I would like to share with you some of the magnificent Greek bronze statues I have been lucky to see in some museums. Unfortunately, many bronze statues have not survived as they were melted down to make weapons or other metal implements. Virtually all the the ones in this slide show were found on shipwreck sites and have been reassembled.
I have presented these in chronological order but some of the dates are tentative..
You will notice that most of the men are represented naked (the only exception is the charioteer from Delphi) and athletic : this is also the case for marble or stone statues of the archaic (800-500 BC) and classical (500 BC- 323 BC) periods. Women are represented clothed until the time of Praxiteles (395-326 BC) when the first female nudes appear.
If you click on any image it will open in full in a new window.
Detail Apollo 530 BC Detail Poseidon 480 Bc Detail Poseidon 480 BC Detail Zeus or Poseidon 460 BC Detail Warrior A 460 BC Detail Warrior B 420 BC Detail Artemis mid 4th c. BC Detail Artemis end 4th c. BC Detail Athena 4th c. BC Head of a Philosopher Athens 240 BC DEatail Young athlete 340 BC Head of a boxer Athens 330 BC Detail Artemision rider 140 BC Detail Apoxyomenos 1st c. BC Mali Losinj, Croatia Detail Apoxyomenos 1st c. BC Mali Losinj, Croatia Detail Apollo 1st c. BC
See also:
Lecture(s) : the end of the dark Ages