Jeremy Sellmeyer
Research Paper
December 1, 2011
Ancient Greece, now lost in a sea of advancement they probably created, has defined
what Western culture is and has made tremendous marks on the cultural world, especially art.
Their civilization became a mecca of new ideas and beliefs that translated into everything they
accomplished, despite their less than innovative ancestors, the numerous Minoan and Mycenaean
Greeks as well as the Dorian and Ionian settlers, who merely copied those civilizations before
them (Robertson). Instead, this new collection of people innovated the way man could be pushed
through the revolving stress on arête or the greatest excellence one could achieve. It was
something to be pursued and highly desired for one in Greece to contribute the new level of
excellence, which is present and greater in each period of Greek art. Most of this art followed the
greatest subject the Greeks could find, man in his role as the “measure of all things” (Kleiner, p.
99). “This humanistic worldview led the Greeks to create the concept of democracy and to make
seminal contributions in the fields of art, literature, and science (Kleiner, p. 99). Of course the
Greeks found struggles early on to maintain democracy and establish systems that worked for all
men: the Dark Ages settled them into city-states that had to figure out how government should
function, and they went through kingship, aristocratic rule, tyrannical leaders, and eventually
settled on self-ruling democracy (Perry, p. 41-42). This also meant they broke with the former
societal ways and took the power of the gods’ hands and placed it in their own. “In this shift of
attention from the gods to human beings, the Greeks broke with the myth-making
orientation…and saw human beings as having a capacity for rational though, a need for freedom,
and a worth as individuals [who now] stressed the importance of human reason and decision”
(Perry, p. 37-38). Within a society that gave and took feedback equally and justly, everyone was
allowed to truly uncover all the skill they had within, thus providing a catalyst for arête and
excellence in art. And although not as popular in our society today, their striving for skillfully
remarkable art equated to happiness, and occurred in all other areas with the evolution of new
schools of philosophy and thought as well as governmental rule and law for example. They truly
lived to a better standard, and held themselves higher than everyone else in the world, which
attributed to the fantastic works of art they began making. And as the Ancient Greeks began to
produce art that relied upon each artist representing his best effort and the time period he lived
in, their art became a reflection of what happiness was, a growing and changing level of arête
that has continued to influence civilization to this day.
Even though influencers from the early Greek settlers like the human form were looked
upon, the true beginnings of the Greek civilization were the focus of the Geometric period. In its
earliest start, Geometric art paid homage to the styles of the Aegean civilizations with its
simplistic representation of the human form. In fact, subject matter could never be pulled away
from man’s importance during this time; however, there was no worship of man as an
independent figure because most of the early works of art were very functional and practical.
Kraters, funerary or burial markers, stood atop graves as a sign for people to identify their loved
ones but also stood as a testament of art (Kleiner, p. 102). Fortunately, and unfortunately, kraters
represented a family’s wealth by its size and design as large ornate vase-shaped pots adorning
their deceased one’s grave or as small handheld and simplistic looking ones (Kleiner, p. 102).
These painted objects towered like large vessels with intricate square and triangle patterns with
registers that would depict scenes of the person’s life. So quite literally, we get to learn about the
dead person and the artist who made the krater. From the very neat and organized scenes we can
observe the Greeks fascination for death, practicality, and the human form. Although we would
see death as a negative, the Greeks celebrated the person through commissioning an artist to best
portray his or her life, which actually lightened the situation and made everyone a little happier.
Thinking practically, we can see that the families would be proud of the excellent work of an
artist that could also admire the success of his skill and the payment for doing a job well.
Geometric art also turned to face the human form in a more artful taste through sculpture while
staying true to the human form. For this time, that actually meant very square and abstract
shaped body parts that were idealized because the Greeks hadn’t developed the proper
techniques yet. But the fact remains that even in these early representations of man the Greeks
had an infatuation with the human figure, which helps explain how nakedness was portrayed
openly and frequently. Art like this became the relief to practical pieces like kraters and instead
allowed the artist to find beauty in a subject everyone could enjoy, thus spurring on the challenge
to best display the anatomy of man which endured all periods of the Ancients.
However, when the inspiration, or the motivation, is derived from another culture, as is
the case during the Oriental period there appears to be less originality, yet the Greeks found a
way to up the ante in design. Pulling heavily from the Egyptian and Eastern images and
sculptures, so much so the period name basically coined itself, the Greeks focused in on
replicating those popular figures in two forms: statures and amphoras (Kleiner, p. 103). Without
confining themselves to flat, two-dimensional Egyptian paintings or Syrian carvings, the Greeks
grew off of what they had started in the Geometric period by modeling off the Eastern images.
