Ancient Greek myths passed through the centuries, and have come down to our days as the greatest storehouse of wisdom and deep philosophical sense. It is cults and divine figures ancient Greek culture inspired the first ancient sculptors to create their magnificent masterpieces that captivated art connoisseurs around the world.
Until now, in different parts of the world, unique sculptural statues of various Greek Gods are presented, many of which were once worshiped and recognized as true masterpieces of world sculpture. Consider the features of the sculptural image of the Gods Ancient Greece and remember the most famous works great masters.
Zeus - God of the sky and thunder. The ancient Greeks considered Zeus the king of all Gods and worshiped him as the most powerful divine being. His name is often compared with that of his Roman equivalent, Jupiter.
Zeus is the youngest of the children of Kronos and Rhea. In classical mythology, it is believed that Zeus was married to the goddess Hera, and as a result of this union, Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus were born. Other sources called Dione his wife, and the Iliad claims that their union was crowned with the birth of Aphrodite.
Zeus is notorious for his erotic antics. This resulted in numerous divine and heroic offspring including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Hercules and many more.
Traditionally, even Gods who are not directly related to Zeus respectfully addressed him as a father.
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Sculptures of Zeus are always combined with his classical symbols. The symbols of Zeus are the lightning, the eagle, the bull and the oak. Sculptors have always depicted Zeus as a powerful middle-aged man with thick beard, which holds lightning in one hand, justifying its title of thunderer.
The figure of Zeus is usually depicted as rather warlike, since it is known that it is he who is considered the organizer of the bloody Trojan War. At the same time, the face of Zeus always radiates nobility and virtue.
The most famous statue of Zeus was erected in the 5th century BC in Olympia and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The giant sculpture was made of gold, wood and ivory and amazed contemporaries with its incredible scale.
The statue depicted Zeus sitting majestically on a huge throne. In his left hand he held a large scepter with an eagle, while in his other hand he held a miniature sculpture of Nike, the goddess of victory. The throne was decorated with numerous bas-reliefs and frescoes depicting lions, centaurs, the exploits of Theseus and Hercules. The mighty Zeus was dressed in golden clothes and was sung by numerous contemporaries in many literary and historical testimonies.
Unfortunately, the last mention of this statue dates back to the 5th century AD. e. The third wonder of the world, according to historical data, was destroyed by fire in 425.
Poseidon in ancient Greek mythology is considered one of the supreme sea gods. Along with Zeus and Hades, Poseidon is one of the three powerful Olympian gods. According to myths, Poseidon with his wife the goddess Amphitrite and son Triton live in a luxurious palace at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by various marine mythical creatures and deities.
The powerful and great god of the sea, Poseidon, inspired many sculptors to create great statues and bas-reliefs. One of the most famous and recognized statues of Poseidon "Poseidon from Cape Artemision" is an antique Hellenistic bronze statue.
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A statue was discovered in the Aegean Sea near Cape Artemision and raised to the surface as one of the greatest legacies of antiquity that have survived to this day. The sculpture depicts Poseidon in full height swinging to throw a weapon that was never found. Scientists suggest that this is a trident.
Also, numerous statues and sculptures of Poseidon can be found on the streets of ancient European cities - Copenhagen, Florence, Athens, etc. However, this God received the greatest artistic response when creating fountains. There are hundreds of magnificent sculptural fountains in the world, in the center artistic composition which Poseidon is present, surrounded by fish, dolphins, snakes and sea monsters.
The Great Olympian Goddess Demeter is considered the goddess of fertility, Agriculture, grains, and bread. This is one of the most revered deities of the Olympic pantheon, patronizing farmers. The goddess Demeter, like many other Greek deities, has two sides - dark and light.
According to legends and myths, her daughter Persephone was kidnapped by a god. underworld and the brother of Demeter herself, Hades, making her his wife and queen realms of the dead. Angered, Demeter sent a famine to Earth, which began to take the lives of people. However, having come to her senses and having mercy, she also sent the hero Triptolemos to the people to teach them how to properly cultivate the land.
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in sculpture and artistic expression Demeter is depicted as a middle-aged woman, usually crowned and holding ears of wheat in one hand and a burning torch in the other. The most famous statue of the goddess Demeter is today kept and exhibited in the Vatican Museums. This marble statue is only a copy of a Greek statue of the Roman period 430-420. BC.
