Antique sculpture. Sculptors of ancient Greece

Almost none of the works of Greek sculptors have come down to us. We know only their descriptions and Roman copies from them. But a copy, even if skillfully executed, distorts the original. More often there are several copies from the disappeared original. Then you have to painstakingly compose the sculpture in parts that are better preserved in one copy or another. As a result, today we admire a certain generalized image of ancient Greek sculpture.

The periodization of ancient Greek art is divided into archaic (VIII - VI centuries BC), classical (V - IV centuries BC) and Hellenistic (IV - II centuries BC) periods.

The Greek people are the son of an almost entirely rocky land. And from this land, Greek artists extracted the most beautiful material for sculpture - marble. Sculpture was developed on the islands of the Aegean Sea - the richest deposits of marble were discovered here, especially on the island of Paros. In addition, Greek craftsmen created sculptures from limestone, wood, ivory and baked clay.

Both in architecture and in sculpture, two trends in creativity emerged: Doric and Ionian. In the Doric regions, the sculptural schools in Argos and Corinth were famous, in the Ionian lands - the island schools on Naxos and Paros Kazimierz Kumanetsky. History of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome. With. 83.

As already mentioned, two worlds are reflected in Greek sculpture: mythological and real.

The archaic period is the period of the formation of art, in particular sculpture. This was the time of the embodiment of the mythological ideas that existed among the masses. At this time, images of gods, heroes and mythological events were first created, which is one of the features of the art of this period. Temple sculpture is characterized by mythological subjects. The essence of the composition was reduced to showing divine power, dynamic scenes reflected mythological stories about the victory over evil forces. The statues were carved by a bold but still unskillful hand. In the monumental marble sculptures, conventional features in the image are striking, forcing one to recall the art of ancient Egypt. These were planar compositions; the linear appearance of the contours of the figures, the movements of the folds of clothing and other details created a special charm of archaic art Kobylina MM The role of tradition in Greek art. With. 23. The figures of the characters are squat, solid and made in a somewhat naive manner.

Archaic art gave exceptional preference to two types: kouros - a naked youth and a bark - a dressed girl André Bonnard. Greek civilization. 1992. p. 46, 55..

By creating kuros, the sculptors embodied some ideal image, not burdened with doubts or individual traits of an individual. Sometimes in the literature there is another name for the kouros - Apollo. By this, the Greeks sought to give the idealized image some divine features. The statues of young beardless athletes were created under the impression of the appearance of living people; in one case or another, several different young men could serve as a model at once.

The statistics of the posture of the kouros were supposed to testify to the strength of the gait and the firmness of the spirit. The left leg was depicted as necessarily put forward, the face lit up with a distant, mysterious smile (the so-called "archaic smile"). All the attention of the authors of the works was focused on the thoroughness of the modeling of the head, abdominal muscles, kneecaps and on the main relief lines.

The barks originated from the Ionian regions and were distinguished by their emphasized rigor and elegance of lines. They are made of Parian marble, with its texture capable of betraying a certain transparency of female skin, as well as the finest shades and color changes, and which lends itself to the finest processing, which made it possible to convey all the curves of the figure, curls of hair, folds of clothing. The Ionians did not pay much attention to the proportions of the human body, but they cared about the smoothness of outlines, the soft interpretation of draperies. The barks were used to support the temple roof, but were sometimes set apart and depicted holding an apple or pomegranate as a gift to the deity.

During the reign of the Peisistratids, the Ionian sculptors extended their activities to Athens. However, Attic sculpture is somewhat austere: the curls skillfully “curled” with a chisel disappear, an unusual solemnity appears in the posture of the figures, whimsical draperies are replaced by simple lines of flowing robes. The Athenian barks are full of grace and grace, the heads are decorated with curls, the statues themselves are richly colored with many colors; at the same time, the seriousness and dignity of Kazimierz Kumanetsky are visible in their figures. History of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome. With. 84.

In the archaic era, the sculptor could not imagine the body in motion. In the VI century. BC e. he was still far from accurately capturing the play of muscles on the human body. Not a single turn to the right or left, not the slightest tilt of the head, the anatomy is the most elementary. The artist did not set out to achieve the similarity of the statue with a living person Andre Bonnard. Greek civilization. 1992. p. 55, 58..

By the end of the archaic era, the masters had achieved an amazing ability to create details, very expressive fragments of statues, especially hands and heads. The accuracy and refinement in the depiction of parts of the figure by archaic sculptors is much higher than that of the masters of the classical period, however, the statues are perceived dissected, lacking harmony, integrity.

