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Greek
art celebrated
the triumphs of its individual citizens, especially the
warrior-athlete,
and the founding myths of its city-states. Like Egyptian
religion,
Greek religion was polytheistic, but the Greeks envisioned
their
gods and goddesses as fully human in form and behavior, a
belief-system
thoroughly consistent with their philosophy that
"Man is the measure of
all
things." The history of Greek art is characterized by
dramatic change,
as artists strove to create idealized, naturalistic images
of the
human form in sculpture and on painted pottery. In the
context of
this pursuit of ideal beauty and the depiction of
naturalistic motion,
the sculptor Polykleitos developed a canon of proportions
for the
representation of the human figure during the Classical
Period (480-late
4th century BCE). During the Hellenistic period (323-31
BCE), artists
in cities all over the expanded Greek world produced works
representing
extremes of motion and emotion and a broader range of
subjects,
including genre themes.
If the
Greeks
were great philosophers, scientists, and artists, the Romans
were
pragmatists whose greatest talents were military conquest
and efficient
government. The Romans deeply admired Greek culture and art,
and
we owe a great deal of our knowledge of Greek sculpture --
much
of which was produced in bronze and is now lost -- to the
marble
copies produced by Roman artists. While Roman art relied on
Greek
precedent, the Romans took Greek forms to new heights of
naturalism,
creating portraits, reliefs, and wall painting characterized
by
an undeniable verism, or super-realism. The Romans
celebrated their
own history and their politicians, generals, and ancestors,
and
their imperial art is extraordinarily effective propaganda
for the
State and its religion.
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