Archaic smile is a special type of smile used by sculptors of Greek archaic , especially in the second quarter of the VI century. BC e., perhaps in order to demonstrate that the subject of the image is alive [1] . This smile is flat and looks rather unnatural, although at the same time it is a sign of the evolution of sculptural art to realism and its search.
 | Almost all archaic statues have a smile on their face, completely independent of the situation that the statue depicts, and sometimes, contrary to any logic, wandering on the face of a mortally wounded, deeply distressed or embittered. This happens due to some discrepancy between the content that the artist seeks to embody and the means of expression that he has at his disposal. The artist aims to individualize the image, revitalize, spiritualize it, but the method of treating the face as a plane at right angles to two other planes of the head leads to the fact that facial features (mouth, neckline, eyebrows) are not rounded in depth, but up, and it gives the faces of Greek archaic statues an expression of a smile or surpriseB. R. Wipper |  |
.
Content
Archaic Stone Carving Method
Such a smile arose due to the stone processing method used not only in Greece , but also in Ancient Egypt : the stone block is given a tetrahedral shape. The projection of the future statue is drawn on each of the planes, then, at the same time, carving in straight, flat layers begins on each side. Consequence - the statue retains isolation, angularity and sharpness, the shape is reduced to planes [2] .
"Archaic" smiles in other cultures
- smile in Etruscan art
- smile in african art
- Baekje smile (Paekche smile) - Korea
See also
- Kuros
- Bark (statue)
- Greek profile
Notes
- ↑ Whipper B.R. An introduction to the historical study of art. M .: Fine Arts, 1985.P. 94
- ↑ Wipper B. “Introduction to the Historical Study of Art”