Griega

Aegean art includes Minoan sculpture, such as terra-cotta and ivory statuettes of goddesses, and Mycenaean works, consisting of small carved ivory deities. The Greeks, masters of stone carving and bronze casting, created some of the greatest sculpture known. Working on a monumental scale, they brought depiction of the human form to perfection between the 7th and 1st centuries BC. In the earliest period, the Archaic, figures appeared rigid and bodies were schematized along geometric lines, as in Egyptian art.

By the Classical period, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, however, naturalism was attained; figures were well proportioned and shown in movement, although faces remained immobile. Gods and athletes were favorite subjects during this period; the most famous sculptors were Phidias, Polyclitus, Praxiteles, and Lysippus. Highly esteemed is the architectural sculpture made for the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, such as Three Goddesses (British Museum), whose rhythmically swirling drapery clings to their reclining bodies. During the Hellenistic period (4th-1st century BC), works became increasingly expressive, as reflected in the facial features and complicated body positions. The Nike of Samothráki, or Winged Victory (circa 190 BC, Louvre, Paris), is a highly dramatic masterpiece from this time.

Venus of Milo, also called Aphrodite of Melos, the Greek goddess's famous sculpture Aphrodite carried out in marble and pickup in the Greek island of Melos in 1820. At the moment it is in the Museum of the Louvre of Paris. In spite of their stylistic grandiosidad that remembers to the classic time, the Venus of Milo is of final of the period helenístic. Next to her was a stone column originally on which one of the goddess's arms rested. In the base of the column she was the artist's signature, Alexandros or Agesandros of Antioquía on the Bend, thanks to that which the work can be dated between the 150 and the 100 a.C.

In Melos also was found a hand that sustained an apple and that it could have been part of the same sculpture. If was this way, Aphrodite would have been represented as the goddess of the island of the Apple (in Greek melos means ' manzana'). It is probable that the original used by the artist was an Aphrodite of the century IV a.C. in the one that the goddess appears sustaining the shield of you Plow with both hands. However, it seems that in the sculpture found in Melos, Aphrodite catches the clothes with the right hand (now lost).

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