the encyclopedia of ancient history || art, greece
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Art, GreeceMARK STANSBURY-O’DONNELL
Greek art is probably best known for the
mimetic representation of the human figure,
starting from very abstract depictions during
the Geometric period to more intensely
naturalistic and realistic sculptures and
paintings in the Classical and Hellenistic
periods. Beyond style, however, Greek art
served social and cultural purposes that are
important for understanding the role that
Greek art played in the experience of its
viewers, creators, and patrons.
STYLES AND CHRONOLOGY
Following the end of the Bronze Age,
there was a sharp decline in the production
of art and very little representation of the
human figure during the Submycenaean
(ca. 1125–1050 BCE) and Protogeometric
(ca. 1050–900) periods. During the
Geometric period (ca. 900–700), there was a
development of cities and sanctuaries and
an expansion of contact with other
Mediterranean cultures. The human figure
begins to appear frequently during the eighth
century in small bronzes (Figure 1) and
painted on pottery. The figures have few
internal details, and the parts of the body are
reduced to geometric shapes such as triangles,
circles, and lozenges. Though simple, the pro-
portions of the figures are often determined
through the use of numerical ratios.
During the Archaic period (ca. 700–480),
artists developed new media and techniques
and showed increasing amounts of detail in
Figure 1 Greek art: Bronze warrior, geometric
Greek art, second half of the eighth century BCE.
Bronze, 17.5cm. Fletcher Fund, Acc.n.: 36.11.8,
1936, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Image © 2010 The Metropolitan Museum of Art/
Art Resource/Scala, Florence.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 776–782.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04049
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their representations. Some of the techniques,
poses, and forms of stone and metal sculpture
during this period reflect the influence of the art
of the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Stone
became an important medium for sculpture,
particularly for large statues. Early archaic
sculpture often features triangular heads,
increased anatomical detail and incised patterns
(Figure 2). The treatment of muscles and pro-
portions becomes increasingly lifelike during
the sixth century BCE, although the poses
remain stiff and formulaic. The use of stone
as a building material also provided a platform
for sculptural reliefs, including the pediments
or gables of buildings and in the entablature
above the columns. These frequently feature
narrative scenes with multiple figures, and in
the last part of the period we can see experi-
ments with more complicated poses and
compositions.
In archaic vase painting, the development
of the black-figure technique, incising lines
through the black silhouette of the figure and
adding red and white, provided more details
and animation in the figures. The large scale of
black-figure works by the painter Exekias are
particularly noteworthy for their balance of
detail and monumentality (Figure 3). In the
late sixth century, red-figure vase painting
appeared, in which the background is painted
black and details are painted with lines and
washes on the red surface of the clay. Painters
explored more complicated actions and poses
with foreshortened figures, making the picture
more three-dimensional.
Even with their more lifelike appearance,
late archaic figures continued to be abstract.
Figure 2 Marble statue of a kouros (youth),
ca. 590–580 BCE. Marble, Naxian. Height without
plinth: 194.6 cm, height of head: 30.5 cm, length
of face: 22.6 cm, and shoulder width: 51.6 cm.
Fletcher Fund, Acc.n.: 32.11.1, 1932, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. © 2010 The Metro-
politan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala,
Florence.
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During the Classical period (ca. 480–330),
artists created more naturalistic figures while
retaining the idealism of archaic figures. Lost-
wax bronze casting became an important
medium that allowed for more extended
figures that could interact with the space of
the viewer and show a more dynamic balance
and understanding of skeletal and muscle
structure. Like contemporary dramas, the
figure acts in space and engages with viewers.
The Doryphoros, or Spear-Bearer, of
Polykleitos (Figure 4), known only from
stone copies of the bronze original of
ca. 450–440, shows an ideally proportioned
male figure, poised between movement and
rest, and balanced between straight/bent limbs
and active/resting limbs. According to literary
sources, the proportions of theDoryphoroswere
based on mathematical ratios that provided an
underlying order to the lifelike appearance of
the figure. In classical art, we can also
appreciate a sense of the ethos or character of
a figure, revealed by the artist’s ability to artic-
ulate rhythmos, the structure of movement and
action in the body, and to use facial features,
gestures, and pose to reveal a range of emo-
tional states, or pathos. The pensiveness in the
action of the Doryphoros gives visible form to
the ideals of sophrosyne (wise restraint) and
arete (excellence) (Pollitt 1972; Stewart 2008).
