'Drunken Old Woman' is a Roman copy of a Greek original that dates back to the late 2nd-3rd century B.C. The statue is 36 inches tall, made of marble, and realistically depicts an old woman in a drunken and distraught state. This piece is a perfect example of the effect the Hellenistic period had on artistic conventions. Whereas most statues in the Classical period were idealistic renderings of the human body, often depicting gods and goddesses, the Hellenistic period brought a shift to focusing on the mortal realm through a practice referred to as 'social realism'. It was a crucial development in art because it allowed artists to find inspiration in the world around them, in the lives of themselves and other people they knew.
The term Hellenistic is defined as "Greek-like". The Hellenistic period, which historians date as stretching from 323 B.C until 31 B.C, marks the widespread influence of Greek culture to other parts of the world, due to the country's growing power. The influence it had on the Roman people was not limited to artistic disciplines- it also affected the academic studies of the time with the Greek's knowledge of and developments in subjects such as philosophy, mathematics, and literature. It is possible that the integration of these academic developments into other cultures is what caused the trend of social realism to appear in art; as people were learning more about themselves and the world around them, it made sense for their focus of their art to be on that world as well. The social realism is the biggest identifying factor of this sculpture, 'Old Drunken Woman,' as a true replica of that time period.
The statue depicts an elderly woman sitting with a jug of wine between her knees, the neck of which...
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...found interest in the beauty and problems of reality.
References
Greek Sculpture (Essential Humanities) http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/sculpture/greek/ Marble Group of Aphrodite with Pan and Eros (National Archaeological Museum of Athens) http://www.namuseum.gr/object-month/2010/jun/jun10-en.html Week Four Early and High Classical Greek and Hellenistic Greek Art http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/week-four-early-and-high-classical-greek-and-hellenistic-greek-art/deck/8066911 Greek Art: The Hellenistic Period(323 - 31 BC.) (Hellenistic Art) http://www.greeklandscapes.com/greece/athens_museum_hellenistic.html
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (Art of the Hellenistic Age and the Hellenistic Tradition) http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/haht/hd_haht.htm Hellenistic Greece
www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/hellenistic-greece
The emotion in the figures is also very different. In the archaic figure, the face contains emotion other than the archaic smile. The eyes are closed with no facial expression. The classical statue on the other hand does not have any facial expressions but has open eyes and no smile.
The marble Statuette of Youthful Dionysos stands about 30 inches tall. The arms, legs, nose, and
The Statue of a kouros depicts a Greek man in the nude. Although he looks like a man, the large scale, and the miss proportioned features makes it unnaturalistic. The toes are too long, the genetalia is unrealistically small, and the joint lines are exaggerated.
In this paper I am exploring “Portrait of Augustus as general” and “Khafre enthroned”. From exploring and getting to know the Statues in my Art History Book I have compared these statues (Kleiner, 2013). The first and most obvious similarity between the two is in the artists’ idealization and immortalization of their subjects. Both Khafre and Augustus are portrayed in an idealized manner, designed to give the impression of nobility, timelessness, and divinity. The two statues were the political advertisements of their times that showed the public images of reliable leaders who one
The ancient Greek civilization has left a rich cultural footprint on modern Western civilization. Especially during the ancient Classical and Hellenistic eras of Greece, ancient Greeks have left behind a plethora of ideas and concepts that have played a crucial role in forming the foundations to Western civilization. Although the Classical era was a time of war and conflict, it was the Golden Age of Greece that was the home to many achievements in art, philosophy, architecture, politics, and literature such as the birth of democracy. The Hellenistic era was a period of social and economic prosperity that was defined by the spread of Greek culture across the entire eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia. During this era, countless of advancements
Ridgway, Brunilde S. Hellenistic Sculpture II: The Styles of ca. 200-100 B.C. Madison, Wisc.: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Throughout the history of Ancient Greece thousands of great works of art were produced. Works were created in many different media, ranging from life-size statues to larger than life architectural structures. One type of art that can sometimes be overlooked, though, is pottery. There are many examples of great Greek pottery, but the two that will be used as a sample are Artemis Slaying Actaeon and Woman and Maid. By considering the backgrounds of these works, and comparing them directly we are able get a taste not only of the artistic styles of the time, but also a taste of ancient Greek culture.