Before, the Greeks lacked a bit in making realistic looking people, but they now used what they
could see from other cultures and blended the best of both styles into handheld statues. With new
additions like rounded, natural looking torsos and shapely faces and necks, the Greeks did their
best to emphasize the human form with little touches that added excellence to their work
(Kleiner, p. 105). Muscular definition and jewel-inlaid eyes reveal the dedication and
commitment they felt toward their art, and this totaled a package of new virtue that demanded
everyone’s best along with a profound new look at man and happiness. With the amphoras
though, man as art’s subject, now almost non-existent, changed into a fantasy of Greek vase
painting that focused on animals (Kleiner, p. 104). The Greeks almost directly used the Eastern
art form on these bulbous jars as signs of their own arête, and signed them to gain recognition for
the upstanding designs. Great care was also taken into the shaping and baking of the amphora
prior to the exterior design, and sculptors too put their name on their work because they found
joy in boasting their achievement no matter where the idea came from. Happiness continued to
be an unpublicized challenge of worth and ability even when the subject was constant, and the
immense amount of detail reverberates the Greek arrogance of hard work and goal-setting, which
again boosts future artists and the public who get to enjoy the new influences of the East in
beautiful and practical ways.
Eventually, these smaller samples of Greek happiness pushed the direction of art to go
bigger and better as art now grew into life-creations and architecture in the Archaic Period that
continued to maintain the “form follows function” motto that the Greeks were notorious for.
“Important categories include the gravestones of the Archaic period and the contemporary kore
and kouros statue types; the architectural sculptures associated with the great marble temples of
the Archaic and Classical periods; and the statues dedicated in sanctuaries” (Robertson). The free
standing male Kouros figure, female Peplos Kore, which represents or roughly translated to
youth, began in this period and stamped the beginnings of art that had never been attempted
before with its beauty and naturalism (Kleiner, p. 106). One could say realism, but the Greeks
much preferred to act within their own beliefs that were being represented in exaggerated and
nearly unobtainable physical figures. One of the earliest of these statues of the young man stands
in a frontal pose with arms at his side, much like the Egyptians used, but has an uncanny
muscularture and disproportion seen in all statues (Kouros). Choosing to represent man in this
way for death, in order to replace kraters, as young and vibrant was a conscious decision the
Greeks made to better hide man’s weakness in place of his best shape ever. By doing this, the
kouros was an undertaking that displayed man in a very appealing format, performed a task
outside of itself, and innovated the way art was made (Kleiner, p. 106). And although unrealistic
in the fact that when the deceased were that young they weren’t that fit, these statues pushed the
natural bounderies of man in how it was portrayed and how to portray him, noting that a piece of
marble could be chisled down into such realistic-looking forms, which further stepped up the
ladder of virtue and difficulty in art. No longer could Greek artists be proud of mediocrity as
stone figures that differed from them only by movement now stood tall at the new height of
ancient art. To take it another step further in the Archaic Period, the Greeks began to build
structures to house such amazing statues of gods and goddesses that matched the level of the
kouros figures in impact. With new temple designs that maximized the beauty and sacrifice for
the god or goddess, architecture grew out of the closet and into the public demand for art that
would also perform its function. It was not enough to settle for a religious building in and of
itself; the Greeks specified column styles with guidelines that forced greatness to occur all over.
These styles at a glance, Doric for male and Ionic for female, would identify the building for its
god or goddess and name which one it is for (Kleiner, p. 110). Each style had an unwritten
formula for its structual design, column appearance, and roof that helped to convey what was to
be sought inside, and both creations displayed beauty in tasteful ways. Usually adorned with
statues at the entrance or engravings across the top, these Archaic temples also displayed a new
attraction of functional art that was seen on a daily basis and properly represented an essence of
achievement even the gods would have been proud of. That was the goal in mind when the Greek
designed and went through a rigorous process to bring art to new heights and achieved so in
long-standing and new forms that have survived all these years. New prominent temples sprouted
up all over Greece as a movement of art that expanded beyond the popular marble and statue
vein, and transformed what happiness had grown into: recognition of greatness in something
higher.
