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wildbrush's art.to.day - you entered my world of art history -

Comparative Advancing Art History     
 of Pigments and Mediums     
in European and Asian Cultures     

PIGMENTS, PAINTING, SCULPTURE IN B.C. HISTORY:
- MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS

MACEDONIA

356 B.C., ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Macedon or Macedonia was just north of and almost as big in 450 B.C., as all of Greece, of which he unified most of in his conquests.
His Empire was soo big, how big you say? It started across from the heal of Italy, the Etruscans were the third largest land holding empire at that time, from that point on to India, including Egypt, that's big. It combined the Aegean, Egyptian, and Phoenician Cultures, and the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia to the end of the Tigris-Euphrates in the Persian Gulf. Than, that distance again to the Indian cultures, up to and including the Indus River. This was too big to control and it ended after only thirteen years.

323 B.C., MACEDONIA-GREECE, Aristotle, pupil of Plato, the world of science, author of the "Republic" and "The Poetics", tutor to Alexander and inventor of his glass diving bell.

300 B.C., Eratosthenes measured accurately the size of the earth. Euclid developed his theorems of geometry and Archimedes discovered the principle of specific gravity.
The Corinthian capitol was designed for the Temple of Apollo at Bassae. Three sculptors were famous at this time, Praxiteles, Scopas and Lysippus, who was a court portraitists for Alexander the Great. Lysippus changed Polyclitus's body-head ratio from 1:7, to 1:8. I find perfect to be, adding a quarter head where the neck is and subtracting it from the lower torso, that puts the center of the body one quarter head above the top of the legs space. The center of the body is at the bend line NOT the space between the legs.

200 B.C., The "Victory of Samothrace" was reconstructed from pieces. The "Dying Gaul" and "Dead Persian" by Pergamum in 225 B.C., and the "Aphrodite of Melos" are all fine examples of Hellenistic sculpture. Great sculpture under Attalus I, thus forming the first school of Pergamum.

100 B.C., The Second School of Pergamum under Eumenes II, "The Boy With a Goose" by Boethus, marble, 2'9" high is "perfect high art", it's the second time man has reached this level of sculpture, absolute control of the medium and complete understanding of anatomy. Boethus may have come from the workshops in Alexandria, which Alexander helped create. The next time this peak of perfection will be reached is in the 15th and 16th centuries, with Michelangelo the sculpture and Signorelli the painter and than Bernini. They must have had some great paintings in 100 B.C., but none survived.

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