Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,
12e
Chapter 5
Gods, Heroes, and Athletes:
The Art of Ancient Greece
1
The Greek World
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Goals
• Understand the diverse cultural influences on Greek
artistic development
• Discuss the evolution of the human figure and how it is
represented in Greek art
• Relate the development of temple architecture
• Cite architectural components and terminology
• Understand the impact of the conquest of the Greeks
on their respective art forms
• Discuss individual artists and their respective styles
3
Greek Humanism
• “For we are the lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our
tastes. And we cultivate the mind without loss of
manliness. -- Pericles
– Greek humanism led to democracy. [demos=people]
– Greek gods took human form & exhibited human
frailties – yet were immortal
– The perfect individual became the Greek ideal.
– The first “Olympic Games” were held in 776 BCE.
• Athens as the center of ancient Greek culture.
– Carried out in the stoa, the agora and palaestrus.
– “Sound mind in sound body”
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The Greek Gods
Aphrodite: (Venus) Goddess of love and beauty.
Apollo: (Apollo) God of light and music. A great archer.
Artemis: (Diana) Goddess of the hunt and wild animals.
Athena: (Minerva) Goddess of wisdom and warfare. Her city
was Athens.
Demeter: (Ceres) Goddess of grain and agriculture.
Dionysos: (Bacchus) God of wine.
Hera: (Juno) Goddess of marriage.
Herakles: (Hercules) Greatest Greek hero who performed 12
great labors. According to legend, he established the
Olympic games.
Hermes: (Mercury) Messenger of the gods, guide of
travelers.
Laocöon: A character from the Aeneid: a Trojan priest who
was strangled, along with his two sons, while sacrificing at
an altar.
Medusa: A gorgon with a hideous face and snake hair, she
turned anyone who gazed at her to stone.
Zeus: (Jupiter) King of the gods.
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Geometric, Orientalizing, and Archaic Art
• Characteristics typical of vase decoration from the
Geometric period.
– Almost exclusively covered in abstract motifs.
– Human figure is highly stylized.
– No depth of space.
The 7th century was known as the “Orientalizing” period in
Greek art because the Greeks borrowed many motifs from
Egypt or Near Eastern art due to closer contact through
trade.
New subject-matter
• Egyptian monsters, like the Sphinx and lamassu.
• Black-figure painting.
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Geometric, Orientalizing, and Archaic Art
Found in a cemetery: 3 ft tall, open bottom, perhaps to pour
libations in honor of the dead.
• The Krater was a vessel for mixing wine and water.
• A fine example of figure painting in Ancient Greece.
• Features a meander, a Greek “key”
design around the rim of the vase.
• The scenes on the vase depict
funerary practices.
– 2 dimensional
– Highly geometric patterns.
– No sense of open space.
– Figures are simple and composite.
– Human figured reintroduced &
storytelling was revived.
Diplyon krater– ca. 740 BCE 
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Geometric Sculpture
• Schematic figures also existed: Bronze of a man and a
centaur battling --ca 750-730 BCE
– Example of a composite monster.
– Theme may have come from the
Near East, but the
Centaur is Greek.
-- Note human legs in
the front!
-- Size indicates possible
victor!
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The Human Figure in Early Greek Art
Apollo of Mantiklos – 700-680 BCE
• Inscription scratched into the though
indicates this was an offering to the sun
god Apollo.
• Indicates interest in human anatomy.
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Influences from the East
•Amphora [2 handled storage jar] shows Eastern influence.
This example: Proto-Corinthian.
What are the Eastern influences?
Also an example of the black-figure
painting developed by the
Corinthians.
Painted figures in black.
Then incised detail
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The First Stone Temples
• Trading brought
Egyptian influences
to Greece before
630 BCE
• Including their
monumental
architecture.
• Carved stone lintel –
similar motifs as on the
vases of the period.
Plan of Temple A,
Prinias, Crete, ca. 625
BCE.
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The Human Figure in Archaic Art
• Early Greek statutes follow the Egyptian model – the
Kouros [young man] takes a very Egyptian pose.