The goddess is depicted majestic and calm and dressed in traditional ancient Greek attire. The figure acquires a special monumentality due to the symmetrically distributed ends of the tunic's overlap.
Apollo is one of the most important and revered Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and mythology. Apollo was the son of Zeus and the Titanides Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis. According to legend, Apollo became the personification of the Sun and light, while his sister Artemis was associated by the ancient Greeks with the moon.
First of all, Apollo is considered the god of light, as well as the patron of musicians, artists and doctors. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracle - a prophetic deity. Despite the many virtues of the god Apollo, he was also described as a god who could bring ill health and a deadly plague.
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One of the most famous sculptures Apollo - Apollo Belvedere. This marble sculpture is an exact copy of the bronze prototype, which was created by the ancient Greek sculptor Leohar in 330-320 BC. BC e. The sculpture depicts God in the form of a young, slender youth who appears completely naked to the audience.
support for right hand God is served by a tree trunk. The young man's face depicts determination and nobility, his eyes are fixed on the distance, and his hand stretches forward. Today, the sculpture "Apollo Belvedere" is exhibited in the Vatican Museums.
Artemis was one of the most revered ancient Greek goddesses. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Homer mentions her under the name of Artemis Agrotera as "the patroness of wildlife and mistress of animals." The Arcadians believed that she was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus.
However, in classical Greek mythology, Artemis was usually described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, as well as the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt and wild animals. At the same time, it was Artemis that the ancient Greeks considered the patroness of young girls, the keeper of virginity and an assistant in childbirth.
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In sculptural incarnations, Artemis was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The main symbols of Artemis were the cypress and the deer. The most famous sculpture in the world dedicated to the goddess Artemis is Diana of Versailles or Diana the Huntress. This marble statue was made in the 1st or 2nd century. BC e. by an unidentified early Hellenistic sculptor. The sculpture depicts a young slender girl with her hair pulled up and dressed in a classic short Greek robe.
Aphrodite - ancient greek goddess love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, which is named after the Roman goddess Venus, considered the prototype of Aphrodite in Roman mythology.
The main symbols of Aphrodite are myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows and swans. The cult of Aphrodite was largely based on that of the Phoenician goddess Astarte ( Sumerian culture). The main cult centers of Aphrodite were Cyprus, Corinth and Athens. She was also the patron goddess of prostitutes, leading scholars to propose the concept of "sacred prostitution" for some time. This concept is currently considered to be erroneous.
The most famous sculptural statue of Aphrodite is the world-famous statue of Venus de Milo. Presumably the figure was created around 300 BC. e. by a now unknown sculptor.
In the spring of 1820, a Greek peasant from the island of Milos dug up this magnificent sculpture of a young and beautiful girl in your garden. To emphasize that Aphrodite is the goddess of love, her figure is depicted by the master as incredibly feminine and attractive. A feature of this magnificent creation was the absence of hands.
After lengthy disputes, the restorers decided that they would not restore the hands of the beauty and leave Venus unchanged. Today, this magnificent sculpture, made of snow-white marble, is exhibited in the Louvre and annually attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world.
Hermes is one of the youngest among the Olympian gods. He is considered the son of Zeus and Pleiades Maya. Hermes is quite a controversial god. On the one hand, he is considered the god of trade, profit, dexterity and eloquence, but according to legend, he had no equal in theft and deceit. According to famous myth, Hermes committed his first theft in infancy.
The myth tells that he ran away from the cradle and stole a whole herd of cows, which at that time was pastured by Apollo. So that the cows and he would not be figured out by the steps on the sand, he tied tree branches to the hooves of the animals, which removed all traces. Hermes also patronizes speakers and heralds, and is considered the god of magic and alchemy.
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Perhaps the most famous and talented work sculptors to display the image of Hermes was a statue of Parian marble "Hermes with the baby Dionysus." The figure was discovered by Ernst Curtius in 1877 during excavations of the Temple of Hera at Olympia. The first thing that surprises the viewer when looking at the statue is its huge size. Together with the podium, the height of the statue is 370 cm.
Another magnificent sculpture dedicated to this god is Hermes Belvedere. For a long time this sculpture was confused with the statue of Antinous. The statue depicts a snow-white figure of a naked young man who bowed his head. A cape, traditional for the Greeks, casually falls from his shoulder. Until now, many scientists believe that the sculpture of Hermes Belvedere in marble is just a copy of the lost bronze original.
