Roma copia Grècia.

Siempre he preferido los restos casi irreconocibles de una estátua griega a la copia romana perfectamente conservada. Los romanos copiaron mal a los griegos, en general. Aunque a nosotros nos ha llegado Grecia a través de los ojos de Roma, este legado ha sido y sigue siendo falsificado. Y la iconografía griega totalmente incomprendida. En este sentido me llamó siempre la atención el pretendido hieratismo de la estatuaria griega arcaica. Este detalle me bastó para comprender rápidamente que nadie en la Facultad de Bellas Artes entendía nada de la iconografía griega. La visita a El Discóbolo fue la confirmación de mi suposición. Aquella estátua no era - no es - de este mundo.

"(...) the purchase of Elgin’s collection (which was significantly larger than William Townley’s), the government chose not to act. This relative lack of interest in the marbles was augmented by a lack of understanding about the artistic merits of the statuary and about Greek civilization in its own right, which had often been perceived only as a primitive forbearer of Rome. While many of Britain’s artists, who were already familiar with the Elgin Marbles, had been exulting their virtue, the members of Parliament, who had not yet consulted with these artists, were still viewing Greece through the lens of Rome" (“Grecian Grandeurs and the Rude Wasting of Old Time”: Britain, the Elgin Marbles, and Post-Revolutionary Hellenism, by Christopher Casey, University of California, Berkeley)

(continuará)