Second Greek sculpture lecture

well, now I'm moving on to my

second

and I will warn you from the beginning, almost certainly the longest

lecture

on Greek

sculpture

that will cover the early, middle and late classical periods, the heyday of Greek art. We will have a more complete sense

lecture

of this period and especially of what is known as the severe early classical style. When we discuss architectural

sculpture

in the next lecture, I had a hard time deciding whether to place those frozen sculptures and pediments in the sculpture section or the architecture section and decided in the end, it made sense to look at them in their architectural and functional context, but Please note that there are more sculptures to come, so what we are seeing now is the art of a culture that has supreme confidence in itself in the face of a huge Victory against a numerically superior adversary and the Victory of a kind of democracy against an empire.

However, the Greeks will soon lose some of this confidence. We will also see a trend towards art serving first a citizen and then a more individual one. function is not that the Greek work is not at all religious but the Greek religion does not tend to be personal uh the gods are given offerings they are appeased they are plated uh in reality they are not appealed so much on a personal level although We will see that this change It changes a little as we move into the Hellenistic period. Instead, we are really seeing an art that celebrates, on the one hand, civic virtue, community contribution rewarded by the gods, and also individual perfection.

This is the art of trust. Perhaps, as we will see, it will turn out to be the art of overconfidence. Well, this is one of the most famous works, but it is absolutely necessary to know because this statue represents a technical advance and actually captures, more than probably any other work, the transition from the archaic. To classical sculpture, I often crop some of the images on these textbook slides, which I find a little busy, but in this case I appreciate the way the slide captures the pose from many different angles, so what? what is the name of the innovation that Witness in Crius Boy how it differs from the archaic sculptures that precede it.

By the way, one obvious thing that won't really be mentioned on the next slide, so you might as well say now is what's different on the head: not the hair. longer and stylized, we are seeing a different type of hairstyle, this may be a change in fashion, but I think it is also a movement towards a more naturalistic and realistic, rather than stylized and symbolic, way of representing the head, al less again. An important element of the crius child is the contraposto or a change in the way in which the weight is born and the posture is represented contraposto is an Italian word that we would literally translate as counterweight in this leg supports the weight while the others relax uh when the posture is captured realistically in art, it is shown as a tilt or asymmetry on an imaginary axis or line that we could draw across the hips and shoulders and you will see that in the slides below, here is an example of a statue. that has no contraposto you can recognize menra and his girlfriend or we believe his girlfriend uh from Ancient Egypt you do see a foot moving forward but there is no evidence that the weight is shifting and in fact what this really is is a leg that turns out to be significantly longer than the other, in other words, conceptual art, not optical.

The figures are very rigid even though the foot seems to move, the sculpture itself does not really convey movement and here again an archaic AR chorus is seen. Realistic nude, of course, some more facial expression, but still very stylized and abnormally rigid. Notice that the shoulders are level, they are more rounded than in the previous orientalizing period, but still rigid and completely frontal, the hips are level, both fists are level, even the knees are level, although the left leg is pushed forward , so if this pose were recreated in nature the left leg would have to be 6 inches longer again, this is not optically accurate art and here we see the axis lines. drawn, you know, so you have all these straight lines and then suddenly, unrealistically, this slanted line at the bottom in nature, this couldn't be done, okay?

Now we see contraposto appear and in early classical art, contraposto first appeared in Classical Grep Sculpture, these axis lines help illustrate the many ways in which the artist captures a more realistic pose, by the way, I didn't want to undo of that, but excuse me, it's a term I didn't include in this, but I probably should. having is symmetry which is different from symmetry uh it's the same word with an r i a instead of a y but it actually means a balance created by imbalance counterbalance means it's a contrast instead of a symmetry one half looks like the other half you think a feeling of balance when bending and moving, in this case, notice that the left leg, in reality, we look at the right leg, the whole front facing is always difficult, the right leg and the bent arm, in other words, those who are at opposite ends of each other they are both tense while the other arm and the bent leg are relaxed again symmetry or counterbalance contrasting each other you also see a left shoulder that is higher than the right shoulder an acute angle formed between the left shoulder and the right hip which in turn is higher than the left hip and again this is the counterweight or balance of the back or symmetry that is formed by not making the shoulder and hip axis straight or horizontal.

