Stages of development of ancient Greek sculpture. Stages of development of ancient Greek sculpture: Stages of development of ancient Greek sculpture Features of sculpture of ancient Greece briefly

The sculpture of ancient Greece, like all ancient art, is a special example, mastery and a kind of ideal. Ancient Greek art, and especially the sculpture of Ancient Greece, had a very significant impact on the development of world culture. It was the foundation on which European civilization later grew. The beautiful statues of Greek sculptors were made of stone, limestone, bronze, marble, wood and were decorated with magnificent items made of precious metals and stones. They were installed in the main squares of cities, on the graves of famous Greeks, in temples and even in rich Greek houses. The main principle of sculpture in Ancient Greece was a combination of beauty and strength, idealization of a person and his body. The ancient Greeks believed that only a perfect soul can be in a perfect, ideal body.

The development of sculpture in Ancient Greece can be divided into three significant stages. This is archaic - VI-VII century BC. Classics, which, in turn, can be divided into periods of the early - beginning of the 5th century BC, high classics - this is the end of the 5th century BC, and late - the 6th century BC. And the last stage is Hellenism. Also, from the descriptions of ancient historians, one can understand that there was a sculpture of Homeric Greece, but only small figurines and vessels decorated with painting have survived to our times. Each of these stages of Greek culture has its own unique features.

Archaic period
During this period, ancient Greek artists strove to create the ideal image of a man and a woman. The sculpture was dominated by the figures of naked young warriors called kuros. They had to show the valor, physical health and strength of a person, which were acquired in sports of that time. The second example of art from this period was the bark. These are girls draped in long clothes, in which the ideal of femininity and primordial purity was expressed. At this time, the so-called "archaic smile" appeared, which inspired the faces of the statues.

Prominent examples of surviving sculptures from the Archaic period are the Kouros of Piraeus, which adorns the Athens Museum today, and the Goddess with the Pomegranate and the Goddess with the Hare, which are kept in the Berlin State Museum. The sculpture of the brothers Kleobis and Biton from Argos is quite famous, which delight the eyes of lovers of Greek art in the Delphic Museum.

During the archaic times, monumental sculpture, in which relief plays the main role, also occupies an important place. These are rather large sculptural compositions, often depicting events described in the myths of Ancient Greece. For example, on the pediment of the temple of Artemis, the actions taking place in the story of Medusa the Gorgon and the brave Perseus, known to everyone from childhood, were depicted.

Early classics
With the transition to the classical period, the immobility, one might say, the static nature of archaic sculptures, is gradually replaced by emotional figures captured in motion. The so-called spatial movement appears. The poses of the figures are so far simple and natural, for example, a girl undoing a sandal, or a runner preparing for the start.
Perhaps one of the most famous statues of that period is the "Discobolus" by the author Myron, who made a very significant contribution to the art of the early classics of Greece. The figure was cast in bronze in 470 BC and depicts an athlete preparing to throw a disc. His body is perfect and harmonious, and ready to throw the next second.

Another great sculptor of that time was Polycletus. Most famous today is his work called "Dorifor", created between 450 and 440 BC. This is a spear-bearer, powerful, reserved and full of dignity. He is filled with inner strength and, as it were, shows the desire of the Greek people of those times for sublimity, harmony and peace. Unfortunately, the originals of these sculptures of Ancient Greece, cast in bronze, have not survived to this day. We can only admire their copies made from various materials.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a bronze statue of the god Poseidon was found at the bottom of the sea near Cape Artemision. He is depicted as majestic, formidable, holding his hand in which he held a trident. This statue, as it were, marks the transition from the early to high classical period.

High classic
The direction of high classics pursued a double goal. On the one hand, to show all the beauty of movement in sculpture, and, on the other hand, to combine the external immobility of the figure with the inner breath of life. The great sculptor Phidias succeeded in uniting these two aspirations in his work. He is famous, in particular, for decorating the ancient Parthenon with a beautiful marble sculpture.

He also created a magnificent masterpiece "Athena Parthenos", which, unfortunately, died in ancient times. In the National Museum of Archeology of the city of Athens, you can see only a reduced copy of this statue.
The great artist has created many more masterpieces during his creative life. This is the statue of Athena Promachos in the Acropolis, which amazes with its enormous size and grandeur, and, no less colossal, the figure of Zeus in the temple of Olympia, which was later ranked among one of the amazing seven wonders of the world.
It can be bitterly admitted that our vision of ancient Greek sculpture is far from the truth. It is almost impossible to see the originals of statues from that era. Many of them were destroyed during the redistribution of the Mediterranean world. And yet another of the reasons for the destruction of these greatest monuments of art was their destruction by fanatically believing Christians. We are left with only their copies of the Roman masters of the 1st-2nd centuries AD and descriptions of ancient historians.

Late classic
In the times related to the late classics, the sculpture of Ancient Greece began to be characterized by the plasticity of movements and the elaboration of the smallest details. The figures began to be distinguished by grace, flexibility, the first nude female bodies began to appear. One of the striking examples of this splendor is the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus by the sculptor Praxiteles.

The ancient Roman writer Pliny said that this statue was considered the most beautiful statue of those times, and many pilgrims flocked to Cnidus, wishing to see it. This is the first work in which Praxiteles depicted a naked female body. The interesting story behind this statue is that the sculpture created two figures - a naked and a clothed one. The inhabitants of Kos, who ordered the statue of Aphrodite, chose the dressed goddess, being afraid to risk it, despite all the beauty of this masterpiece. And the nude sculpture was acquired by the inhabitants of the city of Cnidus, located in Asia Minor, and thanks to this, they became famous.

Another prominent representative of the late classics was Skopas. He strove to express violent passions and emotions in his sculptures. Notable works include the statue of Apollo Kifared, also of Ares' Villa Ludovisi, and a sculpture called the Niobids dying around their mother.

Hellenistic period
The time of Hellenism is characterized by a rather powerful influence of the East on all the art of Greece. This fate did not escape the sculpture. Sensuality, oriental temperament and emotionality began to penetrate into the majestic poses and sublimity of the classics. Artists began to complicate foreshortenings, to use luxurious draperies. Nude female beauty has ceased to be something unusual, blasphemous and defiant.

At this time, a huge number of different statues of the naked goddess Aphrodite or Venus appeared. One of the most famous statues to this day remains Venus de Milo, created by the master Alexander sometime in 120 BC. We are all accustomed to seeing her images without hands, but it is believed that initially the goddess held her falling clothes with one hand, and in the other hand she held an apple. Her image combines tenderness, strength, and beauty of the physical body.

Also very famous statues of this period are Aphrodite of Cyrene and Laocoon and his sons. The last work is filled with strong emotions, drama and extraordinary realism.
The main theme of the sculptural work of Ancient Greece, apparently, was a person. Indeed, man was nowhere more appreciated than in that very ancient Greek civilization.

With the development of culture, sculptors tried to convey through their works more and more human feelings and emotions. All these majestic masterpieces, created tens of hundreds of years ago, still attract the attention of people, and affect modern art lovers in a bewitching and incredibly impressive way.

Conclusion
It is difficult to single out any one period in the development of ancient Greek culture, and not to find in it the rapid flowering of sculpture. This kind of art was constantly developing and improving, reaching special beauty in the classical era, but after it did not fade away, still remaining the leading one. It is certainly possible to correlate the sculpture and architecture of ancient Greece, but only in comparison, it is unacceptable to identify them. And this is impossible, because a sculpture is not a monumental structure, but a skillfully sculpted masterpiece. Most often, ancient sculptors turned to the image of a person.

In their works, they paid special attention to postures, the presence of movement. They tried to create living images, as if not a stone in front of us, but living flesh and blood. And they did it well, mainly due to a responsible approach to business. Knowledge of anatomy and a general understanding of the human character allowed the ancient Greek masters to achieve what many modern sculptors still cannot comprehend.

ancient greek sculpture classic

Ancient Greek sculpture of the Classical period

Speaking about the art of ancient civilizations, first of all we remember and study the art of Ancient Greece, and especially its sculpture. Indeed, in this small beautiful country, this kind of art has risen to such a height that it is considered the standard throughout the world to this day. Studying the sculptures of Ancient Greece allows us to better understand the worldview of the Greeks, their philosophy, ideals and aspirations. In sculpture, like nowhere else, an attitude towards a person is manifested, who in Ancient Greece was the measure of all things. It is sculpture that gives us the opportunity to judge the religious, philosophical and aesthetic ideas of the ancient Greeks. All this allows us to better understand the reasons for this rise, development and fall of this civilization.

