Talk:Classical sculpture

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I think there should be a main page for archaic sculptures as well as hellenistic sculptures. Those types of sculptures play a large role in the art of Greece. Ckholmes5 14:51, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

There's something of a confusion of terms here. It's not clear if "classical" refers to the period within the development Greek sculpture ca. 500 to 300 BC and its influence (and if so why include the archaic?) or is "classical" means the sculpture of classical antiquity in toto (and if that is the case why no Greek proto-Archaic?) I suggest the page be moved to Sculpture of ancient Greece and the Roman period be dealt with seperately. Twospoonfuls 06:54, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I see there already is a page for Roman sculpture, so this wouldn't be major surgery. It would also put WP in line with the treatment in other encyclopedias. Twospoonfuls 07:29, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Something in the opening line would be useful to clarify that "classical sculpture" refers to both the Greek period, and ancient Greco-Roman sculpture in general. The term is standardised, so it should stay in the encyclopedia in this form. But a more detailed separate page on Ancient Greek sculpture would be useful. The heading "Sculpture in ancient Greece" might be a bit too restrictive since it appears to exclude the Greek colonies of Anatolia, N. Africa and Italy. --Theranos 11:51, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

In classical archaeology, the Classical era lasted from 480-323 B.C., beginning with Xerxes' invasion and ending with the death of Alexander. While the latter boundary can be a little fuzzy, and while some of the artistic developments that defined classical sculpture were in development slightly beforehand, it is definitely an improper use of the term to refer to 6th century sculpture as Classical. Additionally, some very useful source texts would include Pollitt's Art and Experience in Classical Greece and Boardman's "Greek Sculpture: the Classical Period" and "Greek Sculpture: the Late Classical Period." Pollitt's book has an excellent treatment of the distinction between classical antiquity in general(Greece and Rome), modern connotations for the word classic, and the Classical period of Greek art and archaeology.(129.170.152.204 06:58, 26 March 2007 (UTC))

Well, it is a also convention that the term Ancient Greece refers to Hellenic civilisation as a whole and just the modern political unit of Greece in antiquity. But I take your point that it could be a source of confusion, so to avaoid elaborate circumlocution in the title I'd stick with "Sculpture of ancient Greece" and try and define terms in the introduction. Twospoonfuls 15:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)