To recall another relic of ancient Greece, Plato had strong opinions on artwork, even that which was created during his time. Plato believed tha...
This is a copy of the sculpture of Athena Parthenos, dressed in battle attire, that was originally created by Phidias during the period of 447-39 B.C. The statue of Athena Parthenos was to be constructed, not of bronze, but of gold and ivory. The face, arms, and feet of the statue were to be made of ivory and the clothing, of thickly plated gold. The statue was an enormous size that towered thirty-three feet tall. The costly nature of the materials out of which it was designed was intended to overwhelm the viewer, creating a sense of religious awe.
With wrinkled with sagging jowls, the face of a Roman aristocrat stares out at us with a serious expression. Deep facial wrinkles, furrowed brow, hollow cheeks, thinning hair and even wrinkle lines around the neck lend authtencity to the sculpture and make it very lifelike to me. You can bet that his personality was determined. The name of the individual is unknown. The veristic style of Republican portraiture conveyed
"Statuette of a standing maiden [Etruscan] (17.190.2066) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. "Hellenistic and Roman Art." A World History of Art. London: Laurence King, 1999. 179-213. Print.
The primary focus of ancient Greek sculptures was that of the human body. Almost all Greek sculptures are of nude subjects. As the first society to focus on nude subjects, Greek sculptors attempted to "depict man in what they believed was the image of the gods and so would come to celebrate the body by striving for verisimilitude or true – likeness (realism and naturalism!)."(Riffert) Not only did the Greeks celebrate the human form in their art but also in everyday life. (Riffert) One of the favorite topics for sculptors was that of the athlete. In Greek culture athletes were described as "hero–athletes". (Riffert) This shows that athletes were revered and looked upon as heroes. The influence of athleticism is evident in many famous sculptures. I will attempt to show how the human form influenced Greek art. It is important to note that many of the Greek sculptures discussed do not exist in their original form but rather in Roman copies of the original bronze sculptures. (Riffert)
The Romans have adopted many features from the Greek style of art and architecture during the third and second centuries B.C. During that time period the Romans discovered that they have taking a liking to Greek statues, which they placed in many different places. The Roman sculptors then decided to also start making statues alongside the Greeks. The statues that the Romans created were realistic looking with, sometime, unpleasant details of the body. The Greeks made statues with, what they thought of, ideal appearances in the statues figure. Sculpture was possibly considered the highest form of art by the Romans, but figure painting was very high considered as well. Very little of Roman painting has survived the tests of time.
In 2008 a group of archaeologist unearthed what could now be the world’s oldest statue. This larger than life statuette stands at whopping 2 ½ inches tall with an estimated carving date from 35,000 to 40,000 years ago from a mammoth tusk. The form of the statuette is that of female figure missing her head and feet with a primary focus on reproductive organs. Due to the pornographic nature of the statue archaeologist believe that the statue’s purpose and function is to represent longevity and fertility. No matter if you believe man crawled from primordial ooze or if a being of higher authority created man, humans have continued to express emotion, experiences and values through the artistic expression of statues. Over the millennia statues have continued to progress and reflect those human characteristics and values that are reflective of the era they were created. At times they are used to share stories that express victories to tragedies, life and death, religious beliefs, gods and goddesses. One other aspect that humans use statues is to convey values that are important to that society’s social structure. For some statues those human values are shared in a rather large way by reaching new heights and overcoming natural limitations. One might also state that with such a rich history of mankind’s creative appetite for statues it can be difficult to decide which ones to review. That being the case one cannot begin to discuss statues and the human values they represent without starting off with one close to the shores of the United States who expresses liberty for all the huddled masses yearning to be free.