The development of ancient Greek civilization is divided into several stages - eras. First, briefly, I will tell you about the Archaic era, as it preceded the classical era and "set the tone" in sculpture.

The archaic period is the beginning of the formation of ancient Greek sculpture. This era was also divided into the early archaic (650 - 580 BC), high (580 - 530 BC), and late (530 - 480 BC). The sculpture was the embodiment of the ideal person. She exalted his beauty, physical perfection. Early single sculptures are represented by two main types: the image of a naked young man - a kouros and a figure dressed in a long, tight-fitting girl's chiton - bark.

The sculpture of this era was very similar to the Egyptian ones. And this is not surprising: the Greeks, getting acquainted with the Egyptian culture and the cultures of other countries of the Ancient East, borrowed a lot, and in other cases discovered similarities between them. Certain canons were observed in the sculpture, therefore they were very geometric and static: a person takes a step forward, his shoulders are straightened, and his arms are lowered along the body, a silly smile always plays on his lips. In addition, the sculptures were painted: golden hair, blue eyes, pink cheeks.

At the beginning of the classical era, these canons are still in effect, but later the author begins to move away from statics, the sculpture acquires character, and an event, an action, often occurs.

Classical sculpture is the second era in the development of ancient Greek culture. It is also divided into stages: early classic or strict style (490 - 450 BC), high (450 - 420 BC), rich style (420 - 390 BC .), late classic (390 - c. 320 BC).

In the era of the early classics, a kind of life rethinking takes place. The sculpture takes on a heroic character. Art is freed from those rigid frameworks that fettered it in the archaic era, this is a time of searching for a new, intensive development of various schools and trends, creating diverse works. The two types of figures - the kouros and the bark - are being replaced by a much greater variety of types; sculptures strive to convey the complex movement of the human body.

All this is happening against the backdrop of the war with the Persians, and it was this war that changed ancient Greek thinking so much. The cultural centers were displaced and now these are the cities of Athens, the Northern Peloponnese and the Greek West. By that time, Greece had reached the highest point of economic, political and cultural recovery. Athens took a leading position in the alliance of Greek cities. Greek society was democratic, built on the basis of equal activity. All men inhabiting Athens, except for slaves, were equal citizens. And they all enjoyed the right to vote and could be elected to any public office. The Greeks were in harmony with nature and did not suppress their natural urges. Everything that the Greeks did was the property of the people. Statues stood in churches and squares, on palasters and on the seashore. They were present on the pediments, in the decorations of temples. As in the archaic era, sculptures were painted.

Unfortunately, Greek sculpture has come down to us mainly in rubble. Although, according to Plutarch, there were more statues in Athens than living people. Many statues have come down to us in Roman copies. But they are quite crude compared to the Greek originals.

One of the most famous sculptors of the early classics is Pythagoras of Regia. Few of his works have come down to us, and his works are known only from the references of ancient authors. Pythagoras became famous for the realistic depiction of human veins, veins and hair. Several Roman copies of his sculptures have survived: "The Boy Taking Out a Splinter", "Hyacinth" and others. In addition, he is credited with the famous bronze statue "Charioteer" found in Delphi. Pythagoras of Regia created several bronze statues of athletes who won the Olympic and Delphic Games. And he owns the statues of Apollo - the Pythono killer, the Abduction of Europa, Eteocles, Polynices and the Wounded Philoctetes.

It is known that Pythagoras of Regia was a contemporary and rival of Myron. This is another famous sculptor of that time. And he became famous as the greatest realist and connoisseur of anatomy. But with all this, Miron did not know how to give the faces of his works life and expression. Myron created statues of athletes - winners of competitions, reproduced famous heroes, gods and animals, especially perfectly portrayed difficult poses that looked very realistic.

The best example of such a sculpture of him is the world famous "Discobolus". Ancient writers also mention the famous sculpture of Marsyas with Athena. This famous sculptural group has come down to us in several copies. In addition to people, Miron also portrayed animals, his image of "Cow" is especially famous.

Mostly Myron worked in bronze, his works have not survived and are known from the testimony of ancient authors and Roman copies. He was also a master of toreutics - he made metal cups with relief images.

Another famous sculptor of this period is Kalamides. He performed marble, bronze and chryselephantine statues, and depicted mainly gods, female heroic figures and horses. The art of Kalamides can be judged by a copy of a later time that has come down to us with a statue of Hermes carrying a ram that he performed for Tanagra. The figure of the god himself is executed in the archaic style, with the immobility of posture and symmetry of the arrangement of the limbs characteristic of this style; but the ram carried by Hermes is already distinguished by a certain vitality.

In addition, the pediments and metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia are among the monuments of ancient Greek sculpture of the early classics. Another significant work of the early classics is the so-called "Throne of Ludovisi". This is a three-sided marble altar depicting the birth of Aphrodite, on the sides of the altar there are getters and the bride, symbolizing different hypostases of love or images of serving the goddess.

High classics are represented by the names Phidias and Polykleitos. Its short-term flowering is associated with works on the Athenian Acropolis, that is, with the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. The pinnacle of ancient Greek sculpture was apparently the statues of Athena Parthenos and Olympian Zeus by Phidias.

Phidias is one of the best representatives of the classical style, and about its significance it is enough to say that he is considered the founder of European art. The Attic school of sculpture headed by him occupied a leading place in the art of high classics.

Phidias possessed knowledge of the achievements of optics. There is a story about his rivalry with Alkamen: both were ordered statues of Athena, which were supposed to be erected on high columns. Phidias made his statue in accordance with the height of the column - on the ground, it seemed ugly and disproportionate. The goddess's neck was very long. When both statues were erected on high pedestals, the correctness of Phidias became obvious. They note the great skill of Phidias in the interpretation of clothing, in which he surpasses both Miron and Polycletus.

Most of his works have not survived, we can only judge about them from descriptions of ancient authors and copies. Nevertheless, his fame was colossal. And there were so many of them that what was left was already a lot. The most famous works of Phidias - Zeus and Athena Parthenos - were executed in the chrysoelephantine technique - gold and ivory.

The statue of Zeus in height, together with the pedestal, was, according to various sources, from 12 to 17 meters. Zeus' eyes were the size of a grown man's fist. A cape that covered part of Zeus's body, a scepter with an eagle in his left hand, a statue of the goddess Nike in his right and a wreath on his head are made of gold. Zeus sits on a throne, four dancing Nicky are depicted on the legs of the throne. Also depicted: centaurs, lapiths, the exploits of Theseus and Hercules, frescoes depicting the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons.

The Athena Parthenon was, like the statue of Zeus, huge and made in the chryso-elephantine technique. Only the goddess, unlike her father, did not sit on the throne, but stood in full growth. “Athena herself is made of ivory and gold ... The statue depicts her in full growth in a chiton to the very feet, on her chest is the head of Medusa made of ivory, in her hand she holds an image of Nike, about four cubits in length, and in the other hand - - a spear. At her feet lies a shield, and near the spear a serpent; this snake is probably Erichthonius. " (Description of Hellas, XXIV, 7).

The goddess's helmet had three combs: the middle one with a sphinx, the side ones with griffins. As Pliny the Elder writes, a battle with the Amazons was engraved on the outside of the shield, the battle of the gods with giants was on the inside, and the centauromachia was depicted on the sandals of Athena. The base was decorated with a story with Pandora. The goddess's chiton, her shield, sandals, helmet and jewelry are all made of gold.

On marble copies, the hand of the goddess with Nika is supported by a pillar, whether it existed in the original is the subject of much controversy. Nika seems tiny; in reality, her height was 2 meters.

Athena Promachos is a colossal depiction of the goddess Athena brandishing a spear on the Athenian Acropolis. Erected to commemorate the victories over the Persians. Its height reached 18.5 meters and towered over all the surrounding buildings, shining from afar over the city. Unfortunately, this bronze goddess has not survived to this day. And we know about it only from chronicle sources.

Athena Lemnia - a bronze statue of the goddess Athena, created by Phidias, is also known to us from copies. This bronze statue depicts a goddess leaning on a spear. Named - from the island of Lemnos, for the inhabitants of which it was made.

The wounded Amazon, the statue that came second in the famous sculptor competition for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. In addition to the above sculptures, Phidias is credited with others, in terms of stylistic similarity: a statue of Demeter, a statue of Cora, a relief from Eleusis, Anadumen (a young man tying a band around his head), Hermes Ludovisi, Apollo of Tiber, Apollo of Kassel.

