Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who established his own school called the Lyceum in Athens. He wrote extensively on many topics, including physics, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and poetics. In poetics, Aristotle analyzed Greek drama and defined tragedy as serious drama with a tragic hero who has a tragic flaw leading to their downfall. He also analyzed comedy and epic poetry. Greek and Sanskrit theaters developed classical forms like tragedy, comedy, and drama influenced by Aristotle's concepts of art as imitation and the tragic hero. Major plays and playwrights established conventions in each tradition.

1. Course 2 - 2
Art and Visual Perception
Part II

2. Unit I
• Aristotelian concept of art
- Imitation of Reality
- Empathy
- Concept of Tragic Hero and Tragedy
• Classical Theatre Forms
- Greek Theatre
- Sanskrit Theatre

3. Life of Aristotle
• Aristotle was born in 384 BCE. at Stagirus, a Greek colony.
His parents were Phestis and Nicomachus - court physician to
King of Macedonia.
• Aristotle was the most notable product of the educational
program devised by Plato and worked with him in the School
of Athens.
• By 335 BC, he established his own school there, the Lyceum -
peripatetics, meaning “to walk about”.

4. Aristotle - Areas of work
• It is reported that Aristotle's writings were held by his student
Theophrastus, who had succeeded Aristotle in leadership of the
Peripatetic School.
• His most important works are Physics, Metaphysics (or
Ontology), Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the
Soul) and Poetics.
• Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the
time, but made significant contributions to most of them.

5. Aristotle – Poetics
• Aristotle's Poetics aims to give an account of poetry.
• Aristotle taught that poetry could be divided into three genres
 Tragedy
 Comedy
 Epic verse.
• Poetics combined with the Rhetoric make up Aristotle's works
on aesthetics

6. Aristotle – Concept of Art
– Imitation of Reality
• Art is defined as the realization in external form of a true idea,
and is traced back to that natural love of imitation which
characterizes humans, and to the pleasure which we feel in
recognizing likenesses.
• Art however is not limited to mere copying.
• It idealizes nature and completes its deficiencies

7. Aristotle – Concept of Art
– Imitation of Reality
• Comedy is the imitation of the worse examples of humanity,
understood however not in the sense of absolute badness, but
only as what is low and ignorable enters into what is laughable
and comic.
• Tragedy, is the representation of a serious or meaningful,
rounded or finished, and more or less extended or far-reaching
action - a representation which is effected by action and not
mere narration.

8. Tragic Hero
 An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics:
a. Nobleness (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth).
b. Hamartia (translated as tragic flaw, denoting - excess in
behavior or mistakes).
c. A reversal of fortune brought about because of the hero's
tragic error.
d. The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought
about by the hero's own actions (anagnorisis).

9. Tragic Characters
Characters in tragedy should have the following qualities:
1. "Good or fine.”
2. "Fitness of character" (true to type)
3. "True to life" (realistic).
4. "Consistency" (true to themselves).
5. "Necessary or probable”
6. "True to life and yet more beautiful" (idealized, ennobled).

10. Tragic Flaw
 Tragic flaw is a literary device that can be defined as a trait in
a character leading to his downfall, and the character is often
the hero of the literary piece.
 This trait could be the lack of self-knowledge, lack of
judgement, and often it is hubris (pride).
 Tragic flaw leads to a chain of plot actions culminating in a
reversal of their good fortune to bad.

11. Classical Theatre forms

12. Greek Theatre
 The Greek theatre or Greek drama is a theatrical tradition
that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BC.
 Greek theatre developed from a state festival in Athens (in
March), honoring the God Dionysus with one week of public
wine drinking and phallus worshiping – Dionysia of Ancient
Greece
 Dionysus was the God of:
• agriculture , wine, dance & music, fertility … etc

13. Greek Theatre
 This festival celebrated the birth of the wine god, Dionysus and
the great grapes that made the wine.
 The religious rites for these ceremonies were eventually written
down in verse form and later became plays.
 The best performers were given a kid goat as a prize

14. Dithyramb
 The dithyramb was originally an ancient Greek hymn sung to
the god Dionysus.
 According to Aristotle, the dithyramb was the origin of the
Ancient Greek theatre.
 The leader (choragoi) of the chorus later became the solo
protagonist, with lyrical interchanges taking place between him
and the rest of the chorus.
 The first dithyrambs were composed in Athens around the 7th
century BC.

15. Major Playwrights
 The main competitors are Thespis, Choerilus, Pratinas, and
Phrynichus
 According to legend, Greek tragedy was created in Athens, ca.
530 BCE by Thespis - often called the "Father of Tragedy” - he
is forever immortalized in a common term for performer,
thespian
 Choerilus innovated costume and mask.
 Pratinas invented the satyr play.
 Phrynichus won his first competition between 511 BC and 508
BC.

16. Parts of Play
 Prologue: The prologue usually gives the mythological
background necessary for understanding the events of the play.
 Parodos: This is the song sung by the chorus as it first enters
the orchestra and dances.
 First Episode: This is the first of many "episodes", when the
characters and chorus talk.
 First Stasimon: At the end of each episode, the other characters
usually leave the stage and the chorus dances and sings a
stasimon, or choral ode.
 Exodos: At the end of play, the chorus exits singing a
processional song which usually offers words of wisdom related
to the actions and outcome of the play.

