Greek Art: Exploring Perfection Through Balance, Harmony, and Symmetry

Dr. Schiller: AP History of Art • PART 1 OF 2 • Greek Art: • Gods, Heroes, and Athletes

Greek Art: 1200-30 BCE • Periods Dates: • Dark Period: 1200-800 BCE • Geometric Period: 800-700 BCE • Orientalizing Period: 700-600 BCE • Archaic Period: 600-480 BCE • Severe Style: 480-450 BCE • Classical Period: 450-400 BCE • Late Classical Period: 400-325 BCE • Hellenistic Period: 325-30 BCE

Greek Art: 1200-30 BCE • This chapter introduces you to the Greek world and its contribution to Western civilization. • For the Greeks the body was the visible means of conveying perfection • We’ll see the figure developed as: • --a representation of the humanity of the Greeks • --their attempt to gain perfection. • There are 3 big tenets of Greek art: • 1. balance • 2. harmony • 3. symmetry. • These ideals are reflected in architecture as well as sculpture.

Greek Art: 1200-30 BCE • A complication peculiar to the study of Greek art is that we have 3 separate and sometimes conflicting sources of information: • 1. the works themselves • 2. Roman copies of Greek works • 3. literary sources

Greece

Chapter 4: THE RISE OF THE GREEKS, 1000-500 BCE: Introduction: • Greece • Since water was scarce, the Greeks used olive oil to clean themselves

The Greek Dark Period • The Greek “Dark Age” was a period during which Greece and the whole Aegean region were largely isolated from the rest of the world • It began around 1200 BCE • It ended around 800 BCE when Phoenician ships began to visit the Aegean Sea, reestablishing contact between Greek and the Middle East

Phoenicia • Greece • Mediterranean Sea

Geometric Period: 800-700 BCE • One of the major differences between this early period and its counterpart in the Ancient Near East (remember Assyrian art?) is the fascination the human body had for the Greeks

Mesopotamian • Greek

Geometric Period: 800-700 BCE • * Even in the 8th C. BCE, the Greeks were interested in the depiction of anatomy and detail natural movement • * We know Geometric Style only from painted pottery and small-scale sculpture: • --the two forms are intimately related • --pottery was often adorned with figurines just • like the forms from sculpture • --sculpture was made of clay or bronze—probably • learned metal-working from the Mycenaeans

Geometric Sculpture • The figure of Hero and Centaur (Herakles and Nessos?) illustrates the sense of volume and natural movement. • Stokstad plate 5-6 • Hero and centaur (Herakles and Nessos?), ca. 750-730 BCE. • Bronze approx. 4 ½ “ high.

Geometric Sculpture • This bronze sculpture illustrates the anatomy, even though one figure is a mythic creature, centaur • The artist represents both figures as naked. • A more natural representation of the figures is presented by showing the curving of the anatomy

Geometric Sculpture • Note the lower torsos of both figures depict a primitive attempt at showing the form (human figure).

Geometric sculpture, continued • The Greek artist has attempted to show the scene, thought to be the battle between Herakles and Nessos, by aligning the arms of both figures as if in a wrestling match. • The elbows of both figures are cocked (i.e. bent) and tense as if in battle.

Geometric art • The Geometric artist did not confine his work to the three-dimensional medium alone. • Greek Dipylon Vase painting reflects the development of figural representation in a two-dimensional format. • Stokstad plate 5-5 • Geometric kraterfrom the Dipylon cemetery, Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BCE. • Approx. 3’ 4½“ high. • [mixing bowl for wine and water]

Geometric art • Again the figures on the body of the krater are almost schematic in shape. • The important factor in this depiction is the narrative value this vase contains.

Geometric art • The funeral of the individual is shown and the mourners are demonstrating their grief by the gestures of raised arms.

Geometric art • Unlike the Egyptians, this is a straightforward depiction of a funeral; no mythic creatures are present. • The difference is the representation of a funeral and the absence of gods escorting the deceased along the journey.

Geometric art • Another feature of vase painting is the use of the entire surface of the object as a platform for depiction • This can be seen in an oinochoe (wine pitcher) which details the “Shipwreck of Odysseus” • “Shipwreck of Odysseus” • Late Geometric Oinochoe (wine jug), c. 725 BCE. • Neck has scene of shipwreck (Odysseus?).

The neck of the pitcher shows the shipwreck, the crew helter skelter in space

The ship is shown as a series of oar ports

Odysseus, the largest figure, is behind the ship as if the last to leave the sinking vessel

Geometric art • The body of the pitcher has a series animals used as decorative motifs that cover the entire body of the pitcher. • The vase painter involved the whole surface of the vessel and used figurative as well abstract bands to cover the surface. • This is a departure from previous • and contemporaneous traditions. • The human figure has the place • of importance in both of the • vessels.

Orientalizing Period, continued: • The Orientalizing style (700-600 BCE) was experimental and transitional compared with the Geometric style. • "Orientalizing Style" of Greek painted vases is marked by the imagery of the Near East, including zoomorphic imaginary animals and other designs traditionally identified as originating "east" of Greece. • Orientalizing was inconsistent: partly solid silhouettes, partly in outline, combinations.