The classical period is the heyday. A. Bonnard defined classicism as a combination of features, forms and poses chosen by the artist, based on genuine realism. This era is more humane; it is no longer fully imbued with the divine; it represents a man exalted to the level of a god. In this era, there is a break with archaic symmetry: the lines cease to be horizontal, they are not symmetrical with respect to each other.

In the 5th century BC e. sculpture has undergone significant changes. Its main themes remained the same: the image of deities and heroes - the patrons of the policy, "beautiful and valiant" citizens and victorious athletes, as well as tombstones of the deceased. But now the god is a simple naked youth, the goddess is a girl, beautifully dressed and with a pleasant face.

There was no longer a frozen numbness in these images; the schematism of archaic sculptures is overcome. In the sculptures of the classical period, an attempt was made to overcome immobility, to convey living movement. The new harmony of the classical period is built on contrast: thanks to the tension of the right leg and left arm and the conscious removal of the load from the left leg and right arm, the figure is harmonious, filled with calmness, grandeur, freedom Kumanetsky K. History of culture of Ancient Greece and Rome: Per. from the floor - M.: Higher school, 1990. p. 119. Realism is based on precise knowledge of the structure of the skeleton and the play of muscles. There is a humanization of the image of the deity, softening of the ideal features and emphasizing in them purely human qualities. Courage is now manifested in the equanimity of the face. This equanimity is a sign of mastery over one's personal passions, a sign of spiritual strength, a perfection of the spirit, which the gods once possessed.

This was successfully conveyed by the sculptor Myron from Eleutherus (Central Greece) in his "Discobolus" (mid-5th century BC, a little earlier than 450). It is worth noting that this is already a statue of a man, not a god. The figure of the athlete is presented in a difficult position at the moment of throwing the disc. The body is curved in the movement that has gripped it, the toes of the left foot rest on the ground to give a strongly tense person in an unstable position a strong foothold, the right hand - holding the disk - is thrown back, but in the next moment will be thrown forward to throw its load, the left hand and the right leg seems to be inactive, but is actually involved in the action. Thus, "Discobolus" is the embodiment of André Bonnard's movement. Greek civilization. 1992. p. 63.

The greatest role in the creation of classical sculpture fell to the lot of Polykleitos, the Peloponnesian master of the middle and second half of the 5th century BC. BC e. He sought to create a typical image of an athlete-citizen. Poliklet knew about the importance of numbers in the structure of living beings and said: “The success of a work of art depends on many numerical relationships, and every little thing matters” Andre Bonnard. Greek civilization. 1992. p. 68. Therefore, he understood his task as the creation of a canon - certain mathematical relations on the basis of which the human body should be built. According to this canon, the length of the foot should be 1/6 of the length of the body, the height of the head should be 1/8 Kumanetsky K. The history of the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome: Per. from the floor - M.: Higher school, 1990. p. 119. He sought to create the illusion of continuity of movement. His statue "Dorifor" (Spearman) seems to be walking, transfers the entire weight of the body to the right leg, which is put forward, while the left one is slightly pushed back and touches the ground with one toe. A more bent knee, a more contracted hip on the left side corresponds to a more elevated shoulder and vice versa.

Another sculptor, Phidias, according to A. Bonnard, allowed humanity to flourish in divine forms. The gods of Phidias are present in nature, they are natural. A good example is the frieze in the temple, depicting a host of gods. But Hephaestus, the god of fire and crafts, and Athena, the goddess of crafts, are depicted standing side by side. Here they talk among themselves simply and friendly, like workers at the end of the working day. There is nothing supernatural in these gods, but there is humanity elevated to the highest level of perfection. This is a sign that characterizes the era of early classicism.

Rigid orientation to the ideal, harmony and balance could not reign supreme. In the IV century. BC e. majesty, dignity and seriousness came purely aesthetic needs, which became decisive in the work of the sculptor.

This we can see in the sculptures of Praxiteles. New, slender and graceful, soft and tender faces and figures of gods and goddesses emerged from under his chisel. The smooth and flexible lines of his statues mark the beginning of a new era. Filled with charm, sincerity, the style of Paraxiteles is intimate: for the first time in the history of Greek sculpture, he depicts Aphrodite in her beautiful and sublime nakedness.

The great sculptor Lysippus (4th century BC) left to his descendants not only a beautiful bust of Alexander the Great (preserved only in a Roman copy), but also developed a new plastic canon that replaced the canon of Polykleitos. Describing his activities, Lysippus said: "Policlet represented people as they really are, and I - as they seem." His statues differ in proportions: they have very long, slender legs, a thin graceful figure and a very small head. This is a new plastic ideal of beauty Kumanetsky K. History of culture of Ancient Greece and Rome: Per. from the floor - M.: Higher school, 1990. p. 141.

