Late Classical and Hellenistic Sculpture


	Late Classical and Hellenistic Sculpture

Hellenistic sculptors departed from the heroic themes of classical art. They extended the range of subject matter and their works of art are often more realistic than ideal. Instead of emphasizing reason and order, as classical sculptors often did, they depicted emotions such as pain or eroticism. The nude female statue now appeared as well. So did new subjects -- such as ugly old woman, sentimental children, intoxicated satyrs and beggars, and ethnic peoples who inhabited the much more cosmopolitan Hellenistic world.

Dying Gaul
about 230-220 BCE
Roman marble copy after a bronze original, approximately 36" high

Old Market Woman
about 150-100 BCE
marble, approximately 49" high

Boy Removing Thorn

Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes
Laocoön
early first century
marble, 7'10½" high
The sculptural group of Laocoön and his Sons, discovered in the early 16th century, depicts an event in the Trojan war. Laocoön, who attempted to warn his fellow Trojans against bringing the wooden horse into Troy, was attacked by sea serpents sent by the gods who sided with the Greeks. The sculptors depicts the agony of the Trojan priest and his sons. Hellenistic works like these are often called "Baroque" and were influential on seventeenth Baroque sculptors like Bernini (a subject for Humanities 2).

All images marked ^MAS were photographed on location by Mary Ann Sullivan. All other images were scanned from other sources or downloaded from the World Wide Web; they are posted on this password-protected site for educational purposes, at Bluffton College only, under the "fair use" clause of U.S. copyright law.

Page maintained by Gerald W. Schlabach, gws@bluffton.edu. Last updated: 10/20/97.

	Dying Gaul about 230-220 BCE Roman marble copy after a bronze original, approximately 36" high
	Old Market Woman about 150-100 BCE marble, approximately 49" high
	Boy Removing Thorn
	Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes Laocoön early first century marble, 7'10½" high The sculptural group of Laocoön and his Sons, discovered in the early 16th century, depicts an event in the Trojan war. Laocoön, who attempted to warn his fellow Trojans against bringing the wooden horse into Troy, was attacked by sea serpents sent by the gods who sided with the Greeks. The sculptors depicts the agony of the Trojan priest and his sons. Hellenistic works like these are often called "Baroque" and were influential on seventeenth Baroque sculptors like Bernini (a subject for Humanities 2).