Greek Art

800–31 BCE

PERIODS OF GREEK ART

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE• Age of Sophocles (496–406 BCE), Herodotus (485–425

BCE), and Euripides (485–425 BCE)

HIGH CLASSICAL: 450–420 BCE• Peloponnesian War (431–404

BCE)• Age of Plato (429–347 BCE) LATE CLASSICAL: 420–323 BCE• Rule of Alexander the Great (336–323

BCE)HELLENISTIC: 323–31 BCE• Greece becomes province of Rome (146 BCE)

EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE• Age of Socrates (469–399 BCE)

GEOMETRIC: 800–700 BCE• First Olympic Games (776 BCE)• Homer (writing 750–700 BCE)

ORIENTALIZING: 700–600 BCE

HUMANISM Idea that humans were

“the measure of all things” (Protagoras)

CENTRAL PRINCIPLE TO GREEK ART

The perfect individual form, defined by ideal scale and proportions, became the

Greek ideal.

GEOMETRIC: 900–700 BCE

Funerary Krater, Dipylon Cemetery, c. 760 BCE. (source)

GEOMETRIC STYLE: dominated by abstract motifs and animals conveyed through black slip

Emerging from the “Dark Ages” . . .

GEOMETRIC: 900–700 BCE

GEOMETRIC STYLE: dominated by abstract motifs and animals conveyed through black slip

MEANDER PATTERN

ORIENTALIZING: 700–600 BCE

Mantiklos Apollo, Greece, c. 700–680 BCE. (source)

“Mantiklos dedicated me as a tithe to the far-shooting Lord of the Silver Bow; you, Phoibos [Apollo], might give some pleasing favor in return. . .”

Increasing Exposure to the East

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE

Exekias, Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice, c. 530 BCE. (source)

BLACK FIGURE STYLE: figures and forms are created through the application of black slip before firing

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE

Euphronios, Death of Sarpedon Krater, 515 BCE. (source)

RED FIGURE STYLE: figures and forms created through the absence of black slip, allowing the red of the terra cotta to come through; allowed for greater design detail and finesse; appeared late sixth century BCE

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE

Phiale Painter, Hermes Bringing the Infant Dionysos to Papposilenos, c. 440–435 BCE.

WHITE GROUND STYLE: figures and forms painted on white clay pot, which allowed for greater detail and polychromy; also appeared late sixth century BCE

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE

Statue of a Kouros, c. 580 BCE. (source)

KOUROS: Greek for “young man”; statuary type depicting a young man

KORE: Greek for “young woman”; statuary type depicting a young woman

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE

Kore of the Acropolis, c. 500 BCE. (source)

KOUROS: Greek for “young man”; statuary type depicting a young man

KORE: Greek for “young woman”; statuary type depicting a young woman

ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE

New York Kouros, Attica, c. 580 BCE, 6 feet high.

Kroisos Kouros, Anavysos, c. 530 BCE, 76 inches high. (source)

Kritios Boy, 480 BCE.Kroisos Kouros, Anavysos, c. 530 BCE.

New York Kouros, Attica, c. 580 BCE.

EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE

EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE

Kritios Boy, 480 BCE, 34 inches high. (source)

CONTRAPPOSTO: posing of the human figure in which one part is turned in opposition to another part, typically with the weight of the body being thrown to one foot, creating a counterbalance of the body about its central axis

FROM ARCHAIC TO EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE

West Pediment (top), and detail of Dying Warrior (bottom), Temple of Aphaia, c. 500–490 BCE.

versus

FROM ARCHAIC TO EARLY CLASSICAL: 480-450 BCE

Dying Warrior, West, 500–490 BCE (top)

East Pediment, 490–480 BCE (bottom)

Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (source)

HIGH CLASSICAL: 450–420 BCE

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman copy of 440 BCE original. (source)

LATE CLASSICAL: 420–323 BCE

The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) resulted in Sparta’s victory over Athens.

Athens attempted to maintain control of its territory, but another military defeat by Philip II of Macedon in 338 BCE forced Greece to give up independence.

Philip II died in 336, bequeathing his empire to his son, Alexander (the Great), who expanded the Macedonian territory far into the Eastern world.

LATE CLASSICAL: 420–323 BCE

Praxiteles, Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, Roman copy of c. 340 BCE original. (source)

Head of Alexander the Great, Greece, c. 320 BCE. (source)

HELLENISTIC STYLE: 323–31 BCE

With Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BCE, his empire was divided among his chief generals. This ushered in the period of Hellenistic art that continued until Roman Emperor Augustus’s defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE.

Gallic Chieftain Killing Himself and His Wife, Roman copy of c. 320–220 BCE original.

HELLENISTIC STYLE: 323–31 BCE

Defeated Boxer, c. 100–50 BCE.

HELLENISTIC STYLE: 323–31 BCE