Differences:
•Liberated from the stone
block – interested in
motion rather than stability.
• Are shown nude, with a
perfect body.
• Kouros & Kore were
ideals.
 ca. 600 BCE
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Comparison
Daedalic style: Triangles, flat features,
slim waist, love of pattern.
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The Human Figure in Archaic Art
The Smiling Calf Bearer
• A citizen bringing an offering
Athena.
• Perfect nudity, yet clothing
indicated.
• Love of pattern.
• The “Archiac smile” appears.
• Probably used to indicate that
the person is alive 
560 BCE
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The Human Figure in Archaic Art
The Kroisos Kouros ca. 530 BCE
• A young hero slain in battle
• Body rendered in a more
naturalistic manner.
– Head in proportion & face
more rounded.
– Hair falls naturally.
– Traces of the original paints
remains
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The Human Figure in Archaic Art
Peplos Kore ca. 530 BCE
Kore were stylistically similar to
kouros
• Wearing a peplos
• Buried for 2 millenia, thus
preserving the paint.
• Extended arm a break from Egypt.
• More natural, wearing a chiton &
himation.
• Folds are assymetrical.
• Grasping & lifting chiton is
equivalent of “left foot forward in
the Kore
Lady of Auxerre 
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The Human Figure
in Archaic Art
Kore from Acropolis ca.
520-510 BCE
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Greek Architectural Development
• Early ones made of wood and did not survive. [One
wooden column preserved at Olympia]
• Later made of limestone or marble.
• Temple at Prianas - monumental with sculptures. 625
BCE.
– Began to follow the example of Egyptian columnar
halls
– Altars were outside the temple at the east end;
worshippers gathered outside to worship.
– The temple housed the cult statue
– Greek temples were houses for the gods, not the
followers.
– Figural statues appeared early in order to evoke
human responses; temples built in high places.
Acropolis = “high city”
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Greek Architectural Development
PLAN & PROPORTION
• Close to the Mycenaen megaron in the early days.
– Order, compactness, symmetry.
– Proportion of end to sides 1 : 3
– Later approached 1 : 2, but not exactly.
– Related to harmony in music.
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Plan (left) and restored cutaway view (right) of the Temple of
Aphaia, Aegina, Greece, ca. 500–490 BCE.
Formed of single colonnades. Structure:
Platform, Colonnade, Superstructure [entablature]
Painted decoration was in the frieze area
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21
Greek Architectural Development
• Example of early Doric: Decoration placed in parts that
had no structural function – the metope & pediments.
• Translation into stone of earlier timber architecture.
• The columns show entasis
Temple of Hera I,
Paestum,
ca. 550 BCE
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Pediment Sculptures
• The artistic issue was the triangular shape. Used figures
that were standing, kneeling, leaning etc… n.b. Animals
have one end taller than the other!
• Identifies the central character, but not a narrative.
• The narrative was in the smaller areas of the pediment.
w. pediment, Temple of Artemis, Corfu ca 600-580 BCE
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Caryatids & Giants
• Ionic temples of the 6th cen. BCE on Aegean Islands and
Asia Minor [now Turkey] used human form for pillars. –
Caryatids
Reconstruction of the
Siphnian Treasury,
Delphi ca 530 BCE
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Frieze from Delphi
•
•
•
•
Treasuries were for the safe storage of votive offerings
Ionic friezes ran around the building continuously.
Representations of giants
The caryatids were korai dressed in chiton & himation
Pediment frieze from Siphnian Treasury-- Delphi ca 530 BCE
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Summary
Geometric statues & vases: Strong Asian influence, stylized
with geometric patterns.
Archaic Sculpture: Starts with, but moves away from Egptian
influence.
Temples: Influenced by near east. Move from the simple
Cretan megaron, through Doric to Ionic.
.
Doric Ionic
Severely plain
Highly ornamental
Echinus convex
Echinus small and supports
and cushionlike
bolster ending in scroll-like spirals
Frieze subdivided into
Frieze left open to provide
triglyphs and metopes
continuous field for relief
sculptures
Massive in appearance
Light and airy in appearance
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