Ancient Greece

Greek art is different than any art we’ve seen in the past.

• Humanity was the “measure of all things”.
• Humanistic worldview
• Created the concept of democracy (rule by the demos, the people)
• Made contributions to art, literature, and science.

Greeks, or Hellenes

• appear to have been the offspring of Aegeans and Indo-Europeans.
• Never formed a single nation
• Established independent city-states, or poleis (singular, polis).

Dorians of the north settled in the Peloponnesos.

Ionians settled the western coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the islands of the Aegean Sea.

776 BCE

• Separate Greek speaking states held their first ceremonial games at Olympia.
• Despite their differences, the Greeks regarded themselves as citizens of Hellas (ancient name of Greece)

Those who did not speak Greek were called “barbarians”.

The Greek gods and goddesses were different from human beings because they were immortal.

• Said that the Greeks made their gods into humans and their humans into gods.
• Perfect, beautiful humans became the focus of many Greek artists.

Athens

• Plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were first performed.
• In the city’s central square (agora), Socrates discussed philosophical arguments
• Plato came up with his idea of the ideal form of government.

Owed a lot to the cultures of Egypt and the Near East.

Although the art was impressive, life in ancient Greece wasn’t perfect.

• Slavery was considered as natural, even beneficial
• Universally accepted among the Greeks.
• Greek women were not equal to Greek men. 
• Women remained secluded in their homes
• only came out for weddings, funerals, and religious festivals. 
• played little part in public or political life. 
• Only a handful of female artists’ names are known, none of their works survive. 
• War among the city-states was common. 

The Greeks eventually fell to the Macedonians and Romans.

Classical Antiquity (or Ancient Greece and Rome)

Period of about 900 years, when ancient Greece and then ancient Rome (first as a Republic and then as an Empire) dominated the Mediterranean area, from about 500 B.C.E. – 400 C.E. We tend to lump ancient Greece and Rome together because the Romans adopted many aspects of Greek culture when they conquered the areas of Europe under Greek control (circa 145 – 30 B.C.E.).For example, the Romans adopted the Greek pantheon of Gods and Goddesses but changed their names—the Greek god of war was Ares, whereas the Roman god of war was Mars. The ancient Romans also copied ancient Greek art. However, the Romans often used marble to create copies of sculptures that the Greeks had originally made in bronze.The ancient Greeks were the first Western culture that believed in finding rational answers to the great questions of earthly life. They assumed that there were consistent laws which governed the universe—how the stars move; the materials that compose the universe; mathematical laws that govern harmony and beauty, geometry and physics.Both the Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Romans had enormous respect for human beings, and what they could accomplish with their minds and bodies. They were Humanists (a frame of mind which was re-born in the Renaissance). This was very different from the period following Classical Antiquity—the Middle Ages, when Christianity (with its sense of the body as sinful) came to dominate Western Europe.When you imagine Ancient Greek or Roman sculpture, you might think of a figure that is nude, athletic, young, idealized, and with perfect proportions—and this would be true of Ancient Greek art of the Classical period (5th century B.C.E.) as well as much of Ancient Roman art.

GEOMETRIC AND ORIENTALIZING ART, ca. 900–600 BCE 

• Homer lived during the eighth century BCE, the era when the city-states of Classical Greece took shape, the Olympic Games were founded (776 BCE), and the Greeks began to trade with their neighbors in both the east and west.
• The human figure returned to Greek art in the form of bronze sculptures and simple silhouettes on Geometric vases.
• Increasing contact with the civilizations of the Near East precipitated the so-called Orientalizing phase (ca. 700– 600 BCE) of Greek art, when Eastern monsters began to appear on black-figure vases.

ARCHAIC ART, ca. 600–480 BCE 

• Around 600 BCE, the first life-size stone statues appeared in Greece. The earliest kouroi (male warriors) resembled the poses of Egyptian statues, but artists depicted the young men nude, the way Greek athletes competed at Olympia.
• During the course of the sixth century BCE, Greek sculptors refined the proportions and added “ Archaic smiles” to the faces of their statues to make them seem more lifelike.
• The Archaic age also saw the erection of the first stone temples with peripteral (single row of columns) colonnades and Doric and Ionic orders (column types).
• The Andokides Painter invented red-figure vase painting around 530 BCE. Euphronios and Euthymides rejected the age-old composite view for the human figure and experimented with foreshortening.

EARLY AND HIGH CLASSICAL ART, ca. 480–400 BCE 

• The Classical period opened with the Persian sack of the Athenian Acropolis in 480 BCE and the Greek victory a year later. The fifth century BCE was the golden age of Greece, when Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote their plays, and Herodotus, the “father of history,” lived.
• During the Early Classical period (480– 450 BCE), sculptors revolutionized statuary by introducing contrapposto (weight shift) to their figures.
• In the High Classical period (450– 400 BCE), Polykleitos developed a canon of proportions for the perfect statue. Iktinos and Kallikrates similarly applied mathematical formulas to temple design in the belief that beauty resulted from the use of harmonic numbers.
• Under the patronage of Pericles and the artistic directorship of Phidias, the Athenians rebuilt the Acropolis after 447 BCE. The Parthenon, Phidias’s Athena Parthenos, and the works of Polykleitos have defined what it means to be “Classical” ever since.

LATE CLASSICAL ART, ca. 400– 323 BCE 

• In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, which ended in 404 BCE, Greek artists, while still adhering to the philosophy that humanity was the “measure of all things,” began to focus more on the real world of appearances than on the ideal world of perfect beings.
• Late Classical sculptors humanized the deities, athletes, and heroes of the fifth century BCE. Praxiteles, for example, caused a sensation when he portrayed Aphrodite undressed. Lysippos depicted Herakles as a strong man so weary that he needed to lean on his club for support.
• In architecture, the Corinthian capital became increasingly popular.
• The period closed with Alexander the Great, who transformed the Mediterranean world politically and ushered in a new artistic age as well.

HELLENISTIC ART, ca. 323– 30 BCE 

• The Hellenistic age extends from the death of Alexander until the death of Cleopatra, when Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. The great cultural centers of the era were no longer the city-states of Archaic and Classical Greece but royal capitals such as Alexandria in Egypt and Pergamon in Asia Minor.
• In art, both architects and sculptors broke most of the rules of Classical design. At Didyma, for example, a temple to Apollo was erected that had no roof and contained a smaller temple within it.
• Hellenistic sculptors explored new subjects— Gauls with strange mustaches and necklaces, impoverished old women— and treated traditional subjects in new ways— athletes with battered bodies and faces, openly erotic goddesses. Artists delighted in depicting violent movement and unbridled emotion.

Zeus (Jupiter) King of the gods, Zeus ruled the sky and allotted the sea to his brother Poseidon and the Underworld to his other brother Hades. His weapon was the thunderbolt, and with it he led the other gods to victory over the giants, who had challenged the Olympians for control of the world. Jupiter was also the chief god of the Romans.

Hera (Juno) Wife and sister of Zeus, Hera was the goddess of marriage.

Poseidon (Neptune) Poseidon was one of the three sons of Kronos and Rhea and was lord of the sea. He controlled waves, storms, and earthquakes with his three- pronged pitchfork (trident).

Hestia (Vesta) Sister of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hera, Hestia was goddess of the hearth.

Demeter (Ceres) Third sister of Zeus, Demeter was the goddess of grain and agriculture. She taught humans how to sow and plow.

Ares (Mars) God of war, Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera and the lover of Aphrodite. Mars, father of the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, looms much larger in Roman mythology and religion than Ares does in Greek.

Athena (Minerva) Goddess of wisdom and warfare, Athena was a virgin (parthenos in Greek), born not from a woman’s womb but from the head of her father, Zeus. She competed with Poseidon for the honor of becoming the patron deity of Athens. She won the contest and the city bears her name.

Hephaistos (Vulcan) God of fire and of metalworking, Hephaistos fashioned the armor Achilles wore in battle against Troy. He also provided Zeus his scepter and Poseidon his trident, and was the “ surgeon” who split open Zeus’s head when Athena was born. In some accounts, Hephaistos is the son of Hera without a male partner. In others, he is the son of Hera and Zeus. He was born lame and, uncharacteristically for a god, ugly. His wife Aphrodite was unfaithful to him.

Apollo (Apollo) God of light and music, and a great archer, Apollo was the son of Zeus with Leto/ Latona, daughter of one of the Titans. His epithet Phoibos means “ radiant,” and the young, beautiful Apollo was sometimes identified with the sun (Helios/ Sol).

Artemis (Diana) Sister of Apollo, Artemis was goddess of the hunt and of wild animals. As Apollo’s twin, she was occasionally regarded as the moon (Selene/ Luna).

Aphrodite ( Venus) Daughter of Zeus and Dione (daughter of Okeanos and one of the nymphs— the goddesses of springs, caves, and woods), Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. In one version of her myth, she was born from the foam (aphros in Greek) of the sea. She was the mother of Eros by Ares and of the Trojan hero Aeneas by Anchises.

Hermes (Mercury) Son of Zeus and another nymph, Hermes was the fleet- footed messenger of the gods and possessed winged sandals. He was also the guide of travelers, including the dead journeying to the Underworld. He carried the caduceus, a magical herald’s rod, and wore a traveler’s hat, often also shown with wings.

Hades (Pluto) One of the children of Kronos who fought with his brothers against the Titans, Hades was equal in stature to the Olympians but never resided on Mount Olympus. Hades was the lord of the Underworld and god of the dead.

Dionysos (Bacchus) The son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Dionysos was the god of wine. In Roman times, an important mystery religion centered on Dionysos.

Eros (Amor or Cupid) The son of Aphrodite and Ares, Eros was the winged child- god of love. In early representations, he appears as an adolescent, but artists normally depicted him as an infant.

Asklepios (Aesculapius) The son of Apollo and a mortal woman, Asklepios was the Greek god of healing, whose serpent- entwined staff is the emblem of modern medicine.

