What Is the Most Famous Work of Art in the Western Art World

Fallen Warrior from Temple of Aphaia (c 480-470BC)

There is a tragic pathos to this mighty sculpture of a dying hero from a temple on the Greek isle of Aegina. Tragedy is a Greek concept. The tragedies of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus are still performed. This statue shows a strong man fallen, heroic to his concluding breath.

The Pergamon altar (180-160BC)

Pergamon Altar. Athena against the giant Alcyoneus.
Pergamon Altar. Athena against the giant Alcyoneus. Photograph: Phas/UIG via Getty Images

Classical Greek art changed rapidly as Greece itself went through wars and imperial transformations. In what is called the Hellenistic age it became much more emotional, sensual and fifty-fifty sensationalist. The furious sculptures on the Pergamon chantry – which can be seen in its own museum in Berlin – are total of passion and psychological drama.

The Riace bronzes (460-420BC)

One of the two Riace bronzes: the Warrior
One of the two Riace bronzes: the Warrior Photo: Alinari Archives/Alinari via Getty Images

These tremendous statues found in the bounding main off southern Italian republic in 1972 are important because so few original Greek statuary statues survive. Almost of the classical nudes in museums were carved in marble in the Roman era, every bit reproductions of such rare, and now largely lost, originals. Here we run across the truthful majesty of Greek art in its classical historic period, which occurred in the fifth-century BC.

Goddesses from the east pediment of the Parthenon (c 438-432BC)

Three goddesses from east pediment of the Parthenon
Iii goddesses from east pediment of the Parthenon. Photograph: ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Sitting and reclining in graceful unison, these goddesses carved in marble for the Parthenon in Athens are among the most beautiful and mysterious images of the man form ever created. Incredibly, the artist makes the draperies that cover their bodies as real and richly textured as similar garments painted past Leonardo da Vinci a millennium afterwards – and who didn't take to produce his illusions in rock. These are dream goddesses.

Marble metope from the Parthenon (c 447-438BC)

Metope from Parthenon, battle between Centaurs and Lapiths
Metope from Parthenon, boxing between Centaurs and Lapiths. Photograph: DEA/G Nimatallah/De Agostini/Getty Images

Violence is a favourite theme of aboriginal Greek artists. Reared on the myth of the Trojan war and experiencing the reality of wars with Persia and betwixt Greek cities, classical artists institute new ways to show conflict. This human being fighting a centaur, carved for the Parthenon in Athens, is astonishingly real in its detail and dynamic free energy.

God from the sea, Zeus or Poseidon (c 470BC)

A bronze sculpture of the god Zeus, or possibly Poseidon
A bronze sculpture of the god Zeus, or possibly Poseidon Photograph: Archive Photos/Getty Images

This majestic statuary, found in the sea off Greece, conveys the magic of Greek mythology. The god – probably Zeus, lord of Olympus himself – is defenseless in the deed of hurling a thunderbolt. His trunk is charged with divine ability, and yet, information technology is a man torso, neither colossal nor ethereal merely the mirror of ourselves. The Greek gods are human, all too human being, and their picayune squabbles crusade wars and sorrow in the world.

The Siren vase (480-470BC)

The Siren Vase
The Siren vase. Photograph: © Trustees of the British Museum

In Homer's Odyssey, ane of the founding epics of Greek literature, Odysseus longs to hear the seductive yet dangerous song of the sirens that lure sailors to their deaths. So all his crew plug their ears, and Odysseus has himself lashed to the mast. This powerful painting captures the tension as Odysseus strains at his bonds, his whole trunk agonised, his head raised in rapt listening.

The Motya charioteer (c 350BC)

The Motya Charioteer
The Motya charioteer. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

This is one of the most startling Greek statues to survive, and highly revealing about the erotic charge of the Greek nude. This youth is not technically nude, but wears a tight-fitting garment that instead of hiding his body, heightens every profile. Greek statues are portraits of human beauty that are meant to exist arousing as well as noble. This athlete poses in sensual triumph.

The Dionysus Loving cup past Exekias (c 540BC)

Dionysus, god of wine and madness, sails on his boat, surrounded past dolphins, in this delightful painting. Part of the fascination of Greek art is that its themes were taken upwards by artists down the centuries, equally the myths of this civilisation were constantly being rediscovered. So this paradigm of Dionysus can exist compared with subsequently portrayals of the wine god past Titian, Michelangelo, or Cy Twombly.

Mask of Agamemnon (1550-1500BC)

Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Gold funerary mask
Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Gold funerary mask. Photograph: Universalimagesgroup/Getty Images

When the enthusiastic, romantically minded archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered this golden mask at Mycenae in 1876, he had no incertitude that it must be the death mask of Agamemnon himself, the king who led the Greeks in the Trojan state of war, only to be assassinated on his homecoming. Of course at that place's no proof of that, but it is 1 of the most compelling faces in art.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/aug/14/top-10-ancient-greek-artworks-jonathan-jones

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