Photos of the Very Best Ancient Greek Sculpture & Statues

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Photos of the Very Best Ancient Greek Sculpture & Statues from the Archaic Kouros to the Classical Venus de Milo & Parthenon Elgin Marbles, Art From the Very Best Archaeology Museums. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams. (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of Ancient Greek Sculpture & Statues From Archaic To Hellenistic Eras

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Photos of wonderful Ancient Greek Sculpture, museum statues antiquities from the Ancient Greek Archaic period to the Ancient Greek Hellenistic periods.

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece was not a single country or kingdom but was made up of independent City States and colonies that spread out from present day mainland Greece through the Greek Island to the Ionian Cost of Present day Turkey and into Southern Italy and Sicily.

Greek Sculpture

From around 800BC the Acient Greek City States emerged from a long era of chaos known as The Late Bronze Age Collapse. This period lasted from circa 800 BC to the second Persian Wars of Greece in 480 BC.

Kouros & Kore Sculpture Statues

The art of this era was heavily influenced by Ancient Egyptian styles. Statues known as Kouros & Kore depicted young men and women standing in a rigid form with one leg out. This is a copy of Egyptian statue styles.

Slowly Greek artists moved towards less rigid more realistic sculptures. Freezes on Ancient Greek temples slowly began to have more natural poses and the figures depicted movement in a more natural way.

Ancient Greek Classical Sculpture

The Classical Period lasted from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC until the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. It was during the Classical Period that the Greek sculptures were made we would recognise as a “classical” in style.

One of the best know sculptors of the Classical Period was Praxiteles from Attica. He sculpted during the golden age of Athens. His great works include statues of Hermes, Apollo & Venus, Roman copies of which can be seen in this photo gallery.

During the Classical Period great temples like the Parthenon were built. The sculpted panels that decorated the Parthenon, known as the Elgin Marbles, took temple frieze sculpture to new heights.

The Nude In Ancient Greek Sculptures

The nude is associated with Ancient Greek sculpture. From the Archaic period men were depicted in the nude. The male nude was seen as a depiction of beauty. Ancient Greek male Olympic athletes competed in the nude, impossible to imagine today!

The first female nude did not appear until the Classical era with the Venus statues created by Praxiteles. These were only permitted because they depicted a goddess and not a mortal. The depiction of mortal women in the nude was taboo in Ancient Greek sculptures.

Ancient Greek Hellenistic Sculpture

The Classical Period ended with the death of death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. This gave way to the Hellenistic Period during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East into North Africa. The Hellenistic Period came to an end when the Ancient Greek States were conquered in 146BC by the Romans.

A definition of Hellenistic sculpture is still evolving. Academics generally see Hellenistic Sculptures as being of poorer quality than Classical Period Sculpture. This is rather unfortunate taking that probably the most famous Ancient Greek sculpture, the Venus De Milo, was made during the Hellenistic Period.

Critics also critics the excesses in Hellenistic sculpture. This can be seen in the melodrama of the monumental Lacoon sculpture. There is certainly a lot of action in many Hellenistic sculptures as can be seen on the Alexander Sarcophagus.

The Hellenistic style was adopted by the Romans for the great propaganda statues such as those of the Emperor Augustus.