WAH: Exam 2

Fresco —

• Painting on plaster so the paint seeps into the plaster and becomes part of the wall

• Practiced by the Aegeans

• Emphasis on marine elements in their murals

• Vibrant and expressive style

Three main cultures in the ancient Aegean world:

• Cycladic (in the Cyclades; the oldest culture)

• Minoan (on Thera and Crete)

• Helladic (including the Mycenaean (on mainland Greece but encompassing the regions that had been the center of the 2 earlier cultures))

Cycladic Art:

• Votive

• Contrast features w/ Woman of Willendorf and Sumerian Votives

• Marble or Alabaster—splits easily

• Traces of paint

• Apotropaic (think garlic or a cross protecting from vampires)—averts harm

• Vary in size—large at shrines, small in graves

Cycladic votive figures — Aegean

Approx. 1000 of these
Always shield-like faces
Thin sliver
When you see many it is easy to see which are women
Women are always posed standing straight with their arms crossed…men are always doing something and are more 3D
Pigment shows the Aegeans weren’t just drawing normal features (textbook image 5-2)
Females are much more formal

Minoan Art

1950-1400 BCE
Centered on Crete legend of King Minos and the minotaur (the labyrinth)
Tons of bull imagery on the island
Administration buildings seemed to love the labyrinth style

Daedalus

1st designer

People in the city would love to go into the labyrinth and be fed to the bull

Thesius does…what? (according to myth/legend)

Kills the bull

Background to legends

Relationship to the gods — already so important
God of sea — Posiden — gives the King Minos a white bull (to sacrifice)
Minos decides to keep the bull — Posiden is mad
Posiden casts a spell on Minos’ wife to fall in love with the bull — they reproduce and make the minotaur
Minos can kill the minotaur
Has Daedalus design the labyrinth to contain the minotaur

Minotaur

Hybrid
Head of a bull → build of a beast → body of a man

Centaur

Head is human → body of a horse
Shows Greek thought about the contrast between man & beast and the “war” between the two

Maritime culture

Trade center
Lots of empires (?) under them — tribute

So-called “Palace” of Knossos

Review slides — fig. 5-3
Looks very complex
Easily blocked small entrances—no certain entrance
Unless you know it, you don’t know where the most important room is
Column (see slides) — red and blue; sense of uplift

Rhyton

Look at slides

Bulls head Rhyton

Soap stove
Golden horns
Glass eyes—emphasis on eyes

Importance of trade

Underground magazines for staged goods like olive oil

Maritime culture really developed…

Ceramics
(Waist-high vessels
Utilitarian but decorated at bases)

The Harvester Vessel

Steatite/soap stove → carved out of ____ (see slide) style
Head is profile but eye is frontal
Man w/ a royal cloak

Significance of the invention of the pottery wheel

Ceramics no longer need to be hand built
2500-2080 BCE

Zomorphic forms

Pitcher
Spout is head
Seahorse inspiration + jellyfish

(5-4) Girl with saffron flowers

Pale complexion
Blue on head → shaved (shadows of her hair growing back)
Rocky landscape — wind and water

Maritime culture art often featured…

Depictions of coral reef as well as dolphins, fish and other aquatic creatures

(5-5) Bull leaping

Seahorse-like oyster shell
Two pale fish
Darker skin over bull → new ceremony

Maritime culture had __ writing systems

2
1 we can read, 1 we can’t

Doric — Greek architecture

Considered the more “masculine” order…simpler…the first order…triglyphs and metopes (often carved)

Ionic (Ionia = modern-day Turkey) —

Scroll at the top with carved friezes…more slender…considered the more “female” order

Corinthian —

Modification of the Ionic…far more elaborate with organic, leaf-like designs at the top (a composite capital)...becomes the favorite of the Romans

 Contrapposto means ____

counterbalancing

5–5 Bull Leaping Slide

• A reconstruction of fragments

• Late Minoan period

• Possibly a colosseum type of event where youths would leap over the bulls for entertainment

• Pairs of stylized bulls horns lining the top of the palace (in the illustration)

