Greek Sculpting Essay

982 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Compare greeks and roman artworks

The definition of sculpting is, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English, “to make or represent a form by carving, casting, or using other shaping techniques”. Though, one could easily argue that in ancient Greek culture, sculpting meant more than just the craft of carving, casting, or shaping. Sculpting was the expression of imagination, an illustration of passions and storytelling, and a means of communication. The early Greek sculptures that we view today are incredibly important to the study and interpretation of history. This is because we are able to analyze these sculptures and theorize why the Greeks sculpted a certain way during certain eras. The different styles of Greek sculpting can be broken down into three separate periods: …show more content…

From a craftsman’s standpoint, the enhancements can be seen in the Greek’s sculpting style. The sculpture bodies are seen as more relaxed and less rigid, given way to a more natural and realistic form. Sculptors also started replacing that unnatural archaic smile and large eyes with symmetric facial features that more accurately represented a human face. A common technique used in the Classical Period is called contrapposto. This technique was the position that sculptors used. Usually one of the sculpture’s legs is in front of the other causing a shift in the hips and torso; sculptors used this position to portray a carefree appearance. An example of the use of the contrapposto technique is the famous sculpture, Kritios Boy. When you look at the sculpture, you can see the one leg that is shifted forward, giving the boy’s body a relaxing stance. Although, contrapposto was very popular and heavily used during the Classical Period, the sculptures still have very serious looks on their faces. This doesn’t change until we enter the Hellenic Period, when sculptors started giving their works more creative poses and facial …show more content…

The works of art from the Archaic Period, Classical Period, and Hellenic Period developed physically and mentally, and the study of their aesthetic differences from period to period allow for a decided contrast and comparability. This interpretation has had a profound effect on the art world and that continues even in today’s world. The importance of Greek sculptures is evident in the storytelling of the gods, the people, and the culture. We use these sculptures as a tool to go back into the past of the Greek people, letting us admire how far mankind has truly come, whether it is in art or intelligence. Generation after generation has been and will continue to be able to see for themselves the society, culture and uniqueness of these periods through the wonderful sculptures that came out of ancient

Show More
Related

  • The Statue of Kouros

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Statue of a kouros and the Portrait statue of a boy both depict similar subjects, however are greatly different in how they accomplish this task. Through detail, or lack there of, the Greeks and Romans are able to display a certain value they have in its members. These two statues were made about 500 years apart and approach the sculpting process quit differently. The Greek statue seems to use geometric exaggerated lines to form the body while the Romans use a more realistic approach and sculpt the body with a more rounded finish. Statue of a kouros, from about 590 B.C and Portrait of a boy, from about the first century, do not share any great technical aspects and are basically nothing alike.

    Read More

  • Lansdowne Hermes

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sculpture is a medium that artists in ancient Greek commonly used to express spoken truths in an unspoken form. Every piece of ancient Greek sculpture has more than what the eye sees to explain the story behind the [in this case] marble.

    Read More

  • The Head of Poseidon

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...r. "Ancient Greece." Gardner's art through the ages the western perspective. 13th ed., Backpack ed. Boston, Mass.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 101, 123,129. Print.

    Read More

  • Athena Parthenos: The Goddess of Wisdom

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Roman and Islamic Art and Architecture

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Fallen Warrior Essay

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ancient Greece has set the tone for the standard of how great sculptures were crafted. Therefore, a classic example of this form is the Fallen Warrior from the East Pediment, taken from the ruins of the temple of Aphaia. With its mythology and architectural styles, Ancient Greece has undoubtedly changed the way sculptures were made and still inspires many artists to this day.

    Read More

  • Aréte In Ancient Greece

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Ancient Greeks had many famous sculptures. People like Pheidias, Polykleitos, Praxiteles, Skopas and Lysippos are the people who figured out how to really make their sculptures of humans, really look like humans (History.com Staff). In the Archaic period, statues were never meant to look like certain individuals. They were meant to look like the ideal person with beauty, piety, honor or sacrifice. They were always young men, and never women. They were ranging from childhood to the teenage years of a young man. In the classical era, they used statutes in buildings, mostly to fill the triangular fields of the pediments. They did not always create them for that though. For example, the parthenon in Athens, a statue of the Goddess

