An interesting hypothesis regarding the ancient Greek miracle was found on the blog of sculptor Nigel Konstam: he believes that the ancient statues were casts of living people, since otherwise it is impossible to explain such a rapid transition from the production of static statues of the Egyptian type to the perfect realistic art of transmitting movement, which occurs between 500 and 450 BC. 
Nigel confirms his hypothesis by examining the feet of ancient statues, comparing them with plaster prints and wax castings made from modern sitters standing in a given pose. The deformation of the material on the feet confirms his hypothesis that the Greeks did not make statues as before, but began to use casts of living people instead.
Konstama first learned about this hypothesis from the film “Athens. The Truth about Democracy,” searched for material on the Internet and this is what she found.
Nigel made a video explaining his hypothesis regarding the ancient casts and it can be viewed here http://youtu.be/7fe6PL7yTck in English.
But let's first look at the statues themselves. 
Antique kouros statue from the archaic era, approximately 530 BC. seems constrained and tense, then contrapposto was not yet known - the free position of the figure when the balance of rest is created from opposite friends friend movements. 
Kouros, figure of a youth, early 5th century BC. looks a little more dynamic. 
Warriors from Riace, statues from the second quarter of the 5th century BC. 197 cm high - a rare find of original Greek sculpture from the classical period, most of which is known to us from Roman copies. In 1972, Roman engineer Stefano Mariotini, who was snorkeling, found them at the bottom of the sea off the coast of Italy.
These bronze figures were not cast entirely; their parts were fastened together like a construction set, which allows us to learn much more about the technique of creating sculptures of that time. Their pupils are made of gold paste, their eyelashes and teeth are made of silver, their lips and nipples are made of copper, and their eyes are made using bone and glass inlay techniques.
That is, in principle, some details of the statues, as scientists have found out, were changed several times by casts from living models, albeit enlarged and improved, and could well have been.
It was in the process of studying the gravity-deformed feet of the Warriors from Riace that the sculptor Konstam came up with this idea of casts that may have been used antique sculptors.
When watching the film "Athens. The Truth about Democracy" I was interested in how the rather fluffy sitter felt when the plaster mold was removed, because many who had to wear the plaster complained that it was painful to remove because they had to tear off their hair.
On the one hand, there are sources from which it is known that in Ancient Greece not only women, but also male athletes removed body hair.
On the other hand, it was their hairiness that distinguished them from women. It is not for nothing that in Aristophanes’ comedy “Women in the National Assembly” one of the heroines who decided to take away power from men says:
- And the first thing I did was throw away the razor.
Farther away, so that I can become rough and shaggy,
Don't look a bit like a woman.
It turns out that if men had their hair removed, it was most likely by those who were professionally involved in sports, and it was precisely such sitters that the sculptors needed.
However, I read about plaster and found out that even in ancient times there were ways to combat this phenomenon: when masks and casts were made, the sitters’ bodies were smeared with special oil ointments, thanks to which the plaster was removed painlessly, even if there was hair on the body. That is, the technique of making casts not only from a dead, but also from a living person in ancient times was indeed well known in Egypt, however, it was precisely the transfer of movement and copying of a person that was not considered beautiful there.
But for the Hellenes, the beautiful human body, perfect in its nakedness, seemed to be the greatest value and object of worship. Perhaps that is why they did not see anything reprehensible in using casts from such a body to make works of art. 
Phryne in front of the Areopagus. J.L. Jerome. 1861, Hamburg, Germany.
On the other hand, they could well accuse the sculptor of impiety and insulting the gods because he used a hetera as a model for the statue of the goddess. In the case of Praxiteles, Phryne was accused of atheism. But would a non-hetera agree to pose for him?
The Areopagus acquitted her in 340 BC, however, after, during a speech in her defense, the orator Hyperides presented the original - naked Phryne, pulling off her chiton and rhetorically asking how such beauty could be guilty. After all, the Greeks believed that a beautiful body has an equally beautiful soul.
It is possible that even before Praxiteles, goddesses were depicted naked, and the judges could have considered it wickedness that the goddess looked too much like Phryne, as if one to one, and accusing the hetaera herself of atheism was only a pretext? Maybe they knew or guessed about the possibilities of working with plaster casts of a living person? And then an unnecessary question could arise: who do they worship in the temple - Phryne or the goddess. 
Using photography, modern computer artist“revived” Phryne, that is, of course, the statue of Aphrodite of Knidos, and more specifically, her copy, since the original has not reached us.
And, as we know, the ancient Greeks painted statues, so it may well be that the hetaera could have looked like this if her skin had been slightly yellowish, for which, according to some sources, she was nicknamed Phryne.
Although in this case our contemporary is competing with Nicias, an artist, of course, and not a commander, to whom there is an incorrect link on Wikipedia. After all, when asked which of his works Praxiteles considered the best, according to legend, he answered that those painted by Nicias.
By the way, this phrase remained mysterious for many centuries to those who did not know or did not believe that completed Greek sculptures were not white.
But it seems to me that the statue of Aphrodite itself was unlikely to have been painted that way, because scientists claim that the Greeks painted them quite colorfully. 
Rather, approximately the same way Apollo is painted from the exhibition The Motley Gods "Bunte Götter".
And imagine how strange the sitter felt when he saw people worshiping him in the form of a god.
Or not him, but his copy, which the artist proportionally enlarged, brightly colored and corrected minor physical inconsistencies and shortcomings in accordance with the canon of Polykleitos? It's your body, but bigger and better. Or is it no longer yours? Could he believe that the statue made of him was a statue of a god?
In one of the articles I also read about a huge number of plaster blanks in an ancient Greek workshop for copies prepared for shipment to Rome, which were discovered by archaeologists. Maybe these were also casts of people, and not just statues?
I will not insist on Konstam’s hypothesis, which interested me: of course, specialists know better, but there is no doubt that ancient sculptors, like modern ones, used casts of living people and parts of their bodies. Can you really think that the ancient Greeks were so stupid that, knowing what gypsum was, they would not have guessed?
But do you think making copies of living people is art or deception?
Today I would like to raise a topic that, from experience, sometimes causes a difficult and far from ambiguous reaction - to talk about ancient sculpture, and more specifically, about the depiction of the human body in it.
Attempts to introduce children to ancient sculpture sometimes encounter unexpected difficulties when parents simply do not dare show their children naked statues, considering such images almost pornography. I don’t presume to claim the universality of the method, but in my childhood such a problem did not even arise, because - thanks to my wise mother - an excellent edition of legends and myths of Ancient Greece by Kuna, abundantly illustrated with photographs of the works of ancient masters, appeared in my life when I was five or six years old, then there is long before the girl began to be interested in all sorts of specific issues of gender.
So the struggle of the Olympians with the Titans and the exploits of Hercules settled down in my head somewhere on the same shelf with Snow Queen And wild swans and were remembered not only as bizarre stories, but immediately acquired visual embodiment, and were tied - perhaps not quite consciously at that time - to specific poses, gestures, faces - human plasticity and facial expressions. At the same time, my mother immediately found simple and understandable answers to all the children’s questions - that, firstly, it was hot in Ancient Greece, and, secondly, the statues are not people and now they are not cold at all.
As for the questions of adults, we must keep in mind that the idea of the division of man into soul and body, which in Christian anthropology ultimately led to the idea of the subordination of the body to the soul (and even later, in some Protestant branches, even - to a strict taboo of the physical), was first clearly formulated, perhaps, only by Plato. And before that, the Greeks, for at least several centuries, reached the idea that the soul is not just spirit, breath, but something individually personal and, so to speak, “stationary,” very gradually moving from the concept of θυμός to the concept of ψυχή. Thus, especially since the gods became anthropomorphic, the Greek masters simply had no other way to tell about different aspects of life other than by depicting the human body.
