Greek Art

Összefoglaló

The birth of the occidental concept of man.

The 18th century`s Neoclassicist movement, with its white marble sculptures inspired by the art of the ancient world, has helped Greek art to remain vivid in our memories even today. But the reality of ancient art was entirely different, as surfaces were in fact much more brut. As author Michael Siebler points out, recent findings have revealed that the seemingly perfect bodies of statues and sculptures were very often painted in flamboyant colors and ornaments. Thus ancient Greek art combined a high level of classical identity with an equal amount of sensuality. Despite being viewed in a new light, the beauty of the works of art persists.

Including detailed analyses of the following works: Alexander-sarcophagus; Lysippos: Apoxyomenos; Exekias: Amphora; Myron: Diskobol; Apoll from Belvedere; Laocoon; Nike from Samothrake; the altar from Pergamon, now in Berlin; the Alexander-mosaic in Naples; Harmodios and Aristogeiton, in Naples; Polyklet: Doryphoros; sculptures from the Alphaia-temple, now in Munich; Andokides: Amphora; Ptolemaier-Cameo in Vienna; Praxiteles: Hermes; Apollo from the Zeus-temple in Olympia; numerous sculptures in Athens; Euphronios: Krater, now in New York; some Elgin Marbles in London; the warrior from Riace, now in Reggio.

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Genre Series features:
* a detailed introduction with approximately 35 photographs, plus a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) that took place during the time period
* a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation of the work and brief biography of the artist as well as additional information such as a reference work, portrait of the artist, and/or citations

About the editor:
Norbert Wolf studied art history, linguistics, and medieval studies at the universities of Regensburg and Munich. He took his doctorate in art history in 1983. In 1992 he wrote his professorial thesis in Munich on carved 14th-century retables. Subsequently he held visiting professorships in Marburg, Frankfurt a.M., Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg-Erlangen, and Innsbruck. He has written extensively on art history, including the many titles for TASCHEN, such as Diego Velázquez, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Caspar David Friedrich, Expressionism, Romanesque, Landscape Painting.

About the author:
Michael Siebler studied classical archaeology and earned his doctoral degree through his study of the Roman Mars Ultor. He has taken part in several excavations, for example at Olympia, and after receiving his doctorate he initially worked in the German Archaeological Institute in Damascus. Subsequently he was a research associate at the Institute for Classical Archaeology at Mainz University and then a long-standing editor of the feature pages of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He currently works as a freelance writer, and since 1990 has published various works on Troy and Olympia.