I will use 2 examples from Ancient Greek art: 1) The Kouros (marble, 580 BC) and 2) Hermes of Praxiteles (4th century BC). The Kouros we see in the photo is one of two heroic brothers who gained immortality and eternal recognition for the respect and love they had shown toward their mother. In this sculpture we see an exceptional realistic rendering of the male body, but the smile of the Kouros is not real; it is not about this life; it is about the blissfulness of immortality. We don’t see this idealized smile of blissfulness in our everyday lives; it is fictional. 2) In 500 BC, Hermes was represented as an old man with a long beard. Praxiteles transformed him into a young man resting against a tree trunk covered by a mantle. He holds in his left arm the baby Dionysus (the god of wine and ecstasy). He is probably holding a bunch of grapes in his right hand and he is trying to arouse Dionysus’ passion for ecstasy and absolute freedom. The sculpture is huge (H. 2.15 m). We could say that its size is reasonable because here we have the representation of an immortal God and not a mortal human being. On the other hand, his body looks more like the body of a young athlete than the body of an aged God with a long beard on his face. But his highly polished and idealized face is more appropriate to a God. In other words, we witness in this sculpture a joyful interplay between the humane (real) and the Godly (fictional). I taught art history for many years and now I am convinced that natural beauty depends on the interplay between light and shadow. Artistic beauty (cosmetics, fine arts, drama, cinema, video games, etc.) depends, I think, on the interplay between the real and the fictional.

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