A portrait as we know it today—a glimpse not only of a person’s appearance, but of his soul or essence—came into being in the Greek world 2,300 years ago. During the Hellenistic period artists began to depict people as they seem to appear: imperfect, complex, and emotional.
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Opening July 28 at the Getty Center (and then on December 13 at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.) is the first major exhibition entirely devoted to ancient bronze sculpture of the Hellenistic period. Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World assembles about 50 bronze figures and portraits, more than have ever been seen together since ancient times.
Getty Museum curator Kenneth Lapatin, who curated the show with colleague Jens Daehner and co-edited the accompanying book, walked me through some of the key points about these fascinating artworks and what makes them special.
In the Hellenistic period, Greek culture reached as far as India.
The Hellenistic period was the three centuries between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. and the beginning of the Roman Empire in 31 B.C. It was during this time that Greek culture reached its widest geographic extent.
Hellenistic sculptors excelled at capturing human emotion.
Experience and struggle became just as important as the beauty of the human form in the Hellenistic period. New levels of sophistication allowed detailed elements of the human form to be rendered in metal: veins, wrinkles, tendons, musculature, and naturalistic facial expressions. The Greek word pathos, meaning “lived” or “experienced,” expresses this concept.
Hellenistic sculpture had emotional “formulas.”
In the Hellenistic period, artists were interested in more than just standard ideal figures. We see the first realistic images of children as children, not as miniature adults, and of older figures with balding heads and pot bellies.
The sculptures in the exhibition appear to be highly individual portraits—look at their furrowed brows, crows’ feet, bulging chins, broken noses, and fleshy cheeks. But because these features appear in more than one portrait, they appear to have been part of the artistic lingo of the time. How lifelike these portraits truly are is hard to say.
Bronze lends itself to emotional expression.
Bronze sculpture is made with the lost-wax casting process, a technique that allows for finer detailing than stone carving. Because bronze is strong, metal sculptures could also have more dynamic forms than marble sculptures.
In ancient times, bronze sculptures were common.
In antiquity, bronze sculptures were made in multiples and extremely common. The lost-wax casting process allowed for many copies. Thousands of bare pedestals at archaeological sites show us that at one point bronzes were everywhere. Lysippos, sculptor to Alexander the Great, was reported to have made 1,500 bronze statues in his lifetime. None survive today.
Fewer than 200 bronze sculptures from the Hellenistic period survive.
Ancient bronze sculptures were melted down for their material, which was recycled into coins and other objects. Only 100 to 200 bronze sculptures from the Hellenistic period survive. The count varies, depending on how you want to count fragments like stray hands and feet.
Most of these bronzes survived by accident.
In a beautiful paradox, the bronzes we have today survived mostly because of disaster, such as volcanic eruptions and landslides. Greed also saved a few, since statues being transported as booty or commercial merchandise were sometimes submerged during shipwrecks. Just in the last 15 years, a handful of significant bronzes have been discovered at the bottom of the sea.
When first made, bronzes looked like human skin.
Today ancient bronze sculptures are various shades of green and gray, due to oxidation. But when first made they would have been a shiny, reflective brown, like tan skin in the Mediterranean sun.
Hellenistic bronzes weren’t just made of bronze.
Just as the white marble sculptures of ancient times were once colorfully painted, bronze portraits, now hollow-eyed, were inlaid with colorful metals and other materials. Eyes, nipples, lips, teeth, garment hems, and more might have been detailed with gold, copper, silver, bone, ivory, stone, or glass.
Women became important portrait subjects for the first time in the Hellenistic period.
Queens, priestesses, and heiresses were all important public figures commemorated in sculpture during the Hellenistic period, a time with more examples of female portraiture than ever before in the classical world.
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Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is on view July 28 to November 1, 2015, at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center. The exhibition was organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington with the participation of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Around 40,000 years ago, our earliest ancestors began creating monuments and other sculpted figures. They used a variety of materials, including bone, antler, ivory, and stone.
Statues are still frequently in production today, often made from bronze, thanks to it’s beauty and durability.
Bronze has been a popular medium for the creation of art for centuries, however, the earliest bronze processed and cast by humans was used for the creation of tools and weaponry. This period of history is known as the Bronze Age.
The earliest known artistic uses of bronze have been traced to Asia where the technique known as lost-wax casting was used to create natural-looking pieces.
Currently located in modern-day Pakistan, the prehistoric Dancing Girl is the oldest bronze sculpture on record, measuring at only 10.5 cm. However, it was the Greeks who were first to create the life-sized Bronze statues for which they are so well known. Though the life-size Greek statues were beautiful and detailed, only a few remain today.
The Romans were a bit more successful in creating long-lasting Bronze sculptures, many of which you can still see today. They were commonly made to honor public figures, such as gods, politicians, and military leaders.
Life-size bronze sculpture progressed even further during the Renaissance. Thanks to advancements in casting techniques, artists inspired by the famous sculptures of Greece and Rome were able to create even more detail.
Bronze is cast in a few different ways and is typically blended with other alloys, such as arsenic or tin. For many ancient metalsmiths and artisans, the alloys used were simply whatever was available.
It took years of trial and error to narrow down the ideal percentages of alloys and bronze to use. Different casting processes can also create different types of distinctive bronze works.
Sand casting is the oldest method of bronze casting. It is still used today thanks to the ease with which custom shapes and details can be created.
Within a box or “flask,” artists and metalsmiths use sand to form a pattern. The sand is specialty hardened using a binding agent.
After the mold has cured, the pattern is removed. Molten bronze is then poured into the remaining shape. Once the bronze has cooled, the sand is removed and the sculptor adds the finishing touches.
This method, used in the oldest bronze sculptures, involves creating a full-sized model of the sculpture itself. A wax mold is then cast from the model. A second mold was placed over the wax, to keep the molten metal from pouring down the sides.
Modern investment casting features passages to pour the liquid metal. The metal then cools and hardens, enabling the artist to remove the mold. Finally, they will file and polish any defects.
This method is typically not used for larger sculptures because of the cost associated. This method requires access to more metal, making it much more expensive.
With continuous casting, gravity is used to move the metal through the mold, creating a crisp end product without much resource loss.
In the early days of the United States, citizens were unable to master the use of bronze due to limited technologies. However, as the U.S. rose to power during the mid-1800s, bronze statues were used to represent growing economic and technological influence.
Bronze art steadily rose in popularity and was frequently found in the homes and galleries of many types of collectors.
Though the “golden age” of bronze art may have been thousands of years ago, it remains relatively popular to this day and can be a wonderful reflection of personal style and values.
Bronze is also much easier to work with thanks to an abundance of metal boundaries and available materials. From small pieces, to life-size statues, to massive installations, bronze remains relevant today and is just as beautiful as it was thousands of years ago!
The display of Bronze statues doesn’t need to be limited to professional collectors or museum galleries. In fact, anyone can start a personal collection to transform the artistic presence of your home, office, or outdoor space.
Browse our wide collection or contact us to create the perfect custom bronze piece to reflect your individual style. We are happy to answer any questions you may have about the creation or installation of these fascinating works of art.
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