Reply To: Humanism

[Tamara Toy]

Humanism is the philosophy that centers around the human experience. This includes things such as critical thinking and evidence-based thinking, instead of accepting beliefs and religious doctrine as the only truth. This gives more agency to human life, as it isn’t all about what the gods want or desire to do. I see a lot of ways this is evident in the Greek art of this period. When we look at “Kritios Boy’, the naturalness of his physique and pose, as opposed to earlier statues of gods, is much more lifelike. Critical analysis of the human body was used, from the way the hips are positioned given the shift of weight to one leg. This lack of rigidity in stance is using humanism which breaks away from centering art around the gods and man being a reflection of them.