Classical Sculpture

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classical sculpture, Claudia Moscovici, Greek and Roman Sculpture, Romanticism and Postromanticism

Classcial Sculpture

by Claudia Moscovici

Greek art was perhaps the first—and certainly the most influential art in the Western tradition–to capture the essence not only of the human spirit, but also of the human form, with all its movement and powers of expression. In Greek art, we feel, even the body seems infused with a soul. Myron’s famous sculpture of the discus thrower, Discobolos (c. 450 B.C), which is of the same era as the better known works of the sculptor Pheidias, displays the beauty, poise, force and movement of a young man’s efforts to launch the discus he holds in his hand. The sculpture is not entirely naturalistic—in the sense that athletes who would try to assume the same position would not be able to throw the discus very far. Nonetheless, it captures the elegance and athleticism of the male body in the first blush of youth. Part of this sculpture’s naturalism lies in the way it conveys movement and emotion through the positioning and poise of the body. This artistic video on classical sculpture by Philip Scott Johnson highlights this phenomenon:

More generally, classical Greek and Hellenistic sculptures rarely look stiff or contrived because of the way in which the human form is balanced: often in a position of counterpoise, with the weight shifted upon one leg, which allows sculptors to reveal the muscular curvatures of the body.

While classical Greek sculpture tends to focus upon the beauty of the human form, Hellenistic art—the art of the empires founded by Alexander the Great’s followers—places increasing emphasis upon the expression of emotion. The kinds of feelings represented in Hellenistic sculpture, however, are not those of everyday people in ordinary circumstances. Rather, Hellenistic art usually exhibits the emotions of extraordinary individuals engaged in tragic conflicts. To offer one well-known example, the sculpture Laocöon and his sons (175-50 B.C.)—executed by Hagesandros, Anthenodoros and Polydoros of Rhodes–immortalizes the story of a priest who is being punished by the gods for forewarning the Trojans not to accept a giant horse which, as it turns out, carried inside it enemy soldiers.

This sculpture was rediscovered in Rome in 1506 and many art historians believe that what was found was not the original sculpture, but a Roman copy. Whether or not it is the original work, The Laocöon Group made a strong impression upon Italian Renaissance sculptors, especially Michelangelo. Laocoon is frozen in an image of terrible anguish since his punishment consists of having to witness two gigantic snakes emerge from the sea and suffocate with their coils his beloved sons. Hellenistic art, at least in this representative sculpture that would become a favorite during the Renaissance and the Neoclassical periods, privileges the expression of a kind of emotion that is at once mythical and dramatic: mythical in its literary and religious references, dramatic in its depiction of human tragedy.

Fragmentary Visions: The Sculptures of Chad Awalt

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art, art criticism, Chad Awalt, classical sculpture, Claudia Moscovici, contemporary art, fine art, fineartebooks, Greek art, Greek sculpture, postromanticism, Romanticism and Postromanticism, sculpture

Chad Awalt was inspired by his grandfather to pursue woodcarving from an early age. Awalt studied anatomy at the University of Colorado and has spent the past twenty years expanding his knowledge of classical art and design. For over fifteen years, he has been creating works of art that are sought after by clients and galleries all over the country. His work can also be found in many corporate and private collections.

Since the Renaissance, sculptors have traced the fine line between tradition and innovation. This line is not a straight path from the classical period to, let’s say, Donatello’s delicate sculpture of David. During the Renaissance, and even more so in our days–when artists are obsessed with originality–it was important to carry on a respected tradition only if done in an innovative way that filled the needs of one’s patrons, public and culture. Perpetuating any kind of tradition—be it religious or artistic—is the art of making something old be new and relevant again; of preserving tradition within the space of historical gaps and transformations. The problem of cultural continuity, in other words, is inseparable from the one of discontinuity.

Chad Awalt’s sculpture gives material form to this link between artistic continuity and rupture. His sculptures clearly evoke the classical style and ideal body types of ancient Greek sculptors such as Praxiteles and Lysippos. They also allude to the cultural mixture and discontinuities that are part and parcel of respecting the classical heritage. Awalt sculpts the ancient goddesses—such as Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt; Clio, one of the muses who presided over the arts and sciences and Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility and motherhood–in an unmistakably classical style. Yet, much as these statues are often destroyed, amputated and transformed by time in a way that reflects the fragility of their beauty, so all of Awalt’s sculptures are marked by bodily discontinuities that call to mind the topological experiments of modern sculpture. Supple, hollowed, balanced, fluid and harmonious yet also floating and amorphous, Awalt’s sculptures are fragmentary, haunting visions of long-gone epochs that can be admired and emulated, but not preserved intact, by contemporary art. 

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com