Neo-Attic

also: Atticizing · Neo-Attic style

style c. 2nd century BC-2nd century AD Greece Italy

Neo-Attic, or Atticizing, is the name for a classicizing sculptural style that began in Hellenistic art of the second century BC and reached its height in Roman art of the second century AD. Athenian workshops specialized in it, producing reliefs, statues, and decorated vessels for purchase by Roman connoisseurs, and Greek artisans carried the manner to Rome itself. Where Hellenistic art favoured baroque extravagance, Neo-Attic works deliberately return to the serenity and grace of Classical and Archaic models, adapting a reduced canon of prototypical figures and drapery in crisp, refined execution. The label is modern: it was coined by the archaeologist Friedrich Hauser in 1889 for a corpus of moulded bas-reliefs whose style looked back to late fifth- and early fourth-century Athens. An early form of Neoclassicism, it shows how self-conscious the later ancient world had become about its own tradition.

Photograph of a cast (scale 1:1) of the Gradiva in the priv. collection of the photographer. [ 1 ] The Gradiva (Latin: She who walks) forms
Photograph of a cast (scale 1:1) of the Gradiva in the priv. collection of the photographer. [ 1 ] The Gradiva (Latin: She who walks) forms CC BY-SA 2.0 fr (credit: Rama) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Deliberate archaizing: forms copied or adapted from Classical (5th-4th c. BC) and Archaic models
  • Grace and charm over drama: serene, animated figures in calm compositions
  • Crisp, refined carving with formulaic, finely chased drapery
  • A reduced repertoire of prototypical figures and poses reused across works
  • Bas-reliefs moulded on decorative vessels and plaques, plus free-standing marble statues
  • Smooth, polished surfaces and correct, tasteful proportions

Key figures

  • Pasiteles (fl. 1st century BC) — Greco-Roman sculptor of Magna Graecia whose workshops met Roman demand for Greek masterpieces
  • Menelaus (fl. 1st century BC) — Pupil of Pasiteles whose workshop produced classicizing statue groups for Roman buyers
  • Friedrich Hauser (1859-1917) — Archaeologist who named the style in Die Neuattischen Reliefs (1889) and reconstructed the Gradiva

Example works

  • The Gradiva (relief) — Unknown (Roman workshop) (Roman, after a 4th-century BC Greek original)
  • Neo-Attic marble vase — Unknown (Athenian workshop) (c. 1st century BC-1st century AD)

Sources

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