Western Culture Global Presents

The Top 100 Heroes of Western Culture
These individuals have most contributed to replacing ignorance with knowledge, savagery with civilization, disease with health, tyranny with liberty, poverty with abundance, and despair with happiness.



#40: Ancient Greek Sculptors: Polyclitus, Myron and Praxiteles

Polyclitus, Myron and Praxiteles were Greek sculptors who lived around the 5th century BC.

Their statues provided the foundation not only for Roman sculpture, but also inspired Michelangelo and others nearly two millennium later. Their influence is still somewhat evident today, i.e., the Statue of Liberty.

From a technical perspective, their work provided revolutionary realism, detail, and emphasis on dynamic, fluid poses.

More importantly, however, their statues glorified humanity, boldly demonstrating what man can and should be. Their art proclaimed the beauty of the human body and spirit by showing man as strong, confident, harmonious, capable and even god-like.

In essence, the ancient Greek sculptors captured and celebrated in concrete form Western culture's deepest values, namely that humanity, this life and this world are basically good.



Go to #41: Da Feltre


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