Despite his talent, or rather a divine gift, Phidias, his relationship with the inhabitants of Athens was not at all warm. As Plutarch writes, in his "Life of Pericles", Phidias was the main adviser and assistant to Pericles (Athenian politician, famous orator and commander).

“Since he was a friend of Pericles and enjoyed great authority with him, he had many personal enemies and envious people. They persuaded one of Phidias' assistants, Menon, to denounce Phidias and accuse him of theft. Envy of the fame of his works gravitated over Phidias ... When his case was examined in the National Assembly, there was no evidence of theft. But Phidias was sent to prison and died of illness there. "

Polycletus the Elder is an ancient Greek sculptor and art theorist, a contemporary of Phidias. Unlike Phidias, he was not so large. However, his sculpture has a certain character: Polycletus liked to portray athletes at rest, specialized in portraying athletes, Olympic winners. He was the first to think of giving the figures such a setting so that they rest on the lower part of only one leg. Polyclet knew how to show the human body in a state of balance - his human figure at rest or at a slow pace seems mobile and lively. An example of this is the famous statue of Polycletus "Dorifor" (spear-bearer). It is in this work that Polycletus' ideas about the ideal proportions of the human body, which are numerically with each other, are embodied. It was believed that the figure was created on the basis of the provisions of Pythagoreanism, therefore, in ancient times, the statue of Dorifor was often called the "canon of Polycletus". The forms of this statue are repeated in most of the works of the sculptor and his school. The distance from the chin to the crown of the statues of Polycletus is one seventh, while the distance from the eyes to the chin is one sixteenth, and the height of the face is one tenth of the whole figure. Polycletus is strongly associated with the Pythagorean tradition. "The Canon of Polycletus" is a theoretical treatise by the sculptor, created by Polycletus so that other artists can use it. Indeed, the Canon of Polycletus had a great influence on European culture, despite the fact that only two fragments have survived from the theoretical composition, information about it is fragmentary, and the mathematical basis has not yet been finally derived.

In addition to the spearman, other works of the sculptor are known: "Diadumenus" ("A young man tying a bandage"), "Wounded Amazon", a colossal statue of Hera in Argos. It was performed in the chryso-elephantine technique and was perceived as a pandanus to Zeus Olympian Phidias, "Discopor" ("A young man holding a disc"). Unfortunately, these sculptures have survived only in ancient Roman copies.

At the stage "Rich Style" we know the names of such sculptors as Alkamen, Agorakrit, Callimachus, etc.

Alkamenus, Greek sculptor, apprentice, rival and successor to Phidias. It was believed that Alkamen was not inferior to Phidias, and after the death of the latter, he became the leading sculptor in Athens. His Hermes in the form of a herm (a pillar surmounted by the head of Hermes) is known in many copies. Nearby, near the temple of Athena Nike, there was a statue of Hecate, which was in the form of three figures connected by backs. On the Acropolis of Athens, a group belonging to Alkamen was also found - Prokna, who raised a knife over their son Itis, who is looking for salvation in the folds of her clothes. In the sanctuary on the slope of the Acropolis, there was a statue of a seated Dionysus belonging to Alkamen. Alkamen also created a statue of Ares for the temple in the agora and a statue of Hephaestus for the temple of Hephaestus and Athena.

Alkamen defeated Agorakritus in the competition to create a statue of Aphrodite. However, even more famous is the seated "Aphrodite in the Gardens" at the northern foot of the Acropolis. She is depicted in many red-figure Attic vases, surrounded by Eros, Peyto and other embodiments of the happiness that love brings. Often repeated by ancient copyists, the head called "Sappho" was possibly copied from this statue. Alkamen's last work is a colossal relief with Hercules and Athena. Alkamen probably died soon after.

Agorakrit was also a pupil of Phidias, and, as they say, beloved. He, like Alkamen, participated in the creation of the frieze of the Parthenon. Two of the most famous works of Agorakrit are the cult statue of the goddess Nemesis (altered after the duel with Alkamen Athena), donated to the Ramnos temple and the statue of the Mother of the Gods in Athens (sometimes attributed to Phidias). Of the works mentioned by ancient authors, only the statues of Zeus-Hades and Athena in Coronea undoubtedly belonged to Agoracritus. Of his works, only a part of the head of the colossal statue of Nemesis and fragments of reliefs that adorned the base of this statue have survived. According to Pausanias, young Helen (daughter of Nemesis) was depicted on the base, with Leda, her husband, Menelaus, and other relatives of Helen and Menelaus.

The general character of sculpture in the late classics was determined by the development of realistic tendencies.

Scopas is one of the largest sculptors of this period. Skopas, preserving the traditions of monumental art of the high classics, saturates his works with drama, he reveals the complex feelings and experiences of a person. The heroes of Skopas continue to embody the perfect qualities of strong and valiant people. However, Skopas introduces the theme of suffering, internal breakdown into the art of sculpture. These are the images of wounded soldiers from the pediments of the temple of Athena Alei in Tegea. Plastic, sharp restless play of light and shade emphasizes the drama of what is happening.

Skopas preferred to work in marble, almost abandoning the material, beloved by the masters of the high classics, - bronze. Marble made it possible to convey a subtle play of light and shadow, a variety of textured contrasts. His Menad (Bacchante), which has survived in a small damaged antique copy, embodies the image of a man possessed by a violent outburst of passion. The Maenada's dance is swift, her head is thrown back, her hair falls in a heavy wave on her shoulders. The movement of the curved folds of her tunic accentuates the impetuous rush of the body.

The images of Skopas are sometimes deeply thoughtful, like a young man from the tombstone of the Ilissa River, sometimes alive and passionate.

The original preserved the frieze of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus depicting the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons.

The impact of Scopas's art on the further development of Greek plastic art was enormous, and it can only be compared with the impact of the art of his contemporary, Praxiteles.

In his work, Praxitel refers to images imbued with the spirit of clear and pure harmony, calm thoughtfulness, serene contemplation. Praxiteles and Skopas complement each other, revealing the various states and feelings of a person, his inner world.

Depicting harmoniously developed, beautiful heroes, Praxitel also reveals connections with the art of high classics, but his images lose that heroism and monumental grandeur of the works of the heyday, however, they acquire a more lyrically refined and contemplative character.

The mastery of Praxiteles is most fully revealed in the marble group "Hermes with Dionysus". The graceful curve of the figure, the relaxed posture of resting a young slender body, the beautiful, soulful face of Hermes are conveyed with great skill.

Praxiteles created a new ideal of female beauty, embodying it in the image of Aphrodite, who is depicted at the moment when, taking off her clothes, she is about to step into the water. Although the sculpture was intended for cult purposes, the image of the beautiful naked goddess was freed from solemn majesty. "Aphrodite of Cnidus" caused many repetitions in subsequent times, but none of them could compare with the original.

The sculpture "Apollo Saurocton" is an image of a graceful teenage boy who is aiming at a lizard running along a tree trunk. Praxitel rethinks mythological images, features of everyday life, elements of the genre appear in them.

If in the art of Scopas and Praxiteles, connections with the principles of the art of the high classics are still tangible, then in artistic culture, in the last third of the 4th century. BC e., these ties are increasingly weakening.

Macedonia is of great importance in the social and political life of the ancient world. Just as the war with the Persians changed and rethought the culture of Greece at the beginning of the 5th century. BC NS. After the victorious campaigns of Alexander the Great and his conquest of the Greek city-states, and then the vast territories of Asia that became part of the Macedonian state, a new stage in the development of ancient society begins - the period of Hellenism. The transition period from the late classics to the Hellenistic period proper is distinguished by its peculiar features.

Lysippos is the last great master of the late classics. His work unfolds in the 40s and 30s. V century BC e., during the reign of Alexander the Great. In the art of Lysippos, as well as in the work of his great predecessors, the task of revealing human experiences was solved. He began to introduce more clearly expressed features of age, occupation. New in the work of Lysippos is his interest in the characteristically expressive in man, as well as the expansion of the pictorial possibilities of sculpture.

Lysippos embodied his understanding of the image of a person in the sculpture of a young man, scraper cleaning sand from himself after the competition - "Apoxyomenus", which he depicts not in a moment of exertion, but in a state of fatigue. The slender figure of the athlete is shown in a complex spread that forces the viewer to walk around the sculpture. The movement is freely deployed in space. The face expresses fatigue, deep-set, shaded eyes gaze into the distance.

