ABSTRACT
Three major differences, however, began to come to the fore over the course of the fourth century and into the Hellenistic period: the advent of 'real' or historical battle scenes; the increased compositional complexity of violent imagery; and the tone in which these images were presented. It was in the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods when historical battle imagery, side by side with violent 'historical' hunting imagery, began to appear in Greek art, primarily among the Macedonian elite. Lysippus, Alexander the Great's court sculptor, is credited with being the first sculptor to fully embrace the notion of large, multi-figural groups. The Gigantomachy Frieze from the Altar of Zeus is a good example of how much of ancient Greek martial and violent imagery both did and did not change over time. In the Hellenistic period there is a major shift in the display settings of sexually violent material.
