Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

A Formal Analysis of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite The artist and date of the famous work entitled Sleeping Hermaphrodite are both unknown. The recent public knows this piece as copies of the original done during the Hellenistic Period of Ancient Greece. By chronological clockwork, the piece seems to have been sculpted around 120-130 BC. However, the work can also be dated by its stylistic approach. Evidence shows that the piece contains all the elements of a Hellenistic work of this particular time. For example, the piece was created during a time when the Greeks adopted the idea of Humanism, or the idea that man is the measure of all things and is separate from the rest of nature. Another popular element of Ancient Greek art of this time was Idealism, or the representation of the “ideal” human, perfect in every way. So sculptures and paintings of humans were ideal, with magnificent complexions and lean bodies. This element of Idealism, stemming from the Archaic period led into the later Hellenistic period and its initiative of Realism, or the form of a human true to their natural appearance including age and imperfections. This was a monumental idea for the Greeks, who saw themselves as a superior race.