UNINTER – Three Borders International University

East City

ART HISTORY

GREEK ART

Professor: Arch. Ramon Ramirez

RESPONSIBLE:

Mauricio Ramon Torres Caballero

Career:

5th Year of Architecture

City of the East – Paraguay

2019
 Art History

INDEX
INDEX.........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
GREEK ART..............................................................................................................................4
1. GREEK CLASSICAL ART...........................................................................................4
1.1. Concept. Location...................................................................................................4
1.2. Geography.................................................................................................................4
1.3. General characteristics..........................................................................................5
1.4. Stages of Greek Art.................................................................................................5
1.5. Greek sculpture........................................................................................................6
1.6. Characteristics of Greek sculpture.....................................................................6
1.7. Ceramics....................................................................................................................9
1.8. Architecture...............................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................11
LITERATURE..........................................................................................................................12
EXHIBIT....................................................................................................................................14

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INTRODUCTION

Greek art is the result of the fusion of different components that were
developed over time and that have determined that Greek art is the basis of all
Western culture.

The Dark Age of Greek art runs from the end of the Mycenaean world to
the beginning of the Archaic period. It is called the dark period, due to the few
references that could be obtained from that period. However, there are those
who hypothesize that the disappearance of the Mycenaeans was due to the
invasions of peoples from northern Greece, who destroyed everything in their
path. Another refers to rivalries among themselves and the most accepted
hypothesis, finally, destruction by natural phenomena that would generate great
and irreparable catastrophes, both environmental and community.

Below is an extensive tour of Greek art, its history, from its origins to the
present day, discovering its characteristics, its evolution, its mysteries and much
more about the culture that inspired and continues to inspire today.

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GREEK ART

1. GREEK CLASSICAL ART

1.1. Concept. Location

It constitutes one of the basic sources of Western civilization, some of its

greatest achievements were democracy, philosophical thought and theater.

It has evolved over thousands of years, beginning with the Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations, continuing through the remarkable Classical Greece,
the birth of the Hellenistic Age, and through the influence of the Roman Empire
and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, in Eastern Greece.

The Ottoman Empire also had a considerable influence on Greek culture,

but it was the Greek War of Independence that revitalized Greece and fostered
the birth of an individual identity within its multifaceted culture throughout its
history.

1.2. Geography

The area occupied by the ancient Greek civilization is not identical with
the area of contemporary Greece. Furthermore, there was no politically unified
state among the ancient Greeks. Greece is located on the Balkan Peninsula,
which is the one of the three in Southern Europe that extends furthest into the
Mediterranean Sea. In ancient times the boundaries were: To the North, Illyria
and Macedonia; to the South, the Mediterranean Sea; to the East, the Aegean
Sea; and to the West, the Ionian Sea.

Areas of Greek Culture

This rugged nature of the Greek region has led to three zones being considered
in Ancient Greek culture:

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YO. Continental Greece: This is the geographical area connected to the

European continent and is formed by Epirus, Thessaly, and Boeotia, crossed by
the Pindus mountain ranges that contain Sparta as a representative city.

II. Peninsular Greece: Made up of the peninsulas of Attica, whose main city is
Athens, and the Peloponnese, which is connected to the continent by the
Isthmus of Corinth and which had Sparta as its representative city.

III. Insular Greece: Insular Greece was made up of the series of islands that
emerge from the Aegean Sea such as Euboea, Salamis, Rhodes, Chios, the
group of the Cyclades and the Sporades; Ithaca, Zakynthos, Cephalonia and
[[Corcyra] in the Ionian Sea. Over time, the Greeks came to settle in southern
Italy and neighboring islands, calling this region Magna Grecia.

1.3. General characteristics

Characterized by the search for ideal beauty, recreating the ideal world of
the Platonic model, or through the imitation of nature in the sense of Aristotelian
mimesis.

1.4. Stages of Greek Art

The art of ancient Greece is stylistically divided into four periods:

 Geometric.
 Archaic.
 Classic.
 Hellenistic.

Geometric art dates back to around 1000 BC, although little is known about
Greek art during the preceding 200 years (traditionally known as the Greek
Dark Ages); the period from the 7th century BC witnessed the slow
development of the Archaic style as witnessed by the "black-figure" style of
painting. The beginning of the Persian Wars marks the end of the Archaic
period and the beginning of the Classical period; the reign of Alexander the

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Great (336-323 BC) is seen as the separation between Classical and Hellenistic
art.

In reality, there was no radical transition between one period and another.
Different art forms evolved at different rates in different parts of the Greek world,
and as in any era, some artists developed more innovative styles. Strong local
traditions, a conservative character, and the demands of religious cults allow
historians to locate the origins of works of art, even those that have been
displaced.

