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Hellenistic art
Hellenistic period analysis
Classical and hellenistic periods
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During the Hellenistic Age was a new era for the Greeks, the statues were more transformed after the Classical Art Era. This is the era that they started treating their art form in a more detailed way with expression. “The great cultural centers of the era were no longer the city-states of Archaic and Classical Greece, but royal capitals.” (Kleiner 81) The Venus de Milo is a great example when the Classical Age started transforming. The sculptor who made this was very talented who was very creative. Since the Hellenistic Age was a new cultural for the Greeks, I want to discuss the famous statue of Venus the Milo which was made between 150-125 BCE. You can see the transformation between the Classical Era by how it was made. They used a carving technique to make the detailed statue of a nude female whose drape is below her waist. It's a three dimensioned statue focusing on the Greek God of love. Per Kleiner, “The Venus de Milo is a larger-than-life-size marble statue of Aphrodite found on Melos together with its inscribed base (now lost) signed by the sculptor Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-meander.” (78) It was carved out of marbled and where you can see emotions and action coming out of the sculpture. …show more content…
There is actually a hand holding an apple that is not attached to the statue that is on display elsewhere. “In addition, sculptural fragments found with the statue and newly accessible for study suggest that the Aphrodite originally held an apple to signal her victory in the Judgment of Paris and to allude to her island home” (Kousser 227) The apple represented a gift for Paris for choosing her as the most beautiful woman. The hellenistic age focused more on folk stories representing their
The emotion in the figures is also very different. In the archaic figure, the face contains emotion other than the archaic smile. The eyes are closed with no facial expression. The classical statue on the other hand does not have any facial expressions but has open eyes and no smile.
Ridgway, Brunilde S. Hellenistic Sculpture II: The Styles of ca. 200-100 B.C. Madison, Wisc.: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
The Classical style helped many emperors and rulers be conveyed as larger than life and being god like. Like most statues and figures the model was nude with symmetrical body parts. At that time athletes trained...
The statue is made of marble, instead of the bronze statue. This statue is one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. The statue is a kind of symbol; he does not in any way a likeness. This is my first expression when I saw the statue: the statue is showing me a simple, clear action that was used by Greek youth sculptures throughout this period. Looking at this statue, he expanded into 3D space, because he is standing straight and facing forward without any exaggerated movements, thus the post makes him look closed-off and a column his limbs are locked in space. Therefore, the standing posture, the decorations on his body, his hair and knee’s texture and how the Egyptians impact Greek art, is what makes me interested in it. A question that has always been in my mind is
...t the Venus of Milo as he passed her on the stairway." Paul may have had probable cause to dislike his teacher, however, the statue had done nothing to provoke him aside from being female. The distasteful gesture he made towards the statue embodies his attitude towards the entire female gender.
Hellenistic art, let alone architecture, was a period of dramatic transformations that deterred greatly from the Greek Classical period. While the Classical Greek concepts were not entirely abandoned, the Hellenistic period expanded the formal horizons with dramatic posing, sweeping lines, and high contrast of light, shadow and emotion, something greatly different from the Classical artists ideas. The conventions and rules of the Classical period gave way to experimentation and a sense of freedom that allowed the artists of the Hellenistic period to explore their subjects from unique points of view that they had not previously done. The Altar to Zeus in Pergamon is the perfect representation of the Hellenistic period. Pergamon contained the Altar to Zeus in the same way that the Athenian Acropolis contained the Parthenon and is considered by the Greek art historian Gisela Richter to be “the most famous altar of Hellenistic times” (Handbook 32). The Altar of Pergamon is uniquely suited as an ideal example of 2nd century Greek culture that is tied to the ideals of the people, and shows off Hellenistic characteristics that define the time just as the Parthenon is a staple in the Classical period. [Stokstad]
The Greek believed the human body was the measure of all things, therefore the artists created sculptures in a very detailed fashion which made them very life-like although the size of
Sculpture is one of the most important parts of Greek art since it is almost the only art form that has survived in some quantity. The ancient Greeks were especially known for their sculpture because their sculptures were extremely life like and beautiful. It was important to the ancient Greeks to combine passion and reason in their sculpture. Greek sculptures were mostly of the human form since they looked at their gods as having a human form. All of the sculptures were nudes of males because society looked down upon female nudity until latter on in time when you started to see sculptures such as the Venus di Milo, which was modeled after Aphrodite (Wikpedia the free encyclopedia. Wikpedia.11 Nov 2004. 12 Nov 2004 http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Greek_art ). One of the most amazing sculptures is the colossus sculpture of Zeus in Olympia it was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Ancient writers said that it stood 12.40 meters high, 6.65 meters long and 9.76 meters deep the body of Zeus was made of ivory followed by a robe made of gold topped with a silver olive wreath and his throne was decorated with mythological scenes painted by Panainos and Kolotis the statue itself was created by Phidos. Michael Lahanas. 25 Dec 2002. 11 Nov 2004 (http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/ZeusStatue.htm). Another great sculpture is the colossus Athena Parthenos. This sculpture just like the colossus statue of Zeus was made of gold and ivory and had various mythological engravings in her shield, helmet and pedestal.
