Sculpture of ancient Greece characteristics. Sculpture of Ancient Greece from the Classical era. Leading masters and main monuments - Abstract. General characteristics of Hellenistic sculpture

4.Evolution of Greek sculpture.

Archaic and classic. Miron. Lissip.

Polykleitos. Praxiteles.

Archaic Age (7-6 centuries BC)

The time of formation of Greek art

Formation of deep humanism

Anthropocentrism (the person is the center of attention)

The art of the archaic period is characterized by:

Epic severity

Peculiar and subtle poetry

Particularly elegant and colorful outfits

Classical Age (5th-4th centuries BC)

Time of the Greco-Persian Wars

Ironic themes in works of art

Pediments of the Temple of Athena on the island of Aegina

Depicts the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans

Evidence of how vividly Greek art responded with poetic images to the events of its time

The arrangement of the figures is strictly symmetrical, but there is dynamics (the figures of the fighters are presented in fast movements)

The pediment statues are the result of the creative search of Greek masters who sought to embody heroic themes in new, more advanced forms.

Outstanding sculptures of the era:

MIRON, (2nd quarter of 5th century) ancient greek sculptor ser. 5th century BC e. Representative of early classical art. Harmonious images that affirm the strength and beauty of a person ( "Discus thrower"(Greek discus thrower), Greek marble statue workMirona. Known in several copies from Roman times, best preserved in national museum in Naples.)"Athena and Marsyas", preserved in copies).

Polykleitos (2nd quarter of the 5th century) POLYKLEITUS from Argos, ancient Greek sculptor, art theorist of the 2nd half. 5th century BC e. Representative of high classics. Bronze statues of Polykleitos ( "Doriphoros", "Diadumen", "Wounded Amazon") known from copies. Two fragments of Polykleitos’s work “The Canon” have been preserved, in which the digital law of ideal proportional relationships of the human body is derived.

PRAXITELES (c. 390 c. 330 BC), ancient Greek sculptor. Representative of the late classics. He worked mainly in Athens. Marble statues of Praxiteles are distinguished by sensual beauty and spirituality (“Aphrodite of Knidos”, “The Resting Satyr” known from copies).

LYSIPPUS, ancient Greek sculptor of the 2nd half. 4th century BC e. Representative late classic. Court artist of Alexander the Great. Creator of images of active heroes living a complex inner life (“Resting Hermes”, “Apoxiomen”, the bust of Alexander the Great has been preserved in copies).

Hellenistic period (3rd-1st centuries BC)

heyday of major art schools:

Alexandria in Egypt

Pergamon in Asia Minor

Rhodes– islands of the Aegean Sea

Close interaction between the culture of the Greeks and the art of the conquered countries

Works of art show with great emotional expressiveness the diversity and richness of the world of human feelings.

Statues intended to decorate gardens and parks became widespread.

Characteristic is close attention to the personal, individual characteristics of a person in a sculptural portrait.

Phidias executed the statue using the chrysoelephantine technique (see chrysoelephantine sculpture): the exposed parts of the body were lined with ivory plates, the robes were cast in gold, and the base of the sculpture was wooden. The height of the statue reached approx. 17 m high. If the god “rose”, his height would far exceed the height of the temple itself. Travelers who saw Zeus in Olympia call the combination of power and mercy, wisdom and kindness in his face amazing. In his hand the Thunderer held a statue of Nike (a symbol of victory). The richest throne of Zeus was made of gold and ivory. The back, armrests and foot were decorated with ivory reliefs and golden images of the gods and goddesses of Olympus. The lower walls of the throne were covered with drawings of Panen, its legs with images of dancing Nikas. Zeus's feet, shod in golden sandals, rested on a bench decorated with golden lions.

In front of the pedestal of the statue, the floor was covered with dark blue Eleusinian stone; a basin carved into it for olive oil was supposed to protect the ivory from drying out. The light that penetrated the doors of the dark temple, reflected from the smooth surface of the liquid in the pool, fell on the golden clothes of Zeus and illuminated his head; to those who entered it seemed that the radiance emanated from the very face of the deity.

Possibly at the end of the 4th century. The statue of Zeus was transported to Constantinople and installed at the capital's hippodrome, where it died during one of the fires.

Sculpture was not only a temple. Tombstones, bar-reliefs. Greek art reworked what existed before it. In eastern civilizations, sculpture appeared in the 5th-4th millennium BC. in the Mesopotamia region (fertile crescent). Domesticated wheat began to be grown there. Sculpture originated there.

Art of Crete. Cycladic art. The first samples appeared in the 3rd-2nd millennium. (27, 25 centuries BC) They used marble and wood. A characteristic form of Cycladic sculpture with an expanded pelvis, a cult of fertility.

FLUTIST. 27th century BC

IDOL. Female figurine. 25-23 centuries BC

GODDESS WITH SNAKES.

Sculptures from Crete. These are iconic figurines. Statues from the archaic period. This is the art of Greece after the 12th century "dark ages". The geometric style predominates.

An antique SCULPTURE lies in someone's vineyard. Obviously, they began to process the stone right on the spot.

Until the 6th century, the material for statues was bronze. Drapery was used to decorate statues. The statues of Greece were based on the Egyptian statues. They have an apron - the uniform of the statues; depiction of movement is impossible. The Greeks used draped clothing as statues. This is how liveliness was conventionally conveyed. The Greeks revered a beautiful, healthy body. For a very long time, Egyptian influence remained in Greek statues. Sculptures from the 6th century: the hands are clenched into fists at the back, one leg is put forward. The back of the sculpture was not processed. Frontality.

