Greek art

CLST Final

Myron (480-440 BCE)

• Sculptor

• worked in bronze

• best known his studies of athletes in action

• works:

  • the group of athena and marsyas, originally standing on the Acropolis of Athena

  • Discobolus

• Bronze did not survive, marble copies made in roman time

• captured that crucial moment of rest at which one motion has just been completed and another is about to begin

Discobolus

Polyclitus (450 c- 415 bc)

• Greek sculptor from the school of Argos

• Bronze sculptures of young athletes

• Work:

  • Diadumenus

  • Doryphrus

  • Later work known as the Canon

• No original works survived, only know through Roman copies

Doryphoros

Canon

• a theoretical work that discusses ideal mathematical proportions for the parts of the human body and the proposes for sculpture of the human figure a dynamic counterbalance

Dynamic counterbalance (symmetria)

• between the relaxed and tensed body parts and between the directions in which the parts move

• Best demonstration: Polyclitus statues

Contrapposto

depiction of the human body with twisting in its vertical axis

Amazon (look like?)

Amazon

• original statue probably stood in the precinct of the great temple of Artemis at Ephesos, on the cost of Asia Minor

What sculptors participated in the competition of the Amazons?

1. Phidias

2. Polykleitos

3. Kresilas

What scenes are depicted on the Niobid Krater?

side A

• Herakles and Athena join Greek heroes

side b

• Apollo and Artemis avenge their mother by slaughtering the children of Niobe who boasted of her superiority

Niobid Krater

What trends characterized sculptures in the fourth century?

1. Relaxation of the rules of decorum- especially in representation of the gods

2. Increased individualism in portraitures

3. Increasing pluralism in the kinds of people who can be represented

4. Mix-and-match approach to styles