Bronze Hellenistic period handle, decorated with the head of Alexander the Great in relief, 300 BCE - 100 BCE
Bronze
height 16.5 cm
height 6 1/2 in
height 6 1/2 in
PH.0149
Vessels in ancient Greece were made in great quantities and in diverse materials, which included terracotta, glass, ivory, stone, wood, leather, bronze, silver, and gold. Most vases of precious metals have...
Vessels in ancient Greece were made in great quantities and in diverse materials, which included terracotta, glass, ivory, stone, wood, leather, bronze, silver, and gold.
Most vases of precious metals have largely disappeared as they were melted down and reused, but ancient literary sources from literature and inscriptions testify to their existence.
Many more bronze vessels must have existed in antiquity because they were considerably less expensive than silver and gold, and more have survived because they were buried in tombs or hidden in hoards beneath the ground. The handles, mouths and feet of bronze vessels were often cast separately from a mold. Such cast parts were consequently attached to the hammered body of the vase with rivets or solders, or a combination of the two methods.
In many cases, the thin, hammered bodies of bronze vases have disappeared entirely or are extremely fragmentary because of the corrosive effects of the soil in which they were buried. The solid handles, mouths and feet have fared better. They often are decorated with geometric patterns, powerful animals, mythical creatures and human figures, especially at the points at which the handles are attached to the body of the vase. The mouth, foot, and ends of the handles usually are decorated with geometric or floral patterns rendered in low relief. Sometimes, and below handles posed vertically against the body of the vase, independently worked appliquées often appear, which were made using a repoussé technique that involves hammering the panel from the front and back to achieve different levels of relief within the composition.
Ancient Greek art has had a truly decisive and vastly important impact in the creation of statuary in bronze. Bronze was considered a finer, nobler medium compared to marble . Large-scale bronze statuary was extremely difficult to make well but at its best it offered a dynamism and subtlety that could rarely be matched in stone. Bronze sculpture begins with the creation of smaller scale models in clay and wax, and contrasts with the unforgiving, reductive process of marble-carving, during which one unfortunate move with the chisel or an unexpected flaw in the stone may have disastrous repercussions. In consequence, and based on the ability and the excellence of Greek sculptors, hundreds of thousands of images in bronze were erected in all Hellenic sanctuaries and stood in the public areas of all Greek city-states. Over the course of more than a thousand years, Greek artists were able to invent and created hundreds of statue types, whose influence on large-scale statuary continues to the present day.
However, as bronze is valuable and has always been in high demand to be melted down and re-used, all but a few ancient bronze statues have been lost, with marble copies made during the Roman period which have survived to our days are providing our primary visual evidence of masterpieces by famous Greek sculptors of the antiquity.
Roman sculptures closely and consistently adhered to styles that were first developed in classical Greece centuries before. Moreover, the multiple examples of particular figures often in existence are reinforcing the impression that there must have been a lost prototype laying behind such a large number of copies. Given the Romans’ veneration for all Greek things and justified admiration for the sculptors of classical Greece, it was reasonable to assume that the Roman replicas surviving to our days were copies of antique masterpieces made for the adornment of wealthy houses or public spaces.
During the third millennium B.C., foundry workers recognized, possibly through the experimentation of trial and error, that bronze had distinct advantages over pure copper for making statuary. Bronze is an alloy typically composed of 90% copper and 10% tin and, because it has a lower melting point than pure copper, it may remain in a liquid form for much longer when filling a mold. It also produces a better casting than pure copper and has superior tensile strength. While there were many sources for copper around the Mediterranean basin, the island of Cyprus, whose very name derives from the Greek word for copper, was the most important. Tin, on the other hand, was imported from places as far as southwest Turkey, Afghanistan, and Cornwall, England.
The earliest large-scale Greek bronze statues had very simple forms, directly dictated by their simple technique of manufacture. They are scientifically known as sphyrelata (literally, “hammer-driven”), in which parts of the statue were created separately out of hammered bronze sheets which in the aftermath would be attached one to another with rivets. Frequently, these metal sheets were embellished by hammering the bronze over wooden forms in order to produce reliefs, or by incising designs using a technique called tracing.