17. Sanskrit Theatre
• The nature of the plays ranged from tragedy to light
comedy.
• Dramatists often worked on pre-existing mythological or
historical themes that were familiar to the audience of the age.
•The earliest phase of Sanskrit theatre includes the writing and
practice of theatre up to about 1000 AD, based almost entirely
on the rules, regulations and modifications laid down in the
NatyaShastra.

18. •Sudraka - Mricchakatika
•Bhasa's - Swapna-vasavadatta
•Kalidasa – Shakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvashiyam
•Bhavabhuti's - Uttara-rama-charita & Mahavira-charita,
•Visakhadatta's - Mudrarakshasa
•King Harsha's - Ratnavali
Major Playwrights

19. Types of Drama
•There are said to be ten types of Sanskrit plays: Nataka, Prakarna,
Anka, Vyayoga, Bhana, Samvakara, Vithi, Prahasana, Dima and
Ithamgra.
•The Natyashastra focuses on only two types
•Nataka - These plays deal with the exploits of a hero, who is
always successful in the end. The dominant sentiment is love and
heroism.
• Prakarana - narrate stories that were invented by their authors.
Love is the predominant sentiment.

20. •The theatre halls were carefully constructed and decorated
according to traditional rules of architecture.
•A theatre of medium size, according to Bharata, could
accommodate 400 spectators.
Structure of Theatre

21. •Masks were not used, and the interplay of emotions was
conveyed through facial expressions, gestures and speech.
•The adroit employment of the curtain made for heightened
impact.
•Skits, comedies and intense melodramas were all written and
presented.
•Performers evoked to the audience these bhavas which,
through powerful abhinaya or acting were transformed into the
ideal, central aesthetic experience of rasa.
Style

22. • The Natyasastra also laid down two modes of theatrical
representation.
• The first, lokadharmi, was nearer to the way things are seen
in ordinary life.
• The second i.e. natyadharmi was more conventional.
However, a dialogue between them always existed.
Style

23. • Major theatrical performances existing nowadays in
classic Sanskrit theatre style are Koodiyattam, Kathakali,
and Bharathanatyam.
Theatrical Performances

24. Koodiyattam, -2000 years of antiquity - India's oldest theatre to
have been continuously performed.
Theatrical Performances
- Koodiyattam

25. •actors - Chakyar caste.
•Nambiars, - drummers, players
of the mizhavu.
• female characterizations -
women of the Nambiar
community and they play the
bell- metal cymbals.
Theatrical Performances
- Koodiyattam

26. •Complicated gesture language,
chanting, exaggerated
expressions of the face and
eyes, together with elaborate
headdresses and makeup
constitute a Koodiyattam play.
•Music is provided by the
mizhavu drums, small cymbals,
idakka, kuzhal, and the shankh.
Theatrical Performances
- Koodiyattam

27. •Kathakali literally means
"story play”.
• Make-up and masks are
special
•Language - Manipravaalam.
•set for "ragas" - Carnatic
Music, style of rendition -
"sopanam" style.
Theatrical Performances
- Kathakali

28. •Kathakali is considered to be a
combination of five elements of
fine art: Expressions (Natyam),
Dance (Nritham), Enactment
(Nrithyam), vocal
accompaniment (Geetham),
Instrument accompaniment
(Vadyam)
•Traditionally there are 101
classical Kathakali stories. Most
of them were initially composed
to last a whole night.
Theatrical Performances
- Kathakali

29. •The most popular stories enacted
are Nala Charitam, Duryodhana
Vadham, Kalyanasaugandhikam,
Keechaka Vadham, Kiratham… etc.
•Story of Mary Magdalene from the
Bible, and Shakespeare's King Lear
have also been adapted into
Kathakali scripts.
Theatrical Performances
- Kathakali

30. •Bharatanatyam is a classical dance form originating from Tamil
Nadu.
• Bharata refers to the author of the Natya Shastra, and natya is
Sanskrit for the art of sacred dance-drama.
•In ancient times it was performed as dasiattam by mandir
(Hindu temple) Devadasis.
Theatrical Performances
- Bharathanatyam

31. •Many of the ancient
sculptures in Hindu temples
are based on Bharata
Natyam dance postures –
karanas.
• As a dance form and
carnatic music set to it are
deeply grounded in Bhakti.
•Bharata Natyam, is the
embodiment of music in
visual form - a ceremony
and an act of devotion.
Theatrical Performances
- Bharathanatyam

32. For further reference
1. Ancient Greek Philosophers
2. Aristotle : Life & Works
3. Poetics
4. Greek Tragedy - styles
5. Greek Mythology – Zeus , Dionysius
6. Greek Theatre – Origin, dithyrambs
7. Greek Architecture – Theatre
8. Natyasastra
9. Sanskrit Playwrights
10. Origin of – Koodiyattom, Kathakali, Bharatanatyam

33. Films to watch
• Nottam (2006 – Sasi Paravoor, M R Rajan)
• Vaanaprastham (1999 – Shaji N Karun)
• Bala (1976 – Sathyajith Ray)
• Naache Mayuri (1986 – T Rama Rao)