1. Archaic Art

2. Dark Age BC

3. Ashurnasirpal 883 BC

5. Protogeometric Pottery
Shapes derived from Mycenaean oeuvre: krater, oenochoe, cups, amphorae.
Faster wheel.
Compass drawn pendent semicircles or concentric circles.
Kerameikos cemetery in Athens.
Krater: large jars to mix wine and water
Oenochoe: wine pouring jug
Amphorae: two handled jar for holding wine or perfume

6. Major Periods of Ancient Greek Art History
Orientalizing
Period
BCE
Archaic
Period
BCE
Geometric Period
BCE
IN Geometric pottery, Athens was at the forefront. As you can see, in the Geometric Period the aesthetic was quite geometric, at least it was on these kraters, which are bowls for mixing wine and water. In this Geometric krater, the forms are rendered in their most basic geometric forms (e.g. triangles for torsos, etc) and they are grouped in narrative friezes delineated by registers (horizontal bands or rows). We saw the use of registers as far back as the Ancient Near East and here we see its revival in pictorial narrative form. This Geometric krater was meant for a tomb and commemorates the death of a man (seen in the center, laying on his back). Around him is a ceremonial procession in his honor, complete with men and women whose gender is distinguished very basically as well.
The Orientalizing Period is distinguished by an influence from the Middle East. Animals become more life-like and resemble the motifs of Mesopotamia. Corinth dominated the trade during this time with their amphora-flasks for pouring perfumed oil. Corinth was ruled by the tyrant Cypselus during this time 657 BC and experienced an overflow of culture.
After this is the Archaic period, where we see a progression toward greater naturalism (as seen in the rendering of the human form in this amphora (storage jar) by Euthymides) and a more fundamental focus on the human form itself. This is also an example of red-figure vase painting (vs. black-figure vase painting), an accomplished ceramic technique which allowed for greater detail and attention to the human form, often shown in motion. Here, we see “revelers”, likely drunk off the wine that would be stored in such an amphora, dancing, their bodies twisting and leaping, showing Euthymides accomplished understanding of the human form.
Geometric krater
ca. 740BCE
Trefoil-mouth oenochoe
675 BCE
Euthymides, Three Revelers
ca. 510BCE.

7. Corinthian amphora-Orientalizing period

8. Archaic Age

9. End of the Dark Ages: “Greek Renaissance”BC
Rapid population growth
City-States and Panhellenism
Rise of aristocracy and the lack of fertile land
Trade
Colonization
Writing
Art and architecture Archaic Age
750=700
Period of population growth technological innovations and increasing political centralizations. Greek Renaissance
City-states became connected. Began meeting in competitions among athletes and bards and luxury items (pottery and tripods). And in building monuments
PanHellenic festivals: festivals that attracted worshipers from all over the Greek world
Olympia (Zeus and Hera) oracles and athletic contests for Zeus. Held 4 years, by 500’s contestants drawn from all over Greek world.
Delos (Apollo and Artemis)
Fostered identity: common heritage, language, and religion
Heroic revival:
Connection to heroic past
Mycenaean tombs became to receive offerings and worshiped as heroes
Special shrines set up
Wealthy Greeks began to bury dead as warriors (resemble Achilles’ death in Iliad-burials during the end of the dark ages and reflect the burial at Lefkandi-dark ages burial…)
Rise of the Aristocracy
In Greece land was often unproductive. The most productive land was being accumulated into the hands of the wealth but also as population grew, children were destined to receive land that wasn’t the most productive.
This increased the desire to move to other areas.
Trade links multiplied, communication with East intensified writing was reintroduced
Greeks settled in Southern Italy and the coast of Syria. There they established a trading circuit expanding from Italy to Syria.
Around 850 Euboeans settled or simply traded in Syria at Al Mina (with the Phoenicians)
Around 800 at Pithecusae an island in southern Italy
Colonization:
Trade allowed access to more fertile land and the Greeks began to colonize.
Southern Italy and Sicily in 750 +
Trade with own products and those of old Greece
More work for craftsmen, sailor, shipbuilders…etc.
Writing:
Greeks borrowed letters from the Phoenician alphabet (Semitic script using signs for consonants) Symbolic signs not pictographs. Also added vowels as well. Largely phonetic alphabet! Probably early in the 8th century.
Why was it created at this time?
Epic poetry? Or commercial purposes/trade? Taxes? Economy?
First examples are on vases. They are epic poetry. Civic uses in pottery aren't’ seen until much later in 650 ish.
Spread in local scripts and dialects. They didn’t all speak the same dialect. (Athens retained a much earlier form as did arcadia)
Literacy didn’t become widespread even in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Much was still aural.
Art developed from the geometric (depicted abstract linear designs which lasted from ish) to an Orientalizing potter featuring Mesopotamian animals and motifs. Circa reflected trade.
Architecture
Early dark age temples appeared around 800 BC and were small with mud-brick walls and wooden columns, thatched roofs…rectangular houses…
The future Greek temple emerged in the 8th century
Made clear distinctions between human and divine residences
All made of the same materials as earlier but much larger
Peristyles began to be added during the 8th century
Temples replaced chief’s house as focal point
Offerings begin at large temple sites. Reflecting the display of wealth of the aristocracy (flaunt)
Archaic Age
Began the development of the city-state idea and government
Basic structures and institutions were in place by 800 BC
A evolution of change in response to changing conditions

