Ancient statues of people. Ancient sculptors of Ancient Greece: names

Ancient Greek sculpture is a perfect creation of ancient culture, along with epic, theater and architecture, and in many ways still retains the meaning of a norm and model. Marble and bronze statues of the masters of Ancient Hellas, bas-reliefs and high reliefs, multi-figure compositions that decorated the pediments of Greek temples make it possible to imagine the dawn of European civilization.

Ancient Greece Map

We are accustomed to seeing ancient images nobly calm in their marble whiteness. For the Russian viewer, a big role in this is played by the famous plaster casts, made according to ancient models for educational purposes on the initiative of I.V. Tsvetaev and laid the foundation for the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. In fact, most ancient Greek sculptures were brightly painted, and the parts (reins, reins of horses, small decorations on clothing) were made of gilded bronze. Therefore, the procession of Athenian citizens on the day of the holiday of the great Panathenaia on the bas-relief frieze of the Parthenon should rather remind the modern viewer of a multi-colored gypsy camp, in which chariots, horsemen, gods were mixed - simple and accessible, like people, and Hellenes - beautiful, like gods (1).

(1) Phidias. Water carriers. V century BC. Acropolis Museum, Athens

But even without paint, these marble reliefs (one meter high), taken to museums around the world, evoke admiration. No wonder Professor B. Farmakovsky compared them to music. At a lecture at St. Petersburg University in 1909, he said: “The beauty of the Parthenon frieze will amaze all centuries and peoples; it transcends the boundaries of place and time, like the beauty of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Mozart’s Requiem.”

Modern ideas about Greek sculpture are incomplete; many monuments were destroyed during the Mediterranean redistribution of the world, so we can only judge them by the copies of Roman masters from the heyday of the empire (1st–2nd centuries AD), with which the Romans decorated their homes and temples. And although statues of muscular Olympic athletes by Myron and Praxiteles were often placed in public places (for example, in baths), the sculpture created by Praxiteles of a resting graceful and lazy Satyr was most in demand (2) , is more Roman and imperial in character than democratic Greek.

(2) Praxiteles. Resting Satyr.
IV century BC. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Renaissance Italy took over the baton for preserving ancient Greek art from Ancient Rome. At this time, collecting ancient monuments began. And in the middle of the 18th century. German educator J. Winckelmann published the work “History of Ancient Art” - the first scientific study of monuments of ancient sculpture.

At the beginning of the 19th century, especially during the period of Napoleonic campaigns in Italy and Africa, interest in ancient art flared up again. The main museums of antiques are being created in Europe. Numerous excavations are being carried out not only in the layers covering ancient cities, but also in the sea. Bronze statues - Greek originals - are still being recovered from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Information about ancient Greek sculptures can also be obtained using numismatics. The sculptural group “Athena and Marsyas” by Myron for the Athenian acropolis was able to be reconstructed based on the relief on an ancient Athenian coin.

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In the history of sculpture of Ancient Greece, four periods can be distinguished: archaic (VII–VI centuries BC); early classical, or strict, style (first half of the 5th century BC); classical (second half of the 5th – beginning of the 4th century BC); Late Classical (IV century BC). The boundaries of the periods are vague, because the work of sculptors could both “overtake” their time and “lag behind” it. The main thing is that Greek sculpture developed in a single direction - realistic. The ancient master in his work thought in concrete images on the principle of imitation of nature (according to Aristotle). Due to the continuity of periods, sculpture changed, but retained specific stylistic features.

An attentive viewer will always identify milestones in the history of Greek sculpture and will not confuse the decorativeness of archaic kora and kouros with the strict analytical statues of Polykleitos, or the harmony of the high classics of Phidias with the late classical passionate works of Skopas.

The main theme of the plastic art of Ancient Greece - man - was developed and brought to perfection by Greek sculptors. Sculpture, as a rule, was of a public nature. When receiving an order for a statue, the master sought to embody in it an aesthetic ideal that was understandable to all his contemporaries.

The logical construction of the artistic image contributed to the ease of its understanding, which, in turn, dictated the strict rhythm and clarity of the composition. This is how art arose, which was fundamentally more rationalistic than emotional, although feelings were added with each new period.

Combining ideality of form and sublimity of content in their works, Greek masters preferred legendary subjects, and scenes of everyday life and labor processes were less often depicted.

The source of Greek sculpture, with some reservations (too little material evidence remains), can be called the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. According to legend, the first sculptors of Greece were the Daedalids, students of Daedalus, a skilled architect and sculptor of King Minos. A slab with a relief of the Lion Gate of the Mycenaean acropolis is the only example of monumental stone sculpture in the art of the Aegean world (3) .

(3) Lion Gate at Mycenae. XIV century BC.

(4) Zeus in the form of a hoplite. VII century BC.

Since the advent of sculpture (around 670 BC), the processing of artistic material has been improved. The statues were cast from bronze (4) , carved from sandstone, limestone, marble, carved from wood, sculpted from clay and then fired (so-called terracotta). The statues were engraved, eyes, lips, and nails were false. Chrysoelephantine technique was used (5) .

(5) Head of a girl (deity?) in the chrysoelephantine technique.
550–530 BC. Archaeological Museum, Delphi

The most common type of archaic statue is that of standing male and female figures draped in long robes. They represented gods, goddesses or sacrificers, whose names were inscribed on the bases or the sculptures themselves. In the VI century. Such sculptures adorned temples, squares, and necropolises in large numbers. Their authors were Ionian masters from the cities of Asia Minor or from the islands of the Ionian archipelago.

(6) Goddess with a hare. First half of the 6th century Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Using the example of statues of women found on the island of Samos - “Hera of Samos” and “Goddess with a Hare” (both sculptures were preserved without heads) - one can trace the characteristic features of archaic sculpture. The figure of the “Goddess with a Hare” is frontal and motionless; small folds of the chiton, like the flutes of a column, emphasize this motionlessness. But the figurine of the hare was rendered freely and vividly by the Greek master. This combination of conventional forms with living details is characteristic of archaism. The statue was not a depiction of a goddess, it represented a priestess or a simple woman going with gifts to the goddess Hera from a rich man who bore the Asian name Kheramius, inscribed on the folds of the tunic (6) .

Kouros, kors, caryatids

Kouros statues ( Greek. - young man) were created in all centers of the Greek world. The meaning of these sculptures, also called archaic Apollos, still remains a mystery. Some of the kouros had in their hands the attributes of the god Apollo - a bow and arrows, others depicted mere mortals, and still others were placed over burials. The height of the kouros figures reached three meters. The type of naked youth was also common in small bronze sculptures.

The kouros were beardless and long-haired (the mass of hair flowing down the back was modeled in a geometric pattern), with sharply emphasized muscles. The kuros stood in the same static poses, with one leg extended forward, arms extended along the body with palms clenched into fists. Facial features are stylized and lack individuality. The statues were processed from all sides.

The type of archaic kouros follows the traditional pattern of Egyptian standing figures. But the Greek artist pays more attention to the structure of the body than the Egyptian; he carefully depicts the feet and fingers, which seems unexpected in the general conventional scheme of archaic plastic art.

