CLAS108 Slide IDs

Palace of Knossos aerial view

• 22,000 square meters

• Minoan

• Stone, rubble, mud brick + framework of wooden beams

• Knossos, Crete

• central court, multiple rooms

• mazelike, centrifugal, asymmetrical

• very few entrances, 4

• Straight verticals and horizontal, post-and-lintel architecture

• Ceremonial/ritual center, storage/administration centre, centre of power

• Major center of administration on Crete in Minoan civilization

Taureador fresco east wing

• Bull-vaulting scene

• Late Minoan

• Natural earth colours brushed on wet plaster

• Palace of Knossos, east wing

• Brightly coloured = characteristic of Minoan art

• Decorative border of colourful ovals = rocky landscape

• Distorted bull shape to emphasise power/action

• Women dressed as men - white but wearing men’s clothes

• Reflects importance of bulls to the Minoans + indicates religious ritual involving bull-vaulting

Knossos Throne Room

• Minoan

• Alabaster seat

• Gypsum benches

• Palace of Knossos 

• Griffins painted on either side

• Lustral basin for ritual bathing

• Throne up against the wall for the “king“ and benches/seats on either sides for subjects

• Shows potential religious activity in the Palace of Knossos + royal authority

Mask of Agamemnon

• Mycenaean

• 1550-1500 BC

• Gold funerary mask, hammered over wooden form

• Grave Circle A

• Differs from the other masks found; suspected to be inauthentic

• 2 arched eyebrows

• Open eyelids

• Ears cut out

• Mouth, lips, chin and beard don’t have semblance to other masks/Mycenaean/Minoan art

• Believed to be the funerary mask of King Agamemnon from the Iliad

• Shows burial of a powerful man, use of gold indicates honour, wealth and status

• Could be evidence that the Trojan War was a real event

The Combat Agate

• Mycenaean

• 3.4 cm

• 1450 BCE 

• Made of agate

• Pylos, Greece, Palace of Nestor

• Tomb of the Griffin Warrior

• 3 warriors - 2 battling, 1 on the ground

• Engraving is very detailed

• Evidence of Mycenaean grave goods

• Shows the talent of Mycenaean artists - the level of skill shown in the miniature engraving is not seen again until hundreds of years later

Citadel of Tiryns

• Mycenaean

• 1400-1200 BC

• Limestone boulders

• Massive, heavily fortified walls, around 8 meters thick

• 2 megara, both facing courtyards

• Significance to the time period 

• One of the major centres in the Mycenaean world

• Example of Cyclopean masonry - Mycenaean specialty

• Relevance in Homeric writing - called “great-walled Tiryns“ and thought to be made by Cyclops

Lefkandi Warrior Tomb “Heröon“

• 14 meters wide, 50 meters long

• The Dark Ages 

• 1000-950 BCE

• Mudbrick walls 

• Lefkandi, Euboia, Greece

• Near a cemetery

• Burial 1: Bronze vessel, weapons, cremated remains, 40 year old man

• Burial 2: Inhumation, grave goods like expensive decorative materials, maybe 18 year old female

• 4 horses

• Burials dug into the floor of the building

• A lot of resources expended into the house/burials for remembrance

• Evidence for cult activities in funerary traditions - huge funeral to celebrate the “hero,“ and people buried their dead close to him

Lefkandi centaur

• 0.26m high

• The Dark Ages

• Around 950 BCE

• Protogeometric decorative style

• Tomb by the Lefkandi Heröon

• Head and body in separate graves, maybe family ties

• Could be a reference to Cheiron from myth - left knee wounded

• Evidence for importance of myths to the Greeks - myth starting to circulate at this time

Rich Athenian Lady’s burial

• Geometric period

• Around 850 BCE

• Belly-handled amphora - female, 30-40 years old

• Neck-handled amphora - baby boy who died in childbirth

• Athenian Agora, Greece - burial ground

• Pottery granules to symbolise wealth - the more grain you had, the more wealthy you were

• Golden earrings with details of filigree

• Pyxis

• Evidence for conspicuous consumption: great concern with status and showing off wealth and connecting oneself to the deceased

• Evidence for grief/loss in burying the child with his mother

Bronze geometric votive

• Geometric period

• Around 700 BCE

• Bronze

• Deer and fawn, bird perching on deer

• Meander pattern on the bottom = geometric piece

• Made to stand/hang from tree branches/attaches to tripod cauldrons

• Evidence for religious practices - dedicated to the gods, to gain favour from them

Dipylon amphora

• 1.55m high

• Geometric period 

• Around 750 BCE

• Dipylon cemetery, Athens, Greece

• Prothesis scene

• Horror vacui - fear of emptiness, no empty space because of decorations

• Evidence for funeral rituals and conspicuous consumption through extravagant grave markers

Nestor’s cup

• Geometric period

• Late 8th century BCE

• Skyphos

• Pithekoussai, Greece

• Reference to Nestor’s cup from the Iliad

• “I am Nestor’s cup, good to drink from. Whoever drinks from me will at once be seized by desire for fair-crowned Aphrodite.”