So, a significant part of Greek sculpture is illustrations of myths, which in ancient times were not just “tales about the gods,” but also a means of conveying the most important information about the structure of the world, the principles of life, what should and should not be. That is, such “3D illustrations” were much more important for ancient people than for me as a child. However, perhaps, much more significant than understanding myths, for us there is another opportunity that Greek sculpture provided to its creators - to study and know the person himself. And if the main characters of primitive art were various animals, then from the time of the Paleolithic and throughout antiquity, man undoubtedly became such.
All the efforts of the artists of this rather long period were aimed first at capturing and conveying the most general anatomical features of the structure of the human body, and then its more complex dynamic manifestations - movements, gestures, facial expressions. This is how European art began its long haul from the rough and only vaguely human-like “Paleolithic Venuses” to the works of Myron, perfect in proportion, and from them further; a path that could conventionally be called the road to a person - first to his body, and then to his soul - however, still in the psychological sense of the word. Let us also go through some of its stages.
Paleolithic Venus. About 30 thousand years ago
The very first humanoid images in Europe, as mentioned above, were “Paleolithic Venuses” - tiny figures made from mammoth tusks or soft stones. The features of their image - the almost complete absence of arms, and sometimes even legs and heads, the hypertrophied middle part of the body - suggest that what we are looking at, most likely, is not even a full image of the human body, but only an attempt to convey one of its functions - childbearing. The connection of “Venuses” with the cult of fertility is assumed by the vast majority of researchers; we only need them as a starting point for our journey.
The next stop there will be kouros and kors (literally - boys and girls) - human images carved in ancient city policies in the 7th-6th centuries BC.
Kouros, archaic smile. Kouros and kora
As we see, such statues, used, for example, as monuments to famous athletes, convey the appearance of the human body in much more detail, however, they are also a kind of “scheme of a person.” So, for example, all the numerous kouros, for some inexplicable reason, stand in the same position - with their arms pressed to their torso, their left leg extended forward; the most recent suspicions of portraiture are finally dispelled when looking at their faces - with the same absent expression and lips stretched into an eerie - so-called. archaic - a smile.
Next stop. V century BC, Greek archaic. Sculptures of Myron and Polykleitos, striking the viewer with the perfection of proportions.
Miron. Discus thrower 455 BC, Polykleitos. Doryphoros (spearman) (450-440 BC) and Wounded Amazon (430 BC)
Really, you ask, is this a scheme again? And just imagine, the answer will be yes. We have at least two proofs of this. Firstly, fragments of the so-called have reached our time. "The Canon of Polykleitos". In this mathematical treatise, the sculptor, who was a follower of the Pythagorean movement, tried to calculate perfect proportions male body. Apparently, the statue subsequently became an illustration of such calculations. And the second proof will be... the extensive Greek literature of that time. From it we can glean, for example, the following lines from Sappho:
He who is beautiful is good.
And the one who is kind will soon become beautiful.
Moreover, among all the heroes of Homer’s Iliad, only the “idle-talking” Thersites refuses to unquestioningly enter into the endless war into which the gods are driving the heroes. The author does not spare black paint for this character, who outrages the army with his speeches and hates literally everyone; but it is not at all by chance that Thersites, by the will of the author, turns out to be a terrible freak:
An ugliest man, he came to Ilion among the Danae;
He was cross-eyed and lame; completely hunchbacked from behind
The shoulders met on the chest; his head rose
Pointed up, and was only sparsely strewn with fluff.
Thus, we can say that the Greeks of the archaic period were supporters of the idea that external beauty is an indispensable manifestation inner beauty and harmony, and, therefore, scrupulously calculating the parameters of the ideal human body, they tried to depict, no more nor less, a perfect soul, so perfect that it even seems inanimate.
Indeed, answer me just one simple question: where will the disk thrown by the discus thrower fly next? The longer you look at the statue, the more clearly you will understand that the disc will not be thrown anywhere, because the position of the athlete’s withdrawn hand does not at all imply a swing to throw, the muscles of his chest do not show any special tension, his face is completely calm; Moreover, the depicted position of the legs does not allow one to take not only the turning jump necessary for throwing, but even a simple step. That is, it turns out that the discus thrower, despite the apparent complexity of his pose, is absolutely static, perfect, dead. Like the wounded Amazon, in her suffering, gracefully leaning on the capital that appeared nearby at such a timely moment.
Finally, IV century. BC. introduces new moods into Greek sculpture. At this time, the Greek city-states were in decline - we can assume that the small universe of ancient man was gradually ending its existence. Greek philosophy decisively turns to the search for new foundations of human happiness, offering a choice of the Cynicism of Antisthenes or the hedonism of Aristippus; one way or another, but from now on with problems deep meaning a person will have to figure out his life himself. The same individual human character comes to the fore in sculpture, in which both meaningful facial expressions and real movement appear for the first time.
Lysippos Resting Hermes 4th century BC, Maenad of Skopas, 4th century. BC, Artemis of Gabii 345 BC
Pain and tension are expressed in the pose of the Maenad of Skopas, and her face is turned to the sky with wide open eyes. Thoughtful, with an elegant and familiar gesture, Artemis from Gabius Praxiteles fastens the fibula on his shoulder. The resting Hermes Lysippos is also clearly in deep thought, and the excessively elongated, completely non-classical proportions of his body make the figure light, giving a certain dynamics even to this almost static pose. It seems that a little more, and the young man will accept some kind of important decision and will run further. Thus, for the first time, the soul begins to appear through the outlines of beautiful marble and bronze bodies.
By the way, most of the statues we examined today are naked. But did anyone notice this?
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Antique sculpture
HERMITAGE
Aphrodite
Aphrodite 
Aphrodite (Venus Tauride)
Description:
According to Hesiod’s “Theogony,” Aphrodite was born near the island of Cythera from the seed and blood of Uranus castrated by Kronos, which fell into the sea and formed snow-white foam (hence the nickname “foam-born”). The breeze brought her to the island of Cyprus (or she sailed there herself, since she did not like Cythera), where she, emerging from the sea waves, was met by the Ora.
The statue of Aphrodite (Venus of Tauride) dates back to the 3rd century BC. e., now it is in the Hermitage and is considered his most famous statue. The sculpture became the first antique statue of a naked woman in Russia. Marble statue life-size bathing Venus (height 167 cm), modeled after the Aphrodite of Cnidus or the Capitoline Venus. The hands of the statue and a fragment of the nose are lost. Before entering the State Hermitage, she decorated the garden of the Tauride Palace, hence the name. In the past, “Venus Tauride” was intended to decorate the park. However, the statue was delivered to Russia much earlier, even under Peter I and thanks to his efforts. The inscription made on the bronze ring of the pedestal recalls that Venus was given by Clement XI to Peter I (as a result of an exchange for the relics of St. Brigid, sent to the Pope by Peter I). The statue was discovered in 1718 during excavations in Rome. Unknown sculptor of the 3rd century. BC. depicted the nude goddess of love and beauty Venus. A slender figure, rounded, smooth lines of the silhouette, softly modeled body shapes - everything speaks of a healthy and chaste perception of female beauty. Along with calm restraint (posture, facial expression), a generalized manner, alien to fractionality and fine detail, as well as a number of other features characteristic of the art of the classics (V - IV centuries BC), the creator of Venus embodied in her his idea of beauty, associated with the ideals of the 3rd century BC. e. (graceful proportions - high waist, somewhat elongated legs, thin neck, small head, - tilt of the figure, rotation of the body and head). 
Italy. Antique sculpture in the Vatican Museum.
Joseph Brodsky
Torso
If you suddenly wander into stone grass,
looking better in marble than in reality,
or you notice a faun indulged in fuss
with a nymph, and both are happier in bronze than in a dream,
you can release the staff from your weary hands:
you are in the Empire, friend.
