Greek art began around 760 BCE and progressed through the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. The three main architectural styles of Greek temples were Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns. The Parthenon, built in Athens during the Classical period, is considered the greatest example of pure Greek architecture. Greek pottery styles included black figure pottery, where figures were painted in black on a red background, and red figure pottery, where the reverse occurred.

1. Art History 4
Ancient Greek Art

2. Greek
Art
Timeline
www.sandrashaw.com

3. Map of Ancient Greece
Greek
Art
www.mead.k12.wa.us

4. Concepts of Greek Art
Greek
Art
• Greek art begins “classical” art
• Greek art is very influential to the art of
Europe
• Ancient Greek art was considered
“perfect” or “ideal”
• Greek artists began to “sign” their art
• Greek art changed styles over time
• The four main “styles” of Ancient Greek
Art are:
1. Geometric
2. Archaic
3. Classical
4. Hellenistic
Geometric Art: The artwork to the left above is from
the geometric period and was made about 760-750
BCE in Athens, Greece, It is made from terra cotta clay
and four horses stand on the lid. Geometric art has
geometric banding and simplified animals and humans
Jastrow - public domain image

5. Greek
Art
•Archaic Period
•The Kouros (male) and Kore (female) are
standing youth sculptures from the Greek
archaic period. They are generally used as
grave monuments.
•Grave sculpture and temple monuments are
mostly all that survive of the Archaic Sculpture
•Marble is the chosen material for these
sculptures
•Sculpture was often painted (such as the
reproduction of the Kore at left)
•Nudity in sculpture was used with male
figures but seldom with female figures
•When using bronze to create sculptures, the
figure was often hollow and eyes were inlaid
with stone or glass
•There are some similarities with ancient
Egyptian sculpture
Concepts of Archaic Greek Art
P
Kore by Giovanni Dall’Orto free use image
Kouros -Free Use image Wikipedia

6. Greek
Art
•Classical
•Contrapposto is a term that is used in art. It
means the weight of the body in human figures is
more relaxed. Figures stand with more weight on
one leg so the legs and hips are twisted off axis from
the shoulders giving an S curve to the body. This is a
very important term in Classical Greek art. Human
figures no longer appear stiff and lifeless.
•Polykleitos was an important sculptor from the
classical period of Greek art. He wrote a canon of
proportions that was used by many sculptors at the
time and in future art
•Proportionally, heads were 1/8th of the length of the
body
•Use of negative space becomes common in
sculpture. This basically means that limbs
sometimes would extend away from the body and be
carved with much though given to the space
between the body and the limb. Again, this made
the figures more lifelike, open, and less stiff looking.
•Bodies were often “idealized” with what was
determined to be perfect proportions of classical
beauty
Concepts of Classical Greek Art
P
The photograph above shows
contrapposto and is a Greek
sculpture or a replicated Greek
sculpture. The image is a
public domain image

7. Greek
Art
•Hellenistic
•One of the characteristics of the Hellenistic
period is that the sculptures showed
movement
•Another characteristic of the Hellenistic period
is that the faces on the human figures showed
a great variety of expressions
•Themes never before shown in Greek art
began to appear in the Hellenistic period.
These themes included: childhood, anger,
despair, old age, drunkenness.
•Sculpture in the Round. Hellenistic sculpture
is best appreciated by walking all the way
around the sculpture and viewing it from all
sides. Sculpture from previous periods was
often meant to be seen only from the front
•Even greater use was made of negative
space in sculpture
•Hellenistic Greek art and culture was greatly
admired throughout the known world at that
time.
Concepts of Hellenistic Greek Art
P
Dying Gaul -Creative Commons
photo - Maksim
This statue pictured above is
actually a copy of a Hellenistic
Greek sculpture. Romans often
copied Greek sculpture.

8. Greek
Art
•The earliest architecture in Greece is not well
documented because of several things. One is that
the materials used were not ones that could survive
for thousands of years. Around 600 BCE, stone and
marble, more lasting materials, started to come into
use in temples.
Ancient Greek Architecture
Acropolis of Athens, Greece c. 6th BCE
Acropolis – an
acropolis is a “high
city” that houses a
Greek temple
complex on a hill
over a city
Temples were
rectangular and
rigidly organized on
geometric principles
Greek temples were
divided into 3 types;
Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian. Each of
the 3 types had
specific rules of
construction
Acropolis - Aaron Logan, creative commons photo

9. Greek
Art
•It is important for you to know about
the 3 styles of architecture for Greek
temples because they were copied in
Europe and later in the Western world,
including the United States. In the
United States many public buildings
were built according to these Greek
styles of architecture.
Ancient Greek Architecture
The Doric order and the Ionic order
were developed in the Archaic period
of Greece. It was not until 4th century
BCE that the Corinthian order began
being used.
Although the images here only show
the differences in the columns and
somewhat in the “entablature” (area
above the column), rules for
construction extended to the entire
structure.
As you can see, the Doric is the most
plain of the 3 styles. Ionic begins to be
more complex and Corinthian is the
most elaborate style.
Doric column
(top left)
Ionic column
(above)
Corinthian
column
(bottom left)
All public domain images

10. Ancient Greek Architecture
•Parthenon
•The Parthenon is believed to have been a
temple to house the goddess Athena Parthenos.
It also served as a treasury
•The Parthenon was built during the Classical
period, with construction beginning in 447 BCE
•The temple is of the Doric order or style
•Phidias was the name of the main sculptor who
supervised the construction of the Parthenon.
The architects were named Iktinos and
Kallikrates.
•In 1687 AD the temple was bombed. Because it
stored ammunition at the time, much destruction
came with the bombing
Greek
Art
During later times, the Parthenon served as a
Christian church and later as a Muslim
Mosque. The image to the left shows the
corner of the Parthenon from the south
Parthenon by Thermos Creative Commons image

11. Greek
Art
•In Ancient Greek pottery, form follows
function. This means that the use of the
object determined the design
•When speaking of Greek pottery, there is a
4th period or style. As you remember, styles
of Greek art include Geometric, Archaic,
Classical and Hellenistic. With pottery,
“Orientalizing” style follows Geometric style.
•Although Greek pottery has many interesting
characteristics and innovations, what you
need to learn today is the difference between
black figure pottery and red figure pottery
Ancient Greek Pottery
Black figure pottery. Jastrow, Creative
Commons image
Red figure pottery.
Jastrow, Creative
Commons image
Black figure pottery came first during the
Archaic period. Black figures are shown on red
pottery.
Red figure pottery came toward the end of the
Archaic period. Backgrounds were painted in
black and the red clay would show through to
produce the figures.