Ancient Greece: Notable Artists (and their Most Famous Works and Biographical Information), Architects (and their Most Famous Works and Biographical Information), Art, and Architecture; Artistic and Architectural Terms and Concepts, and Notable Musicians (and their Most Famous Works, Concepts, and Notable Biographical Information)

3000 BCE - Citadel of Troy (All Facts)

• Was

  • Built of plastered mud-brick in a timber framework with a slate roof or “cornice”

  • Surrounded by 12-ft-thick walls

  • Roofed with a ceremonial gateway opening onto a gravel courtyard around which the main buildings were arranged

• Had a separate complex for providing residential accommodation for court officials or members of the royal family

2000 / 1700 BCE - Palace at Knossos (All Facts)

• Was

  • The largest of the Cretan palaces

  • Located in the center of the island

  • Located on a fertile plain

  • Built around a courtyard with storerooms and luxurious apartments

  • A religious center

1700 / 1600 BCE - Second Palace at Knossos (All Facts)

• Designed by Daedalus under King Minos

• Its the later variant of an earlier one, it was built on top of the earlier original

  • Although there were differences, both the old and new versions of the palace consisted of buildings arranged around a large courtyard

• Comprised of a vast complex of buildings set around a central court running north and south

• Comprised of a Throne Room, royal apartments, shrines, administrative offices, an arsenal, granaries, warehouses, and workshops

• Near its central court lies the Snake Goddess, a statuette of a narrow-waisted woman with a long, flounced skirt and a tight-fitting blouse, cut away to expose the breasts who, in her hands, holds out wriggling snakes

• Its labyrinthine passages are said to have been built because of the legend that King Minos needed them built to hide the monster he had fathered, the Minotaur, from human society

• By 1375 BCE, it is destroyed by the Myceneans

1700 BCE / 1600 BCE - Daedalus (All Facts)

• Architect employed by King Minos to construct the Second Palace at Knossos in Minoan Crete

1900 BCE - Palace at Malia (All Facts)

• Built for King Sarpidon

• There was a group of administrative buildings separate from the palace complex

• Had cemeteries that were located in a rocky area by the sea

1350 BCE - 1200 BCE - Palace at Mycenae (All Facts)

• Palace from which Mycenean Civilization gets its name

1300 BCE - 1200 BCE - Palace at Pylos (All Facts)

• Palace of Mycenean Civilization that was the most well-preserved

• Also called the “Palace of Nestor,” it is referred to in Homer’s “Iliad and the Odyssey”

Tholos / Tholoi (All Facts)

• Characteristic tomb(s) of the Myceneans in Crete

• Stone-built Beehive Tomb that began to appear in Crete due to the advance there of the Myceneans around 1450 / 1375 BCE

  • Built massive beehive-shaped vaulted tombs

  • They were 49 feet in diameter

  • Also on mainland Greece

• Characterized by

  • the dead having been buried with a rich assortment of weapons, tools, jewelry, and vases containing foods and drinks

  • the widespread use of metal in the warriors’ tombs of this type

• It is possible that the people buried in these tombs are later moved to the other characteristic tomb of Mycenean Greece when new burials take place

• Pictured is the namesake and iconic “Lion” version of this tomb

Shaft Graves (All Facts)

• Characteristic tomb of the Mycenaeans

• Enclosed in stone circles

• Comprised of men and women being buried with gold and silver vases, gold rings and necklaces, crowns and tiaras, and bronze daggers with gold inlays

• The most finding of these was the possible gold mask of a Mycenean dignitary, possibly King Agamemnon of Mycenae from Greek Mythology

Oracles (All Facts)

• Places in which the the future was foretold or some prophecy was given, located throughout Ancient Greece

• Consisted of open-air spaces, in positions with outstanding natural features related to the particular deity with whom the place is connected or represented by

• Associated with temples that were built to honor the Greek gods

  • These temples were based on the idea of a rectangular room with an entrance at one end and a porch created by extending the two side walls, between which there were often columns

  • These temples were built as the house of the god rather than as a place in which people congregated to worship

    • Acts of worship took place at a separate altar which stood opposite the front of the building; in which only members of the priesthood and lay officials were allowed into the temple itself

  • These temples were built next to “treasuries” in some cities, which were miniature temples that displayed the cities’ wealth and piety

• The sacred sites chosen for these sanctuaries generally started out as places of worship by previous inhabitants

Oracle of Delphi (All Facts)

• Most prestigious and revered oracle

• Temple that was dedicated to Apollo

• Its sanctuary was developed around 800 BCE - 650 BCE

• Destroyed by fire in 541 BCE, it is restored by 513 BCE

  • Much of the work of its restoration was funded by international subscription

Oracle of Dodona (All Facts)

