Archaic smile

Head of the rider Rampin with an archaic smile around 550 BC Chr.

Archaic smile refers to the smile that characteristically appears on the faces of Greek statues of archaic art (approx. 650–480 BC), especially from the 1st quarter of the 6th century BC. Chr.

During the archaic period , Greek artists developed a new language of forms. The geometrically stylizing elements of the geometrical epoch were abandoned and gave way to an initially block-like, monumental representation, whose formulas were increasingly given "naturalistic" features and elements. In sculpture , the faces of the statues were enlivened with the characteristic “archaic smile”. The expression of the smile is evoked by pulling up the corners of the mouth. In order to increase the effect, nasolabial folds and cheekbones can also be highlighted, which further enlivens the facial play.

The archaic smile can already be seen in Greek relief art of the later 7th century BC. BC, but initially remained alien to Attic art. With the around 580 BC In the statues of Kleobis and Biton from Delphi created in the 4th century BC , it appears fully in the Argive sculpture. From 550 BC It is widely used in the 3rd quarter of the 6th century BC. To get its classic form. At the beginning of the 5th century BC It gives way to an increasingly serious view of the face.

It is not obvious that the smile is a cheerful one, given the fact that grave statues and dying or fallen warriors - for example in the west gable of the Temple of Aphaia - show it in equal measure : it is not situational, but convention. The meaning of this mimic convention is not known. It is often believed that, for the Greeks, this type of smile reflected a state of ideal health and well-being. The archaic sculptor's intention could also merely be to mark the person depicted as living or to “breathe life” into the figure. In this context, the assumption was often expressed that it was ultimately due to the sculptors' technical and manual inability. The smile was also interpreted as an expression of the aristocratic ideal of grace, the charis , because until the time of Kleisthenes the aristocratic class in Athens was called Geleontes , "the smiling ones ". They faced the rigors of life with a smile, a smile that, according to Erika Simon , was given to them by the gods, the first to smile .

With the change in the image of man in the strict style , which began with the upheavals within Greece towards the end of the 6th century BC. And with the victories of the Greeks against the threat from Persia in the battles at Marathon 490 BC. BC, Salamis 480 BC BC and Plataiai 479 BC Begins, the archaic smile disappears.

literature

Wolfram Martini : The archaic sculpture of the Greeks. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3-534-03175-X , pp. 83-85 (“The archaic smile”).
Mary Stieber : The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. University of Texas Press, Austin 2004, ISBN 0-2927-0180-2 , pp. 40-55 ("Mouths").

Web links

The archaic smile in the Virtual Antiques Museum of the Archaeological Institute of the University of Göttingen

Remarks

↑ Hedwig Kenner : Weeping and Laughing in Greek Art (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-Historical Class. Session Report 234, 2). Rohrer, Vienna 1960, p. 63.
↑ Nikolaus Himmelmann : Narrative and figure in archaic art (= Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class 2). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1967, p. 88.
^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc .: The New Encyclopaedia Britannica . 15th ed. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago IL 1995, ISBN 0-85229-605-3 , pp. 526 . See also Encyclopaedia Britannica online ; Mary Stieber: The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. University of Texas Press, Austin 2004, p. 52 f.
^ Fred S. Kleiner: Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Concise Global History . 3rd ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA 2013, ISBN 978-1-111-84072-3 , pp. 58 . Mary Stieber: The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. University of Texas Press, Austin 2004, p. 51 f.
^ Discussion compiled by Barbara Hughes Fowler: The Centaur's Smile. Pindar and the Archaic Aesthetic. In: Warren G. Moon (Ed.): Ancient Greek Art and Iconography. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison [Wis.] 1983, pp. 159-170, here pp. 167 f.
↑ Nikolaos Yalouris : The archaic “smile” and the Geleontes. In: Ancient Art . 29th year, 1986, pp. 3–5.
↑ Erika Simon: Review of Hedwig Kenner: Weeping and Laughing in Greek Art. In: Gnomon . Volume 33, 1961, pp. 644-650, here pp. 646-648.

[1] Hedwig Kenner : Weeping and Laughing in Greek Art (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-Historical Class. Session Report 234, 2). Rohrer, Vienna 1960, p. 63.

[2] Nikolaus Himmelmann : Narrative and figure in archaic art (= Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class 2). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1967, p. 88.

[3] Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc .: The New Encyclopaedia Britannica . 15th ed. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago IL 1995, ISBN 0-85229-605-3 , pp. 526 . See also Encyclopaedia Britannica online ; Mary Stieber: The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. University of Texas Press, Austin 2004, p. 52 f.

[4] Fred S. Kleiner: Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Concise Global History . 3rd ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA 2013, ISBN 978-1-111-84072-3 , pp. 58 . Mary Stieber: The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. University of Texas Press, Austin 2004, p. 51 f.

[5] Discussion compiled by Barbara Hughes Fowler: The Centaur's Smile. Pindar and the Archaic Aesthetic. In: Warren G. Moon (Ed.): Ancient Greek Art and Iconography. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison [Wis.] 1983, pp. 159-170, here pp. 167 f.

[6] Nikolaos Yalouris : The archaic “smile” and the Geleontes. In: Ancient Art . 29th year, 1986, pp. 3–5.

[7] Erika Simon: Review of Hedwig Kenner: Weeping and Laughing in Greek Art. In: Gnomon . Volume 33, 1961, pp. 644-650, here pp. 646-648.