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Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 12e

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The Greek World

Chapter 5 Gods, Heroes, and Athletes: The Art of Ancient Greece

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Goals

• Understand the diverse cultural influences on Greek artistic development

• Discuss the evolution of the human figure and how it is represented in Greek art

• Relate the development of temple architecture

• Cite architectural components and terminology

• Understand the impact of the conquest of the Greeks on their respective art forms

• Discuss individual artists and their respective styles

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Greek Humanism

• “For we are the lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes. And we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. -- Pericles– Greek humanism led to democracy.

[demos=people]– Greek gods took human form &

exhibited human frailties – yet were immortal

– The perfect individual became the Greek ideal.

– The first “Olympic Games” were held in 776 BCE.

• Athens as the center of ancient Greek culture.– Carried out in the stoa, the agora and

palaestrus.– “Sound mind in sound body”

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The Greek GodsAphrodite: (Venus) Goddess of love and

beauty.Apollo: (Apollo) God of light and music. A

great archer.Artemis: (Diana) Goddess of the hunt and wild

animals.Athena: (Minerva) Goddess of wisdom and

warfare. Her city was Athens.Demeter: (Ceres) Goddess of grain and

agriculture.Dionysos: (Bacchus) God of wine.Hera: (Juno) Goddess of marriage.Herakles: (Hercules) Greatest Greek hero

who performed 12 great labors. According to legend, he established the Olympic games.

Hermes: (Mercury) Messenger of the gods, guide of travelers.

Laocöon: A character from the Aeneid: a Trojan priest who was strangled, along with his two sons, while sacrificing at an altar.

Medusa: A gorgon with a hideous face and snake hair, she turned anyone who gazed at her to stone.

Zeus: (Jupiter) King of the gods.

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Geometric, Orientalizing, and Archaic Art• Characteristics typical of vase decoration

from the Geometric period. – Almost exclusively covered in abstract

motifs.– Human figure is highly stylized.– No depth of space.

The 7th century was known as the “Orientalizing” period in Greek art because the Greeks borrowed many motifs from Egypt or Near Eastern art due to closer contact through trade.

New subject-matter• Egyptian monsters, like the Sphinx and

lamassu.• Black-figure painting.

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Geometric, Orientalizing, and Archaic Art

Found in a cemetery: 3 ft tall, open bottom, perhaps to pour libations in honor of the dead.

• A fine example of figure painting in Ancient Greece.

• Features a meander, a Greek “key” design around the rim of the vase.

• The scenes on the vase depict funerary practices.– 2 dimensional

• The Krater was a vessel for mixing wine and water.– Highly geometric patterns. – No sense of open space.– Figures are simple and composite.– Human figured reintroduced &

storytelling was revived. Diplyon krater– ca. 740 BCE

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Geometric Sculpture

• Schematic figures also existed: Bronze of a man and a centaur battling --ca 750-730 BCE– Example of a composite monster.– Theme may have come from the

Near East, but the Centaur is Greek. -- Note human legs in

the front! -- Size indicates possible

victor!

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The Human Figure in Early Greek Art

Apollo of Mantiklos – 700-680 BCE

• Inscription scratched into the though indicates this was an offering to the sun god Apollo.

• Indicates interest in human anatomy.

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Influences from the East

•Amphora [2 handled storage jar] shows Eastern influence. This example: Proto-Corinthian. What are the Eastern influences? Also an example of the black-figure painting developed by the Corinthians. Painted figures in black. Then incised detail

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Plan of Temple A, Prinias, Crete, ca. 625 BCE.

The First Stone Temples

• Trading brought

Egyptian influences to Greece before 630 BCE• Including their monumental architecture. • Carved stone lintel – similar motifs as on the vases of the period.

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The Human Figure in Archaic Art• Early Greek statutes follow the Egyptian

model – the Kouros [young man] takes a very Egyptian pose.

Differences:•Liberated from the stone block – interested in motion rather than stability.• Are shown nude, with a perfect body.• Kouros & Kore were ideals.

ca. 600 BCE

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Comparison Daedalic style: Triangles, flat features, slim waist, love of pattern.

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The Human Figure in Archaic Art

The Smiling Calf Bearer• A citizen bringing an offering Athena.• Perfect nudity, yet clothing indicated.• Love of pattern.• The “Archiac smile” appears.

• Probably used to indicate that the person is alive

560 BCE

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The Human Figure in Archaic ArtThe Kroisos Kouros ca.

530 BCE• A young hero slain in

battle• Body rendered in a more

naturalistic manner.– Head in proportion &

face more rounded.– Hair falls naturally.– Traces of the original

paints remains

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The Human Figure in Archaic Art

Kore were stylistically similar to kouros

• Wearing a peplos• Buried for 2 millenia,

thus preserving the paint.

