Greek Art and Archaeology

Required Info:

• what it is (type of object)

• date and time period

• material, techniques used

• location or findspot

• size, if relevant

• function and/or subject matter

• how it is representative of a style, time period, cultural phenomenon

• religious, social, or political significance

Old Temple of Athena Polias (of the city)

• Constructed in 510 BCE

• Only the foundations survive (Dorpfeld foundations

• Doric temple 6 by 12 columns

• Foundations made of limestone, superstructure of limestone, sculpture is marble

• Held the Xoanon (cult statue) of Athena

• Unusual design: shrines to Hephaistos, Poseidon, Erectheus (mythical king of Athens), Boutes (local hero)

• Sculpture made of Parian marble - pristine white marble

  • shows the Gigantomachy

    • famous scene shows Athena, upright, striking a giant, while another giant has collapsed to the right

    • Athena is wearing an aegis - an identifier, made by Zeus to protect her

Pediment from the Old Temple of Athena Polias

• 510 BCE

• Parian Marble

• Gigantomachy

• Shows Athena fighting a giant

  • note her detailed aegis

• 489/488

• Base for pre-Parthenon

• Around 8,000 limestone blocks used

• Huge organisational and engineering feat - each block was 2 tonnes in weight

pre-Parthenon

pre-Parthenon:

• 489/488

• Much bigger - much bigger project

  • also had to build podium

• Foundation made of limestone, superstructure pentelic marble (Mt Pentelicus in Attica)

• Was the largest temple on mainland Greece at the time

• Was a peristyle temple

• Had a pronaos (porch), Cella with two lines of support columns, an opisthodomos (back porch), and an adyton

Treasury of Athens at Delphi

• c.480 BCE

• Made of Parian marble

• Inscription with bronze statues of Miltiades crowned victorious by Athena

• Human surrounded by deities

• Doric style

• Decorated with metopes on the labours of Herakles and Theseus on the south side

  • linking Herakles and Theseus - perhaps a commemoration of the Persian war?

• Frieze of metopes and triglyphs

Heracles and the Hind of Ceryneia

• c. 480 BCE

• From the Treasury of Athens at Delphi

• wearing his lion skin - identifier

  • from the Nemean lion labour

• bearded and has short hair (mature

• breaking out of the frontal plane of relief

  • compared to other friezes it is much more 3D

• Very energetic pose

• Anatomical details - muscles and ribs

  • at this time there is more experimentation with anatomy and poses - sculptors and painters are breaking away from the stiff, abstracted archaic style

• The faces are still in Archaic style with bulbous eyes and archaic smile

Theseus and the Minotaur

• c. 480 BCE

• From the Treasury of Athens at Delphi

• Athenian hero

  • depicted on many Athenian buildings

  • his achievements are placed on the same building as Herakles (a panHellenic hero) - advertises the city to people

  • this is the first time Theseus and Herakles have been depicted on the same building

• Torso of Minotaur softer than those of Heracles

  • not as abstract and rigid depiction of anatomy

  • shows that there were different sculptors and different styles used for the friezes

• First time Theseus and Heracles appear on the same monument - liken Athenian achievements to the pan-Hellenic hero

Kritios Boy

• 480 BCE

• A dedication from the Acropolis at Athens - found as part of the debris from the Persian war

• c. 1.20m tall - less than life-size

• Beardless and long hair that is rolled up - clearly a youth

• Right leg is relaxed, back weight baring leg

  • uneven distribution of weight - contrapposto pose

  • shoulders and hips line up to the weight baring

• His head is also turned slightly

  • breaking away from the archaic style - now in the early Classical period

• There is a very soft rendering of muscles and ribs

• Inlaid eyes, no archaic smile (pouty lips)

  • severe style - very serious expression of the statue

• Treatment of abdomen as one organic whole

• Shifting away from the Archaic style

• Perseschutt: Persian debris

  • Everything that was buried should be be from 480 BCE or earlier

    • however there are some later deposits mixed in

  • The Kritios boy was uncovered from the Perseschutt (Persian debris) so is he archaic or classical?

