Man As the Measure of All Things:

Art of Ancient Greece

Greek Art: Original Geographical Context

Greek Art: Historical Context and Content

Greek culture: ca. 900 BCE - 31 BCE.

“Man as the Measure of All Things” ~ Protagoras

Belief that humankind is the highest creation of nature AND the closest thing to perfection in physical form.

Culture focuses on human potential and achievement.

Artists strive towards depicting the ideal male figure.

The Discus Thrower by Myron, copy of Greek bronze ca. 460-450 BCE

Archaic Art (660-480 BCE)

Large scale sculpture emerges, both in the round and relief.

Used for grave markers, votives, and images of the gods.

First attempts at mimesis in Greek art. Statues become more mimetic and ideal as the archaic period continues.

Kouros-(Gk. Boy) youthful male figures

Anavysos Kouros, ca. 530-520 BCE

Kouros, Archaic marble statue,

ca. 600 BCE.

Classical Art (480-323 BCE)

Greek Golden Age.

Mimetic forms perfected.

Clarity of form, serenity, emotional restraint.

Introduction of implied movement & contropposto.

Contropposto: a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs.

Polykleitos of Argos, Spear Bearer, marble copy.

Warrior,

from sea

near Riace,

ca.450 BCE,

bronze

Copy after Praxiteles

Aprhodite of Knidos

ca. 350 BCE

"...we entered the temple. In the

midst thereof sits the goddess--

she's a most beautiful statue of

Parian marble--arrogantly smiling a

little as a grin parts her lips. Draped

by no garment, all her beauty is

uncovered and revealed, except in

so far as she unobtrusively uses

one hand to hide her private

parts…and so we decided to see all

of the goddess…we were filled with

an immediate wonder for the

beauty we beheld.“

~Attributed to Lucian

Iktinos and Kallikrates, The Parthenon,

Athens, 447-438 BCE.

The Parthenon, cont.

Dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the Virgin).

Located on the Athenian Acropolis.

Largest building in world made of marble.

Symmetrical balance achieved through relief

sculpture and entasis.

Embodies democratic values, celebrates the

Greek victory over the Persians, and idea that

Man is the Measure of All Things.

The Parthenon in Centennial Park, Tennessee

Temple Architecture: The Greek Orders

Temples built to house cult statues of the deity.

The Doric and Ionic orders most common in Greek temples.

Corinthian invented by Greeks but favored by Romans.

Terms to know include pediment, entablature, capital, and column.

Hellenistic Art (323-31 BCE)

Art produced from the death of Alexander the Great to the Roman conquest of Greece.

Style marked by excessive emotion, drama, more movement, EXCESS.

Hellenistic art bridges the artistic cultures of Greece and Rome. Many pieces made by Greek artists for a Roman audience.

Nike of Samothrace, ca. 2nd century BCE.

Laocoön and his sons, Hellenistic Era,

marble, 1st century BCE.

With a double grip round his waist and

his neck, the scaly creatures

Embrace him, their heads and throats

powerfully poised above him.

All the while his hands are struggling to

break their knots,

His priestly headband is spattered with

blood and pitchy venom;

All the while, his appalling cries go up to

heaven -

A bellowing, such as you hear when a

wounded bull escapes from

The altar, after it's shrugged off an ill-

aimed blow at its neck.

~The Aeneid

After this lecture you should be

able to…. Describe the formal and iconographical differences

between the Greek Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic

periods.

Compare and contrast the Egyptian prototype to the

Greek kouros.

Identify the ways in which the Parthenon expresses

Greek ideals.

Define humanism and describe how Greek statues

illustrate humanism.