5L{/h.h[Ü{ 5L{/Ü{ ÇIwhí9w Ç a . .
a w !5 D )%+))+ ./ I Ç L Dw 1/+%+7+2)2 ({ %+, !b2*3***
[ 5 Ç D L L D a !5 w $ D a % ./ h Ç
{ • Ç ()*+ )%+ , • Ç $ - • Ç D a 9 ()/+ ))+ ./9, • a ( , . • a / • L • Ç I ( , Ç h • Ç 1*23 . h 9 I a! " • ! D w 4 h - • 5 $ 5 6 o h - Ç h Ç .
0≤•≥•Æ¥•§ ¢π ¥®• "≤©¥©≥® -µ≥•µ≠ ©Æ £Ø¨¨°¢Ø≤°¥©ØÆ ∑©¥® "•Æ§©ßØ !≤¥ '°¨¨•≤π
5L{/h.h[Ü{ 5L{/Ü{ ÇIwhí9w Ç a . .
• 9 - 6 :[ < • L % ./9 D - . a ! D%& ' ! ( !!%! • . $ 5$ 4 = • / • t 5 • ! D w D L % ./9 5 5 ! • { I $ • ( a , < D • Ç I 5 ! Ç ù í í I = ! < Ç ù ! I • L I < a < - Ç) 5 *% ) .%) a • Ç a < 5 + w • . [ 17/1 • Ç . a / Ç . 1/ 4 Ç A Ç a
D!% • . / 9 ! / A W < C = C C C C A C A
0≤•≥•Æ¥•§ ¢π ¥®• "≤©¥©≥® -µ≥•µ≠ ©Æ £Ø¨¨°¢Ø≤°¥©ØÆ ∑©¥® "•Æ§©ßØ !≤¥ '°¨¨•≤π
[KOUROI ] The Male Body Beautiful
Painted gypsum kouros statuette The Strangford Apollo, Probably Cypriot, about 560 BC, parian marble statue of a boy from Naukratis, Egypt Said to be from Anaphe, GR 1888,1006.1 (Sculpture B438) Cyclades, Greece, about 490 BC GR 1864.0220.1 (Sculpture B475)
Label text: Kouroi The Greek male standing nude figure known as a kouros had a very long life in the artistic development of the male body. The earliest examples were borrowed from Egyptian figure types and date to around 600 BC. The stiff and formulaically composed arrangement of head, torso and limbs served as a vehicle for any identity that could be imposed upon it. Conventionally called an Apollo, the type may sometimes represent that god but not always. Many kouroi were used as grave markers, serving as ideal representations of the deceased. An inscription would often make the identity person-specific. These two representations were carved some seventy years apart and, together, they show the development of the nude male body and its progressive tendency to greater realism. Common to both is the schematic rendering of elements, including the frontal aspect. Long hair is also a feature of both and, in the case of the later example, it is braided and then wrapped around the head. Each face has a rather blank expression. The exaggerated smile of the earlier figure has subsided in the lips of the later sculpture. The method of rendering the eyes in the later kouros is different from and more naturalistic than the almond shaped appliqués of the earlier. This last must have relied on paint for greater definition. It may also have had a painted moustache. The later kouros has lost the arms and lower legs. According to the pattern of the kouros, however, we should expect the arms to be held by the sides, while the missing feet would be placed with one forward and the other back. The weight of the figure appeared to be shared by both feet in contrast with the proto-type figures of Egypt, where the weight rested on the back foot.
Excellence and Honour · In the 6th century BCE, the idea of manly virtue was captured in the statue type known as a kouros. This idealised male figure sought to demonstrate excellence and honour, and these values remained associated with male sculpture throughout the 5th century BCE and beyond. · The Greek kouros was a mannequin composed to represent the essential elements of ideal manhood. These included strong, even features; long, groomed hair; broad shoulders; developed biceps and pectoral muscles; wasp waist; flat stomach; a clear division of torso and pelvis, and powerful buttocks and thighs. · The slight smile that is present on the face of the kouros represents a Greek sense of pride. The figure is a symbol of arete, the Greek idea of virtue and excellence, and the smile transforms the otherwise formulaic statue into an expression of a central Greek ideal.