Dionysus - in ancient Greek mythology, this is the youngest of the Olympian gods, the god of wine and the patron of winemaking. The second name of this deity is Bacchus. Interestingly, in addition to viticulture, Dionysus also patronized the theater and was considered the god of inspiration and religious ecstasy. The rituals associated with the veneration of Dionysus were always accompanied by rivers of drunk wine, frantic dances and exciting music.
It is believed that Dionysus was born from a vicious relationship between Zeus and Semele (daughter of Cadmus and Harmony). Upon learning of Semele's pregnancy, Zeus's wife Hera became angry and moved the girl away from Olympus. However, Zeus still found a secret lover and snatched the child from her stomach. Further, this baby was sewn into the thigh of Zeus, where he successfully endured it. So in an unusual way, according to Greek myths Dionysus was born.
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The most famous statue of Dionysus was created by the greatest sculptor of world renown - Michelangelo. In an effort to emphasize the personality traits, the master depicted Dionysus naked with a bowl in his hand. His hair is adorned with grapes and vines. Next to the main character, Michelangelo placed Satyr, who inevitably pursues people suffering from various addictions, including alcoholism.
The myths and legends of ancient Greece were crucial in creating unique sculptural compositions Worldwide. All the masterpieces of world sculpture listed above should be visited and seen with your own eyes.
In ancient Greece, people highly valued beauty. Especially the Greeks preferred sculpture. However, many masterpieces of great sculptors perished and did not reach our time. For example, the Discobolus of the sculptor Myron, Doryphoros of Policlet, "Aphrodite of Cnidus" of Praxiteles, Laocoön of the sculptor Agesander. All these sculptures perished, and yet... we know them very well. How could the disappeared sculptures be preserved? Only thanks to the numerous copies that were in the homes of rich ancient collectors and adorned the courtyards, galleries and halls of the Greeks and Romans.
Dorifor - "Spearman" for many centuries has become a model of male beauty. And "Aphrodite of Knidos" - one of the most famous nude female sculptures of Ancient Greece - became a model of female beauty. To admire Aphrodite, the ancient Greeks came from other cities and, seeing how beautiful she was, ordered unknown sculptors to make exactly the same copy in order to place Aphrodite in the city square or in the courtyard of their rich dwelling.
Discus thrower - a lost bronze statue of an athlete who is about to throw a discus, was created by Myron around the 5th century BC. e. - this is the first attempt in the art of Greece to sculpt a person in motion, and the attempt is more than successful. The young athlete froze for a fraction of a second, and the next moment he will begin to spin in order to throw the discus with all his might.
Laocoon - sculptural group suffering people, which is shown in a painful struggle. Laocoon was a priest who warned the inhabitants of the city of Troy - the Trojans - that the city could be slain thanks to a wooden horse. For this, the god of the seas, Poseidon, sent two snakes from the sea, and they strangled Laocoön and his sons. The statue was found relatively recently, in the 17th century. A great sculptor Renaissance Michelangelo said that Laocoön is the best statue in the world. If in antiquity there were no lovers and collectors of beautiful sculptures, modern humanity would not have known this masterpiece.
Numerous Roman and Greek herms have also come down to us - the heads and busts of people on stands. The art of creating herms originates in the creation of ritual pillars of worship of Hermes, on the upper stand of which there was a stucco head of the deity of trade, science and travel. By the name of Hermes, the pillars began to be called herms. Such poles were located at the crossroads, at the entrance to a city or village, or at the entrance to a house. It was believed that such an image scares away evil forces and unkind spirits.
From about the 4th century BC, all portrait images of people began to be called herms, they became part of the interior of the house, and the rich and noble Greeks and Romans acquired whole portrait galleries, creating a kind of exhibition of family germs. Thanks to this fashion and tradition, we know how many ancient philosophers, commanders, emperors who lived millennia ago looked like.
Ancient Greek painting has practically not come down to us., however, the surviving examples prove that Hellenic art reached the heights of both realistic and symbolic painting. The tragedy of the city of Pompeii, covered with ashes of Vesuvius, has preserved to this day the brilliant paintings that covered all the walls of public and residential buildings, including houses in poor neighborhoods. Wall frescoes were dedicated to a variety of subjects, the artists of antiquity reached perfection in painting skill, and only centuries later this path was repeated by the masters of the Renaissance.
