Greek art overview 1. Quest to define the ideal male and female proportions. Greek sculptures strived to create ideal imagery of beauty for both men and women. The Greek style of sculpture is often called the Classic model of beauty. Their styles influence the Renaissance artist in their pursuit of representing man and woman in all their glory. 2. Greek art unlike ancient Egyptian art does not remain static. Many early art cultures are religious or politically motivated, and often had cannon laws applied to the way they were created. Remember the purpose of most early art was about maintaining power. This led to very little style changes over early art periods existence. The Greek society had a desire to seek new knowledge and understanding. The Greeks willingness to accept new ideas creates four distinct periods of Greek art. Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic. You will need to be able to identify the major stylistic points for each style. You will also have to be able to classify art work into each period based on how it meets the period s style. 3. Geometric Art/ style featured triangles, concentric circles, and checkerboard shapes that were used for both ornamental and human figures. Kraters were often decorated with this style of pattern. Pottery was often divided on the service by registers. The use of registers allowed the artist to divide the surface up much like a comic strip, in order to be able to tell a story in the images they created on the surface. 4. Archaic Art/ As Greek society began to thrive it took to the see around the Mediterranean bringing them into contact with cultures and artistic achievements of ancient Egypt. This trade with Egypt sparked the begging of the Archaic period of Greek Art. I last approximately 180 years from 650 to 480 bce. Two types of statue emerge at the same time, the young standing nude male called Kouros (plural is kouroi). Draped statues of young woman known as kore (plural is korai). You will need to be able to identify the direct Egyptian influences on Archaic statures such as standing erect, arms at their sides, fist clenched, and left legs slightly forward. But you will also need to discuss the innovations that the Greeks came up with. Note that the Greek statues are free standing without the back slab that supports Egyptian stone statues. This makes the Archaic statues the first sculpted human figures that stand free on their own. With the Greek Archaic period with have the nude male. This is the first major city state civilization to portray the male nude form. Some art history texts will say they are the first male nude statues, but if you look at ancient tribal art works,
(Paleolithic, Asian Pacific islands, parts of Africa, and Australia) because these cultures often worked in materials that did not survive yet modern primitive cultures do create small male nude sculptures. The Greeks were proud of the human body. Greek athletic competition was in the nude. The Greeks believed that everything, including the human figure, has an ideal beauty. The Archaic sculptures mark the beginning of the Greeks quest to create the ideal human form. The New York Kouros is one of the most famous. (so called because it is in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art) 5. Kore statures are freestanding, draped female figures. The Peplos Kore is the most well known. Unlike Kouros statures, Kore statues are clothed. They are draped in a peplos made of wool (The peplos was a simple sleeveless outer garment worn by the women of ancient Greece up to the early part of the sixth century) that gives her figure a columnar appearance. The missing left arm shows the artist innovation as unlike the Egyptians they were trying to show motion. Also the Archaic smile was an attempt to make the figure appear more lifelike. 6. Archaic Architecture There are two main styles of architecture during the Archaic period. The Doric order was developed on the Greek mainland and in southern Italy, and the Ionic order was developed on the Aegean islands, and the coast of Asia Minor. Most modern places of worship are large buildings designed to allow worshippers to gather for services, the Greek temples however small in comparison was designed solely to house a cult stature of the god or goddess to whom the temple was dedicated. The statue was placed in an inner walled sanctuary called a cella. Only priest or priestess and their attendants were allowed inside the temple. Greek citizens would witness rituals held on an altar in front of the temple. 7. In Doric temples, the cella was usually surrounded by a colonnade, (consists of a row of vertical columns joined horizontally by an entablature) or continuous row of columns, called a peristyle. Columns and Colonnades A row of columns supporting lintels is called a colonnade. If the colonnade is extended all the way around the inside of a courtyard or the exterior of a building, it is known by the Greek word peristyle. A range of columns across the front of a building is called a portico
A Doric column is strong in appearance and stands directly on a stepped platform without a decorated base. Its fluted shaft rises to a plain capital that supports the horizontal entablature. The entablature Includes the horizontal elements that rest on the columns. In the Doric order, the entablature is divided into three parts. A row of stone blocks called the architrave, a frieze made up of alternating triple-grooved triglyphs and smooth sculpted metopes, and finally, a projection called a cornice. The entablature on each end of the temple supports a triangular pediment, which is a space in which statuary was placed. 8. Ionic order first appeared in the 6 th century bce. It is lighter in proportion and more elegant in detail than the Doric order. Ionic columns have richly decorated bases. The ionic capital has a scroll-like motif called a volute. An Ionic temple often features a continuous frieze not divided by triglyphs and metopes. The Greek artist created sculptures primarily located on the