New in this period were not only the proportions of the figures, but above all an unprecedented freedom in depicting the volumes of the human body. Only now did sculptures become three-dimensional, plastically perfect.

The Greek masters of the classical time learned to convey in solid material many shades of human states, their statues are full of life and movement.

Hellenism is considered the time of the crisis of sculpture. The main feature of this period was the mixing of archaic traditions with the achievements of Hellenic art. The reason for this is the acquaintance with foreign cultures through the expansion of trade routes and cultural ties. The works of this period had a semi-handicraft character. In them, oblivion of the original traditional type of images is observed, there are distortions of the archaic school. At the same time, many replicas of the same plot of different quality of execution appear.

Hellenism brought to the fore new centers of sculptural creativity, such as Pergamon, Rhodes and Antioch.

The art of sculpture experienced a particularly significant flourishing during this period. Now the statues were made naturalistically, emphasizing the individuality of the depicted person. Sculptors created statues and reliefs of people of different ages - from babies to decrepit old men and women, and carefully emphasized ethnic and ethnographic features.

Hellenic sculptors created and celebrated the ideal of the citizen, which realistically reflected the political and social dominance of the middle classes of citizenship. Hellenistic sculptors created statues and statuary groups depicting physical and mental suffering, struggle, victory and death. There was also an image of the landscape and everyday details as a background against which the main plot of the work unfolded.

Several schools can be traced in the sculpture of this time.

In Athens and Alexandria, plots and techniques were developed, dating back to Praxiteles, designed for the tastes of wealthy people seeking to enjoy life, seeing works of art as an object of admiration.

The Rhodes school went back to Lysippus. Sculptors depicted powerful athletes, warriors, fight scenes. But now this is not a calm and valiant athlete - a citizen of classical times, but a ruler with an imperious, arrogant look that betrays great willpower. This school owns the famous Kolos of Rhodes, 31 meters long, and the statue of the benevolent seated woman-goddess Tyche.

The Pergamon school dating back to Skopas is full of drama. This school is characterized by a high intensity of feelings. This can be seen in the sculptures of a dying Gaul, a Gaul who killed his wife and stabs himself to avoid being captured, etc., in which we see pathos: the torment of dying warriors, the suffering of conquered barbarians.

By the end of the Hellenistic period, the pathetics of Hellenistic sculpture began to degenerate into an excessive passion for terrible plots and mannerisms.

In the second half of the Hellenistic period, the desire to return to the idealized forms of the classics intensified in sculpture. The monument of this school is the statue of Aphrodite de Milo, which combines the ideal forms of the classics and new achievements in the formulation of the figure.

In the Hellenistic period, sculptures adorned private houses, public buildings, squares, acropolises, crossroads, park areas. The abundance of statues was typical even for such small towns as Thermae. But this abundance led to mass artistic production. The subject of such production was terracotta figurines - small-sized works of statuary art, which were cast in specially prepared molds. These are, as a rule, elegant figurines of a domestic character, having an independent artistic value Blavatsky V. D., Picus N. N. History of Ancient Greece. Ed. V. I. Avdiev and N. N. Pikus. Moscow - 1962 p. 485. They depicted ordinary citizens and everyday scenes, were cheap and accessible, and were very fond of ordinary inhabitants of the Hellenic cities. One of these cities was the city of Tanagra. Therefore, these figurines are often called Tanagra terracotta. But mass production, in turn, led to the extinction of creativity.

Hellenistic masters refused to develop images of a beautiful and valiant, somewhat idealized citizen. Another was the attitude towards the gods. Now the deity is not a calm, beautiful, powerful and kind being, but a capricious and formidable force.

