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Gurstein, Rochelle. "The Elgin Marbles, Romanticism & the Waning of 'Ideal Beauty.'"
Daedalus, 131. 4 (Fall, 2002), pp. 88-100. Stable URL: [30 Mar 2012]
The bringing of the Elgin Marbles to the British Museum was intended to herald in a new era of neoclassical art but instead, the unexpectedly vital and lifelike images depicted on the Marbles caused many emerging British artists to rethink how they had conceptualized the classical era as one of idealized, static perfection.
The Elgin Marbles were one of the most controversial acquisitions of the House of Commons. The Marbles were purchased for the British Museum from Lord Elgin in 1816, who had amassed a vast array of treasures from Greece, including the famous friezes torn off from the surface of the Parthenon. In doing so, the House of Commons was viewed by many, even at the time, as being complicit in a crime of national theft and vandalism. The...
Yet, rather than inspiring a revival of neoclassicism, the Marbles came to the Museum during the time period when neoclassicism was waning, and the interest in French Impressionism was growing. New artists were chafing at restrictions that forced them to embody the artistic ideals of the classical era in their works. Artists were inspired by the human-like rather than the idealized versions of ancient life embodied in the Marbles and felt justified in ignoring the static standards of beauty trumpeted by art critics of the neoclassical era. The Romantic Era of art was facilitated, rather than inhibited, by the display of the Marbles.
Q3a. Critique:
The author offers a contrarian view of the Elgin Marbles, which were once thought to embody British acquisitiveness and fascination with the Grecian past. Artists from the era are quoted, citing how gazing upon the Marbles challenged their…
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