“The art of representing the human figure in the ancient world begins and ends with ‘frontality’.”

— Arnold Hauser

The Social History of Art, Volume I. From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages, 1999, Chapter III. Greece and Rome

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The art of representing the human figure in the ancient world begins and ends with ‘frontality’." by Arnold Hauser?

Arnold Hauser 34

Hungarian art historian 1892–1978

Related quotes

“All modern art begins to appear comprehensible and in a way great when it is interpreted as an attempt to instill youthfulness into an ancient world.”

José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist

"Art a Thing of No Consequence"
The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)
Context: Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness. The symbol of art is seen again in the magic flute of the Great God Pan which makes the young goats frisk at the edge of the grove.
All modern art begins to appear comprehensible and in a way great when it is interpreted as an attempt to instill youthfulness into an ancient world.

“In the human figure as it approaches perfection… is contained the sure guide for the determination of all true principles of design. …it was because the ancient Greeks… realized this truth that they excelled all others in art.”

Ernest Flagg (1857–1947) American architect

Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

“It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same for love.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Variant: A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
Context: It should be of the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same for love.

“Art is not an end but a beginning.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2000-09, Ai Weiwei: A Rebel of Poet Roots, 2008

“The art of dancing stands at the source of all the arts that express themselves first in the human person. The art of building, or architecture, is the beginning of all the arts that lie outside the person; and in the end they unite.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

Source: The Dance of Life http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300671.txt (1923), Ch. 2

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Elegiac Verse, st. 14 (1879).
Context: Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending;
Many a poem is marred by a superfluous verse.

“.. art is made by man. His own figure is the center of all art... Therefore one must begin with the man himself.”

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) German painter, sculptor, engraver and printmaker

c. 1910; as quoted in: Der Blick auf Fränzi und Marcella: Zwei Modelle der Brücke-Künstler Heckel, Kirchner und Pechstein, Norbert Nobis; Sprengel Museum Hannover und Stiftung Moritzburg, 2011, p 17
1905 - 1915