The height of the classical period, or Golden
Age (c.450–400 B.C.), was the time of Pericles and Thucydides,
of the great dramatists Sophocles and Euripides, and of the young
Socrates. The aesthetic ideal based on the representation of human
character as an expression of a divine system embodying a rational
ethic and ordered reality was integral to the culture. The sculptor
Polycleitus sought to arrive at a rational norm for the structure
of the ideal human figure. The most magnificent original sculptures
from this period are those from the temples of the Athenian acropolis.
Earliest of these are theParthenon sculptures including the frieze
representing the Panathenaic procession and the pedimental sculptures
(Elgin Marles). The Parthenon sculptors are anonymous, but Phidias
is believed to have drawn up the designs. Somewhat later in date
are the sculptures of the Hephaesteum, the Erechtheum, and the
Nike Balustrade. |