Compartive Civilizations 12

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Compartive Civilizations 12

• Greek Sculpture
• K.J. Benoy

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Archaic

• All wear the characteristic Archaic Smile

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Archaic Kouros Figures

• The Kouros youth is a male nude form.

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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.

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Archaic -- Kouros

• Unlike the Egyptian Sculptural forms that they
  seem to be derived from, these statues are in
  the round divorced from any stone background
  or architecture.

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Archaic -- Kore

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

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Archaic -- Kore

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

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Archaic -- Kore

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

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Archaic -- Kore

• Both 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.

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Archaic Architectural Sculpture

• This existed in relief carving.

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Archaic Architectural Sculpture

• Entire carved figures were also placed into
  architectural settings.

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Classical Sculpture

• In 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.

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Classical Kritios Boy

• Kritios 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.

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Classical Sculpture

• Here, 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.

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Classical Sculpture

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

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Classical Sculpture

• Often a moment of balance is portrayed.
• As in this statue of Poseidon (Zeus?)

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Classical Sculpture

• Or in this statue, Discobolus, by the great
  master, Myron.
• Here in Roman copies in marble of the bronze
  original.

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Classical Sculpture The Parthenon

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

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Classical SculptureThe Parthenon

• Many figures have been removed altogether.
• The British museum holds a considerable number of
  significant pieces, known as the Elgin Marbles.

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Classical SculptureThe Parthenon

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Hellenistic Sculpture

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

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Hellenistic Sculpture

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

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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.

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Hellenistic Sculpture

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

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Hellenistic Sculpture

• Female nudes were much more in evidence in the
  Hellenistic period.
• The most famous is the Louvres other great
  Hellenistic work, the Venus de Milo.

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Hellenistic Sculpture
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Hellenistic Sculpture

• Expression took the form of dramatic gestures and
  contorted figures.
• Like the Dying Gaul.

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Hellenistic Sculpture

• or the Laocoon group.

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Hellenistic Sculpture

• or this Centaur tortured by cupid.

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Conclusion

• The importance of Greeces 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
  Greeces Roman conquerors and provided
  inspiration for the great stone carvers from the
  Renaissance to modern times.

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Finis