Greece Online

New York Kouros •Grave marker •Frontal •Cleared from block of stone, but hands attached to hips •One foot in front of the other •Bent arms •Sharp shin lines •Smile •Knotted treatment of hair •Nudity

Many art historians feel that knowledge of Egyptian sculpture was critical to the beginnings of Greek monumental sculpture. Support this claim by an analysis of the styles of these two works. It is also true that the Egyptian work presents a more striking likeness of an individual. Explain this difference in relationship to the different functions of the two statues

Peplos Kore  Peplos: belted garment  Figure looks like a column  Some of painted surface survives  Hair falls in heavy knotted strands  Archaic smile  One hand raised, breaks the symmetry

Calf-Bearer  Bearded  Left foot forward  Thin coat  Rhobos the Calf-Bearer who brings offerings to Athena as thanks for his prosperity  Archaic smile

Dying Warrior, Temple of Aphaia, Aegina •Pediment sculpture •Tight curly hair •In action •Stiffness •Archaic smile

Dying Warrior, from the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, Aegina •Pediment sculpture •Tight curly hair •In action •Stiffness •Archaic smile •Bronze arrow in chest, no signs of pain on body •Complex cross-legged pose

Kritios Boy  Slight contrapposto  Hips turned, knees bent  Head slightly turned  Breaking down of the strict symmetry that dominates Archaic art

Polykleitos, Spear Bearer •Ideal male nude •Canon of proportions •Head 1/7 of body •Expressionless face •Left arm relaxed, right arm flexed •Left leg flexed, right leg relaxed •Roman copy of a Greek bronze Polykleitos Spear Bearer c. 450 – 440 BCE

Zeus or Poseidon •More fully developed contrapposto •One foot lifted up •Hurling an object (thunderbolt? trident? javelin?) •Classically developed body •Older head in keeping with the older gods •Height and breadth nearly equal: hands are 6 feet apart •Flowing beard

Myron, The Discus Thrower  No Greek originals exist by him  Impossible to throw the discus this way, but optically satisfying view  Meant to be seen only from the front  Face is expressionless  Complex contrapposto  Roman copy of a Greek bronze

Exekias, Ajax and Achilles Playing Dice • Greek Archaic art • Black figure style • Legs, spears and poses mirror each other • Spears show depth • Decorative curly-cues dominate legs • Cloaks elaborately engraved • Amphora

Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, c.490 BCE

Medusa and Chryasor between leapords, Temple of Artemis at Corfu c. 600-580 BCE)

Treasury of Siphnians c 530 BC From Delphi

The plan of a typical Greek temple is the same for all orders (Doric, Ionic, etc.) The innermost room (cella, or naos) contains the cult statue of the god. A single or double peristyle colonnade surrounds the cella. The temple is roofed in terracotta, with wooden beams and rafters – fire is a constant hazard. Public worship is carried on outside the temple, which is designed and situated for maximum impact in the context of the surrounding landscape. In the plan to the left, A = Antae (pilasters). The opisthodomos is a false porch behind the cella, often added for reasons of symmetry. Its place might alternatively be occupied by an enclosed adytum (treasure room, sometimes interpreted as a "holy of holies.") The pteroma is the side passage between colonnade (pteron) and cella. An X marks the location of the cult statue. A typical formula for the column dimensions in a temple is n = 2d +1, where d is the number of columns wide and n is the number of columns on a side. For example, a temple six columns wide might be ideally thirteen columns long, but in practice this could vary, depending on other factors.

