Greek sculpture is perhaps the most iconic and identifiable type of sculpture in the art world as it is seen today. When a person hears the word "sculpture," their mind most likely immediately pictures sculptures that were created by the ancient Greeks. Greek sculptors were among the first people to capture the human form accurately, from muscle placement to facial expression. This essay will cover three different time periods of ancient Greek sculpture: The Archaic Period (c.650-500 BCE), The Classical Period (c.500-323 BCE), and The Hellenistic Period (c.323-27 BCE).

Before breaking down the periods of ancient Greek sculpture, here is a basic introduction to the art form. In the earliest of its days, "according to literary sources, Greeks created wooden sculptures of their Gods, but none of them survived" (Janson, H. W., et al 84). Because of the wear and tear that wooden art forms suffered from, much like the architects of the time, Greek artists and sculptors made the transition to working with stone around 650 BCE. The sculptors also began to experiment with nudity, which was rare for its time. Many works from Greece during this time featured nude men and women, which were somewhat controversial. In ancient Greece, considered public nudity to be perfectly acceptable for men, but not for women; therefore the nude sculpture featuring women were a fairly new concept of the location.

The Greeks gave sculptures of men and women different categorical names; Kore and Kouros. A Kore is a type of archaic statue of a young woman, who is typically depicted standing up with long, loose robes. A Kouros is an archaic statue of a young man, who is also standing but is often nude. This alludes back to the society of the Greeks, and how it was acceptable for men to be publically nude. Sometimes, though, sculptors would push back against this societal rule and created works featuring nude women as well.

The Archaic Period, which took place from around 650 BCE to 500 BCE, is the time in which the earliest Greek attempts at sculpture were made. The sculptures made during this time frame were much less realistic than the sculptures that were to come of the Greeks. Often, the pieces were made with either clay, different types of stone or bronze. A common type of stone that they used is limestone, because it is soft and did not require a difficult technique carve.

However, Greek sculptors began to use marble as a means of creating art; marble is a difficult medium and the technique for carving it is very tedious. Most sculptures, no matter what the medium, were created using a subtractive method. A subtractive method means to strip away pieces of the material to create the desired design.

The most common subjects that were depicted through art were men, gods, and animals. This report, however, is focusing on the human shape, form, and detail of ancient greek sculpture (this includes gods, as they have human anatomy). Often times, the human head and body was exaggerated. For example, a common characteristic of the earliest of Greek sculpture were large eyes, long eyebrows, and a small nose and mouth. As for the bodies, they were typically very angular, having broad shoulders and a rigid and stylized body. A great example of an Archaic Period Greek Sculpture is labeled "Cretan Limestone Female Figure" also known as, "The Auxerre Figure." She is a sculpture of a woman that is made out of limestone. She is is very stylized (large hands and eyes, rigid rectilinear body). She is a yellow shade and made out of porns, as Casson puts it, “The particular stone which is indicated by this term is in fact dark yellowish limestone which is the natural formation of many parts of the Athens district. .." (73). She was assigned to Crete because of the nature of her costume, gesture, and face, limestone, and clay that have been discovered on the island. While yellow limestone was used to make this statue, it is easy to distinguish the wear and tear that was common with statues of this same material. Looking at this figure, it would be easy to notice the damage and the signs of wear and tear that was common when using Limestone to create a statue. Due to certain materials in the stone, weathering occurs quicker which what is caused a lot of the smaller indents along this figure, as well as the bigger portion of the face of the figure. When comparing figures like this to marble statues, it is easy to see why sculptors opted to start using marble over Limestone. Marble generally did not weather as quickly, which allowed for statues to be displayed outside without undergoing damage as quickly.

The Classical period, which took place from around 500 BCE to 323 BCE in which Greek sculptors decided to take in more information about the human body and recreate it in stone. Their sculptures began to become much more realistic than those before. They also began to resemble real humans that lived at the time instead of just generalized designs that did not have much of a link back to the real world that the Greeks were living in. For example, the Greeks started to examine how the human body's mechanics work. They began to realize that a human 's stance is not always strictly frontal, and that there is a distribution of fat and muscles that shift and sometimes look asymmetrical or uneven.

