sculpture

Ima Student

Dr. Cecile de Rocher

HUMN 1201

April 16, 2021

My Favorite Old Guys

The two pieces that I've chosen to discuss are Praxiteles's Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus (figure 3.19) and Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (figure 4.1) in Cunningham, Reich, and Fincher-Rathus's Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. These are both freestanding marble sculptures of characters from Greek and Roman mythology. Hermes was carved in ancient Greece, 330-270 BCE, while the sculpture of Aeneas comes from 1618, in Italy's Baroque period.

We learned in class that the Greeks changed their aesthetics over time, so that the rigid, forward stance of the kouroi disappeared and was replaced by a new posture known as contraposto. The highly stylized gave way to the representational, with a new interest in the human anatomy. Praxiteles's Hermes shows an even newer approach as the messenger god stands with weight on one leg, pelvis slightly tilted, and arm raised in what the textbook describes as an "S curve" (113) The textbook caption notes that although Hermes's arm is broken off, the god was probably holding a bunch of grapes that his baby brother Dionysus wants (113). We also learned in the PowerPoint that ancient Greek and Roman statues were painted. Because the colors are long gone, we assume that what remains is what the original effect was--white marble. To add color and replace the broken limbs is to see a different piece of art altogether. Hermes's facial expression shows amusement and affection. The textbook authors explain that this artwork comes from the Late Classical period, which "emphasized emotion" and moved from representational, idealized anatomy to "long, lean proportions" (113). I like that even in its diminished state, this sculpture shows a knowledge and reverence for the human figure and psyche.

Sixteen centuries after Praxiteles came Bernini, who like the Greeks of the Late Classical period, showed people in action. In this sculpture, Bernini depicts Aeneas escaping with his aged father Anchises and his son Ascanius (who is not shown in this detail) from the final chaos of Troy. The Trojan refugee trio are on their way to found Rome, as depicted by Vergil in the Roman epic the Aeneid, which we learned about in the PowerPoint. Bernini knew the work of Praxiteles, as did anyone of the Baroque period who revered the ancient Greeks. Aeneas shows the steady determination of the Trojan prince, who is a semi-divine epic hero born to the goddess Venus and the mortal man Anchises. But Venus's lover is now aged and lame, carried by the son that he and she made together decades previous. Bernini captures the sagging skin and shrunken muscles of the old man, and also depicts Aeneas as young and strong. The textbook explains that Aeneas is "the embodiment of Roman virtues," such as gravity, piety, dignity, and courage (123). One interesting distinction from Praxiteles's work is that Bernini's statue was never painted. This sculpture of Anchises reminds me of my own father, who now at age 77 sports a sagging brow and sunken cheeks, also.

The use of stone to show people in motion is a beautiful irony, and the masterful Bernini was inspired by Greeks such as Praxiteles, who pre-dates him by 1600 years. For reasons that I have probably not examined, I prefer the representational to the stylistic. This makes little sense as I am a product of the twentieth century, when the representational was often rejected in favor of experimental art. I may have been born too late. (575 words)

Work Cited

Cunningham, Lawrence S. et al. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. 9th edition. Vol 1. Cengage, 2018.