Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus

51Due教员组今天给各位留学生带来一篇纯原创代写艺术鉴赏范文，讲的是《赫尔墨斯抱着年幼的狄俄尼索斯》这座大理石雕像，希望这篇可以帮助到各位留学生，同时需要代写也可以直接联系我们51Due客服vx（vx：Jenny_dynh）进行咨询。

When people refers Greece, the ancient sculpture is the first image came to people’s mind. “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”, a marble statue by praxiteles, is one of the master works. It is in the Archaeological Museum, Olympia, Greece. Height 2.15m.

 From 800 to 300 bc, the sculpture of ancient Greece is inspired from Near Eastern countries， such as Egyptian art. And over centuries development, the Greek sculpture becomes an unique art form. Greek  artists capture human’s form in a way people never seen before and it bring Greek art reach a peak. Greek sculptors are really concentrate on the poise and proportion of the human body. They pursue of idealized perfection, even the fingers in stone could show the most recognizable art work. The history of Greek civilization impacts the world deeply.  

About from the  800 BC, Archaic Greece found that the production of solid figures become popular. They want to increase the production, and the suitable material is essential. Certainly , wood is the first choice, but it is too easy to corrode. After the selection, sculptures made of stone, clay and bronze survive.

“Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus” is one of the master work in the Classical period. Hermes is one of the most impactive gods in Greece. He is known as “The great Olympian God of animal husbandry, roads, travel, hospitality, heralds, diplomacy, trade, thievery, language, writing, persuasion, cunning wiles, athletic contests, gymnasiums, astronomy, and astrology.” (Aaron J. Atsma). As the son of Zeus and Maia, Hermes is treated as the benevolent messenger , although he is also regarded as a  thief. He was employed by the gods and more especially by Zeus on a variety of occasions which are recorded in ancient story.” (Aaron J. Atsma). When Themele, the mother of Dionysos, dies from terror,  Zeus appears with his thunderbolts and splendor. She gives birth of little Dionysos. So Zeus sends Dionysos to Hermes. When the baby starts to cry, Hermes shows him a shiny object to attract his attention.

“Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus” is made of marble. During the classical period, the technology is not developed. Greeks quarry the marble using bow drills and wooden wedges to get  a workable blocks. In the general, sculptors can not carve a lager figure from a singe piece of marble. So some body parts such as arms, and little Dionysus are sculpted separately. Then  Praxiteles fixed them to the main body  by dowels. Generally, sculptors use iron tools to work the block from all directions and use the tool to undock the substantial pieces.  When the sculpture  is finished, skin, hair and lips are painted in beautiful colors. “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”, the hair of Hermes, and is slippers are painted with bright colors.

At that time, Greek sculptors throw away the shackles of convention and pursue something that no one had attempted before. The height is 2.15m, which is socking. Hermes and Dionysos together are about seven to seven and a half feet in height, and three feet in width.Hermes , whose one arm reaches upward, one arm bents at the elbow to hold Dionysos, is pretty  relaxed. No clothes, nude is popular and typical in that period.

Praxiteles is one of the "inventor" of creating nude sculptures. The glorify human, even the nude male form, becomes scepters’, including Praxiteles’,  top choice. They are particularly favored into creating the life-size and life-like sculptures. Marble is the perfect  medium to survive along the long history. Hermes and Dionysus seems a work carved from the marble’s inside rather than engraved from the outside. The broken arms show incomplete  beauty and seem frozen in action. Hermes and Dionysus seem that they were actually alive. Their faces give vivid expression and they fall in their particular mood. The sculptures are not sculptures any more, they are figures with verve and life.

Praxiteles adopts the carving method of “contrapposto”. In the book of “Contrapposto Volume 8, 1993”, written by Dolores Mitchell,  it says that “Contrapposto, is a sculptural scheme, originated by the ancient Greeks, in which the standing human figure is poised such that the weight rests on one leg (called the engaged leg), freeing the other leg, which is bent at the knee. With the weight shift, the hips, shoulders, and head tilt, suggesting relaxation with the subtle internal organic movement that denotes life. Contrapposto may be used for draped as well as nude figures. The Greeks invented this formula in the early 5th century BC as an alternative to the stiffly static pose—in which the weight is distributed equally on both legs—that had dominated Greek figure sculpture in earlier periods. There is a clear development from the “Critius Boy” of the 5th century, whose leg is bent while his torso remains erect, to the completely relaxed 4th-century “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”by Praxiteles. The rhythmic ease of the contrapposto pose vastly enlarged the expressive possibilities of figure sculpture.” In this book, it explains meaning of the fingers  shape perfectly. When we appreciate the “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”, we can know it well.

