

The Grandest Art of the Ancients - diodorus
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/greek-bronze-grandest-art-ancients/

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Jun8
Brings to mind the following Ode from Horace
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace)):

    
    
      Exegi monumentum aere perennnius
      regalique situ pyramidum altius,
      quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
      possit diruere aut innumerabilis
      annorum series et fuga temporum.
      ...
    

(I have finished a monument more lasting than bronze and higher than the royal
structure of the pyramids, which neither the destructive rain, nor wild Aquilo
is able to destroy, nor the countless series of years and flight of ages.) ...

Full of himself, yes, but a good summary up the durability of a beautiful
thing ("A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:/ Its loveliness increases;/ it
will never Pass into nothingness;" from Keats' _Endymion_
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endymion_(poem)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endymion_\(poem\))).
Horace was talking about poetry, of course, but I think same applies to these
statues.

~~~
pazimzadeh
Reminds me of the last lines of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings) from Ferdowsi:

    
    
      I've reached the end of this great history
      And all the land will talk of me:
      I shall not die, these seeds I've sown will save
      My name and reputation from the grave,
      And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim
      When I have gone, my praises and my fame
    

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9197000/9197062....](http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9197000/9197062.stm)

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cafard
Thank you for the heads-up. I will definitely aim to see this at the National
Gallery.

