Greek Art
700 B.C. - 146 B.C.
The history of art (or at least the written Western part) starts of with the first big European society.
Although the Greek civilation isn’t the oldest and definitely not the one of most importance it is
mentioned as the first art movement in art history.
It were the Egyptians and Perzians who already had a far more developed society and culture, they
probably influenced the
Greek. The contact between these counties were of such influence that the Archaic period arose.
Greek art has been of big influence on art history up till the late 19th century. For almost 2500 years,
artists and architects have made buildings, sculptures and paintings in which the influences of the Greek
roots is clearly noticeable.
Periods
In art history the Greek Art is divided in 4 different style and time periods
Geometrical period
950-700 B.C.
Archaic period
700-480 B.C.
Classical period
480-400 B.C.
Hellenistic period
400/300-31 B.C.
Painting:
In general the study of painting from the Greeks mostly
focuses on ceramic vases as almost all murals (wall
paintings) were faded away by nature. As the name of this
period already shows, the decorations on the vases mainly
existed out of geometrical patterns.
Concentric lines, diamond patterns, zigzag lines and the well
known meander pattern, were applied to the vases with
black clay based paint. Later on from 775 B.C. more and
more human and animal based figures appear as
decorations on these vases, although they are very
schematic they are recognizable.
Dipylonamfoor, Athens, Greece
National Musuem
ca. 750 B.C.
Geometrical Period
(950-700 B.C.)
Sculpture
It seems that most knowledge and need for sculptures of circumstantial size disappeared during the
Geometrical period. From this period only small iron and ivory sculptures, which depict mainly women,
animals and knights.
Architecture:
From the Geometrical period no buildings remained, as both temples and houses were build out of
perishable materials such as wood.
Geometrical period
Painting
The schematic depicted humans and animals remain
but as years pass by they become more and more
realistic. The figures become less angular and are
shown in more detail than before. The technique with
which the decorations were applied is called ‘blackfigured’, this technique was used till the late Archaic
period.
But from 530 B.C. another technique was invented
which is known under the name ‘red-figured’. Which can
be seen as a ‘negative’ image compared to the blackfigured vases. In these the vases were still made from
red baked clay but where they before painted the
figures in black, they now kept the red for the figures
and painted the background black.
As you can see they mostly painted the belly of the vase
during this period and the layout becomes more
organized.
Archaic period
(700-480 B.C.)
Meidias-painting, Red-figured
Amfoor, London, British
Museum, ca. 410-400 B.C.
Exekias, black-figured amfoor,
Vatican city, Vatincan Museum,
ca. 540 B.C.
Sculpture
The first known sculpture from a reasonable size (65
cm.) is probably made in Kreta and depicts a female
figure. Although the form is still schematic it does
show the interest for depicting the human body.
This sculpture should be seen as the start of
sculptural art in Greece.
This style period has some characteristics which
can be seen in both male as female sculptures:
-
almond shaped, bulging eyes
the curved eyebrow towards the nose
the ‘Archaic’ smile
the hair is divided by horizontal lines, which
suggests curls.
Dame D’Auxerre, Paris, France, Museum Louvre, 640-600 B.c.
Archaic period
(700-480 B.C.)
In the Archaic period the sculptures show little
variety in subject.
Mainly the young men (Kouros), the young female
(Koré) and furthermore some Mythical creatures.
The egyptian influence is noticeable in the wide
shoulders and the slim waist.
The Kouros is always naked in a very stiff and frontal
position. The arms are positioned along the body
and the left legs a bit forwards
The female sculptures are always dressed and have
their feet next to eachother.
The development in these archaic sculptures is seen
in the growing sensitivity for anatomy, the folds in the
fabric develops slowly towards a perfect balance
between clothing and the body underneath.
Archaic period
(700-480 B.C.)
Statue of a Kouros, Greece,
Metropolitan Museum of art
The development in a more naturalistic reproduction of
the human body, as is seen in the Archaic period finds
its peak in the sculpture the Kritios boy, as shown on the
left.
The sculpture indicates the changing design which will
be the start of a new period, the ‘Classical Period’.
The characteristics of the Archaic period will be replaced
by:
-
Statue of a Koré,
Marble
Merenda, Greece
Kritiosboy, Athens, Akropolis
Museum, ca. 480 B.C.
A strict facial expression, with full lips and a wide
jawline
Contrapposto
Architecture
After the Geometrical period, the greek started to replace
the old wooden temples by building made out of stone.
First the started of with the temples as they were more
important to them as they brought them closer to their
gods.
The earliest temples were build following a strict
floorplan, the first building order was called the Doric
order
The Basilica at
Paestum (c.550
BCE)
Archaic period
(700-480 B.C.)
Building orders
Sculpture
Invention of the ‘Contrapposto’, a human figure standing with most of its
weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips
and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed
appearance. As you can see there is more stress on the gesture, which is
created by diagonals in the shoulders and hips.
It develops in a much more realistic reproduction of the human body and the
human proportions. The figures seem to be moving, although they are still
pretty straight forward.
Characteristics:
- Contrapossto
- Strict facial expression, no visible emotion
Michelangelo, David in
the Galleria
dell'Accademia.
Classical period
Sculpture
In the sculptures made during this period there
seems to be a balance between the depicted
realistic (true to nature) and idealised features.
The idealization gives these sculptures sort of a
divine beauty. Although they later on in the period
seem to work more and more toward a perfect
realistic human body. But divine is replace by
more sensual, which is the start of the female
naked. Also the men changed from heavily
muscular warriors into more ‘metroman’, with
more round forms and less obvious sixpacks.
(Not so weird that the expression of the face also
is up for a change!)
We can see that sculptures had perfect control of
material and techniques. They were able to
actually show a correct anatomical human body in
difficult positions.
Classical Period
Roman copy of
Polykleitos, Doryphoros,
c. 440 BCE.
Artemision Bronze, thought to be either
Poseidon or Zeus, c. 460 BCE, National
Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Seer from the east pediment, Temple of Zeus.
Marble. Ca. 470-455 BCE. Olympia, Greece.
Classical Period
Belvedre, Appollo pioMusée Pio-Clementino, Palais du
Belvédère, Cité du Vatican, Rome, Italie.
Sculpture
The frontal view of sculptures disappears,
they become much more dynamic which
invites more to look it from more than just one
side.
Perfect control of anatomy, male sculpture
gain muscles and female sculptures become
even more sensual.
Difficult compositions, bodies of different
figures entwined through each other.
Facial expressions show feelings and
passion.
Dying Gaul, Hellenistic Period
Realism instead of idealisation, the human
being as it is!
Hellenistic Period
Laocoön Group, Vatican Museums, Rome
Venus de Milo, Louvre, Paris, France
The Hellenistic Period starts with the arrival of Alexander the Great, a Macedonian Prince who added
large areas to the Greek empire in the east and the south.
He would become a loved subject within painting and mosaic inlays.
Here you see a reproduction in mosaic made by the Romans from a greek mural, which is lost.
In this mosaic you can see that they work with perspective shortening and light-dark contrast in order
to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.
Alexander mosaic,
Roman copy of the
Greek mural from 310
bc.
Painting
Besides that they tried to incorporate this in the vase
paintings as well. Much more stress on the depiction of
depth and movement of the figures as you can see in
the so named ‘Canossa Vases’ from the late 4th century
B.C.
Monumental southern
Italian Greek vase
(330 BCE). From
Canossa in Apulia,
Italy.
Hellenistic Period