconstruct the human body. As I walk around the Acropolis, I take note on how most of the sculpture is created in respect to humans. There are many sculpture created in the likes of human yet they are portrayed as gods or goddesses. They are not done in human scale, but enlarge in extraordinary sizes. I notice the sculpture Aphrodite of Knidos composed by Praxiteles. (Stokstad pg.203) It is done in true womanly form. Like my colleagues, I like to speculate the myths of the gods are superstitious. Individual faces are not yet recognized and everyone has the same variation of an idealized face. I believe art is the realization in external form of a true idea. However, art is not just copied straight from observing nature, instead it is idealized even with its faults. In my Aristotelian scientific reports, I believe I can accurately give reports on the art that is being presented to me in my lifetime. My life has been devoted to the study of the natural science. My extensive research and writings supply reports of scientific observations. I have made contributions in botany, zoology, physics, astronomy, chemistry, meteorology, and several other sciences. I believe art universalizes particular events. And as I head home from my daily route around Acropolis Athens, I stop to ponder this daily occasion and the filled me with new ideas and theories. Notes: Aristotle, Parts of Animals, Book I.5 Aristotle, Metaphysics IX 1050a 5-10 Lindberg, Beginnings of Western Science, Chapter 3. McLeish, Kenneth. Aristotle: The Great Philosophers,1999. Stewart, AF. Greek Sculpture: An Exploration, Yale University Press, 1990. Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History Second Edition Volume One. The University of Kansas. Prentice Hall, Inc., and Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New Jersey, 2002. http://hsci.ou.edu/galleries//01Ancient/Aristotle/1476/ http://thinkexist.com/quotation/excellence_is_an_art_won_by_training_and/10320.html |
