Classical sculpture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Classical sculpture refers to the forms of sculpture from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and the Hellenized, and Romanized civilizations under their rule or influence from about 500B.C. to fall of Rome in 476.C.E. . It also refers stylistically to modern sculptures done in a classical style. Classical sculptures have been popular since the Renaissance. Only those works that closely follow the canon of classical forms would fall under the term.
In addition to free standing statues, the term classical sculpture incorporates relief work(such as the famous Elgin marbles of the Parthenon) and the flatter bas-relief style. Whereas sculptural works emphasized the human form, reliefs were employed to create elaborate decorative scenes.
There are several periods:
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[edit] Archaic period
In the Archaic Period the most important sculptural form was the kouros (plural kouroi), the standing male nude (See for example Biton and Kleobis).
[edit] Classical period
The first Greek statue to exhibit contrapposto is the famed Kritios Boy. Contrapposto soon became a defining element of Greek sculptural technique, culminating in the Canon of the Doryphoros ("spear-bearer"), which adopted extremely dynamic and sophisticated contrapposto in its cross-balance of rigid and loose limbs. The Classical period saw changes in both the style and function of sculpture. Poses became more naturalistic (see the Charioteer of Delphi for an example of the transition to more naturalistic sculpture), and the technical skill of Greek sculptors in depicting the human form in a variety of poses greatly increased. From about 500 BC statues began to depict real people. The statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton set up in Athens to mark the overthrow of the tyranny were said to be the first public monuments to actual people.
[edit] Hellenistic period
The transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period occurred during the 4th century. Sculpture became more and more naturalistic. Common people, women, children, animals and domestic scenes became acceptable subjects for sculpture, which was commissioned by wealthy families for the adornment of their homes and gardens. Realistic portraits of men and women of all ages were produced, and sculptors no longer felt obliged to depict people as ideals of beauty or physical perfection.
[edit] Roman period
Image:Germanicus.png Roman sculpture began with the copying of Greek sculpture, but then evolved into a form of sculpture which more emphasised the individual. There are many surviving sculptures of Roman emperors.
[edit] Later
Classical sculpture was forgotten for a thousand years and then revived again during the Italian Renaissance. One of the most important sculptors in the classical revival was Donatello. Many other sculptors such as Michelangelo also made works which can be considered classical. Modern Classicism contrasted in many ways with the classical sculpture of the 19th Century which was characterized by commitments to naturalism (Antoine-Louis Barye) -- the melodramatic (François Rude) sentimentality (Jean Baptiste Carpeaux) -- or a kind of stately grandiosity (Lord Leighton) Several different directions in the classical tradition were taken as the century turned, but the study of the live model and the post-Renaissance tradition was still fundamental to them.
