Figure 79 Marble copy of an original statue, attributed to Doidalsas, depicting Aphrodite at her bath;
height of copy 98 cm, original ca. 250 BC. Paris, Musée du Louvre, MA 2240.
Source: akg-images / Erich Lessing.
It may seem to be obvious that any work of art is intended to move (in the sense of arouse the emotions of)
the viewer, but in fact something new and important began with the art of the fourth century and the
Hellenistic Period. The emotions aroused by the artists of the Classical Period had been admiration for
the artist’s ability to produce a convincing likeness and, in the case of representations of the gods, awe
inspired by the majesty, power, and remoteness of the images (figure 80). In the art of the Hellenistic
Period, however, we find a deliberate attempt to arouse more complex, even problematic emotions. This
is analogous to what we saw earlier (p. 194) in literature, in the case of the emotions aroused by
Euripidean tragedy. The drama, and particularly Euripidean drama, exercised a pervasive influence on
later Greek literature, and it is legitimate to speak of the impact of the drama on the visual arts in the
Hellenistic Period as well. For there is something dramatic, even theatrical, about much of Hellenistic art.
This is quite obviously the case with the frieze on the Great Altar of Zeus in Pergamum, with its
exaggerated gestures and the pathos evoked by some of the defeated giants.