1.5. Greek sculpture

Greek sculpture was long considered the pinnacle of the development of

sculptural art in Ancient Greece.

1.6. Characteristics of Greek sculpture

In its origins, in the 7th century BC, Greek sculpture adopted the hieraticism,
frontality, symmetry, geometric forms, clarity and idealization of Egyptian and
Assyrian art. Its highest representation is the archaic statues of the male and
female stereotype (called kuroi and korai, respectively). The interest of Greek
culture in achieving perfection, the Platonic ideal of beauty, led sculptors to
seek balance, harmony and technical mastery through different formulas that
would evolve until the 2nd century BC. Although idealization is a constant in
Greek art in favor of clarity and beauty, the trend will be a greater observation of
nature and a gradual increase in the realistic effect and particular
characterization. Knowledge of superficial human anatomy, how the different
parts of the body are articulated and the effect of tensions generated by
movement and expression are improved. Knowledge that would not be
surpassed until the Renaissance. The classical aesthetic was developed first for
the male body and then for the female body (the body of the korai was covered
with cloth while the kuroi were represented naked), proposing a new convention
in proportions and introducing the canons of seven and eight heads for human
figures. The Aeginetic smile characteristic of archaic Greek sculpture is
replaced by a slightly furrowed brow, this serious gesture by a classical serenity

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that will be imitated or replaced by drama and theatricality according to the

different Hellenistic schools that followed. Frontality and symmetry are broken
with new points of view, the contained movement of the figures in tension, the
first studies of contraposto that balance a more relaxed pose and the inclusion
of new alternative postures to the standing sculptures. The cloths will gradually
gain independence from the figures, mutating the archaic regularity and
monotony with optical effects of realism and emphasis on the anatomical forms
or the dynamism of the subject.

Materials and techniques of Greek sculpture

In Ancient Greece, abundant reliefs (high, low and medium) were sculpted on
tombstones, votive tablets and as architectural decoration (friezes, metopes,
etc.), the latter being considered to be of the highest quality (example: the
reliefs attributed to Phidias in the Parthenon). These reliefs were usually carved
in stone with metal tools. Lost-wax bronze was the preferred technique for
creating public statues, but marble, limestone and terracotta were also used.
Chryselephantine statues made of marble and gold were rarer due to their high
cost and reserved for the most important cult statues. Polychromy was applied
to stone sculptures, especially limestone works because they had a rougher
finish, beginning as a brightly coloured decoration and becoming more discreet
and naturalistic during the development of Greek art. In addition to these
materials, wood, bone and ivory were also used in the miniatures. The increase
in private commissions and the need to spread Greek culture in the new
settlements during the Hellenistic period promoted an industry of copies of
works of art and the specialization of craftsmen, favouring the exploitation of
new conventions, monumentality (Colossus of Rhodes) and the loss of technical
quality.

Themes of Greek sculpture

The main themes of Greek sculpture were:

 Gods and mythological scenes.

 Heroes and battles.

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 Olympic Games winning athletes.

These three themes never ceased to be present in Greek art. Others were
added later:

Full-length portraits of illustrious figures in which a general characterization still

predominates over actual appearance.

Personifications (example: muses) and mythological creatures (example:

sphinxes).

Everyday scenes.

The human body was abundantly sculpted. Covered with cloths or naked. So
much so that the possibilities were expanded, exploring and mastering a greater
range of postures, emotions, ages and ethnicities.

The spread of Greek art over an ever-widening territory also led to the creation
of artistic schools with their own distinctive features:

 School of sculpture at Athens: Classical models and portraits.

 Alexandria School of Sculpture: Everyday Life and Allegories.

 Pergamon School of Sculpture: Drama and Pathos.

 Rhodes School of Sculpture: Dramatic themes and forced body turns.

1.7. Ceramics

From this period, the production of ceramics for everyday use or for funerary
purposes stands out, where large, well-stocked vases were used. With the idea
that they would be used by the deceased in their next life. These vases were
decorated with linear representations and motifs related to death, such as
maritime or land battles. Most of the pottery is made up of domestic pieces, of
which containers such as amphorae (used to preserve and transport solid or

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liquid food), small craters (where water and wine were combined) and hydria
(specific vases for water) survived.

On the other hand, several urns have been found among the funerary pottery.
Figurines were also made of baked clay, mainly to be deposited as offerings in
temples. During the Hellenistic period, a wide variety of pottery objects were
produced, although only some of them had artistic value.

