Chapter 4: Greek Art

Pericles

________ used the extra funds in the Persian war treasury to build the Acropolis; Greek allies were furious that the funds were not returned to them.

Poseidon

________ made saltwater spring from the ground on the Acropolis.

Temples

________ are built with the post- and- lintel system in mind, the columns are never too widely set apart.

krater

The ________ was a bowl for mixing water and wine because the Greeks never drank their wine straight.

Polykleitos

He wrote a famous (no longer existing) book on the canon of human proportions

Iktinos

He wrote on the nature of ideal architecture

Contrapposto

The fluid body movement and relaxed stance that was unknown in freestanding sculpture before this

Encaustic

a type of painting in which colors are added to hot wax to affix to a surface

Peplos

a garment worn by women in ancient Greece, usually full length and tied at the waist

Canon

a body of rules or laws; in Greek art, the ideal mathematical proportion of a figure

Isocephalism

the tradition of depicting heads of figures on the same level

Panathenaic Way

a ceremonial road for a procession built to honor Athena during a festival

Nike

ancient Greek goddess of victory

Stele

an upright stone slab used to mark a grave or a site

Athena

Greek goddess of war and wisdom; patron of Athens

Zeus

King of the ancient Greek gods; known as Jupiter to the Romans; god of the sky and weather

Gigantomachy

a mythical ancient Greek war between the giants and the Olympian gods

Shaft

the body of a column

Metope

a small relief sculpture on the façade of a Greek temple

Architrave

a plain, unornamented lintel on the entablature

Entablature

the upper story of a Greek temple

Portico

an entranceway to a building having columns supporting a roof

Pediments

These are seated over the tops of columns, contain sculptures representing the heroic deeds of the god or goddess housed inside

Cornice

It separates the upper and lower parts of a Greek temple

Agora

a public plaza in a Greek city where commercial, religious, and societal activities are conducted

Bouleuterion

a chamber used by a council of 500 citizens, called a boule, who was chosen by lot to serve for one year

Tholos

a round structure manned by a group of senators 24 hours a day for emergency meetings; served as a dining hall where the prytaneis (executives) of the boule often met

Stoas

Covered walkway with columns on one side and a wall on the other

Cella

the main room of a temple where the god is housed

Amphiprostyle

having four columns in the front and four in the back

Niobe

the model of a grieving mother; after boasting of her fourteen children, jealous gods killed them

Mosaic

a decoration using pieces of stone, marble, or colored glass, called tesserae, that are cemented to a wall or a floor

Peloponnesian War

The worst of these internal struggles happened during the _____ (431–404 B.C.E.) when Athens was crushed by Sparta.

Alexander the Great

Peloponnesian War did not end until the reign of __________, who, in the fourth century B.C.E., briefly united Macedonians and Greeks, by establishing a mighty empire that eventually toppled the Persians.

nudity

Greek sculpture is unafraid of _______.

acropolis

Elaborate Greek temple complexes were placed on a high hill, or ____, overlooking the city.

propylaea

Gateways, called ____, prepared the visitor for his or her entrance into the complex.

caryatids

The introduction of columns carved as figures, the female version of which are called ____.

peristyle

Temples are built with the post-and-lintel system in mind, the columns are never too widely set apart. The columns completely surround the temple core in a design called a _____.

Erechtheum

A temple near the Parthenon, houses Poseidon's trident marks, the salt water well, and the sacred olive tree.

kylix

A ____, with its wide mouth and shallow dimensions, was a drinking cup, ideal for the display of scenes on the relatively flat bottom.

amphora

The portable _____ stored provisions like oil or wine with an opening large enough to admit a ladle.

black figure

In the Archaic period, artists painted in a style called _______, which emphasized large figures drawn in black on the red natural surface of the clay.

Andokides

At the end of the Archaic period, red-figure vases were introduced by _______; in effect, they are the reversal of black figure-style pots.

Anavysos Kouros

• Hair is knotted and falls in neatly braided rows down the back.

• “Archaic smile” meant to enliven the sculpture.

• Grave marker, replacing huge vases of the Geometric period.

• Sponsored by an aristocratic family.

Kroisos

Not a real portrait but a general representation of the dead.

Anavysos Kouros is named after a young military hero ________.

Peplos Kore

• Hand emerges into the viewer’s space

• Breasts revealed beneath drapery; Indented waist.

• Broken hand was fitted into the socket

• she is the goddess, either Athena or Artemis

Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)

Details:

• A sculpture of Polykleitos

• original: c. 450–440 B.C.E.

• A Roman marble copy of a Greek bronze original,

• Found in National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)

• Represents Polykleitos’s ideal masculine figure.

• Marble Roman copy of a bronze Greek original

• Found in Pompeii in a place for athletic training

Helios, Horses, and Dionysus (Heracles?)

• Figures seated in the left-hand corner of the east pediment of the Parthenon

• contains figures who are present at the birth of Athena, which is the main topic at the center of pediment—now lost.

• Part of the Parthenon sculptures, also called the Elgin Marbles.

Plaque of the Ergastines

• Part of frieze from Parthenon

• Scene from Panatenaic friend

• first time in Greek art that human events are depicted on a temple.

• contains a religious procession of women dressed in contemporary drapery and acting nobly

Victory adjusting her sandal

• Part of the balustrade on the Temple of Athena Nike, a war ­monument.

• One of many figures on the balustrade

• Not a continuous narrative but a sequence of independent scenes.

Grave stele of Hegeso

• Grave marker.

• Use of contrapposto in the standing figure.

• Text includes name of the deceased.

• Erected in the Dipylon cemetery in Athens

Winged Victory of Samothrace

• Large heroic figure of Nike placed above the marble prow of a naval vessel.

• Monumental figure.

• made to commemorate a naval victory in 191 B.C.E.

• Found in 1863 in situ on Samothrace.

Athena, from the Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon

• Describes the battle between the gods and the giants

• The gods’ victory over the giants offers a parallel to Alexander the Great’s defeat of the Persians.

• Also acts as an allegory of a Greek military victory by Eumenes II.

Seated Boxer

• Rare surviving Hellenistic bronze.

• Older man, past his prime, looks defeated.

• May have been a good luck charm for athletes

• Nude fighter; hands wrapped in leather bands

Athenian Agora

A plaza at the base of the Acropolis in Athens with commercial, civic, religious, and social buildings where ceremonies took place.

Parthenon

• Architects: Iktinos

• Interior built to house a massive statue of Athena

• also included the treasure of the Delian League

• Greek predilection for algebra and geometry is omnipresent in the design of this building

• Constructed under the leadership of Pericles

Temple of Athena Nike

• Architect: Kallikrates

• Amphiprostyle | Ionic Temple

• Built to commemorate the Greek victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon

Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon

• Altar is on an elevated platform at the top of a dramatic flight of stairs.

• A frieze 7.5 feet high and more than 400 feet long wraps around the monument.

• Altar dedicated to Zeus and Athena

Niobides Krater

• First time in vase painting that isocephalism

• For ceremonial use

• Called in that name because the killing of Niobe’s ­children is depicted on one side.

Alexander Mosaic

• Extremely complex interweaving of figures; spatial illusionism through foreshortening, chiaroscuro, reflection in shield.

• Use of tesserae instead of previously used pebbles.

• A copy of a mural made by Piloxenos of Eretria for King Cassander.