    • the Classical period begins in 480 BCE

    • he looks more Classical than Archaic - he looks later

    • Kritios boy made by the same sculptor as the second commission of tyrannicides so they may be contemporary c. 477 BCE

The Tyrannicides

• Original statues erected in 509 BCE, replacement statues erected in c. 477 BCE

• The Tyrannicides: sculptural group placed in the Agora - centre of the city

  • Harmodios and Aristogeiton (lovers)

    • real people - very unusual to erect statues of real people in a civic space like the Agora

  • Assassination of Hipparchus (brother of Hippias)

    • they originally intended to kill both Hipparchus and Hippias

    • they planned the assassination because Hipparchus flirted with Harmodios, who was already eromenos (young lover) of Aristogeiton, so when A. was informed of this he became angry and plotted an assassination of Hipparchus and Hippias

    • they only killed Hipparchus and didn’t manage to kill his brother

  • seen as responsible for beginning the events that led to the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes

    • they were given special honours, hence the sculptures being placed in the Agora

  • poses were dynamic - adopted by later sculptors

    • lunging position shows that the experiments with movement and anatomy were becoming more common with art at this point

  • the original statues were taken to Persia in 480 BCE

  • there were then replacements made by Kritias and Nesiotis ca. 477 CBE

    • Roman copy that survives today is of this one

Euthydikos kore

• 490-480 BCE

• Found on the Athenian Akropolis

• Severe style

• Pouty lips

• Still very much like the Athenian kore with her hairstyle

Artemision God

• ca. 460-450 BCE

• Over life size - 2m high

• Preserved as it was in a shipwreck

• Zeus? Poseidon?

  • holding something with his right hand, about to strike

  • could be a thunderbolt or a trident

  • most common interpretation is that this is Zeus as there are other examples of smaller sculptures of Zeus which look similar

• Hollow cast bronze

• Eyes, lips and nipples would have been made of copper, eyebrows out of silver

• Disengaged with the viewer - Classical period sculpture was often not focused on engaging with the viewer

  • body twisted and head is looking towards the direction of movement, not the viewer

• Early Classical style - severe, pouty lips

• Would have been made in sections, with multiple pieces joined together, called the lost wax technique

  • clay model covered with bees wax, the covered the wax with clay again and inserted bronze tubes to support the cavity

  • the clay was then fired, the wax would melt and then there would be a cavity created

  • liquid bronze was then poured into this cavity, left to solidify and then the outer layer of clay was broken away

  • cold work could then be done - fine details could be carved into the bronze e.g. fine hair

  • the statue was then polished and the sections were bonded together

Temple of Zeus at Olympia:

• 470-465 BCE

• limestone with Parian marble roof and sculptures

  • Parian marble (from the island of Paros) transported to Olympia

• Doric Peripteral: 6 by 13 columns

• an enormous temple - largest in Greece at the time

• early Classical style temple

• architect was Libon of Elis - built from the spoils of war between Elis and Pisa

• On the East pediment is depicted the myth of Pelops and Oinomaos. Quiet
  scene, before the disaster

• On the West Pediment there is the myth of the Lapiths fighting the Centaurs.
  Dynamic, violent scene. Feautres Perithoos and Theseus

• the metopes depict the Labours of Herakles

• mythology of the foundation of the games

Doryphoros (spear-bearer) by Polykleitos,

• 450-440 BCE

• Made of marble

• Roman copy (150-120 BCE) of a Greek original which would likely have been bronze

  • we have two different Roman copies that look different

• 2.12m - over life size (6ft 11)

• has struts (supports) which are prevalent in Roman copies, not so much in Greek sculpture

• semi-engaged pose - one leg engaged, the other relaxed (contrapposto - )

  • contrapposto - opposite limbs are engaged (the engaged leg is on the same side as the relaxed arm, the relaxed leg is on the same side as the arm holding a spear)

• chiastic pose (X = Greek letter khi)

