Greek Sculpture

Greek Sculpture Greek Sculpture evolved and transformed throughout the ancient civilization through nearly nine hundred years and three major historical periods. Over the lengthy time that the Greeks prospered, many artists and sculptors worked to perfect the arts that they labored on. They started from the ground up and their art continuously developed from the feet, eventually up to the head where the sculpture was perfected. Each period, from the Geometric to the Hellenistic had significant jumps in skill within the artists, although they can be grouped together by similarities. The Geometric, the Orientalizing and the Archaic periods have many similarities based on how primitive they were. The Early, High and Late Classical sculptures are largely formed from the Canon that Polykleitos developed. Lastly comes the Hellenistic period. It varied so differently from the other periods because of the amount of detail that the sculptures put into their work. The first four hundred and twenty years from 900 to 480 B.C.E., Greek civilization provided sculpture that slowly developed through time. It started with the Geometric period with the Hero and the Centaur. Created later in the Geometric period, the Hero and the Centaur show the most basic form of what the Greek’s created. With triangular heads and disproportionate bodies, arms and legs; there was a lot to be improved upon. Just one example of how fundamental this art piece really is, is how the horse portion of the centaur connects to the human portion. The Greeks in that period did not fully understand how to connect the two bodies without flaws. The next two pieces (Mantiklos Apollo and the Woman of Auxerre) in the

Orientalizing period do show advancement, however they are using triangular shapes and symmetrical patterns in the pieces. The pieces do look more human now with more anatomy placed correctly, but they do have certain incorrect features such as the elongated neck, the short arms and the