• Second most prestigious oracle

• Temple that was dedicated to Zeus

• The namesake process there is indicated by the rustling of the leaves on the sacred oak trees there

Sanctuary of Olympia (All Facts)

• Sanctuary where the Olympic Games were held

• Construction began around 2000 BCE - 600 BCE

Doric Order of Greek Temples (All Facts)

• One of the three orders of Greek architecture developed in the 600’s and 500’s BCE

• Characterized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns

  • Characterized by its columns, stubby and fluted with plain, cushion-like capitals at the top of its columns

    • Were reminiscent of Mycenae and Egypt

Ionic Order of Greek Temples (All Facts)

• One of the three orders of Greek architecture developed in the 600’s and 500’s BCE

• Characterized by its relatively slimmer columns, with its bases and curled capitals; was relatively more oriental and ornamented than the Doric order

  • For example, it could have floral designs

Greek Sculpture / Statues (All Facts)

• Characterized by

  • exhibiting a more realistic treatment of anatomical details, which are better related to the mass and structure of the body

    • This was done via

      • the use of iron chisel

      • an increasing confidence in carving marble

  • the traditional fixed smile of its earlier variants relaxing over time into a more funerary expression

  • being stylistically influenced by Egyptian sculpture

  • being developed with realism and subtlety

  • breaking away from the remarkable but rather staid and stylized variants from before

• Were

  • made in wood, marble, or bronze

  • decorated in many colors

• Its subjects were mostly religious in nature

  • From the earliest times in Ancient Greece, this form of art was essentially religious in nature

  • It was considered the property of the gods whom each object of this art form represented or to whom each object of this art form was dedicated

  • There having been decorated in many colors was for the delight of the gods

  • Were almost invariably confined to sanctuaries or cemeteries

  • Were placed inside Greek temples in their inner chamber or “naos,” where the god lived

  • Other votive statues were distributed around the rest of the sanctuary

    • These were donated

      • In thanksgiving by private individuals

      • To commemorate great victories or peace treaties by public cities

  • In cemeteries, they were meant to idealize the dead in the beauty of their youth

  • This all changed in the 400’s BCE in which its

    • subjects were not confined to representations of the gods, but depicted all the varieties of the human form

    • were displayed in the city-state’s public squares

      • For example, in the agora of Athens, one represented Harmodius and another Aristogeiton; which commemorated the tyrannicides of both

      • Technically, they were killed by the Spartans, but at the time of their construction, Athens needed heroes, so they were designated to be chosen for immortality

      • These statues were stolen by Xerxes (of Persia), but were replaced by 477 BCE where they stood confidently in the agora again

  • Additionally, subjects that were representations of the gods were modelled after by other human beings

    • For example, Praxiteles made one of Aphrodite, but it was modelled on his mistress Phryne, who was a well-known figure in the city

  • By this time, one of Conon stood alongside others in the agora of Athens

Kouros / Kouroi (All Facts)

• Subject of Greek sculptors that depicts young male youths, often nude

• Are animated and lifelike (but were at one time stiff, bulky, and stylized)

• Made in the set symmetrical pose: with the arms held at the sides and hands clenches, one foot generally in front of the other

Kore / Korai (All Facts)

• Subject of Greek sculptors that depict maidens

• Are animated and lifelike (but were at one time stiff, bulky, and stylized)

• Originally sexually distinguished from the kouros / Kouroi only by the clothes the subject wears, over time it became sexualized as male sculptors developed expressions of greater sensuality

Attic Pottery (All Facts)

• Characterized by its vases decorated with scenes from everyday life and mythology

• Vases frequently depicted naked young men and their partners exchanging gifts or making gestures indicating sexual content with the exclamation “kalos” (beautiful) inscribed on them

Sanctuary of Hera (All Facts)

• Was destroyed by a fire

• Was commissioned to be rebuilt by the architects Rhoecus and Theodorus

• The new variant of this temple had a deep porch leading to a main chamber divided by a double colonnade into three naves

Rhoecus of Samos (All Facts)

• Greek Architect who discovered how to hollow-cast bronze into molds, which was an important advance in sculpting of statues for his time

• Credited with the invention of ore smelting and the craft of casting

• Built the temple of Hera along with Theodorus of Samos

Theodorus of Samos (All Facts)

• Greek Architect who discovered how to hollow-cast bronze into molds, which was an important advance in sculpting of statues for his time

• Credited with the invention of ore smelting and the craft of casting

• Built the temple of Hera along with Rhoecus of Samos

Greek Temples (All Facts)

• Most potent and beautiful displays of Greek genius and prestige

• Architectural form that emerged from obscurity after the fall of the Mycenean civilization of Greeks