The cities of the ancient world usually appeared near a high rock, on which a citadel was erected, so that there was somewhere to hide if the enemy penetrated the city. Such a citadel was called an acropolis. In the same way, on a rock that towered almost 150 meters above Athens and had long served as a natural defensive structure, the upper city gradually formed in the form of a fortress (acropolis) with various defensive, public and religious buildings.
The Athenian Acropolis began to be built up in the II millennium BC. During the Greco-Persian wars (480-479 BC) it was completely destroyed, later, under the leadership of the sculptor and architect Phidias, its restoration and reconstruction began.
The Acropolis is one of those places, “about which everyone says that they are magnificent, unique. But don't ask why. No one can answer you... It can be measured, even all its stones can be counted. Not such a big deal to go through it from end to end - it will take only a few minutes. The walls of the Acropolis are steep and steep. Four great creations still stand on this hill with rocky slopes. A wide zigzag road runs from the foot of the hill to the only entrance. This is the Propylaea - a monumental gate with Doric columns and a wide staircase. They were built by the architect Mnesicles in 437-432 BC. But before entering these majestic marble gates, everyone involuntarily turned to the right. There, on a high pedestal of the bastion that once guarded the entrance to the acropolis, rises the temple of the goddess of victory Nike Apteros, decorated with Ionic columns. This is the work of the architect Kallikrates (second half of the 5th century BC). The temple - light, airy, extraordinarily beautiful - stood out for its whiteness against the blue background of the sky. This fragile building, which looks like an elegant marble toy, seems to smile on its own and makes passers-by smile affectionately.
The restless, ardent and active gods of Greece were like the Greeks themselves. True, they were taller, able to fly through the air, take on any shape, turn into animals and plants. But in all other respects they behaved like ordinary people: they got married, deceived each other, quarreled, reconciled, punished children ...

Temple of Demeter, builders unknown, 6th c. BC. Olympia

Temple of Nike Apteros, architect Kallikrates, 449-421 BC Athens

Propylaea, architect Mnesicles, 437-432 BC Athens

The goddess of victory, Nike, was portrayed as a beautiful woman with large wings: victory is fickle and flies from one opponent to another. The Athenians portrayed her as wingless so that she would not leave the city, which had so recently won a great victory over the Persians. Deprived of wings, the goddess could no longer fly and had to remain forever in Athens.
Temple of Nike stands on a ledge of a rock. It is slightly turned towards the Propylaea and plays the role of a lighthouse for the processions that go around the rock.
Immediately behind the Propylaea, Athena the Warrior proudly towered, whose spear greeted the traveler from afar and served as a beacon for sailors. The inscription on the stone pedestal read: "The Athenians dedicated from the victory over the Persians." This meant that the statue was cast from bronze weapons taken from the Persians as a result of their victories.
On the Acropolis there was also the Erechtheion temple ensemble, which (according to the plan of its creators) was supposed to link together several sanctuaries located at different levels - the rock here is very uneven. The northern portico of the Erechtheion led to the sanctuary of Athena, where a wooden statue of the goddess was kept, supposedly fallen from the sky. The door from the sanctuary opened into a small courtyard where the only sacred olive tree in the entire Acropolis grew, which rose when Athena touched the rock with her sword in this place. Through the eastern portico, one could get into the sanctuary of Poseidon, where, having struck the rock with his trident, he left three furrows with murmuring water. Here was the sanctuary of Erechtheus, revered on a par with Poseidon.
The central part of the temple is a rectangular room (24.1 x 13.1 meters). The temple also contained the tomb and sanctuary of the first legendary king of Attica, Kekrop. On the south side of the Erechtheion is the famous portico of caryatids: at the edge of the wall, six girls carved from marble support the ceiling. Some scholars suggest that the portico served as a platform for honorable citizens, or that priests gathered here for religious ceremonies. But the exact purpose of the portico is still unclear, because "porch" means the vestibule, and in this case the portico had no doors and from here it is impossible to get inside the temple. The figures of the portico of caryatids are, in fact, supports that replace a pillar or column, they also perfectly convey the lightness and flexibility of girlish figures. The Turks, who captured Athens in their time and did not allow images of a person due to their Muslim beliefs, however, did not begin to destroy these statues. They limited themselves only to the fact that they cut down the faces of the girls.