CLEAPID AND BEATON.

Their fists are clenched, their legs are pointed forward, their hair is Egyptian. The image of male figures was called kouros. Funerary statues did not always depict old people. This is an allusion to when everyone was young. "Archaic smile": all the archaic statues smile mysteriously. Maybe this is how the gods express their superiority over people. Maybe this is an imperfection in the execution technique.

6th century Archaic. Remains of paint; previously all the sculptures were painted.

MOSHOPHORUS.

“Carrying the Calf” depicts a priest with a sacrificial animal for slaughter. 570 BC

DEITY WITH 3 BODIES. Early 6th century BC

Greek sculpture reached its peak in the 5th century. There were several schools competing with each other. The main center becomes Argos (the myth of Arthridae) Polyktetus.

POSEIDON. Bronze, short legs, elongated torso, devoid of grace.

ZEUS. Bronze statue.

DIADOUMEN. Polytetus. "Undoer of the Bandage"

STATUES OF WINNING ATHLETES. Abdominal muscles are strengthened. U Polyctethes there is a treatise on how all parts of the body should relate to each other.

DORIFOR. Spearman.

Creation Mirona 5th century, rival of Polyctetus.

DISCUS THROWER.

ANACREON. "On Myron's chick."

As if it were alive, you can’t drive it away with other livestock.

U Polyctethes the figures are depicted after movement, struggle, Mirona– at the moment of highest tension, muscles and muscles are visible.

Sculpture becomes the main treasure of the Greeks. Myron's head is relieved.

STATUE OF THE GODDESS NIKA found in Olympia. She is shown in motion.

DELPHIAN CHARAITER made of bronze.

In the 4th century, sculpture moved away from religion. In the 5th century there are naked male figures and dressed female figures; in the 4th century the situation changes.

Praxiteles loved the hetaera Phryne, she served as a model for most of his female statues.

APHRODITE POLYCTETES.

This is a very sensitive and gentle statue. One of the eastern kings offered crazy money to the city residents who ordered it (not yet started). This statue is called APHRODITE OF CNIDA. This is how the inhabitants of this city went down in history.

MARATHON MAN/HERMES found in the 20th century

4th century, Hellenichmian era. SCOPAS. The inner passions of the human soul are depicted to the maximum.

NIOBE'S DAUGHTER, depicts her suffering at the moment when an arrow was shot at her.

APHRODITE, PAN, EROT.

Lysippos was a court sculpture of Alexander the Great and his father Phillip. He violated the canon that Polyctetus invented in the 5th century. Polyctetus has figures with short legs, while Lysippos has elongated legs and a more convex figure.

His works reveal a keen sense of the changing, dramatically complex life of the world.

Classical period ancient greek sculpture falls on the V - IV centuries BC. (early classic or “strict style” - 500/490 - 460/450 BC; high - 450 - 430/420 BC; “rich style” - 420 - 400/390 BC; Late Classic -- 400/390 - OK. 320 BC e.). At the turn of two eras - archaic and classical - stands the sculptural decor of the Temple of Athena Aphaia on the island of Aegina . The sculptures of the western pediment date back to the founding of the temple (510 - 500 BC BC), sculptures of the second eastern, replacing the previous ones, - to the early classical time (490 - 480 BC). The central monument of ancient Greek sculpture of the early classics is the pediments and metopes of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (about 468 - 456 BC e.). Another significant work of the early classics - the so-called “Throne of Ludovisi”, decorated with reliefs. A number of bronze originals have also survived from this time - “The Delphic Charioteer”, statue of Poseidon from Cape Artemisium, Bronze from Riace . The largest sculptors of the early classics - Pythagoras Regian, Kalamid and Miron . About the creativity of the famous Greek sculptors we judge mainly from literary evidence and later copies of their works. High classicism is represented by the names of Phidias and Polykleitos . Its short-term heyday was associated with work at Athens Acropolis, that is, with the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon (Pediments, metopes and zophoros survived, 447 - 432 BC). The pinnacle of ancient Greek sculpture was, apparently, chrysoelephantine Athena Parthenos statues and Zeus of Olympus by Phidias (both have not survived). “Rich style” is characteristic of the works of Callimachus, Alcamenes, Agorakrit and other sculptors of the 5th century. BC e.. Its characteristic monuments are the reliefs of the balustrade of the small temple of Nike Apteros on the Athenian Acropolis (about 410 BC) and a number of funerary steles, among which the most famous is the Hegeso stele . The most important works of ancient Greek sculpture of the late classics - the decoration of the Temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus (about 400 - 375 BC), temple of Athena Aley in Tegea (about 370 - 350 BC), the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (about 355 - 330 BC) and the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus (c. 350 BC), on the sculptural decoration of which Scopas, Briaxides, Timothy worked and Leohar . The latter is also credited with the statues of Apollo Belvedere and Diana of Versailles . There are also a number of bronze originals from the 4th century. BC e. The largest sculptors of the late classics - Praxiteles, Scopas and Lysippos, in many ways anticipating the subsequent era of Hellenism.