The shoulders, in other words, counterbalance the hips. Also notice that the knees are not level, but are angled and the turned and tilted head finally comes out of the rigidly frontal pose of the previous statues and that also adds to the naturalness of the pose. Okay, now I think we can move on. Well, the classical Greeks go as far as they were able to model the human into a non-symmetrical relaxed posture that looks much more realistic, actually a repeat of what I just said, but I would like to point out that this ability was actually lost during the Middle Ages. and it was actually only rediscovered by artists like Donatello during the Renaissance, so here only by comparison on the left you see the archaic Kos a very good archaic churos but still rigid symmetrical um no cter in balance without contraposto you see our contraposto figure and then you see the famous David by Donatello to which we will return I promise or threaten later in the course and in this statue that was a bronze that was recovered from the sea it had been lost in a shipwreck uh in front of Ria uh here we see all the technique of the contraposto uh taken a step further basically uh in this work the shift in weight is even more obvious and it's even more fluid, the sculpture expands even further out of its initial envelope into space.

I've used these terms before, but it uses negative space, it has an open space around it that becomes part of the work, the arms are essentially freed from the body, it occupies a much larger spatial sphere and this is one of the ways in which that Greek art is very innovative and will greatly influence Renaissance art. In fact, this facial expansion is another thing that largely disappears, as we will see in the Middle Ages. here again we see the bronze warrior of riachi next to the crius boy we notice more sensation of movement in the space larger envelope um less calm I would also say a somewhat more expressive face but the classic style is not as emotional as we will actually see later classic and even more so in the Hellenistic, this remains the ideal of the Greek scholar-athlete, the person of sound mind and sound body, driven by reason but also consumed by physical excellence, this is a particular type of Greek vision that is to be submit. challenge as we will see uh this bronze figure of a charioteer used to be part of a larger group.

It's actually a votive statue uh at the Oracle of Delphi, so this is a specifically religious statue given in honor of a victory in a chariot race um in the On the right you'll see a couple of efforts to reconstruct what the complete statute based on descriptions of classical authors. You know that at first glance it seems almost archaic, so how is it different from the works of the previous period? Well, the head is turned. it is not completely frontal, it is interesting that although this is a male figure, a kuros, he is dressed and in fact the clothing of the type of fluted columns of Echoes in Greek sculpture is very geometric in that and yet, notice how these long, smooth, very elegant lines and then the curved linear lines on top essentially contrast with the chaos of the reins again this deliberate juxtoposition this balance through imbalance which is an aspect of Greek arts and they call it symmetry uh you see a very thoughtful deep expression this is not really the archaic uh smile more of that stern look of the town leader that we associate with the classic Grease Grease in his apy uh and again the The Arms Reach Out stands tall towards space or at least it made before one was cut, the feet move in a direction opposite to the head, the fabric, the folds beautifully rendered, emphasize the upright posture and does so instead of having to rely on a rigid posture, so achieves in a sense the same functional goal of showing composure and control without having to create an unnatural body to uh, I especially like the delicate and complex way the back view captures how the fabric is caught and held in the back, this It is really the work of an excellent artist, well, we do not know if it is Zeus or Posidon because I do not know if what he had in his hand and now has disappeared is a trident that would turn him into Posdon or a lightning bolt that would turn him into Zeus, but I repeat, and this is an advance in Greek art, to really understand this statue and particularly see it. the mo movement it transmits you have to walk around it.