• Extended arm a break from Egypt.

• More natural, wearing a chiton & himation.

• Folds are assymetrical. • Grasping & lifting

chiton is equivalent of “left foot forward in the Kore

Lady of Auxerre

Peplos Kore ca. 530 BCE

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The Human Figure in Archaic Art

Kore from Acropolis ca. 520-510 BCE

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Greek Architectural Development• Early ones made of wood and did not

survive. [One wooden column preserved at Olympia]

• Later made of limestone or marble.• Temple at Prianas - monumental with

sculptures. 625 BCE.– Began to follow the example of

Egyptian columnar halls– Altars were outside the temple at the

east end; worshippers gathered outside to worship.

– The temple housed the cult statue – Greek temples were houses for the

gods, not the followers.– Figural statues appeared early in order

to evoke human responses; temples built in high places. Acropolis = “high city”

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Greek Architectural DevelopmentPLAN & PROPORTION• Close to the Mycenaen megaron in the

early days.– Order, compactness, symmetry.– Proportion of end to sides 1 : 3– Later approached 1 : 2, but not exactly.– Related to harmony in music.

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Plan (left) and restored cutaway view (right) of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, ca. 500–490 BCE. Formed of single colonnades. Structure: Platform, Colonnade, Superstructure [entablature] Painted decoration was in the frieze area

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Greek Architectural Development• Example of early Doric: Decoration placed

in parts that had no structural function – the metope & pediments.

• Translation into stone of earlier timber architecture.

• The columns show entasis

Temple of Hera I, Paestum, ca. 550 BCE

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Pediment Sculptures• The artistic issue was the triangular shape.

Used figures that were standing, kneeling, leaning etc… n.b. Animals have one end taller than the other!

• Identifies the central character, but not a narrative.

• The narrative was in the smaller areas of the pediment.

w. pediment, Temple of Artemis, Corfu ca 600-580 BCE

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Caryatids & Giants• Ionic temples of the 6th cen. BCE on Aegean

Islands and Asia Minor [now Turkey] used human form for pillars. – Caryatids

Reconstruction of theSiphnian Treasury,

Delphi ca 530 BCE

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Frieze from Delphi

• Treasuries were for the safe storage of votive offerings

• Ionic friezes ran around the building continuously.

• Representations of giants• The caryatids were korai dressed in chiton

& himation

Pediment frieze from Siphnian Treasury-- Delphi ca 530 BCE

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SummaryGeometric statues & vases: Strong Asian

influence, stylized with geometric patterns.Archaic Sculpture: Starts with, but moves

away from Egptian influence.Temples: Influenced by near east. Move from

the simple Cretan megaron, through Doric to Ionic..

Doric IonicSeverely plain Highly ornamentalEchinus convex Echinus small and

supports and cushionlike bolster ending in scroll-

like spiralsFrieze subdivided into Frieze left open to

provide triglyphs and metopes continuous field for relief sculptures

Massive in appearance Light and airy in appearance

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TOPICS

•Early & High Classical Period• Temple of Zeus, Olympia• Statuary: The Perfect Statue• The Athenian Acropolis:

• Parthenon• Propylaia• Erechtheion • Temple of Nike

• Late Classical• Hellentistic

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Early & High Classical: Architectural SculptureEast pediment Temple of Zeus, Olympia, ca 500-

490 BCE

Represents the chariot race between Pelops and King Oinomaos, the story told in Aeschylus’ Oresteia.

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Architectural Sculpture

The seer – who knows the future … is the only one who reacts

• East pediment Temple of Zeus, Olympia,470-456 BCE

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Architectural SculptureLabors of Herakles, metope TheTemple of

Zeus, Olympia,470-456 BCE

•The attitude (more human and emotional) and dress (simple Doric clothing) contrast with the elaborately clothed, always smiling Late Archaic style statues. •Contrapposto, the shifting of weight to create counterbalance, was a large step towards the depiction of natural movement.•Poses of the Late Archaic period were inspired by Egyptian rigidity and frontality and did not accurately show how real human beings stand.

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Charioteer from Delphi, ca. 470 BCE

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Hollow-casting life-size bronze sculpture

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Sculpture

Zeus or Poseidon, ca. 460-450 BCE

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Classical vs Archaic statuary

Riace Warrior, Italy ca. 460-450 BCE.

• Compare with Kritoi Boy

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Roman Copies• Made in marble ca. 450

BCE• The discus thrower was

part of a search for an ideal form.