Greek sculpture partially survived in rubble and fragments. Most of the statues are known to us from Roman copies, which were made in large numbers, but did not convey the beauty of the originals. Roman copyists roughened and dried them, and when converting bronze items into marble, they disfigured them with clumsy supports. The large figures of Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Satyr, which we now see in the halls of the Hermitage, are only pale rehashes of Greek masterpieces. You walk past them almost indifferently and suddenly stop in front of some head with a broken nose, with a damaged eye: this is a Greek original! And the amazing power of life suddenly wafted from this fragment; the marble itself is different from that in Roman statues - not deathly white, but yellowish, see-through, luminous (the Greeks also rubbed it with wax, which gave the marble a warm tone). So gentle are the melting transitions of light and shade, so noble is the soft sculpting of the face, that one involuntarily recalls the delights of the Greek poets: these sculptures really breathe, they really are alive* * Dmitrieva, Akimova. Ancient art. Essays. - M., 1988. P. 52.

In the sculpture of the first half of the century, when there were wars with the Persians, a courageous, strict style prevailed. Then a statuette group of tyrannicides was created: a mature husband and a young man, standing side by side, make an impetuous movement forward, the younger raises his sword, the older shades him with his cloak. This is a monument to historical figures - Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who killed the Athenian tyrant Hipparchus several decades earlier - the first political monument in Greek art. At the same time, it expresses the heroic spirit of resistance and love of freedom that flared up during the era of the Greco-Persian wars. “They are not slaves to mortals, they are not subject to anyone,” says the Athenians in Aeschylus’s tragedy “The Persians.”

Battles, skirmishes, exploits of heroes... The art of the early classics is replete with these warlike subjects. On the pediments of the Temple of Athena in Aegina - the struggle of the Greeks with the Trojans. On the western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia there is a struggle between the Lapiths and the centaurs, on the metopes there are all twelve labors of Hercules. Another favorite set of motifs is gymnastic competitions; in those distant times, physical fitness and mastery of body movements were decisive for the outcome of battles, so athletic games were far from just entertainment. Since the 8th century BC. e. Gymnastic competitions were held in Olympia once every four years (their beginning was later considered the beginning of the Greek calendar), and in the 5th century they were celebrated with special solemnity, and now poets who read poetry were also present at them. The Temple of Olympian Zeus - the classic Doric peripter - was located in the center of the sacred district, where competitions took place, they began with a sacrifice to Zeus. On the eastern pediment of the temple, the sculptural composition depicted the solemn moment before the start of the horse lists: in the center is the figure of Zeus, on either side of it are statues of the mythological heroes Pelops and Oenomaus, the main participants in the upcoming competition, in the corners are their chariots drawn by four horses. According to myth, the winner was Pelops, in whose honor the Olympic Games, renewed later, as legend has it, by Hercules himself.

Themes of hand-to-hand combat, equestrian competitions, running competitions, and discus throwing competitions taught sculptors to depict the human body in dynamics. The archaic rigidity of the figures was overcome. Now they act, they move; complex poses, bold angles, and broad gestures appear. The brightest innovator was the Attic sculptor Myron. Myron’s main task was to express the movement as fully and powerfully as possible. Metal does not allow for such precise and delicate work as marble, and perhaps that is why he turned to finding the rhythm of movement. (The name rhythm refers to the overall harmony of the movement of all parts of the body.) And indeed, the rhythm was perfectly captured by Myron. In the statues of athletes, he conveyed not only movement, but the transition from one stage of movement to another, as if stopping a moment. This is his famous “Discobolus”. The athlete bent over and swung before throwing, a second - and the disc will fly, the athlete will straighten up. But for that second his body froze in a very difficult, but visually balanced position.

Balance, a stately "ethos", is preserved in classical sculpture of a strict style. The movement of the figures is neither erratic, nor overly excited, nor too rapid. Even in the dynamic motifs of fighting, running, and falling, the feeling of “Olympic calm,” holistic plastic completeness, and self-closure is not lost. Here is a bronze statue of “Auriga”, found at Delphi, one of the few well-preserved Greek originals. It dates from the early period of the strict style - approximately around 470 BC. e.. This young man stands very straight (he stood on a chariot and drove a quadriga of horses), his legs are bare, the folds of a long chiton are reminiscent of the deep flutes of Doric columns, his head is tightly covered with a silver-plated bandage, his inlaid eyes look as if they were alive. He is restrained, calm and at the same time full of energy and will. From this bronze figure alone, with its strong, cast plastic, one can feel the full measure of human dignity as the ancient Greeks understood it.

Their art at this stage was dominated by masculine images, but, fortunately, a beautiful relief depicting Aphrodite emerging from the sea, the so-called “throne of Ludovisi”, a sculptural triptych, the upper part of which has been broken off, has also been preserved. In its central part, the goddess of beauty and love, “foam-born,” rises from the waves, supported by two nymphs who chastely protect her with a light veil. It is visible from the waist up. Her body and the bodies of the nymphs are visible through transparent tunics, the folds of clothes flow in a cascade, a stream, like streams of water, like music. On the side parts of the triptych there are two female figures: one nude, playing the flute; the other, wrapped in a veil, lights a sacrificial candle. The first is a hetaera, the second is a wife, the keeper of the hearth, like two faces of femininity, both under the protection of Aphrodite.

The search for surviving Greek originals continues today; From time to time, lucky finds are discovered either in the ground or at the bottom of the sea: for example, in 1928, an excellently preserved bronze statue of Poseidon was found in the sea, near the island of Euboea.

But the general picture of Greek art during its heyday has to be mentally reconstructed and completed; we know only randomly preserved, scattered sculptures. And they existed in the ensemble.