Erechtheion, builders unknown, 421-407 BC Athens

Parthenon, architects Iktin, Kallikrat, 447-432 BC Athens

In 1803, Lord Elgin, the English ambassador to Constantinople and collector, using the permission of the Turkish Sultan, broke one of the caryatids in the temple and took it to England, where he offered it to the British Museum. Too broadly interpreting the firman of the Turkish Sultan, he also took with him many sculptures of Phidias and sold them for 35,000 pounds. Firman said that "no one should prevent him from taking away some stones with inscriptions or figures from the Acropolis." Elgin filled 201 boxes with such "stones". As he himself stated, he took only those sculptures that had already fallen or were in danger of falling, ostensibly in order to save them from final destruction. But Byron also called him a thief. Later (during the restoration of the portico of caryatids in 1845-1847), the British Museum sent a plaster cast of the statue taken away by Lord Elgin to Athens. Subsequently, the cast was replaced with a more durable copy made of artificial stone, made in England.
At the end of the last century, the Greek government demanded that England return the treasures belonging to her, but received the answer that the London climate was more favorable for them.
At the beginning of our millennium, when Greece was ceded to Byzantium during the division of the Roman Empire, the Erechtheion was turned into a Christian church. Later, the Crusaders, who took possession of Athens, made the temple a ducal palace, and during the Turkish conquest of Athens in 1458, the harem of the commandant of the fortress was set up in the Erechtheion. During the liberation war of 1821-1827, the Greeks and Turks alternately besieged the Acropolis, bombarding its buildings, including the Erechtheion.
In 1830 (after the declaration of independence of Greece), on the site of the Erechtheion, only foundations could be found, as well as architectural decorations lying on the ground. Funds for the restoration of this temple ensemble (as well as for the restoration of many other structures of the Acropolis) were given by Heinrich Schliemann. His closest associate V.Derpfeld carefully measured and compared the antique fragments, by the end of the 70s of the last century he was already planning to restore the Erechtheion. But this reconstruction was subjected to severe criticism, and the temple was dismantled. The building was restored anew under the guidance of the famous Greek scientist P. Kavadias in 1906 and finally restored in 1922.

"Venus de Milo" Agessander (?), 120 BC Louvre, Paris

"Laocoön" Agessander, Polydorus, Athenodorus, c.40 BC Greece, Olympia

"Hercules of Farnese" c. 200 BC e., National museum, Naples

"Wounded Amazon" Polykleitos, 440 BC National Museum Rome

Parthenon - the temple of the goddess Athena - the largest building on the Acropolis and the most beautiful creation of Greek architecture. It does not stand in the center of the square, but somewhat to the side, so that you can immediately take in the front and side facades, understand the beauty of the temple as a whole. The ancient Greeks believed that the temple with the main cult statue in the center is, as it were, the house of a deity. The Parthenon is the temple of Athena the Virgin (Parthenos), and therefore in the center of it was a chrysoelephantine (made of ivory and gold plates on a wooden base) statue of the goddess.
The Parthenon was erected in 447-432 BC. architects Iktin and Kallikrates from Pentelian marble. It was located on a four-stage terrace, the size of its base is 69.5 x 30.9 meters. Slender colonnades surround the Parthenon on four sides, gaps of the blue sky are visible between their white marble trunks. All permeated with light, it seems airy and light. There are no bright patterns on the white columns, as is found in Egyptian temples. Only longitudinal grooves (flutes) cover them from top to bottom, which makes the temple seem taller and even more slender. The columns owe their harmony and lightness to the fact that they taper slightly upwards. In the middle part of the trunk, not at all noticeable to the eye, they thicken and seem to be elastic, more resistant to the weight of stone blocks. Iktin and Kallikrat, having thought through every smallest detail, created a building that strikes with amazing proportion, extreme simplicity and purity of all lines. Placed on the upper platform of the Acropolis, at an altitude of about 150 meters above sea level, the Parthenon was visible not only from anywhere in the city, but also from numerous ships sailing to Athens. The temple was a Doric perimeter surrounded by a colonnade of 46 columns.

"Aphrodite and Pan" 100 BC, Delphi, Greece

"Diana the Huntress" Leohar, c.340 BC, Louvre, Paris, France

"Resting Hermes" Lysippus, IV century. BC e., National Museum, Naples

"Hercules fighting a lion" Lysippus, c. 330 BC Hermitage, St. Petersburg

"Atlant of Farnese" c.200 BC, Nat. museum, Naples

The most famous masters participated in the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. The artistic director of the construction and decoration of the Parthenon was Phidias, one of the greatest sculptors of all time. He owns the overall composition and development of the entire sculptural decoration, part of which he completed himself. The organizational side of the construction was handled by Pericles, the largest statesman of Athens.
All the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was intended to glorify the goddess Athena and her city - Athens. The theme of the eastern pediment is the birth of the beloved daughter of Zeus. On the western pediment, the master depicted the scene of the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for dominance over Attica. According to the myth, Athena won the dispute, giving the inhabitants of this country an olive tree.
The gods of Greece gathered on the pediments of the Parthenon: the Thunderer Zeus, the mighty ruler of the seas Poseidon, the wise warrior Athena, the winged Nike. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was completed by a frieze, on which a solemn procession was presented during the Great Panathenaic feast. This frieze is considered one of the pinnacles of classical art. With all the compositional unity, it struck with its diversity. Of the more than 500 figures of young men, elders, girls, on foot and on horseback, not one repeated the other, the movements of people and animals were conveyed with amazing dynamism.
The figures of the sculptural Greek relief are not flat, they have the volume and shape of the human body. They differ from statues only in that they are not processed from all sides, but, as it were, merge with the background formed by the flat surface of the stone. Light colors enlivened the marble of the Parthenon. The red background emphasized the whiteness of the figures, the narrow vertical ledges that separated one frieze slab from another clearly stood out in blue, and the gilding shone brightly. Behind the columns, on a marble ribbon encircling all four facades of the building, a festive procession was depicted. There are almost no gods here, and people, forever imprinted in stone, moved along the two long sides of the building and joined on the eastern facade, where a solemn ceremony of handing over to the priest a garment woven by Athenian girls for the goddess took place. Each figure is characterized by its unique beauty, and all together they accurately reflect the true life and customs of the ancient city.