Lysippos skillfully conveys the transition from a state of rest to action and vice versa. This is the image of Hermes at rest.

The work of Lysippos was of great importance for the development of the portrait. In the portraits of Alexander the Great he created, there is a deep interest in revealing the hero's spiritual world. Most notable is the marble head of Alexander, which conveys his complex, contradictory nature.

Lysippos' art occupies a border zone at the turn of the classical and Hellenistic eras. It is still true to classical concepts, but already undermines them from the inside, creating the basis for the transition to something different, more relaxed and more prosaic. In this sense, the head of a fist fighter is indicative, which does not belong to Lysippos, but, possibly, to his brother Lysistratus, who was also a sculptor and, as they said, was the first to use masks removed from the model's face for portraits (which was widespread in Ancient Egypt, but Greek art is completely alien). It is possible that the head of the fist fighter was also made with the help of the mask; it is far from the canon, far from the ideal ideas of physical perfection, which the Greeks embodied in the image of an athlete. This winner in fistfighting is not in the least like a demigod, just an entertainer of the idle crowd. His face is rough, his nose is flattened, his ears are swollen. This type of "naturalistic" images later became widespread in Hellenism; An even more unsightly fist fighter was sculpted by the Attic sculptor Apollonius already in the 1st century BC. NS.

The classical period of ancient Greek sculpture falls on the 5th - 4th centuries BC. (early classics or "strict style" - 500/490 - 460/450 BC; high - 450 - 430/420 BC; "rich style" - 420 - 400/390 BC; Late Classic - 400/390 - OK. 320 BC BC NS.). At the turn of two eras - archaic and classical - there is a sculptural decoration of the temple of Athena Aphaia on the island of Aegina . The sculptures of the western pediment date back to the time of the foundation of the temple (510 - 500 BC BC BC), sculptures of the second eastern, replacing the previous ones, - to the early classical time (490 - 480 BC). The central monument of ancient Greek sculpture of the early classics is the pediments and metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (about 468 - 456 BC BC NS.). Another significant work of the early classics is the so-called "Throne of Ludovisi", decorated with reliefs. A number of bronze originals also came down from this time - "Delphic charioteer", statue of Poseidon from Cape Artemisium, Bronze from Riace . The largest sculptors of the early classics - Pythagoras Regian, Calamides and Myron . We judge the work of the famous Greek sculptors mainly from literary testimonies and later copies of their works. High classics are represented by the names Phidias and Polycletus . Its short-term flowering is associated with works on the Athenian Acropolis, that is, with the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon (pediments, metopes and zophoros survived, 447 - 432 BC). The pinnacle of ancient Greek sculpture was apparently chrysoelephantine statues of Athena Parthenos and Zeus the Olympic by Phidias (both have not survived). "Rich style" is characteristic of the works of Callimachus, Alkamen, Agorakrita and other sculptors of the end of the 5th century BC Its characteristic monuments are the balustrade reliefs of the small temple of Nika Apteros on the Athenian Acropolis (circa 410 BC) and a number of gravestone steles, among which the most famous is the Gegeso stele . The most important works of ancient Greek sculpture of the late classics - decoration of the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus (about 400 - 375 BC), Temple of Athena Alei in Tegea (about 370 - 350 BC), the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (about 355 - 330 BC) and the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus (c. 350 BC), on the sculptural decoration of which Scopas, Briaxides, Timothy worked and Leohar . The latter is also attributed to the statues of Apollo Belvedere and Diana of Versailles . There are also a number of bronze originals of the 4th century. BC NS. The largest sculptors of the late classics are Praxitel, Skopas and Lysippos, in many ways anticipated the subsequent era of Hellenism.

Greek sculpture has been partially preserved in debris and fragments. Most of the statues are known to us from Roman copies, which were performed in great numbers, but did not convey the beauty of the originals. Roman copyists roughened and dried them, and, converting bronze items into marble, disfigured them with clumsy props. The large figures of Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Satyr, which we now see in the halls of the Hermitage, are only pale retellings of Greek masterpieces. You pass them almost indifferently and suddenly stop in front of some head with a broken nose, with a damaged eye: this is a Greek original! And the amazing force of life will suddenly blow from this fragment; the marble itself is different from that in Roman statues - not deathly white, but yellowish, transparent, luminous (the Greeks still rubbed it with wax, which gave the marble a warm tone). So gentle are the melting transitions of light and shade, so noble is the soft sculpting of the face that one involuntarily recalls the delights of the Greek poets: these sculptures really breathe, they are really alive * * Dmitrieva, Akimova. Antique art. Essays. - M., 1988.S. 52.

In the sculpture of the first half of the century, when there were wars with the Persians, a courageous, austere style prevailed. Then a statuary group of tyrannicides was created: a mature husband and a young man, standing side by side, make an impetuous movement forward, the younger brings the sword, the older obscures it with a cloak. This is a monument to historical figures - Harmodius and Aristogiton, who killed the Athenian tyrant Hipparchus several decades earlier - the first political monument in Greek art. At the same time, it expresses the heroic spirit of resistance and love of freedom that flared up in the era of the Greco-Persian wars. “They are not mortals' slaves, they are not subject to anyone,” says the Athenians in the tragedy of Aeschylus “The Persians”.

Battles, fights, exploits of heroes ... The art of the early classics is full of these warlike subjects. On the pediments of the temple of Athena in Aegina - the struggle of the Greeks against the Trojans. On the western pediment of the temple of Zeus in Olympia - the struggle of the Lapiths with the centaurs, on the metopes - all twelve labors of Hercules. Another favorite set of motives is gymnastic competitions; in those distant times, physical fitness and mastery of body movements were of decisive importance for the outcome of battles, so athletic games were far from just entertainment. Since the 8th century BC. NS. in Olympia, gymnastic competitions were held every four years (their beginning was later considered the beginning of the Greek chronology), and in the 5th century they were celebrated with special solemnity, and now they were attended by poets who recited poetry. The Temple of Olympian Zeus - the classic Doric peripter - was in the center of the sacred district where the competitions took place, they began with a sacrifice to Zeus. On the eastern pediment of the temple, the sculptural composition depicted a solemn moment before the beginning of the horse stadiums: in the center - the figure of Zeus, on either side of it - the statues of the mythological heroes Pelope and Enomai, the main participants in the upcoming competition, in the corners - their chariots harnessed by four horses. According to the myth, the winner was Pelop, in whose honor the Olympic Games were established, later resumed, as legend said, by Hercules himself.

The themes of hand-to-hand fights, equestrian competitions, running competitions, and discus throwing taught sculptors to depict the human body in dynamics. The archaic stiffness of the figures was overcome. Now they are acting, moving; complex poses, bold camera angles, grand gestures appear. The brightest innovator was the Attic sculptor Miron. Myron's main task was to express the movement as fully and strongly as possible. Metal does not allow such precise and delicate work as marble, and perhaps that is why he turned to finding the rhythm of movement. (The name of rhythm means the total harmony of the movement of all parts of the body.) Indeed, the rhythm was perfectly captured by Myron. In the statues of athletes, he conveyed not only movement, but the transition from one stage of movement to another, as if stopping the moment. This is his famous "Discobolus". The athlete bent down and swung before throwing, a second - and the disc will fly, the athlete will straighten. But for that second his body froze in a very difficult position, but visually balanced.

The balance, the stately "ethos", is preserved in classical sculpture of the strict style. The movement of the figures is neither erratic, nor overly agitated, nor too impetuous. Even in the dynamic motives of the fight, running, falling, the feeling of “Olympic calmness”, integral plastic completeness, and self-isolation is not lost. Here is a bronze statue of the Charioteer found at Delphi, one of the few well-preserved Greek originals. It belongs to the early period of the austere style - around 470 BC. e .. This young man stands very erect (he stood on a chariot and ruled a quadriga of horses), his bare feet, the folds of a long tunic remind of the deep flutes of Doric columns, his head is tightly covered with a silvered bandage, his inlaid eyes look as if they were alive. He is restrained, calm and at the same time full of energy and will. This bronze figure alone, with its strong, cast plastic, one can feel the full measure of human dignity as the ancient Greeks understood it.

