ZeusANCIENT_Artemisium

Zeus of Artemesium (artist unknown), ca. 460 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens , inv. 15161

A text-book example of the Severe Style. Innovative for its age is the depiction in large-scale of a human figure visible from all sides and en-gaged in vigorous action. "The artist has succeeded in producing a vivid and con-vincing figure through cleverly varying the position of the limbs — contrasting straight arm with bent, weight-bearing leg with free — and astutely exploiting the suggestive power of an eloquent con-tour....A novel sense of movement ... brilliantly cap-tured in a single free-standing statue." (S. Woodford, Intro to Greek Art, 88)

Slightly larger than most humans, at 2.09 m; yet, still, "the arms are too long!" — a touch that boosts "athletic balance and divine power." (J. Boardman in Oxford History of Classical Art, item 86.) — R.T. Neer sees the positive gain from this elongated ("simian") arm to "make the Zeus project more forcefully into the space of the beholder." (Greek Art and Archaeology p. 236)