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Ant 293 Lecture Four Ancient Greek Sculpture
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• Contents
• 1. Archaic style
• clarity ideal
• 2. Classical style
• torso pose balance proportion 'godliness'
  'wholeness'
• 3. The Parthenon sculptures A Case
  Study stature of Athena metopes
  pediments Ionic frieze

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• 1. Archaic Style
• the earliest Greek nudes are called 'Apollos'
• the Greeks thought of Apollo as a perfectly
  beautiful man
• his body conformed to certain laws of proportion
  and so partook of the divine beauty of
  mathematics
• in the embodiment of Apollo everything must be
  calm and clear

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• however, the early 'Apollos' are not beautiful
• they are alert and confident, but stiff
• the transitions between their members are abrupt
  and awkward, and they have a curious flatness, as
  if the sculptor could think only of one plane at
  a time

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• Clarity
• the shapes are neither pleasant nor comfortably
  related to one another, but each one is firmly
  delineated and aspires to a shape which the eye
  can grasp

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• Ideal
• Archaic Greek sculpture starts from the concept
  of a perfect shape and only gradually feels able
  to modify that shape in the interests of
  imitation

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• Aelian tells us that Polyclitus once made two
  statues of the same model, one according to
  popular taste, probably naturalistic, the other
  according to the rules of art
• he invited his visitors to suggest improvements
  and modifications to the former, all of which
  were carried out
• he then exhibited the two statues the former was
  ridiculed, the latter appreciated as a fine work
  of art

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• 2. Classical style
• Perfection of internal structure of torso
• nude males of the 6th C BCE change gradually,
  becoming smoother and less 'severe'
• it is best shown in the junction of the hips,
  abdomen and thorax

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• ten years later, in about 480 BCE, these
  differences are even more marked in the Ephebe of
  Kritios
• the legs and divisions of the torso flow together
  with the same full and fruitful rhythm
• the hips are not parallel, but since he rests his
  weight on his left leg, that hip is slightly
  higher

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• Polyclitus' control of muscle architecture was
  very rigorous, and from him derives what the
  French call cuirasse esthetique
• this was a formalized disposition of the muscles
  and was used in the design of armour

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• Pose
• the positioning of the Classical sculptures also
  changed
• the objective seemed to be to find a pose that
  combined repose with the suggestion of potential
  movement
• Polyclitus invented a pose in which the figure is
  neither walking nor standing, but simply
  establishing a point of balance

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• Balance
• a figure may have within itself the rhythms of
  movement, but yet always comes to rest at its
  true centre

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• Proportion
• many of our ideas about correct proportions come
  down to us from ancient Greece
• when working with the nude form the Greek artist
  articulated a concept of a perfect shape and
  adapted natural form to this idea

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• Polyclitus was concerned with the idea of
  completeness, balance, and clarity, communicated
  through the nude form of the male athlete
• it is presumed that he wrote about a system of
  proportions in a book now lost

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• Phidias determined that the ideal body was based
  on a system using a total of 7.5 heads, with the
  length of the person's head as the basic
  measuring unit

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• His system has
• a. waist 3 heads
• b. hips 3.75 heads
• c. legs 1/2 body length
• d. knees 5 heads
• e. ankle 7 heads
• f. ankle to foot 1/2 head

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• 'Godliness'
• the ancient writers recognized that Polyclitus
  had created a perfectly balanced man, but added
  that he had not created the likeness of a god
  this was the achievement of Phidias
• from 480 to 440 BCE, and parallel to the series
  of athletes was a series of votive statues which
  culminated in the great Apollos of Phidias

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• 'wholeness'
• in the 4th C BCE, Praxiteles sculpted physical
  beauty in terms of strength, grace, gentleness
  and benevolence
• after Praxiteles, the perfect man in ancient art
  fragments into very graceful, or very muscular,
  or merely 'animal'

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• this statue stood nearly 12 metres high, framed
  on three sides by a two-tier set of interior
  Doric columns
• it was constructed of sheets of gold and ivory
  around a plastered wooden armature
• although destroyed in antiquity, miniature marble
  replicas of the Roman period attest to her
  appearance
• Athena is portrayed as a warrior, resting after
  combat

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• a winged victory is in the palm of her
  outstretched right hand, while the left supported
  a round shield
• a spear rested against her right shoulder
• she is in a simple tunic, and over her shoulders
  and chest is the aegis, the snake- fringed,
  fish-scaled poncho given to her by Zeus
• she wears a helmet
• she was also adorned with sculptures

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• above the architrave, resting on the columns, ran
  the Doric frieze consisting of alternating
  metopes and triglyphs
• the metopes measured 1.2m high and 1.22-1.33
  metres wide
• there were 92 fourteen on short sides, and 32 on
  long sides
• each side of the building relates to a different
  theme

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• west side Amazons fighting Greeks
• north side scenes from the sack of Troy
• east side Olympian gods fight for supremacy in
  the universe over giants
• south side most show Centaurs fighting Greeks
• most metopes have been badly mutilated
• an exception is the western corner of the north
  side, and the 'Centauromachy', now housed in the
  British museum

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• it is thought that two goddesses in lively
  conversation were spared destruction by Christian
  fanatics because it was misconstrued as the
  Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel in a New
  Testament scene of the Anunciation

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• as for the Centaurs, the metopes tell the story
  of a feast between Hippodameia and Perithoos,
  king of the Lapiths, with Centaurs as visitors
• the Centaurs could be cultured and wise, but when
  inflamed by wine, could get ugly, and at the
  wedding they tried to abduct a number of women
  and a battle broke out
• each metope tells a story of rape or mortal
  combat

