Hellenistic art
Greek form after Alexander: passion, motion and theatrical scale from the Nile to the Indus
How to recognise it
- Bodies twisting in sharp spirals
- Pain, old age and drunkenness on faces
- Wind-blown, wet-look drapery
- Colossal altars and lighthouses
- Figures meant to be walked around
Why it emerged
Alexander's conquests created kingdoms from Egypt to Bactria, and new dynasties competed through lavish capitals. Patrons were kings, not city-states, so art traded restraint for effect and emotion.
Examples
Lighthouse of Alexandriac. 280 BC · Sostratus of CnidusAbout 100 m tall — a Wonder of the World that gave many languages the word 'pharos'
Pergamon Altarc. 180 BC–160 BCA 113 m frieze of gods battling giants — antiquity's most violent relief
Winged Victory of Samothracec. 190 BCA goddess landing on a ship's prow, wind tearing her robes — Hellenistic motion at its height
Venus de Miloc. 130 BC · Alexandros of AntiochFound in 1820, it became the Louvre's emblem of ancient female beauty
Laocoön and His Sonsc. 40 BC · Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus of RhodesUnearthed in 1506 before Michelangelo — the Renaissance model of agony and strainMore in this style
- c. 138 BC–128 BC Delphic Hymns — Athenaios and Limenios
- c. 100 BC Alexander Mosaic
How it spread
- 323 BC Pella
- 300 BC Alexandria
- 300 BC Antioch
- 280 BC Ai-Khanoum, Bactria
- 240 BC Pergamon
- 230 BC Rhodes
- 146 BC Rome
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Ancient Egyptian art Africa
- Shang and Zhou bronzes Asia
- Nok terracottas Africa
- Ancient Greek art: Archaic and Classical Europe
- Scythian animal style Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ancient Roman art Europe
- Gandhara art Asia