CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Hellenistic Art
Greek art from Alexander's death in 323 BC to 31 BC: dramatic, emotional sculpture made for the courts of Pergamon, Alexandria and beyond.
No works indexed yet
No open-access works for Hellenistic Art are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
Alexander the Great's conquests, and his death in 323 BC, spread Greek culture from Egypt to Afghanistan. The kingdoms carved out by his successors, with capitals such as Alexandria, Antioch and Pergamon, became patrons of a new art that lasted until Rome defeated the last of them at Actium in 31 BC.
Sculptors kept Classical skill but widened its range. Figures twist and strain and invite a walk around them; faces show pain, age, exhaustion or drunkenness; and subjects include defeated enemies, children, market women and a seated bronze boxer with a broken nose. The kings of Pergamon commissioned statues of dying Gauls and a great altar, built in the early 2nd century BC, whose frieze of gods battling giants bursts from its background. The Nike of Samothrace (about 190 BC) alights on a ship's prow in wind-whipped drapery. Roman collectors later copied the style avidly.
More in Cultural and Religious Styles
Himalayan Art
Hindu Art and Architecture
Hopi Art
Iban Art
Igbo (Ibo) Art
Indonesian Art
Islamic Art and Architecture
Kushan Empire
Maranao Art
Mayan Art and Architecture
Mbole Art
Meiji Art
Mende Art
Mesopotamian Art
Ming Dynasty
Minoan Art
Moche Art
%252C%2520Rembrandt%252C%2520c.%25201656-61.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960&w=3840&q=75)