After the Persian wars there were important changes in
sculpture. Monolithic treatment and rigid figures were abandoned.
The body weight was shifted to one of the legs: this leg remained
in tension, the other one was relaxed. This meant that the hip,
buttock and shoulder were lower on that side. The figure normally
had the head slightly turned. This new organization of the body
was more natural. Instead of having a superficial look, it
followed the position of the bone structure. Representation of
the body took medical progress into account: it demonstrated
exact knowledge of anatomy, as we can see from, for example, the
statue known as Critius' 'The Boy', from the Acropolis. On
female figures, the Ionian chiton, fashionable at Athens
from the mid-6th century onwards, was now replaced by
the sparer Dorian peplos, for instance on the 'epistylia' Athena by the sculptor Euenor.
Where there were several figures in a composition, they were no
longer in line abreast, but obeyed a centripetal structure. The
greatest innovation was in the treatment of the figures' faces.
These ceased to have the conventional 'archaic smile', and
radiated inwardness and absorption. On the facial expression was
stamped the figure's ethos, character, and mental
attitude. The statue known as 'Mourning Athena' is an
outstanding example of this trend. Lastly there were hybrid figures. These were completely
humanized, and only a handful of isolated features remained to
indicate animal origin.
Onatas from Aegina, Alxenor from Naxos, Ageladas from Argos,
and Hegesias from (?)Athens: these were the innovators of the
time. Phidias and Myron were pupils of Ageladas and Hegesias: Myron
came from Eleutherae on the Athens-Boeotia border, and made a
reputation for daring compositions, like the Discobolus
and the contest (syntagma) between Athena and Marsyas. Two of
Myron's contemporaries, Critius and Nesiotes, sculpted a
bronze group, 'The Tyrannicides', to replace the previous one, purloined by the
Persians.
