Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hermes
Sculpture
Classical sculpture began to gather pace in Greece in the 6th century BC with the render-
ings of nudes in marble. Most statues were created to revere a particular god or goddess
and many were robed in grandiose garments. The statues of the preceding Archaic peri-
od, known as
kouroi
, had focused on symmetry and form, but in the early 5th century BC
artists sought to create expression and animation. As temples demanded elaborate
carvings, sculptors were called upon to create large reliefs upon them.
During the 5th century BC the craft became yet more sophisticated, as sculptors were
taught to successfully map a face and create a likeness of their subject in marble busts.
Perhaps the most famous Greek sculptor was Pheidias, whose reliefs upon the Parthenon
depicting the Greek and Persian Wars - now known as the Parthenon Marbles - are cel-
ebrated as among the finest of the Golden Age.
The World of the Ancient Greeks
(2002), by archaeologists John Camp and Elizabeth
Fisher, is a broad and indepth look at how the Greeks have left their imprint on politics,
phil- osophy, theatre, art, medicine and architecture.