Do you have to know every detail about all of these? No.  Would it help in understanding Greek art? Absolutely.

Intro to Time Period

• Disappearance of powerful kings
• Lost the knowledge of how to cut masonry
• Also lost the ability to construct citadels and tombs, to paint frescoes, and to sculpt in stone.
• Reading and writing were also forgotten.

Dark Age of Greece

• Population declined
• Poverty
• Almost total loss of contact with the outside world.

Eighth century BCE

• economic conditions improve
• population begins to grow again.

Time when the poleis (city state) of Classical Greece took shape;

• Greeks broke out of their isolation
• began to trade with cities in the east and the west;
• Homer’s epic poems were written down;
• Olympic Games were established.

Geometric Art (named for the abstract pattern on pots like this krater)

• During the eighth century BCE
• human figure returns to Greek art
• Vase features a mourning scene and procession in honor of the dead.

DIPYLON KRATER 

• One of the earliest examples of Greek figure painting
• huge krater (used to mix water and wine)
• marked the grave of a man buried around 740 BCE in the Dipylon cemetery of Athens.
• Over three feet tall
• Incredible technical achievement.
• Bottom of the pot is open
• Visitors to the grave could pour libations (offerings) in honor of the dead
• Could also be a drain for rainwater, or both.

Painted abstract patterns in horizontal bands.

• At the top is a meander, or key, pattern around the rim of the krater. 
• This period of Greek art is called Geometric. 
• Earliest examples of the Geometric style date to the ninth century BCE. 

The artist used the widest part of the vase for two bands of human figures and horse-drawn chariots.

• Shapes are all two-dimensional
• The painter added a penis growing out of one of the dead men’s thighs.
• The women
• tear their hair out in grief
• have breasts coming from their armpits.
• Artist wanted to show gender, not correctness

Geometric period figure works

• small scale
• figures have simple stylized shapes.
• Solid-cast bronze sculpture
• hero battling a centaur.

HERAKLES AND NESSOS 

• Two figures fighting
• The man is a hero, probably Herakles. (Roman Hercules, son of Zeus)
• Fighting a centaur, possibly Nessos
• Volunteered to carry the hero’s bride across a river and then assaulted her.

Composite monsters were popular in Near East and Egypt

• Trade may have influenced the artists work

The centaur is a Greek invention.

• The centaur is a man in front and a horse in back.

The man is larger than the horse.

• Suggests that he will win the fight.

Orientalizing Art 

• 600 BCE.
• Influenced by the people and work of art of the Near East.

MANTIKLOS APOLLO 

• Mantiklos Apollo
• Small bronze statuette dedicated to Apollo at Thebes.
• By Mantiklos.
• Long hair, long neck, pec and ab muscles, triangular torso.
• Eye sockets were inlaid with jewel.
• May have had a separate helmet

The artist was proud he could write. Wrote to the god on the statue’s legs:

“Mantiklos dedicated me as a tithe to the far-shooting Lord of the Silver Bow; you, Phoibos [Apollo], might give some pleasing favor in return.”

Corinthians invented the black figure technique of vase painting.

• Black silhouettes.
• Carved details within the forms.
• Shows Orientalizing animals.

ORIENTALIZING AMPHORA

• Corinthian amphora.
• Two handled storage jar.
• Typifies Greek fascination with the Orient.
• Lions and panthers.
• Composite creatures inspired by animals such as the sphinx and lamassu.
• Here we see a siren (part bird, part woman) on the amphora’s neck.

Corinthians invented a new ceramic technique.

• First put down black silhouettes on the pot.
• Used a sharp tool to cut line details.
• Painted highlights in white or purplish-red over the black figures before firing.

Archaic and Classical periods

• Potters and painters usually signed their work.
• The artists were proud of their work
• Their names became like brands.
• Corinth and Athens work were the most popular

Etruscans 

• From central Italy
• bought many of these vases.
• Found in Etruscan tombs.
• Have been found in France, Russia, and the Sudan.

Ceramics Prcoess

The first step in manufacturing a Greek vase was to remove any impurities found in the clay and then to knead it, like dough, to remove air bubbles and make it flexible.

The Greeks used dozens of different kinds and shapes of pots, and most were produced in several parts.

Potters formed the vessel’s body by placing the clay on a rotating wheel.

While an apprentice turned the wheel by hand, the potter pulled up the clay with the fingers until the desired shape was achieved.

The handles were shaped separately and attached to the vase body by applying slip (liquefied clay) to the joints.

Then a painter was called in, although many potters decorated their own work.

(Today most people tend to regard painters as more elevated artists than potters, but in Greece the potters owned the shops and employed the painters.)

In the three-phase firing process Greek potters used –

• *the first (oxidizing) phase turned both pot and slip red.
• *the second (reducing) phase, the potter shut off the oxygen supply into the kiln, and both pot and slip turned black.
• *the final (reoxidizing) phase, the pot’s coarser material reabsorbed oxygen and became red again, whereas the smoother, silica- laden slip did not and remained black.

After long experiments, Greek potters developed a velvety jet-black “glaze” of this kind, produced in kilns heated to temperatures as high as 1742° Fahrenheit.

The firing process was the same whether the painter worked in black-figure or in red-figure.

TEMPLE A, PRINIAS 

• Greek trading colony of Naukratis in Egypt.
• 630 BCE.
• Used Egyptian stone architecture in Greece

On Crete.

• Greeks built a stone temple, called Temple A.
• 625 BCE
• Honor to an unknown god.
• Form resembles Mycenaean megaron (central hall).
• Two interior columns flanking a fireplace or sacrificial pit.
• Porch consisted of three columns.
• Roof was probably flat.

Earliest known example of a Greek temple with sculpture as decoration.

• Placed above the doorway.
• Huge limestone lintel
• Relief frieze of Orientalizing panthers with frontal heads.

The Lady of Auxerre

• Masterpiece of Daedalic.
• Daedalus style was named after an artist, name means “the skillful one.”
• Triangular face and hair.
• Geometric abstract pattern.

From Crete

• Kore (young woman).
• Limestone statue of a goddess or maiden.
• Named after the French town that is her oldest recorded location.
• Unknown whether the young woman is a mortal or a deity.
• Clothed, like all Greek goddesses of this period.
• No headdress, as a goddess would wear.
• Placement of the right hand across the chest is a gesture of prayer.
• Indicating that this is a kore (young woman).

More naturalistic than in Geometric times, but abstract shapes can still be seen.

• Triangular flat topped head.
• Hair that form triangles.
• Triangular shaped face.
• Skirt is incised with concentric squares.
• Once brightly painted, as were all Greek stone statues.

Notion that Greco Roman statues were pure white is mistaken.

• Flesh was left in the natural color of the stone.
• Was waxed and polished.
• Eyes, lips, hair, and drapery were painted.

The painter mixed the pigment with hot wax and applied the tinted wax to the statue.

ARCHAIC PERIOD 

Daedalus was also said to have built the labyrinth in Crete to house the Minotaur.

• Also designed a temple at Memphis in Egypt.
• Everything was attributed to him before other artist’s names were recorded.

NEW YORK KOUROS 

• Marble kouros (“youth”; plural, kouroi) now in New York.
• Resembles the stance of the Egyptians.
• Figure is rigid.
• Left foot forward slightly.
• Arms are held beside the body.
• Fists are clenched with the thumbs forward.
• A funeral statue.
• Stood over a grave near Athens.
• Replaced the vases of Geometric times as the grave marker.
• Also used kouroi as votive offerings in sanctuaries.

Differed from the Egyptian’s sculptures in two important ways.

First.

• Greeks wanted to represent motion in their figures.

Second.

• Kouroi are nude.

Indistinguishable from Greek deities with perfect bodies

• Shares traits with the Mantiklos Apollo and Orientalizing works.
• Triangular shape of head.
• Hair has pattern
• Flat of the face

The New York kouros

• Slim waist
• Pattern of earlier Greek statues
• Pointed arch of the rib cage
• V- shaped ridge of the hips.
• Not accurate, more stylized

Bearded man bringing a calf to sacrifice to Athena

One of the first to use the “Archaic smile”.

Way of indicating a person is alive.

CALF BEARER

• Moschophoros – calf bearer.
• Found in fragments on the Athenian Acropolis.
• Inscribed onto the base, Rhonbos dedicated the statue.
• Rhonbos used himself as the model.
• Bringing an offering for prosperity.
• Left-foot-forward, typical of the kouroi.
• Has a beard.
• Wears a thin cloak (once painted to set it off from the nude body).
• No one dressed this way in ancient Athens.

Different from Egyptian statues

• The man smiles — at least seems to.
• Archaic Greek statues always smile, even when its inappropriate.

ANAVYSOS KOUROS

• Around 530 BCE.
• Man named Kroisos died in battle.
• His family put a kouros statue over his grave at Anavysos, near Athens.
• More natural face, torso, and limbs.
• Some of the paint is preserved.
• Rounded hips replace the V- shaped ridges of the New York kouros.

Written on the base it says “stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos, whom raging Ares destroyed one day as he fought in the foremost ranks.”

Women are always clothed in Archaic statues.

• Votive statue of a goddess.
• Once held what identified her in her missing left hand.

PEPLOS KORE

• People thought this woman was wearing a peplos
• A peplos is a simple, long, woolen belted garment.
• Actually wearing four different pieces of clothing.
• One of these a goddess would have wore.
• Soft female form sculpted more naturally.
• Buried for more than two thousand years.
• Once stood as votive offerings in Athena’s sanctuary.

These statues were knocked over by the Persians during the attack of the Acropolis in 480 BCE.

• Athenians buried all the damaged Archaic sculptures.

KORE IN IONIAN DRESS 

• Sixth century BCE.
• Light linen Ionian chiton (a long tunic worn in ancient Greece).
• Worn in with a heavier himation (outer garment).
• What fashionable women wore
• Intricate patterns created by the folds of thin, soft material.
• Much more life like.
• The woman holds part of her chiton in her left hand (broken off) to lift it off the ground.

