Free Standing Sculpture Flashcards
What was the inspiration for free standing sculpture?
EGYPT
Egyptian hostility to foreigners relaxed around 660 BC and so the Greeks would have visited them for trade.
The impressive nature of Egyptian art and architecture would have left an impression on the Greeks.
Woodford suggests that the Greeks were were inspired by the Egyptians to create their own statues.
What were the similarities between Greek and Egyptian statues?
Eyes, mouth, shoulders, knees, hips and ankles are all level because drawing on a grid is reliant on horizontals and verticals.
Arms are parallel.
Left leg forward.
Staring straight, full frontal pose.
What were the differences between Greek and Egyptian statues?
Egyptian clothes but Greek nude.
Egyptian does not have a gap between the legs as the inscription was on the block behind it. Greek has a gap because description was on the plinth.
Egyptian had a realistic form but Greek had a decorative pattern.
What were the advantages of nudity?
The nudity of the male statuary allowed sculptors to focus entirely on the human form without the difficulty of sculpting drapery.
The body parts could also be assembled into an aesthetically pleasing position.
Used to emphasise specifically the beauty and the perfection of the human body.
Associated with how a heroic/ mythological character was depicted at war or as an athlete.
Heroes and athletes were symbols of perfection and so the kouros may have been an attempt to convey this.
Why was symmetry valued?
The posture of the Kouros accentuates the natural symmetry of the human body and the right side is virtually a mirror image of the left.
Symmetry around the vertical axis as therefore easy, a horizontal axis much more difficult.
Sculptors used symmetry and repetition to impose decorative coherence on the body
Which forms were repeated?
Forms that were repeated were:
the arch of the eyebrow: arch if the upper lip
identical bead of hair
protruding ‘v shape of the groin and recessed ‘v’ of elbows
knee caps and the ‘v’ shape echoing that of the pectoral and collar bones
Why was repetition valued?
All the qualities ensured that the whole statue was knit together in a network of calculated interlocking patterns which have no parallel in Egyptian figures.
To the Greeks, a statue was not just an image of the human body but also a thing of beauty.
The space between the legs
The Greeks removed the stone between the legs (unlike the Egyptians) so that the interplay between mass and void made the statue much more visually appealing.
From RHS, the space between the legs adds animation and from LHS the space creates the illusion of a figure standing on his own two feet.
Physically, the stone and the plinth are in single continuation of each other.
What was significance of kouros?
Often criticised for its unnatural look, stiffness in pose and the proportions of the body.
Noticeably imposing, grand and powerful to reflect the person’s grave it marked.
‘Archaic smile’ but little emotion otherwise.
criticised for emphasis on frontality - looks flat from the side.
