Comparing Sculptures of Ancient India and Greece
Since the very dawn of art, sculpture had been one of the most important to the artists of almost every nation. The way a nation makes sculptures reflects their mentality, way of thinking about themselves, the surrounding world and their gods. Every nation had depicted their divines and humans in a specific fashion and in those very interesting peculiarities are be observed. In this essay we will compare the sculpture of Ancient India and Greece, find similarities and differences in their ways of depicting the humans and gods, the correlations between god and human sculptures and their reflection in each of those cultures.
For a start, let us look on examples of sculptures of humans of Greece and Indian origin:
Figure 1. Aphrodite Figure 2. Alasa
On the picture on the left side is Greece sculpture of Aphrodite by Cnidus (Fig. 1) and on the right side is sculpture of Alasa Kanya at Vaital Deul (Fig. 2). Both of those sculptures depict women. From the first glance, one can spot a difference: the Greece Aphrodite was sculpted by Cnidus in more realistic fashion then Indian Alasa. This feature is observed throughout the whole history of Greece sculpture. It was not until late in the fourth century that Lysippus catching the spirit of change in the Hellenic world brought to fulfillment the long delayed move towards realism and through his statues gave rise to the Hellenistic tradition (Weinberg, 1926). The urge to made maximally realistic sculptures is explained by the Greece idea of humanism – that the humans is an almost godlike being. There was a cult of worshiping the “ideal human” – an individual developed both physically and mentally. The concept of beauty was fairly developed, and the image of a perfect shaped body for Greece is the best shown on this example of Aphrodite. Thus, they tried to make their sculptures as close to the ideal homo sapience – themselves, as possible.
In the India artists tried to reflect on religious norms and principles in their sculptures. In those ancient times, those beliefs were usually of Hinduism origin. They had no such fashion to make sculptures individually; the statues usually were a part of some other, bigger ornament. Thus, they seemed linear, unlike Greece ones, which are fully three-dimensional (Bell, 1918). On the picture of Indian sculpture, the woman is depicted a bit more slender, than Greece Aphrodite, though a bit more “busty”. On the other hand, Aphrodite is shown naked, that conveys the idea of “pure beauty”, while Alasa have some clothes and accessories to her. In addition, the pose of the women is a very interesting point. Aphrodite stands shy because of her nudity, trying to hide some body parts with her hands. Alasa, meanwhile, does not seem to feel uncomfortable due to her being naked; she stands confident and somewhat alluring. This slight difference shows the different take on concept of woman beauty in these cultures.
Second pair of examples shows the sculptures gods of Greece and India: Zeus (Fig. 3) and Hindu (Fig. 4) respectively.
Figure 3. Zeus Figure 4. Hindu
In the second quarter of the fifth century in Greece, the sculptures started to be depicted in novel poses, momentary stances, trying to freeze the intense moment of a figure (Müller, 1936). This is easily found in Zeus statue: he is portrayed in the moment of throwing a thunderbolt. Realistic fashion allows the viewer to have a look at a perfect shape of a Zeus’s body, detailed and true-to-life anatomy of his muscles, tensed in a moment of action. Moreover, the curious spot is that he looks just like a human – though he is celestial being, his sculpture does not possess any godlike features. Unlike Zeus, Hindu is depicted as a true statue of a divine being: he has three heads and three pairs of hands. The two sculptures share one common thing – they both show us the idea of a body shape of that time. However, the difference between those two pieces of art is very important: it shows the attitude to the Gods in both cultures and their place in humans’ society.
Greece nation considered themselves almost godlike, that is why their gods always are depicted as their perfect versions. Their gods share human anatomy, size and appearance. The Greece gods are the concept of an ideal man, that the humans constantly trying to achieve.
Indian culture has different attitude towards their gods. They recognize the superiority of the gods, giving them multiple heads, hands etc. Hindu does not have that athletic body of Zeus’s, but he has that divine appearance. In Indian culture, the Gods are not reachable, as Greece ones, but they are the beings that the nation can rely on (Cordrington, 1926).
The sculpture was and will ever be inevitable part of a nation’s mentality and outlook. Ideas and concepts of a nation can be discovered through analyzing its sculpture. The Indian and Greece sculpture while sharing some similar thoughts, still have major differences (like the image of beauty or the place of gods in the nation’s life) in a way they depict humans and gods. Nevertheless, those sculptures are the masterpieces that show, how nation can express itself in so much ways.
References
Bell, H., (1918). Indian sculpture, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Cordrington, C. de B., (1926). Ancient India: From the earliest times to the Guptas, with notes on architecture and Sculpture of the Mediaeval Period. Michigan: American Oriental Society.
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/images-artistic/cnidus-aphrodite.jpg
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<http://www.houzz.com/photos/3045375/Hindu-God-Statues-asian-home-decor-other-metro>
Müller, V.,(1936). The beginnings of monumental sculpture in Greece. Metropolitan Museum Studies, 5(2), pp. 157-169.
Weinberg, S., S., (1953). Ancient Greece – Sculpture. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America.