★ Bulls and bull imagery was everywhere in this period

The Snake Goddess or Priestess

• Ceramic and chryselephantine (tusk w/ gold)

• Use of precious materials

• A creature on top of her headdress (you will see this imagery on figures and columns going forward)

• Likely related to fertility and/or regeneration (snakes/reptiles = cycles of life because of shedding of skin; females representing fertility and abundance more generally)

★ The Minoans really developed ceramic technology

• 40 ft tall statue of Athena in the Parthenon was “skinned” with ivory and covered with gold

Mycenean Art — c. 1600-1100 BCE Peloponnesian Peninsula

Look for precursors to development of Greek culture

• Warring City States

• Citadels of Tiryns and Mycenae

• Megaron — Throne room of a king/ruler of one of the city states

Construction techniques of the Myceneans

• Post and Lintel

• Cyclopean Walls (cyclops…one-eyed giant; gigantic stones w/ no mortar holding them together…they are heavy enough to stay put)

• Corbelling (pushing out of stones progressively until they meet in the middle…has to have a counter-weight…then slice off the edges for a clean line)

• Relieving Triangle (relieving the weight over the lintel/supports for it)

Citadel at Mycenae

• Need for protection in these fortified cities is really important (see aerial-view slide photo of the ruins of the Citadel at Mycenae) 

• Important figures were buried just inside of the walls in a special place (the grave circle)

• Walled road into the city

Citadel at Mycenae — Lion gate

• Lion gate — very small and easy to close off

  • ★ Brings together all the construction techniques listed above

  • Relieving triangle made of lighter-weight material is where the lions are carved…relieves weight on the lintel…used as a sort of sign-post for the city

  • Bodies of lions…unsure if the heads were also lions as they have been lopped off (defacing…damnatio memoriae)…raised up on their forepaws on what seems to be a type of altar 

  • Heraldic design — symbols — think of royal crests

★ Minoan column in the middle (narrower at the base than at the top)

Citadel at Mycenae — Megaron

• Throne room (translation = big room)

  • (See slide for layout)

  • ★ Beginnings of elements we will see in Greek temples

  • Open-air roof for what was the hearth of the city

  • ★ Greeks would take a torch from their city when they moved and use it to light the hearth in a new settlement (think Olympic eternal flame!)

  • Heavily decorated with fresco painting and inlaid flooring…squiggly, undulating, sea-like designs are very Minoan

So-called “Treasury of Atreus”

• Tholos (round, beehive) Tomb

• Corbel Vault

• Relieving triangle

• Cyclopean walls

• Post and lintel

Gold [funerary] masks

• Repousse technique—a flat sheet that was hammered from behind to create a form

• ★ Myceneans had a lot of gold

• Placed over the faces of buried bodies

Linear and abstract design — part of the Mycenean design form

Mycenae — Weapons

• Niello technique — black material pressed into the grooves to make the designs pop

• Weapons with decorative elements likely used for ceremonial functions, not war

• Gigantic frontal eyes…other abstracted elements…lions/lion hunting

★ (Development of metal-working and ceramics!

★ Lions and bulls — important symbols/imagery)

Warrior Vase — Characteristics

• Very stylized—frontal eyes, long necks, armor and weapons

• Linear design

• Regimented and clear

• Carved rather than molded…pottery

• Possibly a female figure with her arm raised at the back (waving?) of the line of soldiers

• Mycenean because the registers contain everything…symmetry

Octopus/Squid vases

(See slide)
Right is Mycenean; left is Minoan

★ Bull imagery is very ___ (gold cup slide)

Minoan

Gold cup slide w/ bull imagery

• Far more naturalism and detail (in the muscles and other sections as well)

• Repousse/emphasis on metal-working is more Mycenean

  • Myceneans had lots of gold!

  • Stylization is more Mycenean

• Cups seem to be sort of a combination of the two civilization

Were likely made by Cretan artisans who came to Mycenae from more of a Minoan culture, which is how the cultures melded in these cup designs

Art of Ancient Greece

Maps and Timeline to understand — See slides

• Approx. 750 BCE is when they adopt the Phoenician alphabet…they now have a writing system!