Historians testify that in ancient Greece, at the Athenian temple, there was an extension called the Pinakothek, and ancient Greek paintings were kept there. ancient legend tells how the first painting appeared. One Greek girl really did not want to part with her lover, who was supposed to go to war. There was a full moon during their nightly date. The shadow of a young man appeared on the white wall. The girl took a piece of coal and circled its shadow. This meeting was the last. The young man died. But his shadow remained on the wall, and this shadow picture was kept for a long time in one of the temples of the city of Corinth.
Many paintings of the ancient Greeks were created according to the principle of filling in the silhouette - first, the outline of the figure was drawn on the picture, almost the same as it is said in the legend, and only then the outline was started to be painted. At first, the ancient Greeks had only four colors - white, black, red and yellow. They were based on colored minerals and kneaded with egg yolk or melted wax, diluted with water. Distant figures in the picture could be larger than the front ones, the ancient Greeks used both direct and reverse perspective. Pictures were painted on boards or on wet plaster.
Visual arts also penetrated the applied fields. Painted Greek vessels, amphorae and vases are kept in many museums around the world and convey to us the beauty of everyday life, characteristic of ancient civilizations.
special antique art who brought us all the beauty ancient painting, is a tiling- colossal paintings, laid out from pieces of colored stones and, in later periods, glass, were created according to picturesque sketches and turned out to be a kind of eternal art. Mosaics decorated floors, walls, facades of houses, they played both an aesthetic and practical role in creating a harmonious and beautiful living environment.
The era of antiquity was the heyday of the art of creating beauty and harmony in all manifestations. The decline and oblivion of ancient culture led to the return of mankind to the philosophies of negativism and the triumph of absurd prejudices. The loss of the aesthetics of admiring the beautiful, the denial of natural beauty human body, destruction ancient temples and works of art were the most visible consequence of the crash ancient world. It took centuries for the ideals of antiquity to return and begin to be creatively rethought by the artists of the Renaissance, and then by the masters of the New Age.
D For the sculpture of Ancient Greece of the era of the classics, the heyday of the policy, the following features are characteristic. The main object of the image is still the human figure. But compared to archaic sculpture, the image becomes more dynamic and anatomically correct. But the figures and faces of the sculptures are still devoid of individual traits: these are generalized, abstract images of heavily armed warriors, athletes, athletes, gods and heroes.
Famous Sculptors of Ancient Greece
The development of sculpture is directly related to the names of three famous sculptors Ancient Greece - Myron, Polykleitos and Phidias.
Myron- Sculptor of Ancient Greece in the 5th century. BC. working in bronze. As an artist, he set his main task capturing the moments of transition from one movement to another, to notice the culminating moments in these movements. For your famous "Discobolus", with which we are familiar from a late Roman marble copy, is characterized by a thorough, but somewhat generalized transfer of the anatomy of the human body, the cold beauty of the lines of the figure. In it, Miron completely abandoned the solemn immobility of his model.
Another work by Miron - group composition "Athena and Silenus Marsyas" installed on Athenian acropolis. In it, the artist tried to convey the culminating points of the movement of the human body: Athena, standing in a calm pose, throws the flute she invented, and the wild forest demon is shown in motion, he wants to grab the flute, but Athena stops him. The dynamics of the movement of the body of Marsyas is suppressed by the immobility and stiffness of the posture of the figure of the goddess Athena.
Polykleitos- another ancient Greek sculptor who also lived in the 5th century BC, he worked in Argos, Athens and Ephesus. He owns numerous images of winning athletes in marble and bronze. Poliklet in his sculptures was able to convey the appearance of idealized and courageous hoplite warriors, members of the civil militia of the policy. Polykleitos also owns "Diadumen"- a statue of a young man tying his head with a bandage of a winner.
Another theme of his work is the images of young warriors, who embodied the idea of the valor of a citizen. For the Heraion in Argos, he created an image of the goddess Hera from ivory. The sculptures of Polykleitos are characterized by proportionality, recognized by contemporaries as a standard.
Phidias- the famous sculptor of Ancient Greece of the 5th century BC. He worked in Athens, and. Phidias took an active part in the reconstruction in Athens. He was one of the leaders in the construction and decoration of the Parthenon. He created a statue of Athena 12 meters high for the Parthenon. The basis of the statue is a wooden figure. Ivory plates were applied to the face and naked parts of the body. Clothing and weapons were covered with almost two tons of gold. This gold served as an emergency reserve in case of unforeseen financial crises.
