The Birth and the Development of the Idealized Concept of Arcadia in Classical Greek Art

Корсо Антонио

Витрувианский научный центр в Фано, Италия

The establishment of an idealized concept of the life in forests and meadows and of the localization of the happiness in the groves in the Greek historical region of Arcadia is a long process. In the Greek archaic society the notion that living in the forests is something beautiful is never stated.
However in the late archaic aristocratic thought the polis begins to be seen from a negative point of view as an environment dominated by the ‘ochlos’ or by the ‘kakoi’, i.e. by the lowest part of a society. This feeling is expressed especially by Theognis.
This negative concept becomes very trendy in the 5th c. Athenian culture, especially in the second half of this period. Phidias, Euripides, Antiphon are said to have stood clear of the agora because of their dislike of the crowd.
Very soon the visual culture reveals that the world far from the life of the community is seen in very positive terms. This phenomenon is appreciated especially thanks to the many representations of Artemis clad in short diploid chiton running in the grove which become trendy in southern Greek societies from the late 5th c. BC onwards.
In the late 5th century BC, a new and positive notion of the life far from the city is outlined by Xenophon. This oligarchic writer depicts the life of the gentleman with horses and dogs, having the hunting as the beloved sport.
Perhaps he was the first who recommended how a gentleman should manage his life in the countryside.
Moreover the visual culture of Greece in late classical times is flooded with the representations of appealing teenage deities and mythical beings in the forest. The manifesto of this new sensibility is represented by the Resting Satyr, holding a wine cup or a music instrument in his right hand and enjoying life in the grove.
The location of this paradisiacal environment in Arcadia is given by the three slabs of Mantinea in eastern Arcadia. The quiet beauty of the Muses and the melody of their songs are visualized on the backdrop of a rocky mountain.
The picture representing this idealized concept of Arcadia is attributed to Apelles. The copy which preserves this painting by Apelles is found in the basilica of Herculaneum. In this painting the landscape is rocky and represents a mountain. Arcadia personified seats on it. Behind and above her, Pan plays his syrinx, a wind is blowing. Near her there is a basket of fruits. A deer is nourishing Telephus, while Heracles stands between an eagle and a lion, of course that of Nemea.
This landscape has already the most salient features of the myth of Arcadia. The holy mountain, Pan, the divine music he produces with his syrinx, wild animals, the wealth of fruits lavished by nature, the winds, finally the heroes inhabiting this magic land. The depiction of a real region as an enchanted land was accomplished.
Finally this concept of Arcadia was going to be consecrated in poetry by the epigrams of Anyte of Tegea.