Greek Art & Architecture I

Amphora from Dipylon Cemetery

detail showing prothesis (lying in state;

Athenian funerary ritual) of female

deceased and mourners

height 5’1”, c. 750 BCE

National Archaeological Museum, Athens

terms: frieze, narrative

NW of Athens; placed as a grave marker

shape relates to sex of deceased; amphora = woman

handles at widest point → accentuate width

narrative frieze → deer grazing, funerary procession

simple, geometric human forms

Man and Centaur

perhaps from Panhellenic sanctuary at Olympia

bronze, height 11 cm, c. 750 BCE

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

cast in one piece of bronze

helmet - narrative combat?

found in sanctuary; perhaps an offering

geometric sculpture

Amphora showing Achilles and

Ajax playing dice, c. 540-530 BCE

Vatican Museums, Rome

terms: black-figure vase

Exchians → rise of signing names onto work

black-figured vases would be replaced with red-figure vases

Griffin-headed protome from bronze-tripod cauldron,

from Rhodes, c. 650 BCE, British Museum, London.

placed in temple

orientalized visual element

straight lines animate the curves

entasis

a slight swelling of the shaft of a

column intended to compensate for the illusion

of concavity resulting from straight sides; slight

curvature

peristyle

a colonnade around a building or court

column

base + shaft (drums) + capital

entablature

architrave + triglyphs/metopes (or frieze) + cornice

pediment

triangular area with acroterion (sculpture) on top

The temples of Hera I and Hera II at Paestum (Magna Graecia), Italy,

c. 550 and c. 460 BCE

terms:

Stylobate - the top step or continuous flat platform of a classical temple or building that directly supports a row of columns

Cella / naos - main inner chamber of a Greek or Roman temple that houses the cult statue

Pronaos - inner porch or vestibule in front of the cel

Peristyle / colonnade - a long sequence of evenly spaced vertical columns that support a horizontal roof, ceiling, or entablature using a post-and-lintel system

Side passage / pteroma - the enclosed space or walkway between the outer columns (peristyle) and the solid main walls (cella or naos) of an ancient Greek or Roman temple

Anta - a slightly projecting pier or pillar that terminates and reinforces the end of a load-bearing wall

Kore (maiden)

c. 630 BCE

Louvre, Paris

Egyptian-style frontality, clothed compared to men

New York Kouros (youth)

Height 1.9 m, c. 600 BCE

Metropolitan Museum of

Art, NYC

freestanding, more frontality
in the nude
archaic smile
more stylistic → earlier

The Temple of Artemis, Corfu, c. 600 – c. 580 BCE

Medusa and her children are here

Ionic columns

Medusa with her children Pegasus and

Chrysaor between two feline creatures,

from west pediment of temple

Apotropaeic guardian animals or

an image that emphasizes the power of divinity

The Siphnian Treasury at Delphi

Ionic frieze - allegories of good and evil (earliest)

Two caryatides - guardian statues

Entirely of marble

Closed cella

The east and west pediments of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina

c. 500 – c. 480 BCE

shows new techniques to fit sculptures into triangles

more naturalism in warriors

late Archaic - more depictions of suffering

Kritios Boy, attributed to the sculptor Kritios, c. 480 BCE

height 1.17 m, Akropolis Museum, Athens

asymmetrical; weight shifted to one side

less rigid than Kouros figures

chiastic pose - pronounced in charioteers and clothed figures; engaged and free leg

The so-called Riace Warriors, found in the sea

at Riace, Italy, probably initially part of a

victory monument, Museo Archaeològico

Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, Italy

found at sea (why bronze survived)

cast in bronze from mold

naturalistic poses; different eye and teeth material

Zeus, bronze, c. 460-450 BCE, National

Archaeological Museum, Athens

power pose

Doryphoros (spear-bearer), by Polykleitos

Roman marble copy after the original bronze of

c. 450 – 440 BCE

Museo Archaeològico Nazionale, Naples, Italy

tree trunk and bracing strut are Roman additions

that would have been unnecessary in the bronze

original

chiastic pose = contrapposto

head turned, taking a step

Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman marble copy after bronze

original of c. 340-330 BCE by Praxiteles

Musei Vaticani, Rome

first nude statue of a goddess

preparing to bathe

emotional/physical engagment

most women were clothed prior in statue

kylix

wine-drinking cups for symposiums