The pinnacle of Phidias' creativity was his famous statue, 14 meters high. She depicted a thunderer sitting on a richly decorated throne, his upper torso is naked, and the lower is wrapped in a cloak. In one hand, Zeus holds a statue of Nike, in the other, a symbol of power, a rod. The statue was made of wood, the figure was covered with ivory plates, and the clothes were covered with thin golden sheets. Now you know what were the sculptors in Ancient Greece.
Prominent sculptors of ancient Greece
Features of ancient Greek sculpture The main theme is the image of man, admiration for the beauty of the human body.
Archaic sculpture: Kouros - naked athletes. Installed near temples; Embodied the ideal of male beauty; They look alike: young, slender, tall. Kouros. 6th century BC
Sculpture of the archaic: Kora - girls in chitons. Embodied the ideal of female beauty; Look alike: curly hair, enigmatic smile, the epitome of sophistication. Bark. 6th century BC
GREEK SCULPTURE OF THE CLASSICS Late 5th-4th c. BC e. - the period of the stormy spiritual life of Greece, the formation of the idealistic ideas of Socrates and Plato in philosophy, which developed in the struggle against the materialistic philosophy of the Democrat, the time of addition and new forms of Greek visual arts. In sculpture, the masculinity and severity of images of strict classics are replaced by an interest in the spiritual world of a person, and his more complex and less straightforward characterization is reflected in plastic art.
Greek sculptors of the classical period: Policlet Myron Skopas Praxiteles Lysippus Leochar
Polykleitos Polikleitos. Doryfor (spearman). 450-440 BC Roman copy. National Museum. Naples The works of Polykleitos have become a real hymn to the greatness and spiritual power of Man. Favorite image - a slender young man with an athletic physique. There is nothing superfluous in it, “nothing beyond measure”, the Spiritual and physical appearance is harmonious.
Doryphoros has a complex posture, different from the static posture of the ancient kouros. Polikleitos was the first to think of giving the figures such a setting that they rested on the lower part of only one leg. In addition, the figure seems to be mobile and lively, due to the fact that the horizontal axes are not parallel (the so-called chiasm). "Dorifo?r" (Greek ????????? - "Spearman") - one of the most famous statues of antiquity, embodies the so-called. Canon of Polikleitos.
The canon of Polykleitos Doryphoros is not an image of a specific winning athlete, but an illustration of the canons of a male figure. Poliklet set out to accurately determine the proportions of the human figure, according to his ideas about ideal beauty. These proportions are numerically related to each other. "They even assured that Poliklet performed it on purpose, so that other artists would use her as a model," a contemporary wrote. The composition of the Canon itself had a great influence on European culture, despite the fact that only two fragments have survived from the theoretical work.
The Canon of Polycletus If we recalculate the proportions of this Ideal Man for a height of 178 cm, the parameters of the statue will be as follows: 1. neck - 44 cm, 2. chest - 119, 3. biceps - 38, 4. waist - 93, 5. forearms - 33 , 6. wrists - 19, 7. buttocks - 108, 8. thighs - 60, 9. knees - 40, 10. lower legs - 42, 11. ankles - 25, 12. feet - 30 cm.
Polykleitos "The Wounded Amazon"
Myron Myron - Greek sculptor of the middle of the 5th century. BC e. The sculptor of the era immediately preceding the highest flowering of Greek art (K. VI - early V century) embodied the ideals of the strength and beauty of Man. He was the first master of complex bronze castings. Miron. Discus thrower.450 BC Roman copy. National Museum, Rome
Miron. "Discobolus" The ancients characterize Myron as the greatest realist and expert in anatomy, who, however, did not know how to give life and expression to faces. He portrayed gods, heroes and animals, and with special love he reproduced difficult, fleeting poses. His most famous work, "Discobolus", an athlete intending to start a discus, is a statue that has come down to our time in several copies, of which the best is made of marble and is located in the Massami Palace in Rome.
"Discobolus" Miron in the Botanical Garden of Copenhagen
Discus thrower. Myron
Sculptural creations of Skopas Skopas (420 - c. 355 BC), a native of the island of Paros, rich in marble. Unlike Praxiteles, Skopas continued the traditions of the high classics, creating monumental-heroic images. But from the images of the 5th c. they are distinguished by the dramatic tension of all spiritual forces. Passion, pathos, strong movement are the main features of the art of Scopas. Also known as an architect, he participated in the creation of a relief frieze for the Halicarnassus Mausoleum.
