Supplementary materials to accompany our text and chapter notes that can be found here:
Please view the following video and essay links.
They will provide you with some introductory facts about Ancient Greece
While reviewing each one, try to capture in your notes the overarching ideas presented:
- Ancient Greek Culture attributes
- Geography, time periods and eras
- Ways of life
- Philosophy
- Ideas grounded in democracy
- Visual Culture and the objects they made
They will provide you with some introductory facts about Ancient Greece
While reviewing each one, try to capture in your notes the overarching ideas presented:
- Ancient Greek Culture attributes
- Geography, time periods and eras
- Ways of life
- Philosophy
- Ideas grounded in democracy
- Visual Culture and the objects they made
1. What did Ancient Greece give us? 5:08
Where in the world are we? East of Italy, North of Africa, West of Turkey ....
The Classical Greek World
Here we find the emergence of a Classical style that illustrated numerous things: cultural stories, historical narratives, religion and mythology.
Exekias Vatican Black Figure amphora 800 - 300 BCE
Amphoras & kraters
Oldest = The GEOMETRIC PERIOD 900 - 700 BCE
Black-figure 800 - 300 BCE simultaneously painted
Red-figure 700 - 400 BCE
From our text...
"There is no hint of gods or kings. Focus rests on the private diversions of heroic warriors as well as on the identity and personal style of the artist who portrayed them."
"Supremely self-aware and self-confident, the ancient Greeks developed a concept of human supremacy and responsibility that required a new visual expression."
Exekias (Ancient Greek: Ἐξηκίας, ExÄ“kÃas) was an ancient Greek vase-painter and potter who was active in Athens between roughly 545 BC and 530 BC. Exekias worked mainly in the black-figure technique, which involved the painting of scenes using a clay slip that fired to black, with details created through the incision. Exekias is regarded by art historians as an artistic visionary whose masterful use of incision and psychologically sensitive compositions mark him as one of the greatest of all Attic vase painter and was identified as the creator of many amphoras.
Made of terra cotta clay with black slip and sgraffito.
"Sgraffito, (Italian: “scratched”), in the visual arts, a technique used in painting, pottery, and glass, which consists of putting down a preliminary surface, covering it with another, and then scratching the superficial layer in such a way that the pattern or shape that emerges is of the lower color. During the Middle Ages, especially in panel painting and in the illumination of manuscripts, the ground was often of gold leaf. In wall-painting, or mural painting, two layers of different colored plaster are usually employed."
RE: Britannica Encyclopedia 
Red-figure amphora
Skilled artisans produced metal and ceramic ware for trade for grain, raw materials, and other ceremonial libations and food.
"Within a remarkably brief time, Greek artists developed focused and distinctive ideals of human beauty and architectural design that continue to exert a profound influence today. From about 900 BCE until about 100 BCE, they concentrated on a new, rather narrow range of subjects and produced an impressive body of work with focused stylistic aspirations in a variety of media."
Ceramics
Metal work
Architecture
Glass
And painting, took high form on the exteriors of clay vessels.
The artists continued and sought out to change and improve artistic trends based on direct observation, style of dress, architecture, and visual imagery. This was in great contrast to the Early Kingdom of what we saw in Ancient Egypt that represented the cultural stories and the lives of those in power.
The GEOMETRIC PERIOD 900 - 700 BCE
Ceramic vessels with linear motifs, spirals, diamonds and cross-hatching. Large funerary vessels were made as grave makers. Geometric style illustrates a preference of open compositions based around large, natural looking motifs. These designs can be traced to the Near East, Asia Minor and Egypt, the Greeks traveled wide and far!
The Greek Key
Is a geometric abstraction based in both architectural motifs that are found all over the ancient world and the from Greek mythology of the Minotaur's labyrinth. The Minotaur was a bull-headed monster born of Queen Pasiphae after she coupled with a bull. The Minotaur lived in a maze-like labyrinth where the monster was offered a regular diet of young males and maidens to satisfy its cannibalistic hunger. Here are a few images from Ancient Greek art representing the 1/2 bull 1/2 human mythological creature.
The GREEK KEY design remains in use today...
One needs to ask ourselves why is it so popular thousands of years later?
1. It's design is a strong contrast between negative space (air) and positive form (the design) = in fact, they're just about balanced
2. It's a design that represents architecture
3. It's a design that is symmetrical, shows unity, harmony, and human invention of architecture
4. It's a design that interlocks together, suggesting how the attributes of Greek culture "interlock" philosophy, reason, democracy, the arts, literature, music together
5. It's a design that has no beginning nor end
6. It is symbolic of the Classical World, pure and simple
Versace on the Fashion Runway, Paris
THE ARCHAIC PERIOD c. 600 - 480 BCE
(Archaic is an adjective meaning extremely old)
(Archaic is an adjective meaning extremely old)
It was a time of great artistic achievement.
In literature, Sappho wrote her inspired poetry, while Aesop crafted his fables we still read today.
