Severe style

Ancient Greek sculpture is the sculpture of Ancient Greece.-Geometric:The origins of Greek sculpture have been ascribed to the wooden cult statues described by Pausanias as xoana. No such statue survives, and the descriptions of them are frustratingly vague despite the fact that some were objects...

A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief A stele ' onMouseout='HidePop("26124")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Relief">architectural relief

Relief

A relief is a sculptured artwork where a modelled form is raised, or, in a sunken-relief, lowered, from a plane from which the main elements of the composition project . Reliefs are common throughout the world, for example on the walls of monumental buildings. The frieze in the classical Corinthian...

. The style perhaps realized its greatest fulfillment in the metopes

Metope (architecture)

In classical architecture, a metope is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a building of the Doric order...

 of the Temple of Zeus

Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, built in 470-456 BC, was the ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the chief of the gods, Zeus. It was the very model of the fully-developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order...

, Olympia.

The term "severe style" was first coined by Gustav Kramer in his Uber den styl und die Herkunft der bemahlten griechischen Thongefasse (1837, Berlin) in reference to the first generation of red figure vase painters, the name has since Vagn Poulsen’s 1937 study Der strenge stil become exclusively associated with sculpture.

Dating and relative chronology

There is no firm chronology for the Severe style, the dating of early 5th century BCE sculpture is approximate and consequently its first appearance has been conjectured to be at some point between 525 and 480 BCE.The one exception to this general rule of uncertainty is the Tyrannicide group; a replacement for the bronze created by Antenor

Antenor

Antenor was an Athenian sculptor, of the latter part of the 6th century BC. He was named after the mythological figure also called Antenor. He was the creator of the joint statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, set up by the Athenians on the expulsion of Hippias. These statues were...

 in 514 to commemorate the assassins of the tyrant Hipparchus

Hipparchus

Hipparchus, the common Latinization of the Greek Hipparkhos, can mean:* Hipparchus, the ancient Greek astronomer** Hipparchic cycle, an astronomical cycle he created** Hipparchus , a lunar crater named in his honour...

 was sculpted by Kritios

Kritios

Kritios was an Athenian sculptor, probably a pupil of Antenor, working in the early 5th century BCE, whose manner is on the cusp of the Late Archaic and the Severe style of Early Classicism in Attica. He was the teacher of Myron...

 and Nesiotes and dated in an inscription of 477/6 BCE. This piece, now known only from Roman copies preserves the poses and facial features familiar from archaic art and combines it with a novel treatment of multiple viewpoints, feeling for mass, and anatomical observation that distinguishes it as one of several Athenian transitional works. Another is the Kritian boy

Kritios Boy

The marble Kritios boy or Kritian Boy belongs to the "Severe style" phase that lies between Archaic and Early Classical periods of ancient Greek sculpture; "the first beautiful nude in art", as Kenneth Clark thought, it is a precursor to the later classical sculptures of athletes...

, c. 480 BCE whose distribution of weight onto one leg, lowered right hip, and inclination of head and shoulders exceeds the formulas of the late Archaic kouroi

Kouros

A kouros is the modern term given to those representations of male youths which first appear in the Archaic period in Greece. The term kouros, meaning youth, was first proposed for what were previously thought to be depictions of Apollo by V. I...

 marks a step toward the greater naturalism and individualization of the Classical – as B. S. Ridgway puts it: no longer a type but a subject.

General characteristics

The depredations of war and the sumptuary laws of Solon

Solon

Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and elegiac poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...

 ensured that very little sculpture was practiced at Athens in the first half of the 5th century, instead we have to look to others cities to trace the development of the Severe style. We can observe the general characteristics of the period on its greatest masterpiece the Temple of Zeus

Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, built in 470-456 BC, was the ancient Greek temple in Olympia, Greece, dedicated to the chief of the gods, Zeus. It was the very model of the fully-developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order...