Though they studied human anatomy, they did not succeed in making hyper realistic replications of the human body through sculpture yet. The art was much less stylized than it was in the Archaic period, but it still was not a perfect representation of a real human. The sculptures, however, were usually idolized perceptions of the human body. What that means is that the muscle to body fat ratio was, in their eyes, ideal. The same applies for the proportions of the body parts. The hair is also idealized, as it is typically flat and rests perfectly on the head. Since this style of sculpture was set out to be the perfect image of humans, there was often little fat or creases in the work's skin.

A wonderful example of a statue that fits this criteria and was made in the Classical period is Praxiteles's "Aphrodite of Knidos." She is a nude sculpture of the Goddess Aphrodite, pictured preparing to take a bath indoors. Greek art researcher John Barron suggests that "ancient opinion especially praised the hair and forehead and delicately pencilled eyebrows ... the melting look in the eyes with their bright and joyful expression" (120). This adds to the historical suggestion that the Greek's valued perfection of the human form and not so much about the true accuracy of what a human truly looks like.

Another aspect that sculptors started to become concerned with in the classical period was the way in which the sculptures fit into the atmosphere around them; "sculptors concentrated on making figures that were seen as moving through space, rather than merely standing in it" ("Greek Sculpture Made Simple). This means that the sculptures put more attention into the way that gravity and physics affect a body. Often times, artists would create sculptures that depict a human that is shifting most of his or her weight onto one foot. This was a crucial skill that impacted the way that sculptors depicted the illusion of movement and energy into their works.

While older figures were often more static and stiff, Classical statues started to experiment more with poses in a way that depicted either action in different ways. Certain statues made during the Classical age focused on more drastic movements, such as a Greek discus thrower preparing to launch his discus at an Olympic game. Statues such as these helped to exaggerate the strength and complexity of the male human body and really portrayed the figure of the body with such grace, putting detail into each and every muscle. Other forms of action portrayed by Classical era statues often came off as casual, more laid back in form. One way to describe this would be the lack of movement in the arms or legs as they would often be stationed closer to the body and would often not be portrayed doing any specific action other than pointing or rather the fingers and thumb openly resting. These forms of action easily describe the mood of the statues created during the classical period.

The Hellenistic Period which took place from around 323 BCE to 27 BCE begins with the death of Alexander the Great. His empire was divided into three separate empires which became wonders of the ancient world. During this time, Greek sculpture was on the path to becoming more realistic than ever before. Instead of sculptures that were mostly perfect and ideal body depictions, they started to more closely resemble real humans. For example, skin and muscles began to have a more realistic and "softer" look; "In the late fourth and early third centuries the followers of Praxiteles achieved an even softer modelling of flesh, which continued to be a favourite technique where sensuous or sentimental effects were wanted-- for instance, in female nudes, hermaphrodites and small children" (Stewart). This did not come naturally, however. Hellenistic sculptors often stuck to the classical formula, considering that they still closely resembled nature and the human form. They did not make a drastic change to the male body, but they did make some clear changes to the female figure. These changes included narrower shoulders, broader hips and a higher waist. The marble began to more closely resemble flesh, nearly like the statues could use their muscles to reach out and shake one's hand.

Something that did not change, however, was the how Greek's worshiped gods and often created artist tributes to them. Aphrodite is a common subject among Hellenistic Greek sculpture, as her form began to become smoother and more natural as techniques advanced.

One of the most well-known Hellenistic sculptures that portrays Aphrodite and Eros together is "Group of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros." I would like to take an in depth look at this work, and break its components and style down. This piece of art was made around 100 BC by an unknown artist. It was found on the island of Delos, in the House of the Poseidoniasts of Beirut. The statue is made of parian marble and stands approximately 19 feet tall. The sculpture features (from left to right) Aphrodite, Eros, and Pan. Pan is the mischievous, deviant, goat legged god of the wild. One reason that I find this work so incredible, is that it hyper-realistic, natural looking, soft, and features each character involved reacting to one another in a real and human way.

