Classical Societies Essay
Rodrick J. Maynard
March 13, 2011
HUM205
Nina Brown
Axia College of University of Phoenix
Greece The piece I picked in the Classical era is “The Kritios Boy” (fig 3.10) “This work is transitional between Archaic and Classical periods. The rigid frontality of the archaic era is broken by the gentle turn of the head and slight movement in the torso.” (Benton & DiYanni, 2008 page 74 Chap. 3) This was created by Kritios whose work was mostly known for Roman copies and done during the beginning of the Greeks classical period. The sculpture is known as a contrapposto which is a pose created by the Greeks in which it head is turned slightly and is positioned in a relaxed and natural state and the body is anatomically correct and detailed and unlike earlier Greek sculptures it is missing the smile. Kritios was created to specify the anatomical growth of the body and the way it all worked together. The next piece I picked is from Hellenistic era “The bust of Alexander the Great” (fig.3.19) this bust was created to honor Alexander the Great who was known to most as a womanizer and an excessive drinker but besides that he was one of the great generals who had enormous success in many of his military conquest during the Hellenistic era. The difference in appearance and style of both artworks and the time periods is that in the classical era most sculptures were full body art and were created to exact proportion and scale which were carried over from the precise proportion and scale which was used to design temples and unlike the Hellenistic era which was mostly bust of generals and other figure heads and other pieces which depicted the action, violence, and the emotion of the giant battles which were carried out during this era and help create the Hellenistic period of art. The subject matter of both were definitely different During the classical Greek era art was created with the major concerns of balance, order and idealized in which the sculpture was to depict and the art from Hellenistic Greek era kept its focus on a particular subject or individual battles in which it incorporated the emotional state of the individual situations.
Rome
The piece I picked in the Roman Republic era is “A Roman Patrician with busts of his ancestors” (fig.4.10) this piece is life size sculpture wearing a toga which was common garments wore in the Republican era and made of marble which depicts a Roman man holding the busts of two people. The next piece is from the Roman Empire era which is Augustus of Primaporta this piece is a life size marble figure with a cupid riding on a dolphin and its right arm raised in as if he was addressing the troops which was a common pose was created to help glorify him and his reign of peace during the Roman