In combination of all things popular during the growing years that lead up to the Early
and High Classical periods, the next two Greek periods, new standards grew out of achievements
in other areas in Greece for the first time. “Like Greek philosophy and politics, it too applied
reason to human experience and made the transition from a mythopoeic-religious world-view to
a world perceived as orderly and rational” (Perry, p. 58). Even an example where religion should
have taken charge, like the Temple of Zeus, the details in the pediments and the metopes
wrapping around the temple as well as the record-breaking amount of statues inside overshadow
the idea of the temple and religion (Kleiner, p. 119). Art in some ways replaced the little belief
people maintained in their gods. The pediments are so renown as their numerous carvings depict
the famous chariot race between Pelops and King Oinomaos, and the metopes at the front also
depict a story, one of Heracles and his 12 labors (Kleiner, p. 119-120). This now famous temple
is the first of many pieces that show outstanding workmanship in the Early Classical period;
however, the fact remains that free-standing statues were the overwhelming popular vote for the
Greeks and came to dominate this time period. “It was the field in which the most important
sculptors worked and from which innovations and new tendencies spread to other branches of
sculpture” (Robertson). Kritios Boy and Riace Warrior, for example, are two statues that exude a
new innovation that was overlooked in years past, realistic poses and more so with the
anatomical features. Kritios Boy was the first in a class of statues to “portray how a human being
(opposed to a stone) actually stands” (Kleiner, p. 121). The simple fact for this artist was that the
former Kouros statues were rigidly portrayed, which is not how a human stands. Instead, one
stands relaxed with a weight shift at the hips that is perfectly displayed in the statue, which is
also described as contrapposto (Kleiner, p. 121). Simply put, the natural and realistic s-curve that
humans have running up around the legs, the hips, and to the torso had begun to take flight and
were again displayed even more so in the Riace Warrior. Compared to the Kritios Boy, he is
bronze, where the boy is marble, which created the issue of time and effort the artist had to invest
(Riace). Also considering the Riace Warrior is life-size, while the Kritios statue is small statured,
means that the pain-staking time making a mold, filling it with bronze, and cleaning the statue
until it’s absolutely perfect outweighs any other artist’s accomplishments in this medium, which
now has shifted with the weight of the statue toward motion in space. The first of notable freestanders is the famous statue of Zeus, sometimes referred to as Poseidon, who balances
independently on his heels and outstretches his arms to reveal his wingspan and strength. His
place in mythology as the ruler of the gods is echoed in the pulsating muscles and motion of his
hands, which lead away, as well as the capabilities of the artist who constructed him (Zeus). The
only thing words can’t describe is the implied motion his long body creates: the pose gives the
viewer a sense that Zeus could charge forward at any time and throw whatever is in his back
hand, poised and taut with kinetic energy. Another great piece of movement in space is the
discus thrower, Discobolos, who is wound up tight in an athletic pose, bent at the knees with one
arm down by the knees and one arm holding the disc above his head, ready to unwind and
release all his strength into the discus. The sheer design would’ve scared off the earliest Greek
artists, as it stands completely balanced with limbs free to act as if they were real and act as an
arc which intersects the arc made of the line from his head to his hips (Kleiner, p. 124). In other
words, he is hunched over to almost touch the ground, frozen in place, but his pose cleverly
reveals the motion that would soon follow his actions were he actually real (Myron). Movement
like this brought even more human aspects to the art form and set the Greeks up to push their
limits even farther. Seeking to actually do so might’ve seemed impossible for what these motion
statues provided, but the artist Polykleitos took on the task of the most accurate mathematical
ratios of whole numbers by making a statue in motion that fit them perfectly (Kleiner, p. 124).
Doryphoros, the spear bearer, was born and became “the culmination of the evolution in Greek
statuary from the Archaic kouros to the Kritios Boy to the Riace warrior” (Kleiner, p. 125). By
simply fitting the ratios and proportions he wanted, Polykleitos did not need the extreme poses of
Zeus or Discobolos to achieve his goal because the precision and natural pose for his piece
brought on the right balance visually (Kleiner, p. 125). Arête was surprisingly found in the
simplistic and polished details of the basic design, not settling for the innovation of wild and
athletic motion where art was supposed to follow. Instead, Polykleitos redefined excellence and
happiness in his own way, which helped to merge stability and math into the evolution of Greek
art, and he maintained art’s impact on society and the impact that their society’s art would
continue to provide. Finally, the most iconic form of artwork that stands to this day is the
Parthenon temple of the gods that sits on the Acropolis in Athens. Probably the most ambitious
architectural build in Greece up to this time, the Parthenon displays excellence in the column
design with slender features, square capitals, and good use of spacing inside (Myers, p. 126). As
ornate as a temple could be outside with sculptures, design aesthetics, and statues, the inside
became functional and put to great use as the end-all be-all temple for all of Greece as a religious
gathering place. The added bonus to the worship practices and getting to the Parthenon also
meant passing through a series of small temples and altars as you walked, acknowledging the
height and power of the gods on the way to the high-standing structure. To this day, the
Acropolis sits higher than any point in Athens and draws the attention of the people on the
ground up to it as a sacrament to its purpose and place in Greek importance, a build that’s
investment and time have lasted with careful precision and beauty.
