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Contrapost
( 'counterpoise'), in the visual arts, is a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane. First appearing in Ancient Greece in the early 5th century BCE, ''contrapposto'' is considered a crucial development in the history of Ancient Greek art (and, by extension, Western art), as it marks the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a psychological disposition. The style was further developed and popularized by sculptors in the Hellenistic and Imperial Roman periods, fell out of use in the Middle Ages, and was later revived during the Renaissance. Michelangelo's statue of ''David'', one of the most iconic sculptures in the world, is a famous example of ''contrapposto''. Definition ''Contrapposto'' was historically an important sculptural development, for its appearance marks the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a more rel ...
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Supernormal Stimulus
A supernormal stimulus or superstimulus is an exaggerated version of a stimulus to which there is an existing response tendency, or any stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which it evolved. For example, it is possible to create artificial bird eggs which certain birds will prefer over their own eggs, particularly evident in brood parasitism. Some speculate humans can be similarly exploited by junk food. Organisms tend to show a preference for the stimulus properties (e.g. size, colour, etc.) that have evolved in nature, but when offered an artificial exaggerated stimulus, animals will show behaviour in favour of the artificial stimulus over the naturally occurring stimulus. A variety of organisms display or are susceptible to supernormal stimuli, including insects, birds, and humans. Supernormal stimuli are present in areas of biology and psychology, but are also studied within other fields like sociology and art. British academic Nigel Spive ...
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Skopas
Scopas (; born in Paros, fl. 4th century BCE) was an ancient Greek sculptor and architect, most famous for his statue of Meleager, the copper statue of Aphrodite, and the head of goddess Hygieia, daughter of Asclepius. Early life and family Scopas was born on the island of Paros. His father was the sculptor Aristander of Paros. Skopas left Paros at an early age and travelled throughout the Hellenic world. Career Scopas worked with Praxiteles, and he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the reliefs. He led the building of the new temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. Similar to Lysippus, Scopas is artistically a successor of the Classical Greek sculptor Polykleitos. The faces of the heads are almost in quadrat. The deeply sunken eyes and a slightly opened mouth are recognizable characteristics in the figures of Scopas. Works by Scopas are preserved in the British Museum (reliefs) in London; fragments from the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea in the National ...
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Lysippos
Lysippos (; ) was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confront the study of Lysippos because of the difficulty in identifying his style in the copies which survive. Not only did he have a large workshop and many disciples in his immediate circle, but there is understood to have been a market for replicas of his work, supplied from outside his circle, both in his lifetime and later in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The ''Victorious Youth'' or Getty bronze, which resurfaced around 1972, has been associated with him. Biography Born at Sicyon around 390 BC, Lysippos was a worker in bronze in his youth. He taught himself the art of sculpture, later becoming head of the school of Argos and Sicyon. According to Pliny, he produced more than 1,500 works, all of them in bronze. Commentators noted his ...
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Polykleitos
Polykleitos (; ) was an ancient Greek sculptor, active in the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered as one of the most important sculptors of classical antiquity. The 4th century BCE catalogue attributed to Xenocrates (the "Xenocratic catalogue"), which was Pliny's guide in matters of art, ranked him between Pheidias and Myron. He is particularly known for his lost treatise, the ''Canon of Polykleitos'' (a canon of body proportions), which set out his mathematical basis of an idealised male body shape. None of his original sculptures are known to survive, but many marble works, mostly Roman, are believed to be later copies. Name His Greek name was traditionally Latinized ''Polycletus'', but is also transliterated ''Polycleitus'' (, Classical Greek , "much-renowned") and, due to iotacism in the transition from Ancient to Modern Greek, ''Polyklitos'' or ''Polyclitus''. He is called Sicyonius (lit. "The Sicyonia ...