Beauty, Chrysippus feels, resides not in the commensurability (symmetria) of the constituents (i.e. of the body), but in the commensurability of parts, such as the finger to the finger, and of all the fingers to the metacarpus and the wrist (carpus), and of these to the forearm, and of the the forearm to the arm, in fact of everything to everything, as it is written in the Canon of Polyclitus. For having taught us in that treatise all the symmetriae of the body, Polyclitus supported his treatise with a work, having made a statue of a man according to the tenets of his treatise, and having called the statue itself, like the treatise, the Canon.

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After Polykleitos

Doryphos [Roman Copy], Pompeii, 450-440 BCE

“Symmetria”

• He uses dynamic asymmetry rather than static symmetry.

• Chiastic (cross) balance is motion while at rest.

• Tense and relaxed limbs oppose each other diagonally (the right leg and the left arm are relaxed, and the left leg and the right arm are tensed).

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Chrysippus onPolykleitos

Beauty, Chrysippus feels, resides not in the commensurability (symmetria) of the constituents (i.e. of the body), but in the commensurability of parts, such as the finger to the finger, and of all the fingers to the metacarpus and the wrist (carpus), and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the arm, in fact of everything to everything, as it is written in the Canon of Polyclitus. For having taught us in that treatise all the symmetriae of the body, Polyclitus supported his treatise with a work, having made a statue of a man according to the tenets of his treatise, and having called the statue itself, like the treatise, the Canon.

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The Classical Period: Pericles

Kresilas, Pericles [Roman copy] ca. 429

• The “Delian League” – centered in Delos

• The acropolis is not the fruits of democracy, by of tyranny and abuse of power.

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The Acropolis -- Athens

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The Acropolis -- Athens

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The Parthenonca. 447-438

BCE

• The “Ideal” Temple

• Peripteral colonnade largely standing today.

Design the result of blending math & optics. Built according to set proportions.

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The Parthenon

Doric with 2 Ionic elements.• The back room had four tall and slender Ionic columns as its sole supports.•The inner frieze that ran around the top of the cella wall was Ionic.

Irregular elements:• The stylobate curves upwards at the center on both the sides and the façade, forming a shallow dome.• The curvature of the shallow dome of the stylobate carries up into the entabulature.•The peristyle columns lean inward slightly.

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Parthenon – inside the CellaReconstruction of Phidias, Athena

Parthenos, 438 BCE

The Athena Parthenos was a 38-foot tall statue of Athena, made of gold and ivory. She was fully armed with a shield, spear, and helmet, and she held Nike, the winged female personification of Victory. Her sandals and shield bore paintings and reliefs of battles.

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The Acropolis

Lord Elgin: • British ambassador to

the Ottoman court at Istanbul, dismantled (with permission) many of the Parthenon sculptures and shipped them to England between 1801 and 1803.

• He sold them to the British government at great financial loss.

• In modern times accused of “stealing” Greece’s cultural heritage, but also saved them from certain ruin if they had been left at the site.

Lapith vs centaurMetope, Parthenon

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The Acropolis

From the east pediment of the Parthenon that depicted the birth of Athena.

• Helios & his horse• Three goddesses.

ca. 438-432 BCE

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The Acropolis -- Parthenon

The remains of the east pediment

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The Acropolis -- Athens A few of the Elgin

Marbles at the British Museum [taken by Sally Fowler]

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The Acropolis -- ParthenonThe water-bearers from the Parthenon – now in

the Acropolis Museum.

Hydria

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The Acropolis -- ParthenonFestival procession

Gods & goddesses

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The Acropolis -- Parthenon

Maidens & elders

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The Acropolis -- PropylaiaMnesikles, 437-432

BCE• The entrance to the

temple complex.

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Erechtheion421-405

BCE

A multiple shrine

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Erechtheion Better

proportioned than the Delphi ones.

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Temple of Athena Nike IonicKallikrates,

427-424 BCE

• Worked with Iktinos on Parthenon, which may explain Ionic elements in that building.

• Stands on the site of a former Mycenaean bastion.

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Temple of Athena Nike

Stylistic features:a.Clinging garments

reveal curves of the body

b.Intricate linear patterns of folds create abstract design

c. Deep carving produces pockets of shade to contrast with the polished marble

Nike adjusting her sandal, ca. 410 BCE

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Grave Stele of HegesoDayton Cemetary

ca. 400 BCE

Same style as the Temple of Athena Nike.

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Achilles Painter, ca 440 BCE.• Polychromy & use of white

ground– variation on Red-figure

painting

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Niobid Painterca. 450 BCE Artemis &

Apollo slaying the children of Niobe. [because she boasted to Leto about having more children than Leto]

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Tomb of the Diver – Paestum, Italy, ca. 480 BCE

Possibly symbolizes the plunge from this life into the next.

