The Greek World

New York Kouros

600 BCE, Archaic Period, marble, stylized

• strong Egyptian influence— Egyptian math material proportions (canon proportions)

• uses Egyptian tools for stone carving potentially grave markers and votive offerings— displays excellence and role models for aristocrats

• Kouros = young man

Kroisos Kouros

530 BCE, Anavysos, Greece, marble, Archaic Period

• grave marker- person died honorably in war — help others remember who died

• same conservative type 100 years before

• more naturalistic style

Peplos Kore

530 BCE, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, Archaic Period

• idealized version of a woman- aristocrat

• first monumental women statue

• wears type of dress called Peplos- fully covered and very expensive dress = status

• found over graves or dedicated to god and goddess

Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice

Amphora, Greece, c. 530 BCE, created by Exekias (famous for art, known throughout the Greek world), Archaic Period

• very stylized

• doesn’t just make scene directly from Homer- humanizes characters by writing scenes not written about

  • playing games in between battles— simple dice game

• not heroic scene- shows what is fated to happen— playing game of chance

  • anti war statement— no winners and losers

Doryphoros

c. 450 BCE, created by Polykleitos, originally made of bronze, Classical Period

• depiction of ideal, beautiful person (moderate, restrained, simple, good to citizens, male, and rational)

• similar to Kouros as it depicts a naked man, but changed some of the syle

• not grave markers and most famous statues in the ancient world

• made as a response to The Canon, completely secular- everything in the universe comes down to mathematical proportions- beauty is symmetrical, cohesive, balanced

Riace Warriors

from Riace, Italy, bronze statues, 450 BCE, Classical Period

• ship carrying them to Rome wrecked— don’t know where they were set up (sanctuary)

• heros— maybe Trojan War- leader and older

• liked color— used shell, glass, stone to make eyes lifelike

  • used bronze, silver, and copper to get across different color

Parthenon (Temple of Athena)

Acropolis, Greece, 447–438 BCE, created by Iktinos and Kallikrates, sculptural program: Phidias, Classical Period

• very sculpture-heavy

• subtle optical illusions that help make it look perfect from every angle built in by the architects

• large statue of Athena placed in the middle

Acropolis

Athens, Greece 450 BCE— planned out together (all buildings and gateways are cohesive), Classical Period

• greek temple- 3 step platform, columns around all 4 sides of building, porch, rectangular room in the middle (cella)— house for gods/ shrine

Birth of Athena- Pediment

Athens, Greece 447– 438 BCE, not fully intact (middle is destroyed), Classical Period

• depicts Jupiter getting his head cut open and Athena being born

• sets the time of the story—> sun god riding into the picture (dawn) creative with scale (shows riding chariots into and out of scene)

• sense of movement- seen in drapery and the poses

Lapith versus Centaur

Athens, Greece 447- 438 BCE, Classical Period

• sense of tension and Greek strength

• shows defeat of centaurs trying to steal Greek women—> shows Greek strength

• celebration of Greeks winning the Persian War

Ionic Frieze

Athens, Greece 447- 438 BCE, Classical Period

• depicts a Panatheneic Procession

  • lots of variety during the parade— elders, women carrying baskets, men readying horses, etc.

  • festival for Athena

• unique because the Greeks are depicting themselves on a frieze— not normally seen in Greek culture

Cult Statue

Athens Greece, 447– 438 BCE, Classical Period

• unique because it was the first statue built that large or made of solid gold —> shows the extravagence of the Athenians

• potentially a thank statue to Athena for helping Greeks win the Persian War

Aphrodite of Knidos

Knidos, Greece, 350 BCE, made by Praxiteles

• supposed to protect harbor and sailors as Knidos was a port city

• first monumental nude female statue of an elite woman or goddess— extremely controversial

• shows religous power- depicts her bathing (ceremonial and cleansing)

• more humanistic approach to depicting a deity