In order to get you thinking about more recent attitudes toward the classical past, take a look at the images in the victorian imaginings collection on flickr. These paintings come from 19th century artists and reflect prevailing Victorian sentiments about the ancient Greek world. Those ideas weren't drawn from careful study of the past as much they were from what Victorian-era artists needed the Greeks to represent. Your assignment is to write some brief responses to the painting embedded below, which takes the 19th century Greek countryside as its setting, with 'modern' Greek peasant life framed by crumbling ancient ruins. In your brief response -- a page or so will suffice -- speculate on what the Victorians saw in the Greek past as they (re-)invented it. I'm not looking for an authoritative review of Victorian society and culture (we'll review the high points), just what you see these artists trying to achieve. A couple of questions to get you started: why the juxtaposition of modern peasants with ancient ruins? What effect does this foregrounded rural poverty have on framing the ancient past? If you're familiar with the southern Greek landscape, what's just a bit out of place on the ruins as depicted in these paintings? And for this image in particular, what attitude toward these soaring ruins have the peasants taken? What are the Victorians 'saying' about modern Greeks and their past?

In order to get you thinking about more recent attitudes toward the classical past, take a look at the images in the Victorian imaginings collection on Flickr. These paintings come from 19th century artists and reflect prevailing Victorian sentiments about the ancient Greek world. Those ideas weren't drawn from careful study of the past as much they were from what Victorian-era artists needed the Greeks to represent. Your assignment is to write some brief responses to the painting embedded below, which takes the 19th century Greek countryside as its setting, with 'modern' Greek peasant life framed by crumbling ancient ruins.

In your brief response -- a page or so will suffice -- speculate on what the Victorians saw in the Greek past as they (re-)invented it. I'm not looking for an authoritative review of Victorian society and culture (we'll review the high points), just what you see these artists trying to achieve. A couple of questions to get you started: why the juxtaposition of modern peasants with ancient ruins? What effect does this foregrounded rural poverty have on framing the ancient past? If you're familiar with the southern Greek landscape, what's just a bit out of place on the ruins as depicted in these paintings? And for this image in particular, what attitude toward these soaring ruins have the peasants taken? What are the Victorians 'saying' about modern Greeks and their past?