The Zeus of Artemision, which now lives at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, is a statue that towers 2.09 meters high. Because the item that the statue holds is not there, archeologists are unsure of whether the statue depicts Zeus, the god of sky and the “Father of Gods and men,” or Poseidon, his brother and the god of the sea; but, it is widely believed that the statue is Zeus. The religious aspect is also emphasized by the fact that the statue is made out of bronze—a representation of the gods’ perpetual reign of the world as metal can be preserved for an extremely long period of time.
The role of science in this era is also illustrated through this piece of art. With the creation of this statue, human anatomy was seen, for the first time, as worthy enough of being eternalized in bronze. Classic Greek sculptures almost always portrayed the gods, a move made solely to give the Greeks an excuse to study the human body. In this statue, Greek sculptors showcased human muscle groups and achieved balance in the stature of Zeus through the opposing forces of these muscles.
In the sculpture of Zeus of Artemision, the presence of aesthetics is also very clear. It was clear to the artists of that time period that harmony within parts of a piece of art was very vital. The beauty of an artwork depended on the harmony of the parts that composed it, and each part depended on each other to create harmony. Proportion, however, was the most important variable that sculptors and architects focused on. In the sculpture, there exists a clear ratio that relates the shoulders to the hips and the nose to the mouth as Greeks sought to find relationships—the ‘Golden Ratio’—in proportionality ratios to create the perfect harmonious balance.
by Asher Period 2, Team 1 (Jane Lu, Brianna Loo, Christina Yang, and Calvin Chan)
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