Topic 2.3 Greek Art
Greek art should be studied chronologically according to stylistic changes unlike Egyptian art which tends to be studied by dynasty.
Essential Knowledge
People from Greece, Turkey, and Italy created most ancient Greek art.
Greek civilization produced a wide range of literary works, including epics, poetry, and tragedies.
The idealization and harmony of proportions in Greek sculpture and architecture is notable.
The Mediterranean was a hotbed for artistic exchange, as evidenced by the influence of Egyptian and Near Eastern art on Ancient Greek sculpture.
Brief History
Until 900 BCE, city-states filled the gap left by the collapse of Aegean civilization in approximately in 1100 BCE. Athenian rivalry was based on language and fear of foreigners. The city-states rallied behind Athens in the 5th century BCE only to eliminate the Persian threat. Threat eliminated sent the Greeks back to fighting each other, an example is Sparta defeating Athens in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).
Hellenistic Greece
The fighting amongst the Greek city-states lasted for approximately a century. Alexander the Great combined Macedonians and Greeks to overcome the Persians in the fourth century BCE they were successful. Alexander’s empire crumbled because he died young at 32 and left no heir. The empire was split in three:
The Seleucid Empire in Syria and Persia
The Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt
Macedonia in the center of where the empire was
Greek civilization lasted a few hundred years longer before being assimilated by Rome.
Artists
Many artists signed their works which leads scholars to believe that Greek artists achieved a status unheard of in antiquity.
As form of self-promotion and acknowledgment for their work, artists in Greece signed their vases with a formula similar to "so and so made it," "so and so embellished it," or some variation thereof.
Many sculptors and architects were also theoreticians.
It was Polykleitos who penned a well-known work on the canon of human dimensions.
Perfect architecture, Iktinos penned several essays.
Phidias, the man in charge of the Acropolis' creative program, oversaw hundreds of people in a workshop while yet managing to build a massive complex that included a single, unified artistic statement.
It's true that artists lived in a golden era throughout this time period.
Comparisons
Nudity wasnot an issue for the artist nor the people in Greece. Greeks admired the human body as perfect, contrary to the Egyptians that saw it as degrading.
Greek sculptures are in the round; they are completely cut away from the marble block. Contrary to the Egyptian sculpture “King Menkaura and queen” where the figures are attached in the back to the stone.
The ability to create large-scale bronze sculptures allowed for compositional experimentation.
The contrapposto pose, standing with weight on one leg, other knee bent, and shoulder inclined was prevalent during the Classical and Hellenistic age.
The previous stiffness of the Archaic period was replaced with an appearance that was casual, flowing and in movement.
Greek Archaic Sculptures (600-480 BCE)
Grave monuments like kouros and kore figures and sculpture from Greek temples are all that is left of Greek Archaic art.
Even though marble was the most popular material for Greek artefacts, there are examples made from other materials, including bronze and limestone, as well as terracotta, wood, and even iron.
When it came to high-relief sculptures on temple facades, it was common for it to be painted.
It was customary to use red to draw attention to backgrounds and to paint the lips, eyes, hair, and drapery of the characters.
Thunderbolts, harps, and other musical instruments are common in sculpture. The lost-wax process known as cire perdue is used to create bronze sculptures, which are hollow inside. Lips, nipples, and teeth could have copper or silver highlights, as well as inlaid stone or glass eyes.
Kouros
Resembles Egyptian sculpture's stance but is nude—most of the Kouros’ arms and legs are freed from the stone.
Pose is frontal and taut.
Unlike many Egyptian works, which are reliefs or are permanently attached cut to the stone, Greek sculptures are freestanding and movable. The back of the hair is neatly braided and knotted. Some of the sculpture's original paint, including encaustic, has survived. Archaic smile intended to liven up the sculpture's look and feel
encaustic: using pigments mixed with hot wax that are burned in as an inlay.
archaic smile: particularly in the second quarter of the 6th century BCE, used the archaic smile to suggest that their subject was alive and filled with happiness.
Served as a grave marker; replaced huge vases from the geometric period.
Kouros (p. kouroi) was a statue of an unbearded male youth
Kore (p. korai) was a statue of a young maiden (ideal female youth) made of marble or limestone, always clothed
Hellenism
Began with the death of Alexander the Great c. 323 BCE
Created strain and change in the lives of Greeks and prompted artists to utilize more emotion in their works
Great variety of expression in sculpture; greater exhibit of motion, movement, energy
Movement away from restrained, controlled classical models
Many sculptures from this time have not survived, we see many marble Roman copies
However, some have survived, like the Seated Boxer
Marble copies were made using lost-wax-casting method.
