Copy of Diadumenos of Polykleitos , c. 100 BC. BC , National Archaeological Museum of Athens

The sculpture is probably the best known of ancient Greek art , for a contemporary one that best expresses the ideal beauty and perfection plastic.

Only a small part of Greek sculptural output has survived. Many masterpieces described by the ancient literature are now lost or extremely mutilated, and much do we known that the copies, more or less skilful and faithful of the Roman era. Many have been restored by Western sculptors of the Renaissance to the present, sometimes in a very different meaning from the original work: a discus thrower is transformed into Gladiator dying, as God receives the attributes of another, the legs of this statue are grafted to the torso of another.

Materials

Athena in the workshop of a sculptor working on a marble horse, kylix Attic red-figure, 480 BC. BC , Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2650)

Most Greek sculpture which have come to the modern era are of stone, usually in marble white. In antiquity, however, the Greeks are far from promoting this material. It is then in competition with the bronze , the technique chryselephantine (inlaid with gold and ivory), but also the clay and wood.

Wood

The wood is used primarily for the archaic period to achieve the xoan, figures coarse features of religion Pre-Olympic. The most famous is that of Orthia, identified then Artemis , in the sanctuary Spartan of Artemis Orthia. The only city of Sparta includes, according to Pausanias (III, passim), more than 15 xoan. Some of these statues are dressed or carry weapons, witness xoanon of Aphrodite in arms at Sparta.

The Greeks also use archaic, mostly in ^the seventh century BC. AD , the technique of sphyrlaton, attested already in the Hittites and Egyptians : it is covered with bronze plates hammered a wood core. Thus the case of cult statues representing Apollo , Artemis and Leto , found in the sanctuary of Dreros in Crete , dating back to the ^eighth century BC. AD.

However, wood is also used for finer work. Thus the trunk Cypselus , tyrant of Corinth from 655 to about 625. Pausanias gives a detailed description (V, 17, 5 and following) of the chest, exposed to Olympia to the first centuries after Christ, before it disappears. The trunk is made of cedar adorned with figures in ivory and gold , and represents scenes from the Trojan War.

Because of the fragility of the support, few wooden sculptures have survived. We can quote a fragment of votive statuette, 28 cm high, found in Samos, perhaps replicating the cult statue of Hera. He is currently on display at the Archaeological Museum of Samos (No. H41).

Terracotta

Grotesque dwarf wearing a little girl figurine terracotta Lamia , IV ^centuryBC. BC , Muse du Louvre

Main article: Greek terracotta figurines

Clay is a material commonly used for making votive statuettes or idols, since the Minoan civilization to the Hellenistic period. In ^the eighth century BC. AD , in Boeotia , and we make the "bell-idols", statues legged mobile women: the head, small compared to the rest of the body, is perched at the end of a long neck, while the middle the body is very large, bell-shaped. In the early ^eighth century BC. AD , the graves so-called " heroes "receive hundreds, even thousands of small figurines, to figurative rudimentary, typically representing characters with arms raised, that is to say the gods in apotheosis.

Subsequently, the terracotta figurines are losing their religious character. They now represent characters from everyday life. The ^Fourth and ^Third centuries BC. AD , figurines so-called " Tanagra "exhibiting a refined art. At the same time, cities such as Alexandria , Smyrna or Tarsus teem grotesque figures, representing individuals with deformed limbs, eyes bulging, wearing grins and writhing. These figures are also made of bronze.

Terracotta is however little used for large statuary. The exception is the most famous Zeus removing Ganymede Olympia, made around 470 BC. AD In this case, the terracotta is painted.

The technique chryselephantine: gold and ivory

The material most expensive is also the most appreciated by the Greeks. It consists of a core of wood overlaid with ivory to represent the flesh, and gold to represent clothing. The best known examples are the statues (lost) of Athena Parthenos at Athens or Zeus at Olympia (one of the Seven Wonders of the World ), both accomplishments of Phidias.

Few traces remain of this sculpture: works created using this technique are fragile. In Hellenistic times already, the inventory of the treasures of the temples of Delos report that a piece of gold broke off the statue of Apollo chryselephantine. In addition, ivory and gold, precious materials, tending to be torn off and recovered. We keep three heads and fragments size, found at Delphi in the sacred way, from the mid- ^sixth century BC. AD.