The Doryphoros and the contemporary
sculptures of the PARTHENON (Figure 5) not
only represent an ideal ethos, but also the
idealized and balanced proportions of the
human figure (symmetria). During the fifth
century there were similar developments in
vase painting, as well as large mural paintings
that became common in the Classical period.
The development of shading, foreshortening,
and linear perspective provided an illusion of
three-dimensionality that can be seen indi-
rectly in surviving white-ground vases from
the period.
Figure 3 Black-figure amphora with Achilles and
Ajax playing dice. Exekias, sixth century BCE. Grego-
rian Museum of Etruscan Art, Vatican City. © 2010.
Photo Scala, Florence.
Figure 4 Doryphoros (“Spear Bearer”) of Polyk-
leitos. Hellenistic marble copy of bronze original
of ca. 450–440 BCE. Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
Minneapolis, United States, 86.1.
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In the Late Classical period (ca. 430–330),
sculpture and painting explored a greater
range of emotion in the human figure and
interest in textures, colors, and visual
effects. Figures show more detail in the hair,
contrasts in texture, and animation in the
facial expressions than in the Doryphoros, as
well as a more realistic reaction to intense
action. Smaller works, such as grave stelai,
became common and have a contemplative
ethos about them. Vase paintings are produced
in smaller numbers, but richly colored, large-
scale works flourish in APULIA and other Italian
regions with Greek settlements. According to
literary sources, this is also the golden age of
monumental painting. The few surviving
mosaics and tomb frescoes show vigorous
movement, rich colors, and strong contrasts
of light and dark.
The dating of works through the analysis of
style becomes complicated in the Classical
period by the production of figures that are
deliberatly “retro” or archaic in appearance.
In the Hellenistic period (ca. 330–30),
multiple styles coexist, and style should be
seen as primarily expressive in nature and
determined by content and context. Perhaps
the best-known Hellenistic style is labeled
baroque, featuring figures characterized by
strong movement, bulging muscles, deep
undercutting, contrast between light and
dark, and extreme emotion. In the figure of
the giant about to be killed by Athena from the
second century Pergamon Altar, the pathos and
straining of the giant are complemented by the
despair of his mother Ge (Earth), emerging
from the ground (Figure 6).
Other Hellenistic styles include the rococo.
While this, too, can have strong action, it is
a more refined style, with elongated and active
but less strained figures that have a playful or
humorous mood. Other Hellenistic art con-
tinues the idealized naturalism of the Classical
period in a neoclassical style. The well-known
second century Aphrodite of Melos develops
the canon of the female nude introduced by
Praxiteles in the fourth century, but with more
complex twists and turns of the figure.
In contrast to this neoclassical ideal, there is
also a highly realistic style, in which details of
the figures, such as scars or the shapes of the
features, more closely reflect the experiences of
individuals. Portraits that capture both the
appearance and the behavior of their subject
become established during this period as part
of this trend. Finally, one can also find exam-
ples of a neo-archaic style, imitating the stiff
poses and rigid drapery of the Archaic period.
CONTEXTS
Greek art served a variety of social functions,
and considering the context that an artifact
served is critical for the interpretation of its
purpose and meaning. The largest buildings in
the city were generally temples, such as the
Parthenon (Figure 7), which served as places
for the cult statue and treasure and as a
repository for the many dedications left at
Greek sanctuaries. These buildings were also
the most elaborate in the Greek city, using the
architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)
and having elaborate sculptural decoration in
the pediments and on friezes and metopes
(Figure 5). Sacrificial rituals took place at altars
in open spaces near the temple. The sanctuary
Figure 5 Lapith Fighting Centaur. Metope from
the Parthenon, ca. 447–442 BCE. Marble. London,
British Museum, 1816,0610.2. Photo © Trustees of
the British Museum.
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Figure 6 Hellenistic art: Eastern frieze of the altar of Pergamon. Athena Group: Athena separating the giant
Alcyoneus from the earth goddess Gaia without whom he becomes a mortal. Above right is Nike, the goddess
of victory. Hellenistic, 164–156 BCE. Berlin, Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (post-restoration
2004). Inv. AvP.III.2, Pl.16.1–16.5. Photo by Johannes Laurentius. © 2010 Photo Scala, Florence/BPK,
Bildagentur fur Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin.
Figure 7 Parthenon, Athens. Photograph by Mark Stansbury-O’Donnell.
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was also filled with additional structures,
including theaters, athletic facilities, treasuries,
porticos or stoas, and rooms for dining and
small groups. Sculptural works were placed
around the sanctuary, often as commemora-
tions and votive offerings, while smaller,
individual donations, including bronze and
terracotta figures, were placed in the temple,
treasuries, or storerooms.
