Etruscos

D. A. Warner
Greek/Roman Humanities
Maria A. Becerra
What Is “Classical” Sculpture?
“Sculpture today is a dead art, Max Beerbohm once declared” according to the article, What Is “Classical”Sculpture? by Walter R. Agard. He follows to say that we should concur with such statement since sculpture is not the foremost form of art used today. Music, drama and literature among others are themost commonly used forms of art used nowadays. However, we must not forget that classical sculptures were once the foundation of art itself. According to Agard, “classical sculpture has been virtually asynonym for Greek and Roman sculpture”, yet with “such variety” there was then “the word ‘classical’ has no meaning whatever except as a nondescript tag of time and place” since these sculpturesdepicted “gods and heroes, statesmen and athletes, patriotic monuments, scenes of everyday life”, and “personifications of abstract qualities.” Classical may not be the perfect fitted term to describethese sculptures for the reason that these were exact, naturalistic, and carved in detail which is incredibly impressive given that the time these were build there was little knowledge in regards oftechniques and a lack of the tools that we possess presently. These classical sculptures played an important role for the Greek and Roman art because these were a public art and for community use, alsothe tools used and how these were build, as well as how the sculptor’s mood and environment influenced the monuments.
The tools used by sculptors depended on the type of sculpture that was beingbuild. Sculptors usually used, according to the article by Agard, tools such as punch, claw-chisel, and abrasives which imprinted the shape in the block to create a monument. Moreover, in early Greeksculpture “more convenient tools” were used, for instance, the flat chisel and the running drill which “resulted in much more rapid workmanship” yet it affected the quality of the material and...