Sculpture

Greek

• Hellenic ideal was the perfect shape.
• Concerned only with the generalized outline.
• Bust of Pericles-Idealised bust (perfect nose, lips, no wrinkles). Very different from Roman realism. No V-cut in eyes, severely drilled hair, no hair on eyebrows. He is a “barber’s dummy”.
• First hint of Greek modern portraiture was with by the sculptor Demotrios who did a sculpture of a Corinthian General Pellichos. He was a “maker of men”.
• Greek Relief sculpture depicted mythology/Romans depicted historical events.

Roman

• 6^th Century-clay representatives of their dead/death-masks/wax facial images of ancestors which were kept in atrium and paraded during funeral processions.
• By 150 BC the masks had become extremely realistic.
• Romans began to produce original works of art which blended Etruscan-Roman realism with Greek idealism.
• Began to get more realistic with the Ara Pacis which showed figures engaged in conversation, children showing their boredom. Things such as V-cut
• Personality Cult-Arch of Titus, Emperor is glorified and chariot twisted inorganically so that we see his full face. By the time of Severus we see a build-up of the principal personality and a tendency to present all figures frontally to the spectator.

Bust of Emperor Commodus

• Contemporary marble bust.
• Portrayed as the Greek mythological hero, Hercules, and is dressed in the skin of the Nemean lion.
• In his right hand he carries a club and in his left, the golden apples from the garden of Hesperides.
• The depiction of the first of Hercules’ labours is a “principle of abbreviation’”-the other labours are implied.
• Unrealistic-The smooth face was polished until it gleamed and the drilled curls were left rough.
• The hair was painted gold which was in contrast to his snow-white face.
• The sculptor shows great skill in his rendering of the wooden club, animal skin, hair, muscles, veins, fingers and eyes (V cut pupils).
• Below the bust are iconographic images:
• Shield has figure of mythological Gorgon (diving power).
• On either sides are animal horns (prosperity brought by him).
• Orb (heavenly sphere)
• Figure of Amazonian on the orb (allude to 9^th labour of Hercules).
• Still gets across how Commodus was sadistic pervert who beat beggars with clubs.
• Vain-clearly a vain man shown by how much the hair is drilled, the effeminate hands and the fact that he is shown as Hercules.

Bust of Philip the Arabian

• Marble bust of Roman Emperor Philip.
• Reveals his anxious, shifty character with eyes.
• Harshly realistic. We see his worried eyes under his protruding brow.
• Eyes seem to look upward for divine inspiration.
• Turn of the head was introduced as formal device.
• Strength of character shown through his long, bony, Semitic nose, thick-lipped mouth and deeply lined face.
• His hair is also severe.
• The most remarkable thing is that the sculptor has almost captured a moment in time as if his face were moving.

Trajan’s Column

• Commemorates-Trajan’s conquest of Dachia.
• On the top is a statue of the emperor himself.

• Here we find the continuous style where the same character is repeated from scene to scene in a single undivided composition.
• It had a continuous spiral but not a continuous narrative. Mainly stock scenes.
• 100 feet tall-AD 113-Commemorates his two Dacian campaigns
• The carved band winds spirally for 215 yards up the shaft.
• Contains some 2,500 figures.
• Anciently it was tricked out with colour.
• First 4 bands:

1. Emergence of Roman army from a fortified city, crossing the Danube in two columns (one led by Trajan), surveyed by the god of the river. The busy life of the river.
2. Emperor seen outside his camp. Soldiers building camp.
3. Emperor holding a council of war
4. Veiled as a high priest he is present at a sacrifice to mark the beginning of the campaign.
5. He is on an eminence, giving orders and surveying the scene.

• Stone cutting shows sureness and sensibility. Impression of depth and perspective.
• Perspective- in sixes and sevens. All further figures are placed above the nearer ones. Yet, Wheeler says that it works.
• The further figures rise head and shoulders above the nearer ones.
• Find ourselves in the midst of a crowd of hurrying men with the calm Emperor close at hand.
• Roman army not depicted correctly-their dress is Hellenistic.
• Importance-Tells us more about the army in the field then “any single document”.