Transcript Greece, The Late Classical Period

The Late Classical Period,
4th Century BCE
Democracy begins in the early 5th
century BC in Athens, c. 500 BCE.
Meanwhile the Athenians fight the
Persians.
In 480 BC Athens loses, and the Persians
sack the ancient acropolis of the city.
Later in the same year the Athenians
and their allies beat the Persians in an
important naval victory. Athenian
confidence soars. Pericles uses money
from the Delian League to rebuild the
acropolis, including the Parthenon,
beginning in 447 BC.
But by 431, the Peloponnesian War has
begun. Look at the map & read the
next slide (both from Wikipedia) to
understand.
(Get the general gist of this; you don’t have to know every detail.) From Wikipedia:
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against
the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first
phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval
supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese attempting to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of
the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of thePeace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon
undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary
force to attackSyracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC.
This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In
this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean
Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction
of Athens' fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following
year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved but
Sparta refused.
The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world. On the level of international relations, Athens, the
strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war's beginning, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection,
while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece. The economic costs of the war were felt all across
Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens found itself completely devastated, and
never regained its pre-war prosperity.[1][2] The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society; the conflict
between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other
states, made civil war a common occurrence in the Greek world.
Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out
struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos,
devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic
end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece.[3]
The previously described events lead to a sense of political upheaval and
chaos in the 4th century BCE, the Late Classical Period.
If art of the 5th century BCE was about community, ideals and a faith in
rationality, art of the 4th century was about the individual and more
emotional expression. Sculpture becomes more sensual, introspective and at
times, psychologically intense.
Three major sculptors work in this century: Praxiteles, Scopas and Lysippos.
Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman marble
copy of the original, c. 350 BCE.
Praxiteles carves the first female nude sculpture in
Greek art – a very big deal. There had been some
female nudity in Greek vase painting prior to this work,
but those images had depicted courtesans and
prostitutes. This is a goddess. The ancient world went
nuts for this sculpture. There are many accounts of
people praising it, falling in love with it, travelling to
Knidos just to see it, etc. It became a famous work in its
own time. The original marble work by Praxiteles is
lost, but it spawned many copies and really changed
western art. This “modest” pose is used again and
again, and the depiction of a nude woman, unaware,
doing something ordinary like preparing to take a bath,
has been repeated for many centuries.
Although this work isn’t the original (and isn’t as good)
it gives us some sense of Praxiteles’ style as it is
described in ancient accounts: the proportions are
longer and more slender, her flesh is very smooth and
would have been highly polished, there is a gentle S
curve to her pose, and her expression is rather dreamy.
Praxiteles, Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, marble
copy of an original, c. 340 BCE
Although this work is a copy too, it’s thought to be a very
high quality copy, possibly by a Hellenistic artist (a Greek) vs.
a Roman. It has all the Praxiteles qualities: sensuality,
slender and long, S curve, and a tender moment.
This MAY be our only
existing work made directly
by Praxiteles or his
workshop, and it’s in
Cleveland.
There’s a lot of dispute
about all of this, however.
It is now thought to be a
work from the 4th century
BCE, rather than a forgery.
But how the Cleveland
Museum of Art acquired
the work and whether it is
truly a work by Praxiteles is
still be debated.
From the Cleveland Museum of Art:
Although Praxiteles was more successful, and therefore more famous for his marble sculptures, he
nevertheless also created very beautiful works in bronze. He made a youthful Apollo called the
Sauroktonos (Lizard-Slayer), waiting in ambush for a creeping lizard, close at hand, with an arrow. Pliny the Elder, 1st century ad
This statue of the Apollo Sauroktonos may be the one Pliny the Elder saw in the 1st century ad. The
complete sculpture most likely showed the young god pulling back a slender laurel tree with his
raised left hand, while holding an arrow at waist level with his right, poised to strike the lizard
creeping up the tree. Two Roman marble copies preserve the complete composition: one in the
Louvre, the other in the Vatican.
The museum's sculpture is the only known life-size bronze version of the Apollo Sauroktonos.
Technical features such as the way the sculpture was cast and repaired in antiquity, the copper
inlays of the lips and nipples, and the stone insert for the right eye (the left is a restoration) are
consistent with a date in the 4th century bc. However, technically it may have been possible to
produce such a work in the Hellenistic period.
The Apollo Sauroktonos is thought to have been created by Praxiteles about 350 bc. Androgynous
sensuality and languid, gracefully curved poses are hallmarks of his style. The finest large classical
Greek statues were bronzes, but few have survived. If this sculpture is a product of Praxiteles'
workshop, it is the only large Greek bronze statue that can be attributed to a Greek sculptor.
Praxiteles was widely popular in his day. His famous Aphrodite of Cnidus (late 360s bc) introduced
the life-size nude female figure to Western art.
Here is the Cleveland Apollo with two Roman copies,
one from the Louvre and one from the Vatican. There
is no dispute that these copies are of an Apollo figure
by Praxiteles, but whether or not the Cleveland piece
is that figure is still being debated.
In any case, you can see the full composition.
Following are more details of the Cleveland work.
Does it seem to fit the style of Praxiteles?
Style of Skopas, Grave Stele of a
Young Hunter, c. 340 BCE
This work isn’t by Skopas but has the
hallmarks he was famed for, especially a
heightened sense of psychology and
emotion. The nude young man looking
out at the viewer is the deceased. At his
feet are a young boy (a servant perhaps,
or a brother?) and his dog and both hang
their heads in sorrow. The older man is
thought to be the hunter’s father. It’s
easy to imagine the father in mourning
for a lost child, mulling over the bitter
ironies of life.
Compare this more vivid sense of grief
with the High Classical Stele of Hegeso in
the next slide. Note the difference in the
depth of the carving as well, and the
composition which seems to bring us
closer to the space of the scene.
High Classical
Lysippos, Weary Herakles, Roman marble copy
after a bronze original, c. 320 BCE.
The Weary Herakles by Lysippos was popular and copied
repeatedly. This version was oversized and made for the
Baths of Caracalla , an extravagant public bath house
made during the reign of Roman Emperor Caracalla. The
sculpture was unearthed in Rome in 1546.
Lysippos was known for figures that moved more fully
into three dimensional space. Herakles’ left hand hangs
forward, while his right hand is hidden behind his back,
encouraging the viewer to move around him. In his hand
are the apples he has stolen from the Hesperides, his
11th labor. Most notable is the exaggerated lean of his
gesture, and the contrast between the obvious power of
Herakles’ immense body and his utter exhaustion. We
see the physical and psychological toll of being a hero.
Early Classical, c. 480 BCE
Late Classical, c. 320 BCE
High Classical,
c. 440 BCE
Late Classical,
c. 320 BCE