CLASSICAL ART
Cycladic
• Cycladic art is the art and
sculpture of the ancient
Cycladic civilization, existing
in the islands of the Aegean
Sea from 3300 - 2000 BCE. Art
mainly manifested itself in the
form of marble idols, often
used as offerings to the dead.
Idols possessed a flat,
geometric quality, giving them
a striking resemblance to
today's modern art. A majority
of the figurines are female,
depicted nude, and with arms
folded across the stomach. It is
unknown whether these idols
depict a goddess, or merely
Cycladic women.
Daedalic/Daedelic Style
• figurative sculpture attributed by
later Greeks to the legendary
Greek artist Daedalus
• associated with Bronze Age Crete
and early Archaic sculpture in
Greece.
• Daedalic sculpture displays
Eastern (“Orientalizing”)
influences:
– wiglike hair, large eyes, and
prominent nose; the female
body is flatly geometric
formless drapery.
• The style was used in figurines, on
clay plaques, and in relief
decoration on vases.
Lady of
Auxerre
650 - 625
BC
Korai
• Kore (Greek - Κόρη - maiden;
plural korai) is the name given
to a type of ancient Greek
sculpture of the Archaic period
• show the restrained “archaic
smile”
• unlike the nude kouroi - korai
are depicted in thick drapery,
ornate and (in painted
examples) very colorful and
often have elaborate braided
hairdos
Korai
• Some of the hair styles of
the statues are quite
Egyptian and Minoan in
style and often
resembling the hairstyle
of the Gorgon
• often have a much more
relaxed and natural
posture, sometimes with
an extended arm
• Some were painted, with
colourful drapery and
their skin having a
natural coloring
Peplos Kore
• Peplophoros
Moschophoros
Kritios Boy
Meniskos
• (Greek μηνισκος, plural
Meniskoi, meaning
crescent moon)
• Since many Greek
statues were displayed
outside, the meniskos
served the simple
purpose of preventing
bird droppings from
accumulating on the
statue.
Gorgoneion
•
stone head, engraving or drawing of a
Gorgon face, often with snakes
protruding wildly and tongue sticking
out between the fangs
Polykleitos
• Polykleitos (the Elder)
• Greek sculptor in bronze of the fifth
• He was of the school of Argos
• a contemporary of Phidias
• Known for his use of contrapposto
Polykleitos
• works: Doryphoros (or
spear-carrier),
Diadumenos
(diadem-bearer), and
Discophoros (discbearer: DO NOT
CONFUSE WITH
Discobolus),
gold/ivory statue of
Hera in Heraion of
Argos temple
Doryphoros
“The Cannon”
Doryphoros
•Known as the Spear-Bearer and the Canon
• displays Contrapposto (standing with most
of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders
and arms twist off-axis from the hips and
legs)
•example of the "canon" or "rule", showing the
perfectly harmonious and balanced proportions
•original bronze statue lost
•the surviving (Roman) marble copies: a marble
tree stump is added to support the weight of the
marble
Canon
• “Beauty, Chrysippos believes, inheres... in the
commensurability of the parts, such as that of finger to
finger, and all these to the palm and wrist, and of these
to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and
of everything to everything else, just as it is written in the
"Canon" of Polykleitos. For having taught us in that
treatise all the commensurate proportions of the body,
Polykleitos made a work to support his account; he
made a statue according to the tenets of his writing, and
called it, like the treatise, the "Canon".
--Galen
Praxiteles
• was the most renowned of the Attic
sculptors of the 4th century BC
• the first to sculpt the nude female form in
a life-size statue
Skopas
• Scopas or Skopas (Σκόπας) (c.395 BC-350 BC)
was a sculptor and architect
• born on the island of Paros.
• worked with Praxiteles
• he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of
Halicarnassus,
• led the building of the new temple of Athena at
Tegea.
• successor of Polykleitos
• Figures tend to have deeply sunken eyes and a
slightly opened mouth
Lysippos
• Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC
• Considered with Lysippos, Skopas and
Praxiteles to be the three great sculptors of
the Classical Greek era, who brought a
transition into the Hellenistic era
• Successor of Polykleitos
• During his life Lysippos was the personal
sculptor of Alexander the Great
Ludovisi Ares
Lysippos
• born at Sikyon around 390 BC
• worker in bronze in his youth, he taught
himself the art of sculpture, later
becoming head of the school of Argos and
Sikyon
• Works: attributed to him are the so-called
Horses of Saint Mark; Eros Stringing the Bow,
Agias, the similar Oil pourer, the Farnese
Herakles, and The Scraper
Apoxyomenos
•Also known as the "Scraper“
•athlete, caught in the familiar act of scraping sweat
and dust from his body with the small curved
instrument that the Romans called a strigil.
•The bronze original lost
• the "Scraper")
•represented by the Pentelic marble copy in the Museo
Pio-Clementino
in Rome, discovered in 1849 Q
the "Scraper")
•known, in part from its description in Pliny the Elder's
Natural History,
•Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
installed Lysippos's masterpiece in the Baths of
Agrippa that he erected in Rome, around 20 BCE
•the emperor Tiberius had it removed to his
bedroom. However an uproar in the theatre, "Give
us back our Apoxyomenos", shamed the emperor
into replacing it.
Lysippos
• Pliny the Elder says he produced 1500+
works (in bronze)
• His pupil, Chares of Lindos (constructed
the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven
ancient wonders of the world)
Parthenon
Kanephoros
• "Basket Bearer", also known as Canephorae
• honorific office given to unmarried young women in ancient
Greece (privilege of leading the procession to sacrifice at
festivals)
• the highest honour was to lead the pompe at the Panathenaic
Festival
– role was given to a virgin selected from amongst the
aristocratic or Eupatrid families of Athens whose purity and
youth was thought essential to ensure a successful
sacrifice
– Her task was to carry a basket (kanoun), which contained
the offering of barley or first fruits, the sacrificial knife and
fillets to decorate the bull in procession through the city up
to the altar on the acropolis
Caryatids
• sculpted female figure
serving as an
architectural support
taking the place of a
column or a pillar
supporting an entablature
on her head
• Classical examples
include the treasuries
of Delphi and the
Erectheion
Caryatid from the Erechtheion’s
Porch of the Maidens
Ganosis
Pantheon
• (Latin Pantheon, from
Greek Πάνθεον
Pantheon, meaning
"Temple of all the
gods")
• in Rome
• originally built as a
temple to the seven
major gods of
Pantheon
• Architect uncertain:
• largely credited to
Trajan's architect
Apollodorus of
Damascus
• rumored that the
emperor Hadrian had
a hand in the design
• Christian church
since 7th century
Panthenon History
•
•
•
•
After the Battle of Actium (31 BC), Agrippa built and dedicated the original
Pantheon during his third consulship (27 BC)
Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire
in 80 AD
current building dates from about 125 AD, during the reign of the Emperor
Hadrian, as date-stamps on the bricks reveal
reconstructed with the text of the original inscription
("M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT" meaning, "Marcus Agrippa, son
of Lucius, three times consul made it")
Pantheon
• “Agrippa finished the construction of the
building called the Pantheon. It has this
name, perhaps because it received among
the images which decorated it the statues
of many gods, including Mars and Venus;
but my own opinion of the name is that,
because of its vaulted roof, it resembles
the heavens.” (Cassius Dio History of
Rome 53.27.2)
Panthenon
• later repaired by Septimius Severus and
Caracalla in 202 AD, for which there is
another, smaller inscription. This
inscription reads "pantheum vetustate
corruptum cum omni cultu restituerunt"
('with every refinement they restored the
Pantheon worn by age').
Parthenon