• posture movement effects all parts of the body

• the pose is mid-movement

• realsim in anatomy is integrated with the ideal

• intellectualisation of art (artists intentions of what makes an ideal image

• Polykleitos wrote a treatise: canon of ideal proportions, symmetry and ratio, but we don’t know if his views reflected the wider canon in Greece

  • other opinions don’t survive

  • some scholars think this statue is meant to exemplify the canon

The Parthenon

• 447-432 BCE

• Made of Pentelic marble

• Architects: Kallikrates and Iktinos

• Sculpture: Phidias workshop

• Doric Temple

  • but has Ionic elements: continuous frieze and some ionic columns

• Metopes:

  • Trojan War

  • Amazonomachy

  • Gigantomachy

  • Centaruomachy

    • highlight reference to the Persian war

• Stylistic difference between the sculpture of the metopes, some look more archaic, the anatomy is less realistic

• Pediments:

  • East: Birth of Athena

  • West: Poseidon vs Athena for patron of Athens

• Ionic frieze

  • Panathenaic procession?

    • handing over of the peplos

    • depicts the 12 gods - sitting down, larger than the mortals

• Cult statue of Athena Parthenos (virgin

  • over 12 metres high

  • chryselephantine

  • made by Pheidias

• No straight lines on the Parthenon - architectural refinements

Panathenaic Frieze on Parthenon

• 447-432

• Made of Pentelic marble

• Ionic frieze

• Depicts the 12 Olympian gods

  • they are sitting down which allows them to be taller than the mortals

  • above the entrance to the temple - important positioning

• Shows the passing over of the peplos??

  • symbolic moment in the Panathenaic festival

  • peplos for the traditional cult statue of Athena in the Erechtheion

• Shows a scene of riders

  • very uniform

  • overlapping to show depth

  • horses are smaller than proportionally they should be

  • horses are excited, humans are calm - animalistic and cannot control emotions

• However there are elements depicted that are not thought to be part of the procession e.g. horsemen

The Temple of Athena Nike

• 438-424

• Made of Pentelic marble

• Ionic order

• Ionic frieze, continuous

  • Greeks fighting Greeks x2 - shows signs of 4th century sculptural developments

  • Greeks fighting Persians

  • Divine Assembly - group of gods

• Pediments:

  • Gigantomachy and Amazonomachy

• Positioned on a bastion on the Acropolis, to the right of the Propylaea

• One room structure

The Propylaea

• 437-432

• Doric columns on the front and back, Ionic on the inside

• Made of Pentelic marble and Eleusinian limestone

• Gateway to the Acropolis

• Assymetrical

• Never finished due to the Peloponnesian war

• Had a dining room and picture gallery

The Erechtheion

• 421-406

• Made of Pentelic marble and Eleusenian limestone

• Has a caryatid porch

• Ionic style building, Ionic frieze

• Unique temple, irregular plan

  • different levels allow worship of different deities and heroes

• Temple housed symbols related to the cults of:

  • Athena Polias (Athena of the City)

  • Poseidon - trident marks and water

  • Hephaistus (altar)

  • Poseidon-Erechtheus (Erechthonius)

  • Hero Butes (Athenian Hero)

• Tomb of Kekrops

  • supposedly located under the caryatid porch

    • wasn’t found

The Vivenzio Hydria

• c. 480 BCE

• Kleophrades painter

• around 30 cm tall

• Red figure technique

• cinerary urn found in Nola, Italy

• composition is confined to the shoulder, none on the body

• quite crowded not symmetrical

• it has a continuous band of action around the vessel (Sack of Troy)

  • Priam (King of Troy) is seated on an altar - as if he’s a sacrificial victim

  • Greek Neoptolomos is attacking Priam

  • Astyanax (grandson of Priam, son of Hector) is dead, on the lap of Priam

  • Aged Priam - he is not fighting back

  • emotional scenes - vulnerability

  • also shows Kassandra about to be raped

  • we see an attacks on civilians - war at its worst

    • women being raped, the elderly and young children escaping or being attacked

• also shows a cult statue of Athena in an archaic style (smiling)

