This document provides an overview of ancient Greek art from 700 BCE to 100 BCE. It begins with background on the early history of Greece and the development of the Greek alphabet. It then discusses the cultures of Sparta and Athens. The document outlines the major pottery styles of ancient Greece and provides examples of Geometric style pottery from 1100-700 BCE. It continues with descriptions of the major periods of Greek art including the Orientalizing, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Key sculptures and developments in architecture are highlighted. The document serves as a concise introduction to the major developments and works of art in ancient Greek visual culture from the Geometric period to the rise of Hellenistic art.

1. Ancient Greek Art
700 BCE – 100 BCE

3. Early History of Greece
• 2900 BC2900-2000 BC: The Bronze Age when Early
Aegean cultures start to emerge
• 2500 BC The great Minoan civilization
• 1240 BC The Trojan War and the destruction of Troy
(Ilium)
• 1050 BC1050-750 BC: The Dark Ages of Greece and
the fall of the Mycenaean culture
• 850 BC - 700 BC: Development of the first Greek
Alphabet
• 776 BC The First Olympic Games are staged
• 750 BC750 -700 BC: Homer writes the Iliad and the
Odyssey
• 730 BC730-710 BC - the First Messenian War and the
Spartans conquer southwest Peloponnesia
• 650 BC The Rise of the Greek tyrants

4. Culture of Ancient Greece
• Sparta:
– Monarch (basileis) is a single ruler that
opposed tyranny…sort of
– Large population of serfs (helots) are
slave farmers.
• Athens:
– Growth of democracy due to military
advancement
– Women and ordinary people (demos) did
not play a direct role in the polis until the
Solonic reforms of 594 BCE. STILL ruled
by oligarchies and tyrants
– Slavery an accepted practice everywhere.

5. Pottery Styles
1. Amphora
2. Stamnos (pelike)
3. Volute Krater
4. Krater
5. Hydria
6. Lekythos
7. Oinochoe
8. Kylix
9. Skyphos
10. Kantharos
11. Aryballos

6. Geometric Style Pottery
1100-700 BCE
Athens

8. Geometric Art
• Early patterns of shapes and lines.
• Toward 800 BCE, human and
animal figures began to appear
within the framework.
Geometric Krater
from the Dipylon cemetery, Athens
ca. 740 B.C.E.
ceramic
40 1/2 in. high

9. 09/13 Warm-Up
• Transliterate the following (extra credit for
correctly speak and/or translating words).
1. ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς γεωμετρεῖ
2. ἀπὸ μηχανῆς Θεός
3. ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς
4. ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα.
5. Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ
6. μολὼν λαβέ!

10. Orientilizing Period
• Advanced trade with the
Egypt and Near East
(Orient)
• Blend of Mesopotamian
and Egyptian motifs
• Proto-Attic and Proto-
Corinthian
The Blinding of Polyphemus and Gorgons, on a Proto-Attic
amphora. C. 675 BCE. 56”. Archaeological Museum,
Eleusis, Greece

11. • Athena,
• Artemis,
• Demeter, and
• Hera.
• Asclepius,
• Heracles,
• Hestia,
• Persephone, and
• Hades
Greek Mythology and Pantheon
• Apollo,
• Ares,
• Dionysus,
• Hermes,
• Hephaestus,
• Poseidon,
• Zeus.
• Aphrodite,

12. Archaic Period
• Orientalizing period is a
transition into the Archaic
Vase
• Architecture begins to develop
in its classical style (late 5th
century)
• Black Figure and Red Figure
distinctions (advancement in
pottery technology and
depiction need)

13. Black Figured Pottery

14. Psiax. Herakles Strangling the
Nemean Lion, on an Attic black
figured amphora from Vulci, Italy. C
525 BC. 19 ; Cristiana, Brescia, Italy.

16. Euthymides
Three revelers
from Vulci, Italy
ca. 510 B.C.E.
ceramic
approximately 2 ft. high

17. Red Figured Pottery
• Psiax is theorized to have invented
the more expressive style.
• Allows for greater detail of
foreshortening
• Reverses the black, Attic glaze to the
outside

18. The Symposium
• The basis of western thought and ideas on
philosophy, debate and argument.
• Exclusive drinking party where these
decrative vases were utilized.
• Participants reclined on couches around the
edges of a room; in the middle was a large
mixing bowl
• Music, poetry, story-telling and word
games.
• Usually ended in…lovemaking

19. Symposium on Friday
• Search online for an ancient Greek phrase or question
that has interest to you or is provocative in some way
• Bring in a food or drink for a team of four to try.
Connect your item with your quotation during the
dialogue time. Be CREATIVE
• Develop an opinion about the following
topics:
– Where does morality come from?
– What is the nature of Love?
– What makes an item or person beautiful?
– How do we know something is True?