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery
[KOUROI ] The Male Body Beautiful
Anatomical changes • Kouroi were first carved in the late 8th century BCE in the Cycladic Islands and remained one of the major types of Greek statuary until the early 5th century BCE. · The Greek artists introduced contrapposto by evenly distributing the weight of the figure as though in the act of walking. Thus the rectangular pillar of stone that is found on the back of Egyptian statues was able to be eliminated. · Although the kouros may look stiff and unnatural to us, it exemplifies two important aspects of Greek Archaic art – an interest in lifelike vitality and a concern with design. · Greek sculptors, guided by their desire to imitate nature as closely as possible, constantly attempted to perfect the modelling of muscles and bone structure within the strict conventions of the kouros figure. · Early kouroi are highly structured, with linear musculature etched into the surface of the body, while later examples show a more three-dimensional rendering of the body and a better understanding of anatomy. · In the earlier kouros, geometric, almost abstract forms dominate, and complex anatomical details, such as the chest muscles and pelvic arch, are rendered in symmetrical patterns. · As the 6th century BCE drew to a close, the later kouroi featured an increasing naturalism, as the hard angular forms of the earlier example gave way to softer more realistic lines. These developments coincide with the beginnings of democracy in Athens, which invested freeborn male citizens a share in political self-determination. · Two predominant features of the kouroi persevered despite evolution towards a more naturalistic treatment: the stylised hair and the unchanging position of the hip, in spite of the advancement of the left leg.
Apollo • The kouros was a template onto which various identities could be imposed. It could be used as a grave marker symbolically representing the deceased; it could represent the god Apollo; it could be an offering to the gods; or it could have been awarded as a trophy. · Due to many kouroi being found in temples to the god Apollo it is believed that they are representations of Apollo, and offerings to the god. · The god Apollo was associated with youth, prophecy, archery, healing, music and the sun. · His most important daily task was harnessing his chariot and driving the sun across the sky.
Glossary · Arete – virtue, excellence, can also mean goodness. Arete understood as ‘excellence’ is tied to the end, goal, or purpose of something · BCE – Before Common Era. A secular designation, utilising the universally recognised Christian calendar; refers to the time period before the assumed year of Jesus’ birth · Contrapposto – an asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure in which the line of the arms and shoulders contrasts with, while balancing, those of the hips and the legs · Kouros – a young man. The plural of kouros is kouroi
The content for these fact sheets was primarily taken from ‘The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece’ (Jenkins, 2012) and ‘The Greek Body ’ (Jenkins and Turner, 2009). For further reading a reference sheet is available on request.
Presented by the British Museum and Bendigo Art Gallery in collaboration
Aphrodite and the [BRONZE FIGURE OF APHRODITE ] Female Body
Bronze figure of Aphrodite Greek, 200 –100 BC, said to be from near Patras, in mainland Greece GR 1865,0711.1 (Bronze 282)
Label text: Bathing beauty The theme of Aphrodite preparing for her bath was developed in the later Greek period to include a variety of poses. This bronze is one of the largest and finest of all versions of a popular type of Aphrodite, where she leans over and lifts her left foot to remove her sandal. The goddess, poised on one foot, seems to have been captured in a fleeting moment observed from life. The eyes are inlaid with silver.
Aphrodite: goddess of love • Female characters in myth and literature were often portrayed as strong personalities who acted in rebellious and shocking ways. Goddesses were powerful forces that could be nurturing, virginal, seductive, or a combination of the same. • Goddesses such as Aphrodite mediated between the divine and mortal worlds. • Aphrodite is one of the Twelve Olympian gods; she is the goddess of love and beauty and the mother of Eros. In Roman mythology Eros is known as Cupid. • Some traditions state that Aphrodite sprang from the aphros of the sea. • Aphrodite is the personification of the generative powers of nature and the mother of all living beings. • Aphrodite was the only goddess to be regularly shown nude in Greek art. • In Roman mythology Aphrodite is known as Venus.
Women in Ancient Greece · Female nudity was never a social norm as it was for men. In art it was restricted to certain contexts: religion, rape scenes and images of the sex industry. · This is reflective of the lesser position of women in ancient Greece. During the 6th to 4th centuries BCE women were excluded from property ownership, politics, law and war. · Women did however, hold important public offices as priestesses, and within the family home they were not only wives and mothers, but also household managers. · Participation in public life was restricted to religious festivals and family funerals (see the terracotta figure of a woman Out and About ). · Women were perceived as closer to animals, in that they were wild and needed to be tamed; their bodies were seen as problematic and so they were made to cover up. · It was thought to be dangerous to a woman’s health if she remained childless too long , as her womb was liable to ‘wander’ through her body, causing her to become physically ill and psy chologically disturbed; the root of the English word ‘hysterical’ is usteria, Greek for womb. The best cure was for the young woman to marry so that she could become sexually active as soon as possible. Girls in ancient Athens were married soon after puberty.
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery
Aphrodite and the [BRONZE FIGURE OF APHRODITE ] Female Body
· In contrast to Athens, the unusual, highly militaristic Greek society of Sparta encouraged girls and younger women to participate in outdoor life and physical activity so that they would bear strong sons to be trained as warriors (see the bronze figure Athletic Women ).
