Antiquity as Inspiration in Art

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the role of the classical antiquity and its art throughout the centuries, which formed the profile of the European civilisation, as seen from the wiev-point of a secondary school teacher of Latin and History of Art. The text is trying to give a cut through the European art from its early beginning in prehistorical times to some recent works of the 20th century artist, speaking in a way acceptable to a teen-age audience. Its main idea is that the rules of beauty and harmony that the Classical Antiquity had developed some 25 centuries ago, functioned as a continuous reference of the European art not only in the years of praise and glory, but also in the periods of denial and even open resistance. The Art, travelling through Chaos and Disorder always finds new services of inspiration in classical Order and Harmony, reminding us of the everlasting search of immortal beauty, maybe the missing link in a lost harmony between Creator, Nature an Man.