In a state of ecstasy, in a violent outburst of passion, Menada is depicted by Skopas. The companion of the god Dionysus is shown in a swift dance, her head is thrown back, her hair falls on her shoulders, her body is curved, presented in a complex perspective, the folds of a short tunic emphasize the violent movement. Unlike the sculpture of the 5th century. Maenad Scopas is already designed for viewing from all sides. Scopas. Maenad Sculptures of Scopas
Scopas. Battle with the Amazons Sculptural creations of Scopas Also known as an architect, he participated in the creation of a relief frieze for the Halicarnassus mausoleum.
Praxiteles Born in Athens (c. 390 - 330 BC) Inspirational singer of female beauty.
The statue of Aphrodite of Knidos is the first depiction of a nude female figure in Greek art. The statue stood on the shores of the Knidos peninsula, and contemporaries wrote about real pilgrimages here to admire the beauty of the goddess, preparing to enter the water and throwing off her clothes on a nearby vase. The original statue has not survived. Sculptures of Praxiteles Praxiteles. Aphrodite of Knidos
Sculptural creations of Praxiteles In the only original sculptor Praxiteles that has come down to us marble statue Hermes (the patron of trade and travelers, as well as the messenger, the "courier" of the gods), the master depicted a beautiful young man, in a state of peace and serenity. Thoughtfully, he looks at the baby Dionysus, whom he holds in his arms. The masculine beauty of an athlete is being replaced by a somewhat feminine, graceful, but also more spiritual beauty. On the statue of Hermes, traces of ancient coloring have been preserved: red-brown hair, a silver-colored bandage. Praxiteles. Hermes. Around 330 BC e.
Sculptures of Praxiteles
Lysippus the Great sculptor of the 4th c. BC. (370-300 BC). He worked in bronze, because. sought to capture images in a fleeting impulse. He left behind 1,500 bronze statues, including colossal figures of gods, heroes, and athletes. They are characterized by pathos, inspiration, emotionality. The original has not reached us. Court sculptor A.Macedonsky Marble copy of the head of A.Macedonsky
Lysippos. Hercules fighting a lion. 4th century BC Roman copy Hermitage, St. Petersburg This sculpture conveys the passionate intensity of Hercules' duel with a lion with amazing skill. Sculptures of Lysippus
Sculptural creations of Lysippus Lysippus sought to bring his images as close to reality as possible. So, the athlete in he showed not at the moment highest voltage forces, but, as a rule, at the moment of their decline, after the competition. This is how his Apoxyomenos is represented, cleaning off the sand after a sports fight. He has a tired face, hair matted with sweat. Lysippos. Apoxyomenos. Roman copy, 330 BC
The captivating Hermes, always fast and lively, is also represented by Lysippos, as if in a state of extreme fatigue, briefly crouching on a stone and ready to run further in his winged sandals the next second. Sculptures of Lysippus Lysippus. "Resting Hermes"
Lysippus created his own canon of proportions of the human body, according to which his figures are taller and slimmer than those of Polykleitos (the size of the head is 1/9 of the figure). Sculptures of Lysippus Lysippus. "Hercules of Farnese"
Leohar Leohar. Apollo Belvedere. 4th century BC Roman copy. Vatican Museums His work is a fine attempt to capture the classical ideal of human beauty. In his works, not only the perfection of images, but the skill and technique of execution. Apollo is considered one of the best works Antiquity.
Sculptural masterpieces of the Hellenistic era
Greek Sculpture So, in Greek sculpture, the expressiveness of the image was in the whole body of a person, his movements, and not just in the face. Despite the fact that many Greek statues did not retain their upper part (as, for example, Nike of Samothrace or Nike Untying Sandals came to us without a head, we forget about this when looking at the integral plastic solution of the image. Since the soul and the body was thought by the Greeks in inseparable unity, then the body Greek statues unusually inspired.
Nike of Samothrace Nike of Samothrace 2nd century BC Louvre, Paris Marble The statue was erected on the occasion of the victory of the Macedonian fleet over the Egyptian in 306 BC. e. The goddess was depicted, as it were, on the prow of a ship, announcing victory with the sound of a trumpet. The pathos of victory is expressed in the rapid movement of the goddess, in the wide flapping of her wings.