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Late Classical PeriodPraxiteles –

Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy, orig. 350-340 BCE

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Late Classical Period

Praxiteles: Hermes & the infant Dionysos, 324 BCE

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Late Classical PeriodLysippos, ca 330

BCEHe introduced a new canon of proportions, with the head one-eighth the height of the body instead of one-seventh, for a more slender figure. He also began to break down the use of the dominance of the frontal view of sculptures and encouraged viewers to look at the sculptures from multiple angles.

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Late Classical Period

Lysippos, Weary Herakles, ca. 320 BCE

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Late Classical Period: Architecture

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Late Classical Period Amphitheatre

at Epidauros, ca 350 BCE

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Tholos, Delphi

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Late Classical Period

The Greeks were slow to adopt Corinthian capitals – used at Delphi & Epidauros only in the interiors of sacred buildings.

• The main advantage of a Corinthian capital over an Ionic capital was that

• All four sides have a similar appearance, so corner Corinthian capitals did not have to be modified like Ionic capitals to follow the rule of “triglyphs at the corners of a frieze must meet so that no space is left over.”

• They also did not require the use of metopes or triglyphs, because an Ionic frieze could be used instead.

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Didyma Hellenistic Period

Begun 331 BCE

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Hellenistic Period: Priene4th cen. BCE

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The Acropolis – Athens

Stoa of Attalos II– ca 150 BCE

-- Now used as part of the Acropolis Museum

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Pergamon-Altar of Zeusca. 175 BCE

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Pergamon-Altar of Zeusca. 175 BCE

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EpigonisDying Gaul / Gallic chieftan killing himself

& his wifeca. 230-220 BCE [copies of orig. bronzes.]

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Winged Victory of Samothrace ca. 190 BCE – She’s alighting on a warship.

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Winged Victory of Samothracea. The motion created

through the beating wings and the wind-swept drapery.

b. The theatrical effect created by the statue’s original setting, high atop a fountain that featured water falling down two tiers onto boulders.

c. The statue interacted with its environment: it was reflected in the water of the fountain, which caused it to seem light and moving. The sound of the water also provided an aural element. It was not an isolated work on a pedestal.

d. Its dynamic pose causes it to appear living, breathing, and emotional.

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Venus de Miloca. 150-125

BCE

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Aphrodite, Eros, Pan from Delos ca 100 BCE Sleeping Satyr, ca. 230-200 BCE

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Seated Boxer ca. 100-50 BCE

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HellenisticPolykeutos,

Demosthenes, ca. BCE 280

Old Market Woman

ca. 150-100 BCE

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Laocöon

Rome, Early First Century CE.

The Trojan priest, Laocöon, and his sons were strangled by sea serpents while they were sacrificing at an altar, a scene told in the Aeneid.

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Laocöon

Great emotion is showed by Laocöon, who seems to give out a huge cry of pain, which is heightened by the writhing forms of the serpents. Even his hair is twisted and active. Motion is created by dynamic poses and every muscle of each figure is tensed with drama.

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Italy in Etruscan Times

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Goals

• Identify the geographic area of the Etruscan people.

• Examine the possible origins of Etruscan art and culture.

• Understand how and why the architecture and art of the Etruscans is different from that of the Greeks.

• Understand the funerary customs of the Etruscans.

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• Fibula with Orientalizing lions: ca 650-640 BCE

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Etruscan ArchitectureModel of a Typical Etruscan

Temple6th BCE

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Etruscan Funerary Sculpture

Sarcophagus from Ceveteri ca. 520 BCE

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Figure 9-6 Plan of the Tomb of the Shields and Chairs, Cerveteri, Italy, second half of the sixth century BCE.

Cerveteri Tomb

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Tarquinia: Tomb of the Leopards

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Tarquinia Tomb of the Leopards

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Capitoline Wolf• What evidence is present for the

influence of the Greeks and Romans in the Etruscan art?

• What is the importance of the Capitoline Wolf?

500-480 BCE

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Chimera of Arezzo

• 1st half 4th cen BCE

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Ficoroni Cista

• Late 4th cen BCE

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Porta Marzia, Perugia – 2nd cen. BCE

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Sarcophagus of Lars Pulena from Tarquinia

Early 2nd cen BCE

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Early & Late Etruscan Sculpture

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Where do you believe the Etruscans originated? Why is their origin not known?

What does Etruscan wall painting tell us about Etruscan life? How is this different from the wall paintings of the Egyptians? of the Aegean cultures?

What aspects of Etruscan art and architecture is unique to them?