In this blog post, we will examine how the ancient Greek concepts of enthusiasm and technique have been inherited and transformed in modern art.
When we think of art, we generally think of works that reveal beauty, such as dance, poetry, music, architecture, painting, and sculpture. These works of art have been regarded as important means of expressing human emotions and thoughts, and sometimes conveying social and political messages. However, it was thanks to the philosophical thinking of the ancient Greeks that art came to have a meaning beyond simply expressing beauty. They believed that dance, poetry, and music originated from “enthusiasm,” while architecture, painting, and sculpture originated from “techne.” “Enthusiasmos” generally means “enthusiasm” or “passion,” while “techne” means “skill” or “craftsmanship.” Since ancient Greek times, ‘enthusiasm’ and “craftsmanship” have been regarded as the origins of artistic creation, and their value has been judged differently depending on one’s perspective on art.
For the ancient Greeks, enthusiasm referred to the ecstatic state in which priests communicated with the gods to receive messages from them during religious ceremonies. They considered the moment when humans could communicate with the gods to be very important and believed that this sacred experience was the driving force behind the creation of art. They believed that this state was not limited to priests but also appeared in those who participated in religious ceremonies. Ancient Greeks were deeply immersed in activities that expressed emotions and impulses through gestures, language, and melody and rhythm, and they believed that these activities could lead to a state of enthusiasm through communication with the gods. They believed that dance, poetry, and music emerged from these activities. Thus, art was not considered a mere means of entertainment but was closely connected to sacred experiences.
For the ancient Greeks, techne referred to the intellectual ability exercised by humans in the creation of something, unrelated to divine beings. Techne represented the process of adhering to given rules while combining creative ideas to produce better results. In this process, technical perfection and the meaning and message contained in the work also played an important role. In other words, techne was a term that referred to the conscious intellectual production ability that was performed while adhering to a set of rules. The ancient Greeks believed that architecture, painting, and sculpture were the products of techne. However, they considered architecture to be an activity of producing real objects, while painting and sculpture were considered to be activities of imitating real objects.
Furthermore, since painting and sculpture were imitations of real objects, this imitation could result in the creation of an accurate image of the real object, but it could also result in the creation of an illusion through the use of distortion. However, Plato took a critical view of enthusiasm and techne based on his philosophical reasoning.
He saw human “reason” as an important ability to grasp the ideas of the transcendent world. (Ideas are the archetypes of the real objects perceived by humans. They are transcendent realities that are the basis of all existence and cognition, and are the eternal and unchanging archetypes of things.) Based on this perspective, he regarded enthusiasm as a state in which humans stray from “reason,” and therefore defined art derived from this state as harmful to humans. He strongly criticized poetry in particular, because he believed that poetry was closer to messages obtained through communication with the gods than to human creations, and thus further removed from human “reason.” Furthermore, Plato assigned the highest value to the Ideas, which are the essence of the real world, and said that the real world, which is a copy of the Ideas, inevitably has a lower value than the Ideas. Based on this perspective, Plato also took a critical view of the results of imitation of the real world achieved through the exercise of techne, with his criticism of painting and sculpture being representative examples. Like the ancient Greeks of his time, Plato also regarded architecture as the physical manifestation of the real world. However, he argued that painting and sculpture, as objects that imitate the real world, which itself is an imitation of the Ideas, necessarily possess a lower value than the real world itself. In particular, the fact that distortion can create illusions in this second process of imitation serves as an important basis for Plato’s critical view of painting and sculpture.
Plato’s criticism had a profound influence on Western philosophy and art theory. However, in the various discourses on art that followed Plato, enthusiasm and technique regained their importance. In particular, Romanticism highly valued enthusiasm in the modern era because it rejected human rationality in art and emphasized the expression of emotions. Romantic artists sought to transcend reality through the power of emotion and imagination, and in this process, enthusiasm served as an important artistic driving force. However, while enthusiasm was emphasized in ancient Greece in relation to divine beings, in the Romantic era, it was emphasized in relation to human imagination and the unconscious. In this way, Romanticism showed a tendency to freely express human emotions through art.
In the modern era, the value of techne was highlighted by realism. Realism sought to accurately imitate the real world, emphasizing the value of techne as the means to create accurate images, excluding the aspect of creating fantasy. Realist artists sought to faithfully reproduce reality through techne, aiming to convey deeper understanding and emotion to readers and viewers. In this process, artworks transcended mere imitation and came to be regarded as a means of exploring and expressing the depth of human experience.
Ultimately, enthusiasm and techné have defined the essence of art in different ways throughout history and played an important role in evaluating its value. From this perspective, art can be seen not as mere aesthetic expression, but as the result of profound reflection and exploration of human existence and the world.
