art of history

Kouros : The Forerunner of Greek Sculptures

Art is often considered by societies as a means of preserving their culture . For the early Greeks , this initially , had not been the case They were more concerned in using art for certain functions , especially those which were social in nature . For instance , drama was performed during religious festivals under the auspices of the state (Vess Moreover , art forms were seen as instruments and were valued according to the purpose they achieved in society (Vess

The glory of the Greeks rested on their sculptures and the

roots of such art form could be traced as far as the earliest Mycenean , Cretan and Egyptian cultures (ARTAges - Greek Art Summary . It is through sculptures that the Greeks made an invaluable contribution to the history of art in that the standards for Western sculptural forms of today (Greek Statues and Ancient Greek Sculpture ) are still deeply ingrained with the Greek ideal

Ancient Greek art is defined as art produced from about 1000 BC to about 100 BC by the Greek-speaking world (Ancient Greek Art . The art of Ancient Greece could be grouped under the periods Geometric , Archaic Classical and Hellenistic , depending on the era in which they were created (Art and Culture . Greek sculptures on the other hand , belong to three main periods (Ancient Greek Sculpture Lesson , namely : the Archaic , Classical and Hellenistic Periods . The Archaic period started around the eighth century and reached up to the early fifth century BC (Greek Statues and Ancient Greek Sculpture . Works of this period are typically stiff and unnatural in appearance as a consequence of the strong Egyptian influence (Greek Statues and Ancient Greek Sculpture

Even though the Greeks learned how to sculpt from the Egyptians , their sculptures still possessed a prominent distinction . For instance , male archaic Greek statues were always in the nude while the Egyptian ones had clothes (Carr . This was so because Greeks saw their gods in their own likeness . Greeks may have thus believed that the nude male form was a delight for the gods to look upon (Carr ) because they were seen as lofty representations of the gods . Moreover , the Greeks did not intend for their sculptures to be representations of actual individuals but were , instead , used as symbols which stood for certain ideals such as honor and beauty (Ancient Greek Art . These notions thus paved the way to the elimination any distinction between the sacred and the secular (Ancient Greek Art ) in the forms of art they made

While male nude statues were welcomed , sculptures of women on the other hand , retained their clothing since the Greek society did not permit the display of public nudity until the 4th century BC (Ancient Greek Art

The most popular examples of Greek Archaic sculptures were the kouros and the kore (Archaic Greek Sculpture Lesson . Kouros (pl . kouroi ) which means boy ' is used to refer to the archaic statues of men , and is often depicted as a nude standing youth (Art Culture . The kore (pl korai ) on...