THREE SPHINXES

 THREE SPHINXES

I've arranged these in chronological order to illustrate style changes 

Archaic

CLASSICAL 

Roman Empire 120 AD

The Smile of a Sphinx

 THE SMILE OF A SPHINX 

#sphinx #archaicsculpture #greeksculpture #archaicgreekart 

Its Not only Maidens and Youths who have THAT smile in Archaic Greek ART.

This statue is the top part of an Archaic Attic Stele (I'll show you the lower part in the next post) and the slender feline proportions and pose of the lower body suggest the  sculptor seems to have seen a cat (then an exotic import) about to bring upwards. Note the distinctive Archaic Smile. The lack of plumage yet detailed carving of the face suggests also the sculptor wanted onlookers looking upwards to notice the smile ? Such elegant refined curves!

The stele was discovered broken into pieces and this is a museum reconstruction.

Next post will include closeups of the youth below.

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The Evolution of the Greek Sphinx

The Evolution of the #Greek #Sphinx

A Final Chronological Look at Sphinxes in #GreekArt

Starting with an Egyptian Sphinx

Then the sort of #Sphinx  Phonecian traders might have been selling as luxury items

From the #Archaic period 

And Classical 

Finally a Early hellenistic mosaic floor from Etretria

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Hellenistic Era Sphinx and Oedipus

#sphinx #oedipus #vase #greekart

In the #Hellenistic period there were a shift back to using white slip as a background for paintings on ceramic vessels.

Images were created using something like tempera and added after firing so many of this type of ceramics have faded colors however you still still make out traces of blue gray on the wing feathers of this piece.

Yet another Sphinx Sculpture.

#sphinx #sculpture #classicalgreekart

This one is from Cyprus. The "pinks" are faded reds and possibly other weaker pigments may have eroded off.

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A Sphinx in a Late Classical Mosaic

This #mosiac comes from a house in #Etretria

#sphinx #greekart

the pavement also features griffins a seahorse and  lions
note the restrained use of colour in comparison to the wider colour range in Hellenistic and Roman mosaics.

Sphinxes on Greek Ceramics

#sphinx #greekceramics #sphinxes

4 examples in roughly chronological order of sphinxes depicted on Greek ceramic

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More Egyptian and Phoenician Sphinxes

#sphinx #egyptianart #phoenicianart

Having shown you the Delphi #Sphinx last time I want to show you more Egyptian and Phoenician pieces so you can see the interplay and connections between the different but related styles and models for Greek Sphinxes, Archaic or Classical and later.

2 Egyptian pieces 

the top one is ivory and part of a chariot horse's head harness a blinker 

 the bottom an amulet or maybe the Egyptian equivalent of an ornamental piece of bricbrac?

Now for 2 Phoenician / Syrian / Near East works.

Those wings probably had inlay of glass or jewels once.

Metal was also used. 

So Greek travellers and traders to Egypt Assyria Phoenicia and the Near East were seeing and bringing home objects like this as models for.

Next time Some more Greek interpretations of the Sphinx motif.

The Delphi Sphinx

THE #DELPHI #SPHINX

This Archaic era #greek #sculpture was created on the island of #naxos and originally placed on a high column in the temple precinct .

It is perhaps less ornate than Egyptian and Phoenician sphinxes though the body is more feline than leonine?

Bear in mind in its original location outdoors people would have been seeing this work from below or above and a distance.



Next time I compare Archaic sphinxes with more Egyptian and Phoenician models.

The SPHINX IN GREEK ART

THE SPHINX IN GREEK ART

#sphinx #greekart #ceramics #sculpture

It is a curious feature of Greek art that the creature with a male head and lion's body becomes female and acquires a body more like that of a cheetah or cat in Greek Art.

We do not know if early Greek visitors to Naucratis or Memphis or Thebes actually saw the Sphinx at Giza or Sphinx figures at temples. It is perhaps more likely the first images Greeks saw of Sphinx were Phoenician ivories like this?

This one is male but the beardless face along with the legend of a female sphinx at Thebes plus the arrival of the first domestic cats lead to images like this:

On this Archaic era vessel the sphinxes appear alongside lions and a feline that may be a leopard or cheetah plus other animals.

Next time the Sphinx of Delphi !