Alright so am I the only one who is mind blown by how realistic Greek sculptors are? To think of the time and effort it took to sculpt such fluid and natural looking figures out of the likes of marble and bronze is beyond me. That being said, the men and women featured in Greek architecture are not entirely “realistic” in that they are very much idealistic representations of the human form in keeping with the canon of what we would consider perfect bodies despite the recent dad bod fad circulating the internet in 2015.
Later Greek art distinguished itself from the precedence and canon of art in its departure from predominantly figurative and styled representations of the human body. The progression was not without reluctance. Similarly to preceding civilization’s depictions of the human form, figures stood erect and linear as in the case of the recurring contrapposto positioning of the body. There are exceptions to the departure from figurative representations and other canonical design decisions as in the case of certain depictions of the gods. Athena in the Parthenon below is highly stylized and reminiscent of Egyptian work, which it very well may have been influenced by historically
speaking. As you can see, various design choices speak to the influence that Athena had in their culture and there is extensive symbolism indicating her status as the goddess of wisdom as well as victory. This statue obviously celebrates Greek war efforts as seen in the inclusion of the Lapiths’ contention with centaurs on her sandals which is also a feature of the Parthenon featured on elsewhere pediments along the outside of the metopes above the doric columns. The figurative representation is highly adorned being made predominantly of gold and ivory, two very precious and exotic resources even today. The lapith vs centaurs are seen in the image below. 