Peripteral – single row of columns on all sidesBasic form of Greek temple

• comes from a megaron (central hall) of a Mycenaean palace.
• Had statues of deities.
• Most were surrounded by columns.
• Core of a Greek temple was the naos, or cella.
• Room with no windows.
• Usually housed a statue of the deity. 
• Apronaos, or porch, was in front of the cella.
• Two columns between the antae, or extended walls.
• Smaller second room may be placed behind the cella.
• Porch at the rear set against the blank back wall of the cella.
• Was only decorative.

Architecture and Architectural Sculpture 

• Earliest Greek temples did not survive
• were built of wood and mud brick.
• Archaic and later Greek temples were constructed of limestone and marble.
• Lasted longer but also more expensive. 
• Marble was easily available.

Greek temples were different from shrines that came later

• Altar was outside the temple.
• Faced (east) the rising sun.
• Greeks gathered outside, not inside, the building to worship.
• The temple held the statue of the deity.
• These temples were very grand

TEMPLE PLANS 

• Used proportional order.
• Were long and narrow.
• Proportion of the ends to the sides roughly 1:3.

Sixth century BCE on, had a proportion of almost 1:2.

TEMPLE ORNAMENTATION 

Building.

• Carved capitals and moldings.
• Thought of as sculpture.
• (acropolis means “ high city”).

Sculptural decorations.

• Mostly on the upper part of the building.
• Sculpture was painted.

Doric order 

• always painted.
• Decorative sculpture appears only in the metope and pediment “areas.”
• Created on mainland Greece
• Were the preferred manner there and in the western colonies of the Greeks.

Ionic order

• decorated the entire frieze and even the lower column areas.
• Sometimes replaced their columns with female figures.
• Parts of the building were painted
• A background for figures.
• Greek decoration was simpler than Egypt’s.
• Order of choice in the Aegean Islands and on the western coast of Asia Minor.

Major parts are the:

• Platform.
• Colonnade.
• Superstructure (entablature).

Both orders:

• Columns rest on the stylobate, the uppermost part of the platform.

Doric and Ionic Orders

• Major differences between the Doric and Ionic orders.
• Form of the capitals.
• Treatment of the frieze.

The Doric frieze is divided into triglyphs and metopes while the Ionic is mostly flat and simple.

Early Doric temple are made of:

• Heavy, closely spaced, columns.
• pancake like capitals.

BASILICA, PAESTUM 

• Good example of early Greek Doric temple design.
• Not in Greece
• in Italy, south of Naples, at Paestum.

Huge (80 x 170 feet) Archaic temple.

• Built around 550 BCE.
• Contains all of its columns.
• Most of the entablature, including the frieze, pediment, and all of the roof, has vanished.

Temple of Hera.

• There are two Temple of Hera I, this one
• its later neighbor, the Temple of Hera II.

Unusual feature.

• Central row of columns that divides the cella into two aisles.
• Found only in early Archaic temples.

Heavy, closely spaced columns with large, flat capitals.

• Looks like they were flattenedCompressed by the weight of the entablature.
• Columns look swollen (entasis) at the middle of the shafts.
• Archaic builders were afraid the building would collapse with thinner, more spaced out columns.

Placed columns underneath the center beam to support the roof.

• Several disadvantages.
• No place for a statue of the deity.
• Required an odd number of columns (nine) across the building’s front.
• Used three columns instead of two in the central doorway
• No way statue to view a deity from outside
• 1:2 ratio by using 18 columns on each side.

Later Doric temples.

• Builders placed the columns farther apart and refined the forms.
• Shafts became more slender.
• Capitals smaller.
• Entablature lighter.
• Sought the ideal proportions among the parts of their buildings.

TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS, CORFU 

• Corfu island off the western coast of Greece.
• Important stop on the trade route between the Greece and Greek settlements in Italy.
• Architects and sculptors worked together.
• Greeks constructed a great Doric temple dedicated to Artemis in the sixth century BCE.

Medusa and two panthers (temple guardians).

• Center of the pediment.
• Temple guardians.
• On either side:
• Scenes from the Trojan War and the battle of gods and giants.

Reliefs

• Decorated the metopes.
• High-relief sculptures filled both pediments.
• More than nine feet high at the center.
• Central figures had to be of great size.
• As the pediment got smaller toward the corners, the space became more cramped.

Center of the Corfu pediment is the Medusa.

• Demon with a woman’s body, bird’s wings.
• Hideous face and snake hair
• anyone who looked at her turned to stone.
• Arm position make her look like she was flying.

Between Medusa and the two cats are two smaller figures

• The human Chrysaor (RIGHT)
• winged horse Pegasus (LEFT).
• Chrysaor and Pegasus were Medusa’s children.
• According to legend, they came from her head when the Greek hero Perseus cut it off.
• They could not have been there with the living Medusa.
• The artist was more interested in illustrating the figures than in telling a story.

Viewer’s right is Zeus.

• Holding his thunderbolt and killing a kneeling giant.
• In the far corner (not preserved) was probably a dead giant.

Gigantomachy (battle of gods and giants).

• Popular theme in Greek art.
• Metaphor for reason and order winning over chaos.

SIPHNIAN TREASURY, DELPHI 

• Sixth century BCE .
• Built ornate Ionic temples on the Aegean Islands and the west coast of Asia Minor.
• Erected by the city of Siphnos in the Sanctuary of Apollo.
• Small buildings set up for the storage of votive offerings.
• Treasury of the Siphnians (built at Delphi).
• Caryatids (stone carving of a draped female figure) were used on the porch
• Caryatids are rare.
• Sculptures in the pediment and frieze.

At Delphi

• many poleis (city states) expressed their pride by building treasuries.
• poleis is where we get the word politics from
• Had gold and silver mines nearby.

Aerial view of the sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, Greece, with the temple of Apollo

The Siphnian frieze.

• Had painted labels identifying the different gods and giants.
• Some of the figures held metal weapons.
• Were brightly painted.
• Frieze on all four sides of the building.
• The north frieze represents the popular theme of the gigantomachy.
• Apollo and Artemis pursue a fleeing giant at the right.
• Behind them one of the lions pulls a goddess’s chariot
• Lion attacks a giant and bites his stomach

FRANÇOIS VASE

• Krater
• Found in an Etruscan tomb.
• Signed by painter (“Kleitias painted me”) and potter (“Ergotimos made me”).
• Has more than 200 mythological figures presented in registers.
• Combination of Geometric and Orientalizing ideas.
• Example of early black-figure painting.
• The vase is a new kind of krater (mix wine and water).
• Volute-shaped handles (spiral scroll shaped).

Named for the excavator who uncovered it in an Etruscan tomb at Chiusi.

Labels (this is actually pretty cool; take a close look at the right side of the image above)

• Naming humans and animals, even some inanimate objects.
• Only one of the bands uses the Orientalizing of animals and sphinxes.

Bands are of Greek mythology.

• Focus on Peleus
• His son Achilles – was the hero of Homer’s Iliad.
• Theseus – was the King of Athens.

Shown here:

• Lapiths (a northern Greek tribe) and centaurs fight (centauromachy) after a wedding celebration
• the man-beasts, who were invited guests, got drunk and attempted to abduct the women and young boys.
• Theseus fought against the Centaurs.

The man-horse combination is top/bottom rather than front/back.

• The lower (horse) portion has four legs
• The upper part is fully human.

EXEKIAS (Athenian)

Vases were widely exported and copied.

Master of the black-figure technique.

• Dramatic tension.
• Figures’ poses adjusted to the shape of the vase.
• Engraved patterns of the cloaks.
• Greatest work is an amphora (tall jar with long neck and two handles).
• Found in an Etruscan tomb at Vulci.
• Signed it as both the painter and potter.

Did not divide the surface into horizontal bands.

• Placed large figures on a single panel.
• Left is Achilles, fully armed. He plays a dice game with his friend Ajax.

Achilles says the word tesara (four).  Ajax calls out tria (three).

• Ajax has taken off his helmet.
• Both men hold their spears, and shields.
• Each man is ready for action at a moment’s notice.
• “the calm before the storm” – suggests tension.

Backs of the warriors echo the shape of the amphora.

• Used the spears to lead the viewer’s eyes toward dice..
• Eyes stare out from the profile heads in the old style.

BILINGUAL PAINTING 

• 530 BCE.
• Andokides Painter invented the red-figure technique.
• Anonymous painter who decorated the vases signed by the potter Andokides.

Early vases are “ bilingual”.

• Same scene appears on both sides, one in black-figure and one in red-figure.
• Nicknamed bilingual vases.
• Produced for only a short period.

Black became red, and red became black.

Red Side

• Instead of using black to silhouette figures, the painter outlined the figures and colored background black.
• Used red clay for the figures.
• Interior details drawn with a brush.
• Lines are of different thicknesses
• Build up glaze to make curly hair.
• Created brown shades.

The Andokides Painter, probably the potter Andokides himself.

• Did not understand the potential of his invention.
• Created a technique that helped revolutionize the art of drawing.

EUPHRONIOS 

• Was younger and took more risk than Andokides.
• Krater (mixed wine and water) depicting the fight between Herakles and Antaios.
• The two wrestle on the ground.

Antaios

• Libyan giant (on right).
• Son of Earth.
• Derived his power from contact with the ground.
• Antaios possesses enormous strength.

Herakles

• Lefts the giant into air
• Strangled him while the giant couldn’t touch the earth.
• Herakles has the upper hand.
• The giant’s face is in pain.
• His eyes roll and his teeth are bared.
• His right arm is paralyzed.

Euphronios used diluted glaze to show changes in value.

Was interested in human anatomy, but also space

• Wanted to show that his figures in space.
• Rejected conventional poses.
• Tried to reproduce how a particular human body is seen.
• Antaios’s torso and his right thigh from the front.
• Lower leg disappears behind the giant.