    Read More

  • Gisela Marie Augusta Richter's Korai Summary

    215 Words  | 1 Pages

    To summarize Gisela Marie Augusta Richter’s Korai: archaic Greek maidens; a study of the development of the Kore type in Greek sculpture, this book catalogs and illustrates most of the Greek Korai figures within the period 650-480 B.C. Each section is prefaced with statements on the chronology and evolution of the grouped material that follows, as well as describing each piece briefly and listing its dimensions and inventory number. Richter also writes about the meanings, origins, and details of the pieces. The book is viewed as an indispensable tool for the study and cataloging of the female statues of Greece. G. M. A. Richter became the most distinguished American museum curator of classical art during her time as a curator at the Metropolitan

    Read More

  • How Did The Venus De Milo A Hellenistic Figure

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Greek Art - The Geometric Period, Classical Period, and Hellenistic Period

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example triangles are used for the torsos, the head is a triangle in profile, round dots would stand in for the eyes and long thin rectangles would serve as arms. The figures have tiny waists, and long legs with bulging thigh and calf muscles. The abstract designs were painted with a clay slip and to still a page form the Egyptians, all the humans were shown as full-frontal or full-profile views that emphasize flat patterns and outline shapes. However unlike the Egyptian funerary art the Greeks focused on the survivors, not the fate of the dead. During this period it was customary to create vases that did not contain supernatural beings, nor made reference to the afterlife that might have provided solace for the bereaved.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Sabu And Gudea

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    We are going to compare and contrast the two comparatively different sculptures originating from ancient kingdoms, a bit contemporary and not so distant from each other – the pair originated from old kingdom of Egypt during 4th dynasty around circa 2575–2465 B.C. and seated Gudea from Neo-Sumerian kingdom of Mesopotamia around circa 2090 B.C. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. /n.d.). This analysis would to try to explain how successfully the appearance of the sculptures accomplishes their purpose of creation.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Greek And Roman Sculpture

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ancient Greek sculptures were the mix of Egyptian and Syrian styles. In 800 to 300 B.C., Greek sculptures had a powerful inspiration throughout the centuries. The Greek sculpture was divided into seven periods: Mycenaean, Sub-Mycenaean or Dark Age, Proto-Geometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic (Collins 1). Greek sculptures were created by using marble, bronze, stone, and limestone, but bronze was in most demand. The most common production to make Greek sculpture is the lost-wax method. First, the sculptors would make clay inside the core, almost the size of a figure which was then coated in wax. Then, they would replace the melted wax with bronze. When the bronze became solid, the sculptors would remove the clay. Finally, the sculpture would be polished and added with other decorations. Most Greek sculptures were in a freestanding of a human form because Greeks saw beauty in human body form. Early Greek statues were rigid and straight, but later on, the Greek adopted more natural relaxed pose: knees and arm bent, and head turned. Greek artists captured the human pose in a way never seen before with concerns in proportion, pose, and perfection of the human body (Cartwright 1). Most of these statues are signed by artists, so there are six famous sculptors in Ancient Greece. The f...

    Read More

  • Greek Pottery Research Paper

    1320 Words  | 3 Pages

    The knowledge about Ancient Greece is in dedication to its pottery. Due to its relative durability over the years, whether intact or in pieces, the history of Greece survived. Greek pottery thrived from 1000 BCE to 400 BCE and was meant for everyday use. Potters produced a variety of styles of all shapes and sizes with abstract, historical, and mythological designs showcasing everyday Greek life. Pottery back then was made similar to nowadays; pottery was made by shaping clay on a wheel, decorating the pot, and then heating the clay in a kiln. Despite the aesthetic achievements of Greek ceramics it was never respected as fine art. Greek pottery has evolved over the centuries creating a new decorative style for each period, these styles are Protogeometric, Geometric, Orientalizing, black-figure, red-figure, and white ground.

    Read More

  • Artist's Statues: The Early Classical Greek Sculpture

    347 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout earliest sculpture, artist’s renditions were unrealistic until the Early Classical Greek sculptures in the Classical Period around 450 BCE, especially when compared to the earlier Egyptian sculpture. Artists’ started to bring more realistic forms to their work, making the sculptures look very human and appropriately proportioned. The detail included but was not limited to defining muscle mass throughout the nude body as well as creating life-like facial features. The arms of the statues were also molded in realistic fashion with arms protruding from the body in in action stances, sometimes holding items. We also see the legs modelled to make the viewer believe that the statue was in motion. The fingers and feet on the statues

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Greek And Roman Art

    2107 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

More about Greek Sculpting Essay

Open Document