3D Art - AP Art History

This famous mask is named after the legendary ancient Greek King Agamemnon (see Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’s Oresteia). While Tutankhamen’s burial mask is similarly resplendent, the Egyptian burial mask was stylistically much different from the ancient Greek. King Tut’s in particular featured a long, cylindrical beard, lapis lazuli, and turquoise in addition to the gold. The other three masks are fictional objects (but denote historical figures).

(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)

The famous mask of Agamemnon (c. 1500s BCE) was discovered in Mycenae in the 1800s. While early discoverers thought the mask belonged to the Greek King Agamemnon (see Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’s Oresteia), later scholarship revealed that the mask actually predated the historical Agamemnon by centuries. The Mycenaean civilization predated the Archaic era and was itself predated by the Minoan civilization.

(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)

"A Subtlety" was housed in an old sugar plant and depicted a slave woman naked except for a headscarf in the pose of a Sphinx. The sculpture fused ancient art with the abuses of American slavery in a massive sculpture.

Angkor Wat, meaning City Temple, is the world's largest religious monument. It is located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was built for Vishnu, a main Hindu god.

Like other ancient Greek masks, the mask of Agamemnon would have been used to cover the face of a ruler during a funeral and interment. It was discovered covering the face of a body in a burial shaft and was accompanied by weapons, jewelry, and other artifacts. Later, in ancient Rome, wax casts and stone would replace gold as the choice for funerary masks and portraiture.

(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)

The Venus de Medici (c. 1st century BCE) is a Hellenistic-era sculpture depicting the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. It features a dolphin poised at the foot of the standing nude goddess, who looks off into the distance and who is designed to be viewed from all angles (sculpture in the round). Its existence and that of similar female nudes challenged the earlier Greek conception of the male nude as the model of perfect human beauty.

Like many Hellenistic sculptures, the Venus de Medici (c. 1st century BCE) is made of marble. Brass, ebony, wood, and bronze were all far less common materials in ancient Greek sculpture. The dolphin at the goddess’s feet serves as a support for the extremely heavy medium, and other famous statues of Aphrodite have notoriously broken over the years.

The term "clipeus" means round shield in Latin. This type of portrait was sometimes used to depict rulers or notable figures in Hellenistic and Roman art.

The statue’s subject and pose is an often-copied one, with similar version appearing in famous paintings and sculpture gardens in Europe and beyond for centuries. The statue itself is thought to be based on an earlier Aphrodite sculpture in marble by the ancient Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. However, the direct progenitor of the Venus de Medici was made of the more lightweight bronze.

While the Venus de Milo is missing its arms, the Venus de Medici is an intact sculpture. Both famous Venuses have heads and may have been adorned with jewelry made of precious metals. Neither currently has paint or a cryptic inscription, although they do feature translatable Greek lettering at their bases.

These are the famous Riace Warriors (c 450 BCE). The Terracotta Army is a large group of clay statuary from ancient China, and Alexander the Great is a portrait bust. The Discobolus of Myron is statue of a single discus thrower, while Laocoön and His Sons features a man intertwined in battle with snakes and his two sons.

(Image taken from the public domain: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Reggio\_calabria\_museo\_nazionale\_bronzi\_di\_riace.jpg)

Ancient Greek and Roman statuary was largely based on three concepts: Greco-Roman mythology, statues of political leaders, and exercises on the ideal form. In Greek mythology, Hercules, the half-man, half-god hero, was tasked with various chores to allow him to enter the realm of the gods. One of the most famous ones was that Hercules had to defeat the multiheaded serpent known as the Hydra.

Roman sculpture was originally derived from Greek sculpture, which was highly refined and desired a pleasing aesthetic of minute detail. Roman sculptors took this to another level, by focusing on an extreme realism, which showed every imperfection in their subjects. Romans believed a person sitting for a sculpture portrait wished an honest portrayal that could show their full virility and nobility.

The ancient Greeks saw the male nude form as the ultimate perfection in aesthetics, making it one of the most common subjects of Greek art. One of the key examples of this thought process is "The Dying Gaul," which portrays a dying Gaul, a man who was not Greek, laid out in perfect tension to show his body. This affection for the male nude was picked up by Renaissance and neoclassical artists, as demonstrated by works like Michelangelo's "David."

Based on the figural representation, this sculpture is likely a Greek creation from either the high Classical or Hellenistic period. Take careful note of the nudity, the musculature and the expression on his face, all pointing to Greek dramatic sculpture. That, coupled with the green tinge, suggests the sculpture must be bronze, as that was the material of choice for Greek sculptors.

Throughout the history of Christian art, Jesus Christ has been depicted in a variety of roles. During the Byzantine era, depictions of Christ as the Pantocrator, or "ruler of the world," were common. Images of the Pantocrator appear at the top or center of Byzantine hierarchical compositions, and are often flanked by angels.

The Riace Warriors, also known as the Riace bronzes, are a pair of life-size nude male warrior statues. They were discovered in the sea in the 1970s, and, while they are primarily made of bronze, they also feature details in other materials: copper lips and ivory eyes, for example. Teak, ivory, and cement were not otherwise common materials for large statues in ancient Greece.

(Image taken from the public domain: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Reggio\_calabria\_museo\_nazionale\_bronzi\_di\_riace.jpg)

The Riace Warriors are an excellent example of Early Classical sculpture. Their use of contrapposto and their slightly idealized forms distinguish them from earlier Archaic work, as do their elaborately worked beards and hair. Their makers are unknown, and the statues are thought to have been buried underwater after a shipwreck of uncertain date.

(Image taken from the public domain: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Reggio\_calabria\_museo\_nazionale\_bronzi\_di\_riace.jpg)

Hellenistic Greek sculptures are often describes as naturalistic, emotional and dynamic. These pieces were a reflection of the diversity of cultures the Ancient Greeks and their culture interacted with after following the conquests of Alexander the Great. No longer did Ancient Greek sculpture represent ideal beauty and perfection the way it had during the Classical period. The Archaic period of Greek Sculpture was known for its stiff, expressionless subjects. Lastly, Hellenistic sculptures were also known for their increasingly large size.