Kevin Luo
Professor Baker
Greek and Roman History
Rough Draft Due 4/7/2015
From the Venus de Milo to the Kritios Boy, Greek art has been viewed upon as beautiful works of historical art. Greek art hits a striking change at the start of the seventh century BC, the beginnings of the archaic period where Egyptians interacted with the Greeks. “Stimulated by external influence (from Egypt especially) and internal developments (particularly the rapid growth of sanctuaries, Greek sculpture takes off.” (Spivey, 8) With trade flourishing, craftsmen became more prevalent focusing on things such as metalworking, jewelry making, and carving. Greeks rapidly assimilated new concepts and foreign styles into their own art to create portrayals of their legends …show more content…
Early figures were modeled in bronze or carved in stone and this was evolved itself from the traditional Egyptian art. “The first life-size marble sculptures from the traditional Egyptian format: the male body was depicted fully in the nude and it did not conform to the overall shape of the block of stone from which it was carved.” (Cunningham/Reich, 61) The pieces that exemplify the Archaic Greek art are the Calf-Bearer and the many kouros/kore statues. These show realistic musculature combined with the “archaic smile.” These human forms face straight forward, show no movement and typically are free standing sculptures or reliefs/friezes featuring various tales of lore and legend. The Ancient Greeks sought a balance of proportions of each of the components of the statues. This culminated in the Kritios boy which has life-like accuracy in musculature and bone structure. The Kritios Boy marks a “turning point” from the Archaic to the Classical. Unlike the previous sculptures which remain straight, rigid, forward-facing simplified look, the Kritios Boy depicts a figure with a slightly turned head and a gentle movement of the upper body. This simple movement transforms the world of art and begins the shift towards change in length and shape of the form to achieve what the Greeks perceived as …show more content…
The artists at the time adapted a wide variety of styles and cultures into their Classical sculpture and many of the Greek gods were depicted in new ways. The amount of subjects began to vary wildly. Statues began depicting a larger variety of inhabitants such as the elderly and children, as well as ethnic people (namely Africans) along with unconventional works, such as grotesques. Hellenistic sculpture used the expressions of the face and body to convey and elicit emotions. It takes the naturalism of the human form like the classical era, adds a level hyper realism that doesn’t necessarily focus on “ideal proportions” of the archaic age. These statues are carved with often exaggerated details to emphasize emotion (especially facial features) and to heighten the level of motion. With exaggerated facial features, new states of mind and emotion were explored, such as sleep, anger, agony and anguish. This also led to more realistic portrayals of people, rather than idealization of the previous eras of sculpting. For
Professor Baker
Greek and Roman History
Rough Draft Due 4/7/2015
From the Venus de Milo to the Kritios Boy, Greek art has been viewed upon as beautiful works of historical art. Greek art hits a striking change at the start of the seventh century BC, the beginnings of the archaic period where Egyptians interacted with the Greeks. “Stimulated by external influence (from Egypt especially) and internal developments (particularly the rapid growth of sanctuaries, Greek sculpture takes off.” (Spivey, 8) With trade flourishing, craftsmen became more prevalent focusing on things such as metalworking, jewelry making, and carving. Greeks rapidly assimilated new concepts and foreign styles into their own art to create portrayals of their legends …show more content…
Early figures were modeled in bronze or carved in stone and this was evolved itself from the traditional Egyptian art. “The first life-size marble sculptures from the traditional Egyptian format: the male body was depicted fully in the nude and it did not conform to the overall shape of the block of stone from which it was carved.” (Cunningham/Reich, 61) The pieces that exemplify the Archaic Greek art are the Calf-Bearer and the many kouros/kore statues. These show realistic musculature combined with the “archaic smile.” These human forms face straight forward, show no movement and typically are free standing sculptures or reliefs/friezes featuring various tales of lore and legend. The Ancient Greeks sought a balance of proportions of each of the components of the statues. This culminated in the Kritios boy which has life-like accuracy in musculature and bone structure. The Kritios Boy marks a “turning point” from the Archaic to the Classical. Unlike the previous sculptures which remain straight, rigid, forward-facing simplified look, the Kritios Boy depicts a figure with a slightly turned head and a gentle movement of the upper body. This simple movement transforms the world of art and begins the shift towards change in length and shape of the form to achieve what the Greeks perceived as …show more content…
The artists at the time adapted a wide variety of styles and cultures into their Classical sculpture and many of the Greek gods were depicted in new ways. The amount of subjects began to vary wildly. Statues began depicting a larger variety of inhabitants such as the elderly and children, as well as ethnic people (namely Africans) along with unconventional works, such as grotesques. Hellenistic sculpture used the expressions of the face and body to convey and elicit emotions. It takes the naturalism of the human form like the classical era, adds a level hyper realism that doesn’t necessarily focus on “ideal proportions” of the archaic age. These statues are carved with often exaggerated details to emphasize emotion (especially facial features) and to heighten the level of motion. With exaggerated facial features, new states of mind and emotion were explored, such as sleep, anger, agony and anguish. This also led to more realistic portrayals of people, rather than idealization of the previous eras of sculpting. For