Approaches to the Study of Greek Sculpture.pdf (original) (raw)
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The contents of the present volume of the Catalogue General are arranged in a way which requires a word of explanation. For various reasons it was not possible to obtain a complete survey of the whole material before proceeding to catalogue it. Many of the less important objects were stored away in the magazines of the old palace at Ghizeh, where they had an excellent chance of eluding observation. During the last two years again the collection has been in a state of fluK : new objects have been constantly coming in from excavations and accidental finds ''\ while part of the older material has been from time to time transferred to the Museum of Alexandria. Instead, therefore, of publishing the text in the rather haphazard order in which it was necessarily written I have rearranged it to a certain extent, so that for instance the archaic statuettes and the funerary stelae will be found gathered together in two compact groups instead of being incongruously scattered about. The advantage of this is obvious. The drawback is that the numbers assigned to the objects do not follow each other in the text in their natural order : hence it has been necessary to draw up an index (I, p. 7 5) giving the page on which each number occurs. The existence of this index is the practical point to which I wish to call attention.
Greek sculpture: the archaic period. A handbook
1978
modify. So 1 submit that, when they unexpectedly arrived (perhaps as a special gift?), the architect had to redesign his facade to incorporate them. The columns had to be thickened and moved off their original axes; while the walls and antae, which could not be so easily altered, were perhaps moved outwards slightly. The positions of the metopes stayed as far as possible the same. But the unique five guttae to the redesigned regula ensured, as C.'s drawing well shows, the neatest possible accommodation to the architrave-joint, now off the centre of the triglyph. Finally, the architect added a touch of that poetry, without which the neatest design seems incomplete. Along the abaci of his unfa-capitals he placed a fringe of beads, or pearls. An ancient Ruskin, he had seen the autumn-dew fringing the 'rock-cornices' of Parnassus. HUGH PLOMMER Cambridge RIDGWAY (B.S.) The archaic style in Greek sculpture. Princeton: University Press. 1977 (1978). Pp. xix + 336, 69 illus. £29.80. What we have here is not a systematic history so much as a commentary by topics, and readers are assumed to have already a fair knowledge of Archaic Greek sculpture. Four general principles are the rejection of G.M.A. Richter's anatomical rule of development, a distrust of the accepted chronology (both absolute and relative), an insistence on the independent traits of local schools and a reliance-where convenient-on statistics of finds. Chapter 1 is a short and explanatory introduction. Chapter 2, on origins, maintains that about 700 B.C. the Greeks adopted the Daedalic style, which came from Syria or Phoenicia, for their statues-mostly female-of wood and around 650 B.C. of limestone too, gaining some knowledge of male anatomical details during this period from contemporary armour; further, around 650 B.C., acquaintance with Egypt brought the technical knowledge of carving marble, the grid for planning statues and an acceptable type for male figures and so the Archaic style was created, especially in Naxosand Samos. Chapter 3 ponders on the kouros, at first a votive or funerary image of Apollo and the determinative type of the new style-its distribution, meaning, chronology, variation by regions (among which Samos is distinguished from the East Greek) and affinity to other male types. In Chapter 4 the kore has similar treatment-characteristics, type and date, distribution, costume, regional variation, meaning and relatives (Nikai); it is derived from Oriental sources and its elaboration attributed to East Greece and Samos. Chapter 5 is on seated and, very briefly, reclining and equestrian statues, which began respectively in Asia Minor, Samos and mainland Greece. Chapter 6 summarises the use of human statues as grave monuments and proceeds to lions, sphinxes and other animals and monsters in the round, with an excursus on stelai. Pediments and acroteria come in Chapter 7, metopes in 8 and friezes in 9. Chapter 10 turns to the identification of sculptors, for which signatures are considered the only valid method. Lastly, Chapter 11 surveys succinctly Archaic survivals, revivals and reminiscences. Throughout R. proffers much good observation and many unconventional or novel ideas, so that some readers will find her stimulating and perhaps inspiring. Others may think that there is too little compensation for the frequent lack of supporting argu
Hellenistic Styles in Greek Sculpture (2019)
Handbook of Greek Sculpture, edited by Olga Palagia, 2019
This chapter reconsiders the criteria for stylistic analysis of Hellenistic sculpture and the usefulness and limits of such an analysis for relative and absolute chronology. It maintains the traditional division into three distinctive phases (Early, High and Late) and highlights their characteristics. From the early second century οn, there are classicistic and progressive trends side by side.
Archaic Greek Sculpture and Its Foreign Influences
2016
Cross-cultural interactions are thought to be a relatively new phenomenon, but surely the emergence of free-standing sculpture in Archaic Greece demonstrates that various peoples of the Mediterranean have been exchanging knowledge and goods for over two millennia. It is crucial to investigate the blending of cultural and artistic practices at the time to understand how it leads to the ‘height’ of Greek art in the Classical Period. Though Greeks borrowed techniques from their Egyptian and Near East neighbours, the influence was reciprocal. These interactions further solidify, rather than undermine the worldview of Ancient Greek society.