Ivory is also working alone. Size elephant tusks forces, production is limited to statues. The first are influenced by Eastern. Four of them, depicting naked women were found in the cemetery of Ceramics , Athens, and they date back to 735 - 720 BC. AD Subsequently, the work moves away from ivory oriental style, the figurines are decorated with precious metals. And a dancer, part of a ceremonial zither, found in Samos in the sanctuary of Hera, from the early ^seventh century BC. AD

The metal: bronze to silver

Charioteer of Delphi , detail, ca 478 or 474 BC. BC , Museum of Delphi

After the technical chryselephantine, metal, including brass: the bronze (but also ternary and quaternary) is the material most appreciated by the Greeks. Extensively used in Minoan or Mycenaean, his technique was lost over the centuries called "obscure". The Greeks taught again in contact with the peoples of the Middle East and Egypt. The work of the cast first full limit the size of parts. It uses the technique of mixed sphyrlatos to overcome this disadvantage. Votive horses of the Geometric period to use another trick: the son artists use thick and bent sheets to show the different parts of the animal.

At the very end of the ^sixth century BC. AD was discovered by the sculptor Rhocos the technique of lost wax casting on negative (or "hollow"), palliative technique on positive, keeping the original model and the mold and have thick bronze smoother and thinner, so less cooling problems. This method, according to Pausanias , is borrowed from the Egypt , but this issue remains highly contentious. With this innovation, the work of the sculptor moves: he becomes, in the sources, "plastids", the modeller, and can achieve a clearly more virtuosic. Therefore, the bronze becomes the material of choice for sculptors, who seem generally to have been as smelters.

The method follows several steps: a model exactly like the figure you want is created by sculptor and cut into several pieces. A mold is then performed around each of the pieces, this step is crucial, since it was through her that the sculpture will take its final appearance. The nucleus is then removed and stored, but the Greeks do not seem to duplicate all their sculptures, unlike the Romans. The mold is then topped with wax. For this step, several processes are used: the hype, that is to say the coating by a liquid wax, application by hand or brush. Then introduced a core made of fireclay, then the first mold is removed. The cast then continues as a cast using the lost wax on positive channel of wax used to supply bronze and evacuation of the wax and the added gas, then a clay mold covers everything. The mold is heated to remove the wax and cook before you pour the molten bronze. The assembly must then be cooled, the statue carved in clear and cold, then patinated and waxed.

The use of volunteers in patinas of ancient Greece is still very problematic for art historians.

Besides bronze and similar alloys, sculptors use a variety of metallic materials, including the polychromy to give their statues with scale. And lips are they usually in an alloy rich in copper, very red. Until the ^mid-fifth century, eyebrows, blood and nipples naked men are embedded in the same material. It also happens that the teeth are pressed for money, as in the case of the Charioteer of Delphi (where they are not yet visible), and a finger from the Acropolis of Athens attests to the veracity of the story Pausanias when he speaks of silver polish. As for the eyes, they may be the work of a special artisan, as demonstrated by the sources for the Roman period (the architect is called oculus faber). The eyeball, marble, ivory, glass paste or lime white is recessed to slide the iris in molten glass, quartz or rock crystal, which itself has a cup where to place the pupil in a color glass different or obsidian. The whole can be maintained by metal poles. The inlay of the iris and pupil do not fill the entire cavity for them, so that light can play with. Very fine nuances can be obtained, as in the case of a child's head from Olympia Hellenistic whose iris is in a paste of brown glass with purple highlights.

Marble

Privileged material to the Archaic period, marble is replaced by ^the fifth century bronze, but still widely used in architectural sculpture.

Periods and styles

• Archaic period, from the ^eighth century to the late ^sixth century BC. AD ;
• Early Classical, represented by sculptors like Phidias , Myron and Polykleitos , the ^fifth century BC. AD ;
• Late Classical, a period dominated by Praxiteles and Lysippus , which extends from the ^fourth century BC. BC to the reign of Alexander the Great ;
• the Hellenistic period , whose works are emblematic of Venus de Milo , the group of Laocoon in the Vatican or the Victory of Samothrace , which runs from the death of Alexander in 323 BC. AD until the reign of Roman.

