The section of roman sculptures I ran into at the St. Louis Art Museum all had great detail work on most made of marble were all very interesting but the “Bust of an Unknown Man” was my favorite by far. This selection included a portrait of a Woman on wood from 2nd century to a “Running Artemis” with her “wet-drapery” like discussed in class. Many of the works have no artist attached to the info and no credit to the model of the piece of art. The “Bust of an Unknown Man” along with the “Head of a Man” have great detail work in the curls on the hair of the sculptures.
The marble sculptures from the Greek and Roman periods are very similar but both bring their own styles to the features of the very human like faces and the skin glows almost. At first I couldn’t decide on a topic for my St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) Paper but after coming across the Roman and Greek sculptures I began to think of all the works we studied in class and how art was inspired and created in all different types of ways. Romans believed in the Gods and crafted their art in the likeness of great figures and modeled everyday humans in their image. Great detail was held in the marble works I discovered in this area of Roman and Greek art.
The one that grabbed me the most was the “Bust of Unknown Man”. Its detail and life-like glow gives this piece such great stature. The Romans and Greeks have such a similar style at times in history but the hair on “Bust of Unknown Man” gives depth creating shadows, highlights, and lowlights in the sculpture. The bread has a more stylistic feature curling as of cotton or wool. “Bust of Unknown Man” has locks of curls that seem to been painted at a time in history. The marble around the end of the arms has a rusting and deteriorating.
The bust sits on a small anvil type base. This column is miniature in comparison to the bust but has its own stylistic nature. Underneath the column is a round discus shaped platform that stabilizes the whole piece itself. The bust of an unknown man still is the most eye-grabbing of all Roman and Greek artwork. The sculptures all have an intriguing factor of light and shadows and they all have great high relief work with the three dimensional nature of marble sculptures. The bust of unknown man doesn’t have a whole lot of information only the facts of its culture and medium.
The artist is unknown, the model is unknown, even a direct time frame and place of origin is unknown. The fact that it is marble and of roman descent is the only hard facts known. The marble gives the piece its glow and shine with the texture and peaks and valleys giving contrast from the lights reflecting off it.
Bibliography:
Facts and Details (http://factsanddetails. com/world/cat56/sub369/item2063.
html)Grossman, Janet Burnett. Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture in Stone: A Guide to Terms, Styles and Techniques. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003.
Print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (http://www. metmuseum. org/toah/hd/ropo/hd_ropo.
htm)Palagia, Olga. Greek Sculpture: Function, Materials, and Techniques in the Archaic and Classical Periods. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 2006. Print. St. Louis Art Museum Website (http://www.slam.org/emuseum/code/emuseum.asp?style=Browse trecord=1&page=search&profile=objects&searchdesc=299:1923&quicksearch=299:1923&newvalues=1&newstyle=single&newcurrentrecord=1)