(7) Funerary kouros of Anavissia.
OK. 530 BC National Museum, Athens

The depiction of kouros as equally young, slender and strong is the beginning of the Greek state program associated with the glorification of health, physical strength and the development of sports games (7) . The stylistic analogy of kurosu is the kora ( Greek. – maiden), female archaic statue. The Koras are dressed in chitons or heavy peplos. The folds are laid out in a pattern of parallel lines. The edges of the clothing are decorated with a colored woven border, painted on marble. The girls have fancy hairstyles on their heads, built from ornamental motifs. There is a mysterious, so-called archaic smile on their faces (8, 9) .

(8) Antenor. Bark No. 680. About 530 BC Acropolis Museum, Athens

By the end of the 6th century. BC. Greek sculptors gradually learned to overcome the static nature initially characteristic of their works.

(9) Bark. 478–474 BC. Acropolis Museum, Athens

The caryatids continued the core theme in sculpture. Six caryatids carry on their heads the architrave of the southern portico of the Acropolis temple of the Erechtheion. All the girls stand frontally, but, compared to the archaic kora, their poses, thanks to the slightly bent knee, are more free and lifelike.

Gradually, Greek sculptors overcame the convention of a motionless figure and made the modeling of the body more lively. The desire for a truthful depiction of a living moving figure develops in the fight against a conventional scheme borrowed from the court art of the Ancient East.

Formula of beauty

It was in the first half of the 5th century. BC. Greek philosophers and artists, each in his own field, developed a form for expressing the multifaceted, dynamic, limitless and eternal life. Based on the fact that the general concept of the work must be embodied as a harmonious and rational whole, they derived a formula for beauty as a balance between form and content. In a plastic solution, aesthetic beauty became an expression of moral beauty, as in the works of the Athenian sculptors Critias “Young Man” and Nesiot “Group of Tyrant Fighters.”

A rare example of bronze (rather than stone) sculpture from the early classics was the "Charioteer" (10) . He stood on a chariot, holding the reins in his hands. The chariot and horses (probably there were four of them) are lost. Most likely, the group was staged by a Sicilian from the city of Gela in honor of the victory at the Pythian games during the chariot race in 476 BC. The author of the sculpture managed to show the solemnity of the moment without pathos, using artistic techniques, using the harmony of the silhouette and the internal balance of all sculptural lines. The figure is frontal, but a slight turn of the shoulders frees her from stiffness and gives the pose a natural look. The driver's facial features are harmonious, calm and dispassionate. The sculptor created the ideal of a valiant and beautiful person. The curls of hair, conveyed by chasing, are intercepted by the braid of the headband. The eyes are inlaid with colored stone; the thinnest bronze plates of eyelashes framing the eyelids have survived.

(10) Charioteer. 478–474 BC. Archaeological Museum, Delphi

(11) Zeus (or Poseidon) from Cape Artemision.
Mid-5th century BC. National Museum, Athens

The next step on the path to the plastic perfection of Greek sculpture is the bronze statue of Zeus (or Poseidon) from Cape Artemision on the island of Euboea (11) . The figure of the god captures that very moment of movement, which will become a distinctive feature of the statues of athletes Myron of Elefther, an innovator in solving the problem of movement in sculpture, a master of complex bronze castings. Not a single sculpture of Myron has survived to this day in its original form, but his work was so popular in Rome that many copies of his works and reviews of his works, including critical ones, remain. Pliny the Elder (1st century), for example, said: “Although Myron was interested in the movement of the body, he did not express the feelings of the soul.”

Sculpture of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

The sculptural decoration of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia by unknown masters (perhaps one of them was Ageladus of Argos) is considered a great achievement of the Early Classical period and a milestone in the development of ancient Greek sculpture.

The relief metopes of the eastern and western friezes of the temple depicted scenes of the twelve labors of Hercules. The best preserved metope is the image of Atlas bringing Heracles apples from the garden of the Hesperides. (12) . Features characteristic of the early classical period (complete, clear composition, simplicity of revealing the plot, archaic depiction of details) in this and other metopes are combined with signs of classical art - all three figures are depicted in different plans: Athena in front, Hercules in profile, Atlas in three quarters.

(12) Metope of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
First half of the 5th century BC. Museum in Olympia

The main artistic value of the sculptures of the Olympic Temple are the monumental pediment groups on mythological subjects. On the eastern façade there is a scene from the myth of the chariot race between the heroes Pelops and Oenomaus; in the west - “centauromachy”: the battle of the centaurs with the lapiths.

The plots of the pediments are related to the equestrian theme (centaurs are half-humans, half-horses), which symbolized fate and the inevitability of fate among the ancient Greeks. The reconstruction of these pediments is the subject of scientific debate. Complex multi-figure compositions inscribed in the corners of the pediments are a feature of the Olympic sculptures. On the east pediment there are reclining male figures, probably personifying the rivers in the Olympia Valley; on the western pediment there are figures of women watching the battle.

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia completes the austere style in the development of Greek sculpture. Twenty years after its construction, Phidias created for the temple a statue of Zeus made of gold and ivory, which in ancient times was considered one of the seven wonders of the world (“Art” No. 9/2008).

Phidias, friend of Pericles

The classical era in the art of Ancient Greece began with the victorious wars with the Persians, when Attica became the main one in the Mediterranean. Burdened with civic responsibility, sculptors sculpted not only statues of gods and heroes to decorate temples, but also statesmen and Olympic winners for temple squares, palaestra buildings, markets and theaters.

For the Greeks, nakedness represented the greatest dignity. For a Hellene, the body was a semblance of a perfect cosmos, and he perceived the entire world around him by analogy with himself in an ideal, statue-like form. The statues, with their dispassion and harmony, approached the images of the gods.

The art of Phidias united all the achievements that Greek art had accumulated until the middle of the 5th century. BC. He gave life and movement to perfect nature. His sculptures were majestic and sublime, matching the Athenian democratic republic and the era of Pericles.

(13) Phidias. The fight between the centaur and the lapith. Metope of the Parthenon.
British Museum, London

Under the leadership of Phidias, numerous complex plastic decorations of the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis were executed. In compositional terms, they are similar to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, although they are freer in arrangement, and in detail they are more vital and dynamic. It is immediately noticeable that the next period in the history of ancient sculpture includes high reliefs in metopes with scenes of the struggle of centaurs with lapiths (13) ; an image in the corners of the pediment of the sun god Helios, restraining his horses, and the moon goddess Selene, descending on a chariot and disappearing over the horizon. The surviving head of a horse from Selene's harness is considered one of the best sculptural images of a horse in the world. (14) .

(14) Horse's head from the east pediment of the Parthenon

A masterpiece of classical art, the goddess statues on the eastern pediment represent a masterpiece. Phidias’s characteristic way of skillfully making the folds of their thin chitons was called “wet clothing.” (15) .