Indeed, once every five years, on one of the hot days of midsummer in Athens, a national festival took place in honor of the birth of the goddess Athena. It was called the Great Panathenaic. It was attended not only by citizens of the Athenian state, but also by many guests. The celebration consisted of a solemn procession (pomp), the bringing of a hecatomb (100 heads of cattle) and a common meal, sports, equestrian and musical competitions. The winner received a special, so-called Panathenaic amphora filled with oil, and a wreath of leaves from the sacred olive tree growing on the Acropolis.

The most solemn moment of the holiday was a nationwide procession to the Acropolis. Riders on horseback moved, statesmen, warriors in armor and young athletes walked. Priests and nobles walked in long white robes, heralds loudly praised the goddess, musicians filled the still cool morning air with joyful sounds. Sacrificial animals climbed the high hill of the Acropolis along the zigzag Panathenaic road, trampled down by thousands of people. Boys and girls carried a model of the sacred Panathenaic ship with a peplos (veil) attached to its mast. A light breeze fluttered the bright fabric of the yellow-purple robe, which was carried as a gift to the goddess Athena by the noble girls of the city. For a whole year they wove and embroidered it. Other girls raised sacred vessels for sacrifices high above their heads. Gradually the procession approached the Parthenon. The entrance to the temple was made not from the side of the Propylaea, but from the other, as if for everyone to first go around, examine and appreciate the beauty of all parts of the beautiful building. Unlike Christian churches, the ancient Greek ones were not intended for worship inside them, the people remained outside the temple during cult activities. In the depths of the temple, surrounded on three sides by two-tiered colonnades, proudly stood the famous statue of the virgin Athena, created by the famous Phidias. Her clothes, helmet and shield were made of pure, sparkling gold, and her face and hands shone with the whiteness of ivory.

Many book volumes have been written about the Parthenon, among them there are monographs about each of its sculptures and about each step of gradual decline since the time when, after the decree of Theodosius I, it became a Christian temple. In the 15th century, the Turks made a mosque out of it, and in the 17th century, a gunpowder warehouse. The Turkish-Venetian war of 1687 turned it into final ruins, when an artillery shell hit it and in one moment did what the all-devouring time could not do in 2000 years.

What are the features of ancient Greek sculpture?

Faced with Greek art, many prominent minds expressed genuine admiration. One of the most famous researchers of the art of ancient Greece, 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 of it, 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 the basis of an ideal person. The Greek ideal is defined by the term kalokagatiya(gr. kalos- lovely + agathos Kind). 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 the Greek gods, sculpted by ancient sculptors, uniquely beautiful.

http://historic.ru/lostcivil/greece/gallery/stat_001.shtml The best monuments of ancient Greek sculpture were created in the 5th century. BC. But earlier works have come down to us. Statues of the 7th-6th centuries BC are symmetrical: one half of the body is a mirror image of the other. Shackled postures, 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. The first scientific study of what harmony is, was undertaken by Pythagoras. The school, which 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, fifth and 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 large part, c is the whole. 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” - by 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" (V century BC; Thermae Museum 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 decorated the Parthenon with marble sculpture. His sculptures especially reflect that the gods in Greece are nothing but images of an ideal person. The best-preserved marble ribbon of the relief of the frieze is 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 "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. The goddess in the form of a beautiful woman is the personification of Athens.

http://historic.ru/lostcivil/greece/gallery/stat_007.shtmlMany 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 threaten the sculptor and looked for various reasons why they could accuse him of something. It is said that Phidias was accused of concealing 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 in a cruel execution.

The achievements of Phidias in the Parthenon were not exhaustive for his work. The sculptor created many other works, the best of which were the colossal bronze figure of Athena Promachos, erected on the Acropolis in about 460 BC, and the equally huge figure of Zeus in ivory and gold for the temple at Olympia. 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.

This is how you can describe the statue of Zeus for the temple in Olympia: A huge fourteen-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 made 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."

