Lecture 11- High and Late Classical Greek and Hellenistic Art

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Statue of Athena Parthenos

• designed by the sculptor Phidias

• parthenos = virgin

• parthenon = house of the parthenos

• located in the cella of the parthenon on the acropolis in athens

• begun c. 447 BCE and dedicated in 438 BCE

• made from ivory and gold (chryselephantine) over a wooden core; embellished with jewels, copper, silver, and glass

• athena depicted as a warrior

  • helmet

    • 3 crests

    • supported by 2 pegasi, sphinx (protective animal)

      • sphinxes were almost laways female rather than males and associated with riddles and divine vengeance

  • reproduces the iconography of the parthenon

  • sandals

    • depicts the battle of the lapis and the centaurs

  • aegis

  • left hand holding a shield and spear is resting on the left side of her body

  • behind the shield is a big gold snake

    • snake = one of Athena’s animal attributes

      • symbol of healing, fertility, rebirth, and renewal

      • very positive symbol in greek mythology

  • exterior shield

    • battle between greeks and amazons

  • interior shield

    • battle of the gods and the giants

  • similar to the metopes, the scenes on the shield depict the victory of the athenians and the gods over the peoples, the groups, the cultures that they perceive as barbarians

    • reflects the power of the athenian state and the power they aspire to have

    • “look at how much power we have, better watch out bc we’re coming”

    • meant to be impressive

  • right handing

    • holding a figure of the winged goddess Nike

      • nike = personification of victory

  • looking beyond the mortal world into the celestial world

  • shows the athenians imperial ambitions

  • Imposing size, rich materials, iconography → further associates parthenon with imperial ambitions of the athenian city states

  • Celestial presence

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Statue of Athena Parthenos- Aegis

• aegis = goatskin breastplate

• center = medusa

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Polyclitus of Argos

• one of the most influential scholars of the high classical period

• active from 450-415 BCE

• contemporary of the sculptor Phidias, who worked on Acropolis

• worked primarily in Bronze, which is why none of his original works survive

  • bronze = stronger than marble

  • survive in roman marble copies

• wrote Canon to outline his mathematical method or calculating ideal proportions

• mathematical ideal underpinning the canon was a pathway to achieving arete in art

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Polyclitus of Argos- Arete

Arete- concept of excellence and fulfillment of one’s purpose by striving to realize one’s highest potential

• closely connected with moral virtue as well as the philosophical pursuit of excellence

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Polyclitus of Argos- Canon

• wrote Canon to outline his mathematical method or calculating ideal proportions

  • put arete into practice

  • crafting figures that embody greek ideals of harmony, beauty, and human excellence

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Polyclitus of Argos- Doryphoros

• doryphoros- spear bearer

• originally sculpted in rbonze by polyclitus

• nude male warrior, originally had a sphear

• bent arm is opposite of the straight leg and the bent leg is opposite of straight arm, makes an x configuration→ looks like a harmonious whole

  • Pronounced shift in the body weight, greater turn of the head, raising one hip → gives us movement that we haven’t seen before in greek culture

• more advanced stage of contrapposto seen in the kritios boy

• clear attention to naturalism and the idea of mimesis

  • however also idealizes the greek idea of what an ideal man would look like

  • embody humanistic ideals of perfection and symmetry and harmony and balance

• awkward stump behind his leg

  • bc marble was much stronger than bronze, sculptures in marble needed that extra support to keep it from breaking

• set a standard for the depiction of human form

  • very naturalistic and dynamic human form

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Polyclitus of Argos- Doryphoros, Mimesis

• recreated the natural world

  • Represented what the ideal man would look like

  • recreating forms as they appear in nature

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Polyclitus of Argos- Doryphoros, Idealized

refers to an artwork that’s made to conform to an ideal of perfection according to the ideals of the culture and time in which it was created

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Black Figure Pottery

Black figures/decorations on a red background

one of the main types of pottery

developed during archaic period in corinth

looking at silhouettes, less able to see the fine details that add the sense of naturalism, space, and movement

High Classical Art c. 450-400 BCE: Red Figure Pottery

Red figures on a black background

famous in athens

one of the two most popular potteries

developed during the classical period

allowed artists to paint fine details and create the illusion of 3D space and give the space a sense of movement and energy

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Intro

• Athens defeated by sparta

• Peloponnesian Wars (431 - 404 BCE)

  • Athens and the delian league vs sparta and the peloponnesian league

• Athens was defeated in 404 BCE and lost its political and military primacy over greece

• End of democracy and greek polis; replaced by the monarchical system

  • increased emphasis on realism

• Art style shifted from the humanistic goal of expressing the ideal form of man in art to realistically portraying the indv

• Moving away from idealism

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Naturalism vs Realism

• Naturalism

  • Seeks to portray things in a life-like or natural manner, but no necessarily exactly as they are

  • Naturalistic art can be idealized

  • Naturalistic art is not necessarily realistic

  • The term describes style, not subject matter

  • goal: verisimilitude

• Realism- seen in late classical art

  • Seeks to depict subjects truthfully w/o idealization

  • Strictly realistic cannot be idealized; its goal is to represent reality exactly as it appears, flaws and all

  • Realistic art is by definition naturalistic, but it’s not just naturalistic, it is also realistic

