Where in the world are we? East of Italy, North of Africa, West of Turkey ....
The Classical Greek World
Here we find the emergence of a Classical style that illustrated numerous things: cultural stories, historical narratives, religion and mythology.
Exekias Vatican amphora 800 - 300 BCE
Amphoras & kraters
The GEOMETRIC PERIOD 900 - 700 BCE
Black-figure 800 - 300 BCE
Red-figure 700 - 400 BCE
From our text...
"There is no hint of gods or kings. Focus rests on the private diversions of heroic warriors as well as on the identity and personal style of the artist who portrayed them."
"Supremely self-aware and self-confident, the ancient Greeks developed a concept of human supremacy and responsibility that required a new visual expression."
Exekias (Ancient Greek: Ἐξηκίας, Exēkías) was an ancient Greek vase-painter and potter who was active in Athens between roughly 545 BC and 530 BC. Exekias worked mainly in the black-figure technique, which involved the painting of scenes using a clay slip that fired to black, with details created through the incision. Exekias is regarded by art historians as an artistic visionary whose masterful use of incision and psychologically sensitive compositions mark him as one of the greatest of all Attic vase painter and was identified as the creator of many amphoras.
Made of terra cotta clay with black slip and sgraffito.
"Sgraffito, (Italian: “scratched”), in the visual arts, a technique used in painting, pottery, and glass, which consists of putting down a preliminary surface, covering it with another, and then scratching the superficial layer in such a way that the pattern or shape that emerges is of the lower color. During the Middle Ages, especially in panel painting and in the illumination of manuscripts, the ground was often of gold leaf. In wall-painting, or mural painting, two layers of different colored plaster are usually employed."
Red-figure amphora
Skilled artisans produced metal and ceramic ware for trade for grain, raw materials, and other ceremonial libations and food.
"Within a remarkably brief time, Greek artists developed focused and distinctive ideals of human beauty and architectural design that continue to exert a profound influence today. From about 900 BCE until about 100 BCE, they concentrated on a new, rather narrow range of subjects and produced an impressive body of work with focused stylistic aspirations in a variety of media."
Ceramics
Metal work
Architecture
Glass
The artists continued and sought out to change and improve artistic trends based in observation. style of dress, architecture, and visual imagery. This was in great contrast to the Early Kingdom of what we saw in Ancient Egypt.
The GEOMETRIC PERIOD 900 - 700 BCE
Ceramic vessels with linear motifs, spirals, diamonds and cross-hatching. Large funerary vessels were made as grave makers. Geometric style illustrates a preference of open compositions based around large, natural looking motifs. These designs can be traced to the Near East, Asia Minor and Egypt, the Greeks traveled wide and far!
The Greek Key
Geometric abstraction based in architectural motifs. The design remains in use today...
Versace on the Fashion Runway, Paris
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THE ARCHAIC PERIOD c. 600 - 480 BCE
( Archaic is an adjective meaning extremely old)
( Archaic is an adjective meaning extremely old)
Was a time of great artistic achievement. In literature, Sappho wrote her inspired poetry, while Aesop crafted his fables we still read today.
The Sanctuary of Delphi
p. 107
Delphi was the site of the Pythian Games, similar to the Olympian Games, which attracted people from all over.
Treasury of the Siphnians
Was built be the Greeks to protect offerings made, was built in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi by the residents of the island of Siphnos in the Cyclades art 530 - 525 BCE
The Siphnian Treasury was a building at the Ancient Greek cult centre of Delphi, erected to host the offerings of the polis, or city-state, of Siphnos.
Caryatids, columns carved in the form of clothed women in finely pleated flowing garments raised
on pedestals and holding the pediment
Note: the contrapposto pose, a weight shift onto one leg:
- An asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure in which the line of the arms and shoulders contrasts with the juxtaposition with the hips and legs.
"The Greek Orders"
Doric "D" laying down
Ionic "I" or 'eyes'
Corinthian "C" curvilinear, let me remind you of the columns from Ancient Egypt with their papyrus and lotus capitals
- EntablatureA horizontal, continuous lintel on a classical building supported by columns or a wall, topped with a capital, comprising the architrave, frieze, and cornice. Often times the relief carving in the frieze were polychromed.
Frieze
Pediment
Column shafts are often flutedThe Greeks worshipped in temples - a building with columned porches was a type of standard open-air type buildings.
Columns were robust, thus creating impressions of great stability and permanence.
Above... Where in the world are we?Below .... Where in the world are we here?
Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (below)c. 500 - 475 BCE, column height 17'
Above engraving illustrates the scale of the templeUnlike Egyptian temples, Greek architecture revealed the full shape of the enclosed space; a closed, compact sculptural mass ...
"inviting viewers not to enter seeking something within, but rather to walk around the exterior, exploring the rich sculptural embellishment on the pediments and frieze. Cult ceremonies, after all, took place outside the temples."
Dying Warriors, marble (once painted) in the entablature of the Temple of Aphaia, c. 490 - 480 BCE
Marble that looks like flesh, note the psychological emotion portrayed in each of the figures. Ancient Greeks tried to portray all facets of being human
Boy of Kouros, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Parthenon, 447 - 432 BCE
Reconstruction of the Statue of Athenaa 40' statue made of goldGreek Goddess of Wisdom and War
Athena, also referred to as Athene, is a very important goddess of many things.
She is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.She is known most specifically for her strategic skill in warfare and is often portrayed as a companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavor.RE: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/athena/
Hellenistic period...The period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 b.c. to the middle of the first century b.c. It was marked by Greek and Macedonian emigration to areas conquered by Alexander and by the spread of Greek civilization from Greece to northern India.
Marble statue of an old market woman1st century A.D.; Early Imperial, Roman occupation.Hellenistic periodFrom the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYCDuring the Hellenistic period, artists became concerned with the accurate representation of childhood, old age, and even physical deformity. The range of subject matter was extended to include genre-like figures from the fringes of society. Fine, large-scale statues of fishermen, peasants, and aged courtesans became valued religious dedications, sometimes placed in a park-like setting within the sanctuary of the god. Although this statue is known familiarly as The Old Market Woman, it probably represents an aged courtesan on her way to a festival of Dionysos, the god of wine. Her delicate sandals and the ample material in her thin, elaborately draped chiton are a far cry from the rough garb of a peasant woman. The ivy wreath on her head marks her association with Dionysos, and the basket of fruit and the two chickens must be dedicatory gifts to the god or simply her own provisions for a long day of celebration. Veneration of Dionysos was widespread during the Hellenistic period, and ancient literary descriptions give an idea of the extraordinary processions and festivals held in his honor. The flattened composition of the figure is typical of sculpture created in the late second century B.C. The original work may have been dedicated in a sanctuary of Dionysos. The Roman copy could have decorated a garden.
