Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Geometric Art, Paleoart, Lekythos

• School: Western University
• Department: Classical Studies
• Course: Classical Studies 1000
• Professor: Christopher Brown

Document Summary

Evidence of art from dark age to archaic is mostly from vase paintings, which survived in graves (though often put together from broken fragments) Thousands upon thousands of vases from antiquity survive. 11th- 8th century b. c. , mostly just patterns; no images for decoration. 750 b. c. , start to have figures and scenes. Late geometric period 750-700 b. c. (move away from geometric patterns to figural scenes) An orientalizing period (especially an influence from and via near east colonies. Art is more susceptible to foreign influence than other aspects of culture, like language). Lots of different types of pottery, with different shapes, use, purpose, etc. Anecdotal example: greek wine was naturally extremely strong and needed to be mixed with water. At the symposium, the symposiarch, aka thaliarch, (host of the party) make the decision on how strong the wine would be. Wine mixed in the vessel called the krater (whose name is from the greek verb kerannumi = to mix").