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Otis Art History 06 - Introduction to Greek Culture

Rosette designs from Meyer's Handbook of Ornament. The Grammar of Ornament Egyptian No 7 plate 10 , image Illustration from The Grammar of Ornament From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Motif disambiguation. Persian boteh motif on textile.

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Plant motif, Taj Mahal. Retrieved December 13, Myths and Legends from Korea: Many vases were signed, indicating a pride in craftsmanship. On other vases, the whole background was sometimes painted an ivory white. The figures stood out more strikingly on this white background.

Ancient Greek sculpture

Details were highlighted by the use of red, blue, yellow, or brown. These white-ground vases are rarer than black- or red-figured ones. Scholars date the beginning of the classical period with the invasion of Greece by the Persians and its end with the death of Alexander the Great. During the second half of the 's B. Even after its defeat by the city of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War B.

Architecture The Parthenon was built between and B. It is considered the greatest example of the Doric order. It has eight columns across the front and back, and 17 down each side. The Parthenon was built entirely of marble. It was decorated with magnificent sculptures portraying various battles, a procession of Athenians honoring the Greek goddess Athena, and scenes from Athena's life.

Although now a ruin, the Parthenon still stands today, dominating Athens' Acropolis the highest point of the city. The Erechtheum was built on the Acropolis about 20 years after the Parthenon. It has the slim proportions and decorative details typical of the Ionic order. Unlike most other temples, the Erechtheum has porches extending from both sides. One of the porches is the famous Porch of the Maidens. It has columns in the shapes of female figures. Another notable Doric temple is the temple of Apollo at Bassae. Built between and B. After the 's B. But they tended to add ornamentation and experiment further with combining the orders in a single building.

Among the other architectural forms created by the Greeks during this period were the stoa and the theater. The stoa was a long roofed hall or promenade that had a solid back wall and a colonnade at the front. The structure was used as a shopping center, a law court, or simply a shelter from the weather.

Stoas were also used to enclose spaces, such as markets. Theaters were an important part of every Greek city. They were usually situated against a hill where the audience could sit to watch the performances. Performances were dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine. Sculpture Few original sculptures of the classical period survive. Much of what is known about the great sculptors of this age comes from copies made by the Romans. The Romans also recorded the names of many Greek artists in their writings. The growing interest in realism, as well as in the idealization of the human body, can be seen in a famous early classical sculpture called the Discus-Thrower.

It was carved about B. But it is known today only from a Roman copy.


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The athlete is caught in mid-movement, at the instant he is about to hurl the discus. Another famous example is the Charioteer about B. This life-size bronze statue was discovered at the great sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. Bronze was a favorite material from which to make statues in the early 's B. However, very few large bronze statues have survived because they were melted down long ago to make useful objects, such as spearheads.

Classical sculpture peaked after the middle of the 's. Two of the greatest sculptors of this period were Phidias and Polyclitus. Phidias was known for his sculptures of the gods. He was in charge of the sculptures created for the Parthenon. Two colossal gold-and-ivory statues of Zeus and Athena were his masterpieces. Both are now known only from descriptions. Polyclitus specialized in statues of athletes.

A beginner's guide to ancient Greece

His works, such as the Spearbearer, firmly established the ideal measurements and proportions of the body. The pose of this figure, with one leg drawn back and the weight of the body shifted onto the other leg, continued to be used throughout the history of art. Relief sculpture--sculpture carved to stand out from a flat background--often decorated temples. The long horizontal bands called friezes that ran above Ionic columns often featured relief sculptures of human and animal figures. An example is the frieze that runs along the outer top of the Parthenon's cella.

Between and , the influence of Athens on Greek art declined.

Hellenistic art

A variety of differing styles emerged. The great sculptor Praxiteles introduced a soft, subtle style. In his Hermes and the Infant Dionysus about B. In contrast, another sculptor, Scopas, conveyed strong emotions by his use of twisting, active poses. A third sculptor, Lysippus, introduced a new system of proportions for the human form. He made the head smaller and the limbs longer. Lysippus was the court sculptor for Alexander the Great. The bronzes are chiefly tripod cauldrons , and freestanding figures or groups.

Such bronzes were made using the lost-wax technique probably introduced from Syria, and are almost entirely votive offerings left at the Hellenistic civilization Panhellenic sanctuaries of Olympia , Delos , and Delphi , though these were likely manufactured elsewhere, as a number of local styles may be identified by finds from Athens , Argos , and Sparta. Typical works of the era include the Karditsa warrior Athens Br. The repertory of this bronze work is not confined to standing men and horses, however, as vase paintings of the time also depict imagery of stags, birds, beetles, hares, griffins and lions.

There are no inscriptions on early-to-middle geometric sculpture, until the appearance of the Mantiklos "Apollo" Boston The Latinized script reads, "Mantiklos manetheke wekaboloi argurotoxsoi tas dekatas; tu de Foibe didoi xariwettan amoiw[an]", and is translated roughly as "Mantiklos offered me as a tithe to Apollo of the silver bow; do you, Phoibos [Apollo], give some pleasing favour in return". The inscription is a declaration of the statuette to Apollo, followed by a request for favors in return. Apart from the novelty of recording its own purpose, this sculpture adapts the formulae of oriental bronzes, as seen in the shorter more triangular face and slightly advancing left leg.

