GREEK ART
Link to PowerPoint images of artworks
Assignment: Read and high-light. Be able to describe the main periods of Greek art history and identify the items in bold.
Introduction
The civilization of the ancient Greeks, whose city states dominated the islands and the coast of the Aegean Sea, is the fountainhead of Western culture. Centuries before Rome reached its zenith, the Greeks established the disciplines of history, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, poetry, drama, music, and art. They left behind images of human perfection in clay, bronze, and stone that remain standards for all subsequent Western art.
In Greece, the Western taste for "naturalism" was born. Over time, the more rigid forms of Near Eastern art made way in Greece for a naturalistic, "realistic looking" representation of the human form. The Greek ideal of beauty sought to reflect in the arts the Greek humanist outlook. To the Greek mind, humankind (to echo the words of Sophocles) was the greatest wonder; the images created reflect this idealized outlook. Greek sculpture, particularly of the fifth century B.C., the classical period of Greek art, rejects the particular, the individual, and certainly the flawed, and presents the universal, the ideal, the perfect. The astonishing achievements of Greek art of the classical period, however, did not happen overnight. Between 800 BC and 200 BC, Greek art passes through four distinct phases: the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods.
Early Greek Art
A recognizable style of early Greek art first appears around 800 BC. This earliest, or Geometric period is characterized by rigid, geometrical patterns. Vase paintings of the period show a series of repeated geometric shapes. The human form tends to be absent or unimportant. Human forms, where they appear, seem rigid and geometric.
By about 600 BC, a new style appears. The human form is given greater prominence during this second, or Archaic period. Sculpture of this period most often shows a figure of a young boy, or a Kouros. The figure is stiff and unnatural, arms held rigidly at his sides, with a slight "Archaic" smile on his lips. As the Archaic period proceeds, poses take on a more relaxed naturalism, and the smile begins to disappear.
Greek Art of the Classical Period
During the fifth century BC, Greek art of the Classical period reaches new heights of creativity and technical perfection. During this period, sculptors explore an easy naturalism that can capture the energy of the athlete or the easy grace of a perfect body at rest. The images are idealized, showing perfection of form. Some examples are the relaxed ease of the Kritios Boy (an early classical piece), the graceful athleticism of the Discus Thrower, and the poised power of the bronze statue of Zeus. Harmony, balance, order, simplicity, and rationality all are characteristics of classicism in the arts. This golden age of Greek art was short‑lived. Civil war and invasion shattered the confident spirit of Greece of the Golden Age.
The Hellenistic Period
Crises both internal and external civil war and invasion swept Greece in the fourth and third centuries. The order, balance, harmony, and simplicity of classicism is in the past. Greek art of the Hellenistic period communicates a new, opposite spirit to classicism Hellenistic art is disorderly, almost violent, complex and emotional, full of twists and sudden or swift movement. The statue of Nike (or the Winged Victory of Samothrace) is shown spread winged and windswept, landing on the prow of a ship. Struggle, violence, and tension is captured in the Laocoon, the Trojan priest punished by the gods for warning his fellow Trojans not to bring the wooden horse into the city. (He and his two young sons are being strangled by sea snakes.) Even the famous Venus de Milo, which at first seems classical (with her serene expression) is pure Hellenistic. Notice the twisting pose and the complicated drapery that surrounds her. The Old Market Woman gets us far away from the perfection of classicism and is a moving portrait of human decline and decay. In the progression from the Classical to the Hellenistic period in Greek art, we see the beginning of a characteristic pattern in the history of Western art: the cool, rational, perfect simplicity of the classical is almost always followed by the hot, emotional, realistic complexity of romanticism.
Greek Architecture of the Golden Age
The glories of Greek architecture exist today as shattered ruins strewn around Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines. Even in decay, these temples astonish their viewers and have served as models for Western architects for over two thousand years.
Greek temples were designed in one of three architectural styles or "orders": the Doric, the Ionic, or the Corinthian orders. A Greek order can be easily identified by looking at the column and capital (top) of the column. The Doric column is topped by a simple, undecorated slab of stone. The Ionic capital curves into a scroll-like form. The Corinthian column is the most elaborate of the three orders: the capital is carved with a design of acanthus leaves. This column also is the tallest and most graceful of the three.
The temple complex built atop the Acropolis (hill) overlooking Athens is the crowning achievement of classical Greek architecture. There, the Parthenon--the great temple sacred to the patron goddess Athena Parthenos--stands, perhaps the single most admired (and copied) work of architecture in the Western world. Its massive size (eight frontal columns rather than the usual six), its elegant Doric simplicity, its sophisticated engineering (flaws are deliberately built into it to create the illusion of perfect flawlessness) all set the Parthenon apart. Time and man have treated the Parthenon harshly, yet it retains its place in the history of Western architecture as a sublime human achievement. Standing, too, on the Acropolis is the smaller, Ionic temple, the Erechtheum, with its unusual row of caryatid columns--columns in the form of female figures.
Greek art, particularly of the Classical and Hellenistic periods, set standards that Western artists will try to copy, to equal, and to surpass for the next two thousand years, and more.