• 776 BCE — 1st Olympic Games; on Greek territory; competing on behalf of their gods

  • Started to measure time in Olympiads (4 year periods)

• The letters fl. before dates means we are dealing with a person and don’t know their birth/death date but we know when they were active

• Homer is writing down myths and legends…shows how Greeks think and how they function in the world

★ (Democracy) Important: How the Greeks went on to influence the Romans

The Greeks and Human Potential

★ Human beings are like the gods in many ways, the gods are just more powerful

• Your potential can be destructive or productive. 

• Choice and agency

• The “pregnant” moment

  • Ready for action

  • The most dramatic moment…tension!

The Greeks: ★ We’re not like the _____!

Persians
We are intellectual, pious, modest, balanced, and have self-respect

We are not weak

★ Look at quotes on slides and consider how it relates to Greek ideals

★ Slide lays out the historic periods in order

• Greeks defeated by the Macedoneans in 323 BCE…this begins the Hellenistic Age (323-31 BCE)

  • The Greeks are no longer autonomous…they are now under a foreign power, though their culture continues to massively affect the cultures around them

The symbolism of the centaur: half man, half horse (beast)

• The Geometric Age—geometric patterning painted in glaze

• Important reversal from the Minotaur

• The head is human

  • Governance! Intellectualism!

• The body is beast

  • Speed and power

Represents the struggle between our rational mind and our bodily/emotional appetites and how those drive us

The Geometric Age

• Prothesis—lying in state at wake/funeral

• “Horror vacuii” — Artistic technique… “The fear of empty spaces”

• Maeander patterns (from the river Maeander), chevrons

• Geometricizing forms

  • Rigid organization and ordering of forms

• Conceptual vs. perceptual presentation

  • (Representing) what we know vs. (representing) what we see

Horror Vacuii

The fear of empty spaces (artistic term)

Conceptual vs. perceptual presentation

• (Representing) what we know vs. (representing) what we see

Funerary Vessel (Krater)

• 42 ⅝ inches

• Has a hole in the bottom

• Is actually a riton

• Chevrons, zig-zag — geometric

• Snaking pattern—quintessential Greek pattern

• Offerings were poured into it

• Horror vacuii — fear of empty spaces is evident

• Legs of the figures are in profile—you can see the forms of the legs and feet

• More commonly they are showing what would be commonly seen—perceptual representation (less conceptual)

  • Chariot has 2 wheels; all the horses’ heads and legs are shown as might be seen (perceived) in real life

• Figures on sides of the upper register have hands on their heads…a gesture of ritual mourning

  • Think about pulling of hair and tearing of clothes to ritualize death

Metalworking evident in the ornament with a centaur and a man

• Strong stylization…bulging legs and animal features

• Tug-of-war between the rational mind and the more animalistic desires

★ Centaur imagery is sometimes seen when…

they wanted to represent when the mind is not in the right place…when it is not rationally guiding the person

Orientalizing Age

• Influences from Ionia (Turkey) and Persia Greater ornamentation and curvilinear detail

• Love of pattern and detailing

Archaic Age

• 600-(roughly)500 BCE

• Stiff, retains some of the geometriciyzing tendencies

• Move toward animation

  • “Archaic smile” — not used to represent happiness, but to show animation/expression of the face

• Wood origin of temple design

• Entasis (“bulge”) (bulge is roughly ⅓ up) of the column to indicate flexibility, strength, and life-likeness

  • Seen as a more “masculine” order

  • “Optical refinements” — when you are looking at something from a distance, straight lines tend to look like they are sagging because of the bending of light…this is why they used Entasis

• Development of the temple form

  • Design made both for worship and for the climate—colonnaded porch provided shade…most worship took place outdoors

  • You would only go inside to see the cult statue of the god placed in the interior

Sculpture from the West Pediment of the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina

Forms in the round

Figures are all the same size but put in poses to help them fit in the triangular pediment

Dying warrior

• Still relatively stylized—pretty stiff pose…doesn’t show much weight…hair and facial features (archaic smile)...smoothing of features

