In this blog post, we will look at how the concepts of Entousiasmos and Techne from ancient Greece have been inherited and changed in modern art.
When we think of art, we usually think of works that reveal beauty, such as dance, poetry, music, architecture, painting, and sculpture. These works of art have been considered as important means of expressing human emotions and thoughts, and sometimes conveying social and political messages. However, it was the philosophical thinking of the ancient Greeks that made art mean more than just expressing beauty. They believed that dance, poetry, and music came from “enthousiasmos,” and architecture, painting, and sculpture came from “techne.” “Entousiasmos” usually means ‘enthusiasm’ or ‘passion,’ while ‘techné’ means ‘skill’ or ‘craftsmanship.’ Entousiasmos and techné have been considered the origins of artistic creation since ancient Greece, but their value has been judged differently depending on the perspective of art.
For the ancient Greeks, entusiasmos meant a state of ecstasy in which a priest communed with the gods to receive their messages during religious ceremonies. They considered the moments when humans could commune with the gods to be very important, and believed that these sacred experiences were the driving force behind the creation of art. They saw this state as being present not only in priests but also in those who participated in religious ceremonies. The ancient Greeks believed that one could reach the state of entusiasm, a state of communion with the gods through a priest, by engaging in activities that expressed emotions and impulses through gestures, language, and melody and rhythm. They believed that dance, poetry, and music emerged from such activities. In this way, art was not seen as a mere means of entertainment, but was closely connected to the divine experience.
For the ancient Greeks, techné referred to the intellectual capacity that humans exhibit when they create something, regardless of whether it is related to the divine. Techné represented the process of creating a better product by following given rules while combining them with creative ideas. In this process, the technical perfection of the work and the meaning and message it contained also played an important role. In other words, techne was a word that referred to the conscious intellectual production of works of art that were created in accordance with a set system of rules. The ancient Greeks believed that the works of art that could be created using techne were architecture, painting, and sculpture. However, they believed that architecture was an activity that produced real objects, while painting and sculpture were activities that imitated real objects. In addition, since painting and sculpture are imitations of the real thing, this imitation can be the production of an accurate image of the real thing, but it can also be the production of an illusion, that is, an imitation using distortion.
However, at the time, Plato took a critical view of Entousiasmos and Techne based on his philosophical reasoning. He saw human “reason” as an important ability to grasp the idea of the transcendent world. (The idea is the archetype of the real things that humans sense. It is the eternal and unchanging essential archetype of things as a transcendent reality that is the basis of all existence and cognition.) Based on this perspective, he saw humans as having moved away from “reason,” and therefore defined art that originated from this as being harmful to humans, and he particularly strongly criticized poetry. This is because he thought that poetry was closer to a message obtained through communication with God rather than a product of humans, and therefore was even further removed from human “reason.” In addition, Plato said that the highest value is given to the essence of the real world, the idea, and the real world is created by imitating the idea, so it has to have a lower value than the idea. Based on this perspective, Plato took a critical view of the results of imitation of the real world, which was achieved through the use of techné, and his criticism of painting and sculpture is representative. Like the ancient Greeks, Plato also believed that architecture was a real object in the real world. However, he argued that painting and sculpture were objects that imitate the real world, which in turn imitates the ideal world, and therefore they must have a lower value than the real world itself. In particular, the fact that illusions can be created through distortion in the process of this second imitation is an important basis for Plato’s critical view of painting and sculpture.
This criticism of Plato has had a profound influence on Western philosophy and art theory since then. However, in the various discourses on art since Plato, Entusiasmos and Techné have again become important values. In particular, it was Romanticism that highly valued the value of Entusiasmos in modern times. This is because Romanticism 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 entusiasmos was an important artistic driving force in this process. However, while entusiasmos was emphasized in ancient Greece in relation to divine beings, in the Romantic era it was emphasized in relation to the human imagination, the unconscious, and so on. As such, Romanticism showed a tendency to freely express the inner feelings of humans through art.
And in modern times, the value of techné is highlighted by realism. Realism sought to accurately imitate the real world, so it emphasized the value of techné, which enables the creation of accurate images, excluding the aspect of creating illusions. Realist artists have tried to faithfully reproduce reality through techné, and through this, they have tried to convey a deeper understanding and emotion to readers and viewers. In this process, works of art go beyond mere imitation and become a means of exploring and expressing the depth of human experience.
Ultimately, Entusiasmo and Techné have played an important role in defining the essence of art and evaluating its value in different ways over time. From this perspective, art can be seen as the result of deep reflection and exploration of human existence and the world, rather than a simple aesthetic expression.