Orientalizing Period, continued: • Sphinxes and other Mesopotamian or Egyptian designs seen here indicate an "Orientalizing style.“

Orientalizing Period, continued: • The Blinding of Polyphemus and Gorgons, on an Orientalizing (proto-Attic) vase, “Eleusis Amphora”, c.675-650BCE, Ht. 56” • [an amphora was a storage jar]

Orientalizing Period, continued: • The Orientalizing style reflects powerful influences form Egypt and the Near East, stimulated by increasing trade with these regions • The change is very clear in the Eleusis Amphora, if you compare it with the Dipylon Krater from 100 years earlier

Orientalizing Period, continued:

Orientalizing Period, continued: • Geometric ornament has not disappeared from this vase altogether, but it is confined to the peripheral zones: the foot, the handles, and the lip

Orientalizing Period, continued: • Geometric ornament has not disappeared from this vase altogether, but it is confined to the peripheral zones: the foot, the handles, and the lip • New curvilinear motifs—such as spirals, interlacing bands, palmettes, and rosettes—are conspicuous everywhere.

Orientalizing Period, continued: • On the shoulder we see a frieze of fighting animals, derived from the repertory of Near Eastern art. • The major areas, however, are given over to narrative, which has become the dominant element

Orientalizing Period, continued: • On the shoulder we see a frieze of fighting animals, derived from the repertory of Near Eastern art. • The major areas, however, are given over to narrative, which has become the dominant element • This is the blinding of the giant one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus, by Odysseus and his companions, whom Polyphemus had imprisoned

Orientalizing Period, continued: • On the shoulder we see a frieze of fighting animals, derived from the repertory of Near Eastern art. • The major areas, however, are given over to narrative, which has become the dominant element • This is the blinding of the giant one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus, by Odysseus and his companions, whom Polyphemus had imprisoned • Center register: Gorgons chase Perseuswho has just decapitated Medusa

Orientalizing Period, continued: • On the shoulder we see a frieze of fighting animals, derived from the repertory of Near Eastern art. • The major areas, however, are given over to narrative, which has become the dominant element • This is the blinding of the giant one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus, by Odysseus and his companions, whom Polyphemus had imprisoned • It is memorably direct and dramatically forceful on this vase. • Their movements have an expressive vigor that makes them seem thoroughly alive.

Orientalizing Period, continued: • This olpe (an earthenware vase or pitcher without a spout) is similar to plate 5-4 in Gardner • Stokstad plate 5-8 • Pitcher (olpe)from Corinth, Greece, • ca. 600 BCE. • Approx. 1’ high. • Ceramic with black-figure decoration

Orientalizing Period, continued: • This olpe (an earthenware vase or pitcher without a spout) is similar to plate 5-4 in Gardner • Compare with the Ishtar Gate from earlier Mesopotamian Art • and notice the Mesopotamian Art influences:

Neo-Babylonian, 6th century BCE • Greek, 7th century BCE

Archaic Period: 600-480 BCE • The Archaic style emerged around 600 BCE and was dominant until 480 BCE (the time of the Greek victories over Persia). • Big difference was a new sense of artistic discipline of the latter, compared with the inconsistencies of the Orientalizing Style • Three categories of artwork in the Archaic Period: • 1. sculpture • 2. architecture • 3. vase painting • Many people view this period as the most vital phase in Greek art, because of its vitality and freshness.

Archaic Period: 600-480 BCE • Archaic Sculpture: • We know that Greece imported ivory carvings and metalwork that was Phoenician or Syrian, also Egyptian. • But how do we explain the rise of monumental sculpture around 650 BCE? • Had to have gone to Egypt! • There were small colonies of Greeks in Egypt then • Who knows for sure; but oldest surviving Greek stone sculpture and architecture show that Egyptian tradition had already been assimilated and Hellenized.

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore: • large figures of standing male nudes and slightly smaller statues of clothed maidens • began to appear as dedications in • religious sanctuaries and as grave • markers • form of kouros: • Stokstad plate 5-17 • Kouros, ca. 600 BCE. Marble, approx. 6’½ “ high

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore: • large figures of standing male nudes and slightly smaller statues of clothed maidens • began to appear as dedications in • religious sanctuaries and as grave • markers • form of kouros: • --standing with one leg forward

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore: • large figures of standing male nudes and slightly smaller statues of clothed maidens • began to appear as dedications in • religious sanctuaries and as grave • markers • form of kouros: • --standing with one leg forward • --arms held down to the side

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore: • large figures of standing male nudes and slightly smaller statues of clothed maidens • began to appear as dedications in • religious sanctuaries and as grave • markers • form of kouros: • --standing with one leg forward • --arms held down to the side • --firsts clenched

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore: • large figures of standing male nudes and slightly smaller statues of clothed maidens • began to appear as dedications in • religious sanctuaries and as grave • markers • form of kouros: • --standing with one leg forward • --arms held down to the side • --firsts clenched • --looking rigidly ahead

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore: • large figures of standing male nudes and slightly smaller statues of clothed maidens • began to appear as dedications in religious sanctuaries and as grave markers • form of kouros: • --standing with one leg forward • --arms held down to the side • --firsts clenched • --looking rigidly ahead • probably inspired by Egyptian Sculpture: stances and proportions very similar

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore, continued: • notice in the Egyptian statue, spaces between arms and sides are filled by stone block and figure adheres to stone slab behind him—conveys sense of permanence • however, Egypt one • seems more lifelike

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore, continued: • at this point, Greek sculptor is more interested in • pattern than appearance: • --face of kouros is play of contrasting curves that • can be traced in eyebrow, too-large eyes, lips, • wig • --regular series of rolled forms, textured to contrast • with smoothness of skin • --Muscles represented by triangular shapes, more decorative than anatomical

Archaic Sculpture, continued • Kouros and Kore, continued: • but kouros is separated form the block—fully in the round and more capable of movement

Greek Art: Exploring Perfection Through Balance, Harmony, and Symmetry