• a variety of poses

• Anatomy, especially Kassandra is more naturalistic in keeping with the developments of sculpture (Kritios boy)

  • eyes in profile - not frontal

Attic Red figure amphora (with lid)

• Berlin Painter

• ca. 500-480 BCE

• c. 60 cm tall

• Red figure technique

• Typical single figure composition

• Uses the amphora shape to put one figure on each side

• Ground line sometimes - figures sometimes stand on platforms so that they aren’t floating (but sometimes doesn’t)

• Spotlight effect of figure against a dark background

• Early Classical (Severe style)

  • heavy chin, gravity and monumentality

• Depicts Heracles with a kantharos (type of cup) and Athena with an oinochoe (wine pourer)

  • some link between the two figures?

  • Athena giving wine to Heracles? - but no myth associated with it

Red figure Amphora

• ca. 490 BCE

• Berlin Painter

• Around 80cm tall

• Red figure technique

• Three figures (unusual) - overlapping each other

• Depicts:

  • Hermes (name labelled using dipinto) holding a kantharos and a vessel to hold fluids

  • a deer painted with a darker slip

  • Satyr Oreimachos - follower of Dionysus with plektron and lyre

• Compact figures with radiating limbs

• Spotlight effect on black background

Attic red-figure kylix

• Byrgos painter

• ca. 490 BCE

• Tondo (interior of cup)

• Symposium

• Youth with female (hetaira)

  • the man is vomiting and the prostitute is helping him by holding his head

    • warning to drinker - shows what will happen if you drink too much

• Dots in drapery (feature of the Brygos painter

• 5th century increase of compositions with non-narrative scenes even with mythological figures

• Everyday scenes increase in 5th century BCE

Stoa Poikile in the Agora

• A painted stoa built around 460 BCE

• Housed many paintings - gives it its name

• Painted by Polygnotos, Mikon, Panaios

• Pausanias describes the paintings in four panels

  • Amazonomachy, Sack of Troy - mythological

  • Battle of Oenoe 460 BCE, Battle of Marathon 490 BCE - historical events

• Historical events placed at the same level as mythological events - they are seen as equally important

  • juxtaposition of contemporary events likened to mythological events

• Pausanias and Pliny give descriptions of wall painting compositions e.g. Painted Stoa in Athens and Lesche of the Cnidias at Delphi

• No overlap of figures

• Interested in creating illusion of depth and space

  • figures arraned in 2-3 rows without getting smaller

Red-figure calyx- krater by the Niobid Painter (name vase),

• ca. 460-450 BC

• Space figures distributed in space on wavy
  groundlines in various poses.

  • depth: No reduction of figures who would
    be further away

  • influence from wall-painting

• Apollo and Artemis killing Niobe’s children

• Heracles and Athena; uncertain subject; figures relaxed

• Three-quarter views; foreshortening; no stiff Archaic drapery

Visit to the grave

• Bosanquet Painter, Attic

• ca. 440 BC

• White-ground lekythos

• Chlamys and spear: hunter? Perhaps the deceased

• Shallow basket: Kaneon or Kaniskion

• Relationship between the dead and the family

• Tomb seems extravagant but these were banned

• Represents daily life - becoming more popular
  

White Ground Lekythos Iconography: Mythology

• 450

• Thanatos painter

• Hermes as Psychopompos (Leader of the Souls)

  • Hermes leads the soul

• Charon (the Ferryman) in exomis (workman garment

• Mythological scenes that deal with death

White Ground Lekythos Iconography: Domestic Scenes - Warrior Bids Farewell House interior

• Achilles Painter,

• 440 BCE

• Woman on klismos

• Relaxed pose

• Man: Going to war? Farewell

• Style
  • Foreshortening
  • Contrapposto
  •Transparent drapery

Hegeso Stele, Attica

• c. 400 BC

• Pentelic marble

• Found in the Kerameikos

• 1.5m high

• Servant girl (smaller)

  • standing in a relaxed pose on the right, wearing a tunic, slippers, hair in a sakkos

  • holds open box on the knees of a mature woman seated in profile.

