Ancient
Greece
Culture and civilization that’s based on trade
• A lot of grains from Egypt
• Cross-cultural connections
Main commodity was liquids
• Built a lot of pots
Exekias, Achilles and Ajax playing a Game
• C. 540-530 BCE
• Black figure decoration on an amphora
• Ceramic, height 2’
• Doesn’t show the battle, but a moment prior when the guys are just
hangin out playin a game
o Example of Greek culture -- they values reason, philosophy,
rational thought over emotional
o Commemorates the battle in a sophisticated way
Eupohorius (painter) and Euxitheos (potter), Death of Sarpedon
• C. 515 BCE
• Red figure decoration on a calyx krater
• Ceramic, height of krater 18th rd
Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, 6 - 3 century BCE
• Theatre, games
• Idea that you could communicate with the God at the sanctuary --
oracle
Polytheistic Religion: worshipping many gods and goddesses
• Zeus
• Apollo
• Athena (Minerva)
• Aphrodite (Venus)
• Hermes (Mercury)
• Demeter (Ceres)
• Persephone (Proserpina)
• Dionysos (Bacchus)
• Eros (Cupid)
• Pan ( Faunus)
• Nike (Victory)
Temple at Aphaia, Aegina, c. 500 BCE
• Conceived of as a sculpture, meant to be conceived in its whole
dimension
o Meant to be walked around
o Columns form open walls
o Chamber inside, maybe a statue to the God
o Worshipping happens at alters outside the temple
o Missing the Pediment and Frieze -- it crumbled
• West Pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, c. 500-490 BCE o Surviving fragments as assembled in the Staatliche
Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich
o Hieratic scale, goddess is upright
o Her fighters are at various heights around her
o Originally all sculptures were very brightly coloured
• Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Reconstruction of
an Archer, From
o Example of naturalism, figure and painting of the figure is
very naturalistic
Naturalism
• In the early stages of Ancient Greece, we see less naturalistic
• Period styles in Ancient Greece
o Geometric 900-700 BCE
o Archaic 600-480 BCE
o Classical 480-323 BCE
§ Early Classical 480-450
§ High Classical 450-400
§ Late Classical 400-323
o Hellenistic 323-31/30 BCE
Geometric Period
• Figures highly stylized according to basic shapes
• Man and Centaur, perhaps from Olympia
o Votive sculpture
o C. 750 BCE
o Bronze, height 4 5/8”
o Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Archaic Period
• Stylized, symmetrical, shoulders level, subtle carving to indicate
anatomy, Archaic smile (almost completely blank expression but a
hint of a smile)
• Metropolitan Kouros
o Attica
o C. 600 BCE
o Marble, height 6’
• Berlin Kore
o Cemetery at Keratean, near Athencs
o C. 570-560 BCE
o Marble with remnants of red paint, height 6’3
o Pomegranate - associated with Persephone
• Anavyos Kouros
o C. 530 BCE
o marble with remnants of paint height 6’4
• “Peplos” Kore
o C. What does Classical mean?
• Comes from the Latin word classis:
o Division of people into classes based on wealth
o Classic means first class, highest rank
o ART HISTORIANS have applied the term Classical to this
period in Ancient Greece because it has been extremely
influential othartisth in later cultures: Romans, Renaissance,
Baroque, 18 & 19 century European art
o Romans especially adopted Greek aesthetics and copied their
art
Early Classical Greek Scuptlure
• Cultural values: humanism, rationalism idealism
o “Man is the measure of all things”
o “Know thyself”
o “Nothing in excess”
o Reason over emotion
o Style becoming more naturalistic while retaining idealized
proportions
• Kritios Boy
o Acropolis, Athens,
o C. 480 BCE
Marble, height 3’10
o Contrapposto pose (subtle)
• Contrapposto: the convention of presenting satnding figures with
opposing alternations of tension and relaxation around central axis
o Weight on one leg
o Other leg relaxed and bent at the knew
o Slight shifting of hips
o Very subtle drop of one shoulder
o Head slightly turned to the side
• Charioteer
o From the Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi
o C. 470 BCE
o Bronze, copper (lips and lashes), silver (hand), onyx (eyes),
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