10. Greek Art Themes: Humans Mythology Trojan War Forms:
Mathematical proportion
Symmetry, balance, order
Beauty (the ideal form)
Conceptual→Optical
Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders (architecture)
Restored façade of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, ca BCE. Fig. 2-28

11. Black Figure
Corinthian amphora depicting Ajax and Achilles playing checkers
Circa 650 BC
1. Applied to the clay a slip composed of clay particles suspended in water. To this clay slip the artist would then incise the clay with decoration-leaving the remaining slip to resemble figures in black when fired.

12. Red Figure
Athenian Amphora also showing Achilles and Ajax playing checkers
“Bilingual” vase
Circa 530 BC
By 550 BC, Athenian black figure pottery, differently shaped and larger vessels, drove the Corinthian ones from the market.
Developed a new style called red-figure which reversed the process.
The outline would have been drawn first rather than after the slip was applied.
Daily life was added to mythological and heroic sciences…athletics, horsemanship, drinking parties.

13. Pottery Women washing clothes 470 BC
Progression from abstract to naturalized human form.
Pottery
Early art in Dark Age is very abstract.
Around 720ish, end of the Dark beginning of Archaic Age art copies the Near East with animal motifs but the animals are much more life-like. They are not just imperfect representations of the animals. They depict them as they are in the world. Beginnings of humanism-copying things as naturalistic as possible.
During the Age of Tyrants-late Archaic- the human form becomes much more life-like but still very calm and regal.
650 BC in Corinth under Cypselus began the rise of Corinth with trade and pottery with Orientalizing pottery and black-figure
Black figure until Athens begins to dominate the scene under Pisitratus
By 530 BC Athens bgan to dominate the scene
Black figure: emphasis is now on the human and the depictions are mythogical. Still very impersonal-only a brief snapshot in a moment in time
530 BC Exekias: backs match handles, square, figures mirror each other
Breaks up symmetry by the spears, spears are curved, helmet of Achilles emphasizes his position an stands out and also mirrors the curve of the handles,
Movement in the figures is matched in the pottery, symmetry but the symmetry is not rigid enough to detract from the naturalism in the art. The goal is to be idealistic but naturalistic as well-the idealism is to complement the naturalism-the symmetry complements the motion of the vase.
By 530 using red figure
For over 100 years black figure was used
By 470 CLASSICAL ART: What changes during the Classical Age?
Still an emphasis on the geometry because the Greeks realized that humans operated in a mathematical world. So they depicted their paintings according to geometry but emphasized humanity even more. No longer stiff and formal, everyday events emphasized. Still impersonal and only a snapshot in time. The geometry complemented and emphasized what they people’s activities were.
Realism is more important! Not as concerned about matching figures to align with a vase but attempts to depth and other forms of realism are depicted.
Activity become less important (as seen in he Exekias vase) in comparison with the human body. Making it natural, beautiful, ideal…though human activity is still important as an extension of humanity-especially the work of women. Men’s bodies were usually depicted nude and the subject of a painting, while the work of women is more emphasized in paintings.
Very few artists are known by name but the pots are designated by where they were found or the subject matter (women washing clothes)
Like sculptors during the Classical Age, paintings are given more motion. The break with the east is probably one of the underlying causes plus the continued evolution and development of humanism-the human as the center- and a slight move away from the divine.
Humanism:
Naturalistic in form
Motion (the curve of the pottery helps lend itself to the action)
Impersonal and idealized-often caught in the moment of action. We again don’t have a personalization of the images. Just the idealized image of activity of the person.
Ajax and Achilles playing dice 530 BC
Women washing clothes 470 BC