At symposium (conference or meeting), a symposiarch – “lord of the common drink”, was chosen by the participants.

These symposiarchs controlled:

• Wine servants.
• Degree of wine dilution.
• How it changed during the party.
• Rate of cup refills.
• The krater was under the symposiarch’s authority.
• Had to make sure everyone had fun but did not get too intoxicated.

Drinking ákratos (undiluted) wine was considered a faux pas.

• Considered a drunkard and someone who lacked restraint and principle.
• Ratio of 1:3 (wine to water) was optimal for long conversation.
• Ratio of 1:2 when fun was to be had.
• 1:1 was only suited for orgies (yep)

EUTHYMIDES 

• Painted by Euthymides.
• Rival of Euphronios.

Wine storage jar— three drunks.

• Each body is an independent figure study.
• No frontal or profile composite views.
• Foreshortened
• Used a three-quarter view of body.

Central figure

• Twisting spinal column and butt in three-quarter view.
• Earlier artists considered these poses incomplete and did not show the “main” side of the human body.
• Euthymides took it as a challenge.

Signed “Euthymides painted me as never Euphronios [could do!]”

Right around 500 BCE

• Dynamic change in architecture and architectural sculpture.
• Some changes were evolutionary, others revolutionary.

TEMPLE OF APHAIA, AEGINA 

Sits on a ridge with views of the sea.

Colonnade

• 45 by 95 feet.
• 6 Doric columns on the facade and 12 on the side.
• Columns of the Aegina are more widely spaced and more slender.

Later Doric architects also modified the plan of their temples.

• The Aegina temple’s cella (interior) has two colonnades of two stories each (originally with a statue of the deity between them).
• Could see the deity from the outside

Would have been painted

Used a wide range of body positions from standing up to bending over to fit them on the pediment

• Life-size painted sculptures instead of reliefs.
• Depicted the battle of Greeks and Trojans
• Sculptors depicted different episodes
• Compositions were almost identical.
• Athena at the center of combat.
• Larger than all the other figures because she is superhuman.
• All the mortal heroes are the same size, regardless of position in the pediment.

Statues of the west pediment

• Early 500 BCE
• Archaic features.
• Fallen warrior has a rigid front torso
• Archaic smile on his face.
• Torso is rigidly frontal
• He looks out directly at the spectator.
• Face set in an Archaic smile in spite of the bronze arrow in his chest.
• Does not look like a person who is dying.

Pediments were probably set in place when the temple was completed around 490 BCE.

The west pediment’s dying warrior was conceived in the Archaic style.

The statues at the eastern end were damaged

• Were replaced with a new group a decade or two later.

Eastern dying warrior belongs to the Classical era.

• More natural.
• Self-consciousness.
• In pain, he does not face the viewer.
• Reacts to his wound.
• Knows that death is inevitable.
• Struggles to get up, using his shield for support.
• Does not look at viewer.
• Concerned with his pain, not with the viewer.

10 years separates the two statues, but they look very different.

The eastern warrior is not Archaic.

• More classical looking
• Statues move as humans move
• Look as though they have a consciousness

This is the Classical revolution

Classical age begins with:

• the defeat of the Persian invaders of Greece by the allied Greek city-states.

Persians sacked Athens in 480 BCE

• Greeks win a naval victory over the Persians at Salamis shortly after
• Difficult war.
• Seemed as though the Persian king Xerxes would rule over all.
• Persians destroyed the Greek city Miletos in 494 BCE.
• Killed all the males.
• Sold the women and children into slavery.
• Although Greece was made of independent city-states, they came together as Greeks to defeat Persia.  They put aside their differences and their independence to win the war.

Narrow escape created a sense of Greek identity.

• European civilization would be distinct from the civilization of Asia.

Removal of Persian threat considered the high point of Greek civilization.Era of the playwrights Sophocles and Euripides, as well as Aeschylus.

• Historian Herodotus.
• Statesman Pericles.
• Philosopher Socrates.

TEMPLE OF ZEUS, OLYMPIA 

First great monument of Classical art and architecture.

• Site of the Olympic Games.
• Begun about 470 BCE and was probably completed by 457 BCE.
• The architect was Libon of Elis.
• Today the structure is in ruins.
• Original appearance can be gathered from a later Doric temple modeled closely on the Olympian shrine of Zeus— the second Temple of Hera at Paestum.
• The Temple of Zeus was had many more decorations.

Temple of Zeus’s east pediment

• Subject matter meant something to the locals.
• Chariot race between Pelops (Peloponnesos take their name) and King Oinomaos.
• Oinomaos had one daughter, Hippodameia
• Was foretold that he would die if she married.
• Oinomaos challenged anyone to wanted to marry her to a chariot race from Olympia to Corinth.
• If the suitor won, he could marry the king’s daughter.
• If he lost, he was killed.

Oinomaos had the divine horses of his father Ares.

• Because of this, no one could beat him

Pelops bribed the king’s aid, Myrtilos, to rig the royal chariot so that it would fall apart during the race.

Oinomaos was killed and Pelops won his bride.

• But instead of paying Myrtilos, he drowned him
• Before he died, Myrtilos brought a curse on Pelops and his descendants.
• Curse led to murder of Pelops’s son, Atreus, and to becomes material for other Greek tragedies.

Zeus in the center

• Oinomaos and his wife on one side
• Pelops and Hippodameia on the other
• Chariots to each side.
•   All are quiet.
• The events have not yet happened.

Only one man reacts— a seer who knows the future.

Rare depiction of old age in Classical sculpture.

• Shocked expression
• He foresees the outcome of the race.
• Was a seer (prophet. oracle)
• Balding, wrinkled head and sagging muscles.
• True emotion.

West pediment depicted the Centauromachy.

• The fight at the wedding of Peirithoos between the Lapiths and the centaurs.
• A Centaur is half man, half horse and was a Greek invention.
• Centaurs had violated xenia, the sacred rules of hospitality.
• Apollo stands in the center
• Peirithoos and Theseus on either side

Peirithoos, king of the Lapiths has invited the centaurs to a wedding celebration.

• Centaurs get drunk and kidnap the women.
• Perithoos ends up defeating them.

Herakles founded the Olympic Games.

• His 12 labors were the subjects of the 12 Doric metopes (marble panels) of the Zeus temple.
• This one shows the Herakles holding up the world (with Athena’s aid) for Atlas.

Herakles, Greatest of Greek Heroes (the Roman Hercules)

• Born in Thebes
• Son of Zeus and Alkmene, a mortal woman.
• Greek heroes were between ordinary humans and the immortal gods.
• The children of the gods were usually great warriors.
• Generally tried to do good for humans.
• Zeus’s jealous wife Hera hated Herakles
• Sent two serpents to attack him in his cradle, but he strangled them.
• Later, Hera caused Herakles to go mad and kill his wife and children.

As punishment he was condemned to perform 12 great labors (killing various monsters)

• In the first, he defeated the legendary lion of Nemea and wore its pelt.
• The lion’s skin and his weapon, a club, are Herakles’ distinctive attributes.

His last task was to obtain the golden apples Gaia gave to Hera at her marriage.

• They grew from a tree in the garden of the Hesperides at the edge of the ocean, where a dragon guarded them.

After completing the 12 tasks, Herakles was awarded immortality.

Athena

• had watched over him
• assisted him in performing the labors
• introduced him to the gods on Mount Olympus.

According to legend, it was Herakles who established the Olympic Games.

• Many heroes were worshiped after death.
• Greatest of them were honored with shrines
• Usually in the cities they were associated with

KRITIOS BOY 

• Although it is not life-size, the marble statue known as the Kritios Boy.
• Was once thought the sculptor Kritios carved it.
• First time a sculptor tried to depict how a human being (as opposed to a stone image) actually stands.
• The sculptor shows the shifting of weight from one leg to the other (contrapposto).
• This is the first time we see this idea of contrapposto, which is a slight shift in the shoulders and hips to make the figure appear like they are moving.
• People do not stand in the stiff-legged pose of the kouroi and korai or the Egyptian sculptures.
• Humans shift their weight.
• The sculptor of the Kritios Boy was among the first understand this.
• The head turns slightly
• Archaic smile is gone.

RIACE WARRIOR

• The bronze statue has inlaid eyes, silver teeth and eye-lashes, copper lips and nipples.
• The contrapposto is more pronounced than in the Kritios Boy
• Found in the sea near Riace at the “toe” of the Italian “boot.”

It is one of a pair of statues divers accidentally found in the cargo of a ship that sank on its way from Greece to Rome.

• Had to undergo several years of cleaning and restoration
• Spent nearly two thousands years in salt water.

Missing are its shield, spear, and helmet.

• Masterpiece of hollow-casting
• The warrior’s head turns more to the right, his shoulders tilt, his hips swing
• His arms have been freed from the body, giving the illusion of movement.
• In previous works, the arms had to be close to the body so that they would not break off.

CHARIOTEER OF DELPHI

• Commemorates the victory of the tyrant Polyzalos of Gela (Sicily) in a chariot race at Delphi.
• The statue is almost all that remains of a large group made of Polyzalos’s driver, the chariot, the team of horses, and a young groom.

Stands in an almost Archaic pose

• Turn of the head and feet in opposite directions
• Slight twist at the waist are what makes it the Classical Style.

Shown not during the race but after,

• The driver holds his horses still in the winner’s circle.
• Holds the reins in his outstretched right hand (the lower left arm, cast separately, is missing)
• Wears the charioteer’s clothing
• Was meant to keep it from flapping in the wind.
• A band inlaid with silver, tied around the head, holds the hair.
• Delicate bronze lashes
• Eyes made of glass paste.

Lost Wax method of bronze casting.Drawing “a” shows a clay mold ( investment), wax model, and clay core connected by chaplets.Drawing “b” shows the wax melted out and the molten bronze poured into the mold to form the cast bronze head.