The Late Classical period continued the style and direct love of sculpture as the most
popular medium, but reinvented former ideas with unbelievable innovation. For instance,
Apoxyomenos, a sculptured athlete scraping oil off his body, showed off a pose that forces the
viewer to walk around him as a piece built with 360 degrees in mind (Myers, p. 139). His legs
are precariously spread to create a stance of swaying motion, and his outstretched arm breaks the
standard of a cube of space and brought more organic elements to art (Myers, p. 139). All this
combined to readdress the canon of motion and push art to expand its borders. Architecturally,
this was followed through in the largest single creation in Greek art history. The Theater of
Epidauros was built on a hillside and stretches hundred of feet across as a workable piece of art.
Most notably due to the few occasions the Greeks would gather for entertainment, the theater had
to be excellent in all aspects to make each event special. With carefully constructed stone seats,
nobody would have an obstructed view, and aisles were added for maneuverability throughout.
Also, the angles of the seats as they rise up to the top efficiently transfer sound to the entire
theater, which accompanied those who might be viewing plays from the side (Myers, p. 143).
Size didn’t obstruct the details that translated in this theater, and the incredible design and use of
material were innovation in action; the ideas are timeless and lasting. Another firm change in
medium came in the smaller form of column order. The Corinthian capitals reinstated
architectural details and became a nice change in temple design. The very ornate layers of
acanthus leaves decorate all sides of the capital and brought nature to architecture. This also got
rid of the awkwardness of the Ionic and Doric order where two sides were decorated and two
were flat (Myers, p. 144). The substitution was simplistic in theory, tough to create, and capped
off this period of forward thinking.
The last period of the Ancient Greeks, the Hellenistic period, is a nice representation of
all things art and the evolution of how their culture made significant changes over hundreds of
years. Pulling from their Eastern neighbors, and the organized building structures, the Greeks
applied these aspects directly to their architecture in order to fill a need. With outer cities, they
constructed square, tightly grouped houses built around the temple so that it was accessible to all.
Never did the function of art stray away from meeting a purpose outside of beauty, even after all
those years of growing arête. Now using outside influence to construct even brought on the
Greeks to use outside influence as the subject of art in a statue called the Dying Gaul. The artist
has portrayed a formidable, strong opponent in respectable fashion and still shows off the human
anatomy (Dying). Even as the man looks down besides his weapon, the Greeks took great care to
honor the opposing culture in their unity and put one of the most realistic human beings in
lasting stone. This great care and heavy emotional impact carried through into many sculptures
out of this period, even as women became a bright focal point after periods of male figures. In
Winged Victory, also called the Nike of Samothrace, a winged women overlooks the entrance of
a temple as those who pass in must look up to her as a guardian figure and emotional inspiring
piece of what to expect inside. She also served as a fountain, and the watery theme fits into her
clothing that clings to her form, revealing the athletic figure beneath also providing strength for
the females in Greece. Furthermore, she has a lasting beauty that was even more explored in a
more memorable statue. The Venus de Milo, a representation of the goddess Aphrodite, sums up
that erotic appeal that the Greeks longed for in all humans, but still conforms to a level of
humility despite what her pose reveals. The statue is bare-chested as her clothes fall to her waist,
leaving the viewer wanting more; however, in this case a goddess is not just a sensual form only
for she is to be praised as a deity of importance (Alexandros). Instead, care has been taken so that
she holds a level of modesty, but all the elements of natural human features remain in her pose as
they have for men. The Hellenistic period did portray the male form too, just not as many
standout pieces, but one in particular, Lacoön and His Sons, brought many characters to one
sculpture unlike most singular artworks. The story of the two cursed souls, doomed to fend off a
sea serpent at the bottom of the ocean as punishment, turned into three to provide balance and
was part of the interpretation of the myth by the artists (Myers, p. 154). The serpent was used as
a tool of integration as it constricts the characters as well as ties them together as connected parts
of a whole. There is also a considerable amount of emotion and stress in the faces of men, almost
too much to be believable, and the sculpture again emphasizes elements of a work that is viewed
from all sides as well as muscle-bound humans that stand in ways we would recognize
(Athandoros). Great care has also been taken to use negative space as a way of seeing different
features in each of the characters and reveal the skill of the artists that conceived a sculpture of
this magnitude and size from just one piece of marble.