Among famous masters, the name of Phidias eclipses all sculpture of subsequent generations. A brilliant representative of the age of Pericles, he said the last word plastic technique, and until now no one has dared to compare with him, although we know him only from hints. A native of Athens, he was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon and, therefore, became just a contemporary of the celebration of victories over the East. Speak first l he as a painter and then switched to sculpture. According to the drawings of Phidias and his drawings, under his personal supervision, the Periclean buildings were erected. Fulfilling order after order, he created marvelous statues of gods, personifying the abstract ideals of deities in marble, gold and bone. The image of the deity was developed by him not only in accordance with his qualities, but also in relation to the purpose of honor. He was deeply imbued with the idea of ​​what this idol represented, and sculpted it with all the strength and might of a genius.

Athena, which he made by order of Plataea and which cost this city very dearly, strengthened the fame of the young sculptor. He was commissioned to create a colossal statue of Athena the patroness for the Acropolis. It reached 60 feet in height and was taller than all the surrounding buildings; From afar, from the sea, it shone like a golden star and reigned over the entire city. It was not acrolitic (composite), like the Plataean one, but was entirely cast in bronze. Another Acropolis statue, Athena the Virgin, made for the Parthenon, was made of gold and ivory. Athena was depicted in a battle suit, wearing a golden helmet with a high relief sphinx and vultures on the sides. In one hand she held a spear, in the other a piece of victory. A snake curled at her feet - the guardian of the Acropolis. This statue is considered the best assurance of Phidias after his Zeus. It served as the original for countless copies.

But the height of perfection of all the works of Phidias is considered to be his Zeus Olympian. This was the greatest work of his life: the Greeks themselves gave him the palm. He made an irresistible impression on his contemporaries.

Zeus was depicted on the throne. In one hand he held a scepter, in the other - an image of victory. The body was made of ivory, the hair was gold, the robe was gold and enameled. The throne included ebony, and bone, and gems. The walls between the legs were painted by Phidias's cousin, Panen; the foot of the throne was a marvel of sculpture. General impression it was, as one German scientist rightly put it, truly demonic: to a number of generations the idol seemed to be a true god; one look at him was enough to satisfy all sorrows and suffering. Those who died without seeing him considered themselves unhappy* * Gnedich P.P. World Art History. - M., 2000. P. 97...

The statue died unknown how and when: it probably burned down along with the Olympic temple. But her charms must have been great if Caligula insisted on transporting her to Rome at all costs, which, however, turned out to be impossible.

The admiration of the Greeks for the beauty and wise structure of the living body was so great that they aesthetically thought of it only in statuary completeness and completeness, allowing them to appreciate the majesty of posture and the harmony of body movements. To dissolve a person in a shapeless crowd, to show him in a random aspect, to remove him deeper, to immerse him in the shadows would be contrary to the aesthetic creed of the Hellenic masters, and they never did this, although the basics of perspective were clear to them. Both sculptors and painters showed man with extreme plastic clarity, close-up(one figure or a group of several figures), trying to place the action in the foreground, as if on a narrow stage parallel to the background plane. Body language was also the language of the soul. It is sometimes said that Greek art was alien to psychology or had not matured to it. This is not entirely true; Perhaps the art of the archaic was still non-psychological, but not the art of the classics. Indeed, it did not know that scrupulous analysis of characters, that cult of the individual that arises in modern times. It is no coincidence that portraiture in Ancient Greece was relatively poorly developed. But the Greeks mastered the art of conveying, so to speak, typical psychology - they expressed a rich range of mental movements based on generalized human types. Distracting from the shades of personal characters, Hellenic artists did not neglect the shades of experience and were able to embody a complex system of feelings. After all, they were contemporaries and fellow citizens of Sophocles, Euripides, Plato.

But still, expressiveness lay not so much in facial expressions as in body movements. Looking at the mysteriously serene Moira of the Parthenon, at the swift, playful Nike untying her sandal, we almost forget that their heads have been cut off - the plasticity of their figures is so eloquent.

Every purely plastic motif - be it the graceful balance of all members of the body, support on both legs or one, transfer of the center of gravity to an external support, the head bowed to the shoulder or thrown back - was thought by the Greek masters as an analogue of spiritual life. The body and psyche were perceived as inseparable. Characterizing the classical ideal in his Lectures on Aesthetics, Hegel said that in “the classical form of art, the human body in its forms is no longer recognized only as a sensory existence, but is recognized only as the existence and natural appearance of the spirit.”

Indeed, bodies greek statues unusually spiritual. The French sculptor Rodin said about one of them: “This headless youthful torso smiles more joyfully at the light and spring than eyes and lips could do.”* * Dmitrieva, Akimova. Ancient art. Essays. - M., 1988. P. 76.

Movements and postures in most cases are simple, natural and not necessarily associated with anything sublime. Nika unties her sandal, a boy removes a splinter from his heel, a young runner at the start line prepares to run, and Myrona the discus throws a discus. Myron's younger contemporary, the famous Polykleitos, unlike Myron, never depicted rapid movements and instantaneous states; his bronze statues of young athletes are in calm poses of light, measured movement, running in waves across the figure. The left shoulder is slightly extended, the right is abducted, the left hip is pushed back, the right is raised, the right leg is firmly on the ground, the left is slightly behind and slightly bent at the knee. This movement either does not have any “plot” pretext, or the pretext is insignificant - it is valuable in itself. This is a plastic hymn to clarity, reason, wise balance. This is Doryphoros (spearman) Polykleitos, known to us from marble Roman copies. He seems to be walking and at the same time maintaining a state of rest; the positions of the arms, legs and torso are perfectly balanced. Polykleitos was the author of the treatise “Canon” (which has not come down to us, it is known from mentions of ancient writers), where he theoretically established the laws of proportions of the human body.