• Woman (Hegeso) wears a himation (veiled over head) and a chiton.

  • raises right hand holding a jewel (presumably)

  • legs rest on a stool-she sits on a klismos (chair)

  • painted details

  • fine drapery

  • elite woman

  • influence from Parthenon programme

• Architectural features

• Placed in Kerameikos in family group of graves

• Inscription: ‘Hegeso, daughter of Proxenos’

• Quiet and contemplative scene: typical of late 5th and 4th BC

• Meant to draw attention, its location in the Kerameikos - many travellers pass it

• Compare to lekythos

Temple of Apollo at Bassae

• c. 400 BCE

• Doric peripteral

  • but has some Ionic elements and one Corinthian column

• Dedicated to Apollo Epikourios (helper)

• Grey limestone

• Architect: iktinos (Parthenon architect)

• North-south orientation; north entrance rather than usual east entrance bc the geography dictates it

• 38.25m long x 14.5m wide

• Ionic columns in the cella are actually spur walls meaning the columns are connected to the wall, styled like Ionic columns

• In the middle there is one Corinthian column (first evidence in greek arch)

  • Corinthian column base is more elaborately molded

• Another entrance on the east side opposite statue of Apollo- by then associated with sun

• Adyton with side door on the east: sun and orientation towards statue of Apollo

  • So there is a deliberate effect with light where sun shines through entrance and shines on Apollo

• Sunken area in the middle of the room

• Interior Ionic frieze within the cella:

  • Amazonomachy- dynamic poses, figures with flowing capes filling the background

  • Centauromachy- gestures of distress from naked woman rape victim, big hand- another woman kneeling down holding onto a small figure in archaising style because she’s a statue of a goddess- provincial style?

  • Another Amazonomachy scene- drapery filling the space

    • figures fill up space right from the top to the bottom

    • scene shows Achilles about to kill Penthesilea (queen of amazons).

    • clingy drapery and dynamic movements typical of period

Aerial plan of temple of Apollo at Bassae

• c. 400 BCE

• Doric peripheral temple

  • interior colonade is Ionic

  • singular column is Corinthian

• The columns are actually stud walls not columns

Hermes and baby Dionysus

• 340 BCE

• By Praxiteles

• Parian marble

• Over life size

• Found at temple of Hera at Olympia

• Mortal activity- yet gods

• Original, found in the Temple of Hera, Olympia

• Hermes looks at baby- holds a bunch of grapes teasing Dionysus who reaches out to them

• But slender proportions, long legs, small head and s-curve (push up of hips creates an imbalance)

• Soft modelling of surface

• Realistic heavy drapery

• Original or copy?

  • Sandals, tree-trunk, highly polished marble (more roman) points to a late date but drapery is greek.

  • Stance influenced by Polykleitos 5^th century sculpture

  • We have pausanius who mentions it being at the temple of hera but maybe he was seeing the original and we are not

  • Struts e.g. tree trunk is a bit more rare.

  • Face is very praxitelian - deep set eyes with dreamy quality

    • smaller mouth than 5^th century and nice cupids bow

    • soft face

    • treatment of hair- quite full with nice curves

Aphrodite of Knidos

• c. 350 BCE

• By Praxiteles

• Roman copy of Greek original

  • marble but unknown original material

• Over life size

  • 2.15m

• Pliny told us:

  • she should be seen from all sides

  • height of female beauty

• S-curve of body

• Soft facial features, slightly parted lips.

