The Art of Greece - The Age of Hellenism

The Hellenistic Age links classical Greece with imperial Rome. Hellenistic man was pre-eminently a citizen of the world: the narrow limits of the city-state had given way to the boundless oikumene. In the old cities of Greece, in Italy, Asia Minor, and the new courts set up by Hellenistic dynasties between the death of Alexander the Great and the time of Julius Caesar, the period was marked by masterpieces which combined elegant craftsmanship with intense emotional force. At the same time architecture and town planning benefited from the advances in mathematics and engineering. Theatres, gymnasia, temples, porticoes and colonnades were built in cities old and new. In sculpture, the spirit of the age revealed itself in such works as the famous Laocoon and the Winged Victory from Samothrace (now in the Louvre).