Write an essay on one of the topics.

1. The elements of the Early Classical or Transitional period in 4th - century bceGreek sculptures.

2. The influence of Kephisodotos on sculptors succeeding centuries.

3. New conception of representing sculptural figures.

Unit 5

HIGH HELLENISTIC sculpture

Notes. The text you are going to read deals with High Hellenistic sculpture. Before reading study the following.

The Late Hellenistic phase witnessed a renewed interest in Classical sculpture. With the Roman conquest of Greece came Roman enthusiasm for Greek culture, and not least for statuary of the 5th and 4th centuries bce. Statues were shipped off to Italy; Roman patrons commissioned agents to find pieces suitable for their gardens, libraries, and gymnasia. Wealthy Romans came to Greece to see the sights and to be educated. Less wealthy Romans and Italians came to Greece and the East to make their fortunes, and the island of Delos became a center for their activities. Trade of all kinds flourished, and Greek sculptors turned their attention and skills readily to the Roman market and its taste.

Pre-reading taSks

Answer the following questions.

1. What did the Late Hellenistic phase witness?

2. What caused Roman enthusiasm for Greek culture?

3. What became a center of activity of less wealthy Romans and Italians?

Make sure you know how to pronounce the following.

Alexander [ˌælɪg'zɑːndə]; Praxiteles [prak'sɪtəliːz]; Venus ['viːnəs]; Hellenistic [ˌhelɪ'nɪstɪk((əl))]; Pliny ['plɪni]; Laocoon [leɪ'ɒkəʊɒn]; Gauls [gɔːlz]; Tyche ['taiki]; motif [məʊ'tiːf]; Orontes [ə'rɒntiːz];Demosthenes [dɪ'mɒsθəniːz]; Euthydemos; Cleopatra [ˌklɪə'patrə];torque [tɔːk]; Syracuse ['saɪərəkjuːz]; Aphrodite [ˌæfrə(ə)'daɪtɪ];enthusiasm [ɪn'thjuːzɪæz(ə)m]; Antioch ['antɪɒk]; verisimilitude [ˌverɪsɪ'mɪlɪtjuːd];Tanagra ['tanəgrə]; Orestes [ɒ'rɛstiːz]; agora ['ægərə];satyr ['sætə]; spiral ['spaɪər(ə)l]; caricature ['karɪkətjʊə]; episode['epɪsəud]; personification [pəˌsɔnɪfɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n]; anguish ['æŋgwɪʃ];introverted [ɪ̱ntrəvɜː(r)tɪd]; trumpeter ['trʌmpɪtə];Poseidon [pə'saɪd(ə)n];anxiety [æŋ(g)'zaɪətɪ];Electra [ɪ'lɛktrə]; diversity [daɪ'vɜːsɪtɪ].

 

Expand on the words given in exercise 2.

Read and translate the following text.

TEXT

Diversity in form and psychological presentation, executed in a realistic manner, is the hallmark of Hellenistic sculpture. The great variety of types, new and old, of poses and gestures and groups, taken in some instances to the point of caricature, has been explained by the influence of the new worlds opened up to Greek artists by the conquests of Alexander. Yet much of what
is new in Hellenisticsculpture was already implicit in the work
of the great 4th-century sculptors—Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippos—who had consistently striven toward greater realism in portraying human experience and expression. Lysippos's interest in emphasizing new views of human figures, in mental states, in surprise, dramatic postures, portraiture, and personification became especially influential.