Hollow-Casting Life-Size Bronze Statues

First, the sculptor fashioned a full size clay model of the intended statue.

Then a clay master mold was made around the model and removed in sections.

When dry, the various pieces of the master mold were reassembled for each separate body part.

Next, a layer of beeswax was applied to the inside of each mold.

When the wax cooled, the mold was removed, and the sculptor was left with a hollow wax model in the shape of the original clay model.

The artist could then correct or refine details— for example, engrave fingernails on the wax hands or individual locks of hair on the head.

In the next stage, a final clay mold (investment) was applied to the exterior of the wax model, and a liquid clay core was poured in-side the hollow wax.

Metal pins (chaplets) were driven through the new mold to connect the investment with the clay core.

Then the wax was melted out (“lost”) and molten bronze poured into the mold in its place.

When the bronze hardened and assumed the shape of the wax model, the investment and as much of the core as possible were removed, and the casting process was complete.

Finally, the individually cast pieces were fitted together and soldered, surface imperfections smoothed, eyes inlaid, teeth and eye-lashes added, attributes such as spears and wreaths provided, and so forth.

Bronze statues were costly to make and highly prized.

Understand the concepts of

• contrapposto
• Polykleitos’ canon
• Expression of the Greek ideal human form in the work of Classical sculptors.

Examine the art materials, techniques, and individual artists that made the sculptural forms possible.

ARTEMISION ZEUS

• Early Classical statue of Zeus throwing a thunderbolt
• Could possibly be Poseidon with his trident.
• Both arms are extended
• Right heel is raised off the ground
• Could only be done with hollow bronze statues

The male human form in motion is the subject of Early Classical bronze statue.

This piece was found off the coast of Greece.

MYRON, DISKOBOLOS

• Man in the act of discus throwing.
• Marble copy of Myron’s lost bronze statue
• The original is lost.
• Only marble copies survive, which were made by Romans
• Demand exceeded supply, so Roman artists copied Greek works
• The copies usually were made in less costly marble.

In most cases, a tree trunk was added to support the weight of the stone statue

• Also added struts between the arms and body to strengthen weak points.
• The copies are usually no where near the originals in terms of quality
• Roman sculptors sometimes took liberties with their models.
• Sometimes a mirror image of the the original was created for a client.

POLYKLEITOS, DORYPHOROS Polykleitos

• Sought to portray the perfect man
• Wanted to give order to human movement.

Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) by the sculptor Polykleitos

• One of the most frequently copied Greek statues
• The best marble replica stood in a palaestra (wrestling school) at Pompeii, where it served as a model for Roman athletes.
• Ideal statue of a nude male athlete or warrior.
• Sculptor made it as a demonstration piece to go with a treaty on proportion.

Pythagoras of Samos

• Lived during the latter part of the sixth century BCE.
• One of the most influential philosophers of the ancient world
• Pythagorean theorem

He and his followers, the Pythagoreans

• believed that harmonic proportions could be found in all of nature
• determined the form of the cosmos as well as of things on earth
• beauty exists in harmonious numerical ratios. 

A perfect statue could be created using math

• In the mid-fifth century BCE
• Sculptor Polykleitos of Argos tried to create that statue.

Recorded the principles he followed and the proportions he used in a document titled the Canon (the standard of perfection).

[Beauty arises from] the symmetrically of the parts, such as that of a finger to a finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and the wrist, and of these to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and, in fact, of everything to everything else, just as it is written in the Canon of Polykleitos. . . . Polykleitos supported his treatise by making a statue according to the tenets of his treatise, and called the statue, like the work, the Canon.”

We still use this idea called the Canon of Proportions today.

Pliny the Elder

• Said that Polykleitos “alone of men is deemed to have rendered art itself [ that is, the theoretical basis of art] in a work of art.”

Polykleitos made two statues at the same time, one which would be pleasing to the crowd and the other according to the principles of his art. In accordance with the opinion of each person who came into his workshop, he altered something and changed its form, submitting to the advice of each. Then he put both statues on display. The one was marvelled at by everyone, and the other was laughed at. Thereupon Polykleitos said, “But the one that you find fault with, you made yourselves; while the one that you marvel at, I made.” 

PORTRAIT OF PERICLES

• Kresilas was said to have made a noble man appear even nobler.
• Classical Greek portraits were idealized images
• Made humans appear godlike.

Was born on Crete but worked in Athens.

• A copy
• The bronze portrait was set up on the Acropolis, probably immediately after the leader’s death in 429 BCE, and depicted Pericles nude.
• Herm (a bust on a square pillar)
• Popular format in Roman times.
• The herm is inscribed “Pericles, son of Xanthippos, the Athenian,”.
• Pericles wears the helmet of a strategos (general), the position he was elected to 15 times.
• The Athenian leader was said to have had a huge head
• Kresilas recorded this feature (but also hides it)
• We can see through the helmet’s eye slots to see the top of his head

The Athenian Acropolis Athenians

• under the leadership of Pericles
• worked on one of the most ambitious building projects ever
• reconstruction of the Acropolis
• Sacked by the Persians in 480 BCE.
• Athens emerged from the war with enormous power and prestige.
• Themistocles had defeated the Persian navy off the island of Salamis
• Forced it to retreat to Asia.

In 478 BCE the Greeks formed an alliance for mutual protection. 

• The new alliance came to be known as the Delian League
• Its headquarters were on the sacred island of Delos
• Between Greece and the coast of Asia.

At the start

• each league member had an equal vote
• Athens was “first among equals,”
• provided the allied fleet commander
• determined which cities were to supply ships
• which were to pay an annual tribute to the treasury at Delos.

Continued fighting against the Persians

• kept the alliance strong
• Athens gradually assumed a more dominant role.

454 BCE

• Delian treasury was moved to Athens
• Security reasons.
• Perocles became the leader of the Athenians.
• Converted the alliance into an Athenian empire.
• Tribute continued to be paid.
• Extra money was not spent for the good of the people.
• Pericles used the money to build and decorate the Acropolis of Athens.

Pericles’ enemies said

Greece had been dealt “a terrible, insult” when Athens used the funds to “gild and embellish itself with images and extravagant temples, like some pretentious woman decked out with precious stones.”

The temples are the by-products of tyranny and the abuse of power.

PERICLEAN ACROPOLIS 

The first building to be constructed was the Parthenon, then the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike.

The centerpiece on the Acropolis was the Parthenon, or the Temple of Athena Parthenos.

• Built between 447 and 438 BCE.
• When the Parthenon was completed
• immediately started on a gateway to the Acropolis, the Propylaia.
• Started in 437 BCE.
• Left unfinished in 431 because of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta.

Two later temples

• Erechtheion
• Temple of Athena Nike
• built after Pericles died
• were probably part of the original design.

PARTHENON: ARCHITECTURE 

The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates.

The architects of the Parthenon believed that perfect beauty could be achieved by using harmonic proportions.

• The ratio for larger and smaller parts was x = 2y+1 (for example, a plan of 17 to 8 columns).

Statue of Athena in the cella

• was the work of Phidias
• saw over of the temple’s sculptural decoration.

Doryphoros searched for the ideal proportions of the various human body parts.

• Although they wanted precision, this temple, is not perfect.
• The stylobate (base) curves upward at the center on the sides and both ends.
• Forms a dome.
• Curvature is carried up into the entablature.

The Parthenon was incredibly decorated under the direction of Phidias.

• Statues filled both pediments
• Reliefs in all 92 metopes.
• Inside there was a 524-foot sculpted Ionic frieze.
• Combination of Doric and Ionic architecture.

ATHENA PARTHENOS 

• Located inside the cella of the Parthenon
• Designed by Phidias
• 38 foot tall gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos (the Virgin).
• Was fully armed with shield, spear, and helmet
• Held Nike (the winged female persona of Victory) in her right hand.
• Nike referred to the victory of 479 BCE.
• Athena Parthenos illustrated the Persian defeat multiple times
• Her shield was covered with high reliefs depicting the battle of Greeks and Amazons (Amazonomachy).
• Phidias painted a gigantomachy on the shield’s interior.
• Each was a metaphor for order over chaos, civilization over barbarism, Athens over Persia.

PARTHENON: METOPES 

• Best-preserved metopes are on the south side.
• Depicted the battle of Lapiths and centaurs

Centauromachy

• Battle between the Centaurs and Lapiths of the Peneus Valley, in Thessaly
• Allude to the Greek defeat of the Persians.
• This metope shows the living centaur trampling a dead Greek.
• The relief is so high that parts are fully in the round.
• Some parts have broken off.

In other metopes the Greeks are winning

• The full set suggests that the battle was difficult
• Fighting against a dangerous enemy.
• The same was true when the Greeks fought the Persians.

PARTHENON: PEDIMENTS 

The subjects of the two pediments celebrated Athena— and the Athenians.

• The east pediment depicted the birth of Athena.
• The west illustrated the contest between Athena and Poseidon to determine which one would become the city’s patron deity.
• Athena won, giving her name to the city and the people who lived there.

The center of the east pediment was damaged when it was converted into a church.

At the far left are the head and arms of Helios (the Sun)

• His chariot horses seem to come out of the floor.
• Next to them is a male figure usually identified as Dionysos or Herakles
• Entered the realm of the gods on completion of his 12 labors.

At the right are three goddesses

• probably Hestia, Dione, and Aphrodite
• either Selene (the Moon) or Nyx (Night) and more horses, sinking below the floor.
• No more shrinking figures when we get to the corners of the pediment
• Figures recline or bend over.
• Unbelievable clothing

PARTHENON: IONIC FRIEZE 

Temple celebrated the Athenians and Athena.

On the frieze

• Illustrates the procession of citizens on horseback and on foot
• Took place every four years.
• Procession began at the Dipylon Gate
• Passed through the agora (central square)
• Ended on the Acropolis
• Athenians placed a new peplos (outer robe) on an ancient wooden statue of Athena.
• That statue was housed in the temple the Persians sacked in 480 BCE.

