ANCIENT GREEK
AND ROMAN ART
Prepared by: Zharmina De Paz
GREEK SCULPTURES
• Greek Art is divided into three(3) periods namely: Archaic,
Classical, and Hellenistic.
ARCHAIC
• Carvings in stone.
• Free-standing figures share the
solidity and frontal stance of
Eastern models.
• Often depicted with the “Archaic
Smile” and accurate
comprehension of human
anatomy.
• Shows three(3) types: the
standing nude youth (Kouros),
Standing draped girl (Kore), and
the seated woman.
The Kore (Left) often used for
Goddesses like Artemis and is
draped because female nudity is
not allowed not until 4th century
BC.
Molded from terracotta clay.
CLASSICAL
• Zeus of Artemison, Bronze
Sculpture (Left).
• Poses became more naturalistic.
• At 500BC statues started to
depict real people. Often used to
overthrow tyranny.
• Also has wider uses: relief
sculpture for decorative friezes,
and sculpture in the round to fill
the triangular fields of the
pediments.
• Funeral Statuary also evolved in
this time depicting highly
personal family groups.
The statues of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton (Upper Left).
Funeral Statuary Grave
Marker (Above) and Sculpted
friezes (Lower Left)
HELLENISTIC
• The transition from Classical to
Hellenistic happened during the
4th century BC, where it became
diversified from Greco-Bactrians,
Greco-Buddhist to Indo-Greeks
as it spread due to Alexander the
Great’s Conquests.
• Acceptable subjects became
common people, women,
children, animals, and domestic
scenes.
• Often used for adornment of
homes and gardens
The Winged Victory of Samothrace,
Marble Sculpture . Also called
Nike of Samothrace.
• Pergamon Altar showing the battle
between the Giants and the
Olympian Gods (Above).
• Statue of Aphrodite (Right)
• Galatea (Ivory), Pygmalion
• and Eros
METAL ART
GREEK PAINTINGS
• There are (6) types of Greek painting depending on the type or surface and
object painted as canvas namely: Panel painting, wall painting, polychromy,
architecture,, sculpture, and vase painting or pottery painting.
PANEL PAINTING
• Panel paintings were individual,
mobile paintings on wooden
boards called Pitsa panels.
• Techniques used were encaustic
(wax) painting and tempera.
• Classical to Hellenistic, depiction
of portraits and still-lifes and
figural scenes.
• Perishable in nature.
WALL PAINTING
• Traditional wall painting started
during the Minoan and
Mycenaean Bronze Age but
produced widely produced
during the classical and
Hellenistic periods.
• Lavish fresco decorations.
• Often used as tomb decorations
like those of Grave of Philipp and
Tomb of Persephone.
• Sometimes depict hoplite
combat (Upper Left)
Polychromy and
Architecture Painting
• Polychrome is the practice of
decorating architectural
elements, sculpture, etc. in a
variety of colors. Mostly for
reconstruction and already
faded.
• Painted temples during the
Archaic period are used to
enhance the visual aspects of
architecture.
• Colored friezes of Parthenon
(Lower Right), reconstructed color
scheme of the entablature on a
Doric temple (upper right)
SCULPTURE PAINTING
• Woman with Blue gilt garment
(Left).
• Most Greek sculptures were
painted in strong, bright colors
depicting clothing, hair, etc.
• Polychromy of stone statues
was paralleled by the use of
different materials to
distinguish skin, clothing and
other details and by the use of
different metals to depict lips,
fingernails, etc. on high-quality
bronzes like.
The Riace Bronzes (Far
Right) and the
Chryselephantine
sculpture (Upper
Right) made with
Gold and fireblackened Ivory in
Delphi
VASE PAINTING /
POTTERY
• Most copious evidence of
ancient Greek painting.
• Dark Age Protogeometric Jar –
consists of concentric circles, and
patterns of straight and zigzag
lines. (Below)
HELLENISTIC RED-FIGURE JAR
• Reversed Black-figure technique: orange
silhouettes were formed by painting around
them in black, allowing interior details to be
painted rather than incised.
ARCHAIC AGE
GEOMETRIC JAR
• variety of patterns,
such as checkers,
repeated shapes,
and meanders.
(A meander is a
pattern formed by a
single continuous
line)
PROTOATTIC JAR
BLACK-FIGURE JAR
• Two types: The bold and • the silhouettes of
lavish protoattic style of
figures are painted in
Athens, well-suited to
solid black (typically on
large jars, essentially
a vibrant orange
takes the geometric style
background); details
and adds large
are then added
figures. AND
by cutting linesinto the
protocorinthian style of
silhouettes.
Corinth, features small • beginning
figures and light
of narrative scenes in
geometric elements (e.g.