This is art meant to be seen in the round and again, this is a development in Greek art that is very important. Without the revealing symbol, as I said, we cannot say what God is. being portrayed here, but he is certainly a god of great power, you notice the physicality, you notice the sense of movement, but again, the rather stern austere face, uh, demonstrating a spirit of control, if it is will, instead of Pathos, I will speak More of that when it arrives. Greek architecture, but those of you taking AP Language and Composition have probably already encountered those terms ethos which refer to a kind of moral righteousness and pathos to feeling or emotion there isn't much pathos in this sculpture another very famous work another one you should probably meet the author, excuse me, the artist myON disis or discus thrower, we only have it as a marble copy of a bronze original and we know that the Roman copies were cruder, so it's amazing to think what the original would have been like.

It's also a little strange to think that marble is a cheap copy, but if you study the description of the holoc foundry you know that making a bronze statue was very complicated and time consuming, there was a lot of marble hanging, grease is basically a big deal . rock anyway, the original bronze would not have needed the tree trunk to stand up and therefore the lines would have been smoother and the action would have been depicted more realistically. I mean, how often would an athlete lean against a tree to throw a discus again? I ask you: does the face look as realistic as the body?

Well, the guy looks awfully calm for someone whose muscles are coiled like a spring to release a puck and again the facial expression on the one hand is reminiscent of archaic statues, but it's not actually a smile. Again, instead, you see that kind of stern, serious expression that we associate with classical Greece and its sense of serious purpose of Greek leadership in the world of the burden of that leadership. Note also that this sculpture includes even more negative or empty space, but it is used in a very interesting way, so the arms, on the one hand, the arm that touches the knee creates a closed space, there is a negative space and a kind triangle between the arm and leg, however, closes while the arm holding the puck extends into space. and it really opens up the universe again.

A very interesting use of the surrounding space. This is something I hadn't thought much about before taking my art history course this summer. But the professor of that course emphasized how important it is to look at open space. in negative space as well as in the space that a sculpture fills and here again this is a good example of a sculpture where you really have to walk, understand all the movement to understand what is happening and finally this is another very good example of symmetry. The balance created an imbalance between open and closed, between tense and relaxed, although I would say that there is not much that is relaxed, perhaps the arm not holding the disc is also an example of what the Greeks call rhythms, which is simply rhythm with an OS cat, uh, capturing that moment betweenaction and interaction um again a way to represent movement in a statue um now this statue the one in the middle or are they actually all the same excuse me polius this is the spear uh bear you need to know poli citis absolutely uh the St The statue was famous not only because, let's face it, this is a really beautiful guy, but also because it represents the famous Canon of Poly Cis, especially before the copyist had to work on another tree trunk, and in fact, Canon was what Poly Cius He named the original because he created it specifically to illustrate what he considered the mathematically ideal proportions of the human body and these proportions were in turn adopted from the mathematician Pythagoras who, to make it even more complicated, found these proportions initially in the harmonic structure of music , so this is poly cusis.

Canon not exactly in the flesh but at least in marble and it is an example of what is called chastic crossed balance chiasm and actually I have already talked a little about this uh the arm and the leg are relaxed you know the arm and the leg are tense contrasting with the arm relaxed on the leg um it's deliberately asymmetrical like chasticos designs have cross balance, but it still shows a kind of counterbalance symmetry as opposed to pure mirror symmetry, uh, the head turns to the right, for example, as the punch, as the hips turn to the left, the back foot turns outward in general, everything creates a turn, a feeling of movement in the body, a movement, so to speak, through geometry and here you go the opportunity to see the different lines, the contrast with straight and curved lines, the turn and the straight again, a balanced click or cross work, now we enter the Late Classic period where Frankly, life becomes much less happy for the Greeks yes 480 to 450 BC.

C. was the heyday of Athens, the 3rd century BC. C., remember that, excuse me, the 4th century, oh, I made a terrible mistake, oh, I'm sorry, the 3rd century. There is no 4th century, the 300s, I must fix. that slide I'll do that, in fact, I hope it's already fixed in what you have, my apologies, the 4th century was the period in which, the 3rd century, 400 was the period in which, in terms of Greek religion, the gods took out their wrath on the Athenians for their general pride or arrogance, I should probably redo that after all those mistakes, but I hope they follow that and I will correct that in class, their Imperial Ambitions through the Deans League sparked protests as I mentioned in my introductory lecture and the Spartans were frankly all too happy to adopt the anti-Athenian standard and the fact that Athens suffered a terrible plague did not help the Greeks somehow manage to rally in the mid-4th century in the face of a growing threat from the North in Macedonia, but even then there were major divisions in Athens over whether or not this was a real threat and whether Franklin's Greece Athens in particular already had the resources to muster against an enemy by the time they decided that yes, they probably should, since It was too late and too little.

