Art and Artifice

Statue of a Young Boy

2nd Century Greek - VMFA Museum, Richmond Virginia

About 2nd Century Greek Sculpture

The 2nd century BC was a time of great artistic advancement in Greece. Known as the Hellenistic period, it is a period of time charted between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the emergence of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD.

Hellenistic sculptors sought to create more dynamic and naturalistic representations of the human figure, sometimes using exaggerated emotional expression and physical movement that could feature contortion and highly defined muscularity. Twisted drapery was also a particular feature of this sculpting period.

Famous examples of this period of Greek art is Laocoön and His Sons, which was created in the early 2nd century BC, another is the Aphrodite of Melos, also known as the Venus de Milo.

The focus on naturalism, emotion, and movement particularly characterizes the imagery of this period.

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John Berger's Ways of Seeing is a famous art instruction on seeing art through a new awareness of elements that get overlooked or are somehow obscure for the casual viewer. The book was first published in 1972 and based on the BBC television series. The Sunday Times critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." AMAZON

"The Complete Watercolor Guide for Beginners: The Ultimate Course with Exercises and Step-by-Step Projects Perfect Even If You’re New to Watercolor" AMAZON

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THE ODYSSEY: With the Greek on one side and the English on the other side this edition allows for easy reading while also opportunities to peruse the original Greek - "the classic parallel text version of Homer." Translation by Augustus Taber Murray (1866–1940) Professor of Greek at Stanford University and George Edward Dimock (1917–2000), Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at Smith College.

Homer was probably born around 725BC and he is from a long line of bards and poets who practiced the oral tradition of storytelling. .AMAZON

"This lavishly produced volume explores Matisse’s lifelong reinvention of art through some fifty works, six extraordinary fold-out spreads, and illuminating essays."AMAZON

172 Pages - Dimensions ‏ ‎ 8.81 x 0.98 x 10.69 inches

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