For this post I wanted to take everyone back in time to talk about different historical time periods. This is more of a heavy read post but I wanted to take everyone further beyond today’s modern art. I decided to analysis different art works from different periods, to help everyone to understand the ideals of ancient art.
When trying to understand where some of the ideas of Ancient Greek art came from, some of ancient Greek art ideas were borrowed from Egypt and Mesopotamia. We can look at the marble copy of Myron lost bronze statue of the Discus Thrower. The marble copy is a copy of Myron’s original bronze sculpture. The discus thrower was also referred to as the Discobolus that was sculpted by sculptor Myron. The marble sculpture of the Discus Thrower is a sculpture from the Early and High Classical periods. The Classical Period (480-479 BCE) was a period where a lot of emphasize on what was tasteful and perfect. Myron really emphasizes on the physical aspects of the Olympic Discus Thrower. Myron emphasized on that three-dimensional aspect of showing a 5’ 11’’ feet tall sculpture in motion. Greeks art really emphasizes on male nudity. Their Olympic games was where athlete competed in the nude. Greek athletes of that time competed in the nude, where they showed a sense of openness but that does not apply to most cultures now. The sculpture is captured within a very chaotic and harmony style. It feels like Myron tries to emphasize of the idea of perfection. When looking at the sculpture it sort of look like a non-naturalist human pose, because of the way he’s about to throw the discus. The sculpture resembles sort of the ideal figure of a male athlete.
When we look at the Hellenistic Period (334-323 BCE), the Hellenistic Period was a period about the concepts of unprecedented realism and heightened emotions. When we think about art from the Hellenistic period we can think of the 4’ 2’’ tall bronze sculpture of the seated defeated boxer from Rome, Italy. The statue is a statue that shows an old boxer with a broken nose and bruised ears. Still within the Hellenistic Period Greek sculptors really emphasizes on the aspect of nude athletes. When you look at the structure you can draw a lot of emotions from this statue. His face is really shows a lot of emotion, the senses of being exhausted and sad. We can draw that sense of the defeat boxer not yet being defeated quite yet, he’s ready for another round. The boxer could be looking up to the heavens asking his God to for the strength to carry on. You can see the heighten realism emotional part about being battered and tired within this sculpture. He is in a sort of dazed state of mind, as if he is thinking of something.
Alan Taylor Jr 
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