Vase designs were covered in linear motifs like spirals, diamonds, and crosshatching. Figures were done in abstract forms using triangles for body shapes, dots for eyes, and rectangles for arms. The figures were shown full frontal or full profile with tiny waists and long muscular legs.
Sculptures of the Geometric Period were done in bronze, wood, ivory, and clay. They may have been used as trophies or for votive statues placed in temples to represent the subject in prayer.
The first temples were built on stone foundations that defined the buildings in rectangles. They had protruding porches with two columns that supported a steeply pitched roof. The roof formed a gable in the facade, or front wall, with an opening just above the door. There was a large audience hall called a cella or naos preceded by a small reception room that served as the vestibule or pronaos. The purpose of these temples was to shelter a statue of the god that the temple was dedicated to.
Perseus Project
http://www.vacation.forthnet.gr/history-4.html (November 1996)
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?arch=1990.03.0433&type=vase (November 1996)
Orientalizing Period (700-600 BC)
Corinthian Oinochoe
Date: 630-615 BC
Miami University
Oxford, OH syllabus
Vase designs of the Orientalizing Period were decorated with large motifs,
abstract plant forms and humans, realand imaginary animals. Corinthian style
vases were decorated using background and foreground colors
in black, brown, red, and white Black Figure vases utilized dark shapes
painted against the natural clay. The inside details were painted with white clay
slip and reddish gloss.
Miami University http://holychao.cas.muohio.edu/~solon/week2/1990.24.0299.jpg
Archaic Period (600-480 BCE)
ARCHITECTURE:
Temples were Post and Lintel constructions made mostly of stone and marble. The base of the temple was called the stylobate. ThePeri-style was a row of columns that surrounded all four sides of the temple and supported a lintel area called the entablature.The top most element of the entablature, the cornice, supported a peaked roof.It was made of a continuous band of carved stone called moldings. At each end, the horizontal cornice of the entablature and the raking (slanted) cornices of the roof defined a triangular gable called the pediment. There were three basic orders of columns during this period: the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
Little Girl with a Bird
The Doric order columns were formed of round sections called
drums which were joined by metal pegs.A fluted shaft rose from the
stylobate without a base. At the top of the shaft was the necking.
The capital sits on the necking; it is made of the rounded echinus
and the tablet-like abacus.
The entablature of the column included the
architrave, the frieze, and the cornice.
The height of Ionic order columns was about nine times the
diameter of the column at its base; the Doric order had a five and a half to one
ratio. The flutes in the shaft were deeper and closer together and were separated
by flat surfaces called fillets. On top of these columns was a thin cushion-like abacus with scrolled volutes.
The Corinthian order had elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and rosettes. They often had scrolled elements at the corners and
a boss, or projecting ornament at the top center of each side.
ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURES:
Architectural sculptures were carved in high relief from the pediment space out of separate slabs.
The columns on a lot of building were carved like draped women called Caryatids.
Friezes decorated the buildings in a continuous band of carved figures set of by carved moldings.
They were varied from high to low relief and overlapped,
but were all the same height and sat on the same groundline. Triangle shaped pediments
were filled on the ends with fallen soldiers and other men who gradually rose until there was a tall, standing figure in the center.
FREESTANDING SCULPTURES:
Free standing sculptures were usually made of marble and painted in
lifelike colors. They were often inscribed with the name of the person who
commissioned them.Sculptures were placed on pedestals lining the way from the
entrance to the main temple, or for marking graves.
A female statue was called a kore (korai) and depicted clothed
priestesses, goddesses, and nymphs. Male statues were called kouros (Kouroi)
and represented gods, warriors, and athletes to show fertility. They were always
shown nude.These statues were shown in rigid poses with a thin-lipped Archaic smile.
As time went on, they were carved in increasingly more lifelike manners with
jewelry and different hairstyles. They were sometimes painted in encaustic
-a mixture of pigments and hot wax.
VASES:
Vases were painted with a narrow band of decoration and small figures and
eventually there was only one large scene on each side that filled the whole body
of the vessel. This painting usually involved the gods in poses of every day life.