• Praxitelaisn facial features; arms preoccupied

• Parts gilded or painted

• Modelling soft and tender

• First large female sculpture nude - only wears an armlet

• What does the gesture do? Cover up her genitals (bathing)

• Who is she looking at? The viewer? Why is she covering up? Sculpture responds to presence of viewer

• Fervour that the statue created at the time

• Her face and hairstyle became in fashion for sculopture afterwards

• Hair- parting with crimped curls, band

• Deep-set eyes, small cupids bow small mouth, soft treatment of face

Apoxyomenos (the scraper) ,

• c. 330 BCE

• By Lysippus

  • court sculptor of Alexander the Great

• Roman copy of Greek original

  • copy over 2m high

  • marble but unknown what the original was made of

  • copy found in Rome

• Nude athelete who completed exercise

• Strigil - scraping with olive oil to clean away dirt

• Stance: contrapposto but relax leg to the side limbs/legs extending to the side and frontal

• Slim body, flat cheekbones, compact

• Arm stretched with other one in right angle

• Out-turned foot, bent knee

• Relaxed vs. active sides

• Frontality broken to movement in 3 dimensions

• Idealised face but looking more real

• Staring into distance
  

Head of Alexander from Pergamon

• c. 200 BC

• Found in the lower Agora in Pergamon (western Turkey)

• Marble

• Pergamene style hair, rounded eyes

• No Lysippean portait of Alexander survives

• The types however are seen in Hellenistic and Roman statues of Alexander.

Head of Alexander from Pella

• c. 200 BCE

• Found in Pella

• Marble

• Hellenistic, but possibly a copy of a Lysippus portrait

• Youthful, no beard

• Slightly furrowed forehead

• Long mane of hair - lion like

  • in the middle goes up - an anastole (cowlick)

• Tilt of the head and eyes to the left, deep set eyes, mouth slightly open

• Breathless quality, turns for attention

• A charismatic military leader

Temple of Apollo at Didyma in Ionia

• c. 330 BCE

• Marble

• Columns nearly 20m high - very tall

• Ionic building

  • height and levels used in this temple to create a different experience for those entering

• Housed an oracle of Apollo

• Architects:

  • Daphnes of Miletus

  • Paionios of Ephesus

• Eastern facade - entrance

  • large staircase leading to stylobate with Ionic columns

• Two peristyles - dipteral building

• The pronaos contains 12 columns

  • there is no opisthodomos

• The columns have a roof over - it would have created a lot of darkness

  • there was a forest of columns which would have been fairly dark

  • an interesting experience for those visiting the temple

• Then there was an open air courtyard

• Viewers’ experience: depth and height of structure - makes you feel small

  • very different experience to other temples

• Architects’ sketches have survived on interior walls

Plan of Didyma

• c. 330 BCE

• Marble

• Huge amount of columns is clear from the image

The Alexander Mosaic

• 100 BCE

• From House of the Faun at Pompeii (floor mosaic)

• c. 5m x 3m

• 1.5 million tesserae

• Pliny the Elder mentions the painting by Philoxenos of Eretria ca. 330-320 BCE

• Depicts Battle of Issus

• Interest in fortune and fate

• Action and arrested action

• Alexander has a medusa on his breastplate

• Incredibly detailed, volume added by shading

• We can use this to infer about Hellenistic wall painting

Ancient capital of Macedon: Aigai (modern Vergina)

• Most famous for the built chamber tombs of the fourth century and Hellenistic period

• Found at Vergina, Pella and elsewhere

• Façade with lintel and painting

• Type favoured by royalty and regional chiefs

• Great Tumulus at Vergina (3 tombs)

• Tomb I (of Persephone) and Tomb II

Tomb I - Tomb of Persephone

• c. 340 BCE

• Painting shows Hades abducting Persephone

  • also Demeter and 3 fates

• Forshortening for chariot wheel achieved by shading

• Faces show high drama

• Body movement - high drama

• Impressionistic brush strokes

• Tombs were for elite families

Tomb II

• Mid to late 4th century

• No interior paintings

• There is an Ionic frieze on the facade - hunting scene

• Man and woman buried inside

  • possibly Philip II

• Illusion of palace architecture - columns and metopes carved into the tomb walls