The heads of Greek statues, as a rule, are impersonal, that is, little individualized, reduced to a few variations of a general type, but this general type has a high spiritual capacity. In the Greek type of face, the idea of ​​the “human” in its ideal version triumphs. The face is divided into three parts of equal length: forehead, nose and lower part. Correct, gentle oval. The straight line of the nose continues the line of the forehead and forms a perpendicular to the line drawn from the beginning of the nose to the opening of the ear (straight facial angle). Oblong section of rather deep-set eyes. A small mouth, full convex lips, the upper lip is thinner than the lower and has a beautiful smooth cut like a cupid's bow. The chin is large and round. Wavy hair softly and tightly fits the head, without interfering with the visibility of the rounded shape of the skull.

This classic beauty may seem monotonous, but, representing the expressive “natural appearance of the spirit,” it lends itself to variation and is capable of embodying Various types ancient ideal. A little more energy in the shape of the lips, in the protruding chin - before us is the strict virgin Athena. There is more softness in the contours of the cheeks, the lips are slightly half-open, the eye sockets are shaded - before us is the sensual face of Aphrodite. The oval of the face is closer to a square, the neck is thicker, the lips are larger - this is already the image of a young athlete. But the basis remains the same strictly proportional classical appearance.

However, there is no place in it for something that, from our point of view, is very important: the charm of the uniquely individual, the beauty of the wrong, the triumph of the spiritual principle over bodily imperfection. The ancient Greeks could not give this; for this, the original monism of spirit and body had to be broken, and aesthetic consciousness had to enter the stage of their separation - dualism - which happened much later. But Greek art also gradually evolved towards individualization and open emotionality, concreteness of experiences and characterization, which becomes obvious already in the era of the late classics, in the 4th century BC. e.

At the end of the 5th century BC. e. The political power of Athens was shaken, undermined by the long Peloponnesian War. At the head of Athens's opponents was Sparta; it was supported by other states of the Peloponnese and provided financial assistance by Persia. Athens lost the war and was forced to conclude an unfavorable peace; they retained their independence, but the Athenian Maritime Union collapsed, monetary reserves dried up, and the internal contradictions of the policy intensified. Athenian democracy managed to survive, but democratic ideals faded, free expression of will began to be suppressed by cruel measures, an example of this is the trial of Socrates (in 399 BC), which imposed a death sentence on the philosopher. The spirit of cohesive citizenship is weakening, personal interests and experiences are isolated from public ones, and the instability of existence is felt more alarmingly. Critical sentiment is growing. A person, according to Socrates’ behest, begins to strive to “know himself” - himself as an individual, and not just as a part of the social whole. The work of the great playwright Euripides, in whom the personal principle is much more emphasized than in his older contemporary Sophocles, is aimed at understanding human nature and characters. According to Aristotle's definition, Sophocles “represents people as they should be, and Euripides as they really are.”

In the plastic arts, generalized images still predominate. But the spiritual resilience and cheerful energy that breathes the art of early and mature classics gradually give way to the dramatic pathos of Skopas or the lyrical, tinged with melancholy, contemplation of Praxiteles. Scopas, Praxiteles and Lysippos - these names are associated in our minds not so much with certain artistic individuals (their biographies are unclear, and almost no original works of theirs have survived), but with the main trends of the late classics. Just like Myron, Polykleitos and Phidias personify the features of a mature classic.

And again, plastic motives are indicators of changes in the worldview. The characteristic pose of the standing figure changes. In the archaic era, statues stood completely straight, frontally. Mature classics enliven and animate them with balanced, smooth movements, maintaining balance and stability. And the statues of Praxiteles - the resting Satyr, Apollo Saurocton - rest with lazy grace on pillars, without them they would have to fall.

The thigh on one side is arched very strongly, and the shoulder is lowered low towards the thigh - Rodin compares this position of the body with a harmonica, when the bellows are compressed on one side and spread apart on the other. External support is required for balance. This is a dreamy rest position. Praxiteles follows the traditions of Polykleitos, uses the motives of movements he found, but develops them in such a way that a different internal content shines through in them. “The Wounded Amazon” Polykletai also leans on a half-column, but she could have stood without it, her strong, energetic body, even suffering from a wound, stands firmly on the ground. Praxiteles' Apollo is not hit by an arrow, he himself aims at a lizard running along a tree trunk - an action that would seem to require strong-willed composure, yet his body is unstable, like a swaying stem. And this is not a random detail, not a whim of the sculptor, but a kind of new canon in which a changed view of the world finds expression.

However, not only the nature of movements and poses changed in sculpture of the 4th century BC. e. For Praxiteles, the range of his favorite topics becomes different; he moves away from heroic subjects into the “light world of Aphrodite and Eros.” He sculpted the famous statue of Aphrodite of Knidos.

Praxiteles and the artists of his circle did not like to depict the muscular torsos of athletes; they were attracted by the delicate beauty of the female body with the soft flow of volumes. They preferred the type of youth, distinguished by “first youth and effeminate beauty.” Praxiteles was famous for his special softness of modeling and skill in processing the material, his ability to convey the warmth of a living body in cold marble2.