Air, fire, water, fauns, naiads, lions,
taken from nature or from the head -
everything that God came up with and I'm tired of continuing
brain, turned into stone or metal.
This is the end of things, this is the end of the road
mirror to enter.
Stand in a vacant niche and, rolling your eyes,
watch the centuries pass, disappearing behind
corner, and how moss sprouts in the groin
and dust falls on the shoulders - this tan of eras.
Someone will break off their hand and their head will fall off their shoulder
will roll down, knocking.
And what remains is the torso, an anonymous sum of muscles.
After a thousand years, a mouse living in a niche with
with a broken claw, without overcoming granite,
going out one evening, squeaking, mincing
across the road so as not to end up in a hole
at midnight. Not in the morning.
10 secrets of famous sculptures
The silence of the great statues holds many secrets. When Auguste Rodin was asked how he created his statues, the sculptor repeated the words of the great Michelangelo: “I take a block of marble and cut off everything unnecessary from it.” This is probably why the sculpture of a true master always creates a feeling of miracle: it seems that only a genius can see the beauty that is hidden in a piece of stone.
We are confident that in almost every significant work art is a mystery, a “double bottom” or secret history, which I want to reveal. Today we will share a few of them.
1. Horned Moses 
Michelangelo Buanarrotti, "Moses", 1513-1515
Michelangelo depicted Moses with horns in his sculpture. Many art historians attribute this to misinterpretation of the Bible. The Book of Exodus says that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets, the Jews found it difficult to look at his face. At this point in the Bible, a word is used that can be translated from Hebrew as both “rays” and “horns.” However, based on the context, we can definitely say that we are talking specifically about rays of light - that Moses’ face was shining and not horned.
2. Colored Antiquity 
"Augustus from Prima Porta", antique statue.
It has long been believed that ancient Greek and Roman white marble sculptures were originally colorless. However, recent research by scientists has confirmed the hypothesis that the statues were painted in a wide range of colors, which eventually disappeared under prolonged exposure to light and air.
3. The Little Mermaid's suffering 
Edward Eriksen, The Little Mermaid, 1913
The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen is one of the most long-suffering in the world: it is the one that vandals love most. The history of its existence was very turbulent. It was broken and sawed into pieces many times. And now you can still detect barely noticeable “scars” on the neck, which appeared from the need to replace the sculpture’s head. The Little Mermaid was beheaded twice: in 1964 and 1998. In 1984, her right hand was sawed off. On March 8, 2006, a dildo was placed on the mermaid’s hand, and the unfortunate woman herself was splashed with green paint. In addition, on the back there was a scrawled inscription “Happy March 8!” In 2007, Copenhagen authorities announced that the statue might be moved further into the harbor to avoid further incidents of vandalism and to prevent tourists from continually attempting to climb it.
4. “Kiss” without a kiss 
Auguste Rodin, "The Kiss", 1882
Auguste Rodin's famous sculpture "The Kiss" was originally called "Francesca da Rimini", in honor of the noble Italian lady of the 13th century depicted on it, whose name was immortalized by Dante's Divine Comedy (Second Circle, Fifth Canto). The lady fell in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta's younger brother, Paolo. While they were reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, they were discovered and then killed by her husband. In the sculpture you can see Paolo holding a book in his hand. But in fact, the lovers do not touch each other's lips, as if hinting that they were killed without committing a sin.
The renaming of the sculpture to a more abstract one - The Kiss (Le Baiser) - was made by critics who first saw it in 1887.
5. The secret of the marble veil 
Rafael Monti, "Marble Veil", mid-19th V.
When you look at the statues covered with a translucent marble veil, you can’t help but think about how it’s even possible to make something like this out of stone. It's all about the special structure of the marble used for these sculptures. The block that was to become a sculpture had to have two layers - one more transparent, the other more dense. Such natural stones are difficult to find, but they exist. The master had a plot in his head, he knew exactly what kind of block he was looking for. He worked with it, respecting the texture of the normal surface, and walked along the boundary separating the denser and more transparent part of the stone. As a result, the remnants of this transparent part “shone through”, which gave the effect of a veil.
6. Ideal David made of spoiled marble 
Michelangelo Buanarrotti, "David", 1501-1504
The famous statue of David was made by Michelangelo from a piece of white marble left over from another sculptor, Agostino di Duccio, who tried unsuccessfully to work with the piece and then abandoned it.
By the way, David, who has been considered a model of male beauty for centuries, is not so perfect. The fact is that he is cross-eyed. This conclusion was reached by American scientist Mark Livoy from Stanford University, who examined the statue using laser-computer technology. The “vision defect” of the more than five-meter sculpture is invisible, since it is placed on a high pedestal. According to experts, Michelangelo deliberately endowed his brainchild with this flaw, because he wanted David’s profile to look perfect from any side.
Death that inspired creativity
7. “Kiss of Death”, 1930 
The most mysterious statue in the Catalan cemetery of Poblenou is called “Kiss of Death”. The sculptor who created it still remains unknown. Usually the authorship of “The Kiss” is attributed to Jaume Barba, but there are also those who are sure that the monument was sculpted by Joan Fonbernat. The sculpture is located in one of the far corners of the Poblenou cemetery. It was she who inspired film director Bergman to create the film “The Seventh Seal” - about the communication between the Knight and Death.
8. Hands of Venus de Milo 
Agesander (?), "Venus de Milo", c. 130-100 BC
The figure of Venus takes pride of place in the Louvre in Paris. A Greek peasant found it in 1820 on the island of Milos. At the time of discovery, the figure was broken into two large fragments. The goddess held an apple in her left hand, and with her right hand she held the falling robe. Realizing the historical significance of this ancient sculpture, officers of the French navy ordered the marble statue to be taken away from the island. As Venus was being dragged over the rocks to the waiting ship, a fight broke out between the porters and both arms were broken off. The tired sailors flatly refused to return and look for the remaining parts.
9. The beautiful imperfection of Nike of Samothrace 
"Nike of Samothrace", II century. BC.
The statue of Nike was found on the island of Samothrace in 1863 by Charles Champoiseau, a French consul and archaeologist. A statue carved from golden Parian marble on the island crowned the altar of sea deities. Researchers believe that an unknown sculptor created Nike in the 2nd century BC as a sign of Greek naval victories. The hands and head of the goddess are irretrievably lost. Attempts were made repeatedly to restore the original position of the goddess’s hands. It is assumed that right hand, raised up, held a cup, wreath or forge. Interestingly, multiple attempts to restore the hands of the statue were unsuccessful - they all spoiled the masterpiece. These failures force us to admit: Nika is beautiful just like that, perfect in her imperfection.
10. Mystical Bronze Horseman
Etienne Falconet, Monument to Peter I, 1768-1770
The Bronze Horseman is a monument surrounded by mystical and otherworldly stories. One of the legends associated with him says that during Patriotic War In 1812, Alexander I ordered special removal from the city valuable works art, including a monument to Peter I. At this time, a certain Major Baturin secured a meeting with the Tsar’s personal friend, Prince Golitsyn, and told him that he, Baturin, was haunted by the same dream. He sees himself on Senate Square. Peter's face turns. The horseman rides off his cliff and heads through the streets of St. Petersburg to Kamenny Island, where Alexander I then lived. The horseman enters the courtyard of the Kamenoostrovsky Palace, from which the sovereign comes out to meet him. “Young man, what have you brought my Russia to,” Peter the Great tells him, “but as long as I’m in place, my city has nothing to fear!” Then the rider turns back, and the “heavy, ringing gallop” is heard again. Struck by Baturin’s story, Prince Golitsyn conveyed the dream to the sovereign. As a result, Alexander I reversed his decision to evacuate the monument. The monument remained in place.
*****
Greece and art are inseparable concepts. In numerous archaeological museums you can see ancient sculptures and bronze statues, many of which were raised from the bottom of the Aegean Sea. In local local history museums handicrafts and textiles are on display, and the best museums in Athens are second to none art galleries in other European countries.