  • The term can be applied both to style and subject matter

  • Mundane things

    • Regular ppl doing regular stuff

  • Gods portrayed in a more humanizing way

  • subject represented truthfully

  • depict reality, exactly the way it is

  • captures the world in an authentic way

    • represents the world AS IT IS

    • therefore depicts MUNDANE things

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Verisimilitude

• verisimilitude: the lifelike resemblance or appearance of truth that enables an artwork to convinigly represent reality

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Naturalism Subjects

• heroic, idealized male nudes

• triumphant gods and goddesses engaged in great feats

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Realism Subjects

• regular humans doing everyday things

• more humanized depictions of gods and goddesses

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Aphrodites of Knidos, Roman copy

• new features of late classical sculpture seen in praxiteles’s aphrodite of knidos

  • female nudity

  • aphrodite is shown engaging in a mundane, everyday, very human activity— taking a bath

  • Powerful goddess doing a very mundane activity (taking a bath)

  • increasing move towards realism over idealism

  • done in an effort to make the gods seem more approachable to people

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Apoxyomenos (the Scraper)

• by lysippos

• new features of late classical sculpture seen in lysippos’s apoxyomenos

  • elongated body and smaller head makes the figure look taller

  • breaks the frontal orientation of classical greek sculpture

  • figure is cleaning himself off after his workout

    • it’s a common practice in greece to begin cleaning urself after working out by covering urself in oil and then scraping it off w a specific tool

  • arm extends into the view of the viewer

  • high classical greek sculpture was frontally oreinted, it was designed to be viewed from the front, but in the late classical period, the sculptures were appreciated by moving around

  • still has the contrapposto stance

  • nude figure

    • not a heroic male anymore tho

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Farnese Hercules

• also by sculptor Lysippos

• original made from bronze

  • later roman copy made in marble

• hercules but very very tired

  • leaning on his club

  • body is drooping and tired

  • humanized version of hercules

• details that make viewers wanna walk around the sculpture

  • hercules was holding apples

• body is elongated and head is smaller —> makes figuer seem taller

• very powerful man still showing the same weakenesses as normal ppl

  • realism of subject matter

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Architecture- Ionic

• ionic

  • early classical period development

  • slender column

  • grace and elegance

  • ornate

  • capitals and spiral looking things

  • taller

  • there’s a base

    • composed of stacked base

  • tablature

    • molding, frieze, cornice

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Architecture- Corinthian 

• most decorative and elaborate 

• slender fluted columns

• ornate column

• proportions are the slimmest

• always on a base

• capitals with leaves

  • acanthus leaf

• longest and most elegant

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Asclepius at Epidaurus

• tholos

• dedicated to the Goddess sclepius, who was the god of healing and medicine

• 4th century BCE

• doric mixed with the corinthian order

• plan of the building consists of 3 concentric circles

  • outer circle: 26 doric columns

  • wall behind the doric columns

  • very inner circle = circle of corinthian columns

• biggest and most imposing structures at this sanctuary complex

The Late Classical Period c. 400-323 BCE: Asclepius at Epidaurus- Tholos

• tholos: a circular building in ancient greek architecture, typically featuring a conical or domed roof and sometimes surrounded by a ring of columns (peristyle)

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE

• greece defeated by Philip 2, king of Macedon, in 338 BCE

  • armies of philip the 2 defeated a coalition of greek city states

• alexander the great ascended the throne after the assassination of his father in 336 BCE

• built an empire of 2 million square miles

• armies of philip = assassinated and his son Alexander AKA Alexander the great came to the throne

  • his empire stretched from east (india) to west (greece)

  • post death, his empire was divided up by his generals bc they didn’t know what else to do

    • antigonids

    • seleucids

    • ptolemies

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE: Antigonids

• dynasty beginning with Antigonus 1, Alexander the Great’s general who took control fo macedon and a lot of greece

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE: Seleucids

• founded by Sleucus 1 who dominated Syria to the Indies

• one of alexander the great’s generals

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE: Ptolemies

• ended up in control of egypt

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE: Info abt Art

• theatricality

• incorporates heightened realism

  • evokes an emotional response in the viewer

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE: Ludovisi Gaul

• by the sculptor Epigonos

• depicts a man from Gaul (a place in western europe) who has killed his wife and is in the act of killing himself in order to avoid being captured by foreign enemies

• very dramatic movement

• very strong diagonal created by his body

  • directs viewer’s eyes from his right foot up to his arm

  • his arm bends back in the opposite direction, bringing the knife towards his chest

    • u can see he alr stabbed himself

• face of the woman

  • her eyes are open and staring

  • mouth is hanging slightly open

  • male’s body is rigid and all angles and straight lines but the woman’s body is limp and hanging

  • her body shape is defined by sort of curvilinear S shape + gentle c curve

    • creates sympathy in her death

  • even in death, there’s an elegance about her

    • juxtaposition abt her curvature and the harsh lines of the husband

  • we have to walk around the sculpture to follow the bodies

    • participating in the drama of the sculpture

    • evokes an emotional response (main goal of hellenistic art)

• the male killing himself instead of fighting is a cowardly act

  • if he had been greek, he would’ve been brave and fought 

  • sort of a propagandistic msg

  • u feel bad for the ppl in the sculpture but also feel pride for the power of their kingdom that conquers these ppl

Hellenistic Period c. 323-31 BCE: Ludovisi Gaul- Diagonal

• any real or implied line, shape, or compositional arrangement that runs at an angle usually from one corner of the artwork towards the opposite side) such as from lower left to upper right. 

• powerful visual elements bc they create a sense of movement, energy, and dynamic tension, guiding the viewer’s eye along their direction across the composition