(15) Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite.
Second half of the 5th century. BC. British Museum, London

The statue of Athena Parthenos (13 m high), created for the temple, is described in the guidebook of Pausanias: “Athena herself is made of ivory and gold... The statue depicts her in full height in a tunic down to the very feet. On her chest is the head of Medusa made of ivory. In her hand she holds an image of Nike, approximately four cubits long, and in the other a spear. At her feet lies a shield, and near her spear is a serpent; this snake is probably Erichthonius.” Gold worth 40 talents and colored ivory covered the wooden frame of the statue.

The name Phidias, along with the name of Michelangelo, is a symbol of genius in sculpture. His fate was tragic. Malice, envy, and political opponents haunted Phidias, who enjoyed the complete trust of Pericles. When the Athena Parthenos was completed, he was accused of stealing gold and ivory. The slandered Phidias died in prison in 431 BC, when the glory of Pericles was already beginning to fade.

Change of interests

The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between democratic Athens and the aristocratic Peloponnesian League led by Corinth and Sparta aggravated the crisis of the Greek polis and led to social conflicts. But during this same period, idealistic philosophy flourished. The time has come for Socrates and Plato.

A characteristic feature of the era is a decrease in interest in public affairs; art sets the task of reflecting the inner spiritual world. The art of portraiture is emerging, city squares are decorated with statues of philosophers, orators, and statesmen. The images of the gods become more earthly and lyrical.

These sentiments are most fully reflected in the work of the sculptor Praxiteles from Athens (c. 370–330 BC). Praxiteles depicted heroes, gods, and athletes in a state of rest. His work is characterized by the composition of a standing figure: the soft, smooth line of the curved torso always emphasizes lazy grace. The idyllic and lyrical creativity of Praxiteles had a noticeable influence on all ancient art. His sculptures were copied and varied in all branches of the artistic craft of the ancient world.

A contemporary of Praxiteles, the Ionian Scopas (c. 380–330 BC) also created an original school of sculpture. His works reflected a new desire for Greek art to express strong, passionate feelings and to depict energetic movement. Skopas is known to have worked as an architect and sculptor in the Temple of Athena at Tega (in the Peloponnese). The western pediment represented the battle of Achilles with Telephus (Trojan War). In the surviving original - the hero's head - suffering is conveyed by the shadow of the protruding brow ridges, a half-open mouth with drooping corners of the lips.

Skopas managed to create two very attractive different female images: the goddess Nike untying her sandal (16) , and a dancing bacchante. The graceful pose of the goddess, clothes falling in careless folds, emphasize the shape of the body, giving the entire figure an intimate character. Behind her shoulders appear the soft contours of large, outstretched wings. Dionysus's companion, the bacchante, on the contrary, threw her head back in a wild dance, her hair scattered along her back.

(16) Relief of the balustrade of the Temple of Nike.
End of the 5th century BC. Acropolis Museum, Athens

Scopas's plastic art is not distinguished by the subtlety of modeling of details that is inherent in Praxiteles, but sharp shadows and energetically protruding forms create the impression of living life and eternal movement.

The depiction of movement in sculpture has changed over time. In archaic sculpture, the type of movement could be called “movement of action,” justified by the motive of this action: heroes run, compete, threaten with weapons, hold out objects. There is no such action - the archaic statue is motionless. In the classical period, starting with the sculptures of Polykleitos, the so-called. “spatial movement” (as defined by Leonardo da Vinci), meaning movement in space without a visible goal, a specific motive (as in the statue of Doryphoros). The body of the statue moves either forward or around its axis (“The Bacchae” by Skopas) (17) .

(17) Bacchante. IV century BC. Roman copy. Albertinum, Dresden

Looking back, we see how the sculptors of Ancient Greece managed in just two centuries to breathe life, like Pygmalion, into the mysterious, silent, cold cores and turn them into sensual, whirling bacchantes.

REFERENCES

Alpatov M.V. Artistic problems of the art of Ancient Greece. – M.: Art, 1987.

Whipper B.R. An introduction to the historical study of art. – M.: AST-Press, 2004.

Voshchinina A.I. Ancient art. – M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Arts, 1962.

DICTIONARY FOR THE ARTICLE

Architrave- a beam lying on the capitals of the columns.

Bas-relief– low relief, in which the convex image protrudes above the background plane by no more than half its volume.

Himation- outerwear in the form of a quadrangular piece of woolen fabric, worn over a tunic.

Hoplite- a warrior in heavy weapons.

High relief– high relief, in which the image protrudes above the background plane by more than half of its volume.

Caryatids– standing female statues that serve as support for beams in the building. Perhaps the noble women of Caria, given into slavery to the Persians to save the inhabitants.

Ludovisi- an Italian aristocratic family that rose to prominence at the beginning of the 17th century, when Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi became Pope Gregory XV in 1621.

Metope- a slab decorated with sculpture, part of a Doric frieze.

Palaestra- a private gymnastics school where boys from 12 to 16 years old studied. On about. Samos was a palaestra for grown men.

Panathenaea- in ancient Attica, festivals in honor of the goddess Athena (great - once every four years, small - annually). The program included: a procession to the acropolis, a sacrifice and competitions - gymnastics, equestrian, poetic and musical.

Peplos- women's long clothing made of wool, pinned at the shoulders, with a high slit on the side.

Poros– soft Attic limestone.

Strong- a fertility deity in the retinue of Dionysus.

Triglyph- an element of the frieze of the Doric order, alternating with metopes.

Chiton– long, straight men's and women's clothing.

Chrysoelephantine (Greek– made of gold and ivory) technique– mixed technique. The wooden figure was covered with thin gold plates, and the face and hands were carved from ivory.

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Faced with the sculptures of Ancient Greece, many outstanding minds expressed genuine admiration. One of the most famous researchers of the art of ancient Greece, Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768) speaks about Greek sculpture: “Connoisseurs and imitators of Greek works find in their masterful creations not only the most beautiful nature, but also more than nature, namely its certain ideal beauty, which... is created from images sketched by the mind.” Everyone who writes about Greek art notes in it an amazing combination of naive spontaneity and depth, reality and fiction.

It, especially in sculpture, embodies the ideal of man. What is the peculiarity of the ideal? Why did he charm people so much that the aged Goethe cried in the Louvre in front of the sculpture of Aphrodite? The Greeks always believed that only in a beautiful body can a beautiful soul live. Therefore, harmony of the body, external perfection is an indispensable condition and basis of an ideal person. The Greek ideal is defined by the term kalokagathia (Greek kalos - beautiful + agathos good). Since kalokagathia includes the perfection of both physical constitution and spiritual and moral makeup, then at the same time, along with beauty and strength, the ideal carries justice, chastity, courage and rationality. This is what makes the Greek gods, sculpted by ancient sculptors, uniquely beautiful.

The best monuments of ancient Greek sculpture were created in the 5th century. BC. But earlier works have also reached us. Statues of the 7th - 6th centuries. BC are symmetrical: one half of the body is a mirror image of the other. Shackled posture, outstretched arms pressed to the muscular body. Not the slightest tilt or turn of the head, but the lips are open in a smile. A smile seems to illuminate the sculpture from within with an expression of the joy of life. Later, during the period of classicism, statues acquired a greater variety of forms. There have been attempts to conceptualize harmony algebraically. The first scientific study of what harmony is was undertaken by Pythagoras. The school that he founded examined issues of a philosophical and mathematical nature, applying mathematical calculations to all aspects of reality.

