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| attributed to Simone Bianco Idealized Classical Head ca. 1540 marble Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Carl Friedrich Lessing Study of Classical Head 1825 drawing Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio |
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| Annibale Carracci Classical Figure with Vessel ca. 1595 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Arvid Fougstedt Classical Motif 1931 etching Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Baccio Bandinelli Frieze of Classical Figures ca. 1519-25 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Marcantonio Raimondi after Francesco Francia Bathing Scene with Classical Frieze Figures ca. 1510 engraving Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Augustus John Four Figures in Antique Dress ca. 1891 drawing Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Wiltshire |
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| Johann August Nahl the Younger Two Women in Classical Draperies before 1825 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden |
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| Agostino Musi after Giulio Romano Classical Couple holding Hands ca. 1515-30 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Anonymous Printmaker after Franz Ludwig Catel Roman Woman applying Cosmetics, assisted by Slave ca. 1798 etching Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Salomon Gessner Classical Vignette for Winckelmann's Letters ca. 1802-1803 etching (posthumously printed) Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich |
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| Ciro Ferri Classical Scene before Enthroned Figure ca. 1675 drawing Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon |
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| Federico Zuccaro Classical Scene (unidentified narrative) ca. 1580 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Auguste-Barthélemy Glaize Study for Classical Figure ca. 1870 drawing Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes |
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| Francisque Millet Classical Landscape with Water-Carrier ca. 1660-70 oil on canvas Landesmuseum, Hannover |
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| Étienne Allegrain Classical Landscape with Ruins ca. 1690 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon |
There is another famous passage in the writings of Pliny that also concerns an incomplete figure, but this time the appeal to the imagination is even greater: we hear that Timanthes painted the sacrifice of Iphigenia and expressed the grief of those around her in such a masterly way that when he came to represent her father Agamemnon, he had to suggest the climax of sorrow by representing him with his cloak drawn over his face, an enclosed world within the picture's world, which excited the admiration of the classical orators.
There is a painting on one of the walls of a Pompeian house that reflects this motif. It is not a great work of art, and the same criticism applies to many other copies of Greek works found in Italy and elsewhere. But such criticism has tended to obscure the most astounding consequence of the Greek miracle: the fact that copies were ever made at all to be displayed in the houses and gardens of the educated. For this industry of making reproductions for sale implies a function of the image of which the pre-Greek world knew nothing. The image has been pried loose from the practical context for which it was conceived and is admired and enjoyed for its beauty and fame, that is, quite simply within the context of art. For this is the final consequence of that great "chain reaction." The creation of an imaginative realm led to an acknowledgement of what we call "art" and the celebration of those rare spirits who could explore and extend that realm.
It may sound paradoxical to say that the Greeks invented art, but from this point of view, it is a mere sober statement of fact. We rarely realize how much this concept owes to the heroic spirit of those discoverers who were active between 550 and 350 B.C. For the history of these years as it is reflected in Pliny or Quintilian was handed down like an epic of conquest, a story of inventions. When Quintilian called the contorted attitude of Myron's Discobolos "particularly praiseworthy for its novelty and difficulty," he codified a standard of criticism that linked art with the solution of problems. The names of the artists who discovered new effects to increase illusion and lifelikeness, the names of Myron and Phidias, Zeuxis and Apelles, lived on in history and have retained their magic despite the fact we do not know one work from their hands. The legend of their triumphs remained as potent in the history of Western art as did the actual works that were recovered from the soil. The writers of the Renaissance echoed the anecdotes that extolled the powers of painting to deceive the eye – the very character which made Plato disapprove of art and prefer the immutable laws of the Egyptian canon.
– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960)
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