20. The Symposium
• In teams of four:
– Answer the questions from our Greek
panel of philosophers.
– Go around the table taking turns for one
minute without interruption.
– To the person sitting across from you: ask
them three questions about their position.
• CARPE Questioning for 5 minutes

21. Euthyphro (399 BCE)
• “Is the pious (τὸ ὅσιον) loved by
the gods because it is pious, or is it
pious because it is loved by the
gods?“
• If an atheist: “can goodness exist
without the gods, and where does it
exist?”

22. Theaetetus
• “What is Knowledge?”
• “What are sub-
categories of knowing
something?”
• “How do we know
anything at all?”
• “What can we know?”

23. 09/20 Warm-Up
• Copy the Greek
Alphabet and Label
the letters you
know.
• Try and translate
the following:
ἄνθρωπος μέτρον

24. Plato’s Aesthetic: Love and Art
• Plato’s allegory of
the Cave
• Plato’s theory of
Forms
• Questions:
– What are different
categories of Love?
List them in order
from most primitive
to highest.
– What is Art? Is Art
only imitation?

25. 09/13 Warm-up
• Give me one modern example
of both an Apollonian and
Dionysian Male.
• List 20 adjectives to describe
Greek sculpture from your
readings.
• Lastly, write your Greek phrase,
idea or concept and how it
connects to your food item (5
sentences).

26. Greek Art Outline
• Orientalizing Phase - 735-650 B.C.
Early Archaic - 700-600 B.C.
High Archaic - 600-520 B.C.
Late Archaic - 520-480 B.C.
• Classical Art - 480-323 B.C.
– Early Classical - 480-450 B.C.
– High Classical - 450-400 B.C. Late
Classical - 400-323 B.C.
• Hellenistic Art - 323-31 B.C.
Early Hellenistic - 323-250 B.C.
– High Hellenistic - 250-100 B.C.
– Late Hellenistic - 100 -31 B.C.

27. Where we are Going?
• Archaic Statuary (750-450
BCE)
• Classical Architecture (450-
330 BCE)
• Symposium (Snacks and
Philosophy)
• Classical Sculpture
• Hellenistic Sculpture (330-
50 BCE)

28. Archaic Sculpture
• Rise of monumental architecture and
sculpture in stone about 650 BCE
• Possible Egyptian influence
• Kouros and Kore
• Same cubic body types, parallel hips,
but freestanding
• The “archaic smile”

31. Kourous
ca. 600 B.C.E.
marble
72 1/2 in. high

33. Calf Bearer (Moschophoros)
from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece
ca. 560 B.C.E.
marble
65 in. high

34. Kroisos
from Anavysos, Greece
ca. 530 B.C.E.
marble
76 in. high

35. Peplos Kore
from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece
ca. 530 B.C.E.
marble
48 in. high

36. Architectural Sculpture
• Greeks originally make
Architecture that is similar
to Egypt and Sumer; Low
relief columns and lintel
Decoration
• With developments from
Assyria and Hittite culture:
High relief column sculpture
• Greeks, starting in
Mycenea, start fill the
pediment with separate,
interegrated stone
sculpture.
Medusa at the center of the pediment of
the Temple of Artemis at Corfu, c. 580
BCE.

37. 09/18 Warm-Up
• Gesture
Drawings:
– 5 different
students
stand on a
chair.
– Complete 3
Gestures for each
– Pathos
types
1. Tragedy
2. Exultation
3. Love
4. Fury
5. Honor

38. Dying Warrior
• The end of the Archaic
period (750-450 BCE) is
typified by the East
pediment of the temple of
Aphaia, Aegina), p. 123
• Magnificent emotional
quality of gesture, with
• Yet, Archaic resolve in the
face. Emphasizes the
theme of fate

39. Doric and Ionic Orders

41. Temple Plan Outline
• The core of an ancient Greek temple plan (was the naos, or
cella, a room with no windows that usually housed the cult
statue of the deity.
• It was preceded by a pronaos, or porch, often with two
columns between the antae, or extended walls (columns in
antis).
• A smaller second room might be placed behind the cella,
but in its canonical form, the Greek temple had a porch at
the rear set against the blank back wall of the cella. The
purposewas not functional but decorative, satisfying the
Greek passion for balanceand symmetry.
• A colonnade could be placed across the front of the temple
across both front and back, or, more commonly, all around
the cella and its porch(es) to form a peristyle,

42. Pericles and the Acropolis
• In his portrait of Pericles,
Kresilas was said to have
made a noble man appear
even nobler. Classical
Greek portraits were not
likenesses but idealized
images in which humans
appeared godlike.
Kresilas, Pericles. Roman marble
herm copy of a bronze original of ca. 429 bce. Full herm 6 high;
detail 4 61–2 high.Musei Vaticani, Rome.