Parthenon  Greek Classical architecture  Mathematical proportions  Curvature of the base and entablature  Pediment contains sculpture  Doric temple, but some Ionic elements  Housed Athena  Only priests allowed inside  No windows  Post and lintel

Lapith and Centaur • Greeks: youthful and brave, although not always victorious • Centaurs: barbaric, often vicious in victory • Symbolic connection of the war between the Greeks and the Persians • Emotional facial rendering

Reconstruction of the West Pediment

Three Goddesses  Greek Classical Art  Rich folds of drapery  Curved forms of female bodies  Wet drapery clings to bodies and creates a flow from one figure to the other  Pediment figures on the Parthenon

East Pediment

Nashville Parthenon, east pediment

The Parthenon’s frieze is a striking demonstration of the Athenian artists' mastery of the representation of the human figure. No two figures in the work are identical with the artists capturing the rich variety of human movement. Figures are shown turning in space and from a variety of points of view. An interesting comparison can be made by juxtaposing a detail from the Panathenaic Procession from the nearly contemporary procession decorating the Persian citadel in Persepolis (c. 521-465 BCE).

Panathenaic Frieze  At further areas the figures  Frieze on the inside are more animated, on entablature of the horseback, or walking Parthenon  Animals carried for  Festival took place every sacrifices four years in Athens  Relief sculptures  Figures are more stoic at  Contrapposto the center of the frieze,  Complicated overlapping where the gods watch the of figures procession

Detail from the Panathenaic Frieze of the Parhtenon

Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Knidos  First nude woman in Greek art  Very popular in its own time, people came from far and wide to see it  Placed in a round temple surrounded by columns: effect of sneaking a peek at her  Not openly erotic  Female sexual power suggested  Genitals lacking  Steps into a bath  One side of her has an open form, the other closed  S curve  Gentle dreamy quality

Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysos • S curve • Dionysos reaches for now missing grapes; he is the god of wine • Hermes has a dreamy expression • Slender nude • Smooth modeling • Soft shadows • Smaller head than 5th Century BC sculptures: 1/8 of body

Lysippos, The Scraper  Athlete scraping off oil  Arms straight out  Very subtle body  Small head to 1/8 the body, eyes closely set  Looks away as if in a far- away gaze  Roman copy  Lanky and languorous

Pergamon Altar  Altar on elevated platform  Sculptural frieze 400 feet long  Alludes to the turning back of an invasion by the Gauls in the 3rd Century BC  High relief  Source of inspiration: Parthenon sculptures  Deep shadows  Dramatic presentation  Sensuous forms  Wind effect on drapery

Athena Battling Alkyoneos • Athena is copied from the Parthenon • Defeated are dragged up the stairs to worship at Zeus’ altar • Negative space • Heroic action • Overlapping figures • Emotion • Heroic bodies • Twisting of bodies in space

Epigonos, The Dying Gaul  Trumpet at his feet  Gaul in defeat, with wound in his side and dripping blood  Sword on ground before him  Gallic style of hair  Expressive face  Muscular body  Battles heroically fought in the nude  Sculpture can be appreciated in the round: front and back have satisfying views  Roman copy

Nike of Samothrace  Nike alighting on a boat  Water cascading on boulders  Commemorated a naval victory in 191 BC  Twist of torso  Drama  Monumental  Fountain creates the illusion of rushing waves  Missing right arm might have once raised crown to naval victor  Wet drapery flowing around legs and sticking to the body  To be seen from several angles

Venus de Milo • Leaning forward • Basically frontal • Contrapposto • Elongated figure • Slender proportions • Graceful curve of body • Missing right hand held drapery to tease viewer • Left hand preserved separately holds an apple • More representative of classical than hellenistic work

Laocoön and His Sons  Negative space  Many viewpoints, eyes wander everywhere  Laocoön trying to tell the Trojans that the Greek horse was booby-trapped  Strangling of figures by snakes sent by the gods to silence them  Deep cutting into stone to create shadows  Extreme musculature  Agonizing expressions  Figure to the right added later

Old Market Woman  Not idealized: old and beaten by age  Poverty  Exaggerated line in drapery  Dramatic representation  Meant to be placed in the middle of the room  Exaggerated contrapposto  Enhanced age lines

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Greece Online

by bassmanb on Sep 22, 2009

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Greece Online — Presentation Transcript