My Art History class has gotten pretty interesting. Here is a reflection on the evolution of Greek art, in the form of a quick journey through Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods.
Ancient Greece is a particularly interesting culture because of its 600-year evolution through three important periods, namely the Archaic Period (c.650-480 BCE), the Classical Period (c.480-323 BCE), and the Hellenistic Period (c.323-27 BCE).
Differently from the realistic statues of the Classical era, Archaic Greek sculpture is rigid and stylized, which reminds the standing figures from Egyptian art. The principal type of Archaic sculpture is the kouros, a nude male statue standing with one foot forward; and the kore, a clothed female statue standing with feet together. Kouroi/kore statues are roughly symmetrical and they face forward. They stand pretty rigidly, with their arms straight beside the body and the hands closed into fists. Their anatomy is much simpler than the detailed and realistic sculpture of the Classical period.
For instance, the Kouros from Attica, dated 600 BCE, is a very good example of Archaic stylized sculpture. The figure has the shape of a human being, but it is not cured or accurate. The face is flat and triangular, the eyes are bigger than normal, the hair is ordered and geometric. The waist is thin, and not much importance is given to the musculature of the individual.
The realism of these statues does gradually increase, as the Archaic period drew on. For example, the Kroisos, from Anavysos, which is dated 530 BCE, displays more naturalistic proportions and more rounded modeling of face, limbs, and torso. For instance, I like to notice that the Kouros from Attica has a geometric torso, where the “V” shape on the hips mirrors a “V”-shaped rib cage; the Anavysos Kourus, instead, has more naturalistic shapes, with a rounded rib cage and softer hips, which better resemble the human body. The eyes are smaller, the face is rounder, and greater attention is put in the rendering of the muscles. From the same date is the Peplos Kore, which is interesting to me because the we can still see traces of painting on it, two and a half thousand years later— pretty impressive.
Around 480 BCE, the Hellenic city-states allied with Greece defeated the Persian invaders, marking an important turning point in Greek history and artistic style. This is the beginning of the Classical Era, which is probably the most important, or at least the one most people refer to when thinking about ‘Greek art.’ It is in this period, in fact, that the Greek developed the renown "Canon of Proportions,” one of the biggest contributions to the field of the fine arts. The Canon of Proportion was a set of rules used to represent realistically and ideal human body.
During the classical period there was a huge improvement in the technical ability of Greek sculptors to depict the human body in a naturalistic rather than rigid posture. Anatomy became more accurate and as a result statues started to look much more lifelike.
The Classical period could actually be sub-divided into the Early, High, and Late Classical periods. One example of Early Classical sculpture is the Kritios Boy, dated 480 BCE, which is very important to art history because it’s the first statue that has been represented in a realistic way. In other words, the person is standing in a way that a human being would actually stand. The weight of the body is mostly on one leg, while the other can even find some bend (although the caff and foot have unfortunately gone lost). This is a technique called contrapposto.
This technique is even more pronounced in the Riace bronzes, which are two statues made out of hollow bronze, which were found in the Italian see. These represent warriors, so much more attention to the muscles of the human body is evident. The arms are bent, the torso slightly twisted, the face is not frontal, but is looking slightly to the side.
Contrapposto reaches its climax in Polykleitos’s Doryphoros (Spear bearer) dated about 450-440 BCE. This is the ideal (or perfect) representation of the human body, representing an athlete or a warrior. This statue is considered the culmination of the evolution in Greek statuary from the Archaic kouros, to the Kritos Boy, to the Riace warrior. In fact, the contrapposto is more pronounced than ever, suggesting balance, movement, and beauty.
The last period is the Hellenistic Era, which begins with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE. Hellenistic Greek sculpture continued the Classical trend towards ever greater naturalism. Animals, as well as ordinary people of all ages, became acceptable subjects for sculpture. I think this is my favorite period because it is so beautiful. The human bodies are portrayed with a divine attention to detail, that renders them even more realistic and perfect than what a human body actually is. For example, the Lacoon and His Sons is my favorite sculpture. I am impressed in particular by the minute attention to the rendering of the bodies, especially the pronounced musculature and the veins, and I am fascinated by the impression of movement evoked by the scene. Also, the scene is very touching because it represents a strong man powerless as he and his two sons are attacked by a group of snakes, which is a very touching scene that communicates strong emotions.
Overall, the evolution of Greek art through the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic stages is a fascinating journey through the development of a culture and the research of perfection, which, at least in my eyes, culminates in statues like the Lacoon and his sons or the Sleeping Satyr even more so than in the Doryphoros.
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