Caryatids (seen above - architectural forms in the shape of women)
are columns carved in the form of clothed women in finely pleated flowing garments raised on pedestals and holding the pediment
Note: the contrapposto pose, which is a weight shift onto one leg:
- An asymmetrical arrangement of the human figure in which the line of the arms and shoulders contrasts with the juxtaposition with the hips and legs.
Column shafts are often fluted
The Greeks worshipped in temples - a building with columned porches was a type of standard open-air type buildings.
Columns were robust, thus creating impressions of great stability and permanence.
Note how the columns are thicker at the base and thinner at the top where the column meets the Capital.
Columns were robust, thus creating impressions of great stability and permanence.
Note how the columns are thicker at the base and thinner at the top where the column meets the Capital.
"The Greek Orders" are the capitals that are at the top of each column.
Throughout Cazenovia, you can see many of these. And in fact, they're so popular because of what they symbolically represent, we can purchase plastic ones in Lowe's or HomeDepot even today!
Doric "D" laying down
Ionic "I" or 'eyes'
Corinthian "C" curvilinear, let me remind you of the columns from Ancient Egypt with their papyrus and lotus capitals!!
** Ask yourselves why in our contemporary world we return to the Classical World of Ancient Greece. Is this symbolic? Of what?
- MARBLE FRIEZESGreat high Reliefs were carved with stories from Ancient Greece civilization - both historic events and Greek mythologies. This area is directly below the pediment. Whole stories would wrap around the frieze so one could understand great stories and learn from the carved figures.
** Notice how all males are represented nude, while females are clothed.
We see this throughout Greek art.
Above... Where in the world are we?What is on the back of our nickel?Thomas Jefferson's house in VirginiaBelow .... Where in the world are we here?
It is highly symmetrical and symbolic of unity and balance, while noting the Classical World and everything that came with it; democracy, government, literature, the arts, philosophy, etc.
The White House, Washington D.C. was designed after Ancient Greek building.
Temple of Aphaia, Aegina (below)c. 500 - 475 BCE, column height 17'
Above engraving illustrates the scale of the Temple of AphaiaUnlike Egyptian temples, Greek architecture revealed the full shape of the enclosed space; a closed, compact sculptural mass ...
"inviting viewers not to enter seeking something within, but rather to walk around the exterior, exploring the rich sculptural embellishment on the pediments and frieze. Cult ceremonies, after all, took place outside the temples."The information for test #3/5 includes info from our blog pages and our last test #2/5 in Ancient Egypt, directly below the image of Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt) until this red line below.
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Dying Warriors, marble (once painted) in the entablature of the Temple of Aphaia, c. 490 - 480 BCE - both in the nude.
Marble that looks like flesh, note the psychological emotion portrayed in each of the figures. Ancient Greeks tried to portray all facets of being human
Boy of Kouros, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Parthenon, 447 - 432 BCE
The Parthenon, 447 - 432 BCE
Reconstruction of the Statue of Athenaa 40' statue made of goldGreek Goddess Athena was the
goddess of Wisdom and War
Athena, also referred to as Athene, is a very important goddess of many things.
She is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.She is known most specifically for her strategic skill in warfare and is often portrayed as a companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavor.RE: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/athena/
Hellenistic period...The period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 b.c. to the middle of the first century b.c. It was marked by Greek and Macedonian migration to areas conquered by Alexander thus spreading Greek civilization from Greece to northern India.
WATCH THIS LINK from : Kahn Academy: Nike (Victory) of Samothrace
We have seen many of the influences of the Ancient Greek world. Above the NIKE symbol, where does it come from?It comes from the Goddess Nike (Victory)It's whoosh check mark illustrating the brand is "correct"While it also pays kudos back to the Ancient goddess Nike, the whoosh isa wing in profile from Victory's back.
Marble statue of an old market woman1st century A.D.; Early Imperial, Roman occupation.Hellenistic periodFrom the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYCDuring the Hellenistic period, artists became concerned with the accurate representation of childhood, old age, and even physical deformity. The range of subject matter was extended to include genre-like figures from the fringes of society. Fine, large-scale statues of fishermen, peasants, and aged courtesans became valued religious dedications, sometimes placed in a park-like setting within the sanctuary of the god. Although this statue is known familiarly as The Old Market Woman, it probably represents an aged courtesan on her way to a festival of Dionysos, the god of wine. Her delicate sandals and the ample material in her thin, elaborately draped chiton are a far cry from the rough garb of a peasant woman. The ivy wreath on her head marks her association with Dionysos, and the basket of fruit and the two chickens must be dedicatory gifts to the god or simply her own provisions for a long day of celebration. Veneration of Dionysos was widespread during the Hellenistic period, and ancient literary descriptions give an idea of the extraordinary processions and festivals held in his honor. The flattened composition of the figure is typical of sculpture created in the late second century B.C. The original work may have been dedicated in a sanctuary of Dionysos. The Roman copy could have decorated a garden.
