Ancient Greece
GeometricOrientalizing
ArchaicClassical
Hellenistic
Key Ideas
• Innovations led to classical art• Idealized human form• Temple architecture still influential today• Mostly sculpture, architecture and pottery• Pottery has paintings on it• Polytheistic religion rooted in mythology – deities
were human-like• Transition from the mythical to the rational• Formation of city-states: i.e., Sparta, Athens, Corinth
More key ideas…..
• Artists begin signing sculpture and pottery• Celebration of the athlete• Sculptural innovations: nude male figures
(along with some female nudes, eventually); large-scale marble and bronze sculptures (bronze allowed for more bold composition); stone sculptures no longer attached to walls or blocks; very realistic depictions; fluidity
Deities/Heroes
• 12 major ‘Sky’ deities live on Mt. Olympus – they defeated the ‘Earth’ deities (AKA – Titans or Giants)
• Human heroic deeds attributed to the deities• Many Roman equivalents• Characteristics of individual deities change
over time
5 Children of the Earth and Sky
• Zeus (Jupiter) – supreme deity• Hera (Juno) – sister/wife of Zeus – goddess of
marriage• Hestia (Vesta) –goddess of the hearth• Poseidon (Neptune) – god of the sea• Hades (Pluto) – god of the underworld, the
dead and wealth
7 Sky Gods Offspring of the First 5
• Ares (Mars) – god of war • Hephaistos (Vulcan) – god of fire and forgery• Apollo (Phoebus) – god of sun, light, truth, music,
archery, healing• Artemis (Diana) – goddess of the hunt, wild animals
and the moon• Athena (Minerva) – goddess of war, wisdom,
civilization, victories and cities• Aphrodite (Venus) – goddess of love• Hermes (Mercury) – messenger of the gods
Supporting gods
• Demeter: goddess of agriculture
• Persephone: goddess of fertility and queen of the underworld
• Dionysus: god of wine• Eros (Cupid): god of
love
• Nike: goddess of victory• Pan: god of
wilderness/protector of shepherds/half goat
• Ge: goddess of the Earth/mother of the Titans
Human Heroes
• Herakles (Hercules): granted immortality for the Twelve Labors
• Theseus: killed the Minotaur• Perseus: killed Medusa (snake-haired)
Trojan War Heroes
Greeks• Agamemnon• Odysseus (Ulysses)• Achilles• Petroclus• Ajax
Trojans• Paris• Priam• Hector• Sarpedon• Aeneas (progenitor of the
Romans)!!!!!! LINKAGE!!!!!
Geometric Art
900-700 BCE
Geometric Art Key Ideas
• Followed the 200 year “Dark Age” of ancient Greece that came after the collapse of Mycenaean society
• Ceramic decoration using linear motifs: diamonds, spirals, cross-hatching
• Ceramic painted using slip (mixture of clay/water)
• First Greek temples – very simple
Centaur, 10th century BCE, terra-cotta
• Cross-hatching• Geometric shapes• Reduction in form – simplified
geometric solids• Thrown on a potter’s wheel, then
solid legs , arms, tail added• Painted with red slip• May symbolize duality of humans
(good/bad)• Found in cemetery
Funerary Krater, 8th Century BCE, terra-cotta, approx. 43”
• Krater is a grave marker• Humans are part of narrative• Focus is on the reaction of
mourners, not the deceased• Repetitive geometric pattern of
funeral • Body is ready to be cremated (new
burial practice for the area• Afterlife in ancient Greece was not
able to be understood, according to their beliefs
• Torsos are triangles• Stylized shields• Dots for eyes
Orientalizing Art
700-600 BCE
Olpe, 600 BCE, ceramic with black-figure decoration
• Olpe is a pitcher• Stylized flowers (rosettes)• Source of motifs was near east and
Egypt• Hybrid creatures• Less densely-packed design than in
geometric
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