Greek Influence in Art

    Like many others, I had heard of some famous Greek works of art, especially sculptures. The Venus de Milo, The Discus Thrower, and Hermes, are all sculptures that I have seen either in movies or on television. While I understood that they were great works of art, I never took the time to appreciate the how and why.

    Greek art, particularly in regards to sculptures, actually has its roots in Egyptian art. The Greeks did not just start with their amazing sculptures, as in the Archaic period, they at first seemed intent on mimicking the Egyptian style of sculpture. This involved statues in very stiff poses, with little to no expression. In the images below the one on the left is from Egypt, while the one on the right is from Greece (New York Kouros). There are many similarities, down to the way both sculptures are making fists with their thumbs pointed outward. The form of the statues again is very stiff, and not any kind of natural pose.




    After Greece defeated the Persians and began its rise to a World Power, the education that the Greek's valued began to show in their artwork. Using advanced mathematics the Greeks were able to start to accurately portray human proportions on their statues. This began the Classical Age of Greek art. As new artists were able to build upon the geometry involved in getting the human proportions correct, they were then able to go even further and create natural poses, so that their sculptures then seemed to be moving and alive. This can be seen in the sculpture of The Dying Gaul. While you study the form you are drawn to the statues gaze, while it seems to both struggle to stand and examine the mortal wound it has suffered. You can see the strain being put on the arms as he attempts to lift himself up one last time, and the exhaustion that is on the nameless Gaul's face. The attention to detail can also be seen in the collar that the Gaul is wearing, as it is made to represent twisted gold wire that the Gaul's would wear into battle. While the overall posture is one of defeat, you can still sense the pride in the warrior, trying to stand up one last time and not quite ready to accept death as being imminent.

    In contrast the Venus De Milo, or Aphrodite, is a form of stunning beauty. While the arms have been missing, it is believed that she may have been holding a mirror in one hand and a shield in the other. The image even now projects near perfect beauty, and actually used to be the seal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

    We owe the Greek sculptures for making it possible to learn more about not only their triumphant moments, but also their everyday life, as many Greek sculptures attempted to capture 'snapshots' of normal life. This of course has influenced us in many ways, from the way new artists choose to express themselves, to even what we still consider to be ideal beauty.