Another important civic space for art was
the AGORA, an open area of the city that served
as a marketplace and governmental center
(Figure 8). Large colonnaded buildings called
stoas served multiple functions and also
contained civic and individual dedications,
including monumental paintings and statues,
the latter of which were also placed in the open
spaces (Figure 4). Gymnasia and shrines were
also features of the agora.
Houses were organized around an open
courtyard and served as workplaces as well as
residences. Weaving was a major activity of
women in the house. Virtually nothing of that
medium survives, although literary accounts
suggest some of its value and high artistic qual-
ities. A large range of pottery and metal vessels
were developed for the SYMPOSIUM, a male
drinking party held in the house on festival
days and other occasions (see Lissarrague
1990). Large storage containers (Figure 3) of
wine were mixed with water in a krater or
mixing bowl, and then poured into the cups
of the reclining symposiasts. The room for the
symposion, the andron, sometimes received
elaborate mosaic floors beginning in the
Classical period.
Greek art also played an important role in
funerary practices. Large vessels, stelai, and
statues similar to Figure 2 served as tomb
markers. Grave goods could include a range
of pottery as well as jewelry and figurines.
Special vessels for offerings of oil were used
for commemorations at the grave or as grave
goods, and the deceased sometimes appears
seated at the tomb on the painted pottery.
Much of the art produced in cities like
CORINTH and ATHENS was exported throughout
the Mediterranean, contributing to the diffu-
sion of Greek artistic culture and ideas. The
interpretation of the content of Greek art,
however, needs to be considered not only in
terms of its context, but also in terms of
its eventual owner, who was frequently not
Greek. The hypothesis that Greek work was
purchased or copied because of its artistic
superiority, as in the case of the Doryphoros
(Figure 4), has been challenged in recent
decades (see Marvin 2008).
ICONOGRAPHYAND
INTERPRETATION
The elaborate decoration of even pottery
vessels with figures has provided a large
Figure 8 Agora, Athens, with reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos. Photograph by Mark Stansbury-
O’Donnell.
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repertory of both mythological as well as more
generic subjects in Greek art. Many figures,
such as the nude male figure (Figures 2 and
4) or clothed female figure, are not individu-
alized representations of a god or individual.
Rather, most figures are idealized and universal
types that could become more specific through
the use of an attribute or inscription.
Pottery and reliefs in stone or bronze
were also platforms for the representation of
narrative actions. There are many mythologi-
cal scenes on both monumental and small
scales (Figures 3 and 5). Frequently the oldest-
known representation of a mythological scene
is found in art, and it must be remembered that
artists were storytellers in their own right.
Some scenes with mythological figures, such
as ACHILLES and AJAX (Figure 3), are only found
in art.
In addition to mythological scenes, many
works show activities drawn from the contem-
porary world. These are not realistic “snap-
shots” of daily life, but serve as universalized
representations of the lives of Greek men and
women. Their themes include battles, hunts,
funerary scenes, symposia, and domestic
scenes.
SEE ALSO: Architecture, Greek; Art, Egypt; Art,
Roman; Burial, Greece; Dark Age Greece;
Mimesis; Pottery, Classical and Hellenistic
Greece; Sculpture, Greece and Rome.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Boardman, J. (2001) The history of Greek vases:
potters, painters and pictures. London.
Hurwit, J. M. (1985) The art and culture of early
Greece, 1100–480 BC. Ithaca.
Lissarrague, F. (1990) The aesthetics of the Greek
banquet: images of wine and ritual (Un
flot d’images), A. Szegedy-Maszak, tr. Princeton.
Marvin, M. (2008) The language of the Muses: the
dialogue between Greek and Roman sculpture.
Los Angeles.
Osborne, R. (1998) Archaic and classical Greek art.
Oxford.
Pollitt, J. J. (1972) Art and experience in classical
Greece. Cambridge.
Pollitt, J. J. (1986) Art in the Hellenistic age.
Cambridge.
Pollitt, J. J., ed. (forthcoming) Painting in the
classical world. Cambridge.
Stansbury-O’Donnell, M. D. (2011) Looking at
Greek art. Cambridge.
Steiner, A. (2007) Reading Greek vases.
Cambridge.
Stewart, A. (1990) Greek sculpture: an exploration.
New Haven.
Stewart, A. (2008) Classical Greece and the birth
of western art. Cambridge.
Whitley, J. (2001) The archaeology of ancient
Greece. Cambridge.
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