The Ideals of Human Bodies
The ideals of human bodies
Lim Yu Jing
Art History Kristtel Martin 2 October 2012
1.Consider the Greek fascination with creating the perfect human body as you analyze briefly three key sculptural examples from the Hellenistic Age of ancient Greece. Relate to what extent these key sculptures may help to define the idealistic meaning of ‘perfect balance of beauty, harmony and proportion’ to fine artists for this century.
Ancient Greeks were not only superb with philosophy and mathematics but also they were extremely influential in terms of their body sculptures. They believed in theirs gods and goddess taking human forms and therefore created many amazing beautiful bodies. Not only do they want to see their gods in realistic form, they also wanted their gods to be able to watch them and hear their prayers. There was something similar about them compared to the Egyptian culture in the way they approached body forms. The Egyptians were focusing a lot on being orderly with precision and the Ancient Greece were fixated with the human body. Nowadays our modern preoccupation with social idealistic bodies, hitting to the gym so as to be able to have supermodel, ‘perfect’ bodies, finds its real origin here, in the ancient Greek city.
First I’ll talk about a key sculpture in the Hellenistic era that speaks to the Hellenistic ideal. Instead of previous periods of rather stiff and serene sort of sculpture, this Hellenistic sculpture shows more free flowing movement, strong diagonals that dominate the whole composition and extreme intense emotions that are more often exaggerated.
“The strangling of Laocoon and his two sons by sea serpents while sacrificing at an altar. The gods who favored the Greeks in the war against Troy had sent the serpents to punish Laocoon, who had tried to warn his compatriots about the danger of bringing the Greeks’ wooden horse within the walls of their city.”
The composition of this sculpture intentionally shows an emphasis on
Lim Yu Jing
Art History Kristtel Martin 2 October 2012
1.Consider the Greek fascination with creating the perfect human body as you analyze briefly three key sculptural examples from the Hellenistic Age of ancient Greece. Relate to what extent these key sculptures may help to define the idealistic meaning of ‘perfect balance of beauty, harmony and proportion’ to fine artists for this century.
Ancient Greeks were not only superb with philosophy and mathematics but also they were extremely influential in terms of their body sculptures. They believed in theirs gods and goddess taking human forms and therefore created many amazing beautiful bodies. Not only do they want to see their gods in realistic form, they also wanted their gods to be able to watch them and hear their prayers. There was something similar about them compared to the Egyptian culture in the way they approached body forms. The Egyptians were focusing a lot on being orderly with precision and the Ancient Greece were fixated with the human body. Nowadays our modern preoccupation with social idealistic bodies, hitting to the gym so as to be able to have supermodel, ‘perfect’ bodies, finds its real origin here, in the ancient Greek city.
First I’ll talk about a key sculpture in the Hellenistic era that speaks to the Hellenistic ideal. Instead of previous periods of rather stiff and serene sort of sculpture, this Hellenistic sculpture shows more free flowing movement, strong diagonals that dominate the whole composition and extreme intense emotions that are more often exaggerated.
“The strangling of Laocoon and his two sons by sea serpents while sacrificing at an altar. The gods who favored the Greeks in the war against Troy had sent the serpents to punish Laocoon, who had tried to warn his compatriots about the danger of bringing the Greeks’ wooden horse within the walls of their city.”
The composition of this sculpture intentionally shows an emphasis on
Citations: Helen, Gardner. Gardner 's Art Through The Ages: The Western Perspective,. Neil , Collins. Accessed October 2, 2012. http://www.visual-artscork.com/sculpture/venus-de-milo.htm. Accessed October 2, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riace_bronzes. Bilbography http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westciv/hellenisticsculpture.html http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/301176.html http://digital.films.com/play/J4U632 http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/RiaceWarrior.htm http://artandaesthetics.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/laocoon-an-analysis/ http://www.sikyon.com/sicyon/Polykleitos/polycl_egpg1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polykleitos Appendix The Laocoon group. Marble. 1st century A.D. Venus de Milo Alexandros of Antioch 130-100 BC Bronzi di Riace 460–430 B