Polykleitos Doryphoros: Ideal Human Body

Each artistic style can be influenced by the previous period of time or the artist’s personal preferences. There are also many similar themes of athletic sculptures that were made in the different periods. In order to understand the similarities and differences in artistic styles and the meaning behind the sculptures, it is helpful to compare works of two periods, the Greek Hellenistic period and the early Italian Renaissance. The two sculptures are Seated Boxer from the Greek Hellenistic period and David by Donatello from the early Italian Renaissance. The meaning behind each sculpture is somewhat different. One reflects Greek idealism while the other one reflects a symbol of civic pride

The ultimate purpose of the art object until the Hellenistic period is to be a figure of human perfection and the Ideal, most commonly in the form of a ruler or a deity via body politics. Anatomy and physiology of the statue or relief is often used to further the pancultural concepts of the Ideal as opposed to the physical representation of a specific, imperfect person. The conept itself speaks volumes about the culture from which it originates, and what that culture valued most of its people and of their lives. However, as the centuries thundered by and civilizations rose and fell, there is a clear shift in the artist’s attitude towards his or her art, and the artist begins to wean away from an aesthetic realm of perfection to the portrayal of a specific

hroughout the history of Ancient Greece, many great works were produced such as statues, buildings and especially pottery. The Black-figure Neck Amphora featured at the Tampa Museum of Art depicts the mythological scene of Herakles battling the Amazon showcases the art style of the period. This large amphora originates from Vulci, Italy made in 520 BC dating from the Late Archaic period. The black-figure technique was developed around 700 BCE originated in Corinth, Greece. This difficult process of creating a black-figure pottery involves placing the clay in a kiln, or a heated oven resulting in the black color that is seen on those vases. This process also includes a liquid clay called a slip which is applied to areas that we not become black.

The ancient Greeks lived in many lands around the Mediterranean Sea, from Turkey to the south of France. They had close contacts with other people such as the Egyptians, Syrians, and the Persians. The Greeks lived in separate city-states, but shared the same language and religious beliefs. The contributions to Western civilization from the Ancient Greeks were mostly Many ideas and concepts that are still extremely important today,in our lives.

When identifying and articulating ethics, one may conclude that the best way to express one’s values is through speech or literature, bluntly stating what they believe. However, this is simply untrue, for there are limitless theories, and a multitude of ways to express them. The Greeks, for example, exhibited their values in multiple ways. The Greeks were undoubtedly humanists, displaying their humanistic values through government, art and architecture, and philosophy.

Art and architecture had a huge impact on the development of Greece. Greeks showed their love of visual beauty through art by telling stories within the product. Athenians used decorated columns to display the architecture. The art and architecture in Greece reflects on the society that created them. They built magnificent temples, theaters, and other public buildings through the city. To draw attention to their buildings they added works of art both painted and sculptured.With art and architecture, the Athenians impacted the development of Greece, making it beautiful and creative.

On our field trip to the Getty villa this semester, we had to choose an art piece that stood out to us among the many there. The task at hand seemed easier than it was, as there were many art pieces that held my attention. One thing I kept in mind was that many of the Greek art pieces were either recovered from the bottom of the sea or were Roman duplicates. This meant finding background and details about them would be challenging. Of the art pieces, the Statue of Hercules or the “Lansdowne Herakles” was the one that I chose to write about.

The stone sculpture, titled Garland Sarcophagus made by a Roman artist, this piece is created in the year AD 200-225. The Garland Sarcophagus stone sculpture is a coffin for inhumation burials of upper class, the physical condition of the sculpture is cleaned and restored. This sculpture is made in Rome, and belonged to the Roman Empire movement. The Garland Sarcophagus is not typical work, due to inhumation burials being an uncommon Roman practice during the second century A.D., until around the second and third centuries. The style of this art piece is classical Greek art, the Romans were influenced by Greek culture and literature, such as mythology.

In the documentary, “Art of the Western World-The Classical Ideal”, the narrator provides a history and a perspective on the Greek and Roman creation of the “Classical Ideal” to art and architecture. The narrator infers that the foundation of the two societies, namely their democratic falsifies and religious foundations, along with their focus on fitness, personal strength, calculations and intelligence, drove Greece and later Rome, to perfect their visions of balance, symmetry and beauty in their architecture and art.

The two concepts, idealism and realism merge together to form the concept of idealistic-realism. Idealism in art, is the poetization and spirituatualzation of a theme, belief and ethos, realism on the other hand is the act of recreating any scene, object or action in the form art. The concept of idealism at a deeper glance is the comprehension of the idea or ideal created by the artist, and was the foundation of all great Greek and Renaissance art. Augustus of Prime Porta is a great example of the peaceful co-existence of idealism and realism, since the sculpture is ideal and conceptual in its composition and realistic in its execution.

The ancient Romans and Greeks both began their legacy as a city-state; both of them are Mediterranean cities. Ancient Rome and ancient Greece both played a huge role in historic dynasty yet they are both different. Ancient Greece came to light after researches were made. The empire of Athens only lasted 5 years, where Rome 's empire lasted 500 years. Sculptures, paintings and architecture differ in each civilization.

The sculpture Doryphoros or “Spear Bearer” was created by sculptor Polykleitos in the Early Classical Period around 450-440 B.C.E out of bronze but was later recreated out of marble material. The ancient Greeks thought the human body was perfect, not the body itself, but how the mathematical proportions of every part of the body were in perfect relationship to the others. Polykleitos set out to capture what would perfect ideal beauty be?

Ancient Greek shaped the ideas of the what art should look like, and Greek culture plays such an important role of building the foundation of the western civilization. His ideas is absorbing, spreading and developing along with the conquered by Rome. Greece is kind of materialism, they barely believe the world in the mental, they prefer the world is all made by material instead. All the art work is the best example of Greece philosophy of life. The ideas of democracy, wisdom, religion is reflected in the Greek artwork, also represent the ancient people’s intelligence and creativity.

The bust of Commodus is one of the most famous masterpieces of Roman portraiture and depicts the emperor as the reincarnation of the hero Hercules. Commodus is seen wearing the lion 's skin over his head, holding the club in his right hand, and the golden apple of Hesperides in his left hand as a reminder of how he is seen to be as the Greek hero Hercules. Two Amazon women are kneeling on the base beside a globe with the sign of the zodiac. These zodiac signs show important moments in Commodus’s life. On top of the globe is a cornucopia with the Amazon’s shield, one long enough to almost cover his torso. Cornucopia, a “horn of plenty” full of fruits and representing prosperity and fertility and abundance. This represents a new golden era that

Made from parian marble sculpted separately before being fixed with vertical legs, this piece of art is usually thought to portray Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of physical love and beauty. Venus de Milo is a statue of a naked woman with no arms, restoration experts have said that the statues arms and original base or plinth have been lost almost since the work arrived in Paris in 1820. It has been said that this was partly due to an error of identification because when the statue was originally reassembled, the other pieces that came of the left hand and arm were not believed to belong to it because of their overall rough appearance.This goddess is often shown with mystery, her attitude always tends to be unknown. However to this day, many experts are confident that these additional pieces were part of the original work of art despite the variation in the final product since it was often common to spend less time and effort to the parts believed to be less visible of a sculpture, Many sculpture reconstruction experts guess that the separately carved right arm of the Venus de Milo laid across her torso with her right hand rested on her raised left knee, hence her clasping the clothing covering