Their art at this stage was dominated by courageous images, but, fortunately, a beautiful relief with the image of Aphrodite emerging from the sea, the so-called "throne of Ludovisi", is a sculptural triptych, the upper part of which has been repulsed. In its central part, the goddess of beauty and love, "froth-born", rises from the waves, supported by two nymphs, who chastely shield her with a light veil. It is visible to the waist. Her body and the bodies of nymphs shine through transparent tunics, folds of clothes pour in a cascade, a stream, like jets of water, like music. On the side parts of the triptych there are two female figures: one nude, playing the flute; the other, wrapped in a veil, lights a sacrificial candle. The first is a heterosexual, the second is a wife, the keeper of the hearth, like two faces of femininity, both under the patronage of Aphrodite.

The search for surviving Greek originals continues today; from time to time, happy finds are found now in the ground, now at the bottom of the sea: for example, in 1928 in the sea, near the island of Euboea, they found an excellently preserved bronze statue of Poseidon.

But the general picture of Greek art of the heyday has to be mentally reconstructed and completed, we know only randomly preserved, scattered sculptures. And they existed in the ensemble.

Among famous masters, the name Phidias overshadows all sculpture of subsequent generations. A brilliant representative of the age of Pericles, he said the last word in plastic technique, and until now no one has dared to compare with him, although we know him only by hints. A native of Athens, he was born several years before the Battle of Marathon and, therefore, became a contemporary of the celebration of victories over the East. Come on first l he as a painter and then switched to sculpture. Pericles 'buildings were erected according to Phidias' drawings and his drawings, under his personal supervision. Fulfilling order after order, he created marvelous statues of gods, personifying the abstract ideals of deities in marble, gold and bones. The image of the deity was worked out by him not only in accordance with his qualities, but also in relation to the purpose of honoring. He was deeply imbued with the idea that this idol personified, and sculpted it with all the power and might of a genius.

Athena, which he made by order of Plataea and which cost this city very dearly, strengthened the fame of the young sculptor. A colossal statue of the patroness of Athena was commissioned to him for the Acropolis. She reached 60 feet in height and exceeded all the surrounding buildings; from afar, from the sea, she shone with a golden star and reigned over the whole city. It was not acrolite (composite), like the Plateia, but it was all cast in bronze. Another statue of the Acropolis, Virgin Athena, made for the Parthenon, consisted of gold and ivory. Athena was depicted in a combat suit, in a golden helmet with a high-relief sphinx and vultures on the sides. In one hand she held a spear, in the other a figure of victory. A snake curled at her feet - the guardian of the Acropolis. This statue is considered the best assurance of Phidias after his Zeus. It has served as the original for countless copies.

But the height of perfection of all the works of Phidias is considered to be his Olympian Zeus. It was the greatest work of his life: the Greeks themselves gave him the palm. He made an irresistible impression on his contemporaries.

Zeus was depicted on the throne. In one hand he held a scepter, in the other - an image of victory. The body was ivory, the hair was gold, the mantle was gold, enameled. The throne included ebony, bone, and precious stones. The walls between the legs were painted by Phidias' cousin, Panen; the foot of the throne was a miracle of sculpture. The general impression was, as one German scientist rightly put it, truly demonic: for a number of generations the idol seemed to be a true god; one glance at him was enough to quench all sorrow and suffering. Those who died without seeing him considered themselves unhappy * * P.P. Gnedich World History of Art. - M., 2000.S. 97 ...

The statue died, it is not known how and when: it probably burned down along with the Olympic temple. But her charm must have been great if Caligula insisted at all costs to transport her to Rome, which, however, turned out to be impossible.

The admiration of the Greeks for the beauty and wise arrangement of a living body was so great that they aesthetically thought it only in statuary completeness and completeness, which made it possible to appreciate the majesty of posture, the harmony of body movements. To dissolve a person in a formless, merged crowd, to show him in a random aspect, to remove deep into the depths, to submerge him in shadow - would contradict the aesthetic creed of the Hellenic masters, and they never did this, although the basics of perspective were clear to them. Both sculptors and painters showed a person with extreme plastic clarity, close-up (one figure or a group of several figures), trying to place the action in the foreground, as if on a narrow stage parallel to the plane of the background. Body language was also the language of the soul. It is sometimes said that Greek art was alien to psychology or did not mature into it. This is not entirely true; perhaps the art of the archaic was still extrapsychological, but not the art of the classics. Indeed, it did not know that scrupulous analysis of characters, that cult of the individual that arises in modern times. It is no coincidence that portraiture in Ancient Greece was relatively poorly developed. But the Greeks mastered the art of transferring, if I may say so, typical psychology - they expressed a rich gamut of mental movements on the basis of generalized human types. Distracting from the shades of personal characters, the Hellenic artists did not neglect the shades of emotions and were able to embody a complex structure of feelings. After all, they were contemporaries and fellow citizens of Sophocles, Euripides, Plato.

But still, the expressiveness was not so much in the expressions of the faces, as in the movements of the body. Looking at the mysteriously serene moirae of the Parthenon, at the swift, frisky Nika, untie the sandal, we almost forget that their heads are beaten off - so eloquent is the plasticity of their figures.

Every purely plastic motif - whether it be a graceful balance of all body members, support on both legs or on one, transfer of the center of gravity to an external support, head bowed to the shoulder or thrown back - was thought by the Greek masters as an analogue of spiritual life. Body and psyche were realized in inseparability. Describing the classical ideal in Lectures on Aesthetics, Hegel said that in the “classical form of art, the human body in its forms is no longer recognized as only sensual existence, but is recognized only as the existence and natural appearance of the spirit”.

Indeed, the bodies of the Greek statues are unusually spiritualized. The French sculptor Rodin said about one of them: “This youthful torso without a head smiles happily at the light and spring than eyes and lips could do” * * Dmitrieva, Akimova. Antique art. Essays. - M., 1988.S. 76.

Movement and posture in most cases is simple, natural and not necessarily associated with something sublime. Nika unties the sandal, the boy takes out a splinter from the heel, the young runner prepares to run at the start, the disc thrower Miron throws a disc. Myron's younger contemporary, the celebrated Polycletus, unlike Myron, never depicted rapid movements and instantaneous states; his bronze statues of young athletes are in calm poses of light, measured movement, wave-like running over the figure. The left shoulder is slightly extended, the right is abducted, the left hip is pulled back, the right is raised, the right leg is firmly on the ground, the left is slightly behind and slightly bent at the knee. This movement either does not have any "plot" pretext, or the preposition is insignificant - it is valuable in itself. This is a plastic hymn to clarity, reason, wise balance. Such is the Doriphorus (spear-bearer) of Polycletus, known to us from marble Roman copies. He seems to be walking, and at the same time maintains a state of rest; the positions of the arms, legs and torso are perfectly balanced. Polycletus was the author of the treatise "Canon" (which has not come down to us, it is known about him from the references of ancient writers), where he theoretically established the laws of the proportions of the human body.

The heads of Greek statues, as a rule, are impersonal, that is, little individualized, reduced to few variations of the general type, but this general type has a high spiritual capacity. In the Greek type of face, the idea of "human" triumphs in its ideal form. The face is divided into three parts equal in length: forehead, nose and lower part. Correct, gentle oval. The straight line of the nose continues the line of the forehead and forms a perpendicular to the line drawn from the beginning of the nose to the opening of the ear (right facial angle). Oblong section of rather deeply seated eyes. A small mouth, full protruding lips, the upper lip is thinner than the lower one and has a beautiful, flowing cupid-like onion cut. The chin is large and round. Wavy hair softly and tightly wraps around the head, without interfering with seeing the rounded shape of the skull.

This classical beauty may seem monotonous, but being an expressive "natural appearance of the spirit", it lends itself to variation and is capable of embodying various types of the antique ideal. A little more energy in the lips, in the chin protruding forward - before us is a strict virgin Athena. More softness in the outlines of the cheeks, the lips are slightly half-open, the eye sockets are shaded - before us is the sensual face of Aphrodite. The oval of the face is closer to the square, the neck is thicker, the lips are larger - this is already the image of a young athlete. And the basis is still the same strictly proportional classic look.

However, there is no place in it for something, from our point of view, very important: the charm of the uniquely individual, the beauty of the wrong, the triumph of the spiritual principle over bodily imperfection. The ancient Greeks could not give this, for this the initial monism of spirit and body had to be broken, and the aesthetic consciousness had to enter the stage of their separation - dualism - which happened much later. But Greek art also gradually evolved towards individualization and open emotionality, concreteness of experiences and specificity, which became obvious already in the era of the late classics, in the 4th century BC. NS.

