Severe Style

a period in ancient Greek art of the first half of the fifth century B.C.. The severe style was characteristic of early classicism. In vase painting, elements of the severe style appeared in the last quarter of the sixth century B.C., when red-figure painting first developed. These elements included monu-mentality of composition and three dimensionality of representation. Sculpture in the severe style was distinguished by an emphasis on simplified renderings of volume; the style marked a departure from the ornamentation of the archaic period.