Classical Art
Greece and Rome
Greece
• Intellectual and creative influences still hold a place
in contemporary societies
▫ Attitudes toward life
 Humanism
▫ People the focus
 Physically and mentally fit
▫ Balance between mind and body
▫ Balance between emotion and intellect
 Naturalism
▫ Truth based on observation of nature
 Idealism
▫ When nature fell short of perfection the Greeks turned toward
an accepted standard of beauty
Greece
▫ Birth place of Aesthetics
 Aesthetics: a branch of philosophy dealing with the
nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and
appreciation of beauty
 Why was Aesthetics born in Greece?
▫ Philosophy was born in Greece
▫ They loved order and feared chaos and they saw order in art
▫ High premium on the physical
▫ Athletics
▫ Advanced understanding of geometric forms
▫ Wealth
▫ Trade related
▫ Communication skills
▫ Trade related
Greece
 Key figures in discussing aesthetics
▫ Aristotle
▫ Socrates
▫ Plato
Greece
▫ Periods
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Geometric
Archaic
Classical
Hellenistic
Greece
 Geometric
▫ Shapes and patterns
▫ Conceptual figures
 Dipylon Vase
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Terra-cotta
42 5/8” tall
Grave marker
Figures:
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Frontal view
Profile legs and arms
Profile head
Frontal eyes
Greece
 Archaic
▫ Figure replaced
Geometric patterns
 Francois Vase
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Ceramic
26” tall
Divided into 6 registers
Attempt at naturalism
▫ Figures not static as in the
Dipylon Vase
▫ Handles actually echo
design
▫ Black-figure painting
Greece
▫ Black-figure painting
▫ Black figures on a reddish
background
▫ Figures painted on using a brush
and slip
▫ First fired in oxidation
▫ Second fired in reduction
▫ This pulled the red color out of the
clay body
▫ Then, finer details incised with
sharp tool
Greece
Greece
 Archaic Architecture
Doric
Ionic
Corinthian
Greece
 Sculpture
▫ In the Archaic period, sculpture emerged as the principle
art form
▫ Freestanding, life-sized, and larger-than-life-sized
▫ Influenced by Egyptians
▫ Temples ornamented with sculptures
▫ Frieze and pediment
 Dying Warrior & Fallen Warrior
▫ These works require the viewer to piece the drama together
by collecting information from scattered realistic elements
Greece
 Kouros figure
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Marble
6’4” tall
Devotional or funerary
Similar to Egyptian sculptures
Different though:
▫ The stone was carved away from
the body, releasing it from the
block
Greece
 Kore figure
▫ Female counterpart of the
kouros
▫ Peplos is the heavy woolen
wrap she is wearing
▫ Touches of paint
▫ Colors often used:
▫ Red, blue, yellow, green, black and
gold
▫ Beauty lies in the lines of this
work
▫ Contour and implied
Greece
 Classical
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Early Classical
Classical
Late Classical
Hellenistic Art
Greece
 Early Classical
 Diskobolos
▫ Discus Thrower
▫ Example of implied movement
which was newly introduced in the
Early Classical period
▫ Idealized
▫ However more realistic
▫ Balance is key
Greece
 Classical Art
▫ Height of Greek Art
 Arcitecture
▫ Typical Greek temple
Stereobate or substructure
Rear Porch
Cella
Porch
Colonnade
Stylobate
Greece
 The Parthenon
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Dedicated to Athena the protector of Athens
Doric order
Stylobate is convex
The columns are tilted inward and swell and the midpoint
Used as Byzantine church, Roman Catholic church and
mosque
▫ Used as an ammunition dump by the Turks in their was
against the Venetians
▫ The cella was hit by a Venetian rocket
 Sculpture
 The Three Goddesses
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Marble
4’7” tall
From the Parthenon
Phidias
Characteristics
▫ Weighty
▫ Naturalistic poses
▫ Realistic drapery
◦ Folds are articulate
◦ Thinner drapery
clings to the body
 Doryphoros
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Spear Bearer
Marble
6’6” tall
Weight-shift principle
▫ Polykleito’s stlye
 Noibid Painter
▫ Red-figure
▫ Argonaut Krater
▫ Registers eliminated
▫ Attempted realism
▫ Outlining foreground, middle
ground and background
▫ Fails in the end
◦ Placement of figures not correct
◦ Scale
◦ Still waiting on perspective
Greece
Hermes =
messenger god
 Late Classical
 Sculpture
▫ Hermes and Dionysos
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Marble
7’1”
Praxiteles
Softer flesh
S curve
Dionysos = god
of wine
 Apoxyomenos
▫ Original in bronze
▫ 6’6” tall
▫ Lysippos
▫ Introduced new canon of
proportions the
introduced a more
slender and graceful
figure
▫ The viewer is forced to
walk around the
sculpture
▫ Due to arm positions
▫ S curve seems to spiral
in this work
 Hellenistic Art
▫ Excessive and theatrical emotion
▫ Use of illusion to heighten realism
▫ Space around figures is treated as an extension of the viewer’s
space
 The Dying Gaul
▫ Unlike The Fallen Warrior
▫ It’s all there and relatively seamless
▫ Blood pouring out of wounds
▫ Head hangs
▫ Overall body language
The Romans
Architecture and sculpture
Rome
• Art absorbed a great amount of Greek style and
content often referred to as Grecco-Roman
▫ Major difference between the Romans and Greeks
would be the Roman preference for near trompe
l’oiel realism in their portrait sculpture
▫ Greeks were about idealism in their sculpture
 Recall the Riace Bronzes and why the Greeks were
unsatisfied with the Kritian Boy
Rome
 Head of a Roman
▫ 14 3/8” tall
▫ Marble
▫ Republican
Period
▫ No attempt at
idealizing this
man
▫ A neutral record
of this man
Rome
 Augustus of Primaporta
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Marble
6’8” tall
Early Empire
Pure realism of the
Republican Period joined the
idealism of the Greeks
▫ Example of individual’s head
on idealized body in a
Classical pose
▫ Similar to Doryphoros
▫ Head unique and idealized
Rome
 Marcus Aurelius on Horseback
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Larger than life-size
Bronze
Early Empire
Combines the Roman love of
realism with a later concern for
psychologically penetrating
portraits
▫ Horse is muscular
▫ Emperor is calm reflecting a Stoic
philosophy
▫ Stoicism: indifference to emotion and
things of this world was a key virtue
in life
▫ Only survives b/c they Christians
thought it was Constantine
Rome
 Head of Constantine
the Great
▫ Enormous sculpture:
▫ Marble head and limbs
▫ Wooden body covered
in bronze
▫ Head is 8 feet tall
▫ Realism and idealism
replaced by archaic
expression
▫ Christianity taking
over and the Roman
Empire was failing