One popular shape was the Volute krater, a large vessel for mixing wine
and water. An amphoraor storage jar, was another, and a kantharos
was a type of wine cup. Vases were painted using the Red-figuredecoration
-a black background with red subjects outlined with dark pigment.
Red-Figure amphora
Perseus Project:
http://www.perseus.image?arch=1990.38.0051 (November 1996)
http://www.perseus.image?arch=1990.38.0077 (October 1996)
http://www.Perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?arch=1990.01.0622 (October 1996)
The Transitional or Early Classical Period 480-450
The Kritios Boy
Date: ca 480 B.C.
FREESTANDING SCULPTURE:
Freestanding sculpture was done in a naturalistic style using high relief.
This means that you can see details like the statue's flesh through its clothing.
The figures were hollow cast in bronze because it was a more flexible and
stable medium.
The Kritios Boy, unlike most earlier sculpture, appears to be an adolescent.
He is an athletic youth, with rounded body forms, large facial features, has a
thoughtful expression, and there is no trace of an archaic smile.
Characteristic of this period, the figure's weight rests on his left leg, with
the right leg bending at the knee.
An example to look for would be the "Riace warriors" 460-450 BC.
They were made with great attention to detail (navels, veins, strands of hair,
smooth bodies, eyes of bone and glass, and lips and nipples inset with pinkish copper plating teeth)
VASES:
Vases were painted in Red-figure, with the most famous painter of the
time being the Pan Painter. The Pan Painter was inspired by the
less-heroic myths. He painted scenes like those in Artemis Slaying Actaeon
where Artemis is having the hunter's own dogs attack him.
The Flying Nike
Red Figure Amphora
Perseus Project:
http://www.wisc.edu.arth/ah201/09.earlyclassical.1.html (November 1996)
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?arch=1990.03.0099&type=vase (October 1996)
The High Classical Period 450-400 BC
Erectheion (Porch of Maides)
Date: 525 B.C.
Six caryatids with Doric order capitals
ARCHITECTURE:
The architecture of the High Classical Period included houses, temples,
marketplaces, and buildings for meetings. These were often decorated with friezes
in relief as well as sculpture-in-the-round.
Houses were made of stucco and faced with mud-bricks. They were
supported by wooden posts and lintels with roofs of terra-cotta tiles.
There was usually only one small kitchen, dayroom, diningroom, bedroom, and
sometimes a bathroom in these houses.
The Acropolis was used for religious rites in honor of Athena Nike
(goddess of victory). Pheidias was the builder in charge of the building.
It took 22,000 tons of marble, gold, ivory and exotic woods to build it.
The Agora, or marketplace, was a civic, social, and commercial center
of both public and private structures around the Panathenaic Way
(ceremonial road). It had a stone drainage system to control flooding, a fountain
house for water, and also a racetrack. There was also a temple dedicated to Hephastos,
the altar of 12 gods, a building for court business, and stoas (a roof held up
by columns) for protection from sun and rain.
Parthenon-The temple of Athena Parthenos (virgin Athena) was a
Doric order peripteral temple. The builders refined the structure by making the
base of the temple and the entablature curve upward slightly from bottom to top
so the horizontal lines did not appear to sag.
The Temple of Athena Nike had an amphiprostyle plan with a
porch at each end. The porch faced out over the city and was blind, meaning that
it had no entrance to the cella.It was surrounded by parapet with reliefs of
Nike Adjusting Her Sandal.
STELA SCULPTURE:
Stela Sculpture were individual panels decorated in relief for memorials,
votive offerings and tomb monuments. They were often made of white marble and
decorated with a finial or crowning ornament.
Date: 450-440 BC
Marble 31 1/2"
Gravestone relief from Paros
VASES:
Vases were done using the white-ground technique.
These devotional or commemorative pieces were painted in tempera paint on a
white slip background. A common type was the Lekythos, a one handled
pitcher used to pour liquid during religious rituals. They were commonly found
in and on tombs show grief and loss.
http:www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk.castgal/cgat.1014.html
http://www.metmuseum.org+images/gallery/greek/
GRP9_17.JPG
from the 1927 fletcher Fund
Classical Art of the Fourth Century
Mausoleum at Halikarnassos
ARCHITECTURE:
The Orthogonal City Plan was a right-angled city plan of straight,
evenly spaced parallel streets that intersected at right angles.