This is sometimes seen as anticipating the greater expressive freedom of the 7th century BC and, as such, the Mantiklos figure is referred to in some quarters as proto-Daedalic. Inspired by the monumental stone sculpture of Egypt [13] and Mesopotamia , the Greeks began again to carve in stone. Free-standing figures share the solidity and frontal stance characteristic of Eastern models, but their forms are more dynamic than those of Egyptian sculpture, as for example the Lady of Auxerre and Torso of Hera Early Archaic period, c.

After about BC, figures such as these, both male and female, began wearing the so-called archaic smile. This expression, which has no specific appropriateness to the person or situation depicted, may have been a device to give the figures a distinctive human characteristic. Three types of figures prevailed—the standing nude youth kouros, plural kouroi , the standing draped girl kore, plural korai , and the seated woman. All emphasize and generalize the essential features of the human figure and show an increasingly accurate comprehension of human anatomy.

The youths were either sepulchral or votive statues. More of the musculature and skeletal structure is visible in this statue than in earlier works. The standing, draped girls have a wide range of expression, as in the sculptures in the Acropolis Museum of Athens. Their drapery is carved and painted with the delicacy and meticulousness common in the details of sculpture of this period.

The Greeks thus decided very early on that the human form was the most important subject for artistic endeavour. Seeing their gods as having human form, there was no distinction between the sacred and the secular in art—the human body was both secular and sacred.

Greek Art - Crystalinks

A male nude without any attachments such as a bow or a club, could just as easily be Apollo or Heracles as that year's Olympic boxing champion. In the Archaic Period the most important sculptural form was the kouros plural kouroi , the standing male nude See for example Biton and Kleobis. The kore plural korai , or standing clothed female figure, was also common; Greek art did not present female nudity unless the intention was pornographic until the 4th century BC, although the development of techniques to represent drapery is obviously important. As with pottery, the Greeks did not produce sculpture merely for artistic display.

Statues were commissioned either by aristocratic individuals or by the state, and used for public memorials, as offerings to temples, oracles and sanctuaries as is frequently shown by inscriptions on the statues , or as markers for graves. Statues in the Archaic period were not all intended to represent specific individuals. They were depictions of an ideal—beauty, piety, honor or sacrifice. These were always depictions of young men, ranging in age from adolescence to early maturity, even when placed on the graves of presumably elderly citizens.

Kouroi were all stylistically similar. Graduations in the social stature of the person commissioning the statue were indicated by size rather than artistic innovations. The Moschophoros or calf-bearer, c. Phrasikleia Kore , c. Peplos Kore , c. Frieze of the Siphnian Treasury , Delphi , depicting a Gigantomachy , c. An Ethiopian 's head and female head, with a kalos inscription. The Classical period saw a revolution of Greek sculpture, sometimes associated by historians with the popular culture surrounding the introduction of democracy and the end of the aristocratic culture associated with the kouroi.

The Classical period saw changes in the style and function of sculpture, along with a dramatic increase in the technical skill of Greek sculptors in depicting realistic human forms. Poses also became more naturalistic, notably during the beginning of the period. This is embodied in works such as the Kritios Boy BC , sculpted with the earliest known use of contrapposto 'counterpose' , and the Charioteer of Delphi BC , which demonstrates a transition to more naturalistic sculpture.

From about BC, Greek statues began increasingly to depict real people, as opposed to vague interpretations of myth or entirely fictional votive statues , although the style in which they were represented had not yet developed into a realistic form of portraiture. The statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton , set up in Athens mark the overthrow of the aristocratic tyranny , and have been said to be the first public monuments to show actual individuals.

The Classical Period also saw an increase in the use of statues and sculptures as decorations of buildings. The characteristic temples of the Classical era, such as the Parthenon in Athens, and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, used relief sculpture for decorative friezes , and sculpture in the round to fill the triangular fields of the pediments. The difficult aesthetic and technical challenge stimulated much in the way of sculptural innovation.

Most of these works survive only in fragments, for example the Parthenon Marbles , roughly half of which are in the British Museum. Funeral statuary evolved during this period from the rigid and impersonal kouros of the Archaic period to the highly personal family groups of the Classical period. These monuments are commonly found in the suburbs of Athens, which in ancient times were cemeteries on the outskirts of the city. Although some of them depict "ideal" types—the mourning mother, the dutiful son—they increasingly depicted real people, typically showing the departed taking his dignified leave from his family.

This is a notable increase in the level of emotion relative to the Archaic and Geometrical eras. Another notable change is the burgeoning of artistic credit in sculpture. The entirety of information known about sculpture in the Archaic and Geometrical periods are centered upon the works themselves, and seldom, if ever, on the sculptors. Examples include Phidias , known to have overseen the design and building of the Parthenon , and Praxiteles , whose nude female sculptures were the first to be considered artistically respectable. Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos , which survives in copies, was often referenced to and praised by Pliny the Elder.

Lysistratus is said to have been the first to use plaster molds taken from living people to produce lost-wax portraits, and to have also developed a technique of casting from existing statues.