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Athenian Sculpture: In art the terra-cotta figurines from Tanagra and Athenian sculpture, academically faithful to the Praxitelean style, avoid the exaggerated realism and baroque theatricality that is to be found in the schools of Pergamum and even Rhodes. In history, while the Alexandrians chronicled the careers of Alexander and his successors, Phylar-chus of Athens took as his subject the contemporary resistance of Greece to Macedonian domination; a whole school, in which the most prominent figure is Philochorus (died about 260 B.C.), did research on local Athenian antiquities.
The same diffusion of a high standard of craftsmanship is shown in the visual arts. Variations of style in sculpture were reduced to a few main regional schools (Athens, Aegina, Argos); in Vase painting, standardization of style was promoted by the predominance of Athenian products. The art of the 5th century B.C. retained the freedom and naturalism of archaic art, but subordinated them to the principle of rational harmony, rooted in the civic consciousness of Greek culture.
These significant pti poses have generally been served by sculpture ( considerable size, and there is no doubt that largi ness promotes an effect of impressiveness i sculpture as it does in architecture. This i borne out by the observation that most sculptur which has been made merely to embellish or t delight is definitely under life-size or even of th statuette category. A notable exception to thi rule is found in fountain sculpture from the 16t! century on, where the architectural or arborea setting often requires commensurate scale in tb sculpture. |
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