On the Parthenon frieze

• Procession begins on the west, at the back of the temple.
• The upper part of the frieze is in higher relief than the lower part
• The more distant and more shaded upper zone is easier to see from the ground.

PROPYLAIA Designed by Mnesikles

• Hid the change in ground level by splitting it into eastern and western sections.
• Each facade resembles a Doric temple
• Wider space between the central columns.
• Was the path the chariots and animals of the Festival took

On the inside there were tall, skinny Ionic columns

• supported the split-level roof.
• Architect mixed the two orders.

Only the northwest wing was completed.

• That wing is important in the history of art. 
• In Roman times it housed a pinakotheke (picture gallery). 
• Displayed paintings on wooden panels by some of the major artists of the fifth century BCE. 
• Not sure if that is what the wing was originally intended for
• If it was, it is the first art museu

ERECHTHEION 

Opposite of the Doric Parthenon across from it.

• An Ionic temple
• Has some incredible decorative details.
• 421 BCE work finally began on the temple
• Was built to replace the Athena temple the Persians had destroyed.

Built to the north of the old temple’s remains

• Was to be a multiple shrine.
• Honored Athena
• Held the ancient wooden image of Athena
• Was the destination of the Panathenaic Festival procession.
• Also incorporated shrines to other gods.

Erechtheus

• early king of Athens
• Supposedly the wooden idol of Athena fell from the heavens
• Kekrops, another king of Athens, served as judge over the contest between Athena and Poseidon.
• The site chosen for the new temple was the spot where that contest occurred.
• Poseidon had staked his claim to Athens by striking the Acropolis rock with his trident and producing a salt-water spring.
• The imprint of his trident remained for Athenians to see.
• Nearby, Athena had miraculously caused an olive tree to grow.
• This tree stood as a reminder of her victory over Poseidon

Asymmetrical form is unique for a Greek temple.

• Needed to incorporate preexisting shrines, the trident mark, and the olive tree into the plan

The asymmetrical plan of the Ionic Erechtheion is unique for a Greek temple.

• Ground was uneven
• The area could not be made level because it would disturb ancient sacred sites. 
• Has four sides of that are each very different
• Each side rests on a different ground level. 

The south porch features caryatids.

• The architect took a lot of time with decorative details.
• The role of the caryatids was to support the unusual flat roof.

The frieze was given special treatment.

• The stone used was a dark-blue limestone which contrasted with the white marble of the walls and columns.

TEMPLE OF ATHENA NIKE

• The Ionic temple at the entrance to the Acropolis is unusual.
• The temple is amphiprostyle (porch on front and back)
• Celebrated Athena as bringer of victory
• One of the friezes depicts the Persian defeat.

Designed by Kallikrates

The image of winged Victory was repeated dozens of times around the Athena temple.

Clothing appears almost transparent.

Classical Vases and Painting White-ground painters

• Used a white clay slip used to provide a background for the figures
• applied the colors after firing
• most colored glazes could not stand up to the kiln’s heat

Some of the most renowned artists were the painters of large wooden panels displayed in public buildings

• These buildings were both secular and religious.
• Because they were wood, all of the panels have been lost.

Can get some idea of the colorful paintings by looking at their vases

ACHILLES PAINTER

One of the masters of white-ground painting

• decorated the lekythos (held perfumed oil).
• Very fragile
• Were usually placed in Greek graves as offerings to the dead.

Red scarf, mirror, and jug hanging on the wall behind the woman

• inside of their home.
• Husband is preparing to go to war with helmet, shield, and spear
• May never come back
• On his shield is a large painted eye, roughly life-size.
• Made to scare the enemy
• The eye was probably a way for the Achilles Painter to show off his drawing skills.

NIOBID PAINTER

Polygnotos’s was considered the best painter of the time

• Shows the massacre of Niobe’s children.
• Niobe, had at least a dozen children
• Bragged that she was superior to the goddess Leto, who had only two children, Apollo and Artemis.
• Leto sent her two children to slay all of Niobe’s sons and daughters
• Did this to punish Niobe’s arrogance and teach her a lesson that no mortal could be superior to a god or goddess,.

On the Niobid Painter’s krater, the slaughter occurs in a landscape setting of rocks and trees.

• The figures are killed off on several levels.

TOMB OF THE DIVER, PAESTUM

Rare example of mural painting.

• Most likely symbolizes the deceased’s dive into the Underworld.
• The trees looks like those on the Niobid krater.

The four walls of this small, tomb, small as a coffin

Decorated with different scenes.

LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD

Peloponnesian War

• began in 431 BCE, ended in 404 BCE
• Complete defeat of Athens. (weakened by a plague)
• Sparta, and then Thebes became the leaders of Greece, but weren’t successful.

Around 450 BCE

• Greek states came together for defense
• Same as they had done against the Persians.

In 338 BCE

• the Greeks suffered a huge loss
• had to give up their independence to king, Philip II.
• Philip was assassinated in 336
• His son, Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great, came after him.

Alexander led a powerful army that overthrew the Persian Empire

• Took control of Egypt
• Reached as far as India.

The fourth century BCE was a time of change for Greece

• The chaos had a profound impact on the Greeks and the art they made.

In the fifth century BCE

• Greeks believed that rational human beings could impose order on their environment
• Could create “perfect” statues such as the Canon of Polykleitos
• Could discover the “correct” mathematical formulas for constructing temples such as the Parthenon.

The Peloponnesian War and the living conditions of the fourth century BCE ended their ideal life.

• Became disillusioned
• Felt left out.

Sculpture PRAXITELESFirst nude statue of a goddess

• caused a sensation
• Praxiteles was famous for his ability to make marble look like fles

Greek thought and Greek art began to focus more on the individual and on the real world instead of the community and the ideal world.

New approach to art and life is seen in the work of Praxiteles.

• Gods and goddesses take on human qualities and emotions.

Considered “superior to all the works, not only of Praxiteles, but indeed in the whole world.”

• Made Knidos famous
• Many people sailed there just to see the statue
• Was displayed in a round temple, where “it was possible to view the image of the goddess from every side.”
• Some visitors were “overcome with love for the statue.”

Caused such a sensation because it showed the goddess of love completely nude.

• Female nudity was rare in Greek art
• Usually only in paintings on vases designed for the home.
• Women were usually prostitutes or slave girls, not goddesses.

Praxiteles’ Aphrodite is not cold

• The goddess is about to give herself a bath.

Found in the Temple of Hera at Olympia

• Statue is of Hermes and the infant Dionysos.
• Praxiteles made the gods looks like humans
• Hermes has stopped to rest in a forest on his journey to Nysa
• Was going to give Dionysos to Papposilenos and the nymphs so that they could raise him
• He leans on a tree trunk
• Body forms an s curve
• Looks off into space
• Missing arm held a bunch of grapes
• Was tempting the baby
• Baby is to be the Greek god of the vine.

LYSIPPOS

Alexander the Great selected him to create his official portrait.

Lysippos

• Introduced a new canon of proportions
• The bodies were more slender than those of Polykleitos
• Heads were a little smaller
• Encouraged you to look at the sculptures from multiple angles.

The strigil (scraper) is about to reach the end of the right arm

• The athlete will switch it to the other hand so that he can scrape his left arm.
• Will also shift his weight and reverse the positions of his legs.

PELLA MOSAICS

• Made with pebbles of different natural colors.
• Earliest signature of a mosaicist.
• Found mostly in wealthy homes
• Stones were collected from beaches and rivers and set into thick cement.
• The artist signed his work: “Gnosis made it.”
• The owner of the house wanted people to know that Gnosis, not an imitator, created this floor.

The intense drama, three-quarter views, and shading in this representation of the lord of the Underworld kidnapping Demeter’s daughter are characteristics of mural painting at the time of Alexander

HADES AND PERSEPHONE

One of the most important finds is a painted tomb with a representation of Hades, lord of the Underworld, abducting Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of grain.

• Intense drama
• Painter used foreshortening and shading.

Hades holds the terrified seminude Persephone in his left arm

• Steers his racing chariot with his right
• Persephone’s garments and hair blow in the wind.

The artist depicted the heads of both figures and even the chariot’s wheels in three-quarter views.

The painter also used short dark brush strokes to suggest shading on the under side of Hades’ right arm, on Persephone’s torso, and elsewhere.

Philoxenos’s Battle of Issus was considered one of the greatest paintings of antiquity.

• Captured the psychological intensity of the confrontation between the two kings.

BATTLE OF ISSUS

• Large mosaic from the floor of one room of a lavish Roman house at Pompeii.
• Used tesserae (tiny stones or pieces of glass cut to the desired size and shape) instead of pebbles.

Subject is a great battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and the Persian king Darius III

• probably the battle of Issus in southeastern Turkey
• Darius fled the battlefield in his chariot in defeat.

Rearing horse seen in a three-quarter rear view below Darius.

The Persian to the right of the rearing horse has fallen to the ground and raises, backward, a dropped shield to protect himself from being trampled.

The work of art is psychologically intense

• very dramatic

Alexander is on horseback leading his army into battle

• no helmet to protect him.
• drives his spear through one of Darius’s  “Immortals”
• were sworn to guard the king’s life
• Persian’s horse collapses beneath him.

The Macedonian king is only a few yards away from Darius

• Alexander looks at the Persian king
• pays no attention to the man stuck on his spear.

Darius has called for retreat.

• His charioteer is whipping the horses
• They turn to take the king to safety.

The Greeks always situated their theaters on hillsides

• supported the  stone seats overlooking the circular orchestra.
• The Epidauros theater is the finest in Greece.
• Accommodated 12,000 spectators.

THEATER OF EPIDAUROS

In ancient Greece

• Plays were not performed repeatedly over months or years as they are today
• only during sacred festivals.
• Greek drama was closely associated with religious rites
• was not pure entertainment.

