Hope Athena Sculpture
The artwork is The Hope Athena was carved using marble by the Romans at the School of Pheidias. This is a 2nd century copy after a Greek original of the late 5th century BC. The sculpture is located at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Hope Athena sculpture is simple to complex in the way that the statue was created to the display by the museum. There are many details that can be noticed when looking up closely from the head to the toes of the sculpture. The first detail is the head of Athena; the sculpture’s face was broad with soft, naturalistic facial features. Athena’s head is slightly turn to the left and looking down at the viewer. The sculpture has hollowed eyes, suggesting that they could have gemstones in the eye sockets.
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The front of the sculpture is half in the round where the viewer can walk around to look at the details, but the back of the sculpture is situated against the wall. The material is marble, where the color was perhaps white to light eggshell cream color and some light dirt spots due to inevitable of time. It was hard to tell the color of the statue due to the yellow color ceiling lights pointing directly at the statue. However, due to the direction of the light, it created shadows from the face, following to the fold of the fabrics, and then to the back of the statue. The statue is in a contrapposto pose where the right leg is facing forward and the left leg is slightly bended at an almost 90 degrees angle. The left or the right arm could hold an item, such as a spear, and the other arm could be down on the side. The statue is very static, but a bit dynamic where Athena’s hollowed eyes follow the viewers. There are a few symmetrical features of Athena, such as the head, the breastplate, and the feet. However, there are also asymmetrical features as well, such as the fabric folds of the garments. The statue has a clear and ambiguous feeling to it; it is clear that it is Athena, however, it is ambiguous because the creation of Athena is unknown and Athena’s arms were damaged, so the viewers do not know what Athena was
The front of the sculpture is half in the round where the viewer can walk around to look at the details, but the back of the sculpture is situated against the wall. The material is marble, where the color was perhaps white to light eggshell cream color and some light dirt spots due to inevitable of time. It was hard to tell the color of the statue due to the yellow color ceiling lights pointing directly at the statue. However, due to the direction of the light, it created shadows from the face, following to the fold of the fabrics, and then to the back of the statue. The statue is in a contrapposto pose where the right leg is facing forward and the left leg is slightly bended at an almost 90 degrees angle. The left or the right arm could hold an item, such as a spear, and the other arm could be down on the side. The statue is very static, but a bit dynamic where Athena’s hollowed eyes follow the viewers. There are a few symmetrical features of Athena, such as the head, the breastplate, and the feet. However, there are also asymmetrical features as well, such as the fabric folds of the garments. The statue has a clear and ambiguous feeling to it; it is clear that it is Athena, however, it is ambiguous because the creation of Athena is unknown and Athena’s arms were damaged, so the viewers do not know what Athena was