The works of all three sculptors were similar in that they all depicted the harmony of a beautiful body and a kind soul contained in it. 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, as M. Alpatov writes, is a special predilection for plastic arts, 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 the majority of Greek sculptures were made in bronze, since marble was fragile, 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. Therefore, most often "the human body, its structure and suppleness, its harmony and flexibility attracted the attention of the Greeks, they willingly depicted the human body both naked and in light transparent clothes."

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 the basis of an ideal 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 earlier works have come down to us. Statues of the 7th - 6th centuries BC. symmetrical: one half of the body is a mirror image of the other. Shackled postures, 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. The first scientific study of what harmony is, was undertaken by Pythagoras. The school, which 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 large part, c is the whole.

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 decorated the Parthenon with marble sculpture. 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.

The goddess in the form of a 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 looked for various reasons why they could 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 the harmony of a beautiful body and a kind soul contained in it. 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 the majority of Greek sculptures were made in bronze, since marble was fragile, 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.

Ancient Greece was one of the greatest states in the world. During its existence and on its territory, the foundations of European art were laid. The surviving cultural monuments of that period testify to the highest achievements of the Greeks in the field of architecture, philosophical thought, poetry and, of course, sculpture. There are few originals left: time does not spare even the most unique creations. We know much about the skill that the ancient sculptors were famous for thanks to written sources and later Roman copies. However, this information is enough to realize the significance of the contribution of the inhabitants of the Peloponnese to world culture.

Periods

The sculptors of ancient Greece were not always great creators. The heyday of their craftsmanship was preceded by the archaic period (7th-6th centuries BC). The sculptures of that time that have come down to us are symmetrical and static. They do not have that vitality and hidden inner movement that makes the statues look like frozen people. All the beauty of these early works is expressed through the face. It is no longer as static as the body: a smile radiates a feeling of joy and serenity, giving a special sound to the whole sculpture.

After the completion of the archaic, the most fruitful time follows, in which the ancient sculptors of Ancient Greece created their most famous works. It is divided into several periods:

• early classic - the beginning of the 5th century. BC e.;
• high classic - 5th c. BC e.;
• late classic - 4th c. BC e.;
• Hellenism - the end of the IV century. BC e. - I century. n. e.

transition time

The Early Classics is the period when the sculptors of Ancient Greece begin to move away from static position in the body, to look for new ways to express their ideas. Proportions are filled with natural beauty, poses become more dynamic, and faces become expressive.

The sculptor of Ancient Greece Myron worked during this period. In written sources, he is characterized as a master of transferring the anatomically correct body structure, capable of capturing reality with high accuracy. Miron's contemporaries also pointed to his shortcomings: in their opinion, the sculptor did not know how to give beauty and liveliness to the faces of his creations.

The statues of the master embody heroes, gods and animals. However, the sculptor of Ancient Greece Myron gave the greatest preference to the image of athletes during their accomplishments in competitions. The famous Disco Thrower is his creation. The sculpture has not survived to this day in the original, but there are several copies of it. "Discobolus" depicts an athlete preparing to launch his projectile. The athlete's body is superbly executed: tense muscles testify to the heaviness of the disc, the twisted body resembles a spring ready to unfold. It seems like another second, and the athlete will throw a projectile.

The statues “Athena” and “Marsyas” are also considered to be superbly executed by Myron, which also came down to us only in the form of later copies.

heyday

Outstanding sculptors of ancient Greece worked throughout the period of high classics. At this time, the masters of creating reliefs and statues comprehend both the ways of conveying movement and the basics of harmony and proportions. High Classics is the period of the formation of those foundations of Greek sculpture, which later became the standard for many generations of masters, including the creators of the Renaissance.

At this time, the sculptor of Ancient Greece Policlet and the brilliant Phidias worked. Both of them forced to admire themselves during their lifetime and were not forgotten for centuries.

Peace and harmony

Polikleitos worked in the second half of the 5th century. BC e. He is known as a master of sculptures depicting athletes at rest. Unlike Miron's Discobolus, his athletes are not tense, but relaxed, but at the same time, the viewer does not have any doubts about their power and capabilities.

Polikleitos was the first to use a special position of the body: his heroes often leaned on the pedestal with only one foot. This posture created a feeling of natural relaxation, characteristic of a resting person.

Canon

The most famous sculpture of Polikleitos is considered "Dorifor", or "Spearman". The work is also called the master's canon, since it embodies some of the provisions of Pythagoreanism and is an example of a special way of posing a figure, contraposta. The composition is based on the principle of cross uneven movement of the body: the left side (the arm holding the spear and the leg set back) is relaxed, but at the same time in motion, as opposed to the tense and static right side (the supporting leg and the arm extended along the body).

