Explain The Three Major Shifts In Ancient Greek Architecture

The Three Major Shifts in Ancient Greek History Sculptural Development
The ancient Greek was one of the most well-known civilization throughout history. This civilization was known for their history, philosophy, religion, and specially sculpture. One of the dominant ones was their sculpture. By studying the ancient Greek sculpture, one can see that there were different shifts. Historians tell us that these different shifts took place during the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Dark Ages, the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic Age. The three major shifts in ancient Greek sculptural development that we need to analyze are the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic sculpture.
The first major shift in the ancient Greek sculptural development is the archaic sculpture. During the archaic period, the Greeks started to carve in stone. The unique feature to the archaic sculpture is the way they carve those look alike human statues with an archaic smile. For example, the lady of Auxerre and the torso of Hera sculpture were both female and male that wear an archaic smile. The focus of the Greeks were to show

you how the human form was the most important for artistic display around that time. According to a writer, “During this period the sculptor worked almost exclusively with "point" chisels, punches and stone abrasives to create the statues, and this technique did not allow for much flexibility in regards to the pose or surface qualities. As a result of this technique, all marble statues from the archaic period have an opaque appearance despite marble being a somewhat translucent material.” (Boardman). The key examples of the archaic sculpture were the korai and kouroi, these two sculptures were sculpted with positions that expressed motion and facial expressions that we call archaic smile. During this period these sculptures were used for public memorials, as offerings to temples, and as markers for graves.
The second major shift in the ancient Greek sculptural development is the classical sculpture. During the classical period, we had a revolution in the Greek sculpture. In the classical sculpture, we saw many changes in the style, function of sculpture, and dramatic changes in the way the Greeks started to depict those sculpture in realistic human forms. The unique feature to the classical sculpture is the poses of these human like sculptures and has special expressions. According to a writer, “In the art of Greece during the Classical period the characteristic smile of the Archaic sculpture was replaced by a solemn facial expression. Even in sculptures which depict violent and passionate scenes the faces betray no expression of any kind.”(Boardman). The poses were more naturalistic and one example is of the charioteer of Delphi which is a transition to a more natural form of sculpture. The Greeks during the classical period was depicting the sculpture in a way that represent the Greeks gods. These sculptures were depicted in form of the Greeks God and were placed in many buildings in Athens such as the statue of Athena Parthenos and the Zeus statue at Olympia which were the most famous sculpture of the classical period.
The final major shift in the ancient Greek sculptural development is the Hellenistic sculpture. In the Hellenistic period, the Hellenistic sculpture were influenced by the people culture. We experienced a shift towards increasing the naturalism in the sculpture. For example, men, women, children, animals and domestic scenes became acceptable as figures of sculpture. These statue were used by wealthy families as adornment for their homes and gardens. In addition, we also see a shift in expression of the sculptures. The Greeks express more energy and power in their sculpture. Their focus were to show people how the Hellenistic sculptures differ from the classical sculptures. For example, the classical sculptures express humility as for the Hellenistic sculptures that express power and energy. During this period, more sculptures were made to represent heroes and gods of Greece. They key examples of Hellenistic sculpture that shows energy and power were the statue of Aphrodite and the Dying Gaul. According to a writer, “While the interest in deities and heroic themes was still of importance, the emphasis of Hellenistic art shifted from religious and naturalistic themes towards more dramatic human expression, psychological and spiritual preoccupation, and theatrical settings. The sculpture of this period abandons the self-containment of the earlier styles and appears to embrace its physical surroundings with dramatic groupings and creative landscaping of its context.” (Boardman). This show the big shift from classical to the Hellenistic period.

To conclude, the three major shifts in ancient Greek history of sculptural development were archaic, classical and Hellenistic sculpture.

The archaic sculptures were shaped in like human form with facial expressions that we called archaic smile. This sculptures were made for public memorials, as offerings to temples, and as markers for graves. The classical sculptures saw changes in the style, function of sculpture, and dramatic changes in the way the Greeks started to depict those sculpture in realistic human forms. The poses of these statues were more naturalistic. These sculptures show expression of humility. The Hellenistic sculptures were influenced by the people culture. The Greeks express more energy and power in their sculpture. We can see that in each period, there is a different shift. The way these sculptures changes in each period are

remarkable.