The period may conveniently be divided into three chronological phases, though there is much difficulty in dating some pieces and agreement between scholars is often hard to find. The first phase, down to about 250 bce, may be seen as
a period of transition, in which revolutionary approaches appear alongside the derivative. The High Hellenistic phase, spanning a century from around 250 to 150 bce, follows and is typified by the style of sculptures from Pergamon. This is often described as ‘Hellenistic baroque’. The whole period from around 300–150 bce was seen by some ancient critics, cited by Pliny (Natural History), as a dreadful mistake in terms of art. Thus, the phases of Hellenistic sculpture perhaps most admired today seem to have been least admired by later critics. The Late Hellenistic phase, from around 150 bce onward, saw a resurgence of Classicism, which corresponded with the Roman conquest of Greece and the shipment of countless Greek statues from Greece to Italy. This was now a wholly new age. Copies, adaptations, and variants of Greek originals then proliferated in answer to the demands of Roman patrons. At the same time, the baroque trend continued vigorously. Pliny himself speaks admiringly of the Laocoon group, and rich Romans evidently took pleasure in the use of the Hellenistic baroque style when it suited them.

As to subject matter, the standing male figure remained in use for images of gods and for commemorative statuary, and the draped female figure continued to be popular. But these were no longer the dominant types. Variety and diversity were called for, and the sculptors' vocabulary expanded accordingly. Interest in realism produced true-to-life portraits and images of characters as individual as the aged fisherman and the old woman, as well as focusing on natural states of mind, the striving athlete or the sleepy satyr. There were humorous caricatures of dwarfs, slaves, and hunchbacks—considered in this brutal age to be amusing—and statues of smiling, almost laughing, children. Personification and allegory grew in importance. Interest in the theatrically produced statues in their settings: Eros asleep on a rock, or Nike alighting on the prow of a victorious ship in a water basin on a hill high above the sea. Interest in emotion produced intense images of suffering, anguish, pain, brutality, anxiety, or pleasure. Thus, the range of subject matter was enormously wide.

The period of transition in the first half of the 3d century bce saw several innovations, of which the image of Eutychides' Tyche (Fortune) of Antioch was one. Eutychides, a pupil of Lysippos, made the statue shortly after the foundation of the city, с 300 bce. The original was bronze, of which small-scale copies in marble and other materials survive. The Tyche appears as a draped female seated on a rock. She wears a crown, which represents the fortifications of the city, and in her right hand carries a wheatsheaf, symbolizing the fertility of the land. At her feet swims a youth, who represents the river Orontes. The personification of the city and the allegorical nature of the content are new, as is the design, which offered three principal views in a pyramidal arrangement. Also new is the posthumous portrait of the Athenian orator Demosthenes by Polyeuktos, erected in the Athenian Agora around 280 bce. This period is the first in Greek art to try to express, through portraiture, the mental states as well as the characters and recognizable external features of individuals. These distinctions are sometimes hard for us to grasp. Complete verisimilitude is not the issue, since we cannot know precisely what the ancients looked like, and since portraitists would only intentionally include such physical features as would make their subjects recognizable. Earlierportraits concentrated on representing their subjects in terms of status and character, as ideal examples of, for instance, the poet or the philosopher, but with sufficient individual quirks of feature (Socrates' broad nose) to identify them. These have been termed ‘role portraits’. Now Polyeuktos went beyond this in striving to present a recognizable image of Demosthenes that would offer an insight into the workings of his mind. The original was bronze, but again it is marble copies that have survived. Demosthenes faces forward with his arms lowered and his hands joined in front of him. The pose is hesitant, the composition enclosed, the mood nervous. The shoulders slump, the head inclines; furrowed brow and downcast eyes all
reveal Demosthenes' introverted and anxious state of mind. The psychological portrait reveals the personality of the individual both by the posture, set, and condition of the body, and by the facial expression. The portrait of Demosthenes stands at the head of a long series of such ‘psychological portraits’. Others include portraits of philosophers, whose cast of mind is suggested sometimes by posture, sometimes by facial details, and sometimes by both. Thus, the tightknit brow, lined face, and narrowed eyes of the head of Epikouros register his meditative strain and the apprehension and awareness of pain that his thinking aimed to conquer. At the same time, in this early Hellenistic phase, heroic portraiture, as exemplified by the portraits of Alexander, continued. The baroque style of the High Hellenistic phase is characterized by dramatic effects, achieved by complex postures, gestures, and groupings, and by the intensity and variety of emotional representation.

AFTER-reading taSks