Greek_Art

Greek Art Ancient Greek Art The art of the ancient Greeks and Romans is called classical art. This name is used also to describe later periods in which artists looked for their inspiration to this ancient style. The Romans learned sculpture and painting largely from the Greeks and helped to transmit Greek art to later ages. Classical art owes its lasting influence to its simplicity and reasonableness, its humanity, and its sheer beauty. The first and greatest period of classical art began in Greece about the middle of the 5th centuryBC. By that time Greek sculptors had solved many of the problems that faced artists in the early archaic period. They had learned to represent the human form naturally and easily, in action or at rest. They were interested chiefly in portraying gods, however. They thought of their gods as people, but grander and more beautiful than any human being. They tried, therefore, to portray ideal beauty rather than any particular person. Their best sculptures achieved almost godlike perfection in their calm, ordered beauty. The Greeks had plenty of beautiful marble and used it freely for temples as well as for their sculpture They were not satisfied with its cold whiteness, however, and bc, greek, statue, great, phidias, century, beautiful, figures, sculpture, known, athena, work, sculptures, parthenon, greeks, athens, zeus, works, temple, gods, beauty, about, ancient, acropolis, statues, sculptor, preserved, period, pericles, pediment, out, now, museum, made, human