43. Restored view of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece (John Burge).
(1) Parthenon, (2) Propylaia, (3) pinakotheke, (4) Erechtheion,
(5) Temple of Athena Nike.

44. The Acropolis and Parthenon
• 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 8 columns).
• Golden Ratio: 1.6
Iktinos and Kallikrates,
Parthenon (Temple of Athena
Parthenos, looking southeast),
Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447–438 bce.

45. Temple of Hera I (“Basilica”), Paestum,
Italy, ca. 550 bce.

50. Porch of the Maidens
• The Erechteum, Akropolis, Athens. 421-405
BCE
• Built by Mnesikles on an irregular, sloping
site.
• Roof is held up by six female caryatids on a
high parapet, instead of by columns.
• Represents, according to Vitruvius, the
Feminine quality complimenting the
masculine Parthenon

51. Monument of Lysikrates
• Tholos: Athens, c. 334 BCE at
Delphi by Tehodoros of
Phocaea (author of the
Corinthian style)
• Round base, engaged columns
• Elaborate support for a tripod
won by Lysikrates in a choral
contest at the Athenian theater.

52. Greek Theater
• Between Peloponesian War and
the Roman Conquest, no new
development
• The basic forms of Greek
arrchitecture increased in only
one respect:
– The open-air theater took on a
regular shape.
– Auditorium, Amphitheater

53. The Kritios Revolution!
• Beginning the Classical Period
(500 BCE)
• Kritios Boy. C. 480 BCE. Marble,
height 46” Akropolis Museum,
Athens
• This free standing sculpture stands
in the full sense of the word.
• The symmetry of the Achaic
Kouros has given way to calculated
nonsymmetry. Reverse S-curve
called Contraposto.

54. Greek Artist Outline
• Myron (480-440 BCE)
• Polykleitos (450 BCE)
• Phidias (480-430 BCE)
• Praxiteles (364 BCE)
• Lysippos (300 BCE)

55. Diskobolos
• Roman marble copy after a bronze
orginal, c.450BCE. Life size. Museo
delle Tereme, Rome
• Same artist as Zeus (Myron)
• Condensing an action to a single
pose without freezing its complexity
• Violent twist of the torso in order to
bring the arms into the same plae as
the legs.
• Focus on composition and balance

56. The Severe Style (480-450)
• Exercise in abstract
gemoetry. It embodied not
only symmetria (proportion
and structure), but also
rhythmos (composition,
movement).
• Naturalistic rhythm with
idyllic proportions. A sense
of rest

57. Riace Warriors
• Found in the sea off Riace,
Italy. 450BCE Bronze,
height 6’8”
• Owe their importance to their
fine workmanship
• Intact bronze statues (not
copies)
• Ivory and glass-paste eyes,
bronze eylashes, and copper
lips.

58. Zeus (460-450 BCE)
• Movement in statues at its
climax with freestanding and
contraposto. Expression
increases
• Almost seven feet tall, shows
the heroic proportions
• Not true motion, but perfect
commentary on gestural power
of the gods.
• Not so much about the
adversary, but the act
symbolic act of throwing the
bolt.

59. Atlas Bringing Herakles the
Apples of the Hesperides
• Narrative scens had been a feature of
metopes since the early sixth century
B.C.E
• At Olympia the pictorial and dramatic
possibilities are fully exploited for the
first time.
• Atlas and Herecles
• Herecles is contemplative, part of the
classical ideal for heroes and gods

60. Pop Quiz!
• Label and fully identify
the three following
works.
• What unique pose does
the first statue exhibit?

61. Temple of Zeus in Olympia
• Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs, from the west pediment of the
temple of zeus at Olypia. C. 460 BCE Marble, slightly over-lifesize.
Archaeological Museum, Olympia
• Pelops founded the games at Olympia (an important Classical
anchor date)
• However, his descendants were cursed because of his actions
and trickery (including Heracles and Agemnon), The
pediment serves as a warning to parading atheletes.
• Centaurs drunken debauchery
• Emphasis on Apollo, representing the severe style
conteplation.
• He has a calculated tenseness in his calm, develops a
juxtaposition of his godly might, yet godly restraint.

62. Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs, from
the west pediment of the temple of zeus at
Olypia. C. 460 BCE Marble, slightly over-
lifesize. Archaeological Museum, Olympia

63. Dying Niobid. C. 450-440 C.C.E. Marble,
height 59”. Museo delle Terme, Rome
• Earlier pedimental sculptures
have not been in the round.
• Niobid Apollo and Artemis kill
her children out of revenge
• What is different about this
female?
• Facial features as eloquent
as emotional gesture

64. 9/21 Warm-Up
• Compare and Contrast
the expressions
• Which one more shows
the Greek ideals
regarding death?
• What are the Greek
ideals regarding death?

