Unit 4 Ancient Greek Art & Architecture
(Approximately 2 weeks)
Key Questions, Overview of Ancient Greece:
1. Which non-Western cultures influenced Greek art?
2. How do the art and architecture of ancient Greece still impact our lives
today?
3. What other influences has ancient Greece had on our culture today (i.e.,
literature, philosophy, government, etc.)?
4. How and why did the art of ancient Greece evolve?
5. How were sacred spaces and religion used in ancient Greek art and
architecture?
Cultural Chronology of Ancient & Classical Greece
Years
Greece
Around World
1100-750 BCE Geometric
725-600 BCE
Orientalizing
600-480 BCE
Archaic
Period
Homer’s Iliad Odyssey
Corinthian Black Figure
Doric/Ionic Orders, Kouros
480-450 BCE
450-400 BCE
400-320 BCE
320-30 BCE
Kritios Boy, Sophocles
Parthenon, Polykleitos
Praxiteles, Plato
Pergamon, Laocoon
Olmec Pyramids
Assyria falls!
Babylon,
Siddhartha/buddha
Persepolis
Early Classic
High Classic
Late Classic
Hellenistic
Terracotta
Warriors, Xian
Ceramics Chronology of Ancient & Classical Greece
Type Ceramics
Geometric
Orientalizing (Corinthian)
Black-figure Ware
Red-figure Ware
White Ground
Cultural Period
Geometric
Orientalizing (Persian influence)
Archaic
Archaic
Classical
Geometric Period (flashcard)
1. Funerary Vase, from the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens, c. 750 BCE Terra-cotta
42: high
Orientalizing Period (flashcard)
1. Corinthian Olpe (vase), from Corinth, Athens, c. 6000 BCE ceramic blackfigure 11: high
Archaic Period (600-480 BCE)
1. Temple of Hera, Paestum, Italy c. 550 BCE
2. Dying Warrior, from east pediment of the Temple of Ahaiai, Aegina, c. 500
BCE, marble, life size.
3. Kouros, c. 600 BCE
4. Kouros, from Anavysos cemetery, c. 530 BC marble/paint, 6’4”
5. Kore, from Chios, 520 BCE
5. Euphronius, Death of Sarpedon, red figure decoration on a calyx krater, c.
515 BCE, ceramic, 18”, MET NY
Vocabulary, Archaic Period
Archaic smile
Krater
Kouros/Kore
Early Classical Period (480-450 BCE) (Severe style)
Key Concept: How are Greek Classic figures Platonic in form? (See
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave)
1. Kritian Boy/Kritios boy, c. 480 BCE, Marble, 46”
2. Myron, Discus Thrower, c. 450 BCE, lifesize marble (COPY)
Vocabulary/Terms:
contrapposto.
Olympic games
High Classical Period (450-400 BCE)
Key Concepts, High Classical Greece:
1. What is Elginism? Why are these debates still important today?
2. How have the Greek orders and architecture influenced architecture in
Europe and the United States? Give several examples SPECIFICALLY.
3. How was the Parthenon developed?
4. How does the Acropolis show Greek pride?
Flashcards, High Classical Greece
1. Polykleitos, Spear Bearer, (Roman copy), c. 450 BCE, marble, 6’ 11”
2. Riace Warriors, Bronze,
3. Kallicrates & Iktinos, The Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, 447-438 BCE
4. Porch of the Maidens, Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens, 420-405 BCE
5. Kallicrates, Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens, c. 425 BCE
6. Nike (Victory) Adjusting Her Sandal, fragment from Temple of Athena Nike, c.
410 BCE
7. Grave Stele of Hegeso, Marble, 6’, c. 400 BCE
Vocabulary, High Classical:
 Canon of Polykleitos
 Greek architectural orders and temple designs (see separate handout!)
 Column
 Shaft
 Base
 Capital
 Ionic/Doric/Corinthian orders
 Peristyle
 Stylobate
 Stereobate
 Pediment
 Hesiods Theogany
 Phidias
 Elginism
 Pericles
Late Classical Period (400-320 BCE)
Key Concepts, Late Classical Greece:
1. How do Classical Greek sculptures reflect their cultural notions of
beauty and aesthetics? How do late Classical sculpture reflect the ideas of
Plato and mimesis (aesthetics)?
Flashcards
1. Praxiteles, Hermes & The Infant Dionysus, Roman copy? C 325 BCE marble
w/traces of red paint on lips and hair, discovered in 1877 Olympia
2. Lysippos, The Scraper, Roman copy, original c. 325 BCE
Vocabulary
Mausoleum (see tomb of King Mausolos, c. 350 BCE)
Mimesis (see previous handout on aesthetics…)
Hellenistic (320-30 BCE)
1. How are Hellenestic figures Aristotelian in form?
2. Who was Alexander the Great?
Flashcards
1. Dying Gaul Trumpeter, Roman copy of bronze life size original, c. 220 BCE
2. Altar from Pergamon, Turkey, c. 175-150 BCE, excavations began in 1873,
located in Berlin
3. Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace, Louvre, c. 190 BCE, marble 8’ (found
1860)
4. Laocoon & His Sons, (Copy?), 2nd c. BCE, marble (found 1506, Rome)
-who was part of the excavation team????
5. Belvedere Torso, c. 150 BCE, marble (how does this relate to the body of
Adam in Sistine Chapel?)
6. Aphrodite of Melos (Venus de Milo), c 150 BCE (found 1820, Melos)
7. Alexander the Great vs. Darius III at the Battle of Issos, (Found 1883
Pompeii), painting, c. 310 BCE
Vocabulary
Aristotle, On the Art of Poetry
Other Resources:
Textbook Chapter 5 (Art of Ancient Greece)
How Art Made the World DVD, episode 3.
http://www.artic.edu/cleo/index.html, Art Institute of Chicago “Cleopatra” website
with videos and activities on ancient Aegean, Greek, Egyptian and Roman art
http://messagenetcommresearch.com/myths/bios/index.html, index of Greek
mythological figures; origins of Greek mythology
http://messagenetcommresearch.com/myths/essays/origins.html
http://messagenetcommresearch.com/myths/essays/iliad.html, essay on the Iliad
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/snakegoddess/snakesegypt.html
Books on Greek mythology from library
Video on the Parthenon from Discovery Channel website
Graded Assignments:
 Homework: unit guide, flashcards, study guide on Ancient Greek art &
architecture; take home comparative essay
 Mini research: (Class time) Greek philosophy & sculpture
 Project: design & label Greek façade or build Greek temple model
 Image identification (quiz grade)
 In-class activity – Statues Tell All (dress up like Greek statues)
 In-class writing activity – wind sprints, art tweets