By the late Archaic period (ca. 500–480 B.C.), sphyrelata went out of use and fashion, when the lost-wax casting method became the major technique for producing bronze statuary.
Most vases of precious metals have largely disappeared as they were melted down and reused, but ancient literary sources from literature and inscriptions testify to their existence.
Many more bronze vessels must have existed in antiquity because they were considerably less expensive than silver and gold, and more have survived because they were buried in tombs or hidden in hoards beneath the ground. The handles, mouths and feet of bronze vessels were often cast separately from a mold. Such cast parts were consequently attached to the hammered body of the vase with rivets or solders, or a combination of the two methods.
In many cases, the thin, hammered bodies of bronze vases have disappeared entirely or are extremely fragmentary because of the corrosive effects of the soil in which they were buried. The solid handles, mouths and feet have fared better. They often are decorated with geometric patterns, powerful animals, mythical creatures and human figures, especially at the points at which the handles are attached to the body of the vase. The mouth, foot, and ends of the handles usually are decorated with geometric or floral patterns rendered in low relief. Sometimes, and below handles posed vertically against the body of the vase, independently worked appliquées often appear, which were made using a repoussé technique that involves hammering the panel from the front and back to achieve different levels of relief within the composition.
Ancient Greek art has had a truly decisive and vastly important impact in the creation of statuary in bronze. Bronze was considered a finer, nobler medium compared to marble . Large-scale bronze statuary was extremely difficult to make well but at its best it offered a dynamism and subtlety that could rarely be matched in stone. Bronze sculpture begins with the creation of smaller scale models in clay and wax, and contrasts with the unforgiving, reductive process of marble-carving, during which one unfortunate move with the chisel or an unexpected flaw in the stone may have disastrous repercussions. In consequence, and based on the ability and the excellence of Greek sculptors, hundreds of thousands of images in bronze were erected in all Hellenic sanctuaries and stood in the public areas of all Greek city-states. Over the course of more than a thousand years, Greek artists were able to invent and created hundreds of statue types, whose influence on large-scale statuary continues to the present day.
However, as bronze is valuable and has always been in high demand to be melted down and re-used, all but a few ancient bronze statues have been lost, with marble copies made during the Roman period which have survived to our days are providing our primary visual evidence of masterpieces by famous Greek sculptors of the antiquity.
Roman sculptures closely and consistently adhered to styles that were first developed in classical Greece centuries before. Moreover, the multiple examples of particular figures often in existence are reinforcing the impression that there must have been a lost prototype laying behind such a large number of copies. Given the Romans’ veneration for all Greek things and justified admiration for the sculptors of classical Greece, it was reasonable to assume that the Roman replicas surviving to our days were copies of antique masterpieces made for the adornment of wealthy houses or public spaces.
During the third millennium B.C., foundry workers recognized, possibly through the experimentation of trial and error, that bronze had distinct advantages over pure copper for making statuary. Bronze is an alloy typically composed of 90% copper and 10% tin and, because it has a lower melting point than pure copper, it may remain in a liquid form for much longer when filling a mold. It also produces a better casting than pure copper and has superior tensile strength. While there were many sources for copper around the Mediterranean basin, the island of Cyprus, whose very name derives from the Greek word for copper, was the most important. Tin, on the other hand, was imported from places as far as southwest Turkey, Afghanistan, and Cornwall, England.
The earliest large-scale Greek bronze statues had very simple forms, directly dictated by their simple technique of manufacture. They are scientifically known as sphyrelata (literally, “hammer-driven”), in which parts of the statue were created separately out of hammered bronze sheets which in the aftermath would be attached one to another with rivets. Frequently, these metal sheets were embellished by hammering the bronze over wooden forms in order to produce reliefs, or by incising designs using a technique called tracing.
By the late Archaic period (ca. 500–480 B.C.), sphyrelata went out of use and fashion, when the lost-wax casting method became the major technique for producing bronze statuary.