• Moving toward a more realistic representation of anatomy

Archer (“Paris”)

• Generalization/stylization

• Smoothing-out

• Originally brightly painted

Archaic Kouros

• Looks incredibly Egyptian

• Male youth in his physical prime

Anavysos

• Heightened level of naturalism

• Archaic smile

Archaic Kore

• Fully clothed

• Polychrome

• Archaic smile

• Very stylized in the early stages

Doric Kore

• Fully clothed…simpler (more Greek) garb

• Far more naturalistic

• Shows restraint (Greek)

• Separation of body sections 

Ionic Kore

• Eastern, Persian influence seen…oriental influence

• Elaborate dress and hair/headdress

Pottery 

• Anthropomorphizing tendencies

  • Lip, neck, shoulder, body, foot—to reference different parts of the vessels

  • Greek ideals—“man is the measure of all things”

• Used for meetings/gatherings

• First used for mixing water and wine

  • They would drink very diluted (with water) wine to kill the bacteria in the water

• Oil/olive oil is a very precious commodity — (lekythos) vase has a stopper in the top to slow the flow of the oil

Black-Figure and Red-Figure Pottery

• See video on slide

• Engraving vs. painting—opposite art forms

• Slip (kind of glaze) used

• Red-figure technique shows greater representations of form

Exekias (well-known potter and painter of the time): Ajax and Achilles Playing a Game

• Black-figure technique

• Inscriptions on the surface

• The “pregnant” moment—readiness

  • Their heels are up…Achilles heel is exposed in front of the seat, foreshadowing his death by being struck on the heel 

Exekias “Suicide of Ajax”

• Signatures— “Megraphsen” (means = “Wrote or drew on me”)

  • Anthropomorphism/personification

• Ajax felt responsible for Achilles’ death

• The pregnant moment—propping the sword to prepare to impale himself

• His shield and helmet is presented—a specter—something is waiting for him

Kylix

• Footed drinking cup

• Slide image…the bottom of the cup

• Platform—dais shown

• Winged figures—Nikes

• Laurel wreaths (eventually become basis of crown designs)

• Divine inspiration

Classical Age

• Humanism, Rationalism, Idealism

• Order, clarity

• Organicity, Naturalism, Vitality

• Elasticity that gives strength—entasis

• Classic— “first class” or “of the highest rank”; something that has enduring value or universal significance

“Kritios” Boy

• More development seen on slide

• Contrapposto

• Less of an archaic smile

• Still connecting the arms to the sides of the figures

Polykleitos (sculpter): Spear Bearer (Doryphoros)

• Roman copy (shown by the little post holding the arm and the small pillar behind the figure)

• Contrapposto

• Canon of Polykleitos

Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs

• Rational vs. Bestial nature

• (Reason vs. Emotion—Apollonian vs. Dionysian)

• Apollo in the center

• The faces of the humans lack emotion…compare to the centaurs

  • They are in control of their reaction (self control)

Warrior (5–25)

• Bronze (one of the few left that weren’t melted down to be used for weaponry/armor)

• Contrapposto

• Shows invention/development of using clay molds to cast metal

• Added copper to lips and nipples to bring the sculptures to life

Foundry Painter: A Bronze Foundry

• Red-figure decoration on a kylix

• Workers shown making sculptures

Athenian Acropolis

• According to the myth, a contest between Poseidon and Athena for patronage of Athens

  • Spring vs. Olive tree

    • They chose Athena and her olive tree…provides olive oil, olives, wood—things needed to live

    • Olive oil is very precious! 

    • Athena is a multifaceted deity (of military might and domestic society) and is a virgin goddess (has self control)

• Acropolis destroyed by Persians in 480 BCE

• “To rebuild or leave the site as is?”

