Download Ch. 5 The Art of Ancient Greece Sanctuaries The Geometric Period

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Ch. 5 The Art of Ancient Greece
Art History 1
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Emergence of Greek Civilization
!Ancient Greece was a mountainous land of natural beauty where grape vines and olive trees
grew on steep hillsides.
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Historical Background
! More than 2,000 years have passed since the artists and architects of ancient Greece worked, yet their
achievements continue to have a profound influence.
! The Greeks contributed much to world civilization as we will see in this chapter.
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Religious Beliefs and Sacred Places
! According to ancient Greek legend, the creation of the world involved a battle between the earth gods, called
Titans, & the sky gods
! The victors were the sky gods, whose home was believed to be Mount Olympus
! The gods were seen as immortal and blessed with supernatural powers
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Religious Beliefs and Sacred Places
!The most important deities were the ruling god & goddess, Zeus & Hera; Apollo, god of
healing, arts & the sun; Poseidon, god of the sea; Ares, god of war; Aphrodite, goddess of love;
Artemis, goddess of hunting & the moon; & Athena, the powerful goddess of wisdom
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Sanctuaries
!Many sites throughout Greece, called sanctuaries, were thought to be sacred to
one or more gods
!The earliest had one or more outdoor altars or shrines and a sacred natural element
such as a tree, rock or spring
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The Geometric Period
!What we call the Geometric period flourished in Greece between 900 and 700
BCE, especially in the decoration of ceramic vessels with linear motifs, such as
spirals, diamonds, and cross-hatching.
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Funerary Krater
750-700 BCE
!Large funerary vases were used as grave markers
!The ancient cemetery of Athens contained many vases with the complex
decoration typical of the Geometric style
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The krater shown here illustrates funerary rituals such as the practice of cremation
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Metal Sculpture
!Greek artists of the Geometric period produced many figurines of wood,
ivory, clay, & cast bronze
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The Orientalizing Period
!By the 7th century BCE, vase painters in major pottery centers in Greece had
moved away from the linear geometric style
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!The now created more open compositions built around large motifs that included
real and imaginary animals, abstract plant forms, and human figures
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The Archaic Period,
600- 480 BCE
!The Archaic period was a time of great new achievement in Greece.
!Artists and architects shared in the growing prosperity as city councils and wealthy individuals
sponsored the creation of extraordinary sculpture and fine ceramics and commissioned
elaborate civic and religious buildings in cities and sanctuaries.
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Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi
!The temple of Delphi, the sacred home of the Greek god Apollo, was built about 530 BCE
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Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi
!It is said that here, Apollo fought and killed Python, the serpent
son of the earth goddess Ge
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! Delphi was the site of the Pythian Games which, like the Olympian Games, attracted participants from all over
Greece.
! The principle events were the athletic contests and the music, dance, and poetry competitions in honor of
Apollo.
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Treasury of the Siphnians
!An especially noteworthy collaboration between builder and sculptor can still be seen in the
small but luxurious Treasury of the Siphnians, built in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi around
530-525 BCE
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Battle Between the Gods and the Giants (Titans), 530-525
BCE
!Both the continuous frieze and the pediments of the Siphnian Treasury were
originally filled with relief sculpture.
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Temple Architecture
!As Greek temples grew in size and complexity, stone and marble replaced
the earlier mud-brick and wood construction
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Temple of Aphaia, Aegina 500 BCE
!A fully developed and somewhat sleeker Doric temple- part of a sanctuary dedicated to a local
goddess named Aphaia- was built on the island of Aegina at the turn of the fifth century BCE.
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Reconstruction Drawing of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina 500 BCE
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The Temple of Aphaia
! The long friezes of Greek temples provided a perfect stage for storytelling, but the triangular pediment created
a problem in composition.
! The sculptor of the east pediment of the Doric Temple of Aphaia, 500-490 BCE, provided a created solution
that became standard design
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Dying Warrior, right corner of west pediment, 500-490 BCE
!Among the best-preserved fragments from the west pediment is the Dying Warrior from the far
right corner.
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!This tragic but noble figure struggles to rise up, supported on bent leg and elbow, in order to
extract an arrow from his chest, even though his death seems certain.
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The Dying Warrior, 500-490 BCE
!The Dying Warrior from the far left corner- a tragic but noble figure struggling to rise, pulling
an arrow from his side, even as he dies
!It would have been originally painted and fitted with bronze accessories, heightening the sense
of reality
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Reconstruction of Archer (colored); Archer “Paris” from the west pediment
500- 490 BCE
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Freestanding Sculpture
! Sculptors of the Archaic period created a new type of large, freestanding statue made of wood, terra cotta,
limestone, or white marble.
! A female statue of this type is called a kore & a male figure is called a kouros.
! The eyes are large & wide open; the mouth forms a characteristic closed-lip smile known as the Archaic smile
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Berlin Kore, 570-560 BCE
!The Berlin Kore, found in a cemetery at Keratea stands more than 6 feet tall
!The thick robe and tasseled cloak over her shoulders fall in regularly spaced,
parallel folds like the fluting on a Greek column, further emphasizing her stately
appearance
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Anavysos Kouros, 530 BCE
!The powerful, rounded body of the Anavysos Kouros clearly shows the
increasing interest of artists & their patrons in a more life-like rendering
of the human figure
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Peplos Kore,530 BCE
!This statue is named for its distinctive & characteristic garment, called a peplos- which is a
draped rectangle of cloth, usually wool, folded over at the top, pinned at the shoulders, & belted
to give a bloused effect.
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Vase Painting
!Athens became the dominant center for pottery manufacture & trade in Greece during the
Archaic period
!Athenian painters adopted the Corinthian black-figure techniques which became the principle
mode of decoration throughout Greece in the 6th century BCE
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Exekias
! Exekias was the finest of all Athenian artists of the Archaic period who signed many of his works as both potter
& painter
! On this amphora vase, dating from 540 BCE, he painted Achilles & his cousin Ajax playing a game of dice
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Exekias’ The Suicide of Ajax, 540 BCE
!This vase depicts a continuation of the story, where after Achilles’ death,
the Greeks awarded the fallen hero’s armor to Odysseus, rather than Ajax.
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Red-Figure Vases
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!In the last third of the 6th century BCE, some painters turned away from blackfigure wares to a new technique called red-figure decoration
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Differences in Black & Red Figure Decoration
!Both involve applying slip (a mixture of clay & water) to the surface of a pot & carefully
manipulating the firing process in a kiln (a closed oven) to control the amount of oxygen
reaching the ceramics.
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