Lecture Notes: Hyper-Realistic Greek Sculpture and the Lost-Wax Technique

Perfection in Greek Sculpture

• Ancient Greeks aimed for the perfection of male depictions.
• Achieved a state of hyper-reality: more human than human.
• Concept coined by Greek classicist Nigel Spivey.

Lost-Wax Technique

• Process:
  1. Sculpture made from clay.
  2. Plaster mold created around the clay sculpture.
  3. Molten bronze (alloy of copper and tin) poured into the mold.
  4. Wax falls away, leaving the final bronze form.
• Ancient technique still in use today.

Rio G Warriors

• Pair of sculptures found underwater; commissioned in Greece.
• Likely shipwrecked during transport and buried for centuries.
• Demonstrates survival issues of Greek bronzes; only Roman marble copies remain.

Hyper-Reality in High Classic Period

• Greek artists divided human form into perfect quadrants/shapes.
• Idealized forms: exaggerated back line and iliac crest.

Contemporary Use of Lost-Wax Technique: Robert Graham

• Created male and female nudes for the peristyle of the Los Angeles Coliseum.
• Modeled after Olympic athletes but with universal features (no faces shown).
• Connects modern Olympic Games with Greek ideals and bronze casting.
• Male form modeled after a water polo player.

Conclusion

• The tradition of idealized human forms and bronze casting started by the Greeks continues to influence modern art and sculpture.