Athens, Archaeological Museum of Piraeus.
Origin: The statue was discovered among others in 1959 in Piraeus, at the intersection of Georgiou and Philon streets in a storage room near the ancient harbor. The sculpture was hidden in this room from Sulla's troops in 86 BC. e.
Description:Bronze statue of Artemis
This type of powerful female figure was originally identified as the poetess or muse of Silanion's sculptural compositions. This statue is identified as an image of Artemis by the presence of a quiver belt on the back, as well as by the arrangement of the fingers of the hand that held the bow. This work of classicizing style is attributed to Euphranor on the basis of its resemblance to Apollo Patros on the Agora.
Ancient Greek sculpture is a perfect creation of ancient culture, along with epic, theater and architecture, and in many ways still retains the value of a norm and model. Marble and bronze statues of the masters of Ancient Hellas, bas-reliefs and high reliefs, multi-figure compositions that decorated the pediments of Greek temples make it possible to imagine the dawn of European civilization.
Ancient Greece Map
We are accustomed to seeing ancient images nobly calm in their marble whiteness. For the Russian viewer, a big role in this is played by the famous plaster casts, made according to ancient models for educational purposes on the initiative of I.V. Tsvetaeva and laid the foundation for the collection of the State Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin. In fact, most ancient Greek sculptures were brightly painted, and the parts (reins, reins of horses, small decorations on clothing) were made of gilded bronze. Therefore, the procession of Athenian citizens on the day of the holiday of the great Panathenaia on the bas-relief frieze of the Parthenon should rather remind the modern viewer of a multi-colored gypsy camp, in which chariots, horsemen, gods were mixed - simple and accessible, like people, and Hellenes - beautiful, like gods (1).
(1) Phidias. Water carriers. V century BC. Acropolis Museum, Athens
But even without paint, these marble reliefs (one meter high), transported around museums around the world, cause admiration. No wonder Professor B. Farmakovsky compared them to music. At a lecture at St. Petersburg University in 1909, he said: “The beauty of the Parthenon frieze will amaze all centuries and peoples; it transcends place and time, like the beauty of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Mozart’s Requiem.”
Modern ideas about Greek sculpture are incomplete; many monuments were destroyed during the Mediterranean redistribution of the world, so we can only judge them by the copies of Roman masters from the heyday of the empire (1st–2nd centuries AD), with which the Romans decorated their homes and temples. And although statues of muscular Olympic athletes by Myron and Praxiteles were often placed in public places (for example, in thermae), the sculpture created by Praxiteles of a resting graceful and lazy Satyr was most in demand (2) , is more Roman and imperial in character than democratic Greek.
(2) Praxiteles. Resting Satyr.
IV century BC. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Relay race for the preservation of ancient Greek art Ancient Rome Italy adopted the Renaissance. At this time, collecting ancient monuments began. And in the middle of the 18th century. German educator I. Winckelmann published the work “History of Ancient Art” - the first Scientific research monuments of ancient sculpture.
At the beginning of the 19th century, especially during the period of Napoleonic campaigns in Italy and Africa, interest in ancient art flared up again. The main museums of antiques are being created in Europe. Numerous excavations are being carried out not only in the layers covering ancient cities, but also in the sea. From the bottom Mediterranean Sea Bronze statues, the original Greek ones, are still being recovered.
Information about ancient Greek sculptures can also be obtained using numismatics. The sculptural group “Athena and Marsyas” by Myron for the Athenian acropolis was able to be reconstructed based on the relief on an ancient Athenian coin.
main topic
In the history of sculpture of Ancient Greece, four periods can be distinguished: archaic (VII–VI centuries BC); early classical, or strict, style (first half of the 5th century BC); classical (second half of the 5th – beginning of the 4th century BC); Late Classical (IV century BC). The boundaries of the periods are vague, because the work of sculptors could both “overtake” their time and “lag behind” it. The main thing is that Greek sculpture developed in a single direction - realistic. The ancient master in his work thought in concrete images on the principle of imitation of nature (according to Aristotle). Due to the continuity of periods, sculpture changed, but retained specific stylistic features.
An attentive viewer will always identify milestones in the history of Greek sculpture and will not confuse the decorativeness of archaic kora and kouros with the strict analytical statues of Polykleitos, or the harmony of the high classics of Phidias with the late classical passionate works of Skopas.
main topic plastic art of Ancient Greece - man - was developed and brought to perfection by Greek sculptors. Sculpture, as a rule, was of a public nature. When receiving an order for a statue, the master sought to embody in it an aesthetic ideal that was understandable to all his contemporaries.
Logical construction artistic image contributed to the ease of its understanding, which, in turn, dictated the strict rhythm and clarity of the composition. This is how art arose, which was fundamentally more rationalistic than emotional, although feelings were added with each new period.
Combining ideality of form and sublimity of content in their works, Greek masters preferred legendary subjects, and scenes of everyday life and labor processes were less often depicted.
The source of Greek sculpture, with some reservations (too little material evidence remains), can be called the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. According to legend, the first sculptors of Greece were the Daedalids, students of Daedalus, a skilled architect and sculptor of King Minos. A slab with a relief of the Lion Gate of the Mycenaean acropolis is the only example of monumental stone sculpture in the art of the Aegean world (3) .
(3) Lion Gate at Mycenae. XIV century BC.
(4) Zeus in the form of a hoplite. VII century BC.
Since the advent of sculpture (around 670 BC), the processing of artistic material has been improved. The statues were cast from bronze (4) , carved from sandstone, limestone, marble, carved from wood, sculpted from clay and then fired (so-called terracotta). The statues were engraved, eyes, lips, and nails were false. Chrysoelephantine technique was used (5) .
(5) Head of a girl (deity?) in the chrysoelephantine technique.
550–530 BC. Archaeological Museum, Delphi
The most common type of archaic statue is that of standing male and female figures draped in long robes. They represented gods, goddesses or sacrificers, whose names were inscribed on the bases or the sculptures themselves. In the VI century. Such sculptures adorned temples, squares, and necropolises in large numbers. Their authors were Ionian masters from the cities of Asia Minor or from the islands of the Ionian archipelago.
(6) Goddess with a hare. First half of the 6th century Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Using the example of statues of women found on the island of Samos - “Hera of Samos” and “Goddess with a Hare” (both sculptures were preserved without heads) - one can trace the characteristic features of archaic sculpture. The figure of the “Goddess with a Hare” is frontal and motionless; small folds of the chiton, like the flutes of a column, emphasize this motionlessness. But the figurine of the hare was rendered freely and vividly by the Greek master. This combination of conventional forms with living details is characteristic of archaism. The statue was not a depiction of a goddess, it represented a priestess or a simple woman going with gifts to the goddess Hera from a rich man who bore the Asian name Kheramius, inscribed on the folds of the chiton (6) .
Kouros, kors, caryatids
Kouros statues ( Greek. - young man) were created in all centers of the Greek world. The meaning of these sculptures, also called archaic Apollos, still remains a mystery. Some of the kouros had in their hands the attributes of the god Apollo - a bow and arrows, others depicted mere mortals, and still others were placed over burials. The height of the kouros figures reached three meters. The type of naked youth was also common in small bronze sculptures.
The kouros were beardless and long-haired (the mass of hair flowing down the back was modeled in a geometric pattern), with sharply emphasized muscles. The kuros stood in the same static poses, with one leg extended forward, arms extended along the body with palms clenched into fists. Facial features are stylized and lack individuality. The statues were processed from all sides.
The type of archaic kouros follows the traditional pattern of Egyptian standing figures. But the Greek artist pays more attention to the structure of the body than the Egyptian; he carefully depicts the feet and fingers, which seems unexpected in the general conventional scheme of archaic plastic art.