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The Folio Society
The Folio Society is an independent London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly privately owned, it became an employee ownership trust in 2021. It produces illustrated hardback fine press editions of fiction and non-fiction books, poetry and children's titles. Folio editions feature specially designed bindings and include artist-commissioned illustrations (most often in fiction titles) or researched artworks and photographs (in non-fiction titles). The Folio Society publishes titles across a breadth of genres including fantasy, science fiction, modern fiction and non-fiction from authors such as George R. R. Martin, Madeline Miller and Stephen King. Folio editions can be purchased only online through their website or over the telephone. Folio Society editions have won prestigious awards, including the V&A Book Illustration Awards, the British Book Production and Design Awards and the Association of Illustrators World Illustra ...
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Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissance art, most of all that of Leonardo da Vinci. After running two art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts from the 1950s to the 1970s, the largest and best known being the ''Civilisation (TV series), Civilisation'' series in 1969. The son of rich parents, Clark was introduced to the arts at an early age. Among his early influences were the writings of John Ruskin, which instilled in him the belief that everyone should have access to great art. After coming under the influence of the art experts Bernard Berenson and Roger Fry, Clark was appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford aged twenty-seven, and three years later he was put in charg ...
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Kritios
Kritios (, ) was an Athenian sculptor, probably a pupil of Antenor, working in the early 5th century BCE, whose manner is on the cusp of the Late Archaic and the Severe style of Early Classicism in Attica. He was the teacher of Myron. With Nesiotes (Νησιώτης,) Kritios made the replacement of the Tyrannicides ("Tyrant-killers") groupThe "Tyrant-killers" (Τυραννοκτόνοι), Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the heroic lovers who slew the tyrant Hipparchus. by Antenor, which had been carried off by the Persians in the first stage of the Greco-Persian Wars. The new group stood in the Agora of Athens and its composition is known from Roman copies. With Nesiotes Kritios made other statues, of bronze, dedicated on the Acropolis, of which only their inscribed bases remain to give testament. The head of a marble statue found on the Acropolis so much resembles the copies of one of the Tyrannicides – Harmodius – that it has been called the '' Kritios Boy'' (now in the Acr ...
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Hugh Honour
Hugh Honour FRSL (26 September 1927 – 19 May 2016) was a British art historian, known for his writing partnership with John Fleming. Their ''A World History of Art'' (a.k.a. ''The Visual Arts: A History''), is now in its seventh edition and Honour's ''Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay'' (1961) first set the phenomenon of chinoiserie in its European cultural context. Early life Honour was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, to Herbert and Dorothy (Withers) Honour. After The King's School, Canterbury, he read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While at Cambridge, Honour met John Fleming, a solicitor and amateur art historian, who would become Honour's life partner. Honour accepted a position as Assistant director of Leeds City Art Gallery and Temple Newsam House but left after one year to join Fleming in Italy. Life in Italy Living in Asolo near Venice, Honour and Fleming began a highly productive writing and publishing part ...
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Kore (sculpture)
Kore ( Greek: κόρη "maiden"; plural korai) is the modern term given to a type of free-standing  ancient Greek sculpture of the  Archaic period depicting female figures, always of a young age. Kouroi are the youthful male equivalent of kore statues. Korai show the restrained " archaic smile", which did not demonstrate emotion. It was the symbol of the ideal, transcending the hardships of the world. Unlike the nude kouroi, korai are depicted in thick and sometimes elaborate drapery. As fashions changed, so did the type of clothing they wore. Over time, korai went from the heavy peplos to lighter garments such as the chiton. Their posture is rigid and column-like, sometimes with an extended arm. Some korai were painted colorfully to enhance the visual impact of the garments and for narrative purposes. There are multiple theories on whether the korai represent mortals or deities. Korai also functioned as offerings to the deities or the dead. ...
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Kouros
Kouros (, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculpture, Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less frequent presence in many other Ancient Greek territories such as Sicily. Such statues are found across the Greek-speaking world; the preponderance of these were found in sanctuaries of Apollo with more than one hundred from the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoion, Boeotia, alone. These free-standing sculptures were typically marble, but the form is also rendered in limestone, wood, bronze, ivory and terracotta. They are typically life-sized, though early Colossal statue, colossal examples are up to 3 meters tall. The female sculptural counterpart of the kouros is the kore (sculpture), kore. Etymology The Ancient Greek word kouros () refers to "youth, boy, especially of noble rank." When a pubescent was received into the body of grown men, ...
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