Video: Sculptures of Ancient Greece

Number theory and sculpture of Ancient Greece

Neither musical harmony nor the harmony of the human body or architectural structure were exceptions. The Pythagorean school considered number the basis and beginning of the world. What does number theory have to do with Greek art? It turns out that it is the most direct, since the harmony of the spheres of the Universe and the harmony of the entire world is expressed by the same ratios of numbers, the main ones of which are the ratios 2/1, 3/2 and 4/3 (in music these are the octave, fifth and fourth, respectively). In addition, harmony presupposes the possibility of calculating any correlation of parts of each object, including sculpture, according to the following proportion: a / b = b / c, where a is any smaller part of the object, b is any larger part, c is the whole. On this basis, the great Greek sculptor Polykleitos (5th century BC) created a sculpture of a young spear-bearer (5th century BC), which is called “Doriphoros” (“Spear-bearer”) or “Canon” - after the title of the work sculptor, where he, discussing the theory of art, considers the laws of depicting a perfect person.

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Greece on the map, where the sculptures of Ancient Greece were created

Statue of Polykleitos "Spearman"

It is believed that the artist’s reasoning can be applied to his sculpture. The statues of Polykleitos are full of intense life. Polykleitos liked to depict athletes in a state of rest. Take the same “Spearman”. This powerfully built man is full of self-esteem. He stands motionless in front of the viewer. But this is not the static peace of ancient Egyptian statues. Like a man who skillfully and easily controls his body, the spearman slightly bent one leg and shifted the weight of his body to the other. It seems that a moment will pass and he will take a step forward, turn his head, proud of his beauty and strength. Before us is a man strong, handsome, free from fear, proud, reserved - the embodiment of Greek ideals.

Video: Greek sculptors.

Statue of Myron "Discobolus"

Unlike his contemporary Polykleitos, Myron loved to depict his statues in motion. Here, for example, is the statue “Discobolus” (5th century BC; Thermal Museum, Rome). Its author, the great sculptor Miron, depicted a beautiful young man at the moment when he swung a heavy disc. His body, caught in motion, is curved and tense, like a spring ready to unfold.

Under the elastic skin of the arm pulled back, trained muscles bulged. The toes, forming a reliable support, pressed deep into the sand.

Sculpture of Phidias "Athena Parthenos"

The statues of Myron and Polykleitos were cast in bronze, but only marble copies of ancient Greek originals made by the Romans have reached us. The Greeks considered Phidias the greatest sculptor of his time, who decorated the Parthenon with marble sculpture. His sculptures especially reflect that the gods in Greece are nothing more than images of an ideal person. The best preserved marble strip of the relief of the frieze is 160 m long. It depicts a procession heading to the temple of the goddess Athena - the Parthenon. The Parthenon sculpture was badly damaged. And “Athena Parthenos” perished in ancient times. She stood inside the temple and was incredibly beautiful. The goddess's head with a low, smooth forehead and rounded chin, neck and arms were made of ivory, and her hair, clothes, shield and helmet were minted from sheets of gold. The goddess in the form of a beautiful woman is the personification of Athens. Many stories are associated with this sculpture.

Other sculptures of Phidias

The created masterpiece was so great and famous that its author immediately had many envious people. They tried in every possible way to insult the sculptor and looked for various reasons why they could accuse him of something. They say that Phidias was accused of allegedly concealing part of the gold given as material for the decoration of the goddess. To prove his innocence, Phidias removed all the gold objects from the sculpture and weighed them. The weight exactly coincided with the weight of the gold given for the sculpture. Then Phidias was accused of atheism. The reason for this was Athena's shield.

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Athens on the map, where the sculptures of Ancient Greece were created

It depicted the plot of the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons. Among the Greeks, Phidias depicted himself and his beloved Pericles. The image of Phidias on the shield became the cause of the conflict. Despite all the achievements of Phidias, the Greek public was able to turn against him. The life of the great sculptor ended in a cruel execution. The achievements of Phidias in the Parthenon were not exhaustive for his work. The sculptor created many other works, the best of which were the colossal bronze figure of Athena Promachos, erected on the Acropolis around 460 BC, and the equally huge ivory and gold figure of Zeus for the temple at Olympia.

Unfortunately, the original works no longer exist, and we cannot see with our own eyes the magnificent works of art of Ancient Greece. Only their descriptions and copies remain. This was largely due to the fanatical destruction of statues by Christian believers. This is how one can describe the statue of Zeus for the temple at Olympia: A huge fourteen-meter god sat on a golden throne, and it seemed that if he stood up, straightened his broad shoulders, he would feel cramped in the vast hall and the ceiling would be low. The head of Zeus was decorated with a wreath of olive branches - a sign of the peacefulness of the formidable god. His face, shoulders, arms, chest were made of ivory, and his cloak was thrown over his left shoulder. The crown and beard of Zeus were made of sparkling gold. Phidias endowed Zeus with human nobility. His handsome face, framed by a curly beard and curly hair, was not only stern, but also kind, his posture was solemn, stately and calm.

The combination of physical beauty and kindness of soul emphasized his divine ideality. The statue made such an impression that, according to the ancient author, people, depressed by grief, sought consolation in contemplating the creation of Phidias. Rumor declared the statue of Zeus one of the “seven wonders of the world.” The works of all three sculptors were similar in that they all depicted the harmony of a beautiful body and the kind soul contained in it. This was the main trend at the time. Of course, norms and guidelines in Greek art changed throughout history. Archaic art was more straightforward; it lacked the deep meaning-filled understatement that delights humanity in the period of the Greek classics. In the Hellenistic era, when man lost his sense of the stability of the world, art lost its old ideals. It began to reflect the feelings of uncertainty about the future that reigned in the social trends of that time.

Materials of sculpture of Ancient Greece

One thing united all periods of the development of Greek society and art: this, as M. Alpatov writes, was a special passion for plastic arts, for spatial arts. Such a predilection is understandable: huge reserves of variously colored, noble and ideal material - marble - provided ample opportunities for its implementation. Although most Greek sculptures were made in bronze, since marble was fragile, it was the texture of marble with its color and decorativeness that made it possible to reproduce the beauty of the human body with the greatest expressiveness. Therefore, most often “the human body, its structure and pliability, its harmony and flexibility attracted the attention of the Greeks; they willingly depicted the human body both naked and in light transparent clothing.”

