Hermes as Ram Bearer vs. Herakles
...at goes halfway down his thighs with buttons above the shoulders and a rope tied around the waist. In this statue, Hermes appears with a hat, long hair with braids that drape over his chest, and laced boots with wings at the heel of them. He is shown with the common Greek curly hair and beard and famous Greek Archaic smile. Although the detail is not remarkable, he is still shown with well-defined leg muscles and kneecaps, chest, and arms. The hair of both Hermes and the ram were indented with lines to make it look textured, making it appear more realistic. Hermes was portrayed as muscular and with realistic features to demonstrate the power of this Greek god so that future civilizations could have a positive view of the Greek culture. This piece is fairly smooth with curvy lines and the proportions are also very reminiscent of Egyptian art. When one sees this statue, he/she thinks that Hermes is representative of all Greek people. Thus, believing that they were a prevailing and strong society. The second and final piece to be examined is Herakles. This statue is made of fine-grained marble and is just less than two feet tall. The statue portrays Herakles standing in the contrapposto stance with the right leg bent. There is a club in his right hand, which he is using to support his body and the skin of the Nemean lion draped over his left forearm. Although the statue is well preserved he is missing his left hand. Supposedly there was a bow in his right hand, which now no longer exists. In this particular statue of Herakles, he is shown completely nude except for the lion skin hanging over his left forearm. This points out a similarity and a difference between this statue and the last. They both are shown with an animal in their left arms, but the Hermes statue shows him clothed while the Herakles statue shows him nude. Herakles is shown to be an extremely strong and powerful man. The muscle definition is much more prevalent in this statue as compared to the last one, however the Hermes statue was made about 600 years before this one. His legs are well defined along with the torso, chest, arms, and neck. The large neck and large shoulder muscles on Herakles truly represents his brute force, which allowed him to kill the Nemean lion. Also, there is slight definition around the torso that outlines his ribs. Another similarity between the Hermes and Herakles statues is that they both are shown with the thick and curly hair and beard, however Herakles’ hair is much shorter than Hermes. Again, this supports the claim that these statues were made to preserve and glorify the Greek culture, making it seem as though all Greeks males looked this way. It appears that the sculptor of the Herakles statue is much more skilled than that of the Hermes statue, but this could either be due to the time of creation or the material worked with. However, Myron, the expected artist of the Herakles statue was well known and sought after artist at that time. The technique used to make the hair textured is different in this statue. Rather than just carving lines, Myron carved the ha...