This moment in Western Art is often considered one of the most important developments in history, when Greek sculptors began to explore how best to infuse their statues with a sense of realism and human presence.

In this exploration of the Archaic Period of Greek art, we shall look at this sudden change in direction that those early artists took, and how they changed the way their contemporaries and later generations of Europeans understood what it was to be human, and how it was that we humans exist in the world.

Music:
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 – 3rd movt.