A Formal Analysis of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite.
The artist and date of the famous work entitled Sleeping Hermaphrodite are both unknown. The recent public knows this piece as copies of the original done during the Hellenistic Period of Ancient Greece. By chronological .
clockwork, the piece seems to have been sculpted around 120-130 BC. However, the work can also be dated by its stylistic approach. Evidence shows that the piece contains all the elements of a Hellenistic work of this particular time. For example, the piece was created during a time when the Greeks adopted the idea of Humanism, or the idea that man is the measure of all things and is separate from the rest of nature. Another popular element of Ancient Greek art of this time was Idealism, or the representation of the "ideal" human, perfect in every way. So sculptures and paintings of humans were ideal, with magnificent complexions and lean bodies. This element of Idealism, stemming from the Archaic period led into the later Hellenistic period and its initiative of Realism, or the form of a human true to their natural appearance including age and imperfections. This was a monumental idea for the Greeks, who saw themselves as a superior race. During this Hellenistic period !.
they showed the human realistically, with wrinkles and aged faces and bodies, in decrepit positions. The Hellenistic period also fell in a time when the woman figure was being discovered and revealed in art. For years figures were covered with clothing and leaves until about the 1st century BC when women were fully exposed. The Sleeping Hermaphrodite is a direct example of these Hellenistic ideas. The figure contains many examples of Idealism, and although she is lying on her stomach, appears to be naked yet exposing her true Realism, the sexual anatomy of a male. .
Although we know not what the original piece was made of, most sculptures of this time were carved from marble, so one can assume that Hermaphrodite was as well.
* * * * 75 And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! ... morning coat: a formal coat with tail. 52. ... high sentence: a phrase from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, meaning "elevated, serious and moral thoughts expressed formally." 119. ...
