From Roman To GreekBefore the birth of Greek art, fully developed civilizations had indeed existed for thousands of years in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Crete; but from its earliest appearance Greek art quickly rose to dominate the entire Aegean and Mediterranean areas. Its underlying principles, which we call "Classical", imposed themselves over the whole of the ancient world. While other civilizations, reaching the end of their development, became exhausted, Classical art injected new life into the Italo-Etruscan tradition, spread through the provinces of Alexander's great empire, gave form to the art of Imperial Rome, and remained the basic premise for all European art.One of the Greek's best known sculpture, Apollo Belvedere, which the original (made about 4th century B.C.) used to be attributed to Leochares, is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original. …
