The Renaissance was a period of terrific enlightenment in Europe, as scholars and artists in every field strived to expand their horizons and develop new techniques and ideas. Many intellectuals moved away from the dominant religious themes of the Middle Ages in favor of more secular and individualistic motifs. One such movement was towards a rebirth of the classical styles of visual and literary arts from ancient Greece and Rome. Numerous works of art from the Renaissance, and even later time periods, demonstrate this return to the classical style, including many that can be viewed at the University of Notre Dame's own Snite Museum. The painting that I closely examined at the Snite and will focus on in this paper is titled "Hylas and the Nymph," by Baron François-Pascal-Gérard and studio. It strongly exemplifies the ancient classical Greek style, especially in regards to its "great" subject, its use of the beauty of nature combined with devices of perspective, and its depiction of "reality" of the human form.

The most obvious component of the classical style utilized in this painting is the use of a "great subject," one that refers back to ancient Greek and Roman mythology and literature. When I first viewed this painting, I wasn't aware of the story of Hylas and the nymph, but the use of the mythological creature, the nymph, tipped me off to the neoclassical style of the painting. Later, in an internet research, I discovered the tale. Hylas was a young man who served as a companion to Heracles for many years. During the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece, part of his duties was to collect water for the entire entourage. One day, as the warriors stopped to rest in Cios, Hylas went to fetch water from a spring, unaware that many nymphs were gathered there, singing praises to Artemis. One particular nymph, referred to both as Dryope and Ephydatea, was charmed by Hylas's beauty and instantly fell in love with him. She attempted to reach up and kiss him as he dipped his pitcher into the spring, but ended up wrapping her arms about his neck and dragging him into the "depths of her watery abode" (Vlamis, The Nymphs). It is this action of the nymph grabbing Hylas that is depicted in the painting. Though his companions on the Argonaut quest searched for him for many hours, Hylas was never seen again, and there are many versions of his ultimate fate. The two most popular are that Hylas either died an "abrupt death by drowning," or that he lived on in the spring with the nymphs in "everlasting sexual bliss" (Fisher, The Naiades). This legend of Hylas and the nymph was very popular in ancient Greek literature, and it is used in this painting in keeping a classical style.

Another element of this style that is exemplified in the painting is the classical view towards nature and how to best develop it in a work of art. In this beautiful picture, there is evidence of intense precise attention to detail shown in the natural background of the painting, especially in the care given to each leaf of the surrounding trees. The mixture of colors in the rushing water under the nymph was also beautifully done, as the artist reached for the main goal of the classical style, that which tried to hold a mirror up to "reality" and depict nature in all its ideal beauty. Additional attention was paid to methods of perspective in the setting of this painting, those which the Greeks first attempted but were perfected much later, in the Renaissance. There is evidence of foreshortening used, especially in Hylas's limbs, and overlapping was utilized effectively to show the position of Hylas's lower body behind two trees. Furthermore, the Baron successfully employed atmospheric perspective in the small portion of the environment visible outside the forest, observable in the far right center of the painting. The clouds and hills that are visible are colored in light shades and are particularly hazy to the viewer, giving them the effect of being significantly far away. This attention to the beauty of nature combined with efficient use of several devices of perspective further point to the classical style.

Along with the beauty of nature, however, classical artists were also seriously concerned with displaying the beauty of the human form in their works. It is for this reason that many forms were often portrayed in the nude, or very close to it. In this manner, every aspect of the human body could be represented in its most idealized state. This perfection of the human figure is clearly evident in this work of art, in both Hylas and the nymph. Though the positioning of trees and the human forms prevent any "private" parts from being shown, the parts of the bodies that are shown are plainly idealized. The nymph has perfect ivory skin and a certain desired plumpness to her figure, though she still maintains an hourglass shape. Hylas, on the other hand, has each muscle visibly defined, as even his cloak falls off him in a manner to draw your attention to his sculpted upper body. Furthermore, both Hylas and the nymph possess gorgeous curly hair, each tendril falling equidistant from the others, and no frizz to be found. The chances that any actual people look like either of these two figures are very slim. The viewers can therefore recognize that the forms in the painting are much greater and more perfect than they themselves happen to be, and this idealization of characters is typical, in both classical art and literature. Aristotle describes in his Poetics how a tragedy should involve people of a high stature and quality, so that the reader may admire these characters and feel even greater sorrow when they fall from their pedestals (Aristotle, p. 25). So too this notion is applied to this classical painting.

The concepts of the "classical style" in the visual arts are not all that much different than those we have studied in classical literature, only differing in the media used to represent them. In both classical styles of art and writing, we see "great" subjects, most often from the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome; a clarity of the subject and its surroundings through precise attention to detail and efforts at mimêsis; and grand elevations and idealizations of humans and the human form. These notions are unmistakably evident in several ancient Greek tragedies that we have studied this semester, such as Agamemnon and The Iliad, as well as in numerous paintings at the Snite Museum of Art, such as demonstrated in this paper on Baron François-Pascal-Gérard's "Hylas and the Nymph."