Women in ancient art · While the male naked body was often desexualised in artistic representation, mostly through the minimising of genitals, female nudity was almost always highly sexualised, since a wom an’s sexuality was linked to her fertility. · The limited occasions for female nudity inspired sculptors to become inventive in their depiction of the female form. Drapery could be used to erotically suggest the body underneath. See- through material clung to the feminine form emphasising the woman’s shoulder, breast, abdomen, thighs and knees. The drape of the material linked one erogenous zone with the next, transforming the marble into warm, living flesh and flowing cloth. · The most famous female nude from antiquity was the Aphrodite marble carved around 360 BCE by Praxiteles, which stood at the goddess’s temple in Knidos on the coast of western Turkey. This statue showed the powerful goddess portrayed as a beautiful woman. The statue represented absolute, ideal and divine beauty and it was designed to inspire religious awe as well as arouse sexual desire. · It is said that a young man of Knidos fell so madly in love with the statue that he hid in the temple and was locked in for a night of passion. The light of dawn revealed both him and the stain his lovemaking had left upon the goddess’s thigh. Shamed by the offence he had committed, the culprit threw himself from a cliff into the sea. · The depiction of women bathing is linked to the notion of the ‘forbidden gaze’ . By showing a woman undertaking a private task, such as undressing or bathing, the artist is exploiting the male viewer’s natural curiosity and inviting him to become a voyeur.
Glossary • Aphros – foam · BCE – Before Common Era. A secular designation, utilising the universally recognised Christian calendar; refers to the time period before the assumed year of Jesus’ birth • Voyeur – somebody who gains pleasure from watching, especially secretly, other people’s bodies or the sexual acts in which they participate
The content for these fact sheets was primarily taken from ‘The body beautiful in Ancient Greece’ (Jenkins, 2012) and ‘The Greek Body’ (Jenkins and Turner, 2009). For further reading a reference sheet is available on request.
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery
Aphrodite and the [MARBLE FIGURINE OF A WOMAN ] Female Body
Marble figurine of a woman, Late Spedos type Greek, made in the Cyclades, about 2600 –2400 BC GR 1863,0213.1 (Sculpture A17)
Label text: Abstract Bodies This marble figurine of a woman is typical of the art of the Cycladic islands, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. The body has been pared down to a simplified scheme, achieved by abrasion at a time before copper or bronze tools were regularly used. The details were originally painted. These refined representations of the body seem to mark the beginnings of the great Greek tradition of marble-working. They are generally found in tombs, made not for exhibition but to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.
Style · Cycladic art is seen as a link between ‘prehistoric’ and ‘western’ art. · In later Greek society female nakedness was never a social norm. In Classical art female nudity was restricted to certain contexts: religious fertility symbols, rape scenes, and images of the sex industry. · Cycladic figurines usually reduced the female body to the most basic elements. Only the most prominent body features were represented – the arms folded across the torso (always the right over left), oval head tilted back; the only sculpted features were the nose, the breasts, pubic area, fingers and toes. · The simple, abstract forms of the Cyclades inspired artists of the 20th century, including Picasso. · These figurines were originally enlivened with painted detail. Colour was used to highlight details such as hair and facial features. Black and blue were normally used to define or emphasise anatomical details of the head and body, such as eyebrows, hair and the pubic triangle. Red was used to emphasise carved details and depict ornaments (necklaces, bracelets), power or status attributes (crowns) and various decorative motifs on the face and body. Ears, mouth and nostrils were not usually painted.
Original meanings · The figures have been variously interpreted as representations of the deceased, substitute concubines, servants, ancestors or even substitutes for human sacrifices. · The feet of the figurines always point downwards and therefore they cannot stand up on their own. It is believed that the figures were made to lie down, perhaps in graves to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. However, their meaning and function are still very much mysteries. They have been found in a variety of contexts in association with different objects, and their distribution in cemeteries and settlements is very uneven. · The overwhelming bias of Cycladic art towards female representations (only four to five percent are male) could also explain them as symbols of a mother-goddess, associated with fertility and rebirth, conductors of souls, good luck symbols, divine nurses or even worshippers.
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery Aphrodite and the [MARBLE FIGURINE OF A WOMAN ] Female Body
· The nudity of the figurines and the emphatic rendering of the breasts and pubic triangle refer directly to the idea of fertility. This impression is reinforced by some examples that have a swollen abdomen, which may be indicative of pregnancy. · Diversity in elements such as size, decoration and context may relate to the need for the figurines to adhere to a particular type for various rituals. The diversity in features could also relate to social factors, such as the availability of figurines, or their size and decoration as reflecting social indicators of their owner such as age, lineage and status.
Glossary · Cycladic – of Cyclades. The Cyclades is a group of islands in the south-western Aegean Sea
The content for these fact sheets was primarily taken from ‘The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece’ (Jenkins, 2012) and ‘The Greek Body’ (Jenkins and Turner, 2009). For further reading a reference sheet is available on request.