The city was divided into sacred, public, and private zones and limited to 10,000
citizens, artists, farmers, and soldiers.This Hippodamian plat was divided
into 600 ft. quarters. These quarters were subdivided into 6 rectangular building
plots, 100 ft. by 150 ft. This type of plan is still used today.
The Tholos style was a circular plan used for shrines or monuments and
administration buildings. Exteriors were decorated with Doric columns and entablatures.
They had an inside ring of Corinthian columns adorned with acanthus leave capitals.
Monumental tombs were commissioned by wealthy owners. This is where we get
the word Mausoleum. Mausolos, prince of Karia, was entombed at
Halikarnassos in Asia Minor and is considered to be one of the 7 wonders
of the world.One of the remarkable features was the marble statue of a four-horse
chariot and driver that adorned the roof. There were also 250 free standing
statues and 50 sculptures of lions around roof.
SCULPTURE:
Sculpture was done using a new canon of proportions which gave specific
measurements for the perfectly proportioned body.The three major sculptors were:
Praxiteles, Skopas, Lysippos.
Figures were sensitively rendered images with expressions of wistful,
introspection, dreaminess, or anxiety. Sculptors developed a taste for depicting
minor deities in lighthearted moments. This is also the period when the first
fully nude women began to be sculpted.
Aphrodite of Knidos
The Aphrodite of Knidos was the first fully nude female.
Previously, nudity was considered a sign of low character in women, but Aphrodite and
the Phoenician goddess, Astarte,merged making nudity more acceptable.
WALL PAINTINGS AND MOSAICS:
The subject of wall Paintings and mosaics was the real world portrayed
dynamicly. Violent actions of war were a common theme. They used radical
foreshortening to create believable illusions of the real world.
JEWELRY:
Goldsmiths showed scenes of daily life in the elaborate jewelry they creaated.
Romantic embossed designs adorned gold earrings that were formed, like sculptures,
using the lost wax technique.
http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk./museum.knidos.gif
The Hellenistic Period 3rd century
Laocoon and His Sons
These people sought to portray the individual and specific aspects of everyday
life instead of the heroic. The style changed from aloof serenity to individual
emotion, and from the dramatic to melodramatic pathos, using lustrous or
glittering surfaces and dramatic poses.
ARCHITECTURE:
The first Theaters were built in the Hellenistic Period. They were
semi circular in shape and built into the hillsides. They had a place for
orchestras,two and a tiered stage structure with a vertical skene.
Theaters had architectural backgrounds and the proscenium was a raised platform.
Corinthian columns began to be more common in this period.
They differed from other columns in that the echinus was an unfluted
extension of the column shaft, set off by a collar molding called astragal.
From the astragal, sprout curly acanthus leaves. They had a flaring abacus with
concave sides, and a center relief element called a boss. The entablature
has a stepped out architrave and bands of carved moldings
including vertical toothlike elements called dentils above the frieze.
SCULPTURE:
Sculpture moved in two directions. It moved away from the classical toward experimentation, with new forms
and subjects. It also went back to the classical with aspects of certain favored
works. The Pergamene Style developed as a form of expressionism
that sought to ellicit specific emotions. Friezes using this style show figures
breaking out of boundaries and invading the space in front of them.
Sculpture was much more theatrical, involving complex interactions of space
and balancing opposing forces in 3-dimensional space. Dramatic contrasts of light
and shade playing over complex forms set off figures in high relief because of deep
undercutting. One characteristic of these sculptures was that they showed extreme
expressions of pain, stress, wild anger, fear, and despair. The figures impose
themselves on the spectator, demanding a response.
TheNike of Samothrace is a good example.
SMALL SCALE SCULPTURE:
Small scale sculpture was commissioned by private patrons. They were
affordable terra-cotta figures that were formed in preshaped molds.
This portraiture showed ordinary individuals and unusual physical types.
Another form of sculpture during this period was the Classical Alternative
where sculptors borrowed from classical styles to create pieces that were both
conventional and classic.
some information taken from Art History by Marilyn Stokstad
