Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin

ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS AS A WAY TO ANALYZE THE ART IMAGE OF ANCIENT GREEK SCULPTURE

Belikov Anton (1), Goncharova Natalia (2)

1) Department of Aesthetics, Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; 2) Department of Anthropology, Biological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Belikov Anton, e-mail: b_ant@mail.ru; Goncharova Natalia, e-mail: 1455008@gmail.com.

Abstract

Ancient sculpture is one of the best examined objects in the world culture so it can be used for the verification of some hypothesis in anthropology and art history. Applying of anthropological methods to analyze art objects creates a new methodology and reveals tendencies in the evolution of the image. The essential distinctions between the archaic and classical images in spite of the paradigm of the anthropological type stability lead to the search of the reasons for such considerable differences. The purpose of this study is to detach the anthropological content from its ideal content determined mostly by the canon of proportions. The author’s photos of ancient sculptures and the archaic sculptures photographs by Gisela Richter are used. Such characteristics as height and width proportions of faces, size and disposition of the eyes, lips and nose were subjected to statistical analysis. The anthropological methods denote the typological features of different periods. The differences between the archaic and classic sculptures appear in the inclination of the eyes, in face proportions, and lips thickness. The variability of the facial proportions in archaic period is higher due to the lack of the canon. The differences between the facial proportions of two periods are the result of the proportional schemes evolution. The study allows us to mark out the characteristics of the image related to the proportions regulated by the canon from real anthropological features such as a structure of the periorbital area and facial horizontal profile. The stability of the reproduction of these features through time and space suggests the influence of real anthropological environment on the images. The change of the image in the VI-V cc. BC presumably reflects the change of the anthropological type, which took place in the remote past. In art this change became apparent later. The study of the faces of sculptures reveals the proportional similarity of the Palmyra funerary sculpture and the Greek archaic images. However, the structure of the periorbital area of these two groups differ which can probably be explained by the differences between the anthropological types of the population.

Keywords

ancient Greek sculpture, face proportions, evolution of art image

Цит.: Belikov Anton, Goncharova Natalia ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS AS A WAY TO ANALYZE THE ART IMAGE OF ANCIENT GREEK SCULPTURE // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 3/2014; с. 104-104

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