• Pericles—Statesman argues for rebuilding

• Architects—Iktinos, Kallikrates, and Mnesikles

• Phidias—lead Parthenon sculptor

• The Athenians didn’t rebuild immediately, but they began to tell the story through art on pots…over time they begin to mythologize the war

• They used the site and continued to worship even after the Acropolis was destroyed

• They were writing plays, poetry and songs to process the story

• First rebuilt the retaining walls using parts of the destroyed remains (column pieces and metopes/triglyphs)

Green space in the 9/11 memorial shows…

new life and regeneration—sanctifies the place

Re-use of the footprints mimics how the Parthenon was built on the footprint of the Acropolis

Colossal Bronze Statue of Athena Promachus

• Made following the Battle of Marathon when the Greeks eventually defeated the Persians

  • “We are back!”

• Sailors coming in to port could see the sun glinting off the tip of the spear, per Pausanius

• Cost 83 talens when annual tribute to Athenian Empire was 400 talents

• Consider 9/11 memorial parallels

World Trade Center

• Memorial pools were first rebuilt

• Then the museum was built underground

• Then the tower—the new World Trade Center

  • Triangular facets on the side imply the idea of two becoming one

  • 1776 feet tall, including the spire on the very top

    • “America is back!”

    • Considering what are our core ideals? Liberty, democracy, etc.

★ Every culture has very specific protocols for how to respect the dead

• There is a repository in the museum that holds unidentified remains of those who died in the attack

• The challenge of maintaining the relevancy of the event

★ Studies have been done that show that the generations to come had more of a sense of “living for today because tomorrow might not come.” Something catastrophic could happen that we have no control over.

How did the Athenians address the relevance? 

• They didn’t as much tell the story of the Greeks vs. Persians, but of mythological figures—like the powerful vs. the less powerful

• Each votive sculpture represents an actual person

The question: How do you represent the perpetrators of the event? 

• The Greeks decided to make it not against the Persians, but against the uncivilized

• Historically, though, you do have to talk about and acknowledge who really did it. You have to accept the reality of what really happened.

  • For 9/11 memorial, they decided to show the specific individuals and the specific group who incited the event to try to prevent people from lashing out against Muslims as a whole

  • “We can’t paint people with a broad brush.”

Reconstruction Drawing of the Akropolis — Athens c. 400 BCE

• One of many acropoli

• Erechtheion—rebuilding of a temple, dedicated to Athena as goddess of the hearth

• Temple of Athena Nike—dedicated to Athena as goddess of victory

• Athena Parthenon—dedicated to her as goddess of necessity

• The whole Parthenon is bowed—not a single straight line

  • The highest point of the floor is the center of the platform—as if the four corners are being pulled down to the ground (see diagram on slides)

  • Everything else tips upward and inward

  • Columns at the corners are closer the columns next to them (“optical refinements”) to ground the structure

  • Entasis

Panathenaic Procession

• Annual celebration on the site to bring a newly woven garment for the cult statue of Athena (made of olive wood) in the Erechtheion

• Dance-like motion in the figures and horses in the carving

The Erechtheion

• Ionic columns

• (Exterior of the Parthenon has Doric columns, but interior where the cult statue is has Ionic columns…shows multi-nature of Athena)

• Caryatids—when the columns are replaced by an actual figure

• Nike Removing her Sandal—significance

  • “Wet” drapery sculpture

  • You would take of your sandals in two different situations: when you’re on holy ground (think of Moses) and when something is done and you’ve arrived home (the victory has been won)

The Grave Stele (carved and inscribed) of Hegeso

• “Pregnant moment”

• The empty, poignant, emotional space between the two figures creates a focal point to whatever the object was in her hand and what that represented for her

• The Grave Stele of a Little Girl is another example

  • The poignant moment

  • Turtle doves represent love

Jewish “Agrippa” Prutah – 42/43 AD

• A royal umbrella with tassels on it—identifies a very important space (wedding; temple of Solomon)

• 3 ears of barley/grain—fertility or prosperity or provision; important commercial products

Sometimes, _____ coins are of more value

mis-struck

Jewish “Festus” Prutah – 58/59 AD

• One side is a palm leaf—symbol of Israel

• Other side has an inscription acknowledging the ruler, Nero

The coins do not feature an image of Nero, so as not to disrespect the Jews (think of idols)

Development of the crown—

• Starts with the Greeks and the laurel wreath

• The Romans began to use it as a symbol of political power

  • Eventually, they start to cast it in metal

 The Europeans looked at the points on the leaves and designed their crown somewhat based off of it