At the end of the 5th century BC. NS. the political power of Athens was shaken, undermined by the long Peloponnesian war. At the head of the opponents of Athens was Sparta; it was supported by other states of the Peloponnese and financial assistance was provided by Persia. Athens lost the war and was forced to conclude an unprofitable peace; they retained their independence, but the Athenian maritime union collapsed, financial reserves dried up, and the internal contradictions of the polis intensified. Athenian democracy managed to resist, but democratic ideals tarnished, free expression of will began to be suppressed by cruel measures, an example of which is the trial of Socrates (in 399 BC), which sentenced the philosopher to death. The spirit of close-knit citizenship is weakening, personal interests and experiences are isolated from social ones, the instability of being is felt more alarmingly. Critical sentiments are growing. A person, according to the covenant of Socrates, begins to strive to "know himself" - himself as a person, and not only as a part of a social whole. The work of the great playwright Euripides is directed towards the knowledge of human nature and characters, whose personality principle is much more emphasized than that of his older contemporary Sophocles. According to Aristotle's definition, Sophocles "represents people as they should be, and Euripides as they really are."

In the plastic arts, generalized images still predominate. But the spiritual fortitude and vigorous energy that the art of the early and mature classics breathes gradually gives way to the dramatic pathos of Scopas or the lyrical, with a touch of melancholy, contemplation of Praxiteles. Scopas, Praxitel and Lysippos - these names are associated in our view not so much with certain artistic individuals (their biographies are unclear, and their original works have hardly survived), as with the main currents of the late classics. Just like Miron, Polycletus and Phidias embody the features of mature classics.

And again, indicators of changes in the outlook are plastic motives. The characteristic posture of the standing figure changes. In the archaic era, the statues stood completely straight, frontally. Mature classics animate and animate them with balanced, fluid movements, maintaining balance and stability. And the statues of Praxiteles - the resting Satyr, Apollo Saurocton - with lazy grace lean on the pillars, without them they would have to fall.

The thigh is very strongly arched on one side, and the shoulder is lowered towards the thigh - Rodin compares this body position to a harmonica, when the bellows are compressed on one side and apart on the other. External support is required for balance. This is a dreamy resting pose. Praxiteles follows the traditions of Polycletus, uses the motives of movements he found, but develops them in such a way that a different inner content shines through in them. The "wounded Amazon" Polycletai also leans on a half-column, but she could have resisted without it, her strong, energetic body, even suffering from a wound, stands firmly on the ground. Apollo Praxiteles is not struck by an arrow, he himself aims at a lizard running along a tree trunk - the action, it would seem, requires strong-willed composure, nevertheless his body is unstable, like an oscillating stem. And this is not an accidental particularity, not a whim of a sculptor, but a kind of new canon in which a changed view of the world finds expression.

However, not only the nature of movements and postures changed in the sculpture of the 4th century BC. NS. Praxiteles has a different circle of favorite themes, he moves away from heroic plots into the "light world of Aphrodite and Eros". He sculpted the famous statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus.

Praxitel and the artists of his circle did not like to depict the muscular torsos of athletes, they were attracted by the delicate beauty of the female body with soft flow of volumes. They preferred the type of adolescent - distinguished by "the first youthful beauty, effeminate." Praxitel was famous for his particular softness of sculpting and mastery of material processing, the ability to transmit the warmth of a living body in cold marble2.

The only surviving original of Praxiteles is considered to be the marble statue "Hermes with Dionysus" found in Olympia. Naked Hermes, leaning on a tree trunk, where his cloak is carelessly thrown, holds on one bent hand a little Dionysus, and in the other - a bunch of grapes, to which a child is reaching (the hand holding the grapes is lost). All the charm of the pictorial processing of marble is in this statue, especially in the head of Hermes: the transitions of light and shadow, the subtlest "sfumato" (haze), which, many centuries later, was achieved in Leonardo da Vinci's painting.

All other works of the master are known only from references to ancient authors and later copies. But the spirit of Praxiteles' art blows over the 4th century BC. e., and best of all it can be felt not in Roman copies, but in small Greek sculptures, in Tanager clay figurines. They were produced in large numbers at the end of the century, it was a kind of mass production with the main center in Tanagra. (A very good collection of them is kept in the Leningrad Hermitage.) Some figurines reproduce well-known large statues, others simply give various free variations of a draped female figure. The living grace of these figures, dreamy, pensive, playful, is an echo of Praxiteles' art.

Almost as little remains of the original works of the cutter Scopas, an older contemporary and antagonist of Praxiteles. Remains of wreckage. But the wreckage says a lot. Behind them stands the image of a passionate, fiery, pathetic artist.

He was not only a sculptor, but also an architect. As an architect, Skopas created the Temple of Athena in Tegea and he also supervised its sculptural decoration. The temple itself was destroyed a long time ago, by the Goths; some fragments of sculptures were found during excavations, among them a remarkable head of a wounded warrior. There were no others like her in the art of the 5th century BC. e., there was no such dramatic expression in the turn of the head, such suffering in the face, in the gaze, such mental tension. In his name, the harmonic canon adopted in Greek sculpture has been violated: the eyes are set too deep and the fracture of the brow arches is discordant with the outlines of the eyelids.

Partially preserved reliefs on the frieze of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, a unique structure, ranked in ancient times as one of the seven wonders of the world: the peripter was erected on a high base and crowned with a pyramidal roof. Frieze depicted the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons - male warriors with female warriors. Skopas did not work on it alone, together with three sculptors, but, guided by the instructions of Pliny, who described the mausoleum, and the style analysis, the researchers determined which parts of the frieze were made in the Skopas workshop. More than others, they convey the intoxicated ardor of battle, "ecstasy in battle," when both men and women surrender to him with equal passion. The movements of the figures are impetuous and almost lose their balance, directed not only parallel to the plane, but also inward, into the depth: Scopas introduces a new sense of space.

"Menada" enjoyed great fame among contemporaries. Scopas depicted a storm of Dionysian dance straining the entire body of Maenada, convulsively arching her torso, throwing her head back. The statue of the Maenada is not designed for a frontal view, it must be viewed from different angles, each point of view reveals something new: either the body is likened by its arch to a stretched bow, then it seems to be curved in a spiral, like a tongue of flame. One involuntarily thinks: Dionysian orgies must have been serious, not just amusements, but really "crazy games". The Mysteries of Dionysus were allowed to be held only once every two years and only on Parnassus, but at that time the frantic Bacchantes rejected all conventions and prohibitions. To the beat of tambourines, to the sound of tympans, they rushed and whirled in ecstasy, driving themselves into a frenzy, loosening their hair, tearing their clothes. Menada Skopasa was holding a knife in her hand, and on her shoulder was a kid she had torn to pieces 3.

The Dionysian festivals were a very ancient custom, like the cult of Dionysus itself, but in art the Dionysian element had never broken through with such force, with such openness, as in the statue of Scopas, and this is obviously a symptom of the times. Now clouds were gathering over Hellas, and the rational clarity of the spirit was disturbed by the desire to forget, to throw off the fetters of restrictions. Art, like a sensitive membrane, responded to changes in the public atmosphere and transformed its signals into its own sounds, its own rhythms. The melancholic languor of Praxiteles' creations and the dramatic impulses of Scopas are just different reactions to the general spirit of the times.

The circle of Skopas, and possibly himself, owns a marble tombstone of a young man. To the right of the young man stands his old father with an expression of deep thought, it is felt that he is wondering: why did his son leave in the prime of his youth, and he, the old man, stayed to live? The son looks in front of him and no longer seems to notice his father; he is far from here, in the carefree Champs Elysees - the abode of the blessed.

The dog at his feet is one of the symbols of the afterlife.

Here it is appropriate to say about Greek tombstones in general. Relatively many of them have survived, from the 5th, and mainly from the 4th century BC. NS.; their creators are usually unknown. Sometimes the relief of the gravestone stela depicts only one figure - the deceased, but more often his relatives are depicted next to him, one or two, who say goodbye to him. In these scenes of farewell and parting, intense sorrow and grief are never expressed, but only quiet; sad reverie. Death is peace; the Greeks personified her not in a terrible skeleton, but in the figure of a boy - Thanatos, the twin of Hypnos - a dream. The sleeping baby is also depicted on the young man's tombstone, in the corner at his feet. The surviving relatives look at the deceased, wanting to capture his features in the memory, sometimes take his hand; he (or she) himself does not look at them, and in his figure one can feel relaxation, detachment. In the famous tombstone of Gegeso (late 5th century BC), a standing servant gives her mistress, who is sitting in an armchair, a box of jewels, Gegeso takes a necklace from it with a familiar, automatic movement, but she looks absent and drooping.