Video: Sculptures of Ancient Greece

Architecture and sculpture of Ancient Greece

Cities of the ancient world usually appeared near a high rock, and a citadel was built on it, so that there would be a place to hide if the enemy penetrated the city. Such a citadel was called an acropolis. In the same way, on a rock that towered almost 150 meters above Athens and had long served as a natural defensive structure, an upper city gradually formed in the form of a fortress (acropolis) with various defensive, public and religious structures.
The Athenian Acropolis began to be built up in the 2nd millennium BC. During the Greco-Persian Wars (480-479 BC) it was completely destroyed; later, under the leadership of the sculptor and architect Phidias, its restoration and reconstruction began.
The Acropolis is one of those places “about which everyone insists that they are magnificent and unique. But don't ask why. No one can answer you...” It can be measured, even all its stones can be counted. It's not that big of a deal to get through it from end to end - it only takes a few minutes. The walls of the Acropolis are steep and precipitous. Four great creations still stand on this rocky hill. A wide zigzag road runs from the bottom of the hill to the only entrance. This is the Propylaea - a monumental gate with Doric style columns and a wide staircase. They were built by the architect Mnesicles in 437-432 BC. But before entering these majestic marble gates, everyone involuntarily turned to the right. There, on the high pedestal of the bastion that once guarded the entrance to the acropolis, stands the temple of the goddess of victory Nike Apteros, decorated with Ionic columns. This is the work of the architect Callicrates (second half of the 5th century BC). The temple - light, airy, unusually beautiful - stood out with its whiteness against the blue background of the sky. This fragile building, looking like an elegant marble toy, seems to smile itself and makes passers-by smile affectionately.
The restless, ardent and active gods of Greece resembled the Greeks themselves. True, they were taller, could fly through the air, take on any form, and turn into animals and plants. But in all other respects they behaved like ordinary people: they got married, deceived each other, quarreled, made peace, punished children...

Temple of Demeter, builders unknown, 6th century. BC. Olympia

Temple of Nike Apteros, architect Kallikrates, 449-421 BC. Athens

Propylaea, architect Mnesical, 437-432 BC. Athens

The goddess of victory Nike was depicted as a beautiful woman with large wings: victory is fickle and flies from one opponent to another. The Athenians depicted her as wingless so that she would not leave the city that had recently won a great victory over the Persians. Deprived of wings, the goddess could no longer fly and had to remain in Athens forever.
The Nika Temple stands on a rock ledge. It is slightly turned towards the Propylaea and plays the role of a beacon for processions going around the rock.
Immediately beyond the Propylaea, Athena the Warrior stood proudly, whose spear greeted the traveler from afar and served as a beacon for sailors. The inscription on the stone pedestal read: “The Athenians dedicated from the victory over the Persians.” This meant that the statue was cast from bronze weapons taken from the Persians as a result of their victories.
The Erechtheion temple ensemble was also located on the Acropolis, which (according to its creators) was supposed to connect together several sanctuaries located at different levels - the rock here is very uneven. The northern portico of the Erechtheion led to the sanctuary of Athena, where a wooden statue of the goddess was kept, supposedly falling from the sky. The door from the sanctuary opened into a small courtyard where the only sacred olive tree on the entire Acropolis grew, which rose when Athena touched the rock with her sword in this place. Through the eastern portico one could get into the sanctuary of Poseidon, where he, having struck the rock with his trident, left three furrows with gurgling water. Here was also the sanctuary of Erechtheus, revered on a par with Poseidon.
The central part of the temple is a rectangular room (24.1x13.1 meters). The temple also contained the tomb and sanctuary of the first legendary king of Attica, Cecrops. On the south side of the Erechtheion is the famous portico of the caryatids: at the edge of the wall, six girls carved from marble support the ceiling. Some scholars suggest that the portico served as a tribune for respectable citizens or that priests gathered here for religious ceremonies. But the exact purpose of the portico is still unclear, because “portico” means vestibule, and in this case the portico did not have doors and from here it is impossible to get inside the temple. The figures of the portico of the caryatids are essentially supports that replace a pillar or column; they also perfectly convey the lightness and flexibility of the girlish figures. The Turks, who at one time captured Athens and, due to their Muslim beliefs, did not allow images of humans, did not, however, destroy these statues. They limited themselves to only cutting off the girls' faces.

Erechtheion, builders unknown, 421-407 BC. Athens

Parthenon, architects Ictinus, Callicrates, 447-432 BC. Athens

In 1803, Lord Elgin, the English ambassador to Constantinople and a collector, using the permission of the Turkish Sultan, broke out one of the caryatids in the temple and took it to England, where he offered it to the British Museum. Interpreting the firman of the Turkish Sultan too broadly, he also took with him many of the sculptures of Phidias and sold them for 35,000 pounds sterling. Firman stated that “no one should prevent him from taking away a few stones with inscriptions or figures from the Acropolis.” Elgin filled 201 boxes with such “stones”. As he himself stated, he took only those sculptures that had already fallen or were in danger of falling, ostensibly in order to save them from final destruction. But Byron also called him a thief. Later (during the restoration of the portico of the caryatids in 1845-1847), the British Museum sent to Athens a plaster cast of the statue taken away by Lord Elgin. The cast was subsequently replaced by a more durable copy made of artificial stone, made in England.
At the end of the last century, the Greek government demanded that England return its treasures, but received the answer that the London climate was more favorable for them.
At the beginning of our millennium, when Greece was transferred to Byzantium during the division of the Roman Empire, the Erechtheion was turned into a Christian temple. Later, the crusaders, who captured Athens, made the temple a ducal palace, and during the Turkish conquest of Athens in 1458, a harem of the commandant of the fortress was installed in the Erechtheion. During the liberation war of 1821-1827, the Greeks and Turks took turns besieging the Acropolis, bombarding its structures, including the Erechtheion.
In 1830 (after the proclamation of Greek independence), only foundations could be found at the site of the Erechtheion, as well as architectural decorations lying on the ground. Funds for the restoration of this temple ensemble (as well as for the restoration of many other structures of the Acropolis) were given by Heinrich Schliemann. His closest associate V. Derpfeld carefully measured and compared the ancient fragments; by the end of the 70s of the last century he was already planning to restore the Erechtheion. But this reconstruction was subjected to severe criticism, and the temple was dismantled. The building was rebuilt under the leadership of the famous Greek scientist P. Kavadias in 1906 and finally restored in 1922.

"Venus de Milo" Agessander(?), 120 BC. Louvre, Paris

"Laocoon" Agessander, Polydorus, Athenodorus, c.40 BC. Greece, Olympia

"Hercules of Farnese" ca. 200 BC e., Nat. museum, Naples

"Wounded Amazon" Polykleitos, 440 BC. National museum rome

The Parthenon - the temple of the goddess Athena - is the largest structure on the Acropolis and the most beautiful creation of Greek architecture. It stands not in the center of the square, but somewhat to the side, so that you can immediately take in the front and side facades and understand the beauty of the temple as a whole. The ancient Greeks believed that the temple with the main cult statue in the center represented the house of the deity. The Parthenon is the temple of Athena the Virgin (Parthenos), and therefore in its center there was a chrysoelephantine (made of ivory and gold plates on a wooden base) statue of the goddess.
The Parthenon was erected in 447-432 BC. architects Ictinus and Callicrates from Pentelic marble. It was located on a four-level terrace, the size of its base was 69.5 x 30.9 meters. The Parthenon is surrounded on four sides by slender colonnades; gaps of blue sky are visible between their white marble trunks. Entirely permeated with light, it seems airy and light. There are no bright designs on the white columns, as is found in Egyptian temples. Only longitudinal grooves (flutes) cover them from top to bottom, making the temple seem taller and even slimmer. The columns owe their slenderness and lightness to the fact that they taper slightly towards the top. In the middle part of the trunk, not at all noticeable to the eye, they thicken and this makes them seem elastic, more able to withstand the weight of stone blocks. Iktin and Callicrates, having thought through every smallest detail, created a building that amazes with its amazing proportionality, extreme simplicity and purity of all lines. Placed on the upper platform of the Acropolis, at an altitude of about 150 meters above sea level, the Parthenon was visible not only from anywhere in the city, but also from numerous ships sailing to Athens. The temple was a Doric perimeter surrounded by a colonnade of 46 columns.