• Inscription in epic meter scratched onto cup after firing

• Iambic hexameter associated with Homeric epics

• Earliest evidence of Greek writing currently known

 

Chigi Vase

• Made by Chigi Painter

• 26 cm

• Protocorinthian 

• 650-640

• Olpe, for drinking wine

• Tomb in Monte Aguzzo, ancient Etruria

• Buried with the dead to show good taste and honour their memory in death

• Young boys hunting hares 

• The horsemen, charioteer and lion hunters

• Foot soldiers

• Evidence for how youths in Archaic Corinth lived or were expected to live

• Evidence for how to live an honorable life as a man living in that time - how to be an ideal man, a hero 

Achilles and Penthesileia by Exekias

• Painted by Exekias 

• Archaic period 

• 540-530 BCE

• Black Figure amphora

• Found in an Etruscan tomb 

• Achilles and Penthesileia, queen of the Amazons

• Pathos: we are told Achilles falls in love with her the moment he kills her

• Penthesileia has the qualities of a man which makes her evil, so she must die

• Evidence of Archaic BF conventions: frontality, violence, height of action, mythological scenes

 

Ajax and Achilles by Exekias

• Painted by Exekias

• Archaic period

• 540-530 BCE

• Black Figure amphora

• Not typically Archaic, not height of action - they’re playing a tabletop game, maybe rolling dice

• Evidence of moving away from Archaic BF conventions and into more everyday action

Kylix tondo by Brygos Painter

• Painted by Brygos Painter 

• Archaic period

• 490-480 BCE

• Red Figure kylix 

• Artwork at the bottom of the cup - man throws up after drinking too much, woman helping him

• Intended as a joke on the drinker - once the cup is emptied, comes to face with possible future

• Evidence of Archaic RF convention of typical everyday scenes, which the Brygos Painter specialised in

 

Ionian-style kore

• Archaic period 

• Late 6th BCE

• Marble/limestone

• Athenian acropolis

• Aristocratic dedication or grave marker

• Dress is elaborate, frilly, asymmetrical = Ionian in style

• Evidence of frontality and increasing realism in Greek sculpture

• Evidence of Ionian style in Athens after Ionian artists fled their homeland when the Persians came

Pediments from Temple of Aphaia

• 15 m wide, max 1.68 tall

• Late Archaic and Early Classical

• West = 500-490, East = 490-480

• Marble

• Temple of Aphaia, Aegina

• 2 fallen warriors

• West = Archaic smile, uncomfortable/unrealistic pose

• East = Attempt at showing expression, body’s weight is better depicted, pose isn’t awkward, arm muscles tensing as he tries to move himself

• Shows difference in style between Late Archaic and Early Classical sculpture - artistic convention has changed. Movement is starting to show in poses

Kritios boy

• Sculpted by Kritios

• 1.17 meters

• Early Classical

• Around 480 BCE

• Marble

• In the destruction debris left by the Persians

• Idealised, youthful face typical of the Severe style

• Frontality (looks good in only one angle) 

• Expression of serenity/thoughtfulness/calm 

• Broken free of the stiff kouros stance - standing relaxed, slight tilt in the hips and face slightly turned to one side, right leg bent at the knee

• Showing movement and balance in the body

• Evidence of Early Classical style sculpture in its earliest phases

• Represents introduction of democracy to Athens - moving away from aristocratic ideals

Column drums, unfinished Older Parthenon

• Early Classical

• Before 480 when the Persians arrived

• Unfluted 29 column drums

• Athens, North Wall of the Acropolis

• Oath of Plataia = “We will not rebuild our temples“

• Old Parthenon was destroyed - incorporated columns into fortifying the acropolis

• Evidence of the Oath of Plataia taking place - cannot rebuild the Old Parthenon so they reused the column drums instead

Doryphoros, “Spear-Carrier“

• Sculpted by Polykleitos

• 2.12 meters

• High Classical

• Around 440 BCE

• Marble copy

• Youthful face, mature body

• Expression of serenity/thoughtfulness/calm 

• Embodies Polykleitos’ ideal proportions of the standing male figure (canon) - calculated from mathematical proportions

• Fits the gods and serves as a model for male Greeks

• Left heel is lifted off the ground - walking

• Contrapposto (Opposition to create balance) and chiastic (balance rest with movement/tension) pose

• Evidence of shift from Early Classical to High Classical style

• Evidence of development in Greek sculpture - advancement in depicting movement in space

Aphrodite of Knidos

• Sculpted by Praxiteles

• Original is from 350 BCE 

• High Classical

• 4th century BCE

• Set up in Knidos

• Marble copy

• S-curve body

• To be viewed from all sides - no more frontality

• Still need an excuse to show a female nude - it was taboo

• First full-scale female nude sculpture currently known

 

Herakles at rest, Lysippos

• Sculpted by Lysippos

• 3.17 meters

• High Classical 

• Around 325 BCE

• Bronze original, marble copy

• Found in Rome

• Herakles with his lion skin and club

• Weary after his labours

• Holding an apple from the Hesperides behind his back - he’s almost at the end of his labours.

• Meant to be seen from all sides - no frontality

• Evidence of moving away from the frontality of Early Classical sculpture - now allowing the viewer to interact with the piece

Dying Gaul (trumpeter)

• 0.93 meters

• Hellenistic period

• Around 220 BCE

• Marble copy 

• Found in Rome

• Pained, despairing expression - grimacing as if he knows he's dying - moving on from that Archaic smile 

• non-Greek features, stereotype of a Gaul - wild hair, moustache, torque (sign of status)

• Realistically spurting blood

• one of the statues the Pergamenian king had made of Gauls dying to celebrate their victory

• Evidence of Hellenistic baroque style - twisting bodies, heavy musculature, and despairing faces (pathos)

Laocoön and his sons

• 1.84 meters

• Hellenistic period

• Around 100 BCE

• Marble

• Found in Rome

• Trojan priest and his sons being strangled by serpents, sent out by Athena

• Hellenistic baroque style

• Only 1 viewpoint

• Evidence of Hellenistic baroque style - twisting bodies, heavy musculature, and despairing faces (pathos)