Figurative Sculpture

Welcome to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, commonly known as the MAC to those in the know. As you continue through our newest exhibit, Figurative Sculpture of the Ancient World, please follow the spear markers on the floor to discover our Ancient Greece gallery. This gallery showcases the works of art from the Early and High Classical periods of ancient Greek city-states. The time period of the Classical age of Greece ranged from around 480-323 BCE (Kleiner 124)! In this period, the Greeks were starting to experiment with more lifelike and naturalistic humans in their art while still holding onto that element of idealized figures for which they are so famous. The Greek ideal figure often emphasized traits the average man was to aspire

For example, Warrior A is comprised of varying materials used in his creation. To name but a few, he had “[calcite] inlaid eyes, silver teeth and eyelashes, and copper lips and nipples” (Kleiner 130) on top of a large amount of bronze used on the body in general. These materials were, and still are, quite costly to use which helps to emphasize the overall importance of what is being portrayed. Along with the cost of the materials, there was a great amount of time and technical skill needed to sculpt a life-size bronze figure. To sculpt a bronze figure such as this, a master sculptor with several assistants were needed to employ the cire perdue, or lost-wax, method. The master sculptor would first make a clay sculpture, then make a clay mold around the sculpture to form a master mold. Beeswax was then applied to the master mold and the details were refined by carving details such as fingernails into the wax. A final clay mold was put around the new wax figure and some liquid clay was poured into the interior of the wax sculpture. Finally, the wax was melted out of the two clay pieces, giving the technique its name, and molten bronze was poured into the wax’s place. The extra details were done by inlaying the other various materials onto the statue, which also would have required a skilled hand.

The Riace Warriors were depicted as most traditional Greek sculpture was, in full nudity. This was because the Greeks celebrated the beauty of the human form in their culture. “Heroic nudity is an important convention in art. In this case, the use of heroic nudity indicates the subjects are either heroes or semi-divine beings” (Becker). The impressive musculature and flawless features of Warrior A uphold this ideal of beauty in heroic nudity that the Greeks created. Now carefully observe the arms and hands of the piece. Along with being depicted nude, scholars believe that the Riace Warriors were once holding a shield and spear each, along with a helm perched atop their heads. Pairing these instruments of warfare along with the heroic nudity gives insight into who the average man strove to be in Greek culture. A man in peak physical condition, who was as successful in war as any other of his professions was a man to be respected and admired; a man who fully represented the Greek ideal. Immortalizing these images of a perfect figure, and traits of a warrior in bronze then having it dominate Greek sculpture for centuries lends credence to just how important this ideal was to the Greek