2 diana of versailles statue in the louvre.
Why use marble for greek sculpture.
Venus de milo c 130 100 bce marble statue musee du louvre.
This bust of the greek goddess artemis is a copy of an original greek work.
It is currently displayed at louvre and is among the most celebrated original statues in the world.
Modern scholarship identifies three major stages in monumental sculpture in bronze and stone.
In ancient greece and rome people used marble especially white marble to make statues.
It is soft making it easy to sculpt and when it is fine grained it has uniform properties in all directions.
It was created between 200 and 190 b c.
Note use of skirt tree stump and stag for support of the body and lower arm and the pinning of the upper arm to the arrows in the quiver forming several closed loops that are thus stronger.
The other favoured material in greek sculpture was bronze.
Not to honor the greek goddess nike.
Some of the world s most famous sculptures have been produced from marble.
The archaic from about 650 to 480 bc classical 480 323 and hellenistic.
These properties make it a beautiful stone for producing sculptures.
Elgin marbles collection of ancient greek sculptures and architectural details in the british museum london where they are now called the parthenon sculptures.
The sculpture of ancient greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient greek art as with the exception of painted ancient greek pottery almost no ancient greek painting survives.
Ancient roman sculptors are predominantly known for two types of marble sculptures.
Portraits or busts and marble copies of greek bronzes.
Probably the most popular material used in sculpture marble s translucency and durability has made it the medium of choice for all the greatest sculptors including greek artists like phidias myron polykleitos and praxiteles as well as their successors donatello.
See pergamene school of greek sculpture.
They cut colored marble in patterns to make hard floors that would last a long time.
The objects were removed from the parthenon at athens and from other ancient buildings and shipped to england by arrangement of thomas bruce 7th lord elgin who was british.
Sulphur can mix with limestone to make yellow marble.
A 200 b c marble sculpture depicting the greek goddess nike the winged victory of samothrace is considered today as the greatest masterpiece of hellenistic sculpture.
Unfortunately this material was always in demand for re use in later periods whereas broken marble is not much use to anyone and so marble sculpture has better survived for posterity.
Unlike bronze sculpture this statue is not hollow.
During the republican era artists carved realistic portraits of people including political leaders military officials and historians from the chest or neck up known as busts these life sized works are celebrated for their impressively.
At all periods there were great numbers.