Tomb II Ionic Frieze

• Mid to late 4th century

• Painted on plaster

• Men hunting naked and clothed, on horseback and on foot

• Macedonian hat

• One figure wears a purple garment - royalty

• Many animals, including lions, boars, bears and deer

  • lions don’t seem to have lived until this point so might be a mythological scene/imaginary hunt

• Heroic nudity

• Scene of an ideal hunt, not realistic scene

Mosaic of Olynthos

• First half of 4th century

• Pebble mosaic

  • pre tesserae

• Two toned

• Bellophron and Chimera - mythological scene

• Abstract designs around it

Pebble Mosaic from Pella (capital of Macedon), Macedonia,

• Later 4th century

• From Pella, Macedonia

• Designed by Gnosis (name added at the top)

• Wave pattern (like at Olynthos)

• Floral designs

• There is much more detail

• Light figures against a dark background (like at Olynthos)

• Figures more advanced, musculature achieved by shading

• Pebbles more closely packed, more colours used

Dying Gaul

• ca 220 BCE

• A copy of a Hellenistic original in marble

  • original thought to have been bronze

• 95 cm height, 1.85 length

• Clearly a foreigner as he has a moustache and is wearing a torque (a necklace associated with the Gauls and Celts)

• Hair rendered in thick textured strands

  • they used lime water to style thier hair

• He is in a state of quiet agony

  • anguish in the face

  • wrinkles

  • bulges of brows

  • his lips are closed and he is quiet

• He is about to die

  • sad depiction of a foreign opponent

• Nude: heroic and vulnerable

• Slow twist of figure to be seen from more than one angle

• Style known as Hellenistic baroque

  • later 3rd century BCE and esp. 2nd BCE

  • emotion and drama

  • interested in textures, very detailed

Ludovisi Gaul and His Wife

• ca 220 BCE

• Epigonos

• Hellenistic Baroque style

• Roman copies of bronze original

• He seems to be killing himself and his wife is dead

  • possible that he killed her because he didn’t want her to be taken captive

  • but no evidence that he killed her so we don’t know who did and why she is dead

• Focus on the dignity of the opponent

  • makes the Romans look better - they defeated such a great opponent

• Dramatic twisting of the body

  • made to be viewed from multiple angles

• Interested in different textures especially hair and textiles

  • huge attention to detail - fabric curves around the contours of the body

• He is not showing much emotion

Old Drunken Woman

• Roman copy of Greek original

• Late 3rd century BCE

• Around 90cm high - smaller than life-size

• Holding ivy wreathed wine jar

• Jar is called a lagynos used in Dionysiac Festivals

  • Ptolemaic kingdom

• Votive offering for Dionysus? Showing a participant of the festival?

• Is she drunk?

  • her mouth is slightly parted - laughing, shouting?

• Realism:

  • aging body, exposed bony shoulder

    • vanished sexual attraction

    • usually showing a shoulder would be attractive but this is not the case here

  • wrinkles on face

Altar of Pergamon

• c. 160 BCE

• Ionic style building

• Made of marble

• Dedicated to Zeus and Athena

• Has a monumental staircase that leads the visitor up to the altar

• Contains a large sacrificial altar in an open air courtyard in the centre

• Decorated with an Ionic frieze of the Gigantomachy - incredibly detailed

  • figures are anatomically accurate

  • the figures have armpit hair, finger nails etc

  • Chiaroscuro - balance of light and dark

  • Lots of interlocking poses

  • A masterpiece at the height of the Hellenistic period

  • The gods are victorious

    • sense of order being triumphant over chaos

    • Gods vs Giants - gods are clearly winning

‘Old Market Woman’

• Roman copy of a Greek original

• Late 2nd century BCE

• Around 1.50m high

• Old woman: wrinkled face, sagging skin, thin

  • rib cage , stooped over carrying a basket full of objects

• Coming from or bringing to market

• Exemplies interest in new subjects:

  • shows elderly person

  • works in labour not a position of high society

  • concentration of effects of aging on the body - toothless

    • more focus on realism

• Unexpected: wearing a wreath of grape leaves, wearing a fine dress held by metal fasteners (not wearing rags)

  • was she celebrating the City Dionysia?

