page_title: Ancient Greek sculpture
section_title: Materials
hierarchical_section_title: Ancient Greek sculpture / Materials
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Athena mit Ägis besucht (als Göttin der Künste) die Werkstatt eines Bildhaueur, der modelliert ein Pferdebild aus Marmor (Epeios und ein Modell des Trojanisches Pferd?). Seite A von einer attischen rotfigurigen Kylix. English: Athena wearing aegis visiting (as goddess of art) the workshop of a sculptor working on a marble horse (Epeius on a model of the Trojan horse?). Side A of an Attic red-figure kylix. Français&#160;: Athéna à l'égide visitant (comme patronne des arts) l'atelier d'un sculpteur travaillant sur un cheval en marbre (Épéios sur un modèle du cheval de Troie&#160;?). Face A d'un kylix attique à figures rouges.
context_page_description: The sculpture of ancient Greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient Greek art as, with the exception of painted ancient Greek pottery, almost no ancient Greek painting survives. Modern scholarship identifies three major stages in monumental sculpture in bronze and stone: the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. At all periods there were great numbers of Greek terracotta figurines and small sculptures in metal and other materials.
  The Greeks decided very early on that the human form was the most important subject for artistic endeavour. Seeing their gods as having human form, there was little distinction between the sacred and the secular in art—the human body was both secular and sacred. A male nude of Apollo or Heracles had only slight differences in treatment to one of that year's Olympic boxing champion. The statue, originally single but by the Hellenistic period often in groups was the dominant form, though reliefs, often so "high" that they were almost free-standing, were also important.
context_section_description: By the classical period, roughly the 5th and 4th centuries, monumental sculpture was composed almost entirely of marble or bronze; with cast bronze becoming the favoured medium for major works by the early 5th century; many pieces of sculpture known only in marble copies made for the Roman market were originally made in bronze.  Smaller works were in a great variety of materials, many of them precious, with a very large production of terracotta figurines.  The territories of ancient Greece, except for Sicily and southern Italy, contained abundant supplies of fine marble, with Pentelic and Parian marble the most highly prized. The ores for bronze were also relatively easy to obtain.
  Both marble and bronze are easy to form and very durable; as in most ancient cultures there were no doubt also traditions of sculpture in wood about which we know very little, other than acrolithic sculptures, usually large, with the head and exposed flesh parts in marble but the clothed parts in wood.  As bronze always had a significant scrap value very few original bronzes have survived, though in recent years marine archaeology or trawling has added a few spectacular finds, such as the Artemision Bronze and Riace bronzes, which have significantly extended modern understanding.  Many copies of the Roman period are marble versions of works originally in bronze.  Ordinary limestone was used in the Archaic period, but thereafter, except in areas of modern Italy with no local marble, only for architectural sculpture and decoration.  Plaster or stucco was sometimes used for the hair only.
  Chryselephantine sculptures, used for temple cult images and luxury works, used gold, most often in leaf form and  ivory for all or parts (faces and hands) of the figure, and probably gems and other materials, but were much less common, and only fragments have survived. Many statues were given jewellery, as can be seen from the holes for attaching it, and held weapons or other objects in different materials.
caption: Athena in the workshop of a sculptor working on a marble horse, Attic red-figure kylix, 480 BC, Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2650)
exif: {"Image SubfileType": "Full-resolution Image", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D50", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "The GIMP", "Image DateTime": "2007:09:01 20:33:48", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 0, 255, 0, 255]", "Image CFARepeatPatternDim": "[2, 2]", "Image CFAPattern": "[2, 1, 1, 0]", "Image ExifOffset": "304", "Image Tag 0x9216": "[1, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "21/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:02:10 13:48:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:02:10 13:48:15", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "41/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "30", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "45", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}