It seems that Ancient Greek art couldn’t remain in one place, as artists developed the
capabilities of their work in growing phases with each time period, and their increasing level of
work and arête represented the achievement and purpose behind their culture. Man has always
been tied into their focus in art and a major part of their desire for individuals to strive for
excellence in all they do, a catalyst for innovation. Of course art was one of many cultural
aspects that the Greeks are still famous for, and their taste for excellence has been the motivation
responsible for all the discoveries they are known for. In each aspect of their culture, it is just as
likely that the same creative motivation in art could be reflected in other major movements in
Greece. That is of course due to their unified and individual craving to be something recognized
for their work and achievement. It seems that they gobbled up the opportunity to be held
responsible for every aspect of work, and the detail shows in the ideas and practical things we are
fortunate enough to have now. From government to education, artwork and more, there is
probably an uncountable number of things that we can attribute to the Ancient Greeks and their
workload, one that is hard-pressed to become popular in our culture. The fact remains though,
that their civilization lives on in what artifacts we can look at and through their philosophies
carried in many different Western cultures; maybe if we too want to strive for excellence like the
Greeks, then we should take out of their book and work like we want something to change. Only
then, when we release all the things that are actually constricting us and making us lazy, can we
learn to innovate and grow in excellence as well as learn about lasting happiness: by
rediscovering ourselves and the principles our culture was founded on.
Works Cited
Alexandros Of Antioch-On-The-Meander (150-125 BCE). Venus de Milo (Aphrodite) [Marble
Statue]. Paris, France: Louvre.
Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros Of Rhodes (1st Cenury CE). Lacoön and His Sons
[Roman Marble Copy of Greek Original]. Rome, Italy: Musei Vaticani.
Dying Gaul [Roman Marble Copy of Bronze Original]. (230-220 BCE). Rome, Italy: Museo
Capitolino.
Iktinos and Kallikrates (447-438 BCE). Parthenon (Temple of Athena Parthenos) [Temple].
Kouros [Marble Statue]. (600 BCE). NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Kleiner, F. S. (2009). Ancient Greece. In S. A. Poore (Ed.), Gardner's Art Through The Ages: A
Global History (13th ed., pp. 98-155). Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Kritios Boy [Marble Statue]. (480 BCE). Athens, Greece: Acropolis Museum.
Lysippos (330 BCE). Apoxyomenos (Scraper) [Roman Marble Copy of Bronze Original]. Rome,
Italy: Musei Vaticani.
Myron (450 BCE). Diskobolos (Discus Thrower) [Roman Marble Copy of Bronze Original].
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Italy: Museo Nazionale Romano.
Nike of Samothrace [Marble Statue]. (190 BCE). Paris, France: Louvre.
Peplos Kore [Marble Statue]. (530 BCE). Athens, Greece: Acropolis Museum.
Pericles (480 BCE). Acropolis [Architecture].
Perry, M. (2011). The Greeks: From Myth to Reason. In G. W. Bock (Ed.), Western Civilization:
A Brief History (7th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 36-73). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
Polykleitos (450-440 BCE). Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) [Roman Marble Copy of Bronze
Original]. Naples, Italy: Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
Polykleitos The Younger (350 BCE). Corinthian Capital [Marble Capital On Column].
Epidauros, Greece: Archaeological Museum.
Polykleitos The Younger (350 BCE). Theater of Epidauros [Stone Theater].
Riace Warrior [Bronze Statue]. (460-450 BCE). Reggio Calabria, Italy: Museo Archeologico
Nazionale.
Robertson, J., Marter, J., & Hourihane, C. P. (Eds.). (n.d.). Grove Dictionary of Art (Vol. 13).
Zeus (Poseidon) [Bronze Statue]. (460-450 BCE). Athens, Greece: National Archaeological
Museum.