Greece Sculpture 10

Greece Sculpture Part 10

According to Thedresswizard.com, the current of Praxiteles is represented especially by his two sons, much inferior to him, Cefisodotus the younger and Timarchus. Their grand parent’s style becomes mannered; this can be seen in the residues of the plastic decoration of the Asclepieus of Kos, due precisely to them. Refined sweetness, with the consequent nuance, is in the praxithelic character production of Hellenism; so first in the head of Aphrodite Leconfield, and in that of Diohiso Sabouroff, so later in other marbles, among which the sweet head of a young girl from Chios stands out, which seems to be wrapped in a veil of fog. The magnified Venus dei Medici and Capitolina seem to be the further development of the Aphrodite of Cnidus naked; but the sensuality, the softness are accentuated, so that, while in the Praxitelean marble of Cnidus she was the goddess, in these, as in other figures of naked Aphrodite, she is, rather than the goddess, the woman. The squatting Aphrodite belongs to this series, by the bitinius artist Dedalsa, active in the second half of the century. III; of it there are two editions, one with exuberant opulent forms (Aphrodite of the Museum of the Baths, the only copy that keeps the head), the other, more properly Praxithelic, with gentle, graceful forms (Aphrodite of Rhodes). The passionate passion seems to be felt in a work so admired and discussed, in the Venus de Milo, on whose chronology there is so much diversity of judgments. Thus the accent of Scopa is recognized in the very agitated group of a Triton kidnapping a Nereid, from the Vatican Museum, evident derivation, with more vibrant passion, from the grandiose ensemble of marine beings, which was created by the great artist of Paro in his phase asian.

Other artistic addresses: perhaps the Demosthenes, which Polieucto executed in bronze for the Athenians in 280, and whom we know especially through the marble statue of the Vatican, a magnificent expression of the angry and embittered spirit of the great orator, probably dates back to the Silanion current. A types of the century. IV, on the other hand, is linked, almost slavishly, to the statue of Temide da Ramnunte, which bears the signature of a Cherestrato.

Crossing of currents can be seen in outstanding works of early Hellenism. Thus in the Níkē of Samothrace, a marvelous figure of a winged virgin, unfortunately severed of the head and mutilated of the arms, all moved by the sea breeze, all agitated in the action of playing the trumpet, herald of victory: characters of Lysippus and Scopa mixed together. A similar meeting is in the Posidone di Milo, where you can feel the performance, almost theatrical, of an inviting, turbulent power. The names of Leocare, of Praxiteles, of Lysippus, or of their schools, have been expressed in reference to the Maiden of Anzio, a virginal being with a strong modeling, with a realistic accent of the neglected drapery. Lysippean nervousness and Praxitelean grace are joined together in the graceful figure of the so-called Narcissus, actually juvenile Dionysus, of Pompeii.

The movement of Greek art towards Asia Minor, which began towards the middle of the century. IV, is accentuated in Hellenism; art and artists migrate towards the east and also towards the south, that is towards the Nile delta. And in the centers of the monarchies that arose from the dismembered empire of Alexander the Great, schools of artists were founded, works of art were created which, with the derivation from the forms of the golden ages, take on distinct tones of their own, both in the tragic and in the theatrical, in both the graceful and the idyllic. Pergamum and Alexandria are the two main centers; but with Pergamum other localities of Asia Minor can be mentioned, all of which by far prevails over the other parts of the Greek world, due to the abundance and variety of production.

At the court of Attalus I of Pergamum (241-197 BC), winner of the Galatians, a school of sculpture was established, which has two phases, the first under Attalus I, the second under Eumenes II (197-159 a. C.). Various manifestations belong to the first phase: figures of the defeated Galatians are represented; so that the tendency to exoticism, still latent in the statue of Mausolus, now finds full expression. Notable documents are the Capitoline Rooster and the Ludovisi del Gallo group, who committed suicide after killing his wife, marble copies of bronzes existing in the peribulum of the temple of Athena Poliade, where the foundations of the lost originals were found, in which the fragmented names of the sculptors. Among them Epigono was preeminent; others, also known from a Plinian passage (NatHist., XXXIV, 84), are Pyromachus, Stratonico, Antigonus. Add other figures of Gauls, including the one, full of enthusiasm, now headless, found in Delos. And add the donary that Attalus made to the Athenians and which included copies of the parchment works, that is bronze statuettes two cubits long, and related to four famous battles: the Gigantomachy, the Amazonomachy, the fight against the Persians, the Celtomachy. Some marble copies of these statuettes have come down to us, but due to the very accentuated treatment of the nude there was no lack of those who ascribed this donation to Attalus II (159-138 BC) rather than to Attalus I.

Greece Sculpture 10