THe FOURTH-CENTURY sculpture

(c. 400 – 300 bce)

Notes. The text you are going to read deals with The sculpture of the fourth century bce. Before reading study the following.

With the end of the High Classical period, sculpture moved toward more naturalistic representation of the human figure. There was a growing enthusiasm for expressing an individual's emotion, character, age, or mood, just as there had been in the Early Classical period. At the same time, those sculptors (Phidias and Polykleitos) who had attempted to represent the ideal in realistic figures, with somewhat characterless and emotionless results, remained influential. So there is both continuity and change. The standing nude male figure remained a dominant type, with interest in movement as it affected balance and in the space surrounding figures growing stronger. Control of accurate representation of the anatomy was securely maintained. Once again, a few bronze originals have survived, but mostly we have to rely on later copyists and commentators. The period down to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 bce is often known as the Late Classical, a term also used for the style of sculpture.

Pre-reading taSks

Answer the following questions.

1. How did sculpture develop after the end of the High Classical period?

2. What type of figures remained influential in sculpture in the 4th century bce?

3. What is implied under the Late Classical sculpture?

 

Make sure you know how to pronounce the following.

Thebes [θiːbz]; Piraeus [paɪ'riːəs]; Athens ['æθ(ə)nz]; Phidias ['fɪdɪas]; Mantinea [,mænti'niə]; Athenians [ə'θiːnɪən]; Peloponnesian War ['ре1əpəni:ʃn wɔː];Perseus ['pɜːsɪəs], ['pɜːsjuːs]; Macedon [,mæsi'dən]; Macedonian [,mæsi'daunjən]; triumph ['traɪəmf]; Leuctra [lu:ktrə]; mausoleum [ˌmɔːsə'liːəm]; Halikarnassos [ˌhalɪkɑː'nasəs];Sparta ['spɑːtə]; Lysippos [,lisi'pos]; Praxiteles [prak'sɪtəliːz];palaestra [pə'lestrə]; Leochares [lio:'ha:rəs]; Epaminondas [ipæmə'nondəs]; eyebrow ['aɪbrau]; epigram ['epɪgræm]; precursor [ˌprɪ'kɜːsə]; Agamemnon [ægə'mæmnon].

Expand on the words given in exercise 2.

Read and translate the following text.

TEXT

The Antikythera Bronze, so called because it was found in the sea close to the islandof Antikythera, is an example of a 4th-century всE original. The standing nude youth shows the influence of Polykleitan athletic figures clearly enough in
the position of legs and feet, the chiastic (X-shape) balance of muscular tension, and the emphatic structure of the anatomy. New are the smallness of the head in proportion to the rest of the body, the outstretching of the arm involving the figure in surrounding space, and the leftward swaying pose, checked by the outstretched right arm and the tilt of the head. This figure has been identified as Perseus, originally holding Medusa's head in his outstretched hand, and a sword in his left, and was cast sometime around 350 всE, while High Classical influences were still strong.

Another bronze original (though much of the right arm is a Roman repair), the Marathon Boy, again so called because it was retrieved from the sea near Marathon, adopts a more precarious pose. Under lifesize, he appears to stand with
his weight on the left leg, but the S-curve of the body is so pronounced that the volume of the torso, carried over to the right, unbalances the figure. It seems that his balance can only be maintained momentarily. The smooth modeling of the surface and the soft shapes of the limbs suggest the youth of the figure, while his outstretched arms seem to involve the surrounding space on either side. He wears a fillet of a type worn by athletes in the palaestra to secure his hair, but no satisfactory explanation has yet been proposed of the gesture, or of what the object might have been in his left hand. More adventurous in conception and execution than the Antikythera youth, and often associated with the great Athenian sculptor Praxiteles, the Marathon Boy was probably cast sometime around 340 всE.

A bronze original of Athena was found along with other statues, including the Late Archaic bronze Apollo, in excavations in the Piraeus. The whole group was probably waiting to be shipped from Greece to Rome when the warehouse in which it was stored burned down. The over-lifesize Athena wears the new dense drapery of the century, an aegis, and a helmet, and originally held a spear in her left hand. She remains a massive, imposing figure, but, with the head tilted to the right and her gentle expression, she is rendered more approachable than her 5th-century counterpart. She can be dated to approximately
350 bce.

