Greek Sculpture Research Paper

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Greek sculpture is often thought to exhibit the pinnacle of artistic skill and beauty, depicting the human form through perfect naturalism and representation. No other culture could so beautifully and accurately render the human figure— no other culture had the skill and capacity to replicate exactly what was seen with the eyes. While all these things are true: yes, the Greeks did have the unique ability to replicate with perfect honesty and exactness the figure of a human being, there really is only a small period within Greek sculpture where artists display this skill. For most of ancient Greek civilization, sculptors were either desperately reaching and working towards achieving naturalism, or intentionally rejecting it. The result is that a vast majority of greek sculpture, no matter how seemingly realistic, no matter how beautiful or believable, is actually abstracted. Some of the earliest examples of Greek sculpture come from the Archaic period, occurring around 600 to 480 BCE. This was when the first life-sized, or monumental sized stone statues were created in Greece. Called kouroi, these statues are of young men, often …show more content…
Here, the sculptures actually begin to diverge from the conceptualized abstraction of those which came before them. The figures develop weight-carrying legs and the hips angle to counter the shift of weight throughout the body. Sculptors slowly begin to understand movement and weight within the figure, relaxing the buttocks and shoulders and allowing the head to fall slightly away from the full frontal position. Figures finally begin to appear more life-like, as if they are captured and frozen within an action. Facial expressions become more subtle and natural; the “archaic smile” disappears and whole figures illustrate a certain mood. The figure, although still slightly abstracted, was coming very close to naturalism and beginning to mimic real
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