1. Geometric and Orientalizing Periods
Art of Ancient Greece
Geometric and Orientalizing Periods
GEOMETRIC PERIOD NINTH-SEVENTH CENTURIES – EMERGENCE FROM THE DARK AGES (DARK AGES WAS CHARACTERIZED BY DEPOPULATION, POVERTY, AND AN ALMOST TOTAL LOSS OF CONTACT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD.)
GREEK CULTURE AND ITS IDEAL OF HUMANISTIC EDUCATION AND LIFE, HUMANITY IS WHAT MATTERED – “MEASURE OF ALL THINGS” SAID BY PHILOSOPHER PROTAGORAS
THIS OUTLOOK LED THE GREEKS TO CREATE THE CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY (RULE OF THE DEMOS-THE PEOPLE), CAME ABOUT IN THE CLASSICAL ERA
GREEK NEVER FORMED A SINGLE NATION – THEY FORMED INDEPENDENT CITY-STATES (OR POLEIS (SINGULAR POLIS) – POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT DIFFERED FROM POLIS TO POLIS BUT SAME PATTERN = RULE FIRST BY KINGS, THEN NOBLES, THEN TYRANTS WHO SEIZED PERSONAL POWER (WHO WERE OVERTHROWN IN THE 5TH CENTURY WHEN DEMOCRACY WAS CREATED)
GREEK CULTURE: Slavery regarded as natural, even beneficial, a universal institution for Greeks. Aristotle, philosopher (tutored Alexander the Great), "it is clear that some are free by nature, and others are slaves".
Greek women were in no way the equals of Greek men. Women normally remained secluded in their homes, emerging usually only for weddings, funerals, and religious festivals. They played little part in public or political life.
Despite the fame of the poet Sappho, only a handful of female artists’ names are known, and none of their works survive.
The existence of slavery and the exclusion of women from public life are both reflected in Greek art. On many occasions free-born men and women appear with their slaves in monumental sculpture.
The symposium (attended only by men and prostitutes) is a popular subject on painted vases.

2. Geometric Period Meandering Patterns – Key Patterns
8th Cent. – *Human Figure Returned to Greek Art (esp. painted on ceramic Greek Pots)
The Nature of Art’s Ornament in this Period Gave the Name Geometric

3. Geometric figures during this period are depicted with:
Triangular torsos
Triangular profile heads
Round dots for eyes
Long and thin rectangles for arms,
Long legs with bulging thighs and high calf muscles.

4. Geometric Period
Meandering Pattern
Geometric krater, from the Dipylon cemetery, Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BCE
Time when:
Olympic games established
Homer’s epic poems were recorded
Marked head of grave – power of individual
Abstract angular motifs
Registers, triangular humans, funeral procession
KRATER = MIXING BOWL (BUT BOTTOM OF THIS VESSEL IS OPEN.) RE-EMERGENCE OF HUMAN FIGURE AND STORY TELLING/NARRATIVE IN GREEK ART!!!
THIS VASE STOOD ALMOST AS HIGH AS A WOMAN OR A MAN IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY. SCALE SHOWS IMPORTANCE and WEALTH/POSITION OF DECEASED FAMILY.
Ornamentation of the vase is organized- REGISTERS OF UNEQUAL SIZE.  DEPICTS A FUNERAL AND MOURNERS (WOMEN GRASPING AT THEIR HAIR IN EMOTION).
NEXT REGISTER DEPICTS FUNERAL PRECESSION WITH SOLDIERS, HORSES, AND CHARIOTS EVERY EMPTY SPACE IS FILLED WITH GEOMETIRC PATTERNSAND ORNAMENTS.
BODIES ARE DEPICTED AS FLAT, GEOMETRIC FORMS, WITH NO OVERLAPPING OF FIGURES SHOWING NO SENSE OF DEEPER SPACE. INCORRECT PROPORTIONS AND PERSPECTIVE DEPICTED (LOOK AT HORSES – CORRECT NUMBER OF LEGS BUT BODIES ALL CONNECT) BODIES ARE FRONTAL, WHILE HEADS, ARMS, AND LEGS ARE IN PROFILE (SIMILAR TO EGYPTIAN ART) WITH ONE FRONTAL LARGE EYE FACING THE FRONT GENDER DEPICTIONS ARE REPRESENTED.
Olympic Games started in 776 AT OLYMPIA – 1st TIME ALL GREEK-SPEAKING STATES CAME TOGETHER, FROM THEN ON THE GREEKS REGARDED THEMSELVES AS CITIZENS OF HELLAS DISTINCT FROM THE SURROUNDING “BARBARIANS” WHO DID NOT SPEAK GREEK……THIS ENLARGED THE TRADING AND COLONIZING (GEOGRAPHICAL AND CULTURAL BOUNDARIES OF HELLAS)
All OLYMPIANS performed in the nude – only the trainers were clothed. Women were not allowed to participate. Idealization of the human form – strength, athletic ability (same today)

5. 5 minute: GROUP RESEARCH: How does the Greek funeral procession
differ from Old Kingdom Egypt? What
might that suggest about these culture’s
beliefs about afterlife?
YOU WILL PRESENT AFTERWARD!
Greek’s beliefs of afterlife – Pantheon of Gods (Zeus, etc.), Haetes - underworld, etc. (in Rome Zeus will become Jupiter)
GREEK DEITIES DIFFERED FROM EGYPT – GREEK DIETIES DIFFERED FROM HUMAN BEINGS ONLY IN THAT THEY WERE IMMORTAL, NEAR EAST DIVINITIES WERE NOT FREE FROM HUMAN FRAILTY

6. Orientalizing Period Influences from Near East and Egypt Cultures
Borrowed ideas, motifs, conventions, and skills from older civilizations

7. Corinthian black-figure amphora with animal friezes, from Rhodes, Greece, ca. 625-600 BCE
Amphora = two handled storage jar
Orientalizing Period defined from motifs from Egypt and Near East
Lions, native boar, panthers, Eastern sphinx and lamassu
Corinthian’s invented black-figure painting, later adopted by Athenians
BLACK-FIGURE PAINTING TECHNIQUE = PAINTER FIRST PUT DOWN BLACK SILHOUETTES ON THE CLAY SURFACE (AS IN GEOMETRIC TIMES), THEN USED A SHARP POINTED INSTRUMENT TO INCISE LINEAR DETAILS WITHIN THE FORMS, USUALLY ADDING HIGHLIGHTS IN PURPLISH REDOR WHITE OVER THE BLACK FIGURES BEFORE FIRING THE VESSEL.

8. Geometric Homework Assignment
Create two registers that define in narrative what you did this weekend. Each register must be approximately one inch tall and 3 inches long. Must be geo figures. Submit at Beginning of next class.
Good luck and have fun!