fuckyesarthistory:

Pergamon Altar, 2nd Century BCE, Hellenistic

The Pergamon Altar is built on the a terrace in the acropolis of the ancient city of Pergamon in Asia Minor, a monumental construction built during the reign of King Eumenes II. It is now in whole in the city of Berlin. 

This is the perfect example of a type of Hellenistic art called Permagene Baroque, named after it’s city of origin. The sweeping drama of the piece, the flowing drapery and the heightened emotion are all trademarks of the Hellenistic period and the Pergamene Baroque. The base of the temple is decorated with a frieze in high relief, showing an epic battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, a common theme in Classical sculpture. 

Peter Weiss begins his novel, The Aesthetics of Resistance, with a description of the frieze. It is the most significant manifestation of the altar in a literary work.

All around us bodies emerged from the stone, massed together in groups, intertwined or blasted into fragments, their form suggested by a torso, a propped arm, a shattered hip, a corroded bulge, always in the body language of a battle, moving out of the way, springing back, attacking, protecting, extending up into the air or bending down, here and there destroyed, but nevertheless with a lone foot braced forward, a twisted back, the contour of a calf, still engaged in a single, common movement. An enormous struggle rising out from the grey wall, recalling its perfection, sinking back into shapelessness.