Daedalic Style (c.650-600)
The first stage of Greek
sculpture (c.650-600) is usually called Daedalic (after Daedalus,
a legendary founder of the art). Its style is based on a simple formula
which remained dominant, though with evolutionary modifications, for about
two generations, before evolving into the Archaic
style.
The principal
view is frontal, so much so that in statues the side elevation can be
compressed unnaturally and in reliefs full-face heads are common - in
notable contrast to the rule in contemporary vase painting and in the
succeeding stage of Archaic sculpture. The face is a long triangle with
a low horizontal forehead, big eyes and nose, and initially a straightish
mouth. The cranium too is low; the ears either are omitted or project
at right angles; and the hair (rather like a full-bottomed wig) falls
in solid masses at the front and back, relieved by horizontal grooving
and sometimes a row of curls over the forehead, or less often it is divided
into thick vertical locks.
The body
is still more perfunctory in its modelling and detail, with very long
legs and high narrow waist, which is usually decorated with a deep belt.
Apart from this belt male figures are naked, but females normally wear
a heavy dress (the so-called 'peplos'), which fits closely above the waist
and becomes a more or less rectangular sheath below, and sometimes there
is also a short cape over the shoulders. The other distinctions between
male and female are in the genitals, sometimes in the breast, and probably
in the length of the hair. But since the bodice of the peplos is skin-tight,
it is often difficult or impossible to determine the gender of a Daedalic
torso or, if the hair is broken off, that of a head.
The trend in Greek sculpture - and Greek art,
for that matter - was towards a sort of natural realism, and the development
of the Daedalic style proceeded chronologically. Gradual changes occurred
in the shape, proportions and in the modelling of bodies. Three types
of statue were regular, all symmetrically and frontally composed - the
standing naked male, the standing draped female, and the seated draped
figure (presumably also female).
The standing naked male is typically beardless
and stand with his arms by his sides and his left leg advanced; this type,
which lasted throughout the Archaic period, is now known as the 'kouros'
type. The standing draped female is similarly called 'kore', with
feet together and one or both of its arms crossing the body. So far, no
naked female statue has turned up, though there are naked females on reliefs
and the type is common for terracotta plaques and figurines of Daedalic
style. One may guess that a naked female figure set up in a public place
would have offended Greek respectability. The seated figure is unsuitable
for simple shallow molds and so appears rarely and awkwardly among the
small terracottas. Nor is the sculptural type much better, with its unconvincing
right angle bend from body to legs and the forearms resting flatly along
the thighs. Among the Daedalic terracottas, female figures greatly outnumber
the male and in sculpture too they seem to be more common, perhaps because
the comparable Syrian figurines are mostly female and also that drapery
conveniently cloaks inexperience in anatomy. There is no need or reason
to suppose that in the seventh century the Greeks took a much greater
interest in female deities than they did in the sixth.
There is more variety in reliefs. Some contain only a frontal head, some
a single frontal figure of a type regular for statues, some a simple group.
For instance a large limestone relief from Gortyn in Crete exhibits a
naked male (with frontal head and chest but profile hips and legs) embracing
two naked frontal women, a subject hard to interpret canonically. Another
piece shows a woman whose body is in right profile, though she turns her
face to the spectator and not to the action in which she takes part. Other
panels show two creatures with feline legs lifting a rigid male corpse
and male figures apparently fighting. For figures in action Daedalic sculptures
kept to the convenient formula of Geometric vase painting (and most early
art), that is frontal chest and profile hips and legs with an abrupt ninety
degree swivel at the waist; only, unlike both their precursors and successors,
the head tends to be frontal. This frontality, which is abnormal in Egyptian
and Syrian as well as in earlier Greek reliefs, is suggestive for the
origin of Daedalic sculpture.
So far Daedalic sculptures in stone
(but no bronze works) have been
found at several sites in Minoan Crete,
at Sparta, Tegea, Mycenae and
Sicyon, in eastern Locris, in Delos (then an important sanctuary for the
Aegean), in Samos and in Etruria. These finds are mostly isolated so that
the grand total is very small. Daedalic terracottas, though, are numerous
but not ubiquitous. In Argas and Athens the local terracottas were in
a different and unformed style; for Naxos, Paras and the other Cycladic
islands there is not yet enough material. Samos had a weak Daedalic school,
and Crete, Sparta, Corinth and Rhodes had vigorous schools, of which the
Corinthian is the highest in quality. The Daedalic style was used too
for fine miniature work in metal and ivory, perhaps more widely.
In what Greek region or city Daedalic sculpture began may never be known.
Much later traditions suggested that Daedalus, who worked in Crete, was
the first Greek sculptor and that Dipoinos and Skyllis, who were born
in Crete but migrated to Sicyon, were the first to become famous. But
Greek traditions were conflicting and often manufactured or manipulated,
so that they cannot be trusted. Still Crete always has an attraction,
and some art history students claim that island as the original home of
Daedalic sculpture, partly because of these traditions and partly because
Crete was open very early to Oriental art. Besides, more Daedalic sculptures
have turned up in Crete than in any other region (though they are still
too few for useful statistics) while the island also had flourishing Daedalic
schools for terracottas and finer small-scale work. Others prefer the
north-east Peloponnese or more specifically Corinth, which was at the
time the dominating centre for orientalizing vase painting and possibly
for the Doric style of architecture. Yet other ancient
art historians argue for Naxos, since the Daedalic statues found at
Delos and probably the Samos statue too are made of Naxian marble and
one anyhow was dedicated by a Naxian. Wherever Daedalic sculpture was
invented, it seems that the choice of marble for its material can be credited
to Naxos.
The dating of Daedalic sculpture is a little safer. It is tied to that
of the Daedalic terracottas, which are numerous enough to show a detailed
stylistic development, and these in turn tie in with Corinthian vase painting.
Although the conventions of the two arts do not allow much direct comparison,
since one insists on frontal and the other on profile heads, there are
a few painted vases which also carry plastic decoration in the form of
Daedalic or slightly later heads. So Daedalic sculpture can be fitted
fairly comfortably into the relative chronology for seventh-century Greek
art, though of course the absolute dates are not so reliable.
One may admire the severe principles of Daedalic sculpture, but they did
not leave much room for development. Not much later the formula passed
away and perhaps because specimens were rare it never caught the fancy
of archaizing sculptors or connoisseurs. What remained were the kouros
and kore types, the habit of working to an intellectually conceived ideal
without direct imitation of nature, and some ability to carve marble.
See also Irish
Sculpture. |