Free-Standing Sculpture Scholarly Snippets

“the balance was tipped towards the abstract and formal”

Woodford on the New York Kouros

“the artist was struggling to represent complex anatomical details … [such as] the complex swellings”

Metropolitan Museum on the New York Kouros

“has not shrugged free from the rectangular block of stone from which it was hewn”

Boardman on the New York Kouros

“particularly pattern-conscious”

Boardman on the New York Kouros

“interested in giving an impression of robustness through vigorously curved forms”

Woodford on Kleobis and Biton

“idealised representations of the virtues of masculine strength and piety”

Boardman on Kleobis and Biton

“much more rounded and fleshier than the New York Kouros”

Mitropoulos and Snook on the Anavyssos Kouros

“curved masses suggestive of soft flesh”

Woodford on the Anavyssos Kouros

“inflated balloon”

Woodford on the Anavyssos Kouros in comparison to the Aristodikos Kouros

“unnaturally stiff”

Woodford on the Aristodikos Kouros

“embarrassingly inert”

John Boardman

“nothing beyond her female hips and posterior denote her anatomy”

Mitropolous and Snook on the Berlin Standing Goddess

“its position over the pelvis again connotes fertility”

Neer on the Berlin Standing Goddess’ pomegranate

“sensitively varied forms combined with a suggestion of the living body beneath”

Woodford on the Berlin Standing Goddess

“the drapery is treated in terms of broad simple masses”

“enlivened by the slight irregularities”

“young and supple body”

“radiant, sensitively carved head”

Woodford on the Peplos Kore

“it seems that the statue was repainted”

Spivey on the Peplos Kore

“she does not wear a peplos and she is not a kore”

Neer on the Peplos Kore

“full of easy asymmetries”

Woodford on the Delphic Charioteer’s pose

“introverted, reflected expression”

Woodford on the Delphic Charioteer’s expression

“the pose is stiff and old-fashioned”

Neer on the Delphic Charioteer

“he appears alert and attentive”

Barringer on the Delphic Charioteer

“far from being the best”

Boardman on the Delphic Charioteer

“a novel sense of movement has been brilliantly captured”

Woodford on the Artemision Zeus

“The figure’s size, nudity, and action point to it being a god”

Barringer on the Artemision Zeus

“the sculptor has elongated the left arm to nearly simian length”

Neer on the Artemision Zeus

“the total nudity and realistic stance are awe-inspiring”

“both vigorously threatening and static”

Boardman on the Artemision Zeus

“Roman marble copies of his Diskobolos convey to us a fraction of his ability to convert sporting action into fixed postures”

Spivey on Diskobolos

“standing on the threshold of realism, though not expressing emotion”

Boardman on Diskobolos

“an instant of stillness in the midst of action”

Woodford on Diskobolos

“curved versus straight, smooth versus angular, closed versus open”

Woodford on Diskobolos

“is he standing still or walking?”

Pedley on Doryphoros

“a study of contrasts of tension and relaxation”

Barringer on Doryphoros

“a deeper asymmetry underlies the contrast”

Neer on Doryphoros

“Doryphoros presents a figure that is distinctly four-square”

Spivey on Doryphoros

“the face is so idealised that it is devoid of any expression of even life”

Mitropolous and Snook on Doryphoros

“the sculptor had evidently employed the wet drapery technique to emphasise Aphrodite’s sexuality”

Mitropolous and Snook on Aphrodite of the Agora

“line was everything; mass counted for little”

Woodford on Aphrodite of the Agora

“expression of gentle intimacy”

“the allegorical nature of the group breaks new ground”

Pedley on Eirene and Ploutos

“a massive figure, a slightly old-fashioned peplosphoros”

Boardman on Eirene and Ploutos

“this emphatic gesture breaks the imaginary frontal plane … and gives the figure a more intimate relationship with the space surrounding it”

Woodford on the Antikytheran Youth

“incredibly dramatic”

Harris and Zucker on the Antikytheran Youth

“the extended right arm shows a new spatial dynamism”

Neer on the Antikytheran Youth

“the whole figure is dominated by the swinging rhythm of curve and counter-curve”

Woodford on Hermes and Dionysus

“this confident skill in carving and finishing marble, together with the slimmer proportions, gives the figure a certain delicacy”

Pedley on Hermes and Dionysus

“relatable and approachable for a mortal viewer”

Mitropolous and Snook on Hermes and Dionysus

“the formal arrangement originally devised for a male athlete has been brilliantly modified to reveal the newly discovered charm of the feminine form”

Woodford on Aphrodite of Knidos

“voyeuristic teasing”

Neer on Aphrodite of Knidos

“caught in a fleeting pose”

Pedley on Aphrodite of Knidos

“marble … accentuates her softness and vulnerability”

Mitropolous and Snook on Aphrodite of Knidos

“its glance, gesture, and pose invite in-the-round viewing”

Boardman on Apoxyomenos

“a spiral effect that encourages the viewer to walk round”

Barringer on Apoxyomenos

“it gives us a sense that we look up at the sculpture on the podium”

Harris and Zucker on Apoxyomenos

“no single entirely satisfying point of view”

Woodford on Apoxyomenos