"Aphrodite and Pan" 100 BC, Delphi, Greece

"Diana the Huntress" Leochard, c.340 BC, Louvre, Paris, France

"Resting Hermes" Lysippos, IV century. BC BC, National Museum, Naples

"Hercules Fighting the Lion" Lysippos, c. 330 BC Hermitage, St. Petersburg

"Atlas Farnese" ca. 200 BC, Nat. museum, Naples

The most famous masters participated in the sculptural design of the Parthenon. The artistic director of the construction and decoration of the Parthenon was Phidias, one of the greatest sculptors of all time. He is responsible for the overall composition and development of the entire sculptural decoration, part of which he performed himself. The organizational side of the construction was handled by Pericles, the largest statesman of Athens.
The entire sculptural design of the Parthenon was intended to glorify the goddess Athena and her city - Athens. The theme of the eastern pediment is the birth of Zeus's beloved daughter. On the western pediment the master depicted a scene of a dispute between Athena and Poseidon for dominance over Attica. According to the myth, Athena won the dispute and gave the inhabitants of this country an olive tree.
The gods of Greece gathered on the pediments of the Parthenon: the thunderer Zeus, the mighty ruler of the seas Poseidon, the wise warrior Athena, the winged Nike. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was completed by a frieze, which depicted a solemn procession during the festival of the Great Panathenaia. This frieze is considered one of the pinnacles of classical art. Despite all its compositional unity, it amazed with its diversity. Of the more than 500 figures of young men, elders, girls, on foot and on horseback, not one repeated the other; the movements of people and animals were conveyed with amazing dynamism.
The figures of the sculptural Greek relief are not flat, they have the volume and shape of the human body. They differ from statues only in that they are not processed on all sides, but seem to merge with the background formed by the flat surface of the stone. Light colors enlivened the Parthenon marble. The red background emphasized the whiteness of the figures, the narrow vertical projections that separated one slab of the frieze from the other stood out clearly in blue, and the gilding shone brightly. Behind the columns, on a marble ribbon encircling all four facades of the building, a festive procession was depicted. There are almost no gods here, and people, forever imprinted in stone, moved along the two long sides of the building and united on the eastern facade, where a solemn ceremony took place to present the priest with a robe woven by Athenian girls for the goddess. Each figure is characterized by its unique beauty, and all together they accurately reflect the true life and customs of the ancient city.

Indeed, once every five years, on one of the hot days of mid-summer, a nationwide celebration took place in Athens in honor of the birth of the goddess Athena. It was called the Great Panathenaia. Not only citizens of the Athenian state, but also many guests took part in it. The celebration consisted of a solemn procession (pump), the bringing of a hecatomb (100 head of cattle) and a common meal, sports, equestrian and musical competitions. The winner received a special, so-called Panathenaic amphora filled with oil, and a wreath made from the leaves of the sacred olive tree growing on the Acropolis.

The most solemn moment of the holiday was the national procession to the Acropolis. Riders on horses were moving, statesmen, warriors in armor and young athletes were walking. Priests and nobles walked in long white robes, heralds loudly praised the goddess, musicians filled the still cool morning air with joyful sounds. Along the zigzag Panathenaic road, trampled by thousands of people, sacrificial animals climbed the high hill of the Acropolis. The boys and girls carried with them a model of the sacred Panathenaic ship with a peplos (veil) attached to its mast. A light breeze fluttered the bright fabric of the yellow-violet robe, which was carried as a gift to the goddess Athena by the noble girls of the city. For a whole year they wove and embroidered it. Other girls raised sacred vessels for sacrifices high above their heads. Gradually the procession approached the Parthenon. The entrance to the temple was made not from the Propylaea, but from the other, as if so that everyone would first walk around, examine and appreciate the beauty of all parts of the beautiful building. Unlike Christian churches, ancient Greek ones were not intended for worship inside them; the people remained outside the temple during religious activities. In the depths of the temple, surrounded on three sides by two-tiered colonnades, the famous statue of the Virgin Athena, created by the famous Phidias, stood proudly. Her clothes, helmet and shield were made of pure sparkling gold, and her face and hands shone with the whiteness of ivory.

Many book volumes have been written about the Parthenon, among them there are monographs about each of its sculptures and about each step of gradual decline from the time when, after the decree of Theodosius I, it became a Christian temple. In the 15th century, the Turks turned it into a mosque, and in the 17th century, into a gunpowder warehouse. It was turned into final ruins by the Turkish-Venetian war of 1687, when an artillery shell hit it and in one moment did what all-consuming time could not do in 2000 years.

We have already talked about ORIGINS. The planned dotted line was interrupted for objective reasons, but I still want to continue. Let me remind you that we stopped in deep history - in the art of Ancient Greece. What do we remember from the school curriculum? As a rule, three names remain firmly in our memory - Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos. Then we remember that there were also Lysippos, Scopas, Praxiteles and Leochares... So let’s see what is what. So, the time of action is 4-5 centuries BC, the place of action is Ancient Greece.

PYTHAGORUS OF REGIA
Pythagoras of Rhegium (5th century BC) is an ancient Greek sculptor of the early classical period, whose works are known only from mentions of ancient authors. Several Roman copies of his works have survived, including my favorite “Boy Taking out a Thorn.” This work gave rise to the so-called garden sculpture.

Pythagoras of Rhegium Boy removing a splinter ca. mid-5th century BC. original copy of Capitoline museum

MIRON
Miron (Μύρων) - sculptor of the mid-5th century. BC e. Sculptor of the era immediately preceding the highest flowering of Greek art (end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th century). The ancients characterize him as the greatest realist and expert in anatomy, who, however, did not know how to give life and expression to faces. He depicted gods, heroes and animals, and with special love he reproduced difficult, fleeting poses. His most famous work is “The Disco Thrower,” an athlete intending to throw a discus, a statue that has survived to this day in several copies, of which the best is made of marble and is located in the Massimi Palace in Rome.

Discus thrower.
PHIDIAS.
The ancient Greek sculptor Phidias is considered one of the founders of the classical style, who decorated with his sculptures both the Temple of Zeus in Olympia and the Temple of Athena (Parthenon) in the Athenian Acropolis. Fragments of the Parthenon sculptural frieze are now in the British Museum (London).

Fragments of the frieze and pediment of the Parthenon. British Museum, London.

The main sculptural works of Phidias (Athena and Zeus) have long been lost, the temples were destroyed and looted.

Parthenon.

