Art History 4 Ancient Greek Art

Greek Art Timeline

Map of Ancient Greece Greek Art

Concepts of Greek Art Greek Art Greek art begins “classical” art Greek art is very influential to the art of Europe Ancient Greek art was considered “perfect” or “ideal” Greek artists began to “sign” their art Greek art changed styles over time The four main “styles” of Ancient Greek Art are: 1.Geometric 2.Archaic 3.Classical 4.Hellenistic Geometric Art: The artwork to the left above is from the geometric period and was made about BCE in Athens, Greece, It is made from terra cotta clay and four horses stand on the lid. Geometric art has geometric banding and simplified animals and humans Jastrow - public domain image

Greek Art Archaic Period The Kouros (male) and Kore (female) are standing youth sculptures from the Greek archaic period. They are generally used as grave monuments. Grave sculpture and temple monuments are mostly all that survive of the Archaic Sculpture Marble is the chosen material for these sculptures Sculpture was often painted (such as the reproduction of the Kore at left) Nudity in sculpture was used with male figures but seldom with female figures When using bronze to create sculptures, the figure was often hollow and eyes were inlaid with stone or glass There are some similarities with ancient Egyptian sculpture Concepts of Archaic Greek Art P Kore by Giovanni Dall’Orto free use image Kouros -Free Use image Wikipedia

Greek Art Classical Contrapposto is a term that is used in art. It means the weight of the body in human figures is more relaxed. Figures stand with more weight on one leg so the legs and hips are twisted off axis from the shoulders giving an S curve to the body. This is a very important term in Classical Greek art. Human figures no longer appear stiff and lifeless. Polykleitos was an important sculptor from the classical period of Greek art. He wrote a canon of proportions that was used by many sculptors at the time and in future art Proportionally, heads were 1/8 th of the length of the body Use of negative space becomes common in sculpture. This basically means that limbs sometimes would extend away from the body and be carved with much though given to the space between the body and the limb. Again, this made the figures more lifelike, open, and less stiff looking. Bodies were often “idealized” with what was determined to be perfect proportions of classical beauty Concepts of Classical Greek Art P The photograph above shows contrapposto and is a Greek sculpture or a replicated Greek sculpture. The image is a public domain image

Greek Art Hellenistic One of the characteristics of the Hellenistic period is that the sculptures showed movement Another characteristic of the Hellenistic period is that the faces on the human figures showed a great variety of expressions Themes never before shown in Greek art began to appear in the Hellenistic period. These themes included: childhood, anger, despair, old age, drunkenness. Sculpture in the Round. Hellenistic sculpture is best appreciated by walking all the way around the sculpture and viewing it from all sides. Sculpture from previous periods was often meant to be seen only from the front Even greater use was made of negative space in sculpture Hellenistic Greek art and culture was greatly admired throughout the known world at that time. Concepts of Hellenistic Greek Art P Dying Gaul -Creative Commons photo - Maksim This statue pictured above is actually a copy of a Hellenistic Greek sculpture. Romans often copied Greek sculpture.

Greek Art The earliest architecture in Greece is not well documented because of several things. One is that the materials used were not ones that could survive for thousands of years. Around 600 BCE, stone and marble, more lasting materials, started to come into use in temples. Ancient Greek Architecture Acropolis of Athens, Greece c. 6 th BCE Acropolis – an acropolis is a “high city” that houses a Greek temple complex on a hill over a city Temples were rectangular and rigidly organized on geometric principles Greek temples were divided into 3 types; Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Each of the 3 types had specific rules of construction Acropolis - Aaron Logan, creative commons photo

Greek Art It is important for you to know about the 3 styles of architecture for Greek temples because they were copied in Europe and later in the Western world, including the United States. In the United States many public buildings were built according to these Greek styles of architecture. Ancient Greek Architecture The Doric order and the Ionic order were developed in the Archaic period of Greece. It was not until 4 th century BCE that the Corinthian order began being used. Although the images here only show the differences in the columns and somewhat in the “entablature” (area above the column), rules for construction extended to the entire structure. As you can see, the Doric is the most plain of the 3 styles. Ionic begins to be more complex and Corinthian is the most elaborate style. Doric column (top left) Ionic column (above) Corinthian column (bottom left) All public domain images

Ancient Greek Architecture Parthenon The Parthenon is believed to have been a temple to house the goddess Athena Parthenos. It also served as a treasury The Parthenon was built during the Classical period, with construction beginning in 447 BCE The temple is of the Doric order or style Phidias was the name of the main sculptor who supervised the construction of the Parthenon. The architects were named Iktinos and Kallikrates. In 1687 AD the temple was bombed. Because it stored ammunition at the time, much destruction came with the bombing Greek Art During later times, the Parthenon served as a Christian church and later as a Muslim Mosque. The image to the left shows the corner of the Parthenon from the south Parthenon by Thermos Creative Commons image

Greek Art In Ancient Greek pottery, form follows function. This means that the use of the object determined the design When speaking of Greek pottery, there is a 4 th period or style. As you remember, styles of Greek art include Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. With pottery, “Orientalizing” style follows Geometric style. Although Greek pottery has many interesting characteristics and innovations, what you need to learn today is the difference between black figure pottery and red figure pottery Ancient Greek Pottery Black figure pottery. Jastrow, Creative Commons image Red figure pottery. Jastrow, Creative Commons image Black figure pottery came first during the Archaic period. Black figures are shown on red pottery. Red figure pottery came toward the end of the Archaic period. Backgrounds were painted in black and the red clay would show through to produce the figures.