Compartive Civilizations 12

Greek Sculpture

K.J. Benoy

Ancient Greek Sculpture

It was in ancient Greece that sculpture as an art form was revolutionized.In the hands of the greatest sculptors, stone was made flesh.Over a few centuries, Greek sculptors took the rigid formalism of the Egyptians and transformed it completely.The Greeks invented naturalism in sculpture.

Greek Sculpture

Yet their realism was more than a portrayal of mankind as he really is.It went much further, trying to portray man as he might be.Greek sculpture portrayed the ideal, rather than the real.

Archaic

The Archaic form dates to around 650 BC.

Forms Tend to be stiff and representative of types, rather than portraits.

All were originally painted.

Archaic

All wear the characteristic “Archaic Smile”

The Rampin Head

Archaic – Kouros Figures

The “Kouros” – “youth” – is a male nude form.

Sounion Kouros

Archaic -- Kouros

Like Phaoronic standing statues, one leg is placed in front of the other. Arms are straight and stiffly at his side. Weight is equally divided.Delphian

Kouros “twins”

Archaic -- KourosUnlike the Egyptian Sculptural forms that they seem to be derived from, these statues are “in the round” – divorced from any stone background or architecture.

Anavyssos Kouros

Archaic -- Kore

The female equivalent of the Kouros is the “Kore,” or “maiden.”

Kore from Acropolis Museum

Archaic -- Kore

Unlike the Kouros, she is always clothed. She shares the stiff and upright form and archaic smile, however.

Peplos Kore

Archaic -- Kore

Like the Kouros, she is intended to be seen from all directions.

Peplos

Kore

Archaic -- KoreBoth Kouros and Kore figures were not left in white marble, as they are generally seen today. Rather, they were luridly painted.The following images show how startlingly different they looked in their original appearance.

Archaic Architectural SculptureThis existed in relief carving.

Olympian gods and the Giants

Archaic Architectural Sculpture

Entire carved figures were also placed into architectural settings.

Caryatids (female columnar supports) in porch. Treasury of the Siphnians, Delphi

Classical SculptureIn the early 5th century BC, a remarkable transition took place in Greek Sculpture.Archaic stiffness gave way to greater naturalism.This is noticeable in the Kritios Boy – a new interpretation of the Kouros form.

Classical – Kritios BoyKritios Boy has softer lines.He also is given a contrapposto stance – his weight is unevenly distributed between his feet and his body has a slight s-curve as a consequence.Motion is apparent, rather than implied.

Classical SculptureHere, in Doryphorus, the spear bearer, the contraposto stance is readilly apparent.Again, this is a Roman marble copy, this time of a work by the other great Greek master, Polykleitos.

Classical Sculpture

The archaic smile is replaced with varied, but generally serious expressions.

Riace Bronze Warrior

Athena

Classical Sculpture

Often a moment of balance is portrayed.

As in this statue of Poseidon (Zeus?)

Classical Sculpture

Or in this statue, Discobolus, by the great master, Myron.

Here in Roman copies in marble of the bronze original.

Classical Sculpture The Parthenon

One of the world’s greatest architectural achievements, the Parthenon, in Athens is also one of the world’s most important sculptural sources.Unfortunately, like the building itself, most of its sculptures are now fragmented.

Classical SculptureThe Parthenon

Many figures have been removed altogether.

The British museum holds a considerable number of significant pieces, known as the Elgin Marbles.

Dionysus

Classical SculptureThe Parthenon

The frieze, a 160 meter long portrayal of the Panathenaic Procession, displays a rhythmic sense that matches the columnar architecture perfectly.

Classical SculptureThe Parthenon

At the heart of the Parthenon stood an enormous statue of Athena, now lost.

Clad in ivory and gold, she dominated the main chamber, or cella.

Marble copy of the Parthenon Athena

Classical Sculpture The Erectheum

Of course the Parthenon is not the only building to grace the Athenian Acropolis.

The Erectheum also has notable sculpture in the form of the caryatids that support the roof of the Porch of the Maidens

Hellenistic Sculpture

The term Hellenistic generally is applied to the last phase of Greek art and is associated with the expansion of the Greek state under and after Alexander the Great.

Hellenistic Sculpture

However, the characteristic style of the Hellenistic period predates Alexander.

Most art historians now see it as a natural progression from Classical traditions.

Late Classical or Hellenistic?

The Dying Niobid

Hellenistic Sculpture

From the late 5th century BC, patrons seemed to look for more variety and even greater realism, as in this portrayal of an old woman.

Hellenistic Sculpture

Portrait sculptures were quite popular, like the Mausolus and the many statues and busts of Alexander the Great.

The statue of Mausolus

Hellenistic Sculpture

Drapery in the Hellenistic period is particularly detailed and gives a sense of movement that was lacking in the classical period.

Classical – The Charioteer Hellenistic – The Veiled Dancer

Hellenistic Sculpture

The Best example of this is the Nike of Samothrace.

The fabric both drapes and clings to the underlying flesh in unsurpassed naturalism.

Hellenistic Sculpture

Sensuousness is stressed as clothing reveals rather than conceals the form of the body beneath

Hellenistic Sculpture

Female nudes were much more in evidence in the Hellenistic period.

The most famous is the Louvre’s other great Hellenistic work, the Venus de Milo.

Hellenistic Sculpture

Hellenistic Sculpture

Expression took the form of dramatic gestures and contorted figures.

Like the Dying Gaul.

Hellenistic Sculpture

…or the Laocoon group.

Hellenistic Sculpture

…or this Centaur tortured by cupid.

Conclusion

The importance of Greece’s contribution to sculpture is impossible to overstate.

In the hands of its best sculptors, stone became a plastic substance capable of mimicing or even exceeding reality.

Its Classical and Hellenistic forms entranced Greece’s Roman conquerors and provided inspiration for the great stone carvers from the Renaissance to modern times.

Finis