There are many attempts to reconstruct the temples of Athena and Zeus. You can read about it here:
Information about Phidias himself and his legacy is relatively scarce. Among the existing statues there is not a single one that undoubtedly belonged to Phidias. All knowledge about his work is based on descriptions of ancient authors, on the study of later copies, as well as surviving works that are more or less reliably attributed to Phidias.

More about Fidia http://biography-peoples.ru/index.php/f/item/750-fidij
http://art.1september.ru/article.php?ID=200901207
http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/3155073/post207627184/

Well, about the rest of the representatives of Ancient Greek culture.

POLYCLETUS
Greek sculptor of the second half of the 5th century. BC e. Creator of many statues, including winners of sports games, for the religious and sports centers of Argos, Olympia, Thebes and Megalopolis. The author of the canon of depiction of the human body in sculpture, known as the “Canon of Polykleitos”, according to which the head is 1/8 of the length of the body, the face and palms are 1/10, and the foot is 1/6. The canon was observed in Greek sculpture to the end, the so-called. classical era, that is, until the end of the 4th century. BC e., when Lysippos laid down new principles. His most famous work is "Doriphoros" (Spearman). This is from the encyclopedia.

Polykleitos. Doryphoros. Pushkin Museum. Plaster Copy.

PRAXITEL

APHRODITE OF CNIDO (Roman copy from the original 4th century BC) Rome, National Museums (head, arms, legs, drapery restored)
One of the most famous works in ancient sculpture is Aphrodite of Knidos, the first ancient Greek sculpture (height - 2 m), depicting a naked woman before bathing.

Aphrodite of Cnidus, (Aphrodite of Braschi) Roman copy, 1st century. BC. Glyptothek, Munich

Aphrodite of Knidos. Medium grain marble. Torso - Roman copy of the 2nd century. n. aegiss copy of the Pushkin Museum
According to Pliny, the statue of Aphrodite for the local sanctuary was ordered by the inhabitants of the island of Kos. Praxiteles performed two options: a naked goddess and a clothed goddess. Praxiteles charged the same price for both statues. The customers did not take risks and chose the traditional option, with a draped figure. Its copies and descriptions have not survived, and it has sunk into oblivion. And the Aphrodite of Knidos, which remained in the sculptor’s workshop, was bought by residents of the city of Knidos, which was favorable for the development of the city: pilgrims began to flock to Knidos, attracted by the famous sculpture. Aphrodite stood in an open-air temple, visible from all sides.
Aphrodite of Cnidus enjoyed such fame and was copied so often that they even told an anecdote about her, which formed the basis of the epigram: “Seeing Cypris on Cnidus, Cypris bashfully said: “Woe is me, where did Praxiteles see me naked?”
Praxiteles created the goddess of love and beauty as the personification of earthly femininity, inspired by the image of his beloved, the beautiful Phryne. Indeed, Aphrodite’s face, although created according to the canon, with the dreamy look of languid shadowed eyes, carries a touch of individuality that points to a specific original. By creating an almost portrait image, Praxiteles looked into the future.
A romantic legend has been preserved about the relationship between Praxiteles and Phryne. They say that Phryne asked Praxiteles to give her his best work as a sign of love. He agreed, but refused to say which of the statues he considered the best. Then Phryne ordered the servant to inform Praxiteles about the fire in the workshop. The frightened master exclaimed: “If the flame destroyed both Eros and Satyr, then everything died!” So Phryne learned what kind of work she could ask from Praxiteles.

Praxiteles (presumably). Hermes with the infant Dionysus, 4th century. BC. Museum in Olympia
The sculpture “Hermes with the Child Dionysus” is typical of the late classical period. She does not personify physical strength, as was previously customary, but beauty and harmony, restrained and lyrical human communication. The depiction of feelings and the inner life of characters is a new phenomenon in ancient art, not typical of high classics. The masculinity of Hermes is emphasized by the infantile appearance of Dionysus. The curved lines of the figure of Hermes are graceful. His strong and developed body lacks the athleticism characteristic of Polykleitos's works. The facial expression, although devoid of individual features, is soft and thoughtful. The hair was dyed and held in place with a silver bandage.
Praxiteles achieved a feeling of body warmth by finely modeling the surface of marble and with great skill conveyed in stone the fabric of Hermes's cloak and the clothes of Dionysus.

SCOPAS

Museum in Olympia, Skopas Maenad Reduced marble Roman copy from the original of the 1st third of the 4th century
Skopas - ancient Greek sculptor and architect of the 4th century. BC e., representative of the Late Classic. Born on the island of Paros, he worked in Teges (now Piali), Halicarnassus (now Bodrum) and other cities in Greece and Asia Minor. As an architect, he took part in the construction of the temple of Athena Aley in Tegea (350-340 BC) and the mausoleum in Halicarnassus (mid-4th century BC). Among the original works of S. that have come down to us, the most important is the frieze of the mausoleum in Halicarnassus with the image of the Amazonomachy (mid-4th century BC; together with Briaxis, Leocharo and Timothy; fragments are in the British Museum, London; see illustration). Numerous works by S. are known from Roman copies (“Pothos”, “Young Hercules”, “Meleager”, “Maenad”, see illustration). Having abandoned the characteristic art of the 5th century. harmonious tranquility of the image, S. turned to the transmission of strong emotional experiences and the struggle of passions. To realize them, S. used dynamic composition and new techniques for interpreting details, especially facial features: deep-set eyes, folds on the forehead and an open mouth. Saturated with dramatic pathos, S.'s creativity had a great influence on the sculptors of Hellenistic culture (See Hellenistic culture), in particular on the works of masters of the 3rd and 2nd centuries who worked in the city of Pergamon.

LYSIPPUS
Lysippos was born around 390 in Sikyon on the Peloponne and his work already represents the later, Hellenic part of the art of Ancient Greece.

Lysippos. Hercules with a lion. Second half of the 4th century. BC e. Marble Roman copy from a bronze original. St. Petersburg, Hermitage.

LEOCHAR
Leochares - ancient Greek sculptor of the 4th century. BC e., who in the 350s worked with Skopas on the sculptural decoration of the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus.

Leochar Artemis of Versailles (Roman copy of the 1st-2nd century from the original about 330 century BC) Paris, Louvre

Leohar. Apollo Belvedere This is me with him in the Vatican. Pardon the liberties, but it’s easier not to load the plaster copy.

Well, then there was Hellenism. We know him well from Venus (in “Greek” Aphrodite) of Milo and Nike of Samothrace, which are kept in the Louvre.

Venus de Milo. Around 120 BC Louvre.

Nike of Samothrace. OK. 190 BC e. Louvre

Today I would like to raise a topic that, from experience, sometimes causes a difficult and far from ambiguous reaction - to talk about ancient sculpture, and more specifically, about the depiction of the human body in it.

Attempts to introduce children to ancient sculpture sometimes encounter unexpected difficulties when parents simply do not dare show their children naked statues, considering such images almost pornography. I don’t presume to claim the universality of the method, but in my childhood such a problem did not even arise, because - thanks to my wise mother - an excellent edition of legends and myths of Ancient Greece by Kuna, abundantly illustrated with photographs of the works of ancient masters, appeared in my life when I was five or six years old, then there is long before the girl began to be interested in all sorts of specific issues of gender.