These four periods correspond to different styles more than geographical spaces.

Indeed, although most often carried out in mainland Greece, especially the archaic and classical works have been widely used by maritime trade and the colonies of Magna Graecia , dainty works of their homeland. As can be seen for example in Pompeii , the disaster of the year 79 allowed to recover from the ^eighteenth century works from the classical period imported from Greece, which contributed to the Borghese collections (eg the Borghese Gladiator ) and the Museum of Naples (Kifared Apollo, Adonis), but that made the Campania space in classical Greek even the ^first century AD.

In contrast, Hellenistic works are most often produced locally, particularly in Asia Minor ( Pergamum ) or North Africa ( Alexandria , Carthage ).

Archaic Period

Kouros from the island of Anafi , 510 - 500 BC. BC , British Museum

The Archaic Period (700-480 BC.) Is characterized by great simplicity of form and posture, often symbolic, whose most typical expression is found in Kouroi (s, "boy") and Kore ( "girl"). These human figures Length, male or female, make offerings to the gods by the city. These statues, human size generally are a first move towards a naturalistic realism. The proportions, however, are not complied with, including a disproportionate legs, a size particularly fine, shoulders too wide ... The facial features are characterized by a smile and high cheekbones, big almond eyes bulging particular. The kouroi (male pl) are completely naked, korai (pl female) dressed in a chiton (tunic of linen) or peplos (wool coat). This style was probably inspired works Egyptian discoveries in Greece through trade from the ^seventh century BC and is characterized by the hair plaited in, left leg forward (attitude described as "mannerism penthouse") and by frontality of these works. The details of the musculature are unrealistic and are often represented by simple incisions in the stone. We need their preservation to their sanctity preventing them from leaving the temple to which they were dedicated.

The archaic ending with the Late Archaic (beginning around 530 BC.). We are witnessing a shift in understanding the human body, less schematic, more sensitive and the body is included in its entirety, becomes more organic and begins to move. Forms, heavier, announce the Severe Style.

This period includes works mostly carved in marble or stone, terracotta, the technology of smelting bronze still not allowing large smelters. These works are sometimes multicolored, and it seems that the use of painting statues was fairly general and lasting in Greece.

Classical Period

Aphrodite Braschi, decide the type of the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles , the Munich Glyptotek

The classical period sculptures emerging who master the anatomy and pose, which the authors are identified, particularly because of the definition of aesthetic canons of proportions that were their own. The repertoire of the classical period encompasses both the heroes of mythology, represented in the natural assumed the everyday, with the appearance of contrapposto or dislocation of the supporting leg. Control of the performance is the sculpture of ^the fifth century BC. AD on top of classical aesthetics, which will inspire even the Renaissance and neo-classicism of the ^eighteenth and ^nineteenth centuries in Europe.

The classical period is also the era of monumental sculptures, sometimes bronze (Charioteer of Delphi), sometimes in less frequently used materials, such as sculptures chryselephantines (plating of gold and ivory) of Zeus or Athena , that Phidias did for their respective temples at Olympia (one of the seven wonders of the world ) or Athens.

Late Classical (circa 370 - circa 330 BC) is distinguished from the first by a refinement of the canons of proportion, but especially by a more lightweight, less steep than the previous period, as well as more everyday subjects. Four great sculptors stand out during this period: Scopas Paros, Leochares, Praxiteles and Lysippus, although the latter is often associated with the beginnings of Hellenistic art, working with Alexander the Great, and which somehow figure of intermediate between these two periods. The Hermes carrying the infant Dionysos attributed to Praxiteles is one of the best examples of this period.

The marble white matter is the most commonly used by sculptors, mostly those of Paros or Pentelicus , which give light readability gentle curves and volumes. However, most of the marble statues were painted, the flesh as clothing, bright colors. With regard to the bronzes, they were routinely subjected to heightened reported as enamel eyes, lips and breasts in copper, bronze eyelashes. The green patina that we know is not valued in ancient times, the bronzes are polished or gold leaf.

Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period (c. 330-30 BC) is probably relatively unknown. The German historian Johann Gustav Droysen for the first time used the term " Hellenistic "in Geschichte des Hellenismus referring to cultural and linguistic criteria. This period begins with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 and ends around the ^first century BC. AD. However, determining a specific date for the Hellenistic period is risky: the beginning of this period may in fact be determined by a single date. If the end of the Hellenistic period is the fall of the independent Kingdom of Egypt (the last Hellenistic kingdom from the division of the empire of Alexander) at the Battle of Actium, the beginning of this period is sometimes determined by the beginning of Macedonian supremacy under Philip II, sometimes by the rise to power of Alexander the Great, sometimes by his death.

This period is experiencing social upheaval and fragmentation of society. It is a cosmopolitan art with particular concern on the part of princes and governors. Enrichment is encouraged by the conquest of Egypt and Syria in the Middle East. However important centers move, as at Pergamum (in Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey) and Alexandria (city founded by Alexander the Great and ancient Egypt first port). With these events, Athens becomes less important. It is often presented as a transition period between the Classical Greek and Roman style. Lysippus Sicyon is the precursor to the development of the portrait, it will also be the official portrait painter of Alexander the Great. He designs his works to the audience with a new barrel of a report 1 / 8 of the total volume for the head. His models are slimmer, more refined, it attaches to full mastery of portraiture. The marble Apoxyomenos Lysippus dating from 320 BC to 250 cm shows a naked athlete scraping his skin with a strigil (sort of razor) is a kind of symbol of the instability of life. The Farnese Hercules from 320 BC. JC also measure 307 cm. Hercules is depicted resting on his club partly covered by the skin of the lion, and he is holding the apple of the Garden of the Hesperides. There is a complex structure, we do understand different views on its position precisely because he articulates the face and profiles. He appropriates the space, it looks for balance and for the first time in the history of Greece, Homer is marked by old age in a realistic size. Strong interest in the expressive, muscular exacerbated emphatic attitudes, the themes of struggle and pain.

The Laocoon of Polydore, masterpiece, is the pain, fighting, war, everything that represents life. The Romans will be inspired as much in sculpture as in painting or architecture. Note that the evolution in the human figure is very long especially because of all the rationalization that it gravitates.

See also

Related articles

General Rule:

• Art of Ancient Greece.

Articles on Greek sculpture: browse categories: sculpture of ancient Greece.

Museums with significant collections of Greek sculpture:

• British Museum of London ;
• Glyptotek in Munich ;
• Muse du Louvre in Paris ;
• Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ;
• Pio-Clementino Museum of the Vatican ;
• National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Bibliography

• J. Boardman:
  • Archaic Greek Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, et al. "Art History", Paris, 2003 ( ISBN 2-87811-076-5 )
  • The classical Greek Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, et al. "Art History", Paris, 2003 ( ISBN 2-87811-086-2 )
  • The Greek Late Classical Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, et al. "Art History", Paris, 2003 ( ISBN 2-87811-142-7 );
• G. Duby and Daval JL (ed.), Sculpture from Antiquity to the ^twentieth century, Taschen, 2005 ( ISBN 2-7434-6529-8 );
• F. Haskell, N. Penny For the love of the antique. The Greco-Roman statuary and European taste, Hachette, coll. "Plural", Paris, 1999 ( ISBN 2-01-278918-8 );
• B. Holtzmann and A. Pasquier, Greek Art, French Documentation, coll. "Manuals of the Ecole du Louvre, 1998 ( ISBN 2-11-003866-7 );
• Muller-Dufeu (ed.), The Greek Sculpture. Literary and epigraphic sources, editions of the National School of Fine Arts, Coll. "Fine Arts History," 2002 ( ISBN 2-84056-115-8 );
• Alain Pasquier and Jean-Luc Martinez, 100 masterpieces of Greek sculpture in the Louvre, Louvre Editions, Paris, April 2007, 223 p ( ISBN 2-7572-0052-6 )
• RRR Smith, Hellenistic Sculpture, Thames & Hudson, et al. "Art History", Paris, 1996 ( ISBN 2-87811-107-9 ).

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• Ancient Greece Portal
• Gateway to the History of Art

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