Greek Art History

Greek Art (3200-32 BC)

• Characterized by a system of construction based on rules of form and proportion.

Periods in Greek Art

• Dark Age and Geometric Period (100-700 BC)
• Archaic Period (700-480 BC)
• Hellenic/Classical Period (480-323 BC)
• Hellenistic Age (323-31 BC)

Archaic Period

Sculpture

• Cylindrical forms and simple, formalized features of draperies
• Kouros (robed standing youth) was a favorite subject

Archaic Smile

• Vases: black-and-red-figure ware
• Architecture: Doric and Ionic orders

Hellenic Art

• Of or pertaining to ancient Greek history, cultural art, especially before the time of Alexander the Great.

Periods

• Geometric Period: Revival of figure painting in Greece
• Archaic Period: Construction of the oldest Doric and Ionic temples, life-size stone statues with "A"
• Classical Period: Contrapposto in statues, Polykleitos formulates canon of proportions, rebuilding of the Athenian Acropolis

Sculptors

• Humanize Greeks gods
• Corinthian capitals introduced

Hellenistic

• Artists explore new subjects
• Artists break the rules of the classical orders

Styles in Greek Art in the Hellenic Period

Severe Style

• Characterized by movement towards increasing naturalness and freedom of form.
• Use of lost-wax method and bronze casting
• Example: Bronze Charioteer, Poseidon

Classical/Hellenic Style

• The art of Greece's Golden Age.
• Idealized representations of the subject with perfect bodily proportion

Sculpture:

• Characterized by vertical folds of cloth.
• Contrapposto position where the arms and legs are in contrary positions, allowing for more movement.
• Example: Discobolus, Parthenon statues

Paintings

• Paintings attempt to depict reality by using devices to create the illusion of a third dimension in flat painting (like foreshortening and shadow modeling).

Architecture

• Examples: Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Lighthouse (Pharos) at Alexandria, Colossus of Rhodes, Altar of Zeus

Hellenistic Art

• Art of or pertaining to Greek culture and art of the times of Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC through the 1st century BC during which the Greek dynasties were established in Egypt, Syria, Persia, and Greece.

Sculpture

• Adapted to employ the canons and mathematical rules of Proportion
• Realism and emotional intensity
• Ex: Laocoon and His Sons

Greek Pottery Styles

Geometric Style (1000-700 BC)

• Characterized by rectilinear meander patterns.
• Each pattern is framed by circular horizontal borders that emphasize the shape of the pot.

Orientalizing Style (c. 700-640 BC)

• Characterized by the assimilation of Eastern iconography.
• Shapes are larger and more curvilinear, and geometric patterns are now used simply as borders.

Archaic (640-490 BC)

• Black-figure - the artist painted the figure in black silhouette with a slip of clay and water.

Late Archaic to Classical (530-400 BC)

• Red-figure - the process was reversed, as figures were left in red against a black background, and details were painted in black.

Classical to Late Classical (420-4 C BC)

• White ground - a wash of white clay formed the background. Figures were then applied in black and additional colors were added

Greek Vases

• Greek pottery may be divided into four broad categories

Storage and Transport Vessels

• Including:
  • amphora
  • pithas
  • pelike
  • Hydria
  • Stamnos
  • Pyxis

Mixing vessels, mainly:

- **Amphora:** Used for storing honey, olive oil, wine, and water 
- **Hydria:** A water jar with 3 handles 
- **Lekythos:** A flask for storing and pouring oil 
- **Krater:** A large vessel with 2 handles for mixing wine and water
- **Volute-Krater:** A krater where the tops of the handles have a volute or scroll.

More commonly decorated in the red-figure style.

• Kylix: A stemmed cup with 2 horizontal handles and a stemmed foot, used for drinking wine
• Oenochoe: Jug for pouring wine
• Skyphos: Deep bowl
• Olpe: Used for drinking, considered a type of mug
• Kantharos: Drinking cup with huge ears
• Alabastron: Holds oils and perfumes
• Pelike: A jar used for storing liquids such as oils and wines.Also used to contain ashes after cremation.
• Pyxis: A small circular box with a lid, often used for the storage of jewelry and toiletries
• Rhyton: Used in religious practices for the pouring of libations.They may also take the shape of animal heads, especially bulls.

Orders in Greek Architecture

• An arrangement of a particular style of column together with the entablature (which it supports) and standardized details, including its base and capital.
• The Greeks developed the Corinthian order, Doric order, and Ionic order

Doric

• Earliest and most massive.
• The column has no base, a fluted shaft, and plain capital.

Ionic

• Lighter than Doric.
• Fluted shaft has a base; volute capital.

Corinthian

• A variant of the Ionic with its plinth and fluted shaft and its distinctive ornate capital.Acanthus capital.

Parts of Major Greek Orders

1. Upright column
2. Base and capital
3. Horizontal entablature

Entablature:

• Architrave - plain, horizontal member above a capital
• Frieze - a band above the architrave consisting of alternating, triglyphs and metopes
  • Triglyph - rectangles with vertical incisions carved into their surface
  • Metope - slabs of stone either plane or with sculpture in relief
  • Regula - a short band under the triglyph
  • Tenia
• Cornice - a projection above the frieze to protect from the weather
  • Raking cornice - low, slanting cornice
  • Pediment - a triangular gable usually having a horizontal cornice, with raked cornices on each side, surmounting

Entasis

• a technique applied on columns which do not taper in a straight line, but bulge outward about one-third of the way up from the base.

Greek molding and molding ornamentation

1. Fillet - small, flat, plain surface used to separate other moldings
2. Fascia - a wide, straight surface
3. Ovolo - a convex curved surface, quarter-circle; often with egg & dart motif.
4. Cavetto - a concave surface, approximating the interior curve of a

• Quarter circle
• Cyma recta: An S-shaped curved surface that starts and ends horizontally; usually with honeysuckle motif.
• Cyma reversa: Starts and ends vertically, with waterleaf
• Torus convex: Surface approximately the exterior of a semi-circle; with guilloche
• Bead: Small torus
• Scotia: A deep, hollow, concave molding, usually found on a column base.

Other sculptures

1. Caryatids: Columns with shafts in female form.
2. Telamon: A sculptured male human figure used in place of a column to support an entablature; also called an Atlas.

Forms of Greek Architecture

1. Agora: Plaza/court, meeting place; platform for speaker.
2. Stoa: A long colonnaded multi-purpose building.
3. Acropolis: City upon a hill; citadel.Ex: Acropolis of Athens

Temple

• Built to house the deity
• Parts
  • Hypostyle hall: A large space with a flat roof supported by rows of columns; composed of the pronaos, naos
  • Pronaos: The inner portico in front of the naos of a classical temple.
• Naos: The sanctuary of a classical temple, containing the cult statue of the god.

Theatre

• For plays and performances.
• Consisted of stone seats wrapped around the orchestra and face the scene (stage building).
• Types of Theater
  • Auditorium semi-circular form and hollowed out of a hill
  • Odeon covered smaller theaters
  • Stadium elongated theaters for foot races
  • Hippodrome for horse and chariot races
• Parts of a Theater
  • Orchestra (dancing place) large, circular area; contains a slightly raised stone on which was placed the statues of deities (usually, Dionysus)
  • Proscenium acting area behind the orchestra
  • Skene a structure serving as backdrop