Essay

MLA CITED FROM TEXT THE BOOK

(Roberts 91)

Roberts, Ann S., David Simon, Frima Hofrichter, Penelope Davies, Joseph Jacobs. Janson's Basic History of Western Art, 9th Edition. Pearson, 20141218. VitalBook file.

Here is one of the status I found in my text book. Pag 91

Zeus or Poseidon. ca. 460–450 bce. Bronze, height 6′10″ (2.08 m). National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Ministry of Culture Archaeological Receipts Fund. 15161:

Materials and Techniques The Indirect Lost-Wax Process

THE ZEUS (fig. 5.13) is one of the earliest surviving Greek statues made by the indirect lost-wax process. This technique enables sculptors to create spatially freer forms than is possible in stone. They make projecting limbs separately and solder them onto the torso, without needing to support them with unsightly struts. Compare, for example, the freely outstretched arms of the Zeus with the strut extending from hip to drapery on the Aphrodite of Knidos (fig. 5.21).

The Egyptians, Minoans, and early Greeks had often made statuettes of solid bronze using the direct lost-wax process. The technique was simple. The sculptor modeled his figure in wax; covered it with clay to form a mold; melted away the wax; melted copper and tin in the ratio of nine parts to one in a crucible; and poured this alloy into the space left by the “lost wax” in the clay mold. Yet because figures made in this way were solid, the method had severe limitations. A solid-cast, life-size statue would have been prohibitively expensive, incredibly heavy, and prone to developing unsightly bubbles and cracks as the alloy cooled. So from the eighth through the sixth centuries bce the Greeks developed the indirect lost-wax method, which allowed them to cast statues hollow and at any scale.

First, the sculptor shaped a core of clay into the basic form of the intended metal statue, before covering the clay core with a layer of wax to the thickness of the final metal casting, carving the details of the statue carefully in the wax. The figure was then separated into its component parts—head, torso, limbs, and so on. For each part, the artist applied a heavy outer layer of clay over the wax and secured it to the inner core with metal pegs. The package was then heated to melt the wax, which ran out. Molten metal—usually bronze, but sometimes silver or gold—was then poured into the space left by this “lost wax.” When the molten metal cooled, the outer and inner molds were broken away, leaving a metal casting—the statue’s head, torso, or arm—and these individual sections were then soldered together to create the statue. The sculptor completed the work by polishing the surface, chiseling details such as strands of hair and skin folds, and inlaying features such as eyes, teeth, lips, nipples, and dress patterns in ivory, stone, glass, copper, or precious metal.

art as contrapposto (Italian for “counterpoise”). The leg that carries the weight is called the engaged leg, the other, the free leg. With this simple observation came recognition that, if one part of the body is engaged in a task, other parts respond. Bending the free knee results in a swiveling of the pelvis, a compensating curvature of the spine, and an adjusting tilt of the shoulders. This unified approach to the body enabled artists to represent movement with a new naturalism. Indeed, even though the Kritios Boy is at rest, his muscles suggest motion, and the sculpture has life; he seems capable of action. All the same, the artist recognized that strict adherence to nature would not always yield the desired result. So, as in the later Parthenon, refinements are at work. The sculptor exaggerated the line of muscles over the pelvis to create a greater unity between thighs and torso, and a more fluid transition from front to back. This emphasized the sculpture’s three-dimensionality, and encouraged a viewer to move around it.

The innovative movement in the musculature gives a viewer a sense, for the first time, that muscles lie beneath the surface of the marble skin, and that a skeleton articulates the whole as a real organism. A new treatment of the flesh and the marble’s surface adds to this impression: The flesh has a sensuousness that is alien to earlier kouroi, and the sculptor worked the surface of the marble to a gentle polish. Gone, also, is the Archaic smile, presumably as a result of close observation of a human face. The face has a soft fleshiness to it, especially marked around the chin, which is characteristic of early Classical sculpture. The head is turned slightly away from the front, removing the direct gaze of earlier kouroi and casting the figure into his own world of thought.