Greek Sculpture And The Problem Of Description

This book examines how interpretation and examination of Greek sculpture are intertwined.

During the sixth and fifth centuries BC, Greek sculpture developed into a fine art. With the human figure as its main subject, artists worked to represent it in increasingly natural terms. This book explores the material aspects of Greek sculpture at a pivotal phase in its evolution. Considering typologies and function, an international team of experts traces the development of technical characteristics of marble and bronze sculpture, the choice of particular marbles in different areas, and the types of monuments that were created on the Greek mainland, the islands and the west coast of Asia.

Explains the social function and aesthetic achievement of Greek sculpture from c.750 BC to the end of antiquity.

Greek Sculpture presents a chronological overview of the plastic and glyptic art forms in the ancient Greek world from the emergence of life-sized marble statuary at the end of the seventh century BC to the appropriation of Greek sculptural traditions by Rome in the first two centuries AD. Compares the evolution of Greek sculpture over the centuries to works of contemporaneous Mediterranean civilizations Emphasizes looking closely at the stylistic features of Greek sculpture, illustrating these observations where possible with original works rather than copies Places the remarkable progress of stylistic changes that took place in Greek sculpture within a broader social and historical context Facilitates an understanding of why Greek monuments look the way they do and what ideas they were capable of expressing Focuses on the most recent interpretations of Greek sculptural works while considering the fragile and fragmentary evidence uncovered