During the earliest periods, even small Greek towns produced pottery for the
local market, with styles and models being very varied. Between 550 and 480
BC, ceramic art underwent a major transformation; in addition, the authors
included their names, the name of the potter or the painter who decorated their
pieces (there were also some artists who practiced both tasks). Athenian
https://www.ecured.cu/index.php?
title=Corinto_(Grecia)&action=edit&redlink=1and Corinthian pottery stood out
above the rest. Athens created the first representations of the Bello style:
vessels with red figures on a black background.

The history of ancient Greek pottery is subdivided into the following periods:

Period From the year

Pre-geometric 1050 BCE

Geometric 900 BCE

Last geometric or archaic 750 BCE

7th century
Black figures
B.C.E.

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Red figures 530 BCE

The range of colours that could be used on pottery was restricted by the firing
techniques: black, white, red and yellow were the most common colours. During
the first three periods, the ceramics kept their natural light colour with some
black motifs.

1.8. Architecture

One of the most easily recognizable signs of Greek artistic achievement is their
graceful architecture; in particular, the elegant stone columns and sculpted
triangular pediments of the three architectural styles that developed between
600 and 300 BCE.

The Parthenon, on the

Acropolishttps://www.ecured.cu/Atenashttps://www.ecured.cu/Acr%C3%B3polis
of Athens, is the best surviving example of Doric architecture.

These styles were created to build temples to the gods. Sculpted in marble,
they imitated the wood cutting techniques of buildings originally made from this
material.

The Doric style is the oldest and simplest, with firm columns and fronts covered
with sculptures that, at the same time, could be painted red or blue to create
impact. The best surviving example of a Doric temple is the Parthenon (438 BC)
on the Acropolis of Athens.

The Ionic style appeared around the same time in the richer cities of Asia Minor.
It is lighter and more decorative, with slender columns highlighting curled
volutes at each corner of the capital. The style reached its peak in the now-
disappeared Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the
World. Today we can admire Ionic architecture at the Temple of Athena Nike on
the Acropolis.

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By the 400th century B.C.E. A new, more elaborate version of Ionic

architecture, Corinthian, appeared. It was characterized by intricately carved
thorny leaves on the tops of the columns, which may reflect Middle Eastern
influence. The grandeur of the Corinthian style became the favorite architectural
style of Imperial Rome.

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CONCLUSION

The Greeks established the principle of rational consideration of man and

nature, in which they find the reason that explains the sensory experience of
aesthetics in Greek art.

For the Greeks, beauty was in perfection, proportion and harmony. The
Greek philosopher Protagoras held that man was the "ideal measure" of all
things. Knowledge of the parts, and their relationship to the whole, is at the root
of beauty and virtue for the Hellenes. Beauty is intellectually defined as the
harmony of parts in the whole.

These ideas were reflected in architecture and sculpture with the

application of the concepts of "architectural order" and "canon of beauty", in
both beauty is conceived as a harmonious proportion between the parts and the
whole, whether of a building or the body.

The art of Ancient Greece has exerted enormous influence on the culture
of many Western countries from ancient times to the present, particularly in
sculpture and architecture, evolving and connecting with the society of the time.

The art of the Roman Empire derives from Greek models. In the East, the
conquests of Alexander the Great initiated long decades of exchange between
Greek, Hindu and Asian cultures, resulting in the so-called Greco-Buddhist art,
whose ramifications even reach as far as Japan. The European Renaissance
was nourished by the humanist ideal and the high technical standards of Greek
art, inspiring generations of European artists.

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LITERATURE

 BIANCHI BANDINELLI, R., The art of classical antiquity. Funny. Madrid.

Akal. 1998.

 BLANCO FREIJERIO, A., Greek art. Madrid. CSIC. 1990.

 CAMÓN AZNAR, J., Theory of Greek art. Barcelona. Salvat. 1975.

 CARPENTER, T. H., Art and myth in ancient Greece. Barcelona.

Destination. 2001.

 DEMARGNE, P., Birth of Greek art. Madrid. Aguilar, 1964.

 GARCÍA BACA, J. D., On Greek aesthetics. Mexico. University Press. 1943.

 LOMBA, J., Principles of Greek art philosophy. Barcelona Anthropos. 1987.

 MOZZATI, L., Ancient Greece: from art as harmony to the anguish of

disenchantment. Madrid. Elected imp. 2001.

 POLLITT, J. J., Hellenistic art. Madrid. Nerea. 1998.

 POLLITT, J. J., Art and experience in classical Greece. Bilbao Xarait. 1990.

 POLLITT, J. J., The art of ancient Greece: sources and documents.

Cambridge University Press. 2001.

 WINCKELMANN, J., Reflections on the imitation of Greek works in painting

and sculpture. Madrid. Economic Culture Fund of Spain. 2007

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EXHIBIT

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