Ancient Greece

GeometricOrientalizing

ArchaicClassical

Hellenistic

Key Ideas

• Innovations led to classical art• Idealized human form• Temple architecture still influential today• Mostly sculpture, architecture and pottery• Pottery has paintings on it• Polytheistic religion rooted in mythology – deities

were human-like• Transition from the mythical to the rational• Formation of city-states: i.e., Sparta, Athens, Corinth

More key ideas…..

• Artists begin signing sculpture and pottery• Celebration of the athlete• Sculptural innovations: nude male figures

(along with some female nudes, eventually); large-scale marble and bronze sculptures (bronze allowed for more bold composition); stone sculptures no longer attached to walls or blocks; very realistic depictions; fluidity

Deities/Heroes

• 12 major ‘Sky’ deities live on Mt. Olympus – they defeated the ‘Earth’ deities (AKA – Titans or Giants)

• Human heroic deeds attributed to the deities• Many Roman equivalents• Characteristics of individual deities change

over time

5 Children of the Earth and Sky

• Zeus (Jupiter) – supreme deity• Hera (Juno) – sister/wife of Zeus – goddess of

marriage• Hestia (Vesta) –goddess of the hearth• Poseidon (Neptune) – god of the sea• Hades (Pluto) – god of the underworld, the

dead and wealth

7 Sky Gods Offspring of the First 5

• Ares (Mars) – god of war • Hephaistos (Vulcan) – god of fire and forgery• Apollo (Phoebus) – god of sun, light, truth, music,

archery, healing• Artemis (Diana) – goddess of the hunt, wild animals

and the moon• Athena (Minerva) – goddess of war, wisdom,

civilization, victories and cities• Aphrodite (Venus) – goddess of love• Hermes (Mercury) – messenger of the gods

Supporting gods

• Demeter: goddess of agriculture

• Persephone: goddess of fertility and queen of the underworld

• Dionysus: god of wine• Eros (Cupid): god of

love

• Nike: goddess of victory• Pan: god of

wilderness/protector of shepherds/half goat

• Ge: goddess of the Earth/mother of the Titans

Human Heroes

• Herakles (Hercules): granted immortality for the Twelve Labors

• Theseus: killed the Minotaur• Perseus: killed Medusa (snake-haired)

Trojan War Heroes

Greeks• Agamemnon• Odysseus (Ulysses)• Achilles• Petroclus• Ajax

Trojans• Paris• Priam• Hector• Sarpedon• Aeneas (progenitor of the

Romans)!!!!!! LINKAGE!!!!!

Geometric Art

900-700 BCE

Geometric Art Key Ideas

• Followed the 200 year “Dark Age” of ancient Greece that came after the collapse of Mycenaean society

• Ceramic decoration using linear motifs: diamonds, spirals, cross-hatching

• Ceramic painted using slip (mixture of clay/water)

• First Greek temples – very simple

Centaur, 10th century BCE, terra-cotta

• Cross-hatching• Geometric shapes• Reduction in form – simplified

geometric solids• Thrown on a potter’s wheel, then

solid legs , arms, tail added• Painted with red slip• May symbolize duality of humans

(good/bad)• Found in cemetery

Funerary Krater, 8th Century BCE, terra-cotta, approx. 43”

• Krater is a grave marker• Humans are part of narrative• Focus is on the reaction of

mourners, not the deceased• Repetitive geometric pattern of

funeral • Body is ready to be cremated (new

burial practice for the area• Afterlife in ancient Greece was not

able to be understood, according to their beliefs

• Torsos are triangles• Stylized shields• Dots for eyes

Orientalizing Art

700-600 BCE

Olpe, 600 BCE, ceramic with black-figure decoration

• Olpe is a pitcher• Stylized flowers (rosettes)• Source of motifs was near east and

Egypt• Hybrid creatures• Less densely-packed design than in

geometric