Greece Sculpture

Sculpture. – Discoveries and revisions of already known monuments have added precious material for a historical reconstruction, attentive to regional and workshop traditions, to the relationships between individual schools, and to the meaning of some masters. Among the small plastics, the centaur of the necropolis of Lefkandi in Eubea, from 900 BC, is remembered. C., which reveals links of continuity with works of the late Bronze Age, in addition to the numerous bronze and clay sculptures, especially of the sanctuaries of Olympia and Samo. For the orientalizing period, the focus is mainly on Cretan material, both to the series of bronzes, re-studied and now increased by the findings of the sanctuary of Kato Simi at Hierapetra, and to the study of the clay plastic of the sanctuaries of Gortina and Axos. Recent summaries on the typological classes of kouroi, korai and the archaic funerary relief also allow a broader and more articulated discourse on the schools of archaic sculpture in Greece. The series are completed with new important findings such as the Phrasikleia, the work of Aristion pario, from Mirrinunte in Mesogea, the kouros of the same origin, a sphinx from Corinth, the bronze kouros from Piraeus and various fragments, no less important, of sculptures in all respects. round and reliefs (especially attics). Add some new reconstruction of pedimental groups, and the fragment of a pediment carved from Corfu.

The characters of the individual schools have been investigated, with recent contributions on the centers of Corinth, Boeotia and Thessaly. For the classical period the research on the original documentation had a clear prevalence with respect to that, mediated, of the copyistic tradition of the Roman age. In particular, the architectural decorative complexes of the temple of Zeus and Olympia, the Parthenon, the Hephaisteion and the Erechtheion in Athens have been reexamined, completed with new fragments and recomposed in new syntax; a pedimental decoration for the temple of Athena Nike has also been documented here and various fragments refer to the temple of Ares. Substantial restorations, and consequent changes in the recomposition of the groups, also in the pedimental sculptures of the temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus, of the metopal decoration of the tholos of Marmarià, and of the late classical pediments of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. However, there has been no lack of monographic research on artists such as Agorakritos, whose Nemesis Ramnuntina has been recovered, a new fundamental point of reference for Neapolitan studies, such as Policleto and the tradition of his school; in the 4th century particular researches are directed to Cefisodoto, Praxiteles, Eufranore and, recently, to Lysippus and his artistic theory. Nor should we forget the numerous contributions to the history of relief, funerary and votive. For the Hellenistic period various studies have been dedicated to schools now outside the Hellenic national territory (Pergamum, Tralles, Alexandria, Cyrene, Taranto, etc.), but research on the trends of Athenian artistic production continued (especially on the neo-attic phenomenon) and monuments and problems of other centers, especially Delos, Thasos, Rhodes and Kos, were discussed. Also for the Roman period, with particular regard to Attic sarcophagi and portraiture, the quality of a production in the Hellenic area and its diffusion in the ancient world was specified. In the field of toreutics there has been no lack of important new discoveries, such as the crater and other vessels from Derveni, from the end of the 4th century; Finally, new studies are aimed at bone and ivory engravings, recently increased with finds mainly in the Macedonian area. the quality of a production in the Hellenic area and its diffusion in the ancient world has been specified. In the field of toreutics there has been no shortage of important new discoveries, such as the crater and other vessels from Derveni, from the end of the 4th century; Finally, new studies are aimed at bone and ivory engravings, recently increased with finds mainly in the Macedonian area. the quality of a production in the Hellenic area and its diffusion in the ancient world has been specified. In the field of toreutics there has been no shortage of important new discoveries, such as the crater and other vessels from Derveni, from the end of the 4th century; Finally, new studies are aimed at bone and ivory engravings, recently increased with finds mainly in the Macedonian area.

Ceramics and mosaic. – The publication of the necropolis of Ceramics and Eleusis, of the necropolises of Argos, of the material of the American excavations of the Athenian agora, as well as of materials of sanctuaries and necropolis of various other centers has considerably enriched the knowledge of the problems of the geometric period pottery, now divided into historical phases and divided into various production centers, where, next to the eminent center of Athens, different shops operate, mainly in the Argolis, in Euboea, Boeotia, Thessaly, in Crete and in the Cyclades. The ceramic production of the Orientalizing period is even more articulated, enriched with fundamental documents in Attica (Vari, Eleusis, Piraeus, Agorà), in Corinth, in the Cyclades, in Rhodes, in Euboea and Argos. Attic black-figure and red-figure pottery received, until the last moments of JD’s activity Beazley, that classification into masters and workshops which constitutes, even for other monumental classes, an example of structural and stylistic reading. The work of AD Trendall on figured ceramics from the Italian and Sicilian schools is along this line. Considerable attention has also been drawn to the initial chapter of the history of the mosaic for which, to old known documents of the 4th century, the splendid series of mosaics of Pella with multicolored pebbles (one signed by Gnosis), dated around 300, has now been added. to. Christ. Still in Macedonia precious documents of ancient painting have been found in tombs of the 3rd and 2nd century BC. Christ. Other new late Hellenistic mosaics were discovered in the new neighborhoods of Delos. For the Roman period, especially late antiquity, various mosaic floors have appeared in Sparta, Chalcis, Thessaloniki, opus sectile, with portraits and landscape scenes in Kenchreai, near Corinth.