Classical taste was an answer to a complex of different needs and desires, expressed by both the western and eastern patrons of Greek art. This response, however, resulted in a more or less uniform artistic movement, which is extremely difficult to study in its individual expressions. Sculpture was fundamental to the creation of a Classical tradition, and this meant a rise in the importance of individual works and artists. The works of Classical artists like Pheidias and Polykleitos became artistic ideals and aesthetic prototypes[7]. Accordingly, artists who copied the work of their fifth- and fourth-century predecessors came to share the fame and recognition of their prototypes. In sculpture, as well as in coinage, this resulted in an influence of style and subject-matter by contemporary Classical sculpture. Such a degree of influence of the one medium on the other was scarcely predicted.
The youthful Herakles sculpture referenced above employs standard second-century imagery, but treated in the way of the Classical artists. The hero’s face becomes here more monumental, and not mere props as in the leaning deities series[8]. The content of this piece, with an emphasis on the arts, also complies with the Classical spirit. This statue presents a number of mixed influences and technical features, as well as a complete system of symbols. Drapery and posture recall the heavily built, massively draped free-standing Pergamon sculptures, notably the Tragoedia[9]. A connection with Pergamon might also be plausible. Young Herkules figure combines iconographical traits of the standard Hellenistic figure of a deity leaning on a pillar with influences from neo-Attic sculpture.
Hellenistic sculpture: heads and busts analysis
Collection unknown
Circular amethyst with flat face and convex back; once in the Ionides and Rosarena Collections; from India; 22.5 mm; head of a bearded god, probably Poseidon, wearing a fillet; inscribed with a Y and a Π[10]
