Greek Art
GEOMETRIC TO
HELLENISTIC STYLE
GEOMETRIC 900-700 BCE
ARCHAIC 700-480 BCE
CLASSICAL 480-323 BCE
HELLENISTIC 323-150 BCE
Precursors –Cycladic marble statues 27002500 BCE –beginning of long history of
marble sculpture in Greece
Minoan
Lion Gate Mycenae 1300-1250 BCE
Geometric Era
geometric shapes
abstract motifs
no unified conception of human
small statues
large black-figure vases
Geometric
Statuette of a man and centaur, ca. 750 B.C.E; Late Geometric
Dipylon Vase 740 BCE
detail
Areas of Greek Influence during Archaic Period
Archaic
Early Archaic art is referred to as “Daedalic” after
Daedulus –legendary artist
Formal
Stiff
Influence of Egypt
Monumental sculpture and architecture
Korai “archaic smiles”
stone temples
Doric & Ionic orders,
red-figure painting invented
Vase Painting-black figure, red-figure
Art historians usually talk about the “pigment” a painter
applied to clay surface as glaze, but black areas on Greek
pots are not pigment or glaze but a slip (watery clay)
firing process of both red- and black-figure vessels used
three stages:
first, oxidizing stage, air was allowed into the kiln, turning the
whole vase the color of the clay
second stage, green wood was introduced into the chamber
and the oxygen supply was reduced, causing the object to
turn black in the smoky environment.
third stage, air was reintroduced into the kiln; the coarser
material portions turned back to orange while the
smoother slip areas remained black
Symposium 550 BCE
Terracotta hydria (water jar), ca. 510–500 B.C.E
Andokides Painter, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game
(Athenian bilingual amphora) from Oriveto, Italy ca.525-520
BCE, 1’9”
Euthymides, Three revelers (red
figure amphora, 510 BCE 2’
Menkaure and
Khamerernebty
ca. 2490-2472
BCE
Lady of Auxerre
ca.650-625 BCE
Daedalic style –all great
early sculpture
attributed to
legendary artist
Daedalus before
names of artists were
recorded
-bridge between
geometric and archaic
Kouros 590-580 BCE
Side view
Calf-bearer
560BCE
Peplos Kore 530 BCE
Kroisos (540 BCE)
“Stay and mourn beside
the tomb of dead
Kroisos, whom raging
Ares destroyed one
day, fighting in the
foremost ranks.”
Classical style
 Order, clarity -proportion, symmetry
 Humanism
 Realism
 Idealism
c. 450-400 BCE –classical or high classical
period, corresponds to the high point or
golden age of Greek culture
Kritios Boy
from the Acropolis, Athens, c. 480 BCE Parianmarble,
337/8 (86 cm) high, Acropolis Museum Athens
Blond Kouros 480 BCE
Proportion-comparative relationship or ratio of things to one
another
-used to represent what is considered ideal or beautiful
Ancient Greeks tied their vision of ideal beauty to what they
considered the proper proportions of the human body
Polykleitos is credited with the derivation of a canon of
proportions – a set of rules about body parts and their
dimensions relative to one another that became the
standard for creating the ideal figure. The physical
manifestation of his canon was the Doryphorus. Every
part of the body is either a specific fraction or multiple of
every other part
Ideally the head is one eighth of the total height of the body
and the width from shoulder-to-shoulder should not
exceed one-fourth of the body’s height.
Balance
-distribution of weight of the actual or apparent weight of
the elements of a composition
Polykleitos
Doryphoros 450 -440 BCE
Roman copy after bronze
Greek original, marble
6’6”
Polycleitus, Doryphorus, roman copy after a bronze Greek original of ca.450-440 BCE
[Beauty arises from] the
commensurability [symmetria] of
the parts such as that of finger
to finger, and of all the fingers
to the palm and the wrist and of
these to the forearm, and of the
forearm to the upper arm, and in
fact, of everything to everything
else, just as it is written in the
Canon of
Polykleitos…Polykeitos
supported his treatise [by
making] a statue according to
the tenets of his treatise, and
called the statue, like the work,
the Canon.(Galen 2nd c.)
Leonardo da Vinci
Proportion of the
Human Figure (after
Vitruvius)
c.1485-1490
Pen and ink 13 ½” x 9 ¾
“
Diskobolos 470 BCE
Zeus or Poseidon
460BCE
Grave stele of
a little girl
ca. 450–440 B.C.E
Aphrodite of
Knidos (Roman
copy of original
ca. 350-340 BCE)
The Golden Mean
For ideal proportions in architecture
Requires that a small part of a work should
relate to a larger part of the work as the
larger part relates to the whole
columns typical of the temples divided into 3 kinds:
Doric,
Ionian, Corinthian
Doric order is simple and severe
no base, directly on the stylobate, fluted shaft tapering to top, a capital which
consisted of a curved member surmounted by a square block (abacus) upper
end of shaft and the capital were cut in one block
 on top of capital - the entablature, the architrave (left plain except for small
moulding at the top, decorated at regular intervals with a panel from which 6
little knobs (guttae) reached down, the frieze –consisted of triglyphs with
vertical groovings alternating with metopes which could be plain or painted or
sculptured,
 the cornice faced slightly down to protect the face of the building from rain
water
Ionic originating in Asia Minor and Aegean islands more delicate and ornate; has
a base in several tiers, volutes front and back
Corinthian (ornate, capitals with acanthus leaves, on victory columns)


all three styles display a set of structural and decorative parts that stand in
fixed relation to each other
Three Orders of Greek
Architecture
Temple of Hera, Paestum, ca. 550
BCE -Archaic
Parthenon. The most perfect building? (447-438 BCE)
–temple dedicated to Athena (parthenos–maiden)

commissioned by Pericles, designed by Ictinus &
Kallicrates, embellished by Phidias

harmonic proportion
rectangle delimited on all four sides by
colonnaded walkway
17 columns at sides, and 8 at ends








reflects classical reverence for clarity and
symmetry
two rooms –one with huge statue of Athena
covered in gold, perhaps with ivory head, jewels
for eyes; outside paintings, decorations were
spectacularly coloured -not all white marble
the other room contained Athens’ treasury
temple is Doric but has some Ionic features
classical ideal of life as harmonious balance
between the counteracting forces of freedom and
necessity
no striving for the infinite as in Gothic
architecture –perfection of limited form
Replica of Athena, Parthenos in Nashville
Influence of Classical Style….
Pantheon, Rome, ca. 118-125 CE, Dome height 143 ft.
Michaelangelo, David, 1501-1504
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello,
1772
A.J. Davis and Ithiel Town, Federal Hall, 28 Wall Street, NYC, 1842
Greek Revival
Theatre Design
Polykleitos the Younger, theatre, Epidauros, Greece, ca. 350 BCE
Hellenistic - (323-31 BCE)
-new subjects in sculpture and painting
emotional
active
dynamic
not so idealized
naturalistic
-often copied by and for Romans who loved
the style
Architects break the rules of classical orders
Laocoon (100-200 BCE)
http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art105/img/greek_laocoon.jpg
Winged Victory (Victory of Samothrace) 190 BCE, marble
Gallic
Chieftain Killing
Himself and his Wife
230-220BCE
Old Market Woman,
ca. 150-100 BCE,
Marble, 4’1/2”,
Metropolitan
Defeated
Boxer
100-50BCE