Chapter 5: Greek Art Instructor's Manual

PART ONE: THE ANCIENT WORLD

CHAPTER FIVE: GREEK ART

The Geometric Style

• Beginning with early Geometric period, there were several flourishing centers of pottery production, including those in Athens and Corinth.

• The various shapes of Greek vases were developed according to both purpose and aesthetic forms.

• Vases from this period are sometimes referred to as Dipylon vases because they were found at the Dipylon Cemetery in Athens, just outside the Dipylon Gate.

• An aspect of the Geometric style is the use of geometric forms in the painted decorations of the vases.

• Human and animal forms are reduced to simple geometric shapes as well.

• The two Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odeyssey, come from this period.

The Orientalizing Style

• The source of the decorative motifs on the pottery from this period can be traced to the arts of the Near East, Asia Minor, and Egypt.

• Motifs included real and imaginary animals, fantastic human forms, and abstract plan forms.

• Spirals, rosettes and interlacing bands combine with the earlier geometric ornamentations on the Eleusis Amphora.

• Greek myths and legends often furnished the narrative subjects for painting and here, on the Eleusis Amphora, we witness the account of the blinding of the giant Cyclops Polyphemos by Odysseus.

The Archaic Period

• Black and red figure style vases predominated during this period.

• The Doric and Ionic orders emerged during this period.

• The Doric order is the oldest and the plainest; the Ionic order is named after Ionia, a region on the West Coast of Anatolia and the island off the Coast.

• At this point, you may call attention to the excerpt from Vitruvius in the "Primary Sources for Part One" of the Janson text. It is Vitruvius who gives a vivid account of the origin of the Greek orders.

• As well as presenting the Doric and Ionic orders, you may want to include the Corinthian order, a variation of the Ionic which began to appear about 450 BC.

• Greek sculpture from this age is indebted to Egyptian prototypes that were certainly known to the Greeks, who had been trading with the Egyptians since the mid-seventh century BC. It is suggested that you compare the Kouros (youth) from Anavysos (fig. 5-11) with an Egyptian prototype (see p. 48, 2-14). Female figures from this age, known as Kore (plural Korai) are clothed. (The female nude does not become common until the fourth century BC.) Both the Kouros and Kore were used as votive offerings and as grave markers.

Classical Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting

• The Greek idea that nature can be ordered and idealized by human intellect was demonstrated by artists and architects of the Classical period.

• For the Greeks, mathematics could define the rations order inherent in the universe and the notion of a universal harmony governed the rules of architecture and art during this period.

• Few artists and architects before the 5^th century BC that Greek artists and architects are known by name. During the Classical Age, however, artists began to sign their works. References to certain artists are given in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History (see "Primary Sources for Part One").

• During this age, Polykleitos, who sculpted the Doryphoros, wrote a book entitled The Canon (now lost) in which he established standards for the idealized representations of the human body.

• Many of the sculptures that we study from the Classical Age, excluding the recently discovered Riace Warriors, are Roman copies after lost bronze originals.

• From the Archaic Age through Fifth and Fourth-century sculpture, there is a continued movement toward naturalism in the human figure.

• The monumental project for the rebuilding of the Acropolis in Athens was funded by Pericles (ruled from 462-429 BC)using misappropriated monies from the Delian League. Here you may call attention to passages from Theucydides’ Peloponnesian Wars in which he gives an account of Pericles Funeral Oration. Delivered during the first year of the war (430 BC) to honor the young men who had fought and died in the war, this oration has two themes: praise for Athens and its way of life, and the courage of the soldiers who have not died in vain. Of particular note to the student of art history is this passage:

  . . .Mighty indeed are the marks and monuments of our empire
  which we have left. Future ages will wonder at us, as the present
  age wonders at us now.
  Theucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars, tr. Rex Warner.
  New York: Penguin USA, 1986.

Hellenistic Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture

• Fueled by the philosophy of Aristotle, which empphasized keen observation of nature and strict empirical approach to the study of the world around him, sculpture during the Hellenistic period displays a psychological and physical naturalism unparalleled in previous Greek art.

• Dramatic spatial involvement, dynamic movement and everyday subject matter also characterize the sculpture of this period.

• The major centers of Hellenistic art production included Alexandria, founded by Alexander in Egypt in 332BC, the island of Rhodes, and Pergamon in Asia Minor.

• A great deal of our knowledge of Hellenistic painting is based on Roman copies in fresco or in mosaic. In the mosaic copy from Pompeii of the Battle of Alexander and the Persians, we witness a vivid and energetic activity so characteristic of Hellenistic art.

• In the frieze of the Great Pergamon Altar, we encounter an overt display of emotion with strong dramatic force and an exploding rhythm of the figures.

Key Terms/Places/Names

Discussion Questions

1. Compare and contrast the black-figure style of vase painting with that of the red-figure style in both technique and illusionism in painting.



2. Discuss the term "Phidian style" in relation to the sculpture of the Parthenon.



3. Discuss the development of the human figure in Greet art from the Archaic Age through the Hellenistic Age.



4. What does the Greek temple type owe to the Egyptian temple? How is it different?
   
   
5. Why did Theucydides describe Athens "like a harlot with precious stones, statues, and temples costing a thousand talents."



6. What innovations in achieving illusionistic space occurred during the Classical period?



7. Explain how the subject matter of the Parthenon sculpture illustrates the major concerns and values of Athens in the time of Pericles.

Resources

Arias, Paolo. A History of 1000 Years of Greek Vase Painting. New York: Abrams, 1962.

Ashmole, Bernard. Architect and Sculptor’s Classical Greece. New York, 1972.

Blumel, Carl. Greek Sculptors at Work, Second Edition, tr. Lydia Holland. London: Phaidon, 1969.

Boardman, John. Greek Art, Revised. World of Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Boardman, John. Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period: A Handbook. World of Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Boardman, John. Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson, 1985.

Boardman, John. The Parthenon and Its Sculptures. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.

Charbonneaux, John, Robert Martin, and Francois Villard. Archaic Greek Art (620-480 BC). tr. James Emmons and Robert Allen. Arts of Mankind. New York: Braziller, 1971.

Charbonneaux, Jean, Robert Martin, and Francois Villard. Classical Greek Art (480-330 BC). Tr. James Emmons. Arts of Mankind. New York: Braziller, 1972.

Charbonneaux, Jean, Robert Martin, and Francois Villard. Hellenistic Art (330-50 BC), tr. Peter Green. Arts of Mankind. New York: Braziller, 1973.

Francis, E.D. Image and Idea in Fifth-Century Greece: Art and Literature after the Persian Wars. London: Routledge, 1990.

Homann-Wedeking, Ernst. The Art of Archaic Greece, tr. J. R. Foster. Art of the World. New York: Crown, 1968.

Hopper, Robert John. The Acropolis. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971.

Jenkins, Ian. The Parthenon Frieze. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.

Lawrence, A. W. Greek Architecture, Fourth edition. Pelican History of Art. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1983.

Papaioannoa, Kostas. The Art of Greece, tr. Mark Paris. New York: Abrams, 1989.

Pollitt, J. J. Art and Experience in Classical Greece. Cambridge, 1972.

Pollitt, J. J. The Art of Greece 1400-31 BC. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 1990.

Richter, Gisela. A Handbook of Greek Art. London and New York: Phaidon Paperback, 1959.

Woodford, Susan. The Parthenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Ancient Greece. VHS, FFTH. 26 min.

Greek Vases in the British Museum. VHS, FFTH. 28 min.

Greek Pottery. VHS, VOA. 19 min.

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