ART

 

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Only the artist Lysippus produced around 1500 sculptures, most of them in bronze. Ironically only few bronze statues survived. In 1972 two masterpieces were found in Italy (now in the former Greek Colony Rhegium / in Calabria Italy)

The Riace Bronze Warriors

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Kephisodotos, Athena and the Personification of Peace and Wealth: Eirene and Ploutos

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I have seen the relief of the Aphrodite rising from the water (Aphrodite Anadyomene) in a Greek history textbook when I was a student. Much later I discovered that it was part of the so-called Ludovisi Throne. Looking for more information one finds the related Boston relief and more surprisingly that the artist produced a woman with an impossible anatomy. Did the artist not see this and other errors?

The Ludovisi Throne and the Boston Relief (with some obvious artistic errors)

Their marriage-law (Amazons) lays it down that no girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle. Sometimes it happens that a woman dies unmarried at an advanced age, having never been able in her whole lifetime to fulfil the condition. Herodotus, Histories

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The amazing Amazons. The name Amazon is considered to come from “a” and “mazos” or “without a breast”, but I don't know any ancient sculpture or painting that shows the Amazons to cut off their right breasts in order to use the bow more easily. The Tapujan tribe of Indians in Brazil had also women warriors and the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana named 1541/2 for this reason the river and the region Amazon.

The wounded Amazon , Amazon on a Horse (390-380 BC) from the Epidaurus Asklepios Temple (Austrian Site)

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Hermes and Dionysus of Praxiteles

The strange Sirens

The Adriantopoioi Polykleitos and Myron

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The Doryphoros of Polykleitos (Polyclitus) or the idealized sculpture (Canon)

The Diadoumenos of Polykleitos

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The Discobolos of Myron is one of the most famous ancient Greek sculptures. As Winckelmann writes the cow of Myron was his most celebrated work but unfortunately no copy survived. 'Do you mean the discus-thrower,' said I, "the one bent over in the position of the throw, with his head turned back toward the hand that holds the discus, with one leg slightly bent, looking as if he would spring up all at once with the cast?' 'Not that one,' said he, 'for that is one of Myron's works, the discus-thrower you speak of.' Lucian, Philopseudes (The Lover of Lies) According to the original Greek text of Lucian of Samosata the athlete looks towards the "discophoros" which is interpreted as his hand , whereas surprisingly one student in his PhD thesis about the ancient discus game considered the discophoros a woman who handed him the discus.

The Discobolos of Myron

Athena, after an original of Myron

Idolino, Roman Copy of a Greek original of the last half of the fifth century B.C.

Westmacott Athlete, maybe a version of a work Kyniskos of Polykleitos

Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless. Euripides

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The Epheboi from Antikythera and Marathon

Ancient Greek Art, The Boar and related stories

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The protest of the Romans in the theatre, shouting 'Give us back the Apoxyomenos' forced the Emperor Tiberius to give his favorite Greek statue, that was in his bedroom, back to the public. I was surprised seeing an image of the sculpture of the athlete sunken in a sea in Croatia where it was found a few years ago. This example shows that statues were not produced only for religious reasons but in the Hellenistic and Roman Period there were Art collectors (such as Attalos ) like so many rich people today who demonstrate in this way their wealth. Some of these collectors tried to obtain older statues because they were considered a better investment. For Greek Paintings as Pliny describes Romans sometimes spent millions.

The Apoxyomenos "Scraper" of Lyssipos

Greeks

Greece

World

Index

Hellenica World - Scientific Library