Modern scholarship identifies three major stages in monumental sculpture in bronze and stone.
Why did greeks use marble and bronze.
The archaic from about 650 to 480 bc classical 480 323 and hellenistic.
It was one of the symbols of the power of rome.
From time immemorial marble has been a ubiquitous material in the greek lands a vibrant glowing stone first exploited in prehistoric sculpture in the late neolithic era 5300 4500 bc but most visibly in the third millennium bc during the aegean early bronze age.
The greeks used bronze as a primary means of sculpting but much of our knowledge of greek sculpture comes from roman copies.
Almost all the marble statues in the mary and michael jaharis gallery at the metropolitan museum of art are roman copies of bronze statues created by greek artists some 500 years earlier during the fifth and fourth centuries b c.
The presence of white marble buildings everywhere within the empire in regions where marble had never even been seen was the demonstration that for rome everything was possible.
Since all but a few ancient bronze statues have been lost or were melted down to reuse the valuable metal marble copies made during the roman period provide our primary visual evidence of masterpieces by famous greek sculptors.
All the marble statues in the central area of the mary and michael jaharis gallery at the metropolitan museum are copies made during the roman period dating from the first.
With cast bronze becoming the favored medium for major works by the early 5th century.
Marble is a much cheaper material than bronze so these would generally be marble.
The other favoured material in greek sculpture was bronze.
The romans were very fond of greek art and collecting marble replicas of was a sign of status wealth and intelligence in the roman world.
Roman copies worked in marble had a few differences from the original bronze.
In many cases these marble replicas are particularly important to art historians as many of the bronze muses are no longer in existence.
The tender specifications of most public buildings required the use of marble for finishing.
The sculpture of ancient greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient greek art as with the exception of painted ancient greek pottery almost no ancient greek painting survives.
The single most iconic product of prehistoric cycladic culture especially at its peak in the early cycladic ii period 2800 2300 bc were white marble figurines of women possibly fertility goddesses.
Since most ancient bronze statues have been lost or were melted down to reuse the valuable metal roman copies in marble and bronze often provide our primary visual evidence of masterpieces by famous greek sculptors.
Ancient greek monumental sculpture was composed almost entirely of marble or bronze.
Peter s is a rather famous example of this or more commonly cannons.
Unfortunately this material was always in demand for re use in later periods whereas broken marble is not much use to anyone and so marble sculpture has better survived for posterity.