Ancient Grecian and Roman Sculpture - AP Art History

The Siren Vase is a type of vessel known as stamnos and is decorated with red and black images. One of the most famous examples of ancient Greek pottery, the Siren Vase (c. 475 BCE) depicts the hero Odysseus battling sirens, enchanting female creatures who lured sailors to their deaths with hypnotic songs. This hero appears in the Homeric epics The Odyssey and The Iliad; none of the other authors were ancient Greek writers.

One of the most famous examples of ancient Greek pottery, the Siren Vase (c. 475 BCE) is a major example of Attic red-figure pottery. This type of work became common in the mid-500s BCE and is characterized by red figures on a black background (as opposed to black-figure pottery, which depicts black figures on a red or yellow background). Terracotta pottery is similarly red-colored but typically unpainted.

The statue's name is Winged Victory or Nike. In comparison to other statues at this time, this statue is significant due to the fact that the figure is in action or mid movement. The sense of motion and the swift movement of the figure are distinctive to this statue as well as the idea of the Nike brand.

The Dying Gaul is a statue from the third century BCE and is among the most famous pieces of Roman artwork. The statue is remarkable for its tension and lines in the prone figure, who is slouching into repose from his wounds. Additionally, the face conveys an astonishing amount of pathos and misery, while also showing a perfect form in the figure's body.

Black-figure vases such as this one by Exekias depicting Ajax and Achilles playing dice are emblematic of Athenian ceramic production during the Greek Archaic period (c. 600–480 BCE).

Image: Ajax and Achilles Playing a Game, by Exekias (potter and painter), c. 540-530 BCE. Black-figure painting on a ceramic amphora.

Exekias \[Public domain, CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)\], via Wikimedia Commons.

This sculpture is called Peplos Kore, and has been dated back to 530 BCE, during the Archaic period of Ancient Greek sculpture. The sculpture showcases one of the archetypal figures of Archaic sculpture: the standing draped woman. The subject also showcases what is known as the "Archaic smile," a bland, smiling facial expression born by nearly all Archaic Greek sculptures after 575 BCE.

This sculpture, the Venus Braschi by Praxiteles, is a textbook example of the Classical period of Ancient Greek sculpture. The subject is calm, and has her weight shifted onto one foot, which is commonly seen in other sculptures of the same period. The sculpture has realistic, yet idealized proportions and body shape. It is also made of marble, which was not used for sculptures during the Archaic period.

The Hellenistic period consisted of a lot of movement, emotion and dynamism. As this sculpture's subject is a calm, idealized, very symmetrical female, this would not be a good representation of Hellenistic sculpture.

This sculpture, called Laocoön and His Sons, is a clear example of late Hellenistic Greek sculpture. It is less focused on symmetry and beauty, and is more focused on the emotion and movement of the scene it is illustrating. The facial expressions and panicked and angry, as opposed to serene or neutral, as seen in Archaic and Classical sculpture. Also, this sculpture features children, which are not often found in Classical and Archaic Greek Sculpture.

The Byzantine period was not a period of Ancient Greek sculpture.

Having been sculpted around 100 BCE, the Venus de Milo is a famous sculpture dating to the Hellenistic era. It was originally thought to have been sculpted during the Classical era, but its elaborate draping, spiral composition, revival of classical touches, and perfect three-dimensionality make it a quintessential example of Hellenistic sculpture.

Image citation: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Venus\_de\_Milo\_Louvre\_Ma399\_n2.jpg

Like many Hellenistic sculptures, the Venus de Milo is made of marble. Specifically, it was carved from white marble believed to have been quarried in Paros, Greece. Ivory and plaster of Paris were not materials used in ancient Greek sculpture.

Image citation: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Venus\_de\_Milo\_Louvre\_Ma399\_n2.jpg

The Venus de Milo is generally agreed to represent Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. (A small minority of scholars believe that the statue in fact represents Amphitrite, a goddess of the sea.) Gods and goddesses such as Zeus, Hades, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite were very popular subjects of not only Hellenistic but also Archaic and Classical Greek artworks.

Image citation: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Venus\_de\_Milo\_Louvre\_Ma399\_n2.jpg

The Venus de Milo displayed in Paris’s Louvre museum is famously missing its original marble arms and plinth. It’s also missing the polychromatic paint and gold or silver jewelry that would have adorned it. A cartouche, on the other hand, is an oval engraving containing hieroglyphs that spell out a person’s name, and it is specific to the art of ancient Egypt.

Image citation: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Venus\_de\_Milo\_Louvre\_Ma399\_n2.jpg

The Discobolus of Myron, named for the Athenian sculptor Myron, dates to the Early Classical period (also described as the Severe style). The statue was created between 480 and 440 BCE. Like many Early Classical works, it is defined by its simple, un-ornate aesthetic, its use of bronze, and its fairly novel portrayal of human emotion and action. The statue is further distinguished as Early Classical by the sculptor’s desire to depict a person in motion, a human moment frozen in time.

The Discobolus of Myron depicts a nude male discus thrower poised in the act of hurling the discus. With his head bent down, his knees bent, and his throwing arm extended behind him, the figure is frozen in a dynamic, athletic posture. Unlike later Greek art, Early Classical sculpture was concerned with portraying ideal human form, and the youthful male nude was considered the most beautiful of all the human forms.

Like many Early Classical sculptures, the Discobolus of Myron was made of bronze. While sometimes more difficult to work with than marble, this medium is generally lighter than stone and allowed for more innovative, dynamic postures.

Also known as the Nike of Samothrace, this famous sculpture depicts the Greek deity Nike, goddess of victory. Nike is traditionally depicted with wings, although the sculpture in question is missing not only its right wing but also its head. The sculpture dates to the 2nd century BCE and is currently housed at the Louvre in Paris.

Like the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace (c. 190 BCE) is a work that came at the pinnacle of the Hellenistic era. As was customary in this era, the statue depicts a female goddess designed to be visually pleasing regardless of what angle it was viewed from (shown in the round). The Winged Victory of Samothrace also exhibits an elaborate draping of clothing (another hallmark of Hellenistic sculpture); in this case, the clothing looks as if it is being blown by a strong breeze.

Like many Hellenistic statues, the Winged Victory of Samothrace is sculpted from marble. Specifically, its body is made of white marble from Paros, Greece, and its base is made of gray marble from Rhodes, Greece. Iron, tin, and ivory were not common materials for ancient Greece sculpture.

This famous mask is named after the legendary ancient Greek King Agamemnon (see Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’s Oresteia). While Tutankhamen’s burial mask is similarly resplendent, the Egyptian burial mask was stylistically much different from the ancient Greek. King Tut’s in particular featured a long, cylindrical beard, lapis lazuli, and turquoise in addition to the gold. The other three masks are fictional objects (but denote historical figures).

(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)