Greek art in antiquity Its fundamental characteristic has a high aesthetic idealism, which implies that art represents not the raw and direct reality but an idyllic and perfect vision that is perceived by the use of the proportionality and balance of the elements as well as its interest in reflecting in the artistic works the lines of the human figure perfectly; both in drawing and sculpture. The human body for them is the essential foundation of all beauty and any proportion, this trend is called TOutropocentrism.
Greece, is a small peninsula located in southeastern Europe. The first ideas that shape Western culture were born here, so that our knowledge and ways of thinking are a consequence of the philosophy, science and art of the Greeks that begins approximately in the 5th and centuries IV and blooms and develops fully between the VII and II centuries before the Christian era; Not only in Greece, but also in other territories of the Mediterranean inhabited by the Greeks.
Although his art relies on nature, it manifests itself, however, representing a sweetened vision of it; tending to the creation of an idealized world where simplicity, proportion, rhythm, clarity and conceptual unity of the work dominate all its artistic forms.
It is not that the Greeks were not interested in the surrounding reality, in social and political life, it is only that they represented this dare of the vision and imagination of the artist and the aesthetic patterns of the time that they conceptually responded to representing the surrounding environment and the image of man with that idealization.
From their archaic period in which the figures are represented static, frontal, with a typical smile and almond eyes to the classic period with the aesthetic and detailed refinement realism, they develop a search to find their own personal aesthetics, for achieving artistic improvement. They study the surrounding nature and man as the center of that reality.
A clear example of how they idealized the representation of the human figure we have in the taste they developed for athletics, which served as inspiration to the Greeks and was very cultivated by them. This sport that developed in the perfect bodies athletes gave the artists their best models. Fascinated by the sinuousness of the forms of the human body, they already achieve in the classical stage phenomenal domain of the knowledge of anatomy, which allows them to represent the forms and curvatures of the body in great detail and realism.
Supporting new techniques managed to provide sculptural works with impressive dramatic force, sensation of movement and contortions; that supported the representation of these actions and emotions.
Fabulous sculptural works of the first classical stage show us the realism and mastery achieved, such as: the “discóbolo”, conducted by the artist Miron and in the last classical stage «He Fauno Barberini » (of an extreme realism), or the fabulous representation of sculpture «Victoria de Samotricia »; That with the wings deployed and the body forward challenges the wind, showing great mastery in the study of clothes, represented at this stage with incredible detail and naturalness.
The sculpture in Greek art are explained in a blog article where this more detailed information is summarized and thus understand the magnitude and importance that this concept of this concept had for them proportion, idealism and pure beauty of forms.
Fundamental characteristics of Greek art:
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Flowering of an aesthetic idealism that seeks to represent an idyllic vision of beauty.
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Representation of proportionality and balance in works of art that contribute to highlight their concept of aesthetic perfection.
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It is not practical and realistic but decorative.
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Concern to represent an idyllic and perfect vision of the beauty of the human body.
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Representation of nature and the surrounding world with realism and detail but with an idealized vision of these.
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It does not seek this Greek art to be an instrument of propaganda but only vehicle of aesthetic pleasure.
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They use the rationality of mathematical measures to represent the ideal proportion in works of art.
Visit the following links to know specifically the summary about each of the artistic manifestations in Greece in ancient times.
Greek painting in antiquity.
Ceramics in Greek art
Greek art architecture
Greek art sculpture