Ideal body but also realistic depiction of emotion/wounds
Hellenism keeps the idealization of the body (to an extent) but adds in emotion/drama to the art.
Energetic/powerful
Greater range of movement
Figures have energy and intensity
Great emotion and expression
Required Images
Anavysos Kouros, Archaic Greek. c. 530 BCE. Marble with remnants of paint.
Anavysos: a town and former municipality in East Attica, Greece
A monumental sculpture of an ideal male youth that suggests heroic strength
More idealized and naturalistic from Kouros figures in the Archaic Period
Greater anatomical accuracy
More natural, more rounded
e.g., the swelling of hips, calves, abdomen, cheeks
Weight is equally distributed between both legs; sharp shins, heavily delineated abs
Traditional braiding of the hair with traditional headband, traces of paint remain in the hair
Archaic smile and hands stuck to the sides, sense of rigidity and stability
A grave marker for a fallen hero named Kroisos, according to inscription
His demeanor is one of peacefulness and transcendence in the afterlife.
Inspired by connections to Ancient Egypt; strong frontal pose and rigid stance.
Does NOT adopt the Egyptian attitude of nudity
Peplos Kore from the Acropolis, Archaic Greek. c. 530 BCE. Marble, painted details.
Painted with bright, garnish colors, a symbol of expense (rarer > more expensive)
Holes in the head indicate she would have been wearing a diadem or crown
A cinched waist and noticeable breasts shows the three-dimensions of her body
Continuity of rigid pose and rounded, naturalistic face like the Anavysos Kouros
Continuity of Archaic smile, immobility and stiffness shown in the arms at the side
Offering to Athena sculpted by young men
This may not be a offering, but it may actually be a representation of Artemis or Athena
The broken hand may have held an offering for the gods
Named Peplos Kore because originally thought to be wearing a Peplos,
Recovered from the Acropolis debris
Grecians had an active religious life with a vibrant community participation
Athenian women were extremely restricted and controlled, so it was really men who participated in religious practice and worship outside of the home.
Niobides Krater, Anonymous vase painter of Classical Greece known as the Niobid Painter. c. 460–450 BCE. (Transitional Period) Clay, red-figure technique (white highlights)
The krater tells the story of Niobe
Niobe had seven daughters and seven sons (14 children), she bragged about her children being more numerous and more beautiful than the children of the goddess Leto (Apollo and Artemis), then Artemis and Apollo exact revenge on behalf of their mother.
It depicts Artemis and Apollo with their bows drawn and the bodies of the children on the floor.
The other side contains Athena on the left, Heracles in the center, with what may be hero solders in arms, in a composition whose serenity is classical Greek.
Found in an Etruscan tomb
The Etruscans were Grecophiles, Greek vases were very popular
The more decorated the vases were, the greater the expense
Greeks often held huge banquets called symposia (s. symposium)
to sustain hours and hours of drinking without getting hungover, the Greeks watered down their wine in these kraters.
Having a vase was a sign of wealth
Figures scattered across space
Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Polykleitos. Original: 450–440 BCE. (Classical Greek) Roman copy (marble) of Greek original (bronze)
decorative art: arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. Includes most of the arts, but not usually architecture.
Ceramic art, metalwork, furniture, jewelry, fashion, various forms of the textile arts and glassware are major groupings.
contrapposto: uneven weight distributed to the legs, causing the hips to dip and the shoulders to counterbalance.
Exhibits interest by an artist in not just idealized body parts, but in how the body of a real figure would stand.
Most parts of the body are twisting/alternating
head twisted to the left, shoulders/hips to the left, knees to the left, ankles to left, etc.
Created using lost wax casting
The wax is “lost” and drips out of the clay case
The process is “lost” after the fall of the Roman Empire and is not “discovered” again until Donatello in the 15th c. Southern Renaissance
Marble is difficult to work in, it is heavy, and figures cannot always stay standing upright and unsupported
a bronze figure supporting a pose that exhibits movement will weigh less and thus be more secure than a marble figure exhibiting that same movement.
To help support these figures, Romans used struts and tree trunks to bolster/support marble copies of Greek bronze originals
Illustrated the beauty of the nude human form according to Polykleitos’ Canon
physician Galen and philosopher Pliny the Elder referenced the Canon and how to create the ideal statue of a nude male athlete, saying it should have proportions, balanced parts/relative to other parts (symmetria) to create beauty and harmony
Most likely used to inspire exercising Roman athletes as it was found in a Roman bathhouse
Hand would have once held a spear
“spear bearer” in greek is “doryphoros”
Not a portrait, a generic individual/representation of an ideal athlete/warrior.