At Athens in the fifth century BCE

• great tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were performed at the Dionysos festival in the theater.

The architect was Polykleitos the Younger

• possibly a nephew of the great fifth-century sculptor.
• still used for performances of ancient Greek dramas.

Orchestra literally means “dancing place.”

• The actors and the chorus performed there.
• The spectators sat on a slope overlooking the orchestra — the theatron, or “place for seeing.”
• the auditorium (cavea, Latin for “ hollow place, cavity”) was always situated on a hillside.
• The cavea at Epidauros, composed of wedge-shaped sections (cunei, singular cuneus) of stone benches separated by stairs.
• Auditorium is 387 feet in diameter
• 55 rows of seats accommodated about 12,000 spectators.
• Entered the theater through a passageway between the seating area and the scene building (skene)
• housed dressing rooms for the actors and also formed a backdrop for the plays.

The design is simple but perfectly suited to its function.

• All the  spectators had unobstructed views of the orchestra.
• The structure also had excellent acoustics
• everyone could hear the actors and chorus.

Theodoros of Phokaia’s tholos at Delphi, although in ruins, is the best-preserved example of a round temple of the Classical period.

• Had Doric columns on the exterior and Corinthian columns inside.

CORINTHIAN CAPITALS

The theater at Epidauros is almost 500 yards southeast of the sanctuary of Asklepios.

Polykleitoes was the architect of the tholos (dome shaped tomb)

• That building lies in ruins toda
• The remaining pieces have been moved to a local museum

Hellensitic means the time period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony in 31 BCE. 

Alexander the Great’s conquered the Near East and Egypt  (where he was buried)

• ushered in a new cultural age
• This time period is called Hellenistic.

The Hellenistic period opened with the death of Alexander in 323 BCE and lasted nearly three centuries, until the double suicide of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and her Roman consort Mark Antony in 30 BCE

• They committed suicide after their  defeat at the battle of Actium by Augustus.
• Augustus made Egypt a province of the Roman Empire.
• These cultural centers were Antioch in Syria, Alexandria in Egypt, and Pergamon in Asia Minor.
• Their shared language was Greek.
• Hellenistic kings became enormously rich because of the wars in the East
• Prided themselves on their libraries, art collections, scientific experiments
• Were skilled as critics and good taste

Small city-states went away and were replaced with a cosmopolitan (“ citizen of the world,” in Greek) civilization

Architecture 

The new complex Hellenistic culture demanded a more complex architecture. Building activity shifted from the old centers on the Greek mainland to the opulent cities of the Hellenistic monarchs in the East.

The Corinthian Capital

The Corinthian capital is more ornate than either the Doric or Ionic.

• Consists of a double row of acanthus leaves
• Also has vines and flowers
• The newest of the 3 main types of capitals (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)

Architects started using the new Corinthian column instead of the older Ionic design.

The first known instance of the use of the Corinthian capital on the exterior of a building is the monument Lysikrates erected in Athens

• made to commemorate the victory his chorus won in a theatre contest. (like a giant trophy)
• Lysikrates sponsored a chorus in a theatre contest in 334 BCE
• After he won, he built a monument to commemorate his victory.
• The monument consists of a round drum resembling a tholos (building) on a rectangular base.
• Engaged Corinthian columns are on the outside of the drum (engaged means attached)
• Huge Corinthian capital sits atop the roof.

This unusual Hellenistic temple was hypaethral (open to the sky) and featured a double peripteral (a peripteral is a single row of pillars – a dipteral or double peripteral is a double row of pillars) colonnade with a smaller temple inside courtyard of the larger temple.

TEMPLE OF APOLLO, DIDYMA

The Design:

• grand scale
• theatrical element of surprise
• broke the rules of temple design

Temple of Apollo at Didyma

• most ambitious temple project of the Hellenistic period
• The Hellenistic temple was built to replace the Archaic temple at the site the Persians had burned down in 494 BCE.

Construction began in 313 BCE

• Work on the temple continued off and on for more than 500 years
• the project was never completed
• Facade of 10 huge Ionic columns almost 65 feet tall.
• The sides had 21 columns, consistent with the Classical formula for perfect proportions used for the Parthenon
• nothing else about the design is Classical.

Differences from past buildings:

• Had no pediment and no roof
• was hypaethral, or open to the sky.
• The grand doorway was elevated nearly five feet off the ground so that it could not be entered. The explanation for these peculiarities is that the doorway served rather as a kind of stage where the oracle of Apollo could be announced to those assembled in front of the temple.
• The unroofed dipteral colonnade was really only an elaborate frame for a central courtyard
• Courtyard contained a small shrine containing a statue of Apollo.
• Entrance to the interior court was through two smaller doorways to the left and right of the great portal
• From these dark hallways, worshipers emerged into the clear light of the courtyard.

Persians were  expelled from Asia Minor in 479 BCE

• Greek cities there were in near ruin.
• Reconstruction of Miletos began after 466 BCE

Hippodamos of Miletos

• Aristotle considered him the father of rational city planning
• Imposed a strict grid plan on the site, regardless of the landscape
• All streets met at right angles.
• Also designated separate quarters for public, private, and religious functions.
• Desire to impose order on nature and to assign a proper place for every facet of life.

Despite its irregular terrain, Priene had a strict grid plan conforming to the principles of Hippodamos of Miletos.

PRIENE

• Was laid out during the fourth century BCE.
• Had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants (Hippodamos thought 10,000 was the ideal number).
• Situated on sloping ground, many of its narrow north-south streets were just long stairways.
• More than one unit, or block, was reserved for major structures such as the Temple of Athena and the theater.
• The central agora (open market) was given six blocks.

The Stoa of Attalos II in the Athenian agora has been meticulously restored. Greek stoas were covered colonnades that housed shops and civic offices.

STOA OF ATTALOS, ATHENS

Priene’s agora (open space) was bordered by stoas (like a porch).

• These covered colonnades, or porticos, often housed shops and civic offices
• Stoa of Attalos II, a gift to the city by a grateful alumnus, the king of Pergamon, who had studied at Athens in his youth.
• The stoa was meticulously reconstructed under the direction of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Today its a museum.

Design:

• The stoa has two stories, each with 21 shops opening onto the colonnade.
• The facade columns are Doric on the ground level and Ionic on the second story.
• The columns are more widely spaced than in Greek temple architecture
• Allowed for easy access.

The gigantomachy frieze of Pergamon’s monumental Altar of Zeus is almost 400 feet long. The battle of gods and giants alluded to the victory of King Attalos I over the Gauls of Asia Minor.

Pergamon

Kingdom of Attalos II ( r. 159– 138 BCE)

Born in the early third century BCE after the breakup of Alexander’s empire.

• Founded by Philetairos
• consisted of almost all of western and southern Asia Minor.
• Upon the death in 133 BCE of its last king, Attalos III ( r. 138– 133 BCE), Pergamon was given to Rome, which by then was the greatest power in the Mediterranean world.
• The Attalids enjoyed tremendous wealth
• Much of this wealth was spend on decorating their capital city, especially its acropolis.
• Located on the acropolis there were the royal palace, an arsenal and barracks, a great library and theater, an agora, and the sacred cities of Athena and Zeus.

ALTAR OF ZEUS, PERGAMON

The Altar of Zeus at Pergamon, erected about 175 BCE, is the most famous Hellenistic sculptural ensemble. The monument’s west front ( FIG. 5- 78) has been reconstructed in Berlin. The altar proper was on an elevated plat-form and framed by an Ionic colonnade with projecting wings on either side of a broad central staircase. All around the altar platform was a sculpted frieze almost 400 feet long, populated by about a hundred larger- than- life- size figures. The subject is the battle of Zeus and the gods against the giants. It is the most extensive representation Greek artists ever attempted of that epic conflict for control of the world. A similar subject appeared on the shield of Phidias’s Athena Parthenos and on some of the Parthenon metopes, where the Athenians wished to draw a parallel between the defeat of the giants and the defeat of the Persians. In the third century BCE, King Attalos I (r. 241– 197 BCE) had successfully turned back an invasion of the Gauls in Asia Minor. The gigantomachy of the Altar of Zeus alluded to that Pergamene victory over those barbarians.

The battle scenes of the Pergamon altar have an emotional power unparalleled in earlier Greek art. Violent movement, swirling draperies, and vivid depictions of suffering fill the frieze.

A deliberate connection was also made with Athens, whose ear-lier defeat of the Persians was by then legendary, and with the Parthenon, which already was recognized as a Classical monument— in both senses of the word. The figure of Athena, for example, is a variation of the Athena from the Parthenon’s east pediment. While Ge, the earth goddess and mother of all the giants, emerges from the ground and looks on with horror, Athena grabs the hair of the giant Alkyoneos as Nike flies in to crown her. Zeus himself (not illustrated) was based on the Poseidon of the west pediment. But the Pergamene frieze is not a dry series of borrowed motifs. On the contrary, its tumultuous narrative has an emotional intensity that has no parallel in earlier sculpture. The battle rages everywhere, even up and down the very steps one must ascend to reach Zeus’s altar. Violent movement, swirling draperies, and vivid depictions of death and suffering are the norm. Wounded figures writhe in pain, and their faces reveal their anguish. When Zeus hurls his thunderbolt, one can almost hear the thunderclap. Deep carving creates dark shadows. The figures project from the background like bursts of light. These features have been justly termed “ baroque” and reappear in 17th- century European sculpture. One can hardly imagine a greater contrast than between the Pergamene gigantomachy frieze and that of the Archaic Siphnian Treasury at Delphi.

The defeat of the Gauls was also the subject of Pergamene statuary groups.The centerpiece of one group was a Gallic chieftain committing suicide after taking his wife’s life. He preferred death to surrender.

