Reply To: Hellenistic Variety

[mbsimington]

The Hellenistic period was a time of individualism of its own as artists began to venture out into new poses, situations, and emotions to broaden their horizon. This resulted in a large variety of sculptures, ranging from young to old, ideal and not, human and god, and both realistic and fictitious. One example of this is the statue of Sleeping Eros, one of a child with a realistic form based off observation. Another is the Dying Gallic Trumpeter, another non-ideal sculpture leaning more towards the expression of raw emotion and realism (look at the detail of his feet!). Gods were also represented with one being my all-time favorite art piece, Nike of Samothrace (look at how soft her fabric looks! Her wings!) with beautiful detail, though also lacking in realism. Idealism is shown to still be present in the statue of Laocoon and his sons, as while his sons are about half his height, showing their youth, while also maintaining the physique of an ideal adult male. This sculpture also shows the power of emotions represented as well as incredible detail in the figures as well as fabrics, while the serpent lacks many realistic features. This period lends to many beautiful works of art presenting a large array of individualistic expressions.