Change in Greek Art Greece is famously known world widely for its spectacular artworks. People are familiarized with its sculptures, paintings, and mosaics, but not many know how its art has been transforming from time to time. An explicit example would be the drastic changes from Aphrodite of Knidos to The Old Market Woman. The Egyptians had influenced Early Greek art for several years; it was during the time of war (Archaic Period) and art was not their top priority. Most of their sculptures were similar to those in Egypt and there was no sense of personal style.
The Venus of Willendorf was believed to be created 25,000 years ago, is none-freestanding sculpture and is sculpted out of oolitic limestone. The subject matter, I believe it to convey a fertility figure for men and woman to gaze upon. The Venus of Willendorf is a none-freestanding female nude stature, which is an 11 centimeters high, made out of oolitic limestone and now resides in Naturhistorisches Museum. She was found in 1908 in Austria in a village called Willendorf. The stature has been carved out of oolitic limestone and has been given a red ochre tint. This small oolitic limestone figure representing a woman in the nude has no known artist and no information on why it was created. I believe that
...ws the transition from archaic to the classical period. The Roman’s continued with a more realistic style with such statues as Aristocrat with Ancestors and Marcus Aurelius. In wall paintings at Pompeii the artists used great color and realism on the people’s faces.
Greek art progressed through four divisible periods from ninth century B.C. to the second century B.C. The primary subject matter for all of these periods was humans. (Sowerby, 150) Each period progressed further than the last with developing the human form and making it continually more realistic and natural. (Boardman, 275) The most basic human forms were depicted in the Geometric period where triangles and ovals were used to make a rough human form. The Archaic period came next with artists slowly moving away from set geometric figures and incorporating more human detail into their art. Great change in art came in the Classical period. Sowerby states this by saying: "The classical artist concentrates up...
Perhaps one of the most defining and easily identifiable aspects of the ancient Greek culture was the immortalization of humans and gods in sculpture. Sculpture had existed in the world for thousands of years before the ancient Greeks made their stake in the art, but the Greeks added an entirely new set of aspects to their sculptures. Unlike the Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture centuries earlier, the Greeks set forth not just to capture the image of a man but to capture that which made him a man. The Greeks set in place three base tenants to display the tone of a sculpture. Through the use of Humanism, Realism, and Idealism the ancient Greeks were able to capture humans and gods forever in marble.
The Romans have adopted many features from the Greek style of art and architecture during the third and second centuries B.C. During that time period the Romans discovered that they have taking a liking to Greek statues, which they placed in many different places. The Roman sculptors then decided to also start making statues alongside the Greeks. The statues that the Romans created were realistic looking with, sometime, unpleasant details of the body. The Greeks made statues with, what they thought of, ideal appearances in the statues figure. Sculpture was possibly considered the highest form of art by the Romans, but figure painting was very high considered as well. Very little of Roman painting has survived the tests of time.
Even the few sculptor’s names known to us, usually by chance, from the imperial period are Greek names and seem to confirm the assumption that these artists’ work should be regarded simply as a late phase of Greek art” (Hanfmann, 12). The Greeks were the first western culture to figure out how to accurately depict the human form which they did through the use of geometric ratios. It is also widely accepted that it was even Greek artists who first made marble portraits for the Romans as the Romans originally had no skill with the stone. “It was certainly at first Greek artists who were entrusted by eminent Romans with the execution of portraits of themselves and of important personalities in the Roman state, just as it was Greeks who depicted Aemilius Paulus victory at Pydna and later were largely responsible for the portraits of the emperors” (Kahler 16). The Romans mainly used terracotta for their sculptures and it was only when Augustus reigned that the marble quarries at Carrara were opened and marble was used on a large scale. The Romans inherited the use of realistic proportions, the sense of movement (contrapposto), and the overall beauty of Greek sculptures. A great example of Roman sculpture that was clearly carved by a Greek artist who was familiar with the Hellenistic styles of Greece, is the Relief of the Wedding of Amphitrite and Neptune. It “shows a mythological