Around 370 bce, the Athenian state commissioned the sculptor Kephisodotos, perhaps the father of Praxiteles, to make a bronze group of a mother and child—Eirene (Peace) and Ploutos (Wealth)—to celebrate the inauguration of a cult of Peace in Athens. The original is lost, but later marble copies
are easily recognized, thanks to literary descriptions and the appearance of the group on datable Panathenaic amphoras and on the coinage of Athens. The mother, Peace, holds the child, Wealth, in the crook of her left arm, while her right hand originally gripped a scepter. Peace's stance and massive form echo precursors of the High Classical style. The drapery, however, is now different. She wears the heavy peplos favored
as long ago as the Early Classical or Transitional period (480–450 bce) and a cloak. The clinging wet drapery of the end
of the 5th century bce, which left the limbs beneath looking almost naked, is by this time no longer so popular. The density of the drapery describes the weight and texture of the cloth itself and conceals the body. The only anatomical forms perceived beneath are those that the fall of the drapery would naturally reveal. Folds are more complicated, as in nature. They stop and start, have creases, and are crumpled. It is an actual, not contrived, relationship between body and cloth that is depicted. Also new, and characteristic of the 4th century bce, is the expression of gentle intimacy between the two figures. This is achieved by the inclination of the mother's head toward the infant and by the infant's eager gesture and upward glance. The personification of abstract ideas in sculpture was hardly an innovation, but the allegorical nature of the group breaks new ground. Kephisodotos was evidently a leading sculptor of
his century, but the three whose names are most familiar are Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippos. A marble group of Hermes and Dionysos, found in excavations of the Temple of Hera atOlympia, seems heavily influenced, in terms of composition, by the Peace and Wealth group of Kephisodotos. Hermes holds the child Dionysos in his left arm and inclines his head toward the infant. Dionysos looks up at and reaches for the bunch of grapes that Hermes, teasing his younger brother, holds in his right hand. Their gazes intersect, excluding the viewer, in a domestic, personal, and playful moment. They are shown
as mortals engaged in mortal activity. The sculptor has used
the old myth, well known to sanctuary visitors, to design a composition highlighting both the contrast in age between youth and infant and the humanization of the divine. Such interest in gods as mortals is characteristic of the later 4th century. This group was seen by Pausanias, who described it as the work of Praxiteles. Scholars still debate whether this is an original of the 4th century bceby the master himself, who specialized in
the carving of marble, or whether it is a copy of Hellenistic or Roman date. The strut used between the treetrunk and Hermes' hip, the high polish of the surface, the recutting or miscutting of the back, and the type of sandal worn by Hermes all point to a later date. But whether it is an original or a copy, it tells us much about changes introduced by Praxiteles.

Hermes' stance is High Classical, taken from Polykleitos, and the torso, spare and heavy, is also reminiscent of the 5th century bce. The slender proportions of the long legs and small head, however, are new, as is the S-curve of the awkwardly placed torso and pushed-out right hip, which introduces a note of imbalance. The contours of the body naturally echo this swinging curve, which is a characteristic of Praxiteles' work. Soft modeling of the surface blurs the smooth transitions from plane to plane—what the Italians call ‘sfumato’ – and leaves them indistinct. This confident skill in carving and finishing marble, together with the slimmer proportions, gives the figure
a certain delicacy. The drapery slung over the treetrunk contrasts with the broad expanses of the body and shows naturalism in
the variations of folds and creases, even in a single plane. As to the head, the face is typically Praxitelean, having a tapering shape, narrow eyes, a smiling mouth, detailed modulation
of the forehead, and a dreamy expression. Relaxed and idle, languorous and sensuous, Hermes exemplifies a far different aspect of divine life than those depicted by sculptors in the preceding century. If original, this group was made around
340 bce.

AFTER-reading taSks