Ancient Greek Art and Roman Copies Module 5 done

Roman Copies of Ancient Greek Art

  • When studying ancient Greek art, we often examine ancient Roman art or copies of Greek sculptures, paintings, and architecture.
  • Romans highly valued ancient Greek art and culture, symbolizing a desirable lifestyle of leisure, arts, luxury, and learning.
  • Greek art became popular among Romans after conquering Greek cities (starting in 211 BCE).
  • Roman generals returned with art instead of gold and silver, impressing the elite and leading to studios being established to create copies for wealthy Romans' villas.
  • The Doryphoros was a highly sought-after Greek sculpture.

Bronze Versus Marble

  • Greeks primarily created free-standing sculptures in bronze.
  • Bronze was valuable and often melted down for reuse, resulting in the loss of many original Greek bronze sculptures.
  • Ancient Roman copies in marble help us understand Greek artistic achievements.

Incomplete or Reconstructed Sculptures

  • Roman marble sculptures were often buried for centuries, and only fragments are recovered and reassembled.
  • Sculptures in museums often include modern recreations of missing parts or are displayed incomplete.
  • The Doryphoros in the Naples museum is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original, found largely intact in Pompeii.

The Canon

  • The concept of a canon, a rule for a standard of beauty, was not new to the ancient Greeks, as the ancient Egyptians also developed one.
  • During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci explored ideal human body proportions with his Vitruvian Man.
  • Polykleitos related beauty to ratio, summarized by Galen in the second century:
    • Beauty consists in the proportions, not of the elements, but of the parts, that is to say, of finger to finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and the wrist, and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and of all the other parts to each other.

Riace Warriors

  • The chronology of the Riace warriors has been a matter of scholarly contention since their discovery. In essence there are two schools of thought-one holds that the warriors are fifth century BCE originals that were created between 460 and 420 BCE, while another holds that the statues were produced later and consciously imitate Early Classical sculpture.
  • Those that support the earlier chronology argue that Statue A is the earlier of the two pieces.
  • Those scholars also make a connection between the warriors and the workshops of famous ancient sculptors.
  • For instance, some scholars suggest that the sculptor Myron crafted Statue A, while Alkamenes created Statue B.
  • Additionally, those who support the earlier chronology point to the Severe Style as a clear indication of an Early Classical date for these two masterpieces.
  • The art historian B. S. Ridgway presents a dissenting view, contending that the statues should not be assigned to the fifth century B.C.E., arguing instead that they were most likely produced together after 100 BCE. Ridgway feels that the statues indicate an interest in Early Classical iconography during the Hellenistic period.
  • There has been speculation that the two statues represent Tydeus (Statue A) and Amphiaraus (Statue B), two warriors from Aeschylus' tragic play, Seven Against Thebes--about Polyneices after the fall of his father, King Oedipus, and may have been part of a monumental sculptural composition.
  • Pausanias's description of a group from Argos depicting Polyneices and the chieftains who died at Thebes is cited in connection.
  • Statues have lead dowels in their feet, indicating they were mounted on a base as part of a sculptural group.
  • Art historian Carol Mattusch argues they were found, installed, and perhaps produced together in antiquity.

Kritios Boy: A Conversation

  • A conversation at the Acropolis Museum in Athens discusses the Kritios Boy.
  • The sculpture represents the transition between the late archaic period and the early classical or severe style.
  • The Kritios Boy embodies the transition between the archaic kouros and the more naturalistic, movement-filled figures of the Parthenon.
  • The sculpture was broken when the Persians invaded Athens and desecrated the Acropolis.
  • The Greeks buried the destroyed sculptures, preserving them ironically.
  • The Greek victory at Marathon influenced the new-found naturalism in sculpture, reflecting a new sense of self-determination and Athenian leadership.
  • There was a desire among Greek artists to create more open sculptures, separating limbs and torso, which was challenging in marble.
  • The eyes of the Kritios Boy were hollowed out and would have been inset with glass paste, a technique common in bronze sculpture.
  • Traditional marble sculptures had eyes as part of the solid piece, which were then painted.
  • The Kritios Boy is named after the sculptor Kritios, who was an important bronze sculptor.
  • The sculpture features smooth, beautiful volumes representing the Greek ideal of the athletic male youth.
  • This ideal represented the peak of human achievement and divine qualities.

Riace Warriors

  • The Riace Warriors (also referred to as the Riace bronzes or Bronzi di Riace) are two life-size Greek bronze statues of naked, bearded warriors.
  • The statues were discovered by Stefano Mariottini in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Riace Marina, Italy, on August 16, 1972.
  • The statues are currently housed in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in the Italian city of Reggio Calabria.
  • The statues are commonly referred to as "Statue A" and "Statue B" and were originally cast using the lost-wax technique.

Sexual Violence in Greek Art

  • Classical Greek art often depicts tales from mythology that include scenes of treachery, rape, and sexual assault.
  • Many textual sources normalized rape, blaming the woman.
  • Violence against women is depicted in Western art, often glossed over in favor of formal qualities.
  • Cynthia Colburn and Ella Gonzalez argue for reassessing how art historically important works portraying violence against women are taught to reinvigorate art history's role in contemporary social movements.
  • When analyzing works like Centauromachy and Ludovisi Gaul, consider the medium, lines, and movement but also the subjects of abduction, rape, and domestic violence.
  • Educators and students should discuss these stories sociologically, considering:
    • What does showcasing such art do for society then and now?
    • How does this content illuminate cultural value systems?
    • How does normalizing such violence affect us?
  • Through such conversations and discussions, the field of art history can grow, while complicating the images.