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery [BRONZE STATUETTE OF ZEUS ] The Divine Body
Bronze statuette of Zeus Roman period, 1st –2nd century AD, said to be from Hungary GR 1865,0103.36 (Bronze 909)
Label text: Ruler of the gods This magnificent statuette splendidly represents the majesty of Zeus, ruler of the gods on Mount Olympos and lord of the sky. He holds a sceptre and a thunderbolt, showing his control over gods and mortals, and his destructive power. The statuette is similar to the colossal gold and ivory statue of Zeus in his temple at Olympia. Made by the famous sculptor Pheidias, this reached to over 13 metres high. One of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, it symbolised the awesome presence of the god at his sanctuary site.
Style · Zeus, the father of the gods stares out impressively, one hand firmly holding his sceptre , the other his thunderbolt, symbols of his majesty and power. · The face of this statuette was inspiration for the winner’s medal for the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, which is also featured in the exhibition. · The ancient Greek interest in portraying human character focused on the face. Greek artists developed the idea of portraiture to create informative images of its cultural heroes.
Majestic Zeus · The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses watched over them. The gods were imagined just like mortals as they experienced human emotions and actions despite their immortality and supernatural powers. · The poet Homer described a family of gods living on Mount Olympus as early as the 8th century BCE . · The family of gods and goddesses lived in a cloud palace above Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. The gods looked down to watch what the people were doing, and from time to time, interfered. · Zeus was the king of the gods. He threw thunderbolts to punish anyone who disobeyed him. His brother Poseidon was god of the sea, and another brother Hades ruled the underworld. · Zeus was also able to control the weather. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod called him the ‘cloud - gatherer’ and the ‘thunderer’. The ancient Greeks believed that when lightning struck earth it was a sign of Zeus being present. · One of the Greek’s most impor tant festivals was the Olympic Games, which was held every four years in honour of Zeus. The games acted to unify all of the Greek city-states, spanning across Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Sicily.
Greek temples · The Temple of Zeus was created and completed in 456 BCE at Olympia (a model of Olympia can be seen in the exhibition), the site of the original Olympic Games. It was similar to the Parthenon in Athens, built on a raised rectangular pattern and the gently-peaked roof was supported by columns. The triangles, or pediments , created by the sloped roof at the ends of the building were
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery
[BRONZE STATUETTE OF ZEUS ] The Divine Body
filled with sculpture. Under the pediments were more sculptures, depicting the twelve labours of Herakles. · The primary purpose of a Greek temple was to house a cult statue, which represented the divine presence of that god. The statue was the focus of worship. · Cult statues were made by the best sculptors of the day and were considered great works of art. They were often made on a colossal scale to inspire awe and wonder in worshippers, who sought to appease their frequently fickle deities with prayer, sacrifice and gifts.
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World · This Roman period bronze statuette was influenced by the colossal gold and ivory statue of Zeus in his sanctuary at Olympia. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, it stood at 12 metres tall and 7 metres wide. · The sculptor chosen was Phidias, who had also made a 12 metre high statue of Athena for the Parthenon in Athens. He began the sculpture in 432 BCE and it took 12 years to complete. · The figure of Zeus was seated on an elaborate throne and his head nearly touched the ceiling. These proportions were very effective in conveying Zeus’ size and power. By filling nearly all of the available space the statue appeared even larger than it really was. · The colossal figure ’s skin was composed of ivory, while the beard, hair and robe were made of gold. The throne was made of gold, ebony, ivory and inlaid with precious stones. · To maintain the ivory the statue was constantly treated with olive oil. · Emperor Constantine decreed that all gold was to be stripped from pagan shrines after he converted to Christianity in the early 4th century CE and this likely included the Olympia Zeus. · In 392 CE Emperor Theodosius I of Rome, a Christian who saw the games as a pagan rite, abolished the Olympics. The temple and it is also believed, the statue, burnt down in 425 CE.
Glossary · BCE – Before Common Era. A secular designation, utilising the universally recognised Christian calendar; refers to the time period before the assumed year of Jesus’ birth · CE – Common Era is the secular term for the period coinciding with the Christian era since the assumed year of Jesus’ birth. It is the alternate naming of the traditional calendar era AD ( annō Domini, Latin, literally ‘in the year of the Lord’) · Colossal – extremely large or great · Cult – a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object · Olympus – the modern English spelling of the original Greek ‘Olympos ’ · Pediment – the triangular upper section of the facade of a classical building · Pagan – people who observe a polytheistic (many gods) religion · Sceptre – an ornamented staff carried by rulers on ceremonial occasions as a symbol of power
The content for these fact sheets was primarily taken from ‘The body beautiful in Ancient Greece’ (Jenkins, 2012) and ‘The Greek Body’ (Jenkins and Turner, 2009). For further reading a reference sheet is available on request.
Presented by the British Museum in collaboration with Bendigo Art Gallery