Genuine 4th century BC tombstone NS. the works of the Attic master can be seen in the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. This is the tombstone of a warrior - he holds a spear in his hand, next to him is his horse. But the posture is not at all belligerent, the limbs are relaxed, the head is down. On the other side of the horse stands a farewell; he is sad, but one cannot be mistaken in which of the two figures depicts the deceased, and which of the living, although they seem to be similar and of the same type; Greek masters knew how to make the deceased feel the transition to the valley of shadows.

Lyrical scenes of the last farewell were also depicted on burial urns, where they are more laconic, sometimes just two figures - a man and a woman - shaking hands with each other.

But even here you can always see which of them belongs to the kingdom of the dead.

There is a kind of special chastity of feeling in the Greek tombstones with their noble restraint in the expression of sadness, something completely opposite to the Bacchic ecstasy. The tombstone of the young man attributed to Scopas does not violate this tradition; it stands out from others, in addition to its high plastic qualities, only by the philosophical depth of the image of the pensive old man.

For all the opposition of the artistic natures of Scopas and Praxiteles, both of them are characterized by what can be called an increase in pictoriality in plastic - the effects of chiaroscuro, thanks to which marble seems alive, which is emphasized every time by Greek epigrammatists. Both masters preferred marble to bronze (while bronze predominated in sculpture of the early classics) and achieved perfection in the processing of its surface. The strength of the produced impression was facilitated by the special qualities of the types of marble used by the sculptors: transparency and luminosity. Parian marble allowed light to pass through 3.5 centimeters. Statues made of this noble material looked both human-alive and divinely incorruptible. Compared with the works of the early and mature classics, the late classical sculptures lose something, they lack the simple grandeur of the Delphic "Aurigae", there is no monumentality of the Phidian statues, but they gain in vitality.

History has preserved many more names of outstanding sculptors of the 4th century BC. NS. Some of them, cultivating the likeness of life, brought it to the point beyond which genre and specificity begin, anticipating the tendencies of Hellenism. This distinguished Demetrius of Alopeca. He attached little importance to beauty and deliberately sought to portray people as they are, without hiding large bellies and bald patches. His specialty was portraits. Demetrius made a portrait of the philosopher Antisthenes, polemically directed against the idealizing portraits of the 5th century BC. e., - his Antisthenes is old, flabby and toothless. The sculptor could not inspire ugliness, make it charming, such a task was impracticable within the bounds of ancient aesthetics. Ugliness was understood and portrayed simply as a physical handicap.

Others, on the contrary, tried to support and cultivate the traditions of mature classics, enriching them with great grace and complexity of plastic motives. This path was followed by Leochares, who created the statue of Apollo Belvedere, which became the standard of beauty for many generations of neoclassicists until the end of the twentieth century. Johann Winckelmann, the author of the first scientific History of the Art of Antiquity, wrote: "Imagination cannot create anything that surpasses the Vatican Apollo with its more than human proportionality of a beautiful deity." For a long time this statue was regarded as the pinnacle of ancient art, the "Belvedere idol" was synonymous with aesthetic perfection. As is often the case, over-praise has over time produced the opposite reaction. When the study of ancient art advanced far ahead and many of its monuments were discovered, the exaggerated assessment of the statue of Leochares was replaced by an understated one: they began to find it pompous and mannered. Meanwhile, Apollo Belvedere is a truly outstanding work in terms of its plastic qualities; in the figure and gait of the ruler of the muses, strength and grace, energy and lightness are combined, walking on the ground, he also soars above the ground. Moreover, his movement, in the words of the Soviet art critic BR Vipper, "is not concentrated in one direction, but as if rays diverge in different directions." To achieve this effect, it took the exquisite skill of a sculptor; the only trouble is that the calculation for the effect is too obvious. Apollo Leohara invites you to admire its beauty, while the beauty of the best classical statues does not make itself known to everyone: they are beautiful, but they do not show off. Even the Aphrodite of Cnidus Praxiteles wants to hide rather than demonstrate the sensual charm of her nakedness, and earlier classical statues are filled with calm self-satisfaction, excluding any demonstration. Therefore, it should be recognized that in the statue of Apollo Belvedere, the antique ideal begins to become something external, less organic, although in its way this sculpture is remarkable and marks a high level of virtuoso skill.

A big step towards "naturalness" was made by the last great sculptor of the Greek classics - Lysippos. Researchers attribute him to the Argos school and claim that he had a completely different direction than in the Athenian school. In fact, he was a direct follower of her, but, having adopted her traditions, he stepped further. In his youth, the artist Evpompus answered his question: "Which teacher to choose?" - answered, pointing to the crowd crowding the mountain: "Here is the only teacher: nature."

These words sunk deep into the soul of the genius young man, and he, not trusting the authority of the Polikletovian canon, took up an accurate study of nature. Before him, people were sculpted in accordance with the principles of the canon, that is, in full confidence that true beauty lies in the proportionality of all forms and in the proportion of people of average height. Lysippos preferred a tall, slender figure. His limbs have become lighter, the stature is higher.

Unlike Scopas and Praxiteles, he worked exclusively in bronze: fragile marble requires a stable balance, while Lysippos created statues and statuary groups in states of dynamic, in complex actions. He was inexhaustiblely varied in the invention of plastic motifs and was very prolific; they said that after the end of each sculpture he put a gold coin in the piggy bank, and in total in this way he had one and a half thousand coins, that is, he allegedly made one and a half thousand statues, some of very large sizes, including a 20-meter statue of Zeus. Not a single piece of his work has survived, but a fairly large number of copies and repetitions, dating back either to the originals of Lysippos, or to his school, give an approximate idea of the master's style. In terms of plot, he clearly preferred male figures, as he loved to portray the difficult exploits of their husbands; his favorite hero was Hercules. In understanding the plastic form, Lysippos' innovative conquest was the reversal of the figure in the space surrounding it from all sides; in other words, he did not think of the statue against the background of any plane and did not assume one, the main point of view from which it should look, but counted on walking around the statue. We have seen that Scopas's "Menad" was already built on the same principle. But what was an exception among the former sculptors, became the rule for Lysippos. Accordingly, he gave his figures effective poses, complex turns and processed them with equal care, not only from the front, but also from the back.

In addition, Lysippos created a new sense of time in sculpture. The old classical statues, even if their poses were dynamic, looked unaffected by the flow of time, they were outside of it, they were, they were at rest. Lysippos' heroes live in the same real time as living people, their actions are included in time and transient, the presented moment is ready to be replaced by another. Of course, Lysippos had predecessors here too: we can say that he continued the traditions of Myron. But even the Discobolus of the latter is so balanced and clear in its silhouette that it seems to be "abiding" and static in comparison with Hercules Lysippos, fighting a lion, or Hermes, who for a minute (just for a minute!) Sat down to rest on a roadside stone, in order to continue flying on its winged sandals.

Whether the originals of the named sculptures belonged to Lysippos himself or to his students and assistants is not established for sure, but undoubtedly he himself made the statue of Apoxyomenos, a marble copy of which is in the Vatican Museum. A young naked athlete, arms outstretched, scrapes off the adhering dust with a scraper. He was tired after the struggle, slightly relaxed, even as if staggering, spreading his legs apart for stability. Strands of hair, treated very naturally, adhered to the sweaty forehead. The sculptor did his best to give maximum naturalness within the framework of the traditional canon. However, the canon itself has been revised. If we compare Apoxyomenos with Doriforos Polykleitos, it can be seen that the proportions of the body have changed: the head is smaller, the legs are longer. Dorifor is heavier and more stocky than the lithe and slender Apoxyomenos.

Lysippos was the court painter of Alexander the Great and painted a number of his portraits. There is no flattery or artificial glorification in them; The head of Alexander preserved in a Hellenistic copy is executed in the traditions of Scopas, somewhat resembling the head of a wounded warrior. This is the face of a person who lives tensely and hard, who does not easily get his victories. Lips half-open, as if breathing heavily, wrinkles appeared on the forehead, despite its youth. However, the classic face type with proportions and features legalized by tradition has been preserved.

