Greece Hellenistic Arts (330 / 320–30 BC) Part I

By | August 31, 2021

Following the conquests of Alexander the Great , according to estatelearning, Greek art dominated the Mediterranean and the Orient, in particular it served to decorate the residences of the Diadochi and Epigones. Effects can be seen as far as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Architecture

Numerous evidence of small rulers’ residences such as Pergamon and Pella have survived, but the large capitals Antioch and Alexandria were almost completely destroyed. The Ionic and Corinthian orders prevailed in temple construction; the main temple was emphasized by axially aligned terraces, stairs and colonnades (Kos, Asclepios sanctuary; Lindos, Athena sanctuary). With the temple of Artemis in Magnesia, Hermogenes created the type of pseudodipteros without an inner columnarea; the ring hall mediates between the cella and the surrounding area. The rare form of the rotunda can be found in the Arsinoeion, which the Ptolemaic Arsinoe II. built in Samothrace. Spacious markets were built in the cities, surrounded by rectangles with halls, temples and town hall (Buleuterion). The libraries (including the library of Alexandria) were a new type of building. Various theaters date back to the Hellenistic period; Stage buildings are proven, inter alia. in Priene, Ephesus and Oropos.

Gymnasiums, palaces and baths (Olympia, Athens, etc.) gained in scope and splendor in the form of sculptures, mosaics and wall paintings. Mighty fortifications have been preserved in Herakleia on Latmos (near Miletus), magazines in Pergamon. Agora and residential areas were urban designed (Milet, Pergamon, Priene), vast palaces (Vergina, Pella, Pergamon) and rich private houses from the Hofhausformen (Pastas- and Prostastypen) of the 5th and 4th century, the peristyle (peristyle) developed (Priene, Delos), testify to the increased living culture.

Plastic

Representative works of art of the new Hellenistic states were colossal statues. Lysipp’s pupil Eutychides created around 300 BC. A statue of the seated city goddess of Antioch (Tyche) with the personified river god Orontes; small replicas attest to the complicated composition. Nothing has survived of the Colossus of Rhodes, which Chares, another student of Lysippus, created. Polyeuktes created for Athens after 280 BC. A statue of Demosthenes (Paris, Louvre) with highly realistic features. The portrait experienced a heyday; on the other hand, the male standing ideal nude almost completely disappeared at the beginning of the third century. The child was re-thematized (among other things as Eros). This realistic concept shows z. B. also the girl from Antium (middle of the 3rd century), who depicts an Eastern Hellenistic clad, sacrificing servant (antique copy in Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica). Numerous statues adorned Pergamon, famous groups are »Menelaus with the corpse of Patroclus«, perhaps by Antigonos of Karystos (copy in Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi, among others), and the Attalic consecration gifts (»Dying Gauls« and the theatrical and pathetic group »Der Gauls and his wife “are perhaps works byEpigonus). The triumph over the Galatians was also celebrated by the powerful, pathetic, 120 m long frieze of the Pergamon Altar.

There was also a sculpture school on Rhodes. The bronze original of the seated statue of blind Homer was created (antique marble copy of the head in the Louvre, Paris), at the beginning of the 2nd century the Nike of Samothrace (Paris, Louvre), towards the end of the 2nd century Aphrodite of Melos (so-called Venus by Milo; Paris, Louvre). The portrait sculpture differentiated according to status, occupation, age, origin; Genre sculptures were widely used as terracottas. Since the 1st century BC A classical tendency developed for which the thorn extractor and the Farnesian bull (Apollonios von Tralleis) Examples are. The transition from Hellenistic to Roman sculpture is so fluid that the marble group of Laocoon and his sons up to the findings of Sperlonga in the 1st century BC. Instead of the 1st century AD.

Masterpieces of Greek Art

  • Chigikanne (around 630 BC; Rome, Villa Giulia)
  • Kore of Auxerre (630 BC; Paris, Louvre)
  • Temple of Hera in Olympia (around 600 BC)
  • Apollo of Tenea (560/550 BC; Munich, Glyptothek)
  • Temple of Aphaia on Aegina (end of the 6th century BC) with the Aeginetes (before 500 BC and 490/480 BC; Munich, Glyptothek)
  • Kritiosknabe (around 480 BC; Athens, Acropolis Museum)
  • Tyrannicide group Aristogeiton and Harmodios by Kritios and Nesiotes (477/476 BC; including Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale)
    • Temple of Zeus in Olympia (470/460 BC)
    • Warriors of Riace (mid-5th century BC; Reggio di Calabria, National Museum)
    • Parthenon in Athens with the participation of Iktinos, Kallikrates and Phidias (447-432 BC; the sculptures in London, British Museum, and Athens, Acropolis Museum)
    • Doryphorus des Polyklet (around 440 BC; including Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale)
    • Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (around 350 BC)
    • Aphrodite of Knidos (around 350/330 BC; Rome, Vatican Museums)
    • Apollo Belvedere (around 330/320 BC; Rome, Vatican Museums)
    • Apoxyomenos of Lysipp (around 330/320 BC; Rome, Vatican Museums)
    • Nike of Samothrace (around 190 BC; Paris, Louvre)
    • Pergamon Altar (around 180–166 BC; Berlin, Pergamon Museum)

Greece Hellenistic Arts 1