The only surviving original of Praxiteles is considered to be the marble statue “Hermes with Dionysus”, found in Olympia. Naked Hermes, leaning on a tree trunk where his cloak has been carelessly thrown, holds little Dionysus on one bent arm, and in the other a bunch of grapes, to which the child is reaching (the hand holding the grapes is lost). All the charm of pictorial marble processing is in this statue, especially in the head of Hermes: transitions of light and shadow, the finest “sfumato” (haze), which, many centuries later, was achieved in painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

All other works of the master are known only from mentions of ancient authors and later copies. But the spirit of Praxiteles’ art lingers over the 4th century BC. e., and best of all it can be felt not in Roman copies, but in small Greek plastic, in Tanagra clay figurines. They were produced at the end of the century in large quantities, it was a kind of mass production with the main center in Tanagra. (A very good collection of them is kept in the Leningrad Hermitage.) Some figurines reproduce famous large statues, others simply give various free variations of the draped female figure. The living grace of these figures, dreamy, thoughtful, playful, is an echo of the art of Praxiteles.

Almost as little remains of the original works of the chisel Skopas, an older contemporary and antagonist of Praxiteles. Debris remained. But the wreckage also speaks volumes. Behind them rises the image of a passionate, fiery, pathetic artist.

He was not only a sculptor, but also an architect. As an architect, Skopas created the temple of Athena in Tegea and he also supervised its sculptural decoration. The temple itself was destroyed long ago, by the Goths; Some fragments of sculptures were found during excavations, among them a remarkable head of a wounded warrior. There were no others like her in the art of the 5th century BC. e., there was no such dramatic expression in the turn of the head, such suffering in the face, in the gaze, such mental tension. In his name, the harmonic canon adopted in Greek sculpture: the eyes are set too deep and the bend of the brow ridges is dissonant with the outlines of the eyelids.

What Skopas's style was in multi-figure compositions is shown by partially preserved reliefs on the frieze of the Halicarnassus Mausoleum - a unique structure, ranked in ancient times as one of the seven wonders of the world: the peripterus was erected on a high base and topped with a pyramidal roof. The frieze depicted the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons - male warriors with female warriors. Skopas did not work on it alone, together with three sculptors, but, guided by the instructions of Pliny, who described the mausoleum, and stylistic analysis, the researchers determined which parts of the frieze were made in Skopas’ workshop. More than others, they convey the drunken fervor of battle, the “ecstasy in battle,” when both men and women surrender to it with equal passion. The movements of the figures are impetuous and almost lose their balance, directed not only parallel to the plane, but also inward, into depth: Skopas introduces a new sense of space.

"Maenad" enjoyed great fame among his contemporaries. Skopas depicted a storm of Dionysian dance, straining the entire body of the Maenad, convulsively arching her torso, throwing back her head. The statue of the Maenad is not designed for frontal viewing, it needs to be viewed from different sides, each point of view reveals something new: sometimes the body is likened in its arch to a drawn bow, sometimes it seems bent in a spiral, like a tongue of flame. One cannot help but think: the Dionysian orgies must have been serious, not just amusement, but truly “mad games.” The Mysteries of Dionysus were allowed to be held only once every two years and only on Parnassus, but at that time the frantic bacchantes discarded all conventions and prohibitions. To the beat of tambourines, to the sound of tympanums, they rushed and whirled in ecstasy, driving themselves into a frenzy, letting down their hair, tearing their clothes. The maenad of Skopas held a knife in her hand, and on her shoulder was a kid that she had torn to pieces 3.

Dionysian festivals were a very ancient custom, like the cult of Dionysus itself, but in art the Dionysian element had not previously broken through with such force, with such openness as in the statue of Skopas, and this is obviously a symptom of the times. Now clouds were gathering over Hellas, and reasonable clarity of spirit was disrupted by the desire to forget, to throw off the shackles of restrictions. Art, like a sensitive membrane, responded to changes in the social atmosphere and transformed its signals into its own sounds, its own rhythms. The melancholic languor of Praxiteles' creations and the dramatic impulses of Scopas are just different reactions to the general spirit of the times.

The young man’s marble tombstone belongs to Skopas’s circle, and perhaps to himself. To the right of the young man stands his old father with an expression of deep thought; one can feel that he is asking the question: why did his son leave in the prime of his youth, and he, the old man, remained to live? The son looks ahead and no longer seems to notice his father; he is far from here, in the carefree Champs Elysees - the abode of the blessed.

The dog at his feet is one of the symbols of the afterlife.

Here it is appropriate to talk about Greek tombstones in general. There are relatively many of them preserved, from the 5th, and mainly from the 4th century BC. e.; their creators are, as a rule, unknown. Sometimes the relief of a tombstone stele depicts only one figure - the deceased, but more often his loved ones are depicted next to him, one or two, who say goodbye to him. In these scenes of farewell and parting, strong grief and grief are never expressed, but only quiet; sad thoughtfulness. Death is peace; the Greeks personified her not in a terrible skeleton, but in the figure of a boy - Thanatos, the twin of Hypnos - a dream. The sleeping baby is also depicted on the Skopasovsky tombstone of the young man, in the corner at his feet. The surviving relatives look at the deceased, wanting to capture his features in their memory, sometimes they take him by the hand; he (or she) himself does not look at them, and one can feel relaxation and detachment in his figure. In the famous tombstone of Gegeso (late 5th century BC), a standing maid gives her mistress, who is sitting in a chair, a box of jewelry, Hegeso takes a necklace from it with a familiar, mechanical movement, but she looks absent and drooping.

