Art History -Greece Study Guide-

Art of Ancient Greece



Historical Evidence
1. The first recorded Olympic games took place in 776 BC, although there is evidence showing that the games had going on several years before this.

2. Following the fall of Mycenaean dominance the Aegean region went through a period of disorganization during which prior cultural developments were lost (such as writing).

3. The meaning of 'polis' is a Greek city-state.

4. When Solon became a political leader of Athens he developed a judiciary and a constitutional government with a popular assembly and a council. This developed into a representative government in which every community had it's own assembly and magistrates. All citizens had equal rights to own private property, freedom of speech, to vote, and to hold public office.

5. Historical divisions include: Geometric, Oriental zing, Archaic, Classical (cut into Transitional, Fifth-Centaury Classical, and Fourth-Centaury Classical), and Hellenistic Period.

6. During the Oriental zing Period the Greeks not only took inspiration from the east, but also developed a whole new approach to vase panting. They created the black-figure pottery style.

7. Cultural achievements found during the Archaic period included many literary works such as Aesop's fables.

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10. The Peloponnesian was a war that broke out between Greece and the Peloponnesian Empire being led by Sparta. The war is broken into three phases: 1. Archidamian War 2. Attack on Syracuse in Sicily 3. Decelean War

11. Alexander the Great extended his empire through Asia Minor, India, and northern parts of Africa .

12. The Hellenistic period differs from other periods in that fact during this time Greece as well as Asia Minor and India causing the spread and influence of different cultures.

Greek, Gods, and Goddesses
Goddess of love - Aphrodite
God of the sea, holding 3-pronged spear - Poseidon
Goddess of grain and agriculture - Demeter
Supreme god, holds scepter and lightening bolt - Zeus
God of wine, grape, harvest, inspiration - Cyanosis
Goddess of wisdom, war, virginity, victory - Athena
Goddess of fertility, queen of the underworld - Persephone
God of sun, light, truth, and music - Apollo
Young child or infant of god of love - Eros

Interpretation and Meaning
1. The Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi and its meaning to the Greeks:
Contains treasuries (One from every city), theater, and the Parthenon
The oracle of Delphi was located here
Apollo defeated the giant python in the legend

2. The ancient Olympic games differed from the ones today in the fact that the competitors were naked and only men could play and attend.

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4. There is speculation that since the metal statues form the geometric period were constantly being found in sanctuaries that they were votive statues dedicated to the gods.

5.The Archaic freestanding male and female figures have been found marking graves and lining the entrances to sanctuaries. Korai most likely represented deities, nymphs, or priestesses. Koroi represented gods, victorious athletes, or warriors. The young male was thought to represent fertility or family. The figures may have been symbolic ancestor figures.

6. The myth on Euphronior krater tells the story of the death Sarpedon at Troy. Sarpedon was the son of Zeus and the mortal Laodamia. He fought in the Trojan war were he met with Pericles who was disguised as Achilles. Zeus tried to keep fate from take his son, but was prevented by Hera who reminded him that the sons of many gods were fighting and were fated to die as well. Instead Zeus let out a downpour of blood-rain to show his sorrow for the impending death of his son. After Sarpedon went down there was a fight for the dead king. The Greeks were able to get his armor before Sleep and Death took away his body under the watchful eye of Hermes.

7. The pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia depicts a scene from a story about the wedding King Pirithous of the Lapith people. He invited the centaurs to the wedding along with his friend Theseus. The scene in the pediment captures the moment when the centaurs, drunk from wine, bring on a world of chaos to the wedding by carrying off the Lapith women, including the bride, herself. Apollo, the center of the piece, is there to help the Lapith people.

8. The architecture of the Parthenon are just simple post-and-lintel construction. At the time it was built Athens was the capital of a powerful city-state. Athens was a model of Greek cities and the Parthenon was the ideal Doric temple; isolated, with a rock as a base.

9. The Canon of Proportions of Polykleitos included a study of ratios between a basic unit and the length of various body parts. Some studies suggest that his basic unit may have been the length of the figure's index finger or the width of its hand. explored not only the proportions but also the relationship of weight bearing and relaxed arms and legs.

10. A characteristic of the Hellenistic period is elicit a specific emotion from the viewer, otherwise known as expressionism. This period the statues impose themselves forcefully, on the spectator. The art demanded that viewer empathize with the scene.

11. Mausoleum of Mausolos at Halikarnssos was a tomb built for Mausolos and Artemisia, his wife and sister.

Style
1. Basic elements of the Geometric style on ceramic decoration include the use of geometric forms in a painted decoration and the reduction of human and animal body parts in sculptural work to simple geometric solids such as cube, pyramids, cylinders, and spheres.

2. The style of the Kouros and Kore figures are similar to Egyptian figures in that they have tight closed fists, are very upright and stiff. The hair is stylized. Unlike Egyptian figures the Kore and Kouros are freestanding figures and are put into some stylized form of motion (kind of reminds me of Irish dancing).

3. Realism and naturalism are both defined as the attempt to depict observable things accurately and objectively. The difference between realism and naturalism is that realism is more often used to describe the reorientation of people and other living creatures in an accurate "warts and all" way. Naturalism refers to the true-to-life depiction of the natural world, including landscape and background elements.

4. New stylistic features found on the Kritios Boy (Kritian Boy) include the pose. The boy is in an easy pose compared to the positioning of the Kouroi rigidness. The boy has a solemn expression, but lacks the Archaic smile.

5. Roman copies of 4th century monumental paintings reflect an interest in illusionism through modeling, mimicking the play of light on three-dimensional surfaces by touching protrusions with highlights and shading undercut areas and areas in shadow.

6. The Pergamene style developed as form of expressionism that sought to capture certain emotions from the viewer.

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Materials and Techniques
1. a) Red-figure: This technique of vase painting resulted with red figure against a black background. In red-figure a dark slip was painted on as background around outline figures.
b)Black-figure: Artists painted designs in silhouette on the clay vessel. They then used a stylus to cut through the slip to the body of the vessel in incise linear detail.
c) White-ground: Created by painting the vessel with a highly refined clay slip that turned white during firing.

2. To restore and preserve the Riace Warrior they first removed all the exterior corrosion and lime encrustations using surgeons scalpels. The removed the clay core through holes already existing, they then cleaned the figures by soaking them in solvents and sealed them with fixa-tive designed for use on metals.

3. The work of goldsmiths followed the same trends and achieved the same standards as other art mediums. A specialty of the goldsmith was the design of earrings in the form of tiny works of sculpture. They were often place son the ears of statues of goddesses. Some earrings were hollow-cast using the lost-wax process to make it lighter.

Diagrams
TEMPLE PLANS (See paper)

Compare and Discuss
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