Polikleitos used a similar technique later in many of his works. Its main principles are set forth in a treatise on aesthetics that has not come down to us, written by a sculptor and called by him "Canon". A rather large place in it Polikleito assigned to the principle, which he also successfully applied in his works, when this principle did not contradict the natural parameters of the body.

Recognized genius

All the ancient sculptors of Ancient Greece of the High Classic period left behind admirable creations. However, the most prominent among them was Phidias, rightfully considered the founder of European art. Unfortunately, most of the master's works have survived to this day only as copies or descriptions on the pages of treatises by ancient authors.

Phidias worked on the decoration of the Athenian Parthenon. Today, an idea of ​​the skill of the sculptor can be summed up by the preserved marble relief, 1.6 m long. It depicts numerous pilgrims heading to the rest of the decorations of the Parthenon perished. The same fate befell the statue of Athena, installed here and created by Phidias. The goddess, made of ivory and gold, symbolized the city itself, its power and greatness.

wonder of the world

Other prominent sculptors of ancient Greece may not have been inferior to Phidias, but none of them could boast of creating a wonder of the world. The Olympic was made by a craftsman for the city where the famous Games were held. The height of the Thunderer, seated on a golden throne, was amazing (14 meters). Despite such power, the god did not look formidable: Phidias created a calm, majestic and solemn Zeus, somewhat strict, but at the same time kind. The statue before its death for nine centuries attracted many pilgrims who sought solace.

late classic

With the end of the 5th c. BC e. the sculptors of ancient Greece did not run out. The names Skopas, Praxiteles and Lysippus are known to everyone who is interested in ancient art. They worked in the next period, called the late classics. The works of these masters develop and complement the achievements of the previous era. Each in their own way, they transform the sculpture, enriching it with new subjects, ways of working with the material and options for conveying emotions.

Boiling passions

Scopas can be called an innovator for several reasons. The great sculptors of ancient Greece who preceded him preferred to use bronze as their material. Scopas created his creations mainly from marble. Instead of the traditional calm and harmony that filled his works of Ancient Greece, the master chose expression. His creations are full of passions and experiences, they are more like real people than imperturbable gods.

The most famous work of Scopas is the frieze of the mausoleum in Halicarnassus. It depicts Amazonomachy - the struggle of the heroes of Greek myths with the warlike Amazons. The main features of the style inherent in the master are clearly visible from the surviving fragments of this creation.

smoothness

Another sculptor of this period, Praxiteles, is considered the best Greek master in terms of conveying the grace of the body and inner spirituality. One of his outstanding works - Aphrodite of Knidos - was recognized by the master's contemporaries as the best creation ever created. goddess became the first monumental image of a naked female body. The original has not come down to us.

The features of the style characteristic of Praxiteles are fully visible in the statue of Hermes. With a special staging of a naked body, smooth lines and soft halftones of marble, the master managed to create a somewhat dreamy mood that literally envelops the sculpture.

Attention to detail

At the end of the late classic era, another famous Greek sculptor, Lysippus, worked. His creations were distinguished by special naturalism, careful study of details, and some elongation of proportions. Lysippus strove to create statues full of grace and elegance. He honed his skills by studying the canon of Polykleitos. Contemporaries noted that the work of Lysippus, in contrast to the "Dorifor", gave the impression of being more compact and balanced. According to legend, the master was the favorite creator of Alexander the Great.

Influence of the East

A new stage in the development of sculpture begins at the end of the 4th century. BC e. The border between the two periods is the time of the conquests of Alexander the Great. They actually begin the era of Hellenism, which was a combination of the art of ancient Greece and the eastern countries.

The sculptures of this period are based on the achievements of the masters of previous centuries. Hellenistic art gave the world such works as the Venus de Milo. At the same time, the famous reliefs of the Pergamon altar appeared. In some works of late Hellenism, an appeal to everyday plots and details is noticeable. The culture of Ancient Greece of this time had a strong influence on the formation of the art of the Roman Empire.

Finally

The importance of antiquity as a source of spiritual and aesthetic ideals cannot be overestimated. Ancient sculptors in ancient Greece laid not only the foundations of their own craft, but also the standards for understanding the beauty of the human body. They managed to solve the problem of depicting movement by changing the posture and shifting the center of gravity. The ancient sculptors of Ancient Greece learned to convey emotions and experiences with the help of a processed stone, to create not just statues, but practically living figures, ready to move at any moment, breathe, smile. All these achievements will form the basis of the flourishing of culture in the Renaissance.