Authentic tombstone from the 4th century BC. e. the works of the Attic master can be seen in State Museum Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin. This is the tombstone of a warrior - he holds a spear in his hand, next to him is his horse. But the pose is not at all militant, the body members are relaxed, the head is lowered. On the other side of the horse stands a farewell; he is sad, but one cannot be mistaken about which of the two figures depicts the deceased and which one depicts the living, although they would seem to be similar and of the same type; Greek masters knew how to make one feel the transition of the deceased into the valley of shadows.

Lyrical scenes of the last farewell were also depicted on funeral urns, where they are more laconic, sometimes just two figures - a man and a woman - shaking hands with each other.

But even here it is always clear which of them belongs to the kingdom of the dead.

There is some special chastity of feeling in Greek tombstones with their noble restraint in the expression of sadness, something completely opposite to Bacchic ecstasy. The tombstone of the youth attributed to Skopas does not violate this tradition; it stands out from others, in addition to its high plastic qualities, only by the philosophical depth of the image of a thoughtful old man.

Despite all the contrast in the artistic natures of Scopas and Praxiteles, both of them are characterized by what can be called an increase in picturesqueness in plastic - the effects of chiaroscuro, thanks to which the marble seems alive, which is what the Greek epigrammatists emphasize every time. Both masters preferred marble to bronze (whereas bronze predominated in early classical sculpture) and achieved perfection in processing its surface. The strength of the impression made was facilitated by the special qualities of the types of marble that the sculptors used: translucency and luminosity. Parian marble transmitted light by 3.5 centimeters. Statues made of this noble material looked both humanly alive and divinely incorruptible. Compared with the works of early and mature classics, late classical sculptures lose something, they do not have the simple grandeur of the Delphic “Auriga,” or the monumentality of Phidias’ statues, but they gain in vitality.

History has preserved many more names of outstanding sculptors of the 4th century BC. e. Some of them, cultivating life-likeness, brought it to the point beyond which genre and specificity begins, thus anticipating the tendencies of Hellenism. Demetrius of Alopeka was distinguished by this. He attached little importance to beauty and consciously sought to portray people as they were, without hiding large bellies and bald spots. His specialty was portraits. Demetrius made a portrait of the philosopher Antisthenes, polemically directed against the idealizing portraits of the 5th century BC. e., - His Antisthenes is old, flabby and toothless. The sculptor could not spiritualize ugliness, make it charming; such a task was impossible within the boundaries of ancient aesthetics. Ugliness was understood and portrayed simply as a physical defect.

Others, on the contrary, tried to support and cultivate the traditions of mature classics, enriching them with greater grace and complexity of plastic motifs. This was the path followed by Leochares, who created the statue of Apollo Belvedere, which became the standard of beauty for many generations of neoclassicists until the end of the twentieth century. Johann Winckelmann, author of the first scientific History of Art of Antiquity, wrote: “The imagination cannot create anything that would surpass the Vatican Apollo with his more than human proportionality of a beautiful deity.” For a long time, this statue was regarded as the pinnacle of ancient art; the “Belvedere idol” was synonymous with aesthetic perfection. As is often the case, over-the-top praise over time caused the opposite reaction. When the study of ancient art advanced far and many of its monuments were discovered, the exaggerated assessment of the statue of Leochares gave way to an understated one: it began to be found pompous and mannered. Meanwhile, Apollo Belvedere is a truly outstanding work in its plastic merits; the figure and gait of the ruler of the muses combines strength and grace, energy and lightness, walking on the ground, he at the same time soars above the ground. Moreover, its movement, in the words of the Soviet art critic B. R. Vipper, “is not concentrated in one direction, but, as if rays, diverge in different directions.” To achieve such an effect required the sophisticated skill of a sculptor; the only trouble is that the calculation for the effect is too obvious. Apollo Leochara seems to invite one to admire his beauty, while the beauty of the best classical statues does not publicly declare itself: they are beautiful, but they do not show off. Even Praxitela's Aphrodite of Cnidus wants to hide rather than demonstrate the sensual charm of her nakedness, and earlier classical statues filled with calm self-sufficiency, excluding any demonstrativeness. It should therefore be recognized that in the statue of Apollo Belvedere the ancient ideal begins to become something external, less organic, although in its own way this sculpture is remarkable and marks a high level of virtuoso skill.

The last great sculptor took a big step towards “naturalness” Greek classics- Lysippos. Researchers attribute him to the Argive school and claim that he had a completely different direction than the Athenian school. In essence, he was her direct follower, but, having adopted her traditions, he stepped further. In his youth, the artist Eupomp answered his question: “Which teacher should I choose?” - answered, pointing to the crowd crowded on the mountain: “Here is the only teacher: nature.”

These words sank deep into the soul of the brilliant young man, and he, not trusting the authority of the Polykleitan canon, took up the exact study of nature. Before him, people were sculpted in accordance with the principles of the canon, that is, in full confidence that true beauty lies in the proportionality of all forms and in the proportion of people of average height. Lysippos preferred a tall, slender figure. His limbs became lighter, his stature taller.