Jewish “First Revolt” Prutah – 66/70 AD

• Clay pot amphora on one (common storage vessel) — remember that the Greeks in the Olympic games…the prize was an amphora or many amphora filled with olive oil

• Grape leaf (significance of grapes/wine as a symbol during this time) with the words “freedom to Zion” on another

• Modern-day trophies connect back to the amphora on these ancient coins

Philip II Roman Denarius – 244-249 AD

• Made of silver during the time of the Roman Empire

• One shows a bust of Philip with an inscription acknowledging him as Caesar…on the other side it shows Phillip standing holding a spear and the orb of sovereignty

• Face in profile, like our coins today

• Modern government buildings look like ancient Roman architecture because it represents democracy and a republic

• Here, Philip’s crown looks more like spikes, but you can still see the ribbon tied at the back

• Barracks/Soldier — Period when the Roman Empire is beginning to fall apart

  • Anyone from any ethnicity could become a citizen of Rome (think of Paul)

  • A period often referred to as the “Age of Anxiety” because everything was so unstable (in the imagery of the Emperor, there are deep lines around the eyes and mouth to reveal this heaviness)

Barracks/Soldier — Period when the Roman Empire is beginning to fall apart

• Anyone from any ethnicity could become a citizen of Rome (think of Paul)

• A period often referred to as the “Age of Anxiety” because everything was so unstable (in the imagery of the Emperor, there are deep lines around the eyes and mouth to reveal this heaviness)

40-Nummi Coin – 538/539 AD – Silver

• Byzantine Empire

• Justinian holding a globe (orb of sovereignty) and a cross on one side—frontal, like Christian icons

  • Purposefully stylized features

  • Cap-like crown

  • This is a Christian sovereign

• Other side shows an “M” and tells the value of the coin

40-Nummi Coin – 586 AD – Bronze (due to inflation during the time)

• Justin (Justinian’s nephew) and his wife

  • Stylized as well

• Back has a large “M” with the value and a cross

White-ground Lekythos (for perfumed/precious oils)

• Pottery development!

• More multi-colored and pictorial

• Meander patterns and other patterns

Hellenistic Age – 323-31 BCE

• Phillip II of Macedon defeats the allied Greeks in 338 BCE—Greeks are never free again

• His son Alexander the Great occupies Egypt, moves East to India (Greek tutor; spreads Greek culture)

• Loss of Greek political independence and hegemony; retained cultural hegemony

• 146 BCE Rome takes control of Greece

• 133 BCE Attalos III, King of Pergamon bequeaths his kingdom to Rome to avoid its destruction by war

• 31 BCE Battle of Actium—Octavian (Augustus) defeats Marc Antony and Cleopatra

• 27 BCE Roman Republic becomes the Roman Empire

Alexander the Great in the Battle Against Darius III of Persia

• Roman floor mosaic after Greek painting

• We are not longer seeing the “pregnant moment”...we are instead thrown into the middle of the action/chaos

• Faces are very expressive

• Concrete/mortar/natural stones and materials

Reconstruction Drawing and Exterior View of the Theater of Epidaurus

• In Greece

• Greeks are really developing the theater…they had to use the land to make this one, because they hadn’t developed a way to hold up the structure

• The acoustics are perfect

  • Discovered that certain stones carry stone better

  • Performers would use masks that functioned as a sort of megaphone

  • Viewers would’ve had to use their imaginations a lot because theater was more of performed poetry at the time

Hellenistic Art

• Age of turmoil and loss of identity (for the Greeks)

• Emphasis on emotion and extremes of human experience (“agony and ecstasy”)

• Expressionism

• Deep undercutting, extreme, agitated poses

• All ages and strata of society represented

• Chiaroscuro (dark/light contrast)

• Drama

Spiraling Composition

• Invites you to move around it

• Very dramatic

• The defeated Gauls are pictured…they were considered noble adversaries

• The figure/leader has killed his wife and is killing himself because death was far better than being captured…this is seen as the noble act