Greek Classical Art Analysis

Around the times that Athens defeated the Persian Empire and was declared as the strongest Greek city, Classical art was at its peak (480-323 BC). Out of all the Greek cities, Athens was the city that was advanced in politics, economics, and culture. During the period of time that the Athenians were dominating Greece, the classical art style emerged. The philosophical context of classical art is that the Greeks wanted to make sculptures of the perfect bodies so they studied bodies until they did it. The Greeks were able to learn how the body is shaped and then transfer it over onto a medium, where tons of practice resulted in classical art (perfect proportions). The classical style is often depicted with realistic bodies in a natural body shape.
This sculpture was discovered off the coast of Cape Artemision at an ancient shipwreck. This piece is now being held at National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. This piece belongs in the classical time period because you can see the focus is on the anatomy of the body not particularly how the body looked when it moved. Also, Zeus does not have much emotion on his face, which is another characteristic of classical art. Not only does Zeus have a stoic smile but he also possesses other qualities that make him a classical piece of work. His body is proportioned perfectly and he is aligned in a natural stance, which makes him look life like. It is very interesting to see how the Greeks knew the human body well enough to be able to sculpt the perfect proportions on a medium like marble or bronze. The Atemision Zeus is made out of Bronze, which was one of the preferred methods to sculpting because bronze was fairly easy to mold. The height of this Zeus sculpture is 6’10” and that again demonstrates how these sculptures were made to look very grand and