(7) Funerary kouros of Anavissia.
OK. 530 BC National Museum, Athens
The depiction of kouros as equally young, slender and strong is the beginning of the Greek state program associated with the glorification of health, physical strength and the development of sports games (7) . The stylistic analogy to kurosu is the kora ( Greek. – maiden), female archaic statue. The Koras are dressed in chitons or heavy peplos. The folds are laid out in a pattern of parallel lines. The edges of the clothing are decorated with a colored woven border, painted on marble. The girls have fancy hairstyles on their heads, built from ornamental motifs. There is a mysterious, so-called archaic smile on their faces (8, 9) .
(8) Antenor. Bark No. 680. About 530 BC Acropolis Museum, Athens
By the end of the 6th century. BC. Greek sculptors gradually learned to overcome the static nature initially characteristic of their works.
(9) Bark. 478–474 BC. Acropolis Museum, Athens
The caryatids continued the core theme in sculpture. Six caryatids carry on their heads the architrave of the southern portico of the Acropolis temple of the Erechtheion. All the girls stand frontally, but, compared to the archaic kora, their poses, thanks to the slightly bent knee, are more free and lifelike.
Gradually, Greek sculptors overcame the convention of a motionless figure and made the modeling of the body more lively. The desire for a truthful depiction of a living moving figure develops in the fight against a conventional scheme borrowed from the court art of the Ancient East.
Formula of beauty
It was in the first half of the 5th century. BC. Greek philosophers and artists, each in his own field, developed a form for expressing the multifaceted, dynamic, limitless and eternal life. Based on what general plan works must be embodied as a harmonious and rational whole, they derived the formula of beauty as a balance between form and content. In a plastic solution aesthetic beauty became an expression of moral beauty, as in the works of the Athenian sculptors Critias “Young Man” and Nesiot “Group of Tyrant Fighters.”
A rare example of bronze (rather than stone) sculpture from the early classics was the "Charioteer" (10) . He stood on a chariot, holding the reins in his hands. The chariot and horses (probably there were four of them) are lost. Most likely, the group was staged by a Sicilian from the city of Gela in honor of the victory at the Pythian games during the chariot race in 476 BC. The author of the sculpture managed to show the solemnity of the moment without pathos, using artistic techniques, using the harmony of the silhouette and inner balance all sculptural lines. The figure is frontal, but a slight turn of the shoulders frees her from stiffness and gives the pose a natural look. The driver's facial features are harmonious, calm and dispassionate. The sculptor created the ideal of a valiant and beautiful person. The curls of hair, conveyed by chasing, are intercepted by the braid of the headband. The eyes are inlaid with colored stone; the thinnest bronze plates of eyelashes framing the eyelids have survived.
(10) Charioteer. 478–474 BC. Archaeological Museum, Delphi
(11) Zeus (or Poseidon) from Cape Artemision.
Mid-5th century BC. National Museum, Athens
The next step on the path to the plastic perfection of Greek sculpture is the bronze statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) from Cape Artemision on the island of Euboea (11) . The figure of God captures the very moment of movement that will become distinctive feature statues of athletes Myron of Elefther, an innovator in solving the problem of movement in sculpture, a master of complex bronze castings. Not a single sculpture of Myron has survived to this day in its original form, but his work was so popular in Rome that many copies of his works and reviews of his works, including critical ones, remain. Pliny the Elder (1st century), for example, said: “Although Myron was interested in the movement of the body, he did not express the feelings of the soul.”
Sculpture of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia
The sculptural decoration of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia by unknown masters (perhaps one of them was Ageladus of Argos) is considered a great achievement of the Early Classical period and a milestone in the development of ancient Greek sculpture.
The relief metopes of the eastern and western friezes of the temple depicted scenes of the twelve labors of Hercules. The best preserved metope is the image of Atlas bringing Heracles apples from the garden of the Hesperides. (12) . Features characteristic of the early classical period (complete, clear composition, simplicity of revealing the plot, archaic depiction of details) in this and other metopes are combined with signs of classical art - all three figures are depicted in different plans: Athena in front, Hercules in profile, Atlas in three quarters.
(12) Metope of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
First half of the 5th century BC. Museum in Olympia
Home artistic value sculptures of the Olympic temple are made up of monumental pediment groups on mythological stories. On the eastern façade there is a scene from the myth of the chariot race between the heroes Pelops and Oenomaus; in the west - “centauromachy”: the battle of the centaurs with the lapiths.
The plots of the pediments are related to the equestrian theme (centaurs are half-humans, half-horses), which symbolized fate and the inevitability of fate among the ancient Greeks. The reconstruction of these pediments is the subject of scientific debate. Complex multi-figure compositions inscribed in the corners of the pediments are a feature of the Olympic sculptures. On the east pediment there are reclining male figures, probably personifying the rivers in the Olympia valley; on the western pediment there are figures of women watching the battle.
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia completes the austere style in the development of Greek sculpture. Twenty years after its construction, Phidias created for the temple a statue of Zeus made of gold and ivory, which in ancient times was considered one of the seven wonders of the world (“Art” No. 9/2008).
Phidias, friend of Pericles
The classical era in the art of Ancient Greece began with the victorious wars with the Persians, when Attica became the main one in the Mediterranean. Burdened with civic responsibility, sculptors sculpted not only statues of gods and heroes to decorate temples, but also statesmen and victors Olympic Games for squares near temples, palaestra buildings, markets and theaters.
For the Greeks, nakedness represented the greatest dignity. For a Hellene, the body was a semblance of a perfect cosmos, and he perceived the entire world around him by analogy with himself in an ideal, statue-like form. The statues, with their dispassion and harmony, approached the images of the gods.
The art of Phidias united all the achievements that Greek art had accumulated until the middle of the 5th century. BC. He gave life and movement to perfect nature. His sculptures were majestic and sublime, befitting the Athenian democratic republic and the era of Pericles.
(13) Phidias. The fight between the centaur and the lapith. Metope of the Parthenon.
British Museum, London
Under the leadership of Phidias, numerous complex plastic decorations of the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis were executed. In compositional terms, they are similar to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, although they are freer in arrangement, and in detail they are more vital and dynamic. It is immediately noticeable that the next period in the history of ancient sculpture includes high reliefs in metopes with scenes of the struggle of centaurs with lapiths (13) ; the image in the corners of the pediment of the sun god Helios, restraining his horses, and the moon goddess Selene, descending on a chariot and disappearing beyond the horizon. The surviving head of a horse from Selene's harness is considered one of the best sculptural images of a horse in the world. (14) .
(14) Horse's head from the east pediment of the Parthenon
A masterpiece of classical art, the goddess statues on the eastern pediment represent a masterpiece. Phidias’s characteristic way of skillfully making the folds of their thin chitons was called “wet clothing.” (15) .
(15) Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite.
Second half of the 5th century. BC. British Museum, London
The statue of Athena Parthenos (13 m high), created for the temple, is described in the guidebook of Pausanias: “Athena herself is made of ivory and gold... The statue depicts her in full height in a tunic down to the very feet. On her chest is the head of Medusa made of ivory. In her hand she holds an image of Nike, approximately four cubits long, and in the other a spear. At her feet lies a shield, and near her spear is a serpent; this snake is probably Erichthonius.” Gold worth 40 talents and colored ivory covered the wooden frame of the statue.
The name Phidias, along with the name of Michelangelo, is a symbol of genius in sculpture. His fate was tragic. Malice, envy, and political opponents haunted Phidias, who enjoyed the complete trust of Pericles. When the Athena Parthenos was completed, he was accused of stealing gold and ivory. The slandered Phidias died in prison in 431 BC, when the glory of Pericles was already beginning to fade.