The subject matter of the sculpture introduces the god of love, Aphrodite, being pestered by the god of wild, Pan. In between the two, presumably trying to protect his mother, is the winged boy, Aphrodite's son, Eros. Aphrodites position is a bit tense, but also looks quite natural. She has most of her weight leaning on her right leg, while her left leg is pulling away from Pan. One arm is raised,  her hand holding the sandal that belongs on her left foot (presumably to strike Pon with). Her other arm is positioned in front of her pelvic area in an attempt to cover her pudendum, which is greek terminology for external genitalia. Her waist and hips are leaning towards the right, giving her a sense of movement and creating energy in her figure. Her hair has much volume, which makes it appear to have its own free movement. Unlike in the Archaic and Classical periods, this Hellenistic piece puts fine, articulate detailing into the texture of human and animal hair. Therefore, Aphrodite has beautiful, flowing hair instead of something that looks reminiscent of a cap.

Her head is facing towards Eros and Pan. Her head facing a different direction is also an achievement that should not go overlooked. In the periods before (Archaic and Classical), most sculptures featured strictly frontal faces. This means that the heads were typically facing the same direction as the rest of the body instead of being angled at %. Her facial expression is intricate and fleshed out. One can see the creases in her eyes and lips, and neck. Continuing on the theme of creases, her breast, arm, naval, and leg muscles are soft, natural, and accurate. She is not overwhelmingly "perfect", as she has plenty of creases where her body folds and bends.

Pan is depicted grasping Aphrodite's left arm, which appears to be in an attempt to remove her hand from in front of her pudendum. His right arm is positioned around the annoyed Aphrodite, resting on the middle of her back. Additionally, Pan's arms have much more muscle in them than Aphrodite's. They appear to be modeled after a real male human’s arm, as the muscle placement is extremely accurate. The muscles and tendons all work together to make an extremely realistic form of the arm, and this is a great improvement from the Archaic and Classical periods, where there was not much attention to muscular detailing in human sculpture. The rest of his body is also more muscular than Aphrodite's, giving him a more characterized and masculine look.

His head is articulately angled so that he appears to be looking at both Aphrodite and Eros. Since he has goat characteristics, his face is modeled a bit differently than a normal human 's. He appears to be a mixture of a human and a goat, as he has goat horns and a mouth and nose that resembles a goat's. He has a bushy face, consisting of a large beard and tattered hair. He appears to have a smug/playful smile on his face as he is looking up at Aphrodite, who is about to swing at him with her sandal. He is standing at a % angle compared to Aphrodite, who is frontal when viewed from the front of the piece.

He is balancing on a stone, which was most likely strategic to the artist so that he could give Pan movement while also making sure that the sculpture could stand upright. This balance was also needed because Pan's legs are in too awkward of a position for him to stand upright by himself, considering he is leaning backwards slightly. His legs have the anatomy of a goat, because they are covered in fur and his feet are actually hooves. The fur on his legs have the illusion of flowing freely, as they have depth, dimension, and each strand has its own detail and placement.

Eros is placed over Aphrodite's right shoulder, connected to it so that he can appear to be suspended in the air. His left arm is grasping Pan's horn, while his right arm is damaged (it is missing entirely). He is much smaller than his mother Aphrodite and her aggressor, Pan. he is a small child with wings, depicted as flying in the air and corning between his mother and Pan. It is obvious that he is trying to help fend the deviant off of Aphrodite, but he has an interesting expression for somebody who is trying to defend his mother. He has a bit of a childish smile on his face, almost like he finds the situation to be humorous. This is rather fitting, considering that Eros is only a child. He seems as though he is just happy to be involved in the situation, and that is something that I find very interesting about this specific Hellenistic sculpture; the emotions are nearly readable. No other Greek sculptures before had so much attention to fine detail quite like the sculptures during this period of time. Not only is the anatomy natural and realistic, but the facial expression of each character depicted is articulately shaped. This sculpture in its entirety is truly incredible.