King Philip II of Macedonia, which is north of Athens, actually a completely different province, was not really considered Greek but barbarian, although the Macedonians I would point out spoke Greek and considered themselves Greek, but King Philip conquered Greece and transformed a collection of city-states in a central city. ruled the Empire, his amazing son Alexander the Great would take the next Persian War to Persia itself, capture Pepolis, remember that from our previous unit, and march his troops to India, where they eventually protested and refused to advance, uh, he . died uh while returning basically, so in the wake of their first triumph against the Persians, the Greeks had reveled in the confidence that the values ​​shared with the Triumph would ensure unity and victory and how early in high classical art it was the art of the rational and the Victorious and with defeat came disillusionment, a questioning of ideals, a turn inward to focus on individuals, not just ideal individuals, but real people, people who experience setbacks and triumphs, maybe ironically or maybe because we are not superum, I think so or at least.

At least I find it easier to appreciate the art of this and the even more emotionally expressive Hellenistic period. Now, the great victories of Philip II and Alexander would actually bring renewed power and wealth to Greece, but it would be a different Greece. It would no longer be democratic, it would have many more people from other cultures, much more cosmopolitan, and it would be power and wealth that the Athenians and other citizens of the city-states could not take credit for, and as I said, we will see. further out More cosmopolitan influences enter Greek art in this period and even more so in the Hellenistic period which I will cover in my final lecture on sculpture, not to be casual, but what is the most obvious new development here and by the way, note that this pretell sculptor is another.

You really need to know well, we have a naked woman, sure she is a goddess, but she is not depicted beating the Persians or leading the Athenians to victory. Stay tuned for his next lecture on the architecture and architectural sculpture of the Acropolis of Athens. Instead, this is a domesticated goddess and by the way, it is a characteristic of this late classical and Hellenistic period the Greek gods of the previous era were man-like but supermen were heroic figures these are more accessible more individual if you will Gods more fallible returning to this sculpture, what is this Aphrodite?

Venus, uh, the Greek Venus, what is she doing? She's getting into the bathroom, she's putting her robe on the ear of water, uh, by the way, this was a very famous statue at that time, the people of Greece were shocked and they traveled en masse to the city. where was this displayed so you could see it from all sides I just appreciate great art of course ah this is much more erotic art than we have seen before in Greece at least in Greek sculpture something different in the Greek painting that we will see. to that Greek painting we will get to that in my last lecture on Greek here is another statue of the very famous Praxiteles now one thing is for the goddesses to be sensual and concerned with simple domestic life, but the gods here again we see another sculpture of the famous pratelli or another copy, but somewhat better, of a sculpture of the famous prellis, so here is a story that shows when Zeus, the king of the gods, revealed himself to his mortal lover and she was cremated, basically, her Divine Radiance was too much. for her to take a little like some of the Old Testament stories about encountering the radiance of God, uh, Zeus, however, remember how Moses had to cover his face, uh, Zeus, however, was able to rescue his son unborn, sowing it on his own thigh, kind of gross, uh and After the birth of the child who was Dionis Dianis, Zeus ordered Hermes, his Messenger of fast winged men, to hide the newborn from his jealous wife Hera.

Remember again that these are gods who behave like men. Hera wanted to destroy any remains of this matter, including the. The newborn Hermes could move fast, so he took the baby to a remote mountain to hide and the nymphs raised the child under her care. He grew to maturity and became, frankly, the favorite god of the Greeks. He was the god of wine and theater. There are a lot of monuments to dianis if you visit the

greek

world, it reminds me a bit of the relief sculpture of aanan and his family. I would say this is an intimate scene, although the props are gone.

