Greek Sculpture

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

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xxv

1 Beginnings and Before: Greek Sculpture in the Iron Age (circa 1000–600) 1

2 The Search for Order: Sculptural Schemata and Regional Styles (circa 600–550) 23

3 Free‐Standing Sculpture in the Later Sixth Century: Style and Panhellenism (circa 550–500) 46

4 Sixth‐Century Architectural Sculpture 68

5 The Change to Classical: Democratic Athens and the Persian Conflict (circa 500–460) 89

6 The Temple of Zeus at Olympia: Panhellenism and the Early Classical (circa 470–450) 112

7 Classical Moment I: The Parthenon, Pericles, and the Power of Persuasion (circa 450–430) 135

8 Classical Moment II: Sculptors and Statuary in the Mid‐Fifth Century 160

9 Unfinished Business: Pericles’ Programs and the Archidamian War (circa 430–420) 183

10 An Attic Tragedy: The Fall of Athens and the Transition to Late Classical (circa 420–390) 203

11 Idealism and Individuality I: Late Classical Architectural Sculpture (circa 390–330) 226

12 Idealism and Individuality II: Late Classical Statuary and Relief Sculpture (circa 390–330) 247

13 Sculpture in Hellenistic Greece I: The Rise of Macedon and the Kingdoms of the Diadochs (circa 330–200) 270

14 Sculpture in Hellenistic Greece II: Greek Styles and Roman Taste (circa 200–50) 293

Glossary 317

References 322

Further Reading 323

Timeline: History 331

Timeline: Architectural Sculpture 334

Timeline: Freestanding Sculpture 336

Timeline: Literature/Philosophy 340

Index 342

Mark D. Fullerton is Professor of History of Art and Classics at The Ohio State University. He is the author of The Archaistic Style in Roman Statuary (1990), Greek Art (2000), and co-editor of Ancient Art and its Historiography (2003). Greek Sculpture presents a chronological overview of the myriad plastic and glyptic art forms in the ancient Greek world, ranging from the emergence of monumental marble statuary at the end of the seventh century BC to the appropriation of Greek sculptural traditions by Roman conquerors throughout the first two centuries of the Christian era. With a primary focus on large-scale marble and bronze sculptural works that figured prominently in votive and funerary Greek religious practices, chapters explore the evolution of Greek sculpture over several centuries—which constituted a remarkable pattern of stylistic changes that markedly distinguished it from the works of contemporaneous Mediterranean civilizations. The evolution of Greek sculpture is also placed within broader social and historical contexts by exploring parallel developments in poetry, drama, philosophy, rhetoric, and works of art in other media. Concluding chapters also address the ways in which sculptural forms inherited from Classical Greece were adapted to the political and social transformations that took place in the century following Alexander’s conquests—and after Rome supplanted the Hellenistic kingdoms in the eastern Mediterranean. Scholarly and thought-provoking, Greek Sculpture offers illuminating insights into one of the most recognizable and influential achievements in the history of art.