  • was it a votive for Dionysus?

Old Man

• From Aphrodisias in modern western Turkey

  • Aphrodisias is a centre for sculpture

• 200 BCE

• Life size figure

• Made of marble

• Showing body in a realistic way - no more idealism, sculptors are now interested in depicting realistic bodies

• Again shows the way that the body ages realistically

• It is leaning forward towards the viewer - confronting them with the inevitability of aging

Small Bronze Figurine (Berlin)

• Hunchbacked

• Bodily proportions: head too large for the body

• Where are these images made?

• Alexandria? Large sculpting industry

• Objects/painting showing interest in disease or mental disability

• Purpose:

  • medical examples

  • magical amulets? apotropaic function? (e.g. Medusa)

  • satire? humour?

  • expensive materials

    • perhaps unlikely to have been used for teaching

Terme Boxer

• c. Late 2nd century BCE

• c. 1.80m

• Bronze Greek original

• Wearing his boxing gloves and has cauliflower ears

• Athletes known from 6th century BCE

  • not a new subject but shown in a different way

• Aging face

  • not an idealised athlete which we had before

• Copper effect - lips and nipples in copper

• Sharp twisting of face and torso

  • seems to be responding to something

  • possibly resting after a match

Horse and Jockey from Artemisium

• Original Greek bronze

• Late 2nd century BCE

• Found in a shipwreck

  • often the case when Greek originals are preserved

• Could be an athletic victory monument for a horse race

  • the patron of the horse who won the race would often erect and display sculptures in Greek sanctuaries to celebrate their success

• Jockey: 80cm height

  • boy of African origin?

  • Hellenistic interest in depicting other peoples e.g. the Gauls

• Belong together with the horse?

  • the two pieces were put together, they weren’t made together

  • were they made to be together - the boy does seem small in comparison to the size of the horse

• Energetic motion of the animal - leaping into the air

  • this is fairly unique - most other horses in sculpture before this appear stationary

  • there is huge detail in the horses anatomy

Sleeping Hermaphrodite

• Unusual to see sleeping sculpture before this

• Roman copy of Greek original from the 2nd century BCE

• 1.5m length

• Sleeping figures usually shown in vase painting

• New sculpted form in the Hellenistic period

• Aim to direct/stir viewers’ experience

• Defies expectations of viewer

• Viewer observes but the figure doesn’t engage with the viewer - they are asleep

• Passive form

• The figure is asleep

• There are multiple Roman copies

Sleeping Eros

• Bronze Greek original

• 150-100 BCE

• 80 cm long

• Child-like sleep

• Wings in back; stone is a modern addition

• Original find spot unknown

• Eros creating trouble

  • but asleep so can’t cause trouble

Barberini Faun (Satyr)

• c.200 BCE

• Greek original

• 2.15m height

• Follower of Dionysus but live in woods

  • trouble makers, but asleep so can’t cause trouble

• Asleep

• Made of marble

• Idealised male

• Uneasy sleep?

  • he is frowning

• Grape leaves in his hair and has a tail

• Animal skin on rocky surface

• Dormant figure at sleep

• Viewer looks but is not observed

Dionysiac Realm

• This is a Roman copy, the original from the 2nd century BCE

• Marble

• Semi-erotic in nature

• Satyr struggling with hermaphrodite

• Struggling or playful?

• Intertwined groups

  • sculptors enjoy showing intertwined groups

• Sculptural show off in 3D

• Light subjects

• Variety of points of view to look at sculpture at all sides

Boy strangling Goose

• Original from 150 BCE; Roman copy

• Babies and children become popular subject matters

  • interest in children starts in the 4th century e.g. Hermes and Dionysus by Praxiteles

• Behaving like children - cuddling the goose but the goose is trying to get away

• Sculptor: Boethus of Chalcedon

• Over 40 Roman copies survive - various poses

  • incredibly popular statue

• Multidimensional composition

• An ordinary scene