frieze and the two pediments. They were usually painted with vivid colors that create a feeling of life and movement. They used numerical relationships and geometric rules to design temples that were symmetrical, proportional, and harmonious. This was part of their attempt to achieve the ideal form. The culmination of this ideal form is the Parthenon. 9.Archaic Vase Painting There are two types of pottery during the Archaic period Black-Figure and Red-Figure Vases. Most of the surviving Greek vases come from Etruscan tombs in Italy, since they were widely sought around the Mediterranean. The process for creating a Black-Figure Vase was a three step procedure. First the natural red clay was used to form the vase. Skilled artists then painted figures and details using slip. The slip was liquid black clay. The vase was then fired in a kiln. Once out of the kiln artist would then use a sharp stylus to incise the details of the design in the surface. With Archaic pottery we have famous artist signing their works out of pride and a good business sense to promote selling more of their work. Black-Figure pottery begins around 625 bce. 10 Red-Figure Vases Red-Figure vases begin around 600 bce. Red-Figure works the background was painted with a black slip leaving red areas to represent the figures. This let the unpainted red clay shine through as the design. Additional details were painted on with slip instead of incised into the surface. An artist known as the Andokides Painter is created with creating this style around 530 bce. Archaic artist abandoned the use of registers to tell several scenes of a story, and focused on one particular scene. Most often represented were
mythological heroes and episodes from the Iliad and the Odyssey. 11. Classical Greek Art In 480 bce, King Xeres and his Persian army invaded Greece. The city state of Athens led the charge to push back and defeat the Persians. This led to great wealth and prestige for Athens and the beginning of what is known as the golden age of Greece. This period last for nearly 160 years from the defeat of the Persians in 479 to the death of Alexander the Great in 323. This 160 year period is known as the Classical Period of Greek Art. 12. Classical Sculpture The Kritios Boy shows the dramatic contrast in styles of the Archaic and Classical statues. He appears more relaxed and natural. His straight left leg bears the weight of his body, while the right leg is bent and relaxed. His head is turned slight to the right. This relaxed, natural stance with the head tilted is known as contrapposto and is one of the hallmarks of Classical style. The statue has a calm serene expression that replaces the artificial archaic smile. The muscles are well defined, and his smooth flesh seems soft and natural. There are no physical defects in his form and he is represented at the prime of his youth. The Riace Warriors represent the next step in classical style art. They were discovered by a scuba diver in the sea of the southern coast of Italy near Riace Italy hence the name. They are unusual in another way that they are
rare bronze originals and not made of marble, or Roman copies They are remarkably lifelike. Their heads are turned looking out on the world with alert eyes made of bone and glass paste. Silver teeth and copper eyelashes add to each statue s lifelike appearance. You should also notice that the faces show men, not youths yet there bodies are those of perfect physical male specimens in the prime of life (18-24 yrs of age). The quest by the Greeks to sculpt the ideal male form cultivates in the Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) by Polykleitos. The original bronze is lost; we know it only from a Roman marble copy. (why did the Romans choose marble instead of bronze?) Polykleitos sculpture embodied the classical ideals of harmony and proportion. He actually wrote a treatise on sculpture he called the Canon. (yes that s where the term canon law comes from) He used a technique called chiastic pose to create visual harmony. The placement of limbs so that they naturally balance each other in space. Action and repose are in perfect balance. It is sculpted precisely proportioned. The head is 1/7 of the figures height, and the distance across the shoulders is ¼ of the figure s height. The Greek artist believed that following harmonious numerical rations could create ideal human figures. 13. Classical Architecture After the Persian wars much of Athens was in ruins. Percles started an ambitious series of building projects
that focused on the Acropolis, a rocky, windswept hill that rises 260 feet above Athens. It took a small army of artist 15 years to create the masterpiece of classical architecture the Parthenon. The architects Iktinos and Kalikrates where commissioned to design the Parthenon. The artist Phidas a friend of Percles supervised the sculptural decorations. The Parthenon was primarily a temple dedicated to Athena. In the central cella a 38 foot statue of the goddess was created. Her flesh carved from ivory, while her dress and armor were thin sheets of gold. One hand on a shield while the other held a statue of Nike, the winged female goddess of victory. She faces East so that the sun rising on Athens each morning lit her golden robe. Not just a temple it represented the Greeks quest to create the perfectly proportioned and ideal temple. A colonnade of Doric columns surrounds the temple s outer perimeter. The number of columns was decided by mathematical formula. The formula: x=2y +1 is used throughout the design to create the classical perspective of ideal. The East Pediment is 90 feet long and 11 feet high at center. The sculptures in the pediment depict the birth of Athena The temple itself is Doric in design, but the inner colonnade is 525 feet long with a low-relief Ionic Frieze on it. The frieze features more than 400 men and women and 200 animals. On the Acropolis are several other smaller temples. The temple of Athena Nike was the first building built on the Acropolis that is completely in the Ionic order. The Erectheion on the North side was a structure used to hold several sacred objects. The porch of the Maidens is composed of six caryatids-female figures that function as supporting columns.
14. Late Classical Sculpture In ancient Greece just as today artist sometimes pushed the envelope. Praxiteles was a renowned sculpture who was not afraid of controversy. Sometime between 350-240 bce he sold a statue of Athena, what caused scandal was that she was nude. The Greeks were accustomed to seeing male nudes, but a female nude? They had never heard of such a thing. His Aphrodite of Knidos showing her preparing for a bath creating a sensation. The legend goes that Athena visited the city of Knidos to see the statue. Upon seeing it she cried out in shock, Where did Praxiteles see me naked? Another sculpture Lysippos of Sikyon chose a typical subject but portrayed it in an unusual way. His Apoxyomenos (the Scraper) shows a young athlete using a scraper to remove oil and dirt from his arm. Taller and lighter appearing than earlier sculptures he is posed in a natural weight bearing pose. He contrast the action repose style of earlier art and is meant to be seen from various angles instead of from straight ahead.-