Nike of Samothrace
Nike untying her sandal The goddess is shown untying her sandal before entering the Temple of Marble. Athens
Venus de Milo On April 8, 1820, a Greek peasant from the island of Melos named Iorgos, digging the ground, felt that his shovel, with a dull clinking, came across something hard. Iorgos dug nearby - the same result. He took a step back, but even here the spade did not want to enter the ground. First Iorgos saw a stone niche. It was about four or five meters wide. In a stone crypt, to his surprise, he found a marble statue. This was Venus. Agesander. Venus de Milo. Louvre. 120 BC
Laocoön with his sons Agesander, Athenodorus, Polydorus
Laocoön and his sons Laocoön, you did not save anyone! Neither the city nor the world is a savior. The mind is powerless. Proud Three mouth is a foregone conclusion; the circle of fatal events closed in the suffocating crown of serpentine rings. Horror on the face, the plea and groans of your child; another son was silenced by poison. Your fainting. Your wheezing: "Let me be..." (...Like the bleating of sacrificial lambs Through the haze and piercingly and subtly!..) And again - reality. And poison. They are stronger! Anger flares powerfully in the snake's mouth... Laocoön, and who heard you?! Here are your boys... They... are not breathing. But in each Troy they are waiting for their horses.
Phidias and the Friezes of the Parthenon
Statue of Zeus by Phidias at Olympia
His images are sublime and beautiful. Phidias
Phidias Phidias. Statue of Athena
check yourself
Faced with Greek art, many prominent minds expressed genuine admiration. One of the most famous researchers of art, Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768) says about Greek sculpture: “Connoisseurs and imitators of Greek works find in their masterful creations not only the most beautiful nature, but also more than nature, namely, some ideal beauty, which is created from images sketched by the mind.
Everyone who writes about Greek art notes in it an amazing combination of naive immediacy and depth, reality and fiction. In it, especially in sculpture, the ideal of man is embodied. What is the nature of the ideal? How did he fascinate people so much that the aged Goethe sobbed in the Louvre in front of the sculpture of Aphrodite?
The Greeks have always believed that only in a beautiful body can a beautiful soul live. Therefore, the harmony of the body, external perfection is an indispensable condition and basis perfect person. The Greek ideal is defined by the term kalokagathia (Greek kalos - beautiful + agathos good). Since kalokagatiya includes the perfection of both bodily constitution and spiritual and moral disposition, then along with beauty and strength, the ideal carries justice, chastity, courage and reasonableness. This is what makes, sculpted by ancient sculptors, uniquely beautiful.
The best monuments of ancient Greek sculpture were created in the 5th century. BC. But more have come down to us early works. Statues of the 7th - 6th centuries BC. symmetrical: one half of the body is a mirror image of the other. chained poses, outstretched arms pressed against a muscular body. Not the slightest tilt or turn of the head, but the lips are parted in a smile. A smile, as if from within, illuminates the sculpture with an expression of the joy of life.
Later, during the period of classicism, the statues acquire a greater variety of forms. There were attempts to comprehend harmony algebraically. First Scientific research of what is harmony, Pythagoras undertook. The school he founded considered questions of a philosophical and mathematical nature, applying mathematical calculations to all aspects of reality. Neither musical harmony, nor the harmony of the human body or architectural structure was an exception.
The Pythagorean school considered the number to be the basis and the beginning of the world. What does number theory have to do with Greek art? It turns out to be the most direct, since the harmony of the spheres of the Universe and the harmony of the whole world is expressed by the same ratios of numbers, the main of which are the ratios 2/1, 3/2 and 4/3 (in music, these are respectively an octave, a fifth and a fourth). In addition, harmony implies the possibility of calculating any correlation of parts of each object, including sculpture, according to the following proportion: a / b \u003d b / c, where a is any smaller part of the object, b is any most of, s is an integer.
On this basis, the great Greek sculptor Polikleitos (5th century BC) created a sculpture of a spear-bearing young man (5th century BC), which is called “Dorifor” (“Spear-bearer”) or “Canon” - after the name of the work sculptor, where he, discussing the theory of art, considers the laws of the image of a perfect person. It is believed that the artist's reasoning can be attributed to his sculpture. The statues of Polykleitos are full of intense life. Polikleitos liked to depict athletes at rest. Take the same "Spearman". This powerfully built man is full of self-esteem. He stands motionless in front of the viewer. But this is not the static rest of ancient Egyptian statues. Like a man who skillfully and easily controls his body, the spearman slightly bent one leg and shifted the weight of his body to the other. It seems that a moment will pass, and he will take a step forward, turn his head, proud of his beauty and strength. Before us is a man strong, handsome, free from fear, proud, restrained - the embodiment of Greek ideals.