Change of interests
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between democratic Athens and the aristocratic Peloponnesian League led by Corinth and Sparta aggravated the crisis of the Greek polis and led to social conflicts. But during this same period, idealistic philosophy flourished. The time has come for Socrates and Plato.
Characteristic era - a decrease in interest in public affairs, art sets the task of reflecting the inner spiritual world. The art of portraiture is emerging, city squares are decorated with statues of philosophers, orators, and statesmen. The images of the gods become more earthly and lyrical.
These sentiments are most fully reflected in the work of the sculptor Praxiteles from Athens (c. 370–330 BC). Praxiteles depicted heroes, gods, and athletes in a state of rest. His work is characterized by the composition of a standing figure: the soft, smooth line of the curved torso always emphasizes lazy grace. The idyllic and lyrical creativity of Praxiteles had a noticeable influence on all ancient art. His sculptures were copied and varied in all branches of the artistic craft of the ancient world.
A contemporary of Praxiteles, the Ionian Scopas (c. 380–330 BC) also created an original school of sculpture. His works reflected a new desire for Greek art to express strong, passionate feelings, to depict energetic movement. Skopas is known to have worked as an architect and sculptor in the Temple of Athena at Tega (in the Peloponnese). The western pediment represented the battle of Achilles with Telephus ( Trojan War). In the surviving original - the hero's head - suffering is conveyed by the shadow of the protruding brow ridges, a half-open mouth with drooping corners of the lips.
Skopas managed to create two very attractive different female images: the goddess Nike untying her sandal (16) , and a dancing bacchante. The graceful pose of the goddess, clothes falling in careless folds, emphasize the shape of the body, giving the entire figure an intimate character. Behind her shoulders appear the soft contours of large, outstretched wings. Dionysus's companion, the bacchante, on the contrary, threw her head back in a wild dance, her hair scattered along her back.
(16) Relief of the balustrade of the Temple of Nike.
End of the 5th century BC. Acropolis Museum, Athens
Skopas's plastic art is not distinguished by the subtlety of modeling of details that is inherent in Praxiteles, but sharp shadows and energetically protruding forms create the impression of living life and eternal movement.
The depiction of movement in sculpture has changed over time. In archaic sculpture, the type of movement could be called “movement of action,” justified by the motive of this action: heroes run, compete, threaten with weapons, hold out objects. There is no such action - the archaic statue is motionless. In the classical period, starting with the sculptures of Polykleitos, the so-called. “spatial movement” (as defined by Leonardo da Vinci), meaning movement in space without a visible goal, a specific motive (as in the statue of Doryphoros). The body of the statue moves either forward or around its axis (“The Bacchae” by Skopas) (17) .
(17) Bacchante. IV century BC. Roman copy. Albertinum, Dresden
Looking back, we see how the sculptors of Ancient Greece managed in just two centuries to breathe life, like Pygmalion, into the mysterious, silent, cold cores and turn them into sensual, whirling bacchantes.
REFERENCES
Alpatov M.V. Artistic problems of the art of Ancient Greece. – M.: Art, 1987.
Whipper B.R. An introduction to the historical study of art. – M.: AST-Press, 2004.
Voshchinina A.I. Ancient art. – M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Arts, 1962.
DICTIONARY FOR THE ARTICLE
Architrave- a beam lying on the capitals of the columns.
Bas-relief– low relief, in which the convex image protrudes above the background plane by no more than half its volume.
Himation- outerwear in the form of a quadrangular piece of woolen fabric, worn over a tunic.
Hoplite- a warrior in heavy weapons.
High relief– high relief, in which the image protrudes above the background plane by more than half of its volume.
Caryatids– standing female statues that serve as support for beams in the building. Perhaps the noble women of Caria, given into slavery to the Persians to save the inhabitants.
Ludovisi- an Italian aristocratic family that rose to prominence at the beginning of the 17th century, when Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi became Pope Gregory XV in 1621.
Metope- a slab decorated with sculpture, part of a Doric frieze.
Palaestra- a private gymnastics school where boys from 12 to 16 years old studied. On about. Samos was a palaestra for grown men.
Panathenaea- in ancient Attica, festivals in honor of the goddess Athena (great - once every four years, small - annually). The program included: a procession to the acropolis, a sacrifice and competitions - gymnastics, equestrian, poetic and musical.
Peplos- women's long clothing made of wool, pinned at the shoulders, with a high slit on the side.
Poros– soft Attic limestone.
Strong- a fertility deity in the retinue of Dionysus.
Triglyph- an element of the frieze of the Doric order, alternating with metopes.
Chiton– long, straight men's and women's clothing.
Chrysoelephantine (Greek– made of gold and ivory) technique– mixed technique. The wooden figure was covered with thin gold plates, and the face and hands were carved from ivory.
Subject: Outstanding sculptors of Ancient Greece.
Target: Study of the main stages of the development of ancient Greek sculpture.
New words:
"MIMESIS"- similarity.
Kalokagathia (Greek kalos- wonderful + agathos Kind).
Kuros and koros – created in the archaic era masculine. and women's figures (up to 3 m.) Mimesis – similarity. Caryatid – (Greek karyatis) - a sculptural image of a standing female figure that serves as a support for a beam in a building (or figuratively expresses this function).
Germa – stone pylons with “hands”, placed at the front entrance to the house.
Questions.
Sculptural canons of Polykleitos and Myron.
Sculptural creations of Scopas and Praxiteles.
Lysippos and Leochares.
Hellenistic sculpture.
During the classes.
1. Updating students’ knowledge about the architecture of Ancient Greece.
2. Message of the topic, purpose of the lesson.
The Greeks always believed that only in beautiful body a beautiful soul may live. Therefore, harmony of the body, external perfection - an indispensable condition and basis for an ideal person. The Greek ideal is defined by the term kalokagathia(Greek kalos- wonderful + agathos Kind). Since kalokagathia includes the perfection of both physical constitution and spiritual and moral makeup, then at the same time, along with beauty and strength, the ideal carries justice, chastity, courage and rationality. This is what makes the Greek gods, sculpted by ancient sculptors, uniquely beautiful.
Despite all the similarities between the sculptures of the 6th and 5th centuries. BC, they also have characteristic differences:
There is no longer the numbness and schematism of archaic sculptures;
Statues become more realistic.
Sculptural canons of Polykleitos and Myron .
1. Hymn to the greatness and spiritual power of Man;
2. Favorite image - a slender young man with an athletic build;
3. Spiritual and physical appearance are harmonious, there is nothing superfluous, “nothing in excess.”
The most famous sculptors of the High Classical era are Polykleitos and Myron.
Polykleitos - An ancient Greek sculptor and art theorist who worked in Argos in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC.
| Polykleitos loved to depict athletes at rest and specialized in depicting athletes and Olympic winners. "Doriphor"("Spearman") Polykleitos was the first to think of posing the figures in such a way that they rested on the lower part of only one leg. (An early example of classical contrapposto is Doryphoros). Polykleitos knew how to show the human body in a state of balance - his human figure at rest or at a slow step seems mobile and animated due to the fact that the horizontal axes are not parallel. The statues of Polykleitos are full of intense life. Polykleitos liked to depict athletes in a state of 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 peace 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, reserved - the embodiment of Greek ideals. Works: 2. “Diadumen” (“Young man tying a bandage”). "Wounded Amazon" Colossal statue of Hera in Argos. It was made in the chrysoelephantine technique and was perceived as a pandan to Phidias the Olympian Zeus. The sculptures were lost and are known from surviving ancient Roman copies. |
1. By order of the priests of the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus ca. 440 BC Polykleitos created a statue of a wounded Amazon, taking first place in a competition where, in addition to him, Phidias and Cresilaus participated. An idea of it is given by copies - a relief discovered in Ephesus, as well as statues in Berlin, Copenhagen and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Amazon's legs are set in the same way as Doryphoros's, but the free arm does not hang along the body, but is thrown behind the head; the other hand supports the body, leaning on the column. The pose is harmonious and balanced, but Polykleitos did not take into account the fact that if there is a wound under a person’s right chest, his right arm cannot be raised high up. Apparently, the beautiful, harmonious form interested him more than the plot or the transfer of feelings. The same care is imbued with the careful development of the folds of the short Amazon chiton.