So the struggle of the Olympians with the Titans and the exploits of Hercules settled down in the head somewhere on the same shelf with the Snow Queen and wild swans and were remembered not only as bizarre stories, but immediately acquired visual embodiment, became attached - perhaps at that time not quite consciously - to specific poses, gestures, faces - human plasticity and facial expressions. At the same time, my mother immediately found simple and understandable answers to all the children’s questions - that, firstly, it was hot in Ancient Greece, and, secondly, the statues are not people and now they are not cold at all.

As for the questions of adults, we must keep in mind that the idea of the division of man into soul and body, which in Christian anthropology ultimately led to the idea of the subordination of the body to the soul (and even later, in some Protestant branches, even - to a strict taboo of the physical), was first clearly formulated, perhaps, only by Plato. And before that, the Greeks, for at least several centuries, reached the idea that the soul is not just spirit, breath, but something individually personal and, so to speak, “stationary,” very gradually moving from the concept of θυμός to the concept of ψυχή. Thus, especially since the gods became anthropomorphic, the Greek masters simply had no other way to tell about different aspects of life other than by depicting the human body.

So, a significant part of Greek sculpture is illustrations of myths, which in ancient times were not just “tales about the gods,” but also a means of conveying the most important information about the structure of the world, the principles of life, what should and should not be. That is, such “3D illustrations” were much more important for ancient people than for me as a child. However, perhaps, much more significant than understanding myths, for us there is another opportunity that Greek sculpture provided to its creators - to study and know the person himself. And if the main characters of primitive art were various animals, then from the time of the Paleolithic and throughout antiquity, man undoubtedly became such.

All the efforts of the artists of this rather long period were aimed first at capturing and conveying the most general anatomical features of the structure of the human body, and then its more complex dynamic manifestations - movements, gestures, facial expressions. Thus, European art began its long journey from crude and only vaguely human-like “Paleolithic Venuses” to the works of Myron, perfect in proportion, and from them further; a path that could conventionally be called the road to a person - first to his body, and then to his soul - however, still in the psychological sense of the word. Let us also go through some of its stages.

Paleolithic Venus. About 30 thousand years ago

The very first humanoid images in Europe, as mentioned above, were “Paleolithic Venuses” - tiny figures made from mammoth tusks or soft stones. The features of their depiction - the almost complete absence of arms, and sometimes even legs and heads, the hypertrophied middle part of the body - suggest that what we are looking at, most likely, is not even a full depiction of the human body, but only an attempt to convey one of its functions - childbearing. The connection of “Venuses” with the cult of fertility is assumed by the vast majority of researchers; we only need them as a starting point for our journey.

The next stop there will be kouros and kors (literally - boys and girls) - human images carved in ancient city policies in the 7th-6th centuries BC.

Kouros, archaic smile. Kouros and kora

As we see, such statues, used, for example, as monuments to famous athletes, convey the appearance of the human body in much more detail, however, they are also a kind of “scheme of a person.” So, for example, all the numerous kouros, for some inexplicable reason, stand in the same position - with their arms pressed to their torso, their left leg extended forward; the most recent suspicions of portraiture are finally dispelled when looking at their faces - with the same absent expression and lips stretched into an eerie - so-called. archaic - a smile.

Next stop. V century BC, Greek archaic. Sculptures of Myron and Polykleitos, striking the viewer with the perfection of proportions.

Miron. Discus thrower 455 BC, Polykleitos. Doryphoros (spearman) (450-440 BC) and Wounded Amazon (430 BC)

Really, you ask, is this a scheme again? And just imagine, the answer will be yes. We have at least two proofs of this. Firstly, fragments of the so-called have reached our time. "The Canon of Polykleitos". In this mathematical treatise, the sculptor, who was a follower of the Pythagorean movement, tried to calculate the ideal proportions of the male body. Apparently, the statue subsequently became an illustration of such calculations. And the second proof will be... the extensive Greek literature of that time. From it we can glean, for example, the following lines from Sappho:

He who is beautiful is good.

And the one who is kind will soon become beautiful.

Moreover, among all the heroes of Homer’s Iliad, only the “idle-talking” Thersites refuses to unquestioningly enter into the endless war into which the gods are driving the heroes. The author does not spare black paint for this character, who outrages the army with his speeches and hates literally everyone; but it is not at all by chance that Thersites turns out to be a terrible monster by the will of the author:

An ugliest man, he came to Ilion among the Danae;
He was cross-eyed and lame; completely hunchbacked from behind
The shoulders met on the chest; his head rose
Pointed up, and was only sparsely strewn with fluff.

Thus, we can say that the Greeks of the archaic period were supporters of the idea that external beauty is an indispensable manifestation of internal beauty and harmony, and, therefore, scrupulously calculating the parameters of the ideal human body, they tried to depict, no less, a perfect soul, so so perfect that she even seems lifeless.

Indeed, answer me just one simple question: where will the disk thrown by the discus thrower fly next? The longer you look at the statue, the more clearly you will understand that the disc will not be thrown anywhere, because the position of the athlete’s withdrawn hand does not at all imply a swing to throw, the muscles of his chest do not show any special tension, his face is completely calm; Moreover, the depicted position of the legs does not allow one to take not only the turning jump necessary for throwing, but even a simple step. That is, it turns out that the discus thrower, despite the apparent complexity of his pose, is absolutely static, perfect, dead. Like the wounded Amazon, in her suffering, gracefully leaning on the capital that appeared nearby at such a timely moment.

Finally, IV century. BC. introduces new moods into Greek sculpture. At this time, the Greek city-states were in decline - we can assume that the small universe of ancient man was gradually ending its existence. Greek philosophy decisively turns to the search for new foundations of human happiness, offering a choice of the Cynicism of Antisthenes or the hedonism of Aristippus; one way or another, from now on a person will have to deal with the problems of the deep meaning of his life himself. The same individual human character comes to the fore in sculpture, in which for the first time both meaningful facial expressions and real movement appear.

Lysippos Resting Hermes 4th century BC, Maenad of Skopas, 4th century. BC, Artemis of Gabii 345 BC

Pain and tension are expressed in the pose of the Maenad of Skopas, and her face is turned to the sky with wide open eyes. Thoughtful, with an elegant and familiar gesture, Artemis from Gabius Praxiteles fastens the fibula on his shoulder. The resting Hermes Lysippos is also clearly in deep thought, and the excessively elongated, completely non-classical proportions of his body make the figure light, giving a certain dynamics even to this almost static pose. It seems that a little more, and the young man will make some important decision and run on. Thus, for the first time, the soul begins to appear through the outlines of beautiful marble and bronze bodies.

By the way, most of the statues we examined today are naked. But did anyone notice this?

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For example, 50 rubles a month - is it a lot or a little? A cup of coffee? Not much for a family budget. For Matrons - a lot.

If everyone who reads Matrona supports us with 50 rubles a month, they will make a huge contribution to the development of the publication and the emergence of new relevant and interesting materials about the life of a woman in the modern world, family, raising children, creative self-realization and spiritual meanings.