Sculpture of the Hellenistic Period (323-146 B. C.) shows a further
development of tendencies already manifested in the preceding century.
Individualism led to a vigorous development of portraiture and genre
sculpture. Art ran the whole gamut of passion, from the bestial to the
ideal, and this amplification of the emotional theme was accompanied by a
wider range of subject material than had yet occurred. With these changes
came a lowering of ideals. Spiritual emptiness, sensationalism, and lack
of self-restraint are only too often characteristic of Hellenistic art.
The chief centres of art in this period were not in Greece, but at
Pergamon, Rhodes and Alexandria.
The development of Roman sculpture was influenced, on the one hand, by
native Italian realistic tendencies, and on the other, by the example of
Greek sculpture. Not only were there in Rome numerous Greek sculptures to
serve as models, but also many transplanted Greek artists, who had left
their native land to seek employment in Italy. To the copies of famous
masterpieces executed by these eclectic artists, it may be remarked, we
owe our knowledge of many celebrated works of Greek sculpture, which
otherwise would have been lost to us. In studying Roman art we note first
one tendency, then the other, predominating, but neither is ever lost to
sight. It is this dualism that gives to Roman art its distinctive
character.