15. Archaic Period – The Kouros & Kore
archaic smile
But, perhaps the most significant development in the Archaic period is the return of the freestanding figurative sculpture. What better way to illustrate the Greek love for individualism and humanism than in the representation of man and woman in three-dimensional form? We see this primarily in the kouros and kore figures, which indicate male and female youth. Here, we see not only the Greek indebtedness to ancient Egypt (in their posture), but a slow progression toward greater naturalism (realism). Unlike the Egyptian sculptures still bound to the block of stone, these figures are fully in the round, and they are nude to suggest the Greek love of athleticism (athletes competed nude in the Olympic games). Also, note the significant strides the artists made from the Kouros in 600 BCE to the Kroisos in 530 BCE. What changes have occurred? His form is more well-developed, rounded, proportional, and his face more fleshy and lifelike. When created, these sculptures would have been painted naturalistically in color using encaustic (a wax-based pigment). So, they were definitely not pristine white as we see them today. Lastly, in this face, he smiles an archaic smile. What is this and what does it suggest?
Commonly set up by wealthy families as grave monuments or as offerings in sanctuaries. Public advertisements of a family’s status in the community.
Idealized, archaic smile, static, naturalisitic, naked, impersonal. Representation of humanity in 3-D. Fully in the round-not bound to a block of stone. (600 BC)
The Kroisos in 530 (Pisistratis’ reign) more well-developed , rounded, proportional, torso not triangular, more fleshy face and life-like, muscles. Still static, archaic smile, hair stylized, eyes closed, symmetrical appearance.
Kouros ca. 600 BCE (6’), Kroisos, ca. 530BCE (6’4”), and Peplos Kore, 530BCE (4’)

18. Archaic Period – Temple Architecture
Temple of Hera, ca. 550BCE. Fig
Capital
Column
Towards the end of the Dark Age we start to see more of what we would consider “Greek” architecture. It was also in the Archaic period that great strides were made in temple architecture, which was heavily indebted to Ancient Egyptian architecture. They rediscovered columns, topped by capitals, which had been used in in previous periods. By the 6th century, Greek architecture would remain largely the same for the net 500 years.
By 650, limestone and marble replaced mud brick and the Greeks were indebted to the Egyptians from whom they learned the engineering skills to move these blocks of stone.
By the end of the Archaic Age (500 BC), all the poleis began to resemble urban centers.
Agora: marketplace-originally would have been the political center and morphed into the marketplace for a polis. Place to buy and sell, gossip, and make political deals. Also the place where philosophers would begin to roam later.
Model of the
hypostyle hall
Temple of
Amen-Re
Karnack, Egypt
ca BCE

19. Archaic Period – Temple Architecture
Temple of Hera, ca. 550BCE. Fig
Doric temple
Mathematical order and proportion (1:2 ratio)
Balance, symmetry
Peripteral colonnade (single row of columns surround it), entablature, pediment missing
Cult statue in cella (core) and pediment frieze reliefs
Colonnade
(peristyle)
entasis
(swelling)
Doric
Ionic
Corinthian
1. In Ancient Greek and Roman temples the cella is a room at the centre of the building, usually containing a cult image or statue representing the particular deity venerated in the temple. In addition the cella may contain a table or plinth to receive votive offerings such as votive statues, precious and semi-precious stones, helmets, spear and arrow heads, swords, and war trophies. The accumulated offerings made Greek and Roman temples virtual treasuries, and many of them were indeed used as treasuries during antiquity.
The cella is typically a simple, windowless, rectangular room with a door or open entrance at the front behind a colonnaded porticofacade. In larger temples, the cella was typically divided by two colonnades into a central nave flanked by two aisles. A cella may also contain an adyton, an inner area restricted to access by the priests—in religions that had a consecrated priesthood—or by the temple guard.
With very few exceptions Greek buildings were of a peripteral design that placed the cella in the center of the plan, such as the Parthenonand the Temple of Apollo at Paestum. The Romans favoured pseudoperipteral buildings with a portico offsetting the cella to the rear. The pseudoperipteral plan uses engaged columns embedded along the side and rear walls of the cella. The Temple of Venus and Roma built by Hadrian in Rome had two cellae arranged back-to-back enclosed by a single outer peristyle. 2.

