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Metropolitan Kouros, c. 590 BCE Marble, 1.84m Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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Menkaure & His Queen, c. 2548 BCE. Greywacke, 139.5cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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Praxiteles (Greece) Hermes & Infant Dionysus, c.340 BCE Marble, 2.10m Temple of Hera, Olympia |
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Kritios Kritios Boy, c. 490 BCE Marble, 1.17m |
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Polykleitos of Argos, c. 480-415 BCE Doryphoros (Canon), c. 450 BCE Marble copy, 2.13m |
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Kroisos Kouros, c. 540 BCE Marble, 1.95m National Archeological Museum of Athens  |
Part I: DESCRIPTION
Menkaure and His Queen(A) is a 139.5cm tall greywacke sculpture depicting a husband and wife. They display the typical clenched hands and poses of Egyptian art. Their muscles and clothes are very stiff, with shallow carvings showing creases and folds. The man’s torso and the woman’s groin are triangular. The statue is set in stone and not free-standing.
The Metropolitan Kouro(B) is is a life-sized, free-standing marble sculpture depicting a young male. He is slim with small shoulders, a triangular torso and a prepubescent face with long braided hair. His left leg is placed before the right and his whole stance is very straight and rigid.
Kroisos Kouros(C) is a 1.95cm tall marble sculpture of a young adult male. His shoulders are larger and his face shows a slight smile. The contours of his body are more curved and irregular with pronounced muscles, giving it an implied natural-looking texture, but he still stands very rigidly. There are remnants of red pigment on his legs.
Kritios Boy(D) depicts a young boy with short, curly hair. The forearms and right calf have broken off. The marble sculpture is smaller than life-like at only 1.17m tall. His pose is more relaxed because he is leaning slightly to this left.
Doryphoros or Canon(E) is a 2.13m tall marble sculpture of an adult man with curly hair. He has a muscular body and a relaxed stance, with his weight resting on his right leg. The left arm is bent and his fist appears to be holding something.
Hermes and Infant Dionysus(F) shows an adult man next to a baby. It is made of marble and is 2.10m tall. The man’s right arm is raised and his left arm is resting against a pedestal covered in very naturalistic cloth. The baby is sitting on it and is reaching for the object that the man is holding. His pose is extremely relaxed and leaning heavily on the pedestal. There is also a lot of empty, negative space between the limbs.
Part II: ANALYSIS
A, B and C display symmetrical balance and do not display much movement, while D, E and F are assymetrical and are more dynamic because they display contrapposto with their weight leaning onto one leg. A, B and C do not have very well-proportioned bodies but C is the most naturalistic of the three. D, E and F are very well-proportioned as the artists were creating the ideal male figure. A and B are very simple sculptures with little elaboration on muscles and clothes. C and D began to appear more naturalistic because of the irregular muscles around the body. E and F began to include more objects within the artwork such as the spear in E and the baby in F.
A shows pharaoh Menkaure standing stiff and proud, indicating his power as a ruler. His headdress is symbolic of the power of the gods. B appears to be a young aristocrat and the artist was clearly not interested in every anatomical detail of his body because it was not very well-proportioned. C displays a more perfect ratio of body parts, and his body is that of a warrior. D shows a boy who seems very relaxed, standing calmly and chest expanded as if in the act of breathing. E shows an athlete or a warrior, ready to go into battle. His stance shows strong confidence and his left hand seems to grip the spear, about to throw it. F shows Hermes who looks gentle and like a father-figure, playing with the infant Dionysus.
The background of F is Praxitelean style whereas Egyption sculpture for A. D is from Acropolis, Athens, Parian. Many of the kouros are in Greek style. The material that A using are slate and greywacke. E is made from bronze whereas F is made from Parian marble. Most of the sculptures are made from marble. The tool that using by artist is iron chisels. The technique of A, B and C are carving; B is using Naxian technique whereas E and F are using contrapposto which based on “canon rule”. E has combine chiastic balance or cross system on the sculpture. The C is painted in encaustic. B has divided the figure into rigid grid and painted once to have skin tone and more detailed eyes and hair.
Part III: JUDGEMENT
The artists of sculptures A, B and C created the artworks to be used as grave markers or as a memorial for someone. These sculptures functioned as guards of the person’s grave, so it had to appear formal and stern, hence the rigid poses. They show very geometric shapes and straight lines. The limbs and spine of A and B are straight and stiff, while their torsos are triangular in shape. The muscles are not very pronounced and just appear as smooth surfaces or shallow carvings. The limbs and spine of C is also very straight, but the shapes used are slightly more organic.
However, the artists’ of sculptures D, E and F created them for purely aesthetic purposes and sought to explore the ideal, perfect male body. Hence, the sculptures appeared more naturalistic with relaxed poses. Their spines and limbs are more curvilinear and the irregular surface shows realistic muscles and body fat. This was why the canon of the sculptures changed over the years, with the Egyptian canon slowly being replaced by Greek canon.
Sculptures A, B, C and F are imitative. A shows the pharaoh Menkaure alongside his queen, B and C depict young male warriors or athletes, while F is of two mythical figures, Hermes and Dionysus. D and E were created to study the perfect male figure and were based on the artists’ ideals.
Part IV: AUDIENCE
A was commissioned by the pharaoh Menkaure to mark his tomb. It was to be used to house his “ka” or spirit. B and C were most likely commissioned by the deceased or their families to use as grave markers. The sculptures would be appreciated by those who visited their graves or tombs. The lower castes in those societies couldn’t afford this luxury as they were too poor.
D was either created by the artist Kritios solely to study the human figure, or commissioned by rich aristocrats. It would have been appreciated by his guests or other art appreciators. The original sculpture of E was lost, but marble copies were often made by the Romans as commissioned by aristocrats and the elite. They either wanted the sculpture as decoration or an interesting converstation piece. Similaryly, poorer citizens couldn’t afford it. E was commissioned by a sanctuary in Olympia to commemorate the peace treaty between the Altis from Eeians and the Arcadians.
