Greek vs Roman Statues
Greek statues and Roman statues differ from each other in terms of their styles and characteristics. It is indeed true that the art of both Greece and Rome scaled new heights through the statues produced by the sculptors and architects. At the same time these statues showed differences as well.
Greek statues and sculptures can stand on their own without any kind of external support. On the other hand, the Roman statues needed some sort of external support since they could not stand upright. In fact they used posts to support the statues. This is one of the major differences between the Greek and the Roman statues.
Greeks used bronze chiefly in the making of the statues. On the other hand, the Romans were chiefly influenced by the Greeks in the use of bronze, but in addition to bronze they used marble and porphyry too in the creation of statues. This is another important difference between the Greek and the Roman statues.
Polychrome terracotta was used in the creation of Greek statues. The polychrome terracotta was then painted to nicety. On the other hand, it is believed that the Romans mixed materials in the creation of statues as a cost-saving measure. Another important difference between them is that Roman artists created a lot of busts. This is not the case with the Greek artists.
The Greek artists on the other hand, concentrated more on their mythology in the creation of the statues. This is not the case with the Roman artists. The Greeks gave more importance to athleticism, and they successfully produced idealistic statues. On the other hand, the Romans believed in realism. They did not believe much in mythology but they gave importance to realism and hence showed enormous interest in creating the statues of real people.
The Romans created statues of historical occasion in addition to creating real people. On the other hand, the Greek artists did not create too many statues of real people. This is primarily the reason why the Roman busts became so popular reflective of their statue creating style. These bust statues indeed made the Roman artists highly popular too.
It is interesting to note that the Greek sculptors in the beginning concentrated in the creation of small statuettes only. Gradually they progressed to create the statues of mythological characters. They also upgraded themselves as the creators of marble sculptures as well. This is how the Greek sculptors and artists progressed after making a slow start. In fact, it can be said that they progressed quickly too when compared to their Roman counterparts. This is also an important difference between the Greek and the Roman statues.
On the other hand, the Roman artists and sculptors tried initially to preserve the statue culture and tradition, and hence followed the work of the Greek artists very closely. Afterwards, in the course of time they developed their own unique style of stature making. These are the differences between the two important styles of statue creation, namely, Greek and Roman.
thanks for making me understand and love the history of art and for any new update,please alert me about it because i love to learn the early history of art
This was very helpful. Thank you!
The Romans developed a unique style? Even today in some cases archeologists can’t figure out whether a statue is Greek or Roman…
I would say the main differences are: the external support and the depiction of specific people (regarding statues of common people) and not idealized faces. Realism exists in Greek sculptures too of course.