2.Policleitos then worked in Athens, where approx. 420 BC he created Diadumen, a young man with a bandage around his head. In this work, which was called a gentle youth, in contrast to the courageous Doryphoros, one can feel the influence of the Attic school. Here again the motif of a step is used, although both arms are raised and holding the bandage, a movement that would be better suited to a calm and steady position of the legs. The opposition between the right and left sides is not so pronounced. The facial features and lush curls of hair are much softer than in previous works. The best repetitions of Diadumen are a copy found at Delos and now in Athens, a statue from Vaison in France, which is kept in the British Museum, and copies in Madrid and in the Metropolitan Museum. Several terracotta and bronze figurines have also survived. The best copies of Diadumen's head are in Dresden and Kassel.
3.About 420 BC Polykleitos created a colossal chrysoelephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Hera seated on a throne for the temple at Argos. Argive coins may give some idea of what this ancient statue looked like. Next to Hera stood Hebe, sculptured by Naucis, a student of Polykleitos. In the plastic design of the temple one can feel both the influence of the masters of the Attic school and Polycletus; perhaps this is the work of his students. Polykleitos's creations lacked the majesty of Phidias's statues, but many critics consider them superior to Phidias in their academic excellence and ideal poise of posture. Polykleitos had numerous students and followers until the time of Lysippos (late 4th century BC), who said that Doryphoros was his teacher in art, although he later departed from Polykleitos’s canon and replaced it with his own.
Miron
created statues of winning athletes, correctly and naturally conveyed the human figure, and discovered the secret of the plastic concept of movement. But (!!!) his works have only one viewing point. His most famous works include the sculptural composition 
“Athena and Marsyas”, as well as “Discobolus”. 
Myron was an older contemporary of Phidias and Polykleitos and was considered one of the greatest sculptors of his time. He worked in bronze, but none of his works have survived; they are known mainly from copies. Myron's most famous work is the Discus Thrower. The discus thrower is depicted in a difficult pose at the moment highest voltage before throwing. The sculptor was interested in the shape and proportionality of figures in motion. Myron was a master of conveying movement into a climactic, transitional moment. In the laudatory epigram dedicated to his bronze statue of the athlete Ladas, it is emphasized that the heavily breathing runner is conveyed with unusual vividness. standing on Acropolis of Athens Myron's sculptural group Athena and Marsyas is marked by the same skill in conveying movement.
2. Sculptural creations of Scopas and Praxiteles.
IV century BC.
1. We strived to convey energetic actions;
2. Conveyed the feelings and experiences of a person:
Passion
Daydreaming
Love
Fury
Despair
Suffering
SCOPAS
(flourished 375–335 BC), Greek sculptor and architect, born on the island of Paros c. 420 BC, perhaps. The first work of Skopas known to us is the temple of Athena Alea in Tegea, in the Peloponnese, which had to be rebuilt since the previous one burned down in 395 BC. Skopas was one of a group of four sculptors (and may have been the eldest among them) who were commissioned by Mausolus' widow Artemisia to create the sculptural part of the Mausoleum (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) at Halicarnassus, the tomb of her husband. The passion inherent in Skopas’s works is achieved primarily through a new interpretation of the eyes: they are deep-set and surrounded by heavy folds of the eyelids. The liveliness of movements and bold positions of the bodies express intense energy and demonstrate the inventiveness of the master. 
Skopas' most famous works were:
- Skopas . "Amazonomachy".
- Battle of the Greeks with the Amazons. Fragment of the frieze of the Halicarnassus Mausoleum. Marble. Around 350 BC e. London. British museum. 
The relief is magnificent, which depicts a warrior leaning sharply back, trying to resist the onslaught of an Amazon, who grabbed his shield with one hand and dealt a fatal blow with the other. To the left of this group is an Amazon riding a hot horse. She sits turned back and, apparently, throws a dart at the enemy pursuing her. The horse almost runs over the warrior leaning back. The sharp collision of oppositely directed movements of the horsewoman and warrior and the unusual landing of the Amazon with their contrasts enhance the overall drama of the composition.
Skopas. Head of a wounded warrior from the western pediment of the Temple of Athena Alea in Tegea. Marble. First half of the 4th century. BC e. Athens. National Museum. 
Skopas. Maenad. Mid 4th century BC e. Reduced marble Roman copy from a lost original. Dresden. Albertinum.
The marble “Maenad,” which has come down to us in a small, damaged antique copy, embodies the image of a man possessed by a violent impulse of passion. It is not the embodiment of the image of a hero capable of confidently mastering his passions, but the revelation of an extraordinary ecstatic passion that engulfs a person that is characteristic of “The Maenad.” It is interesting that the Maenad of Skopas, unlike the sculptures of the 5th century, is designed to be viewed from all sides.
PRAXITEL (4th century BC),
| Praxiteles is an ancient Greek sculptor, one of the greatest Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. e. Author of the famous compositions “Hermes with the baby Dionysus”, “Apollo killing the lizard”. Most of Praxiteles' works are known from Roman copies or from descriptions by ancient authors. The sculptures of Praxiteles were painted by the Athenian artist Nicias. Praxiteles - the first sculptor to depict a naked woman as realistically as possible: the sculpture Aphrodite of Knidos, where a naked goddess holds a fallen robe with her hand. Praxiteles. Head of Aphrodite of Knidos (Kaufman's Aphrodite). Before 360 BC e. Marble Roman copy of a lost original. Berlin. Collection Kaufman. |
The statue of Aphrodite of Knidos was considered in ancient times not only the best creation of Praxiteles, but generally the best statue of all time. As Pliny the Elder writes, many came to Cnidus just to see her. It was the first monumental depiction of a completely naked female figure in Greek art, and therefore it was rejected by the inhabitants of Kos, for whom it was intended, after which it was bought by the townspeople of neighboring Knidos. In Roman times, the image of this statue of Aphrodite was minted on Cnidian coins, and numerous copies were made from it (the best of them is now in the Vatican, and the best copy of the head of Aphrodite is in the Kaufmann collection in Berlin). In ancient times it was claimed that Praxiteles' model was his lover, the hetaera Phryne. 
The best representation of Praxiteles' style gives the statue of Hermes with the infant Dionysus (Museum in Olympia), which was found during excavations in the Temple of Hera at Olympia. Despite doubts that have been expressed, this is almost certainly an original, created c. 340 BC The flexible figure of Hermes gracefully leaned against the tree trunk. The master managed to improve the interpretation of the motif of a man with a child in his arms: the movements of both hands of Hermes are compositionally connected with the baby. Probably, in his right, unpreserved hand there was a bunch of grapes, with which he teased Dionysus, which is why the baby reached for it. The figure of Hermes is proportionally built and perfectly worked out, the smiling face is full of liveliness, the profile is graceful, and the smooth surface of the skin contrasts sharply with the schematically outlined hair and the woolly surface of the cloak thrown over the trunk. The hair, drapery, eyes and lips, and sandal straps were painted.
Other statues of Aphrodite attributed to Praxiteles are less well represented. There is no copy of the statue chosen by the people of Kos. The Aphrodite of Arles, named after the place where it was found and kept in the Louvre, may not depict Aphrodite, but Phryne. The legs of the statue are hidden by drapery, and the torso is completely naked; judging by her pose, there was a mirror in her left hand. Several elegant figurines of a woman putting on a necklace have also survived, but in them again one can see both Aphrodite and a mortal woman.
Praxiteles. Artemis from Gabii. Around 340-330 BC e. Marble Roman copy of a lost original. Paris. Louvre.
