Ancient Greece emphasized the study of beauty and harmony. Especially the beautiful ideals of symmetry, proportion, and harmony first appeared in ancient Greece. The Greeks considered these characteristics to be the natural and internal characteristics of all beautiful things (“the cultural ideal of facial beauty”).” Greek artists followed the standard of beauty. They created statues based on the beliefs of Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. The human body. Must be proportional to its own part.
The sculpture is an important carrier for the inheritance of Greek art and an important part of Greek art. Speaking of Greek statues, what do you think of? Classic white marble? The perfect torso? Or is it a god who overlooks all living beings? Without exception, these are beautiful and extremely artistic. So what are the standards followed by Greek artists?
The Greeks saw that their god was in human form, so ordinary people could also see the beauty of sacredness. In other ancient cultures, nudity is shameful. But for the Greeks, the carrier of the thoughts and visions of human possibilities is the human body. The value given to us in this way has shaped many of the most important things in Western history. Even Christianity is Hellenistic in many ways, and its core idea is the human form of God.
Greek sculpture freely pursues idealized human forms. The hard and lifeless materials were magically transformed into intangible qualities such as calm, mood, and elegance in some way, creating some great masterpieces of world art, inspiring and influencing artists in the Greek and Roman eras, and they will continue to create more masterpieces. Such as Venus De Milo. In addition, even today, the perfect body proportions achieved by Greek sculptors continue to inspire artists.
In the classical period, Greek sculptors broke away from the shackles of tradition and achieved achievements that no one else had ever tried. They created life-size, lifelike sculptures that beautify human beings, especially naked men. Since the Greek ideals were originally military; men must be fit to fight in times of constant war. Therefore, Hercules is half-human and half-god, and perfectly embodies the hero’s masculine ideals.
In Greek art, immortal figures are not strongly individualized. This is most evident in the long procession that once circled the lintel of the Parthenon, where the Athenians took part in some major folk festivals on horseback and on foot. The blocks on the frieze are presented separately. When you look closely, it is clear that their personality is not important because these people are part of the larger community of a democratic city. As in many ways, the Greeks set a far-reaching precedent here.
Greek art also has aesthetic stereotypes in art and sculpture. Female body shape is represented by soft body shape, round buttocks, slender legs, long curly hair, and gentle face; similarly, the male body also follows clear aesthetic standards: athletic physique, six-pack abs, muscular Legs, Greek noses everywhere. These are the aesthetic ideals of Greek beauty, which have always been considered immortal and unchangeable. One example is neoclassical art, which reproduces the elegant and sober beauty of ancient Greece.
As mentioned earlier, the sculpture was a way for the ancient Greeks to commemorate people of cultural value. Gods are an important part of ancient Greek life, not only in the religious sense but also in the traditions of daily life. Idols were very popular in the classical period and were often commissioned as gifts, decorations, religious worship, and even to appease the gods. Like gods, athletes and fighters are highly respected, so it makes sense to have a large number of statues depicting these heroes.
As far as male images in ancient Greek art are concerned, there is no difference between gods and mortals except for accessories. They all depicted the ideal human figure, a naked male figure, muscular and dazzling. But women’s standards for beauty are different from men’s. The female sculpture shows the pose of “Venus pudica”. There, they covered their private parts. Although men are praised for being naked, women’s nudity is controversial, and people want them to show modesty.
This shows that the essential characteristics of the aesthetic standards followed by the classical Greek artists are heroic realism and some idealized perfect human figures. Painters and sculptors try to reveal the motion or static state of the human body seen in the eyes. The focus will be on exceptionally beautiful characters or noble dramatic moments.