Greeks regarded uncontrolled sexuality as contrary to the rational behavior; small penises were indications that men could transcend their base or physical desires and not be guided by physical urges.
Use of a physical part of the body to imply the great strength of one’s mind.
Made during “Golden Age of Athens” in history and art.
3 Main Ideals:
Idealism: pursuit of perfection (intellectual and physical)
Rationalism: reason seen more important than emotion, calm stoicism and control over the body
Humanism: basis for the canon; study the real human body
Grave stele of Hegeso. Attributed to Kallimachos. c. 410 BCE. (Classical Greek) Marble and paint.
A portrait more concerned with idealization than what Hegeso looked like
Stele: upright slab that often is funerary in purpose
Would have been painted
No hierarchy of scale demonstrating humanistic ideals in that naturalism is more important than hierarchy
Child servant obviously smaller than Hegeso
Garments reveal forms underneath both women with drapery bunching up underneath breasts and on back
Foreshortened foot despite it being a shallow space and low/high relief
Funerary monument to honor Hegeso, a sign of her family and social status with inclusions of jewelry and servitude
Expressions of Wealth
Elegant clothing
Seated on an elegant chair with a footstool
Examining a piece of jewelry
Servant girl has brought this box, she can afford a servant
Depicts a moment of daily life; quiet reverence; in keeping with the tradition of the Classical style
Classical period introduced a new trend for funerary sculpture was to use steles (unlike Anavysos Kouros from earlier)
Private sculpture; not part of a state commission like Parthenon
Greater statue of free-born women (servants, jewelry), however it was still a restrictive life
Gives the impression that a woman’s sphere is in the home; not considered citizens; hence the domestic setting
She is defined in her relationship to another man (daughter of Proxenos)
Winged Victory of Samothrace. Hellenistic Greek. c. 190 B.C.E. Marble.
9 feet tall
Deeply carved to reveal variety of textures
Hellenistic characteristics
Energetic/powerful contrapposto
Greater range of movement
Figure with energy and intensity
Height of the narrative, e.g. most dramatic/intense movement of the narrative
Great emotion and expression
Wet drapery imitates the look of water upon the body
Nike was on a boat. The sculpture was part of a fountain located in front of a temple.
Fountain and temple were on a beach/shoreline on the island of Samothrace
Built to commemorate a naval victory by the Greeks, unclear which one
Perhaps the Battle of Cos between Macedonians and Egyptians
Meant to show that the goddess Nike blessed the Greeks with their victory because she favors the Greeks
Nike is also a messenger goddess who spreads news of a victory
The boat is a metaphor/symbol for the Greek navy
Nike landing on the prow of her ship
Her missing right arm may have raised a victory crown or been held up in greeting
A fragment found in 1948 seems to be from this statue and indicates her arm was raised
The moment just before she pulls her wings in
The wind enlivens her drapery
She faces the way that the wind typically blows, which explains the flutter of the drapery
Her clothing is pulled tightly across her abdomen and left leg, bunches up in thick layers around her front right leg
Water sprays up upon her; flickering light off the water adds a quality of movement
Figure who seems to be alive and breathing and intensely emotive
Seated Boxer. Hellenistic Greek. c. 100 BCE. Bronze.
Probably meant to commemorate a real boxer; likely a portrait.
Copper was overlaid onto the bronze in the lost wax casting method to show the bleeding of the figure
He’s an athletic figure; not young or beautiful in the traditional sense like Doryphoros.
His face is not perfect, nor is his body, showing naturalistic ideals
He’s heavily, battered, defeated, and looks upward with a sad gaze, accentuated by his slumped torso.
With the seated boxer, we see a specific moment in time, not an ideal state.
His face is damaged, his nose is broken, his teeth are broken, his cheeks and forehead are scarred, hands are bleeding and cut and he has leather straps that act as bandages on his knuckles.
A Hellenistic piece
There’s a great variety of expression in sculpture. There’s a greater exhibit of motion, movement and energy. The art presents a movement away from a restrained, controlled classical style.
Traditional subjects are still seen in Hellenistic art. For example, the seated boxer is an athlete.
It is believed that originally it was placed in the baths of Diocletian and might have been part of a larger group of sculptures. Like the use of the Spear Bearer by the Roman’s, each is meant to motivate.