• Was one of the first symbols of the collective government of the polis (city-state), the new form of government which emerged after the fall of the Mycenean civilization of Greeks with their monarchies

• These monuments were now built in the place of the tombs and palaces of the kings of the Mycenean Age

  • Some were even built on the foundations and/or ruins of the old Mycenean palaces

• They were built for the gods who protected the various polis or “city-states”

• They did not bring religion indoors, however, and were simply the houses of the gods, where their images were kept and only priests were allowed inside

  • Religious ceremonies were performed at separate altars outside them, continuing the tradition of open-air worship

• They were built of mudbrick, often painted, on stone foundations, with wooden pillars supporting steeply-pitched thatched roofs

  • Had metopes - designs on a frieze between the pillars and the roof

• Their basic ground plan was of a rectangular main room (naos) with a projecting porchway on pillars

  • Later, a colonnade (peristyle) added around the main room (naos) allowed for a lower-pitched roof and offered better protection for the mud walls

  • Even later, the use of heavy clay tiles for the roof led to the replacement of the wooden pillars with stone columns in which the namesake constructions were eventually made entirely out of stone

500 BCE - Temple of Aphaea (All Facts)

• Temple dedicated to the namesake Greek goddess of Aegina

• Featured a double interior colonnade and splendid marble statues of the heroes of Athenian myth

Treasury of Delphi (All Facts)

• The Athenians, triumphant after their victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, showed their gratitude to their god Apollo by building the namesake structure in his honor at his namesake place of worship

• Inside it, they left offerings of silver, plundered from the abandoned Persian camp during the battle

• The building was decorated by sculptures, made from Parian marble, and were as fine as any in Greece at the time

  • The sculptures depicted scenes from the exploits of the Greek heroes Theseus and Heracles

400’s BCE - Kritios (All Facts)

• Athenian sculptor

• Commissioned to replace, with a composition of his own choice, the bronze group raised by Antenor to the glory of the tyrannicides, which was carried off to Persia by Xerxes

Temple of Zeus at Olympia (All Facts)

• Designed by the architect Libon of Elis

• An artificial mound raises the building 10 feet above ground level and its monumental size is further emphasized by

  • its massive proportions

  • the contrast of white walls against violent blue and red triglyphs and dripstones

  • the majesty of sculpted metopes and pediments

• Designed to house a gold and ivory statue of Zeus by the great sculptor Phidias

• The size and grandeur of the building are symbolic of the fact that Zeus stands above all other gods

• Contains a collection of sculptures with 12 metopes depicting the Labors of Hercules

  • The well-known image of him holding a club is fixed by this episode

Libon of Elis (All Facts)

• Greek architect

• Famous for his design of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

Greek Painting (All Facts)

• Characterized by realism

• Its subject matter consisted of scenes of everyday life and individual faces

Lekythos / Lekythoi (All Facts)

• Special funerary oil-vases

• Experiments in polychrome on a white ground paved the way for these artistic objects

Slaughter of the Children of Niobe (All Facts)

• Greek painting which superimposes different planes of action and makes use of a variety of different perspectives

Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sunium (All Facts)

• Can be seen by all ships heading for Athens

Temple of Hera at Olympia (All Facts)

• Built by Theodorus and Roecus of Samos

480 BCE - 408 BCE - Hippodamus of Miletus (All Facts)

• Greek architect

• Considered the “Father of European Urban Planning”

• Invented his namesake “plan” or “system” that consisted of a rectangular grid plan for a city’s layout

  • Worked from a pattern of right-angled, intersecting streets, he created a chessboard effect, unto which all the important buildings were placed

  • The Agora, or meeting place, would stand at the center of towns surrounded by the most important buildings of the town such as the houses and religious institutions

  • Was adapted throughout Greece and its colonies

  • Proved itself to be an ideal and uncomplicated method of urban planning

  • Incorporated all the basic urban needs

  • Solved the problem of how best to divide up the amenities of a new city-state

• Developed a new way of laying out the towns and cities of Greece

  • Using a rectangular grid, he brought together a number of large units

  • Each of these units he dedicated to some function of the city’s life

  • This plan accentuated both orderliness and harmony

    • His city plans were ordered and regular in contrast to the intricacy and confusion common to cities of that period, even Athens

• After his hometown was razed to the ground by a Persian attack in 494 BCE, with a blank sheet, he set to work starting from his first principles of planning

  • With this new plan, the namesake town of his began to flourish again

  • Additionally, he was commissioned to replan the town of Piraeus

• Considered the originator of the idea that a town plan might formally embody and clarify a rational social order

480 BCE - 430 BCE - Phidias (All Facts)

• Greek sculptor

• Famous for

  • His sculpture of Zeus at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia

  • His sculpture of Athena at the Temple of Athena at Athens

  • His sculptures at the Parthenon at Athens

• His work expresses the grandeur of Athens

• He projected a new grace and serenity onto the faces of the gods and mythological figures, creating a moral and spiritual ideal

• Was jailed for embezzlement

  • His conviction was

    • intended to be an indirect attack on Pericles, a patron of the arts

    • meant to punish his impiety for depicting himself as Daedalus on Athena’s shield in his sculpture of Athena at the Temple of Athena in Athens

Hephaestion (All Facts)

• Temple dedicated to the namesake god of fire and blacksmithing that was the patron deity of craftsmanship that was built in Athens

400’s BCE - Ictinus (All Facts)

• Co-architect of the Parthenon

• Designed the temple of Apollo Epikourios, built at Bassae, on a high rocky platform in the heart of the Arcadian mountains

400’s BCE - Callicrates (All Facts)

• Co-architect of the Parthenon

400’s BCE - Polykleitos of Argos (All Facts)

• Greek sculptor

• Revolutionized Greek sculpture by his use of bronze and his radical approach to the art form

• Specialized in images / subjects of men, especially athletes, rather than the gods

• Though his statues are far more natural than anything preceding them, the figures of heroes and athletes he created were idealized, almost godlike

• His largest statue was the gold and ivory colossus of the goddess Hera for her Temple in Argos, which has since been lost to time

400’s BCE - Polykleitos of Argos: Canon (All Facts)

• Treatise of Greek sculpting

• Its author states that “Symmetria” (Symmetry) is the philosophical principle behind all artistic composition

  • He states that he uses symmetry to create works of art where not only are the proportions and balance exact, but there is a sense of both harmony and movement

400’s BCE - Polykleitos of Argos: The Spear Carrier (All Facts)

438 BCE - The Parthenon (All Facts)

• The crowning glory and biggest structure at the Acropolis at Athens

• Flanked on all sides by towering columns of white pentelic marble

  • Much of its front exterior was curved upward to make it seem taller

• It, along with the other structures of the Acropolis, represented and celebrated the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks in the Greco-Persian Wars

• Its columns are arranged with grace and symmetry which mark the finest achievement of the classical period

• Its statues are a celebration of the human body, male and female, showing a keen attention to anatomy and movement; they were also designed by Phidias

  • It contained within it the gold and ivory statue of Athena, standing helmeted and armed, which was sculpted by Phidias

• Its architrave is dominated by a frieze with metopes showing

  • the struggle between the Athenians and the Barbarians

    • This served to symbolize the triumph of reason over brute force

  • The capture of Troy (depicted on its northern exterior)

  • The birth of Athena (among the Olympians)

  • The Gigantomachy

  • The Centauromachy

420 BCE - Temple of Athena Nike (All Facts)

• Considered the jewel of the Acropolis

• Adorned by a carved frieze around its top, the miniature building embodies all the grace and harmony of the Ionic style of Greek architecture

• Completed during the Peace of Nicias

406 BCE - The Erectheum (All Facts)

The Sanctuary of Athena at Delphi (All Facts)

• Improved by the addition of a small circular monument called the Tholos around 390 BCE

395 BCE - 330 BCE - Praxiteles (All Facts)

• Most well-known Athenian sculptor in the 300’s BCE

• Was the first sculptor to depict

  • Goddesses and other female mythological figures nude and with an emphasis on sensual beauty and the female form

  • Mythological figures in a life-size statue

• Was the first sculptor whose focus was not to honor the gods but rather to delight the viewer

• His work projected a very human and even tender quality, even giving some statues a degree of humor

  • Unlike many of his peers, he was unimpressed by traditional militaristic or athletic themes

  • Although he sculpted representations of gods, he depicted them as near mortal

• Son of the famous sculptor Cephisodotos

  • His work shows that he has both learned from his father and added his own personal style, which reflects a contemporary yet sophisticated personality

• He worked in marble, creating statues which were ornamented, primarily in red or black (by the painter Nicias)

395 BCE - 330 BCE - Praxiteles: Aphrodite of Knidos (All Facts)

• Modelled after his wife Phryne, a well-known figure in Athens as it was constructed

395 BCE - 330 BCE - Praxiteles: Hermes with the Infant Dionysus (All Facts)

446 BCE - 357 BCE - Timotheus of Miletus (All Facts)

• Greek musician, exponent of the "new music” movement in Athens (after the Peloponnesian War)

• He added one or more strings to the lyre, whereby he incurred the displeasure of the Spartans and Athenians and whose music shocked the older generation of Greeks

  • Aristotle thought that his music had such an emotional effect on people that it should be censored

• He composed musical works of a mythological and historical character