GEOMETRIC TO HELLENISTIC STYLEGEOMETRIC 900-700 BCEARCHAIC 700-480 BCECLASSICAL 480-323 BCEHELLENISTIC 323-150 BCE

Greek Art

Precursors –Cycladic marble statues 2700-2500 BCE –beginning of long history of marble sculpture in Greece

Minoan

Lion Gate Mycenae 1300-1250 BCE

Geometric Era

geometric shapes abstract motifsno unified conception of humansmall statues large black-figure vases

GeometricStatuette of a man and centaur, ca. 750 B.C.E; Late Geometric

Dipylon Vase 740 BCE

detail

Areas of Greek Influence during Archaic Period

Archaic

Early Archaic art is referred to as “Daedalic” after Daedulus –legendary artist

Formal StiffInfluence of EgyptMonumental sculpture and architectureKorai “archaic smiles” stone temples Doric & Ionic orders,red-figure painting invented

Vase Painting-black figure, red-figureArt historians usually talk about the “pigment” a painter

applied to clay surface as glaze, but black areas on Greek pots are not pigment or glaze but a slip (watery clay)

firing process of both red- and black-figure vessels used three stages:

first, oxidizing stage, air was allowed into the kiln, turning the whole vase the color of the clay

second stage, green wood was introduced into the chamber and the oxygen supply was reduced, causing the object to turn black in the smoky environment.

third stage, air was reintroduced into the kiln; the coarser material portions turned back to orange while the smoother slip areas remained black

Symposium 550 BCE

Terracotta hydria (water jar), ca. 510–500 B.C.E

Andokides Painter, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game (Athenian bilingual amphora) from Oriveto, Italy ca.525-520 BCE, 1’9”

Euthymides, Three revelers (red figure amphora, 510 BCE 2’

Menkaure and Khamerernebty ca. 2490-2472 BCE

Lady of Auxerreca.650-625 BCEDaedalic style –all

great early sculpture attributed to legendary artist Daedalus before names of artists were recorded

-bridge between geometric and archaic

Kouros 590-580 BCE

Side view

Calf-bearer 560BCE

Peplos Kore 530 BCE

Kroisos (540 BCE)

“Stay and mourn beside the tomb of dead Kroisos, whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks.”

Classical style

Order, clarity -proportion, symmetry Humanism Realism Idealism

c. 450-400 BCE –classical or high classical period, corresponds to the high point or golden age of Greek culture

Kritios Boy from the Acropolis, Athens, c. 480 BCE Parian marble, 337/8 (86 cm) high, Acropolis Museum Athens

Blond Kouros 480 BCE

Proportion-comparative relationship or ratio of things to one another-used to represent what is considered ideal or beautifulAncient Greeks tied their vision of ideal beauty to what

they considered the proper proportions of the human body

Polykleitos is credited with the derivation of a canon of proportions – a set of rules about body parts and their dimensions relative to one another that became the standard for creating the ideal figure. The physical manifestation of his canon was the Doryphorus. Every part of the body is either a specific fraction or multiple of every other part

Ideally the head is one eighth of the total height of the body and the width from shoulder-to-shoulder should not exceed one-fourth of the body’s height.

Balance -distribution of weight of the actual or apparent weight of the elements of a composition

PolykleitosDoryphoros 450 -440

BCERoman copy after

bronze Greek original, marble 6’6”

Polycleitus, Doryphorus, roman copy after a bronze Greek original of ca.450-440 BCE

[Beauty arises from] the commensurability [symmetria] of the parts such as that of finger to finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and the wrist and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and in fact, of everything to everything else, just as it is written in the Canon of Polykleitos…Polykeitos supported his treatise [by making] a statue according to the tenets of his treatise, and called the statue, like the work, the Canon.(Galen 2nd c.)

Leonardo da VinciProportion of the

Human Figure (after Vitruvius)

c.1485-1490Pen and ink 13 ½” x

9 ¾ “

Diskobolos 470 BCE

Zeus or Poseidon 460BCE

Grave stele of a little girl ca. 450–440 B.C.E

Aphrodite of Knidos (Roman copy of original ca. 350-340 BCE)

The Golden Mean

For ideal proportions in architectureRequires that a small part of a work

should relate to a larger part of the work as the larger part relates to the whole

columns typical of the temples divided into 3 kinds:Doric, Ionian, CorinthianDoric order is simple and severe no base, directly on the stylobate, fluted shaft tapering to top, a capital

which consisted of a curved member surmounted by a square block (abacus) upper end of shaft and the capital were cut in one block

on top of capital - the entablature, the architrave (left plain except for small moulding at the top, decorated at regular intervals with a panel from which 6 little knobs (guttae) reached down, the frieze –consisted of triglyphs with vertical groovings alternating with metopes which could be plain or painted or sculptured,

the cornice faced slightly down to protect the face of the building from rain water 

Ionic originating in Asia Minor and Aegean islands more delicate and ornate; has a base in several tiers, volutes front and back

Corinthian (ornate, capitals with acanthus leaves, on victory columns)

 all three styles display a set of structural and decorative parts that stand in fixed relation to each other

Three Orders of Greek Architecture

Temple of Hera, Paestum, ca. 550 BCE -Archaic

Parthenon. The most perfect building? (447-438 BCE)–temple dedicated to Athena (parthenos –maiden)

commissioned by Pericles, designed by Ictinus & Kallicrates, embellished by Phidias

harmonic proportion rectangle delimited on all four sides by

colonnaded walkway 17 columns at sides, and 8 at ends  reflects classical reverence for clarity and

symmetry two rooms –one with huge statue of Athena

covered in gold, perhaps with ivory head, jewels for eyes; outside paintings, decorations were spectacularly coloured -not all white marble

 the other room contained Athens’ treasury  

temple is Doric but has some Ionic features classical ideal of life as harmonious

balance between the counteracting forces of freedom and necessity

no striving for the infinite as in Gothic architecture –perfection of limited form

Replica of Athena, Parthenos in Nashville

Influence of Classical Style….

Pantheon, Rome, ca. 118-125 CE, Dome height 143 ft.

Michaelangelo, David, 1501-1504

Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, 1772

A.J. Davis and Ithiel Town, Federal Hall, 28 Wall Street, NYC, 1842Greek Revival

Theatre Design

Polykleitos the Younger, theatre, Epidauros , Greece, ca. 350 BCE

Hellenistic - (323-31 BCE)

-new subjects in sculpture and paintingemotional active dynamic not so idealizednaturalistic

-often copied by and for Romans who loved the style

Architects break the rules of classical orders

Laocoon (100-200 BCE)

http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art105/img/greek_laocoon.jpg

Winged Victory (Victory of Samothrace) 190 BCE, marble

Gallic Chieftain Killing Himself and his Wife230-220BCE

Old Market Woman, ca. 150-100 BCE, Marble, 4’1/2”, Metropolitan

Defeated Boxer 100-50BCE