Greek pottery
rosettes), making it
decoration
perfect for smaller
vessels.
ANCIENT GREEK ARCHITECTURE
derived from Mycenaean
PROPYLON
-Professional
Gateway
Agora – Public
Square/
Market Place
EPIDAURUS –
OPEN
THEATER
STOA – LONG
COLONNADE
Mausoleum –
Monumental
Building for the
dead
Bouleuterion –
town council
building
HIPPODROME
- Stadium for
horses
PARTHENON – Athena’s
temple during the
Classical Period. Means
unmarried women’s
apartments/maiden.
CLASSICAL ORDERS
OTHER PROMINENT BUILDINGS
OLYMPIEION OR THE
TEMPLE OF ZEUS
ERECHTHEION
ROMAN SCULPTURES
- Influenced by Greeks and the
Etruscans
- Mood is often serious, solemn
and unsmiling.
BUSTS
• Roman portraiture was one of
the most significant periods in
the development of high quality
of portrait art.
• Most popular type of sculpture of
Romans.
• Sculpture of the head up to the
shoulders or until the breast.
• Mostly placed at the atrium of
their homes, a way to show off
their lineage
• Juno, Claudius(Next in reign from
Caligula), Augustus & Antonius
EQUESTRIAN STATUE
• "equestrian statue" describes
a statue of a rider mounted on a
horse.
• If the horse is riderless, the
sculpture is usually called an
"equine statue".
• It derives from the Latin word
"equus" (meaning "horse") from
which we get "eques" ("knight")
NARRATIVE STATUES
• Divided into two categories: the
Bas Reliefs (3D Sculpture) and
the Statues (4D Sculpture)
• Often depicting historical events
or even events which are
personal. Often seen in tombs.
• Romulus and Remus (Left), 12
labors of Hercules in a
sarcophagus
TRAJAN’S COLUMN
• A Roman triumphal column
in Rome, Italy, that
commemorates Roman
emperor Trajan's victory in
the Dacian Wars.
• constructed under the
supervision of the
architect Apollodorus of
Damascus.
• a bas relief that describes the
epic wars between the
Romans and Dacians (101–102
and 105–106)
FULL-BODY STATUES
• These statues are often copied
statues with their own roman
representation, depending on
the type of material used or the
form.
• Often depicts gods and
goddesses, emperors, etc.
• Marble statue of Discus-thrower
(Left), Lady Justice Statue (Far
Left)
ROMAN PAINTINGS
WALL PAINTING (Frescoes)
• Paintings on plaster and painted with tempera, and/or beeswax
or just water and pigment, a technique obtained from the
Greeks.
• Some are on wood, ivory, and other materials.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
PAINTINGS
• General characteristic of
ancient Roman paintings. It
shows images that are painted
as directly seen by the eye.
• Often depicts narrative and
traditional events.
• Consummation of an empire
(Right), Trojan War wall
painting (Upper Right)
STILL-LIFES/ OBJECT
PAINTING
• Though most painting are still
done on walls, Roman also
started painting still-lifes which
the Greeks show of little interest.
• Paintings show objects like the
Fruit bowl (Lower left) and some
are sceneries like those of
Pompeii, Italy (Upper Left)
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
FORUM – TOWN
CENTER
BASILICA – town
council building/
Congress/
Government
Center
CIRCUS
MAXIMUS –
Stadium for
chariot racing
COLOSSEUM –also
called FLAVIAN
AMPITHEATER.
Biggest
amphitheater. A
place for Gladiator
fights.
DOMUS – Roman
Mansion
INSULAE –
tenement
housing
HOUSE OF VESTAL
VIRGINS – temple of
Vesta, the Roman
goddess of hearth
and home,
counterpart of
Hestia.
THERMAE AND BALNAE –
Public bath house,
provided with cold bath
(Frigidarium), warm bath
(Tepidarium), Warm
(Caldarium), Dressing
Room (Apodyteria), Sweat
room (Laconicum) and Oils
and perfumes room
(unctuaria)
PANTHEON
- Pantheon means ‘every god’ (the 12
gods)
- Constructed with mostly granite and
marble.
- Oculus to represent (Eye of God)
EPHESUS – It is once an
ancient Greek city,
conquered by Romans and
stated as Capital city.
The remains contains what’s
left of the temple of
Artemis and some baths
(Thermae)
AQUEDUCTS
- carries water from
distant sources into
their cities, towns
supplying public baths,
latrines, fountains, etc.
ARCADE or
VAULT –
interconnected
arches
ARCH – one of the
greatest
engineering
inventions of
Romans
CLASSICAL ORDERS
THANK YOU 