The drawings of Douris teach us to understand yet another thing. Greek painting at this period had a cause at heart which the entire fifth century upheld with passionate conviction--the belief that the aim of the plastic arts is the representation of man. After the Cretans and Mycenæans had derived such admirable inspirations from the vegetable kingdom, from the marine fauna and flora, after the picturesque studies of birds and deer which the Ionians had transmitted to the Corinthian and Attic potters, we see Greek painting gradually eliminating all this from design, in order to devote itself exclusively to the representation of the human form. Nothing can turn it aside from this course. Whether it is a question of gods and goddesses, heroes, or even citizens, it is always the human form in all its aspects, in all its attitudes, dignified or familiar, which the draughtsman observes. Nowhere has such complete absorption of the artistic imagination been seen. Later, after Alexander, the Greeks themselves somewhat modified their attitude, and learnt once more to contemplate non-human nature; but the limits within which Greek thought had voluntarily confined itself remained severe during the century of Pericles. According to an expression of Victor Bérard, it was a garden of humanity in which man was the most beautiful plant. To this bias we owe some of the purest masterpieces of which humanity can boast. Those of sculpture are famous in all lands; those of painting were no less worthy of admiration, but we only can judge them by the designs on vases. _Theseus and the Marathonian Bull_ on the kylix by Euphronios (Fig. 12), the _Memnon_ by Douris (Fig. 8), or the _Zeus carrying off a Woman_ upon an anonymous kylix in the Louvre (Fig. 24) which is attributed to him, the _Aphrodite on the Swan_ in the British Museum (Fig. 7) by a somewhat later artist, bear comparison with the most beautiful drawings of the Renaissance. Never has the beauty of the human form in motion been rendered with more sincere joy. Here, again, the Greeks prepared the path for the moderns, teaching the dignity of man by proving him to be more important and necessary in art than all else. It is no longer Nature ruling and crushing with its immensity mankind ignorant of itself. It is human thought, on the contrary, projecting itself on the external world, and taking possession of it. [Illustration: Fig. 24. ZEUS CARRYING OFF A WOMAN. Louvre Museum.]