From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia Classical
sculpture refers to the forms of sculpture from Ancient Greece
and Ancient Rome and the Hellenized, and Romanized civilizations
under their rule or influence from about 500B.C. to fall of Rome
in AD 476. It also refers stylistically to modern sculptures
done in a classical style. Classical sculptures have been
popular since the Renaissance. Only those works that closely
follow the canon of classical forms would fall under the term.
In addition to free standing statues, the term classical
sculpture incorporates relief work (such as the famous Elgin
marbles of the Parthenon) and the flatter bas-relief style.
Whereas sculptural works emphasized the human form, reliefs were
employed to create elaborate decorative scenes. There are
several periods: In the Archaic Period the most important
sculptural form was the kouros (plural kouroi), the standing
male nude (See for example Biton and Kleobis). Archaic Greek
sculptors originally were influenced stylistically