Dying Gauls

On the Altar of Zeus, sculptors presented the victory of Attalos I over the Gauls in mythological disguise.An earlier Pergamene statuary group explicitly represented the defeat of the barbarians. Roman copies of some of these figures survive.The sculptor carefully studied and reproduced the distinctive features of the foreign Gauls, most notably their long, bushy hair and mustaches and the torques (neck bands) they frequently wore.The Pergamene victors were apparently not included in the group.The viewer saw only their foes and their noble and moving response to defeat. In what was probably the centerpiece of the Attalid group, a heroic Gallic chieftain defiantly drives a sword into his own chest just below the collarbone, preferring suicide to surrender.He already has taken the life of his wife, who, if captured, would have been sold as a slave.

In the best Lysippan tradition, the group can be fully appreciated only by walking around it.

From one side, the observer sees the Gaul’s intensely expressive face, from another his powerful torso, and from a third the woman’s limp and almost lifeless body.

The man’s twisting posture, the almost theatrical gestures, and the emotional in-tensity of the suicidal act are hallmarks of the Pergamene baroque style and have close parallels in the later frieze of Zeus’s altar.

The Gauls in the Pergamene victory groups were shown as barbarians with bushy hair, mustaches, and neck bands, but they were also portrayed as noble foes who fought to the end.

The third Gaul from this group is a trumpeter who collapses upon his large oval shield as blood pours from the gash in his chest.

He stares at the ground with a pained expression.

The Hellenistic figure recalls the dying warrior from the east pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina, but the pathos and drama of the suffering Gaul are far more pronounced.

As in the suicide group and the gigantomachy frieze, the sculptor rendered the male musculature in an exaggerated manner.

Note the tautness of the chest and the bulging veins of the left leg— implying that the unseen Attalid hero who has struck down this noble and savage foe must have been an extraordinary warrior.

If this figure is the tubicen (trumpeter) Pliny mentioned as the work of the Pergamene master Epigonos, then Epigonos may be the sculptor of the entire group and the creator of the dynamic Hellenistic baroque style.

In different ways, Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippos had already taken bold steps in redefining the nature of Greek statuary.

But Hellenistic sculptors went still further, both in terms of style and in expand-ing the range of subjects considered suitable for monumental sculpture.

Victory has just landed on a prow to crown a victor at sea. Her wings still beat and the wind sweeps her drapery.

The placement of the statue in a fountain of splashing water heightened the dramatic visual effect.

Nike of Samothrace

One of the masterpieces of Hellenistic baroque sculpture was set up in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace.

The Nike of Samothrace has just alighted on the prow of a Greek warship.

Her missing right arm was once raised high to crown the naval victor, just as Nike placed a wreath on Athena on the Altar of Zeus.

But the Pergamene relief figure seems calm by comparison.

The Samothracian Nike’s wings still beat, and the wind sweeps her drapery.

Her himation bunches in thick folds around her right leg, and her chiton is pulled tightly across her abdomen and left leg.

The statue’s setting amplified its theatrical effect.

The war galley was displayed in the upper basin of a two-tiered fountain. In the lower basin were large boulders.

The fountain’s flowing water created right leg, and her chiton is pulled tightly across her abdomen and left leg.

The statue’s setting amplified its theatrical effect. The war galley was displayed in the upper basin of a two-tiered fountain.

In the lower basin were large boulders.

The fountain’s flowing water created the illusion of rushing waves dashing up against the prow of the ship.

The statue’s reflection in the shimmering water below accentuated the sense of lightness and movement.

The sound of splashing water added an aural dimension to the visual drama.

Art and nature were here combined in one of the most successful sculptures ever fashioned.

In the Nike of Samothrace and other works in the Hellenistic baroque manner, sculptors resoundingly rejected the Polykleitan conception of a statue as an ideally proportioned, self- contained entity on a bare pedestal.

The Hellenistic statues interact with their environment and appear as living, breathing, and intensely emotive human (or divine) presences.

Displaying the eroticism of many Hellenistic statues, this Aphrodite is more overtly sexual than the Knidian Aphrodite. The goddess has a slipping garment to tease the spectator.

Venus de Milo

In the Hellenistic period, sculptors regularly followed Praxiteles’ lead in undressing Aphrodite, but they also openly explored the eroticism of the nude female form. The famous Venus de Milo is a larger-than-life-size marble statue of Aphrodite found on Melos together with its inscribed base (now lost) signed by the sculptor, Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander. In this statue, the goddess of love is more modestly draped than the Aphrodite of Knidos but is more overtly sexual. Her left hand (separately preserved) holds the apple Paris awarded her when he judged her the most beautiful goddess of all. Her right hand may have lightly grasped the edge of her drapery near the left hip in a half-hearted attempt to keep it from slipping farther down her body. The sculptor intentionally designed the work to tease the spectator, imbuing his partially draped Aphrodite with a sexuality absent from Praxiteles’ entirely nude image of the goddess.

In this statue of a restlessly sleeping, drunken satyr, a Hellenistic sculptor portrayed a semihuman in a suspended state of conscious-ness— the antithesis of the Classical ideals of rationality and discipline.

Barberini Faun

Archaic statues smile at their viewers, and even when Classical statues look away from the viewer they are always awake and alert. Hellenistic sculptors often portrayed sleep. The suspension of consciousness and the entrance into the fantasy world of dreams— the antithesis of the Classical ideals of rationality and discipline— had great appeal for them. This newfound interest can be seen in a statue of a drunken, restlessly sleeping satyr (a semi-human follower of Dionysos) known as the Barberini Faun after the Italian cardinal who once owned it. The statue was found in Rome in the 17th century and restored (not entirely accurately) by Gianlorenzo Bernini, the great Italian Baroque sculptor. Bernini no doubt felt that this dynamic statue in the Pergamene manner was the work of a kindred spirit. The satyr has consumed too much wine and has thrown down his panther skin on a convenient rock and then fallen into a disturbed, intoxicated sleep. His brows are furrowed, and one can almost hear him snore.

Eroticism also comes to the fore in this statue. Although men had been represented naked in Greek art for hundreds of years, Archaic kouroi and Classical athletes and gods do not exude sexuality. Sensuality surfaced in the works of Praxiteles and his followers in the fourth century BCE. But the dreamy and supremely beautiful Hermes play-fully dangling grapes before the infant Dionysos has nothing of the blatant sexuality of the Barberini Faun, whose wantonly spread legs focus attention on his genitals. Homosexuality was common in the world of ancient Greece. It is not surprising that when Hellenistic sculptors began to explore the sexuality of the human body, they turned their attention to both men and women.

Even when Hellenistic artists treated traditional themes, they approached them in novel ways. This bronze statue represents an older, defeated boxer with a broken nose and battered ears.

Defeated Boxer

Although Hellenistic sculptors tackled an expanded range of subjects, they did not abandon such traditional themes as the Greek athlete. But they often rendered the old subjects in novel ways. This is certainly true of the magnificent bronze statue of a seated boxer, a Hellenistic original found in Rome and perhaps at one time part of a group. The boxer is not a victorious young athlete with a perfect face and body but a heavily battered, defeated veteran whose upward gaze may have been directed at the man who had just beaten him. Too many punches from powerful hands wrapped in leather thongs— Greek boxers did not use the modern sport’s cushioned gloves— have distorted the boxer’s face. His nose is broken, as are his teeth. He has smashed, “ cauliflower” ears. Inlaid cop-per blood drips from the cuts on his forehead, nose, and cheeks. How radically different is this rendition of a powerful bearded man from that of the noble warrior from Riace of the Early Classical period. The Hellenistic sculptor appealed not to the intellect but to the emotions when striving to evoke compassion for the pounded hulk of a once-mighty fighter.

Consistent with the realism of much Hellenistic art, many statues portrayed old men and women from the lowest rungs of society. They were never considered suitable subjects in earlier Greek statuary.

Old Market Woman

The realistic bent of much of Hellenistic sculpture— the very opposite of the Classical period’s idealism— is evident above all in a series of statues of old men and women from the lowest rungs of the social order. Shepherds, fishermen, and drunken beggars are common— the kinds of people pictured earlier on red-figure vases but never before thought worthy of monumental statuary. One of the finest preserved statues of this type depicts a haggard old woman bringing chickens and a basket of fruits and vegetables to sell in the market. Her face is wrinkled, her body bent with age, and her spirit broken by a lifetime of poverty. She carries on because she must, not because she derives any pleasure from life. No one knows the purpose of these statues, but they attest to an interest in social realism absent in earlier Greek statuary.

Statues of the aged and the ugly are, of course, the polar opposites of the images of the young and the beautiful that dominated Greek art until the Hellenistic age, but they are consistent with the period’s changed character. The Hellenistic world was a cosmopolitan place, and the highborn could not help but encounter the poor and a growing number of foreigners (non-Greek “ barbarians”) on a daily basis. Hellenistic art reflects this different social climate in the depiction of a much wider variety of physical types, including different ethnic types. The sensitive portrayal of Gallic warriors with their shaggy hair, strange mustaches, and golden torques has already been noted. Africans, Scythians, and others, formerly only the occasional subject of vase painters, also entered the realm of monumental sculpture in Hellenistic art.

Hellenistic Art under Roman Patronage Hellenistic style lived on in Rome.Greece becomes a Roman province in 146 BCE.

• Athens retained some of its earlier prestige as a center of culture and learning
• Politically it was just another city.
• Rome copied a tremendous amount of work from Greece

Greek artists continued to be in great demand.

LAOCOÖN

Group of the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons

• Found in Rome in 1506
• The artist Michelangelo was there when it was discovered

The marble group was found in the palace of the emperor Titus

• Exactly where Pliny had seen it 1400 years ago.

The gods favored the Greeks in the war against Troy

• Had sent the serpents to punish Laocoön
• Tried to warn his fellow citizens about the danger of the Greeks’ wooden horse.
• In Vergil’s (poet) account, Laocoön suffered in agony
• Sculptors tried to show us the pain of the priest and his sons.

The three Trojans are in pain as they struggle to get away from the snakes.

• One bites Laocoön’s hip
• The priest cries out in pain.