We know from old INRI inscriptions that Hermus is making fun of the baby. with a bunch of grapes hermus is beautiful but it is accessible and the infant dinis looks like a real baby uh in the face of disaster again the

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s wanted more accessible gods and what else could they have wanted Greek culture was notoriously bisexual but this did not Until now we usually appear in the art, this Hermes as Aphrodite, I would say is something blatantly erotic and what about the guy on the left? This is another Pratelli sculpture, the Saturn at Rest, so how does it represent a departure from classical sculptures? like Polyus as a spear bearer, which is the guy on the right and in the middle I have Hermes, which is the other pratelli sculpture that we just saw, you know, by comparison, well, again, he just talked about sex and history of the art, but I 'I would say uh this Saturn had a bit of a come here look now the Saturns were notorious sexual predators still look at the hands one appears to be extending an invitation one is resting I would say a bit suggestively on the hip this image is' By the way, it's in your book, but I wanted you to give me another example of pretell style.

The textbook uses the phrase Sensual Langer to describe his work. A job that seems correct to me. Pratelli's figures are also less muscular, even the muscular Hermes is not as muscular uh as a spear bearer uh and while they use contraposto the lines are more curved and sinuous uh the book describes it as a curve this is not the same worship of the rational the ideal the muscular the energetic again is more sensual more human and Again I would say it is more accessible okay this is the work of another great classical sculpture whose name you need to know sorry but by the way this is a post , like I said, I took the AP exam, there are names on the test, you'll need to know I'll go over them again, uh, in my AP review, but I won't necessarily point out exactly what names you have so you know what evolution in Greek culture you want, are you? witness here?

Well, I think again you're seeing the movement towards a new Cannon and in fact lpos developed a new Cannon. The young man is beautiful, he is a little thinner and the theme of an athlete scraping dirt and oil from his body is more blatantly natural and physical this is an athlete after the competition doing something like ordinary cleaning without winning a great victory. By the way, these are different Roman copies of the same bronze original, which is why some have fig leaves and some don't, why would you? I guess we don't know for sure, but it probably reflected the patron's taste.

Some of them like to have masculinity. Some preferred to cover it. This sculpture, like some of the others we have just seen, really invites us to walk. I especially like the way the very muscular back is represented, you see that to the left and again we see more movement outside the tight envelope of space, both arms now extend into that space uh uh and in many ways we can only perceive the movement by viewing the statue from all directions this is a round statue this is a statue that occupies a large envelope of air uh another feature of the Classic period that I've really been hinting but what I really need to mention specifically is that there is a more identifiable personal style on the part of the artist notice we're getting a lot of names all of a sudden uh cop citis again that's your cannon on the right I was trying to set rules that all artists They would follow his Canon represented an ideal and basically he thought that all artists should sculpt like this.

This was the point of sculpting something other than the ideal. The ideal in Plato's philosophy was actually more real than the inadequate earthly copies of the idea represented by the late classical sculptors, and in the same way that the philosopher Aristotle, who followed Plato, was more concerned with the earthly variations of the idea, they should use a more empirical, less idealistic scientific term, so Lpos again we are seeing his work here on the left, he actually proposed reforms to the poli cusis. Canon um, I think I've answered some of this before, but what differences do you see?

Well, Lopo's bodies are thinner, he prefers a less muscular ideal, so to speak, and the heads are about 1/8 the height of the body instead of the 17th century in the 5th century again, maybe not as much a glorification of the brain and not so much a glorification of a hyperactive, reflective, bulky body, this is a Greek statue after they banned steroids, so to speak, here we see lpos again. Back to steroids in a big way, uh, but here again you have a statue that you really need to walk around to appreciate, so what's going on with that Hidden Hand?

