CLassical vs. Hellenistic :: essays research papers

A range of sculptural styles appeared during the Hellenistical period. For example, a highly pedantic style, which tells a story through a range of symbolic figures, was utilise in a relief carved by Archelaos of Priene, The Apotheosis of mark (150? BC, British Museum, London). The relief was dedicated to the Muses or to homing pigeon and shows the poet along with figures representing the World, Time, Homers great epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, and other literary images and ideas.But by chance the most distinctive Hellenistic style is one sometimes called Baroque. Hellenistic Baroque, like the Baroque style of 17th-century Europe, is defined by its melodramatic, exaggerated effects. It is specially associated with the ancient city of Pergamum, and its masterpiece is the so-called Great Altar of genus Zeus built atop the citys acropolis sometime from about xcl to 156 BC. (A reconstruction of the west facade of the Great Altar is housed in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin, Germany.) The monument may in fact be a enclose to Telephus, Pergamums legendary hero and founder, rather than to Zeus. The life story of Telephus, from his birth to his exploits as a mature hero, unfolds in a continuous frieze inside the monument. A podium supports the monument and around it an even larger frieze recounts the Battle of the Gods and the Giants. more or less figures seem ready to leap off the wall. Some even weirdie up the sides of a staircase that visitors use to reach the altar. The muscles of the figures are compressed and pronounced, the drapery sweeping and tumultuous, the poses violent and dramatic, the faces expressive and pained. In one scene, the goddess genus Athene has caught a giant by the hair he gazes helplessly toward the throw away as he tries to disembarrass himself from her grip. His expressive pose resembles that of a Trojan priest, Laocon, in a later statue of Laocon and his Sons (Vatican Museums), shown as he struggles to free himself from giant snakes.Although the names of the sculptors of the Laocon are known (Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes), the exact leave of the statue is a matter of dispute.