Unlike his contemporary Polikleitos, Myron liked to depict his statues in motion. Here, for example, is the statue "Discobolus" (5th century BC; Museum of Thermae. Rome). Its author, the great sculptor Miron, depicted a beautiful young man at the moment when he swung a heavy disk. His motion-captured body is bent and tense, like a spring about to unfold. Trained muscles bulged under the elastic skin of the arm pulled back. Toes, forming a reliable support, deeply pressed into the sand. The statues of Myron and Polykleitos were cast in bronze, but only marble copies from ancient Greek originals made by the Romans have come down to us.
The Greeks considered Phidias the greatest sculptor of his time, who adorned marble sculpture Parthenon. His sculptures reflected the ancient Greeks' perception of the gods as an image of an ideal person. The best-preserved marble ribbon of relief is a frieze 160 m long. It depicts a procession heading to the temple of the goddess Athena - the Parthenon. The sculpture of the Parthenon was badly damaged. And the statue of "Athena Parthenos" died in ancient times. She stood inside the temple and was unspeakably beautiful. The head of the goddess with a low, smooth forehead and rounded chin, neck and arms were made of ivory, and her hair, clothes, shield and helmet were minted from sheets of gold.
In the photo: Athena Parthenos, sculptor Phidias. Copy. Restored according to the descriptions. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Goddess in the form beautiful woman is the personification of Athens. Many stories are associated with this sculpture. The created masterpiece was so great and famous that its author immediately had a lot of envious people. They tried in every possible way to annoy the sculptor and were looking for different reasons on which it would be possible to accuse him of something. It is said that Phidias was accused of having allegedly concealed part of the gold given as material for the decoration of the goddess. As proof of his innocence, Phidias removed all the golden objects from the sculpture and weighed them. The weight exactly matched the weight of the gold given to the sculpture.
Then Phidias was accused of atheism. The reason for this was the shield of Athena. It depicted the plot of the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons. Among the Greeks, Phidias portrayed himself and his beloved Pericles. The image of Phidias on the shield became the cause of the conflict. Despite all the achievements of Phidias, the Greek public was able to turn against him. The life of the great sculptor ended with a cruel execution.
Phidias' achievements in the Parthenon were not the only ones in his work. The sculptor created many other works, the best of which was the colossal bronze figure of Athena Promachos, erected on the Acropolis in about 460 BC. and no less huge ivory and gold figure of Zeus for the temple at Olympia.
This is how you can describe the statue of Zeus for the temple in Olympia: A huge 14-meter god was seated on a golden throne, and it seemed that if he stood up, straightened his broad shoulders, it would become crowded in the vast hall and the ceiling would be low. The head of Zeus was decorated with a wreath of olive branches - a sign of the peacefulness of the formidable god. The face, shoulders, arms, chest were of ivory, and the cloak was thrown over the left shoulder. The crown, the beard of Zeus were of sparkling gold. Phidias endowed Zeus with human nobility. His handsome face, framed by a curly beard and curly hair, was not only stern, but also kind, the posture was solemn, majestic and calm. The combination of bodily beauty and kindness of soul emphasized his divine ideality. The statue made such an impression that, according to the ancient author, people, dejected by grief, sought solace in contemplating the creation of Phidias. Rumor has declared the statue of Zeus one of the "seven wonders of the world."
Unfortunately, there are no more authentic works, and we cannot see with our own eyes the magnificent works of art of Ancient Greece. Only their descriptions and copies remained. In many ways, this was due to the fanatical destruction of statues by believing Christians.
The works of all three sculptors were similar in that they all depicted harmony beautiful body and contained in it kind soul. This was the main trend of the time. Of course, the norms and attitudes in Greek art have changed throughout history. The art of the archaic was more straightforward, it lacked the deep sense of reticence that delights mankind in the period of the Greek classics.
In the era of Hellenism, when a person lost a sense of the stability of the world, art lost its old ideals. It began to reflect the feelings of uncertainty about the future that reigned in the social currents of that time. One thing united all periods of the development of Greek society and art: this is a special passion for plastic, for spatial arts.
Such predilection is understandable: huge stocks of diverse in color, noble and ideal material - marble - provided ample opportunities for its implementation. Although most Greek sculptures It was carried out in bronze, since marble was fragile, but it was the texture of marble with its color and decorative effect that made it possible to reproduce the beauty of the human body with the greatest expressiveness.