Does anyone guess what the story is? Actually holding the golden apple of the Hesperides, that he was retrieving those apples was one of the 12 labors of Hercules and by the way, 12 labors appear all the time in Greek statues and then in European works that return to Greek themes particularly in The Renaissance again is another marble copy this was placed in the Roman Baths of Carala in Rome, which were sports and bathing facilities. Perhaps it was there to encourage athletes to lift increasingly heavier weights, but what else distinguishes this statue from high Greek sculpture of the classical era?

It was interesting that the textbook describes muscles as ironic, what does that mean? And by the way, I assume many of you are taking AP Language or will be taking AP Composition next year. Wow, I thinkI earlier referred to you as if you were Juniors and you're not, um, but what does irony mean in this context? Irony is an unexpected contrast, something that shakes us and captures our focus, and in this case, irony is this unexpected contrast between the absolute incredible strength of this muscular God. and his obvious tiredness and perhaps even discouragement, this is not a triumphant Hercules, who is simply going to do all those jobs quickly, quickly, quickly and remain as strong a god as he is, this Heracles is tired, discouraged, a very God. more human and to repeat.

One point I've already made, this was an ERA when the Greeks were looking for more human gods, uh, and the accessory here, by the way, wasn't simply added by a copyist, it's part of the original, in other words, this is a statue that tolerates. and it really embraces instability, this is not just symmetry or chastic or Costa counterweight, this is a deliberate asymmetry that is not particularly balanced, we are going to see a lot more of this in the Hellenistic era and it is actually a transitional figure towards the era hellenistic uh maybe this instability reflects the uncertainty of unstable times, speaking of which, here's a bust of Alexander the Great, it may or may not have been based on an original biys lus, remember he's the guy with the new Canon, uh , we know that he was Alexander's favorite sculptor and made at least one full-length nude bronze statue of Alexander holding a spear and turning his head toward the sky.

Unfortunately, this has been lost and this bust may not be a copy of Ipo Lopo's work. I think I have done it. He pronounced that three different ways, sorry, although the characteristic turn of the head and the curled cap lead many art historians to think that this is a copy of the lpus sculpture. It is certainly a very human portrait of a almost superhuman figure, but it once again captures his youth and vitality. It's an individualized portrait and not just an ideal, and if there was anyone who I would have thought could have been the subject of an ideal, it would be Alexander the Great uh, this isn't a sculpture, it's a pebble mosaic, but since we're moving on to Alexander Magno and this is not really a sculpture, architecture or painting, I thought I might as well include it here because it is a work that you should know, this particular deer hunting scene is an emblem, which is the central panel of a mosaic that would be surrounded by floral or geometric patterns.

We will talk more about mosaic art when we get to the Byzantine period. And the pebble mosaics were just that. They were made from r Riv River Pebble set in cement. I mean, this is an extraordinary work that uses completely natural colors, there is no paint involved, notice how the artist manages to show shadows, musculature and volume even with pebbles, so remember this, we talked about this in our In the first unit, one One of the challenges of a flat work is capturing three-dimensional space. Obviously, that is not a problem in sculpture, but here we return to a flat work.

That shading is called skag graphia, which literally means shadow painting. And again, this is Pebble Mosaic, so I'm throwing some terms at you that you need to know. Believe it or not, it's also a Pebble Mosaic with an absolutely spectacular use of volume and shading, huh, but this is probably even more famous because it represents victory. of Alexander on Darius III, notice again the extraordinary detail and sense of volume that the artists achieved simply with River Pebbles. Horse breeding in particular was a particularly difficult artistic challenge and we will see other artists try it. It's very early and they do it incredibly well.

It is also worth noting how Alexander is portrayed. He is the young man on the left, on the horse holding his spear. Notice that he is not wearing a helmet, he is charging recklessly into the middle of battle and even. even though he's running through some poor guy, he's concentrating on Darius, who is the face turning towards Horseback, basically Darius is already running and by the way, historical accounts confirm that this was Alexander's style and one of the reasons why his men would follow him to the end. India, if not more so, because he himself was extraordinarily brave, so in my final lecture on sculpture we will move on to art after the death of Alexander and the Hellenistic era.