65. Parthenon Pediment Sculptures
• Three Goddesses. From the east pediment
of the Parthenon. C. 438-432 BCE. Marble,
over-lifesize. The British Museum, London
• Drapery is emphasized
and referred to as “Wet”
• Use of the pediment
space seen as limitation
of the artist.

68. Figure of Iris from the west pediment of
the Parthenon

69. Phidias
• Continuation of the wet
drapery style.
• Large Scale statues come to
a halt during the
Peloponnesian war.
• Many famous artists were in
commission for the
parthenon, which took only
ten years to complete.

70. Late Classical Art

71. Mausolos
• Late Classical sculpture
doesn’t have much
emphasis on
individuality, except this
work.
• Stiff drapery that seems
to encapsulate and
imprison the body, much
like the body to the soul.

72. 9/23 Warm-Up
• What are some modern
expectations of the
masculine?
• What are some positive
and negative traits that
are displayed in society’s
masculine (or hyper-
masculine ideal?)

73. Demeter, from Knidos
• Praxiteles Artwork
• Deep-set eyes gaze into
the distance
• Seated with heavy and
voluminous drapery
similar to Mausolos.

74. Praxiteles
Aphrodite of Knidos
ca. 350-340 B.C.E.
Roman marble copy after a bronze original
80 in. high

75. Hermes 320-310 BCE
• Praxitelean beauty
• Depicts Hermes with the infant Bacchos
• Sensous, Lithe proportions, the curve of the
torso, the play of gentle curves, the sense of
complete relaxation
• Interaction with the negative space around it

76. Apollo Belvedere
• Very popular in the 19th
century Greek Revival
movement.
• Seen for its perfect pose
and beauty.
• Not as well admired
today…

77. Lysippos
Apoxyomenos (Scraper)
ca. 330 B.C.E.
Roman marble copy after a bronze original
81 in. high

78. 9-30 Warm-Up
• Compare these two
works:

80. Weary Herakles, c. 4th BCE
• Like other Hellenistic sculptures, it is full of pathos
as seen plainly in the face of the hero, "the most
often copied and imitated Lysippan Herakles in
Antiquity" with its heavy, dramatically exaggerated
musculature
• But where Hellenistic sculpture often infuses a
new dynamism by contrast into Greek art this
giant statue
• does not offer a restless narrative but its
antithesis.

81. 9/25 Quiz: Fully Identify

82. Philoxenes of Eretria
Battle of Issus
From the House of the Faun, Pompei, Italy
ca. 310 B.C.E.
tessera Mosaic
8 ft. 10 in. x 16 ft. 9 in.

83. Philoxenes of Eretria (detail)
Battle of Issus
From the House of the Faun, Pompei, Italy
ca. 310 B.C.E.
tessera Mosaic
8 ft. 10 in. x 16 ft. 9 in.

84. • Roman Mosiac copy
of the Battle of Issos
(315 BCE)
• Thought to be
Alexander the great
against the Persians
• This scene is
historical in nature, a
unique feature of
Greek painting
during the Classical
period

85. Philoxenes of Eretria
Battle of Issus (detail)
From the House of the Faun,
Pompei, Italy
ca. 310 B.C.E.
tessera Mosaic
8 ft. 10 in. x 16 ft. 9 in.

86. Polykleitos the Younger
Theater
Epidauros, Greece
350 B.C.E.

87. Choragic Monument of Lysikrates
Athens, Greece
334 B.C.E.
marble

88. • Reconstruction
of the
Mausoleum at
Halikarnassos.
359-351 BCE

89. Hellenistic Art (323-146 BCE)

90. Dying Trumpeter
• Human conception in
sculpture groups.
• Celebrated Attalos I
and his victories over
the Cets
• Ethnic type is
depicted
• Torque worn around
the neck is Celctic
• Heroic nudity of
Greek warriors

92. 9/27 Warm-Up
• Analyze the creative
project. Give a one
paragraph summary of
the culture you may
consider doing and
why.

93. Nike of Samothrace
from Samothrace, Greece
ca. 190 B.C.E.
marble
97 in. high

94. Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander
Aphrodite from Milos (Venus de Milo)
ca. 150-125 B.C.E.
marble
79 in. high

95. Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander
Aphrodite from Milos (Venus de Milo)
ca. 150-125 B.C.E.
marble
79 in. high

96. Aphrodite, Eros and
Pan
from Delos, Greece
ca. 100 B.C.E.
marble
52 in. high

97. Sleeping Satyr (Barberini Faun)
ca. 230-200 B.C.E.
marble
85 in. high

101. Old Market Woman
ca. 150-100 B.C.E.
marble
54 in. high

102. Athanadoros,
Hagesandros, and
Polydoros of Rhodes
Laocoön and his sons
1st century C.E.
marble
94 1/2 in. high

106. Creative Project 4
• Teammates: 4
• Length: Two Weeks
• Content: Egyptian-Rome
• Directions: See
Worksheet