, Olympia, attributed to the Olympia Master. Here we find a simplicity of forms, especially in dress and the absence of decoration, a feeling of heaviness both in the gravity of the body and the “doughy” cloth of the peplos. Indeed this era sees a shift from the use of the Doric chiton

Chiton (costume)

A chiton was a form of clothing worn by men and women in Ancient Greece, from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic period . There are two forms of chiton, the Doric chiton and the later Ionic chiton. The "Doric" style was simpler and had no "sleeves," being simply pinned, sewn, or buttoned at...

 to the Ionic peplos

Peplos

A peplos is a body-length Greek garment worn by women in the years before 500 BC. The peplos is a tubular cloth, essentially, folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, so that what was the top of the tube is now at the waist and the bottom of the tube is about ankle-length. The garment is...

 whose irregular groupings and folds better express the contours of the underlying body. We can also witness on the pediments

Pediment

This article is about the architectural element. For the landform, see Pediment .A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice...

 of the temple the slight pout typical of this time where the upper lip projects a little over the lower and a volume to the eyelids, a striking departure from the fixed Archaic smile of the 6th century and suggestive perhaps of the brooding pathos also typical of the idiom. There is further experimentation with the expression of emotion on the metopes of the temple depicting the labors of Herakles, an experiment not pursued by later Classical art.

Brunilde S. Ridgway

Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway

Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, born in 1929 in Chieti , is an art historian and specialist in ancient Greek sculpture.The daughter of an Italian officer, she spent her childhood in Ethiopia, where his father is stationed. After World War II, she studied classics at the University of Messina, where she...

 identifies six traits that might serve to define the style:

Individual masters

Of the Severe artists whose names have come down to us there are in addition to Kritios and Nesiotes already mentioned also Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist; however some have questioned the scope of his contributions to mathematics and natural philosophy...

, Calamis and most notably Myron

Myron

Myron of working circa 480-440 BC, was an Athenian sculptor from the mid-fifth century BC. He was born in Eleutherae on the borders of Boeotia and Attica. According to Pliny's Natural History, Ageladas of Argos was his teacher....

. The latter, a native of Eleutherai, was a late practitioner of the style active in the 450s and 440s and the author of two identifiable sculptures that have survived in copies: his Discobolus

Discobolus

The Discobolus of Myron is a famous lost Greek bronze original that was completed towards the end of the Severe period, circa 460-450 BC. It is known through numerous Roman copies, both full-scale ones in marble, such as the first to be recovered, the Palombara Discopolus, or smaller scaled...

 and the Athena Marsyas group. Both seemingly original in composition, these works capture several of the chief characteristics of the style in its feeling for the dramatic moment, its rhythm and balance of masses, and the embodiment of feeling through the pregnant gesture.

Why this naturalizing trend should emerge in early 5th Century Greek art has been a matter of much scholarly speculation. Renate Thomas summarizes the contending views thus: The significance of the Late Archaic period remains unclear. Is it already a response to the awakening sense of personal value, which will then be held back during the Severe Style through a self-imposed discipline (Schefold), or has there developed, since the Late Archaic period, a new and freer spirit, which, however, becomes clearly visible only in the Severe or even in the Classical style (G. v. Lucken, E. Langlotz, B. Schweitzer)? Did the “Discovery of the Mind” in the sixth century produce two different effect (Schachermeyr), one of which produces new sets of laws through reflection upon traditional norms? Or does only the strong freedom of movement in the figurative art of the Late Archaic period, the self-confident recognition of personal individuality, go back to a change in the sixth century, while the causes of the “purified world of forms” of the Severe Style are others?