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• Pediment East side
• sun god Helios and chariot emerging from the sea
  at dawn Dionysos reclining naked
• probably Persephone seated with her mother
  Demeter

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• Dionysos relaxed and resting on a rock draped
  with the skin of a panther watches Helios rise,
  giving dawn to a new day

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• at the centre it was high enough for figures to
  stand more than twice life size
• the sharp angles of the corners implied a much
  smaller scale
• the designer of the pediment arranged the
  figures, both in relation to the frame and in the
  relationship of one figure to another, so as to
  minimize the potential for extreme variation in
  scale

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• both east and west have suffered much vandalism
• the east was almost emptied when in late
  antiquity the temple was converted into a church
  
• the central figures have been lost however,
  Pausanias described them
• he describes the miraculous birth of Athena

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• a girl, perhaps Hebe, recoils from witnessing the
  birth of Athena

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• perhaps Hestia, goddess of the hearth
• with Aphrodite reclining luxuriously in the lap
  of Dione, her mother

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• the reclining figure is the female equivalent of
  the male nude in the opposite corner and
  completes a trio of figures
• to balance the chariot of the rising sun is shown
  Selene, the moon goddess, sinking beneath the
  horizon
• the torso of Selene survives in Athens

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• the head of one of the horses that drew the
  chariot of the moon goddess, Selene, across the
  night sky

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• Pediment West Side
• the west pediment sculpture had survived well
  until the explosion that wrecked the Parthenon in
  1687
• nevertheless it is known by remaining figures,
  Pausanias, and a drawing in 1674 that the theme
  concerns Athena's struggle with Poseidon for the
  patronage of Athens

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• Jacques Carrey's drawing in 1674 of the west
  pediment sculptures
• Athena and Poseidon dominate the centre
• their chariots fill spaces between them and
  figures in the two corners, perhaps judges

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• figure of Iris heralded
• the chariot of
• Poseidon
• she was
• the goddess of the
• rainbow and of the
• upper atmosphere

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• Ionic Frieze
• ran within the outer colonnades, around all four
  sides of the building

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• gods and goddesses, and godlike men and women
  were depicted in the Ionic frieze
• normally, subjects for temple sculpture were
  events from mythical gods and heroes
• in this frieze, the Athenians chose to represent
  themselves as an idealized, living community
• the pediment sculptures were in the round, and
  the metopes in high relief, the frieze sculptures
  are in low relief, 1m high and 1.6m long

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• the subject was a procession that divides into
  two branches, each starting out from the
  south-west corner
• this is the Panathenaea, a festival in honour of
  Athena held annually in Athens during the summer
  month of Hekatombaion, and every four years
  celebrated with especial splendour, when it was
  known as the Great Panathenaea

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• one branch of the procession ran along the south
  side of the building, turning on the east, where
  it ran to face a group of gods/esses seated to
  look south
• the other branch ran along the west side and then
  on to the north, until it too turned the corner
  on the east and there faced a group of gods/esses
  seated and looking north

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• between the two banks of gods is a group of cult
  officials engaged in some rite involving children
  with stools and a blanket of cloth
• this is thought to be the peplos, a robe newly
  woven each year by Athenian girls and women and
  dedicated at the Panathenaea to the statue of
  Athena Polias on the Acropolis

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• Episode one
• the west frieze has a troop of horsemen, some
  mounted, some not, some facing one way and others
  another, in an introductory episode of
  preparation for the cavalcade that lies ahead

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• Episode Two
• the cavalcade is found around the corner on the
  north and south sides, where sixty horsemen
  occupy about half of the entire long flank
• horsemen are divided into ten ranks of unequal
  number, each rank divided by a rider who is
  placed nearest the viewer, and not overlapped by
  any other figure in his rank
• this gives the illusion of a 'ride past'

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• ahead of the horsemen were chariots, ten on the
  south frieze and eleven on the north
• the first one or two are stationary and then the
  teams appear to fly headlong in a race, before
  being reined in to anticipate the figures of
  pedestrians who walk ahead
• two figures ride side by side in a car, a driver
  in flowing tunic and an armed foot soldier
• the latter seems to leap out of the cars to
  complete the race on foot

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• the lead chariots are reined in before the
  pedestrians in front of them
• these seem to be bearded elders, perhaps
  officials of the Athenian democracy, or possibly
  winners of a male beauty contest that was one of
  the festival events
• the winners carried branches in the procession,
  and some hands do look as if they are holding
  something

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• ahead of the elders walked musicians, both string
  and wind players
• in front of these were youths carrying water jars
  and in front of them trays
• the contents of the jars probably had to do with
  the feast at the culmination of the festival
• so too were the four sheep on the north, and four
  cattle on the north and south friezes

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• Episode Three east side
• young women appear for the first time in the
  frieze, their tunics and cloaks concealing their
  bodies
• a number of the women carry jugs and bowls for
  the pouring of liquid libations, and at least one
  carries a stand for burning incense

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• the women bring the procession and its offerings
  nearly to the gods, fulfilling the role of women
  in Greek religion as intermediaries between the
  world of mortals and that of the divine
• the two groups of gods are flanked by two groups
  of men, who stand or lean on staves
• these are either magistrates, or heroes of
  Athen's past

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• the gods are shown as the dignitaries of a
  grandstand audience, seated and thereby on a
  larger scale than the human figures of the
  frieze

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• the Ionic frieze is the most ambitious of all the
  sculptures of the Parthenon and the most
  expressive of a national ideology
• it presents a story narrated as a festival
  procession spanning the outer limits of the city
  and its sacred heart, connecting the legendary
  past with an idealized present and uniting the
  mortal inhabitants with their divine patrons