In the statue of Artemis we see examples of the solution to the motif of a draped human figure. Artemis is depicted here as the patroness of women: she throws a cover over her right shoulder, brought by a woman as a gift for successfully relieving her of a burden.
Praxiteles was an unsurpassed master in conveying the grace of the body and the subtle harmony of the spirit. Most often he depicted gods, and even satyrs, as young; in his work replaced the majesty and sublimity of the images of the 5th century. BC. grace and dreamy tenderness come.
3. Leochares and Lysippos. The art of the false-classical direction was most consistently revealed in the works of Leohara, Leochares, an Athenian by birth, became the court artist of Alexander the Great. It was he who created a number of chrysoelephantine statues of the kings of the Macedonian dynasty for the Philippeion. Cold and lush, classicizing, that is, outwardly imitating classical forms, the style of Leochar's works satisfied the needs of the emerging monarchy of Alexander. An idea of the style of Leohar's works, dedicated to the praise of the Macedonian monarchy, gives us a Roman copy of his heroic portrait of Alexander the Great. The naked figure of Alexander had an abstractly ideal character.
Leohar. Apollo Belvedere
. Around 340 BC e. Marble Roman copy of a lost bronze original. Rome. Vatican. 
The most significant among Leochar's works was the statue of Apollo - the famous "Apollo Belvedere" ( “Apollo Belvedere” is the name of the surviving Roman marble copy of the bronze original by Leochares, which was located at one time in the Vatican Belvedere (open loggia)).
However, the image of Apollo is more outwardly spectacular than internally significant. The splendor of the hairstyle, the arrogant turn of the head, and the well-known theatricality of the gesture are deeply alien to the true traditions of the classics. 
The famous statue of “Artemis of Versailles”, full of cold, somewhat arrogant grandeur, is also close to the circle of Leochares.
Leohar. Artemis of Versailles. Third quarter of the 4th century. BC e. Marble Roman copy of a lost original. Paris. Louvre.
Lysippos.. In art Lysippa decided the task of revealing the inner world of human experiences and a certain individualization of the image of a person. At the same time, Lysippos introduced new shades into the solution of these artistic problems, and most importantly, he stopped considering the creation of the image of a perfect, beautiful person as the main task of art. Lysippos, as an artist, felt that the new conditions public life deprived this ideal of any serious vital basis.
Firstly, Lysippos finds the basis for depicting the typical in the image of a person not in those features that characterize a person as a member of a collective of free citizens of the polis, as a harmoniously developed personality, and in the characteristics of his age, occupation, belonging to one or another psychological character. A particularly important new feature in the work of Lysippos is the interest in revealing what is characteristically expressive, rather than ideally perfect, in the image of a person.
Secondly, Lysippos to some extent emphasizes the moment of personal perception in his works, strives to convey his emotional attitude to the event being depicted. According to Pliny, Lysippos said that if the ancients depicted people as they really were, then he, Lysippos, depicted people as they seemed. Lysippos. Apoxyomenos. Head (see illustration 215).
Lysippos’s understanding of the image of man was especially vividly embodied in his famous bronze statue in ancient times. statue "Apoxiomen". Lysippos depicted a young man using a scraper to remove the arena sand that had stuck to his body during a sports competition. In this statue, the artist very expressively conveyed the state of fatigue that gripped the young man after the stress of the struggle he experienced.
In Apoxyomenes, Lysippos wants to show not inner peace and stable balance, but a complex and contradictory change in shades of mood.
Lysippos. Resting Hermes
. Third quarter of the 4th century. BC e. Bronze Roman copy of a lost original. Naples. National Museum. 
Hermes seemed to sit on the edge of a cliff for a moment. The artist conveyed here peace, slight fatigue and at the same time the readiness of Hermes to continue his rapidly fast flight.
The same series also included a group depicting the fight of Hercules with the Nemean lion, which also came down to us in a Roman copy kept in the Hermitage. 
Lysippos. Hercules with a lion . Second half of the 4th century. BC e. A reduced Roman marble copy of a lost bronze original. Leningrad. Hermitage Museum.
Especially great importance had the work of Lysippos for further evolution Greek portrait.
Head of Alexander the Great
from the island of Kos. Marble. The originality and strength of Lysippos’s portraiture was most clearly embodied in his portraits of Alexander the Great. 
A strong-willed, energetic turn of the head and sharply thrown back strands of hair create a general feeling of pathetic impulse. On the other hand, the mournful folds on the forehead, the suffering look, and the curved mouth give the image of Alexander the features of tragic confusion. In this portrait, for the first time in the history of art, the tension of passions and their internal struggle are expressed with such force.
4.Hellenistic sculpture.
1. Excitement and tension in faces;
2. A whirlwind of feelings and experiences in images;
3. Dreaminess of images;
4. Harmonic perfection and solemnity
Hellenistic art is full of contrasts - gigantic and miniature, ceremonial and everyday, allegorical and natural. Main trend - departure from the generalized human typeto an understanding of man as a concrete, individual being, and hence the increasing attention to his psychology, interest in events, and a new vigilance to national, age, social and other characteristics of personality.
All of the above does not mean that the Hellenistic era did not leave behind great sculptors and their monuments of art. Moreover, she created works that, in our opinion, synthesize the highest achievements of ancient plastic art and are its unattainable examples - 
Aphrodite of Melos,
Nike of Samothrace , altar of Zeus in Pergamon. These famous sculptures were created during the Hellenistic era. Their authors, about whom nothing or almost nothing is known, worked in line with the classical tradition, developing it truly creatively.
Among the sculptors of this era, the following names can be noted: Apollonius, Tauriscus (“Farnese Bull”), Athenodorus, Polydorus, Agesander (“Aphrodite of Melos,” “Laocoon”).
Morals and forms of life, as well as forms of religion, began to mix in the Hellenistic era, but friendship did not reign and peace did not come, strife and war did not stop.
5.Conclusion. One thing united all periods of development of Greek society and art: this a special passion for plastic arts and spatial arts.
We looked at the creations of the greatest sculptors of Ancient Greece throughout the entire period of antiquity. We saw the entire process of formation, flourishing and decline of sculpture styles - the entire transition from strict, static and idealized archaic forms through the balanced harmony of classical sculpture to the dramatic psychologism of Hellenistic statues. The creations of the sculptors of Ancient Greece were rightfully considered a model, an ideal, a canon for many centuries, and now it never ceases to be recognized as a masterpiece of world classics. Nothing like this has been achieved before or since. All modern sculpture can be considered to one degree or another a continuation of the traditions of Ancient Greece. The sculpture of Ancient Greece went through a difficult path in its development, preparing the ground for the development of sculpture in subsequent eras in various countries.
It is known that most ancient masters of plastic art did not sculpt in stone, they cast in bronze. In the centuries following the era of Greek civilization, the preservation of bronze masterpieces was preferred to melting them down into domes or coins, and later into cannons. In later times, the traditions laid down by ancient Greek sculptures were enriched with new developments and achievements, while the ancient canons served as the necessary foundation, the basis for the development of plastic art of all subsequent eras.
6. Home. task: chapter 8, art. 84-91., task art. 91.
LIST OF SOURCES USED
1. Ancient culture. Dictionary-reference book/under general. ed. V.N. Yarkho - M., 2002
2. Bystrova A. N. “The world of culture, the foundations of cultural studies”
Polikarpov V.S. Lectures on cultural studies - M.: “Gardarika”, “Expert Bureau”, 1997
3. Whipper B.R. Art of Ancient Greece. – M., 1972
4. Gnedich P.P. The World History Arts - M., 2000
5. Gribunina N.G. History of world artistic culture, in 4 parts. Parts 1, 2. – Tver, 1993
6. Dmitrieva, Akimova. Ancient art. Essays. – M., 1988