Unlike Scopas and Praxiteles, he worked exclusively in bronze: fragile marble requires stable balance, and Lysippos created statues and statuary groups in dynamic states, in complex actions. He was inexhaustibly varied in the invention of plastic motifs and very prolific; they said that after completing each sculpture he put a gold coin in the piggy bank, and in this way he accumulated one and a half thousand coins, that is, he allegedly made one and a half thousand statues, some of very large sizes, including a 20-meter statue of Zeus. Not a single work of his has survived, but a fairly large number of copies and repetitions, dating back either to the originals of Lysippos or to his school, give an approximate idea of ​​the master’s style. In terms of plot, he clearly preferred male figures, as he loved to depict the difficult exploits of husbands; His favorite hero was Hercules. In understanding plastic form, Lysippos' innovative achievement was the reversal of the figure in the space surrounding it on all sides; in other words, he did not think of the statue against the background of any plane and did not assume one, main point of view from which it should be viewed, but counted on walking around the statue. We have seen that Skopas' Maenad was already built on the same principle. But what was the exception with previous sculptors became the rule with Lysippos. Accordingly, he gave his figures effective poses, complex turns, and treated them with equal care not only from the front side, but also from the back.

In addition, Lysippos created a new sense of time in sculpture. The former classical statues, even if their poses were dynamic, looked unaffected by the flow of time, they were outside of it, they were, they were at rest. The heroes of Lysippos live in the same real time as living people, their actions are included in time and are transient, the presented moment is ready to be replaced by another. Of course, Lysippos had predecessors here too: we can say that he continued the traditions of Myron. But even the Discobolus of the latter is so balanced and clear in his silhouette that he seems “abiding” and static in comparison with Lysippos’ Hercules fighting a lion, or Hermes, who for a minute (precisely for a minute!) sat down to rest on a roadside stone in order to continue later flying on your winged sandals.

Whether the originals of these sculptures belonged to Lysippos himself or his students and assistants has not been established precisely, but undoubtedly he himself made the statue of Apoxyomenes, a marble copy of which is in the Vatican Museum. A young naked athlete, with his arms outstretched, uses a scraper to remove the accumulated dust. He was tired after the struggle, relaxed slightly, even seemed to stagger, spreading his legs for stability. Strands of hair, treated very naturally, stuck to the sweaty forehead. The sculptor did everything possible to give maximum naturalness within the framework of the traditional canon. However, the canon itself has been revised. If you compare Apoxyomenes with Doryphorus of Polykleitos, you can see that the proportions of the body have changed: the head is smaller, the legs are longer. Doryphoros is heavier and stockier compared to the flexible and slender Apoxyomenes.

Lysippos was the court artist of Alexander the Great and painted a number of his portraits. There is no flattery or artificial glorification in them; The head of Alexander, preserved in a Hellenistic copy, is executed in the traditions of Skopas, somewhat reminiscent of the head of a wounded warrior. This is the face of a man who lives a tense and difficult life, whose victories are not easy to achieve. The lips are half-open, as if breathing heavily; despite his youth, there are wrinkles on his forehead. However, the classic type of face with proportions and features legitimized by tradition has been preserved.

The art of Lysippos occupies the border zone at the turn of the classical and Hellenistic eras. It is still true to classical concepts, but it is already undermining them from the inside, creating the basis for a transition to something else, more relaxed and more prosaic. In this sense, the head of a fist fighter is indicative, belonging not to Lysippos, but, possibly, to his brother Lysistratus, who was also a sculptor and, as they said, was the first to use masks removed from the model’s face for portraits (which was widespread in Ancient Egypt, but completely alien to Greek art). It is possible that the head of a fist fighter was also made using the mask; it is far from the canon, and far from the ideal ideas of physical perfection that the Hellenes embodied in the image of an athlete. This winner in a fist fight is not at all like a demigod, just an entertainer for an idle crowd. His face is rough, his nose is flattened, his ears are swollen. This type of “naturalistic” images subsequently became common in Hellenism; an even more unsightly fist fighter was sculpted by the Attic sculptor Apollonius already in the 1st century BC. e.

What had previously cast shadows on the bright structure of the Hellenic worldview came at the end of the 4th century BC. e.: decomposition and death of the democratic polis. This began with the rise of Macedonia, the northern region of Greece, and the virtual capture of all Greek states Macedonian king Philip II. The 18-year-old son of Philip, Alexander, the future great conqueror, took part in the Battle of Chaeronea (in 338 BC), where the troops of the Greek anti-Macedonian coalition were defeated. Starting with a victorious campaign against the Persians, Alexander advanced his army further east, capturing cities and founding new ones; as a result of a ten-year campaign, a huge monarchy was created, stretching from the Danube to the Indus.

Alexander the Great tasted the fruits of the highest Greek culture in his youth. His teacher was the great philosopher Aristotle, and his court artists were Lysippos and Apelles. This did not prevent him, having captured the Persian state and taken the throne of the Egyptian pharaohs, from declaring himself a god and demanding that he be given divine honors in Greece as well. Unaccustomed to eastern customs, the Greeks chuckled and said: “Well, if Alexander wants to be a god, let him be” - and officially recognized him as the son of Zeus. The Orientalization that Alexander began to instill was, however, a more serious matter than the whim of a conqueror intoxicated with victories. It was a symptom of the historical turn of ancient society from slave-owning democracy to the form that had existed since ancient times in the East - to the slave-owning monarchy. After the death of Alexander (and he died young), his colossal but fragile power disintegrated, the spheres of influence were divided among themselves by his military leaders, the so-called diadochi - successors. The states that emerged again under their rule were no longer Greek, but Greco-Eastern. The era of Hellenism has arrived - the unification under the auspices of the monarchy of Hellenic and Eastern cultures.