Why is almost all of the ancient Greek sculptures nude?
When modern people appreciate the art of ancient Greek sculpture, they always have the question: why is almost all of the ancient Greek sculptures nude? Why is nude plastic art so common?
1. Most people think that ancient Greek sculptures take the form of nudes, which is closely related to the frequency of wars at that time and the prevalence of sports. Some people think that in ancient Greece, wars were frequent, weapons were not very advanced, and combat victory was largely successful. It depends on the strength of the body, so people at that time (especially young men) had to exercise regularly in order to defend their city-state. For genetic reasons, even those defective babies were put to death directly. In such an environment, men with strong builds, strong bones and muscles are seen as heroes.
2. The war brought the popularity of sports. Ancient Greece was an era of sports. At that time, almost no free people did not go through the training of the gym. The children of the Greeks had to receive physical training from the time they could walk. At the sports meeting at that time, people were not ashamed of being naked. Young men and women often took off their clothes in order to show their fit physique. Spartan young women participated in games, often completely naked. For the winner of the Games, people responded with thunderous applause, poets wrote poems for him, and sculptors made statues of him. Based on this idea, nude sculpture naturally became the mainstream of art at that time, and the winners on the sports field and the beautiful body can become the ideal model for the sculptor. Therefore, it is believed that it is precisely because of the popularity of sports that ancient Greece produced so many nude sculptures.
3. Some people think that the nude art of ancient Greece originated from the nude customs of primitive society. Primitive people before the agricultural society, the expression of male and female external genitalia is more prominent. This kind of naked beauty, which is mainly based on sex, is because the primitive people regard sex as the gift of nature, the source of life and joy.
American scholar Professor Burns Professor Ralph said in his masterpiece History of World Civilization: "What does Greek art express? In a word, it symbolizes humanism-that is, regards man as the most important thing in the universe to praise the creation.
Ancient Greek nude sculptures show the unusual beauty of the human body, such as "David", "The Discus Thrower", "Venus", etc. They reflect people's understanding of beauty and the pursuit of a better life. Whatever the reason for them being nude, the beauty cannot be ignored.
