Ancient Greek Art - Summary

Painting and Pottery

• Geometric Style (c. 1000–700 BCE):
  • Known from pottery and small-scale sculpture.
  • Decorated with simple geometric patterns and rectilinear meander patterns.
  • Flat, two-dimensional renderings with stylized forms painted in dark glaze over a light surface.
• Orientalizing Style (c. 700–600 BCE):
  • Influenced by the Near East and Egypt.
  • Larger, more curvilinear shapes.
  • Geometric patterns relegated to borders.
  • Move towards imaginary and real figures.
• Archaic Style (c. 600–480 BCE):
  • Black-figure painting technique: Entirety of flesh portrayed in black.
  • Patterning as border device.
  • Central image is a narrative scene.
  • More three-dimensional postures.
• Late Archaic to Classical Style (c. 530–400 BCE):
  • Red-figure painting technique: Background coated with black slip, figures stand out in red-orange.
  • Permitted freer painting and more natural forms.
  • Orange clay used for skin tones.
• Classical to Hellenistic Style (c. 450–31 BCE):
  • White-ground painting popular on lekythoi (oil storage for religious/funerary use).
  • Rendering of figures in three-dimensional space.
  • Use of foreshortening.

Sculpture

• Archaic Period (c. 625-480 BCE):
  • Monumental sculpture of human figures.
  • Influenced by Egyptian techniques.
  • Marble and bronze were common materials.
  • Human form was the most important subject.
  • Kouros (male youth) and Kore (female youth) sculptures.
  • Kouros:
    • Depicted nude.
    • Rigid stance derived from Egyptian art.
    • Anatomical details rendered in geometric forms.
  • Kore:
    • Clothed.
    • Slightly less rigid pose.
    • Drapery reveals body contours.
  • Archaic Smile: Suggests that the subject was alive and in good health.
• Early Classical Style (c. 480–450 BCE):
  • Also known as Severe or Transitional style.
  • Marked by a change towards naturalism.
  • Disappearance of the Archaic smile.
  • Simpler forms.
  • Contrapposto: Weight shifted to one side, causing shoulders and hips to drop on alternating sides.
• Classical Style (c. 450–400 BCE):
  • Idealization of the human form.
  • Focus on ideal young male in majestic nudity.
  • Nicely proportioned and symmetrical forms.
  • Emotionless face.
  • Polykleitos:
    • Developed Canon (or Rule) using math and science to create art.
    • Emphasized harmony of bodily parts and ideal proportions.
• Late Classical Style (c. 400–323 BCE):
  • Praxiteles: Celebrated the female nude.
  • Aphrodite of Knidos: Example of the "Praxitelean curve", with fleshier proportions.
• Hellenistic Period (323 BCE – 31BCE ):
  • Portraying emotion, drama, and engaging the viewer.
  • Explored a wider range of subjects, personalities, and moods.
  • Lysippos: Introduced a more naturalistic approach to representing the human figure.
  • Increase in portrait types, children, and old people represented.
  • Theatricality and melodrama express extremes of emotion.
  • Laocoön and His Two Sons: Example of Hellenistic taste for violent movement and melodramatic pathos.

Architecture

• Classical Period:
  • Age of Pericles: Rebuilding campaign for the Acropolis.
  • Greek Temples:
    • Provided shelter for statues of gods.
    • Rituals took place outside.
    • Statue deity located in the middle of the naos.
• The Parthenon:
  • Dedicated to Athena Parthenos.
  • Sculptures designed by Pheidias illustrating episodes from Greek myth and a religious procession.
  • Pediments: Represented mythological events from the life of Athena.
  • Metopes and Triglyphs: Triglyphs (three vertical grooves) alternate with metopes (rectangular slabs carved in high relief).
  • Frieze: Shows the people of Athens in a religious procession.
• Temple of Athena Nike:
  • Honoured Athena as the goddess of victory.
• Greek Theatre:
  • Best preserved example is the theatre at Epidauros
  • Design famous for its acoustics
  • Auditorium built around the orchestra, a place for dancing.
• 3 Greek Architectural Orders:
  • Doric, Ionic, Corinthian: Composed of geometric sections with individual meaning and logic.
  • Legacy of Greek Architecture: Simplicity, proportion, perspective, and harmony influenced architects in the Roman world and provided the foundation for classical architectural orders.