In the minor arts we can include the coroplasty, the toreutics, the goldsmith’s art, the art of the coin, the glyptic, the ivory carving.
Of coroplastica we have the first units in the pre-Hellenic Cretan pottery found in places used for worship, in the Patsõ cave on Mount Iucta (Gioúktas); in Petsofà, in the palaces of Knossos and Phaistos. The first fictile statuettes of the geometric period are linked to the latest coroplastic manifestations of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization. During which, especially starting from the century. VIII a. C., is the Boeotia that excels in this kind of art: characteristic are the so-called papádes, highly stylized statuettes with a bell-shaped shape and a pointed head, almost of a bird. Figures of primitive, radical stylization are also represented in groups, portraying various occupations of daily life; mostly they have flattened shapes, with pointed protruding parts.
According to SPORTSQNA, in the Ionian art there is a great expansion of the coroplastic especially in the island of Rhodes, where there are almost always female figures and then also busts, also female; here the support for sculptures is recognizable, with round, almost cylindrical shapes. Another region where coroplasty took root, so as to become one of the most important branches of art, is Sicily with Magna Graecia.
Already in the Archaic period, grandiose works of art in clay were possessed here; it will suffice to adduce the singular polychrome terracotta relief from Athena ī on of Syracuse, representing the horrible Medusa. The votive cabinets of the great sanctuaries, the tombs of the Greek Siceliote and Italiote cities are filled with figured terracotta; especially noteworthy are those of Selinunte, very numerous and archaic, where a genre of art of an anti-classical character emerges in the unscrupulous realism of the forms, especially in the faces, reproduced with an incisive stylization, which accentuates the individualistic characters far from the generic formulas of idealistic orientation.
Instead the influence of sculpture, which flourished in Magna Graecia between the end of the century. VI and all the first half of the century. V, occurs in the very flourishing production of terracotta in Calabria (Reggio, territory of Gerace and ancient Locri, Rosarno or ancient Medma, Caulonia) and eastern Sicily (Syracuse, Grammichele, Gela, S. Mauro, Licodia or ancient Inessa). Particularly noteworthy are the Locrian terracottas found in a sanctuary of Persephone: it is a congeries of relief tablets, of a very fine style, and which must be ascribed to the first thirty years of the century. V. They are representations of Persephone or of infernal or rural divinities related to her; they are allusive scenes to the myth of Persephone, scenes of cult offerings, of a funeral nature. In all of them it is the seal of the fine, delicate Ionian art. Another series of clay reliefs, contemporary to the Locrians, is that of the so-called Melî reliefs, apparently due to the island of Milo, and characterized by agile, nervous forms, with pronounced features of the face. For the second half of the century. V and for the first times of the IV continues the primacy in the coroplasty of Sicily. Noteworthy are mainly the terracotta from Agrigento, with the life-size female busts of the two divinities so honored in Sicily, Demeter and Persephone; the characters of the grandiose fidiaca art are perceptible to you. Noteworthy are mainly the terracotta from Agrigento, with the life-size female busts of the two divinities so honored in Sicily, Demeter and Persephone; the characters of the grandiose fidiaca art are perceptible to you. Noteworthy are mainly the terracotta from Agrigento, with the life-size female busts of the two divinities so honored in Sicily, Demeter and Persephone; the characters of the grandiose fidiaca art are perceptible to you.
Boeotia regains the upper hand in the century. IV and precisely with the kind female figurines that go by the name of tanagre, because they came to light in greater numbers from the tombs of the small town of Tanagra.
In the tanagre of the century. IV The influences of Praxiteles’ art, gentle and graceful, are evident: they are mostly graceful female figurines cloaked, supple and elegantly posed. The refined execution of the marble and bronze statues is transformed into simplicity, ease of execution: summary means of execution, speed of work, expressive synthesis, but at the same time fervent feeling and technical safety. The same themes of female figures are also treated in other centers; in Athens, in Megara, in Corinth, in Ephesus, in Syracuse: and in these themes there is variety: now the woman is half-naked, now she is naked, now she is sitting, now she is in the act of dancing, or finally she is accompanied by a Eros, now they are mythical figures, such as Aphrodite, Europa on the bull, etc.
The various trends in sculpture of this period are reflected in the choroplastics of Hellenism, but with the absolute prevalence of idyllic or aphrodisiac, caricatural or humorous and comic addresses.
