Hellenistic

Hellenistic. A term applied to Greek culture in the late 4th to late 1st century bc, conventionally from 323 bc, when Alexander the Great died, to 27 bc, when Augustus became the first Roman emperor. During this period Greece itself had lost its political importance as Rome rose to power, but Greek culture was adopted by diverse peoples in the Mediterranean world and beyond. Hellenistic art is more varied in inspiration than that of the classical age which preceded it, and the sculpture of the period is often remarkable for its technical bravura and overt display of emotion, as in the celebrated Laocoön, the most famous of Hellenistic works of art. After original Greek works of the Classical period became widely known in the course of the 19th century much Hellenistic art was generally dismissed as decadent, but it is now recognized as a rich field of study. J. J. Pollitt writes (Art in the Hellenistic Age, 1986), ‘Hellenistic art was not tied to a single country or ethnic group: rather, like Hellenistic culture as a whole, it was adopted and produced by diverse peoples in widely separated geographical areas. Further, it throve in a world where many of the familiar figures of the modern “art world”—private patrons, collectors, and even dealers—made their first appearance. The Hellenistic age also seems to have been the first epoch in western art in which an intense sense of “art history” influenced art itself. Systematic histories of art were first written during the period; artists revived the style of earlier centuries; sculptors' workshops began to specialize in the reproduction of “old masters”; different styles came into simultaneous use. The result of these historical conditions was an art which, like much modern art, was heterogeneous, often cosmopolitan, increasingly individualistic, and frequently elitist in its appeal.’