That which in advance cast shadows on the bright structure of the Hellenic world outlook came at the end of the 4th century BC. e .: decomposition and death of a democratic polis. This was initiated by the rise of Macedonia, the northern region of Greece, and the de facto seizure of all Greek states by the Macedonian king Philip II. In the battle of Chaeronea (in 338 BC), where the troops of the Greek anti-Macedonian coalition were defeated, the 18-year-old son of Philip, Alexander, the future great conqueror, took part. Beginning with a victorious campaign against the Persians, Alexander pushed his army further east, capturing cities and founding new ones; as a result of a ten-year campaign, a huge monarchy was created, stretching from the Danube to the Indus.

Alexander the Great, in his youth, tasted the fruits of the highest Greek culture. His tutor was the great philosopher Aristotle, the court artists were Lysippos and Apelles. This did not prevent him, having seized the Persian state and taking the throne of the Egyptian pharaohs, declaring himself a god and demanding that he and in Greece be given divine honors. Unaccustomed to Eastern customs, the Greeks, laughing, said: "Well, if Alexander wants to be a god - let him be" - and officially recognized him as the son of Zeus. The orientalization that Alexander began to instill was, however, a matter more serious than the whim of the conqueror, intoxicated with victories. It was a symptom of the historical turn of ancient society from slave-owning democracy to the form that had existed since ancient times in the East - to the slave-owning monarchy. After the death of Alexander (and he died young), his colossal, but fragile state disintegrated, the spheres of influence were divided among themselves by his military leaders, the so-called diadochi - successors. The newly emerging states under their rule were no longer Greek, but Greek-Eastern. The era of Hellenism has come - the unification of the Hellenic and Eastern cultures under the auspices of the monarchy.

Among all the variety of masterpieces of the cultural heritage of Ancient Greece, it occupies a special place. In Greek statues, the ideal of man, the beauty of the human body, is embodied and glorified with the help of pictorial means. However, not only the grace and smoothness of lines distinguishes ancient Greek sculptures - the skill of their authors is so great that even in cold stone they managed to convey the whole gamut of human emotions and give the figures a special, deep meaning, as if breathing life into them and endowing each with that incomprehensible mystery that still attracts and does not leave the beholder indifferent.

Like other cultures, Ancient Greece went through different periods of its development, each of which made certain changes in the process of formation of all types, to which sculpture belongs. That is why it is possible to trace the stages of the formation of this type of art by briefly describing the features of the ancient Greek sculpture of Ancient Greece at different periods of its historical development.
ARCHAIC PERIOD (VIII-VI century BC).

The sculptures of this period are characterized by a certain primitiveness of the figures themselves due to the fact that the images that were embodied in them were too generalized and did not differ in variety (kuros were called figures of young men, korami - girls). The most famous sculpture of several dozen that have come down to our time is the marble statue of Apollo from the Shadows (Apollo himself appears before us as a young man with his hands down, fingers clenched into fists and wide-open eyes, and his face reflects a typical sculpture of that time, an archaic smile). The images of girls and women were distinguished by long clothes, wavy hair, but most of all they were attracted by the smoothness and elegance of lines - the embodiment of female grace.

CLASSIC PERIOD (V-IV century BC).
One of the outstanding figures among the sculptors of this period can be called Pythagoras of Regia (480 -450). It was he who brought his creations to life and made them more realistic, although some of his works were considered innovative and overly daring (for example, a statue called the Boy taking out a splinter). An extraordinary talent and liveliness of mind allowed him to engage in research into the meaning of harmony using algebraic methods of calculation, which he carried out on the basis of the philosophical and mathematical school he himself founded. Using such methods, Pythagoras explored the harmony of a different nature: musical harmony, the harmony of the human body or architectural structure. The Pythagorean school existed according to the principle of number, which was considered the basis of the whole world.

In addition to Pythagoras, the classical period gave world culture such eminent masters as Myron, Polycletus and Phidias, whose creations were united by one principle: the display of a harmonious combination of an ideal body and an equally beautiful soul contained in it. It was this principle that formed the basis for the creation of sculptures of that time.
Myron's work had a great influence on the educational art of the 5th century in Athens (suffice it to mention his famous bronze Discobolus).

In the creations of Polycletus, the skill of which consisted in the ability to balance the figure of a man standing on one leg with his hand raised up was embodied (an example is the statue of Dorifor the youth-spear-bearer). In his works, Polyclet aspired to combine ideal physical data with beauty and spirituality. This desire inspired him to write and publish his own treatise Canon, which, unfortunately, has not survived to this day. Phidias can rightfully be called the great creator of sculpture of the 5th century, because he was able to perfectly master the art of casting from bronze. 13 sculptural figures cast by Phidias adorn the Delphic Temple of Apollo. Among his works is also a twenty-meter statue of Athena the Virgin in the Parthenon, made of pure gold and ivory (this technique of performing statues was called chryso-elephantine). The real fame came to Phidias after he created a statue of Zeus for the temple in Olympia (its height was 13 meters).

PERIOD OF HELLINISM. (IV-I centuries BC).
Sculpture in this period of development of the ancient Greek state still had its main purpose to decorate architectural structures, although it reflected the changes that took place in government. In addition, many schools and trends have sprung up in sculpture as one of the leading art forms.
Scopas became a prominent figure among the sculptors of this period. His skill was embodied in the Hellenistic statue of Nike of Samothrace, so-called, in memory of the victory of the Rhodes fleet in 306 BC and installed on a pedestal, which in design resembled a ship's bow. Classical images became examples of the creations of sculptors of this era.

In the sculpture of Hellenism, the so-called gigantomania (the desire to embody the desired image in a statue of enormous size) is clearly visible: a vivid example of this is the gilded bronze statue of the god Helios, which rose 32 meters at the entrance of the harbor of Rhodes. For twelve years, Lysippos' student Hares worked tirelessly on this sculpture. This work of art has rightfully taken an honorable place in the list of Wonders of the World. After the capture of Ancient Greece by the Roman conquerors, many works of art (including the multivolume collections of the imperial libraries, masterpieces of painting and sculpture) were taken outside its borders, in addition, many representatives from the field of science and education were captured. Thus, elements of Greek culture were intertwined in the culture of Ancient Rome and had a significant impact on its further development.

Different periods of the development of Ancient Greece, of course, made their own adjustments in the process of the formation of this type of fine art,

"The Art of Ancient Greece" - Gimatius. Chiton. Hydria. Decorations. Ornaments. Black-figure painting. Women's hats. Amphora. Craters. Chlamyda. The art of Ancient Greece. The villagers wore for the most part a short, loose-fitting wool chiton with one strap over the right shoulder - Exomis Slaves were content with one loincloth.

"Antique vase painting" - Antique vases. Painting styles. Sketch preparation. Hair. Greek pottery. Subject painting. The essence of ancient Greek art. Amphora. Pelika. Kilik. Study of ornament. Lekith. Pixida. Skyphos. Ask. Carpet style. Ornamental painting. Athens. Clothes of the ancient Greeks. The flowering of black-figure vase painting.

"Greek Theater" - Greek Theater. One of the most famous comedy writers was Aristophanes, Peace. Creators - Aeschylus, the tragedy "Persians" and Euripides, the tragedy "Medea". Plot - myths, legends and important historical events. Topics for discussion. What is comedy. The emergence of theatrical performances. What is tragedy. The actors were only men.

"Architecture of Ancient Greece" - Phidias. Columns of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Myron. Athena and Marsyas. Statue of Athena Parthenos. Greek orders. Statue of the Thunderer Zeus. Myron "Discobola". Polyclet. Dorifor. Temple of Poseidon at Paestum. Great dawn. Sanctuary of Athena Pronai in Delphi. Architecture and sculpture of Ancient Greece. Temple of Hephaestus in Athens.

"History of the Theater of Ancient Greece" - In the open air. Koturny. The structure of the piece. Guests of honor. Birthday of the theater. Test questions. Dithyrambs. Each polis had its own theater. Genre. Satyr. The actors were only men. Replenish the lost information. Story. Comedy. Contemporary theater. The letter on the ticket. Theatre. Theater of Ancient Greece.

"Art of Greece" - Sculpture. Thinkers of different eras and directions converge in a high assessment of ancient civilization. The ancient Greeks developed their writing based on the Phoenician one. Poseidon. Literature and art of Ancient Greece gave impetus to the development of European culture. Aphrodite. Demosthenes / 384-322 BC /. The Slavic alphabet also originated from the Greek.

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