Hellenistic: The Antikythera Philosopher

The Antikythera Philosopher

Hellenistic culture and style developed in Greece after the reign of Alexander the Great in the 2nd century BC.  Though it lasted only a couple hundred years, the style spread throughout Alexander's empire, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Some of the characteristics that developed in Hellenistic art, and which contrasted to Hellenic or Classical characteristics, are an interest in everyday subjects, the emphasis on emotion and motion to engage viewers, and realism (humans were no longer depicted ideally). 

The Antikythera Philosopher was found in AD 1900 among an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera, a Greek island just south of the Peloponnesus. The statue, according the plaque that I found next to it in the National Archeological Museum in Athens, should date back to about "230 BC or shortly thereafter." Unfortunately, only fragments remain of the statue, but it depicts an bearded man with very realistic features, from the wrinkles in his forehead to his unkept hair. His face also depicts emotion and intensity. It is proposed, due to the unkept hair, that the statue depicts a Cynic philosopher.

What strikes me upon seeing this statues is the detail and expressiveness of the face. Classical Greek statues have detail, but not such realistic detail. The face looks very real, not at all idealized. The intensity in the expression brings to mind the intensity of thinking and discussing, and it seems as if the statue is in the middle of a philosophical argument. It causes me to wonder what thoughts could be going through his mind and, if the statue could talk, what he would say.