In the early classical, or transitional,
period (c.480– 450 B.C.) a new humanism began to find its aesthetic
expression in terms of a perfect balance between verisimilitude
and abstraction of form. The largest surviving single group of
sculpture is from the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Although certain
conventions in rendering hair and draperies persist from the archaic
period, the magnificent marble figures from the pediments reveal
a new kind of insight into the structure of the human figure. Rare
surviving works in bronze are the famous Charioteer (museum, Delphi)
and the Zeus or Poseidon found in an ancient shipwreck off Cape
Artemision (National Mus., Athens). |