New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-11
BoRCLUH4 MAKES EARS OF NETWORK STATUES BURN

years been popularity regarded as great work
of art he had said:
Hiram Powers was the Greek slave"
In his philosophy-and in the philosophy OF
any real artist-no mere copy no slavish i'm
itaton of any work Of art can long endure.
1t is a mechanical thing, without soul and
therefore without excuse for existing. / was
hoping that he would utter some other cpl
gram as good as the foregoing that might use
in starting my article about him, but he was
in a serious mood and bent on making the pub
lie take his remarks seriously rather than on
proddng outlaws out of readers.
What is most needed in American art?" I
asked.
Courage" he said "The courage to oppose
tradition, to oppose popular opinion, to OPP
pose academic dogmatism. Phdas was a
great insurgent simply because he was true
artist All true artists live in to-day, and in
the hope of tomorrow, because they are Gre
ativc men. The merely educated man lives
in yesterday, and his mind dwells mainly upon
the way things have been done in the past.
When Pericles returned from the Persian war
he asked Phidias, his friend, counsellor and
companion, what he thought of the monu-
ments of Athens, and the sculptor replied
that the artistic life of Athens would be i'm
proved if most Of them were taken down. The
cultured statesman gave him permission to do
what he pleased with them, and Phidias buried
them in the sand in various waste places Of
Attica. I think that many Of the statues OF
lesser merit dug up in the last few centuries
in that part of Greece were those which Phid-
las buried.
PERICLES AND PHIDIAS IN NEW
YORK: AN IMPOSSIBLE CONCEPTION.
THE ability of Phidias, his sanity his large
conception of the service art must render to
the public, make him, in my estimation, one
of the most important figures in the entire
history Of art. We know very little of him
and less Of his actual work, the latter because
it was against the Athenian code for any ar
fist to claim his own productions, the theory
and it was just one-being that an artist
was a prophet and his work was but the ex-
preston of the emotional and religious ideals
Of his people Percles had the wisdom TO
make him Superintendent of Public Works
of Athens. That act placed and fixed Athens
esthetically in the first rank in the history OF
peoples; that is, had Phidias been obliged to
work without the authority Pericles gave him
his productiveness and his great ability would
have been wasted in individual effort, and poll
tics, graft and preferment would have rebuilt
the Acropolis, medocrity would have rehashed
conventional notions upon her temples and
Athens would never have held the first place
twenty-five centuries have ungrudgingly given
her. Imagine, if you can, such condition OF
common sense prevailing in New York.
Fancy, if you can, the most efficient gifted,
creative mind in America being Superintendent
of Public Works anywhere, and his judgment
prevailing in all matters OF aesthetic taste
touching our public ornamental work, instead
of that of ward politician. 1t is unthinkable
and it is impossiblel
"Phidas, by his act In removing those stat
ues. declared that the past did not express
Greece or her hour; did not hold the ideals OF
b;e neople. their morals, their religion nor
their aspirations, and he would not produce
bv roduction-counterfeits OF another age
nor carry on the lie to succeeding generations.
Aoart from the intrinsic merit OF the great
work produced by Phidias and the men ne as
e.r,bIed the lesson which has been apparently
wholly lost upon succeeding generations, the
,.sson which I draw from his whole lite and
work was that the hour has its own message
20 history, and if it is not written that period
will be doomed to oblivion.
1--WE have existed as a great organized ma
t;op well on toward $50 years. Our Destiny