The classical period is the age of conflict and war. The war between the Greeks and Persians, as well as the war between athenians and spartans, leave a deep influence for the world. But meanwhile, the cultural and political achievement reach the peak. Sculptures are the masterpiece to show the conflict  among culture and politics. During that period, people are in favor of democrattia, which means “ rule by the people”. It is a new political thought, but it does not means that egalitarianism. In order to fight against the Persian who may interfere Greek territories, Greeks  organizes the Delian League, a confederacy of allies, to help Greeks make a wealthy imperial power. And the Greek politicians use the money to serve citizens, poor and rich to consolidate the political power. Therefore, everyone could have the money to take part in the democratic public life. And Greeks  are in the pursuit of freedom. And the “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus” is marked by the freedom of movement and expression. Frankly, most of the sculpture works during that time are used to cerebrate mankind to be an independent entity.  Sculptures try to push away the formal aesthetic boundaries and use a more naturalistic manner to expresss the human figure. They abandon the strict asymmetry and curve the figures with a free smooth  form, which is more close to life.  At the same time,  sculptures starts to get a special aesthetic vision for each stone and bronze. When people appreciate the “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”, the slipper on the base and draggle blanket show the above point clearly. Hermes and Dionysus are god, but they do not detach people  as before.

During the classical period, the form of sculptures  are flow and natural. It almost copies the realistic figures that describe the development illusion through space. Human  anatomy is immortalized in stone and bronze. The figures’ three-dimensional action and dynamic poses,  which appears in the classical period, shows potential energy. For “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”, the patterns of muscles shows courage, power and affection.  Meanwhile , it also represents tension and relaxation. To be honest, Praxiteles achieve the balance between energy and relaxation  through the opposite action, specially the sculpture’s musical groups.

Some people believe that Greek sculptor is a magician rather than an artist. They turn the ordinary subjects  to be outstanding universal signs. They also reverse the long artistic tradition and put the focus on the supernatural and unknown matters. On one hand, this civilization represents the metaphysical preoccupation. On the other hand, the Greek sculptures describe  deity, but also make the human body to be the study subject.

In ancient Greece, there is along history that people  only uphold gods. When it enters into the classical period, human, as a living creature on earth, starts to be treated as the important figure. And gods start to become human in marble. And it shows that cause and effect could explain the earthly world. And logic is the foundation  for every civilized society. During the classical age, the mysterious universe and god become accountable. The ideas of  Greek philosophers  influence the sculptors.  John Boardman says “It was also not an accident that at the same period of time society in ancient Greece was organized around democratic principles with the city officials being elected by the demos (the community) who reserved the right to revoke their authority whenever they ceased to perform to the Demos' liking”.

During the classical period, sculptors curve the figures with a solemn facial expression. Some sculptures, even shows violent and betray, they are still in a solemn atmosphere. Only the enemies, such as barbarians, have dramatic facial expression. Because the ancient Greeks hold the view that the solemn facial expression is the remarkable  characteristic of all Greeks citizens.  And the figures displaced in public is the sign of their civilization.

During the classical period， the thought of dialectics  starts to form.  Synthesis  and balance is adopted to adjust  the movement of the opposite forces. Dialectics thoughts also make a deep influence on the Greek sculpture. The figure is created in  an ideal aesthetic form to achieve balance. “Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus”, people could find that the weight of the upper body stretch  to one direction, Hermes’ one leg muscle and bones uptight to support the upper body, another leg is relaxed and move to keep the balance.

“...[beauty consists] in the proportions not of the elements, but of the parts, that is to say, of finger to finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and the wrist, and of these to the forearm to the upper arm, and of all the other parts to each other, as they are set forth in the Canon of Polykleitos." Galen interpreting Polykleitos' canon in his 2nd century “Placita Hippocratis et Platonis”

Proportion is the main factors for sculptors to consider.  Sculptors  put the focus on formal problems, rather than the metaphysical subjects, to reproduce  the universe around the world.  Greeks believe in the tie in the universal produce subtle balance though opposites. This thought could be found everywhere, such  as in astronomy, in economy, in politice, in philosophy, in art, and in Architecture. The subtle balance thought is adopted in maths formulas which could be used  in nature.

Greek sculpture in the classical period gets away the traditional artistic conventions which has handed down for centuries, and reproduce figures to pursue the idealized shape of people’s  body. The sculptors transform the hard and lifeless materials into intangible qualities. The figures have pose, mood and hidden meaning. Some great masterpieces make deep influence on the later artists.

51due留学教育原创版权郑重声明：原创优秀代写范文源自编辑创作，未经官方许可，网站谢绝转载。对于侵权行为，未经同意的情况下，51Due有权追究法律责任。主要业务有essay代写、assignment代写、paper代写、作业代写、论文代写服务。

51due为留学生提供最好的论文代写服务，亲们可以进入主页了解和获取更多代写范文提供论文代写服务，详情可以咨询我们的客服QQ：800020041。