20. Elevation of Greek Temples
pediment
By the beginning of the sixth century, the two main types or orders of architecture, Doric and Ionic, were well-established.
As we can see here in the diagram of the three Greek orders, from Doric to Ionic, the style progresses toward something more elegant and elaborate. In Greek columns, they are more swollen at the base (entasis) and narrow at the top, a quality which is more present in the cumbersome Doric columns and leaner in the Ionic and Corinthian columns. Archaic period architects used the Doric order with the other orders developing later in the Classical periods.
Doric
Ionic
Corinthian

21. Temple Sculpture – From the Archaic to Classical Periods
Dying Warriors
West and East pediment
Temple of Aphaia
Aegina, Greece
ca. 500 BCE &
ca. 480 BCE
Sculptures
decorated palace
friezes and pediments
Move toward
Greater naturalism & Classical period

22. Ashurbanipal battle of Tu-Tuba in Elam: Assyria 645 BC

23. 530ish BC
Tomb of Cyrus II…Capital of Pasargadae
Pyramidal structure= Elamite
Sculptures=Assyrian
Columns=Median, (who probably borrowed from Greece who borrowed from Mycenaean's, Minoans, and possibly Egyptian…)

24. Around 500 BC
Inside the hypostyle hall-like apadena. Much like Egyptian or even like Minoan and Mycenaean architecture
Greek pedestals, Ionic/Egyptian columns, Egyptian flower-work at the top, and Ionic Capitals at the top
Bulls are topping the capitals

25. Poetry
All literature was poetry. Prose was rare.
Usually private and solo in nature, though some choral does exist.
Accompanied by the lyre or the aulos (flute)
Written to appeal to lower classes through upper
Most appeals to those with wealth to be sung at Symposia or drinking parties
All poets were men with the exception of Sappho, a poet from Lesbos.
What’s life, what’s joy, without love’s heavenly gold?...But when painful age comes on, that makes a man loathsome and vile, malignant troubles ever vex his heart; seeing the sunlight gives him joy no more. He is abhorred by boys, by women scorned; so hard a thing God made old age to be.
(Mimnermus fr. 1 West)
Some epic poetry but most poets produced lyric poetry during the Archaic Period. Greece was unique in that it didn’t really write prose. Herodotus and the pre-Socratics were forerunners in that development. Not much is left but a few fragments. The roots extended back to songs used for special occasions such s harvests, weddings, funerals, drinking songs, love songs….etc.
Accompanied by a lyre or aulos (flute) Most was not choral but personal. The life in the polis merged the communal with the private so we get good insight into the personal feelings people had about their society.
Some poetry abhorred the wealth displayed by the upper class and other poetry revels in the engagement of drunken brawls and the low life of the city.
Most appeal to those with wealth however.
All written by men except for Sappho. From Lesbos and sings about female relationships (Lesbos=Lesbian)

26. Philosophy and Science
Beginnings of philosophy and science
Pre-Socratics:
Focused on the material world and attempted to understand it’s composition.
What is man’s relationship to matter? How do we know something really exists?
Located in Ionia. Mostly in Miletus.
Thales: predicted an eclipse, theorized that all matter was composed of water
Pythagoras: developed a mystical religion based off of perfect mathematics
Philosophy (philo=love; Sophia= wisdom)
Pre-Socratics: those that lived before Socrates
Lived in Ionia which placed them close to the Near East. The study of astronomy and mathematics flourished in Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium. The Pre-Socratics built on that. The Greeks had always studied the night sky: responsible for the naming of planets, stars and constellations after myths (Orion the hunter and the Pleiades the girls he never caught). Constellations were important for sailing and farming.
The Pre-Socratic got rid of the mythological foundation behind astronomy and introduced “science.”
The Greeks were looking for the unity within diversity or to understand what life was really made of. And once we know what something is made of who do we know that it really exists.
Thales: observed all matter was composed of gas, solid and liquid. Water was the only thing to exist in all three forms. Therefore matter is made of water.
Predicted and eclipse and could correctly measure the height of objects based on shadows.
Anaximander: all matter was composed of the ‘boundless”
Anaximenes: everything was air
Pythagoras: not Milesian. Cult leader! Settled with his followers in Italy. Developed the ideas that the world was perfectly composed of mathematical numbers. Developed the Pythagorean theorem and pi. His doctrines combined transmigration of the souls or reincarnation (shows eastern influence and would affect Plato later-seen in the Republic), politics, cosmology, and of course math. Developed the “music of the spheres” all things produce a certain music but we are so used to it was can’t hear it.
Heraclitus: Everything is in flux (changing)…not orderly like Pythagoras.