Greek Sculpture

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Greek Sculpture

• Periods of Greek Sculpture
• Archaic period (8th - early 5th century BC)
• Classical period (5th - 4th century BC)
• Hellenistic period (late 4th - 1st century BC)

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Greek Sculpture

• Periods of Greek Sculpture
• Archaic period (8th - early 5th century BC)
• Classical period (5th - 4th century BC)
• Hellenistic period (late 4th - 1st century BC)

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Greek Sculpture

• Archaic period (8th - 5th c BC)
• Kouros
• male youth
• always nude
• similarities with Egyptian
• block conscious
• cubic character
• slim

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Greek Sculpture

• Archaic period (8th - 5th c BC)
• Kouros
• Similarites with Egyptian
• broad shoulders
• position of the arms
• clinched fists
• standing with left leg forward
• wig-like treatment of the hair

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Greek Sculpture

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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture

• Archaic period (8th - 5th c BC)
• Kore (maiden)
• always clothed
• rigid
• oversimplified
• awkward

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Greek Sculpture

• Archaic period (8th - 5th c BC)
• Kore (maiden)
• less close to nature
• a solid, undifferentiated mass from which only
  the toes protruded

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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture

• Periods of Greek Sculpture
• Archaic period (8th - early 5th century BC)
• Classical period (5th - 4th century BC)
• Hellenistic period (late 4th - 1st century BC)

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Greek Sculpture

• Classical period (5th - 4th c BC)
• sculpture and statues were put to wide uses
• friezes
• pediments
• funeral statues became personalized to families
• idealistic
• technical skill in depicting the human form in a
  variety of poses greatly increased
• poses became more natural
• statues began to depict real people

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Greek Sculpture

• Delphic Charioteer (478-474)
• one of the first bronzes in Greek art
• garment is simple reflecting the behavior of real
  cloth

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Greek Sculpture
Delphic Charioteer (478-474)
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Greek Sculpture

• Kritios Boy
• twists his body
• his head turns slightly
• his weight rests on one leg
• shift in stance tilts his hips and brings one
  shoulder forward and the other back
• expression is natural

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Greek Sculpture

• Kritios Boy
• calculated nonsymmetry
• the knee of the forward leg is lower than the
  other
• the right hip is thrust down and inward
• the left hip up and outward

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Greek Sculpture

• Kritios Boy
• body axis is not a straight vertical line but a
  faint, reversed S-curve
• weight of the body rests mainly on the left leg
• the right leg is a prop to make sure that the
  body keeps its balance

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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture

• Contrapposto
• when a figure stands
• one leg holding its full weight
• the other leg is relaxed
• classic pose causes
• the figures hips and shoulders to rest at
  opposite angles
• gives a slight s-curve to the entire torso

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Greek Sculpture

• Zeus ca. 460-450 B.C.E.
• sense of balanced movement
• force held in check,
• simple but powerful anatomy
• realistic only in spirit - lack of proportions
• vigorous, yet static in its perfect balance

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Greek Sculpture
Zeus ca. 460-450 B.C.E.
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Greek Sculpture

• Riace Warriors
• more advanced treatment of anatomy
• expression of the whole body - goes far beyond
  contemporaneous marbles

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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture

• Discobolos of Myron
• threshold of realism
• primitive but respected for his honesty, vigor,
  and novel poses

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Greek Sculpture
Aphrodite

• Aphrodite by Praxiteles
• pupil of Phidias
• first to portray the nude female
• body synonym for absolute perfection

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Greek Sculpture

• Periods of Greek Sculpture
• Archaic period (8th - early 5th century BC)
• Classical period (5th - 4th century BC)
• Hellenistic period (late 4th - 1st century BC)

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Greek Sculpture

• Hellenistic period (late 4th - 1st century BC)
• Lost some of its balance and simplicity
• Reflects more clearly the emotions of the
  individual artists
• Contains more realism
• Less of an expression of civic pride

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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture

• Laocoon Group
• animated realism
• melodrama
• very active
• muscles flex to the breaking point
• figures twist uncontrollably
• faces distorted in terror

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Greek Sculpture

• The Dying Gaul
• realism
• chest wound bleeds heavily
• slowly loses strength
• right arm is failing
• cannot move his legs

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Greek Sculpture

• The Dying Gaul
• death has become a concrete physical process
• human being who seeks sympathy

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Greek Sculpture

• Winged Victory of Samothrace
• 8 feet tall
• prow of a trireme
• greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture
• study of motion-
• wind against fabric
• seaspray wets the fabric

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Greek Sculpture

• Phidias
• Greatest of all classical period sculptors
• Idealized representations of gods and
  mythological creatures
• Qualities
• Proportion, patriotism, dignity
• Works
• Athena in Parthenon
• Zeus in Temple of Olympian Zeus
• Parthenon reliefs

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Greek Sculpture

• Discobolos of Myron
• threshold of realism
• primitive but respected for his honesty, vigor,
  and novel poses

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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture
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Greek Sculpture