ANCIENT GREECE: ART |
SCULPTURAL ART IN ANCIENT GREECE is one of the most important in the study of ancient Greek civilization, as sculpture, as well as all the fine arts in general. It reflects the life and the entire history of the nation. By studying Ancient Greek art, it gives us the perfect opportunity to understand and study the world of the Greeks, their philosophy, aesthetic ideals and aspirations. Sculptures give us the opportunity to judge the religious, philosophical, and aesthetic representations. In this paper I will discuss three sculptures from three different periods of ancient Greek history.
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ARCHAIC
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THE ARCHAIC PERIOD was dominated by the slender statues with long braided hair and it is interpreted as an example of strength, valor, physical health. The portrayal of this athletic ideal reflects the extremely chaste nudity of the human perception. Greek sculptors during that period created an ideal image of men and women carved out of limestone and marble seeking an anatomical perfection. They embodied the idea of the unity of cold perfection of form, and the truth of life, reaching exceptional image integrity. Kouros is a free standing statue with one foot ahead of the other as if he is about to make another step. The young man is posed as if he is standing face to face with the universe and wanted to grasp its harmony. There is definitely a sense of a mystery of his integrity in his pose. Kouros does not express any individual traits, but there are hidden possibilities of a variety of experiences, it fanned the "archaic" smile which is neither happy nor sad, just a hint of the joy of life. Kouros has a genetic human face without any distinct features. Kouros’ body is carefully carved with a great detail to the chest and the knee joints.
THE PYTHAGOREAN philosophers sought to capture legitimate numerical relationships in musical harmonies and arrangement of the heavenly bodies, believing that musical harmony with the nature of things, cosmic order, the Archaic sculptors sought mathematically adjusted the proportions of the human body and the "body" of the architecture in this already early Greek art is fundamentally different from the highly stylized Mycenaean art.
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