List of selected works

Kritios Boy Kritios Boy The marble Kritios boy or Kritian Boy belongs to the "Severe style" phase that lies between Archaic and Early Classical periods of ancient Greek sculpture; "the first beautiful nude in art", as Kenneth Clark thought, it is a precursor to the later classical sculptures of athletes...  c.490-80 (Athens 3938) Blonde Boy Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis The so called Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis in Athens is the head of a lost marble statue of a young man of ca 480 BC. It can be seen in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece . The head and part of the pelvis were found in 1923 northeast of the museum site on the Acropolis...  c.480 (Athens 689) Euthydikos Kore Pediment of the Temple of Aphaea Temple of Aphaea The Temple of Aphaia is located within a sanctuary complex dedicated to the goddess Aphaia on the Greek island of Aigina, which lies in the Saronic Gulf... , Aegina Metopes of temple E at Seinus Dodona Zeus Motya charioteer Guistiniani Hestia Bronze Head c.460 (Athens 6590) Bronze athlete c.470 (Mt Holyoke Coll. BOI.I.1926) Bronze athlete holding ball c.460 (Berlin misc.8089)

Lemnian Athena Lemnian Athena The Lemnian Athena or Athena Lemnia, was a classical Greek statue of the goddess Athena. According to Pausanias , the original bronze was created by Phidias circa 450-440 BCE, for Athenians living on Lemnos to dedicate on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.It is unclear whether any copies remain... Mourning Athena Mourning Athena Mourning Athena is a Greek relief sculpture dating circa c450 BC. It is one of the first Greek statues to portray human emotion as a significant part of the subject. In this relief, the goddess Athena seems tired and mournful... Zeus Ganymede group Diskobolos Athena Giustiniani Athena Giustiniani The Parian marble Athena Giustiniani or Giustiniani Minerva is an Antonine Roman marble copy of a Greek sculpture of Pallas Athena, of the late fifth-early fourth century BCE.... Charioteer of Delphi Charioteer of Delphi The Charioteer of Delphi, also known as Heniokhos , is one of the best-known statues surviving from Ancient Greece, and is considered one of the finest examples of ancient bronze statues. The life-size statue of a chariot driver was found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi... Taranto goddess Head of Athena from Aegina c.460-50 (Paris 3109) "Leonidas" c.475 (Athens 3613) Bronze Poseidon from Kreusis c.460 (Athens Br. 11761) Bronze head from Porticello c.450 (Reggio Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia The Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia , Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Reggio Calabria or Palazzo Piacentini is an Italian archaeological museum in Reggio Calabria with an archaeological collection from sites in Magna Grecia.Initially formed with a nucleus of material ceded from... )

Tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture) A sculptural group of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton is well-known in the ancient world from two major versions and Roman copies.-First version:... , Cape Artemision Zeus Athena and Marsyas group, Temple of Zeus Olympia, Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo The Choiseul-Gouffier Apollo is a lifesize marble kouros formerly in the collection of the comte Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier , member of the académie française and French ambassador to the Sublime Porte from 1784 until the fall of the monarchy. It is now conserved in the... Riace bronzes, Omphalos Apollo Dove Stele, Borgia stele c.470 (Naples 98) Pharsalos stele c.470-60 (Paris 701)

Ludovisi Throne Ludovisi Throne The Ludovisi Throne is an ancient sculpted block of white marble hollowed at the back and carved with bas-reliefs on the three outer faces. Its authenticity is debated; the majority, who accept it, place it as Western Greek, from Magna Graecia, and date it–; from the Severe style it manifests,... Kassel Apollo Parthenon metopes Chatsworth Head Chatsworth Head The Chatsworth Head is a slightly over-life-size bronze head dating to around 460 BC. It was originally part of a complete statue, probably one of Apollo, made up of various sections produced separately by lost-wax casting then joined into one whole - a leg from the same sculpture is in the... Tiber Apollo (copy) orig. c.450 (Rome Terme 608) Eros Soranzo (copy) orig. c. 460 (St. Petersberg 85) Perseus head (copy) Rome Conservatori Heracles (copy) orig. c.450-40 (Oxford 1928) Ludovisi peplophoros (copy) orig. c. 470-60 (Rome Terme 8577) "Aspasia" (copy) orig. c.460-50 (Berlin (E) K.166+167:605)