Cafe Luminaire

Of all the things the Greek had names for, Art was not one of them; the word they used was mimesis; imitation.
The body of man himself was generally the subject of this imitation, with an extra ingredient: persuasive difference from reality which we, like the Greeks, call beauty.
Part of the function of art has always been to isolate an image out of the crowd of impressions. We owe it to the Greeks that our art is based on life.

Greek art is the basis of all western art. Over 2000 years of history we have learned to see this tradition in a certain way.

The Greek statues were painted a lifelike flesh tone. We prefer our statues to be pure and white. In the museum of our imagination there is an ideal beauty which the Greeks themselves would have hardly recognized. Whiteness isn't all we have learned to appreciate, the fragmented torso is much more tasteful than the copy edibles.

- Johann Joachim Winckelmann