In Rome, there seems to have been no sculptors of its own country in the early days, at least there are no historical records that record the early existence of sculpture art in ancient Rome.
Judging from the background of its creation, works similar to sculptures actually appeared as early as the Homeric period, and ancient Greek sculpture also took its rough shape during this period.
The earliest sculpture craft that appeared in ancient Greece was called "Mycenaean culture" because it originated in the city of Mycenae.
At that time, sculpture craftsmanship was mostly used for wine vessels, funerary objects, etc., and the sculpture materials were mostly animals.
Although there are few records in the Homeric period, the emergence of Homer's epics has more completely restored the social culture and spiritual outlook of the time.
The real beginning of ancient Rome was when it conquered ancient Greece.
Secondly, the objective realism is different.
Roman sculpture is more realistic than ancient Greek sculpture.
During the Roman period, many military strategists or politicians were proud of having sculptors create exclusive statues for them. The Romans even often used sculptures to preserve the images of their dead.
In addition, Roman sculpture inherited and developed Greek sculpture.
Greek sculptures are graceful and elegant, while Roman sculptures are grand and solemn in portrait sculptures and monument sculptures.
These portrait sculptures not only look similar in appearance, but also pay great attention to expressing the characters' personality traits.
From the outside, ancient Rome conquered ancient Greece and was the creator and regenerator.
But looking at ancient Roman sculpture from the nature of development, it is not difficult to find that ancient Roman sculpture is actually the inheritance and inheritance of ancient Greek sculpture.
The portraits of ancient Greece have a relatively single theme and simple content. They are primitive but are the origin of all artistic portraits.
Ancient Greek portraits mostly feature mythological characters and mythological stories.
In the very beginning, ancient Rome was very religious.
The most important one is the ancient Romans' respect for their ancestors, mainly because the ancient Romans had a strong concept of patriarchy.
Therefore, in every Roman family, rooms were set up to enshrine statues and masks of ancestors. It was believed that the spirits of ancestors often came to the home and bless family members.
People enshrine wax masks made from the face of the deceased, or statues made from the masks.
The ancient Romans would hold up wax figures to participate in ceremonies during certain major events and celebrations.
It is precisely because of this special religious belief that portrait sculptures became popular in ancient Rome.
If you want to understand the role of iconography in ancient Greece, you must study European history in depth.
European civilization is different from our country’s civilization.
Europeans have human attitudes and concepts towards mythology.
When it comes to myths, Chinese people tend to have a transcendent or escapist attitude and concept.
The original intention of the ancient Greek games and to celebrate the winners was to know God's decision and to preserve God's blessing forever, so the victor's face was made into a statue.
Therefore, we will find that all portraits in ancient Greece are directly or indirectly related to mythological stories.
In addition, ancient Greek civilization was a city-state system.
Conquests between city-states are normal. In order to make their city-state obey their own arrangements and give the army the confidence to attack the enemy, each leader resorts to the gods in mythology and stories to help or support him.
In daily life, rulers concretized mythical stories by carving them on portraits to educate the people and promote virtue.
As Professor Gombrich explained in detail in his book "The Story of Art".
The statue of Lysippus, for example, may look more like a god than Alexander the conqueror of Asia himself.
This further shows that Alexander’s image is a combination of character archetypes and politics, mythology, reality and cultural needs.
It reflects from the side that in people's minds at that time, Alexander was the object of God's blessing and the human agent chosen by the goddess of war Athena.
Try to look straight, put on the cloak of mythology, respect the original intention, and carry forward the traditional virtues. These are the biggest characteristics of ancient Greek portraits.
Sculpture artists in the classical period mainly considered the construction of human figures with beautiful bodies as their first consideration.
For medieval sculpture artists, especially Gothic and Norman artists, these were means rather than ends.
Their purpose is to narrate religious stories more movingly and convincingly.
In terms of figure sculpture, when the ancient Greek people held grand sports games, sculptors would carve bronze statues for the athletes.
These games are closely related to national religious beliefs and rituals.
As we all know, the participants in the ancient Greek games were all members of the famous Greek aristocrats.
Winning in the competition will be regarded by everyone as the protection and blessing of the gods. The winner needs to constantly express gratitude to the gods.
From the perspective of artistic concepts, there are two significant artistic concepts in Greek artistic thought.
One is that the works are often endowed with idealism, in ancient Greece where gods were respected and revered.
The artist has an open mind and dares to innovate, so his works often express idealism.
The second is to attach great importance to human values and humanistic concepts, and to highly praise the beauty of human nature.
From his works, it is not difficult to see the aesthetic characteristics and artistic concepts conveyed by ancient Greek artists.
This spirit has always nurtured the development of Western art history.
Ancient Greek sculptures left many exquisite and great works of art to the world.
Ancient Roman sculptures have several notable artistic concepts. First, the artistic themes are mostly based on nobles and emperors, so the works often give them an aristocratic atmosphere.
The second is the extreme pursuit of reality in the thinking of the ancient Romans. This idea is also reflected in their works. Most ancient Roman works strive to restore reality.
The understanding of beauty has always been that every era has its own views and understandings, and even everyone has their own opinions.
The ancient Roman view of beauty was to highlight the object's accessories, eyes, mental outlook, scars and even twisted limbs on the basis of respecting the object's prototype as much as possible.
The medieval understanding of beauty was the same gorgeous clothes, portraits of people with the same face, majestic churches, highly neat flowers and trees, and statues of gods who are always peaceful and kind.
The purpose of this approach is to reflect the greatness of the Holy See and the powerful power of each kingdom.
They use this to enlighten people and believers, and draw comfort and teachings from them.
As we all know, different eras have different sculpture arts.
Since the Renaissance, all important monuments in the West that represent heroes, emperors and generals have to be this image.
The production of equestrian statues came into being and became an indispensable item throughout the classical tradition.
From the mercenary captains in the Renaissance era to monarchs such as Louis XIV and Peter the Great, all have equestrian statues as commemorations, and their origins can be found in the Roman Empire.
Ancient Roman sculpture followed the tradition of ancient Greek sculpture, but was more secular, thus taking a more solid step on the road to realism.
In portrait works, sculptors first pursue the realistic appearance of the model and pay attention to the portrayal of the character's personality.