Where are you supposed to look in this painting? How do you know? What makes the painting dramatic, and whose face are we supposed to be drawn to? What details does the painting pick out? Does this give the painting greater meaning? What is the atmosphere in the painting? HOW DOES THE PAINTING DO THIS?? The artist uses LIGHT AND TONE to do a number of things: Help to create the illusion of three dimensional space and form. Pick out elements of a narrative. Make details clear. Create mood and atmosphere. Thomas Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875, Oil on Canvas, 8ft x 6 ft Greek and Roman Painting: Unfortunately, hardly any Greek painting survives, and little Roman painting. What do survive from the Ancient Greeks are Pots!!! As you can see, the Greeks had many kinds of pot, and these were often very functional. You can look at the shape and have a pretty good guess at what they are used for. Have a go A kantharos or cantharus is a type of Greek pottery used for drinking. An aryballos was used to contain perfume or oil. An askos was used to pour small quantities of liquids such as oil. Greek pots were essential, but pricey. Crucially important for running everyday life, but also a symbol of status. So what is likely to happen to them over time? Dipylon Vase, 8 th Century BC 3 feet, 4 1/2 in high. Detail from the Dipylon Vase, showing figures mourning a corpse. What has happened to this pot? What do you notice about it? What do you notice about the detail, compared to the rest of the pot? Dipylon Vase, 8 th Century BC 3 feet, 4 1/2 in high. Task: Divide into two groups. With this vase as your starting point, see if you can work out what happened to Greek pot painting by trying to order successive pots chronologically. You will need to think carefully about your choices and be prepared to back them up with reasonable hypotheses. 1 point for every two images in the correct order, giving you a maximum of 7 points! Make sure you take notes as we speed through Greek pottery so that you have a good grasp of the development of Greek vase painting (along with rough dates). Figurative art emerges in the Geometric or Archaic Period and becomes far more pronounced in later pots. Aryballos, ca. 570 B.C. What differences can you spot between the figures and animals in these details? Neck-amphora, c. 540530 B.C. Changes? What happened to all of the detail? What gets more and more prominence? Panathenaic amphora, c. 530 B.C. What is new about the figures depicted in this pot? Funerary plaque, ca. 520510 B.C. Archaic Bell krater, ca. 460 B.C Columnkrater c. 430 B.C. Oinochoechous (jug) c. 420410 B.C. Figurative art emerges in the Geometric or Archaic Period and becomes far more pronounced in later pots. Columnkrater c. 430 B.C. Bell krater, ca. 460 B.C Funerary plaque, ca. 520510 B.C. Archaic Panathenaic amphora, c. 530 B.C. Neck-amphora, c. 540530 B.C. Aryballos, ca. 570 B.C. Oinochoechous (jug) c. 420410 B.C. Crucial shift (which you should know) Black figure vases are superseded by red figure vases. This meant that instead of having black figures delineated by red outlines, figures could be given greater three dimensionality with shading and modelling. Read the article handout and consider the following questions: What new techniques are the Greeks credited with inventing? What was the process of painting like for the Ancient Greeks and Romans? What kind of cultural status do you think the classical painter would have had? What was the function of art in the ancient world? The Fayum Portraits 1 st -2 nd Century AD! Three quarter profile, modelling with light and shade, realistic use of colour (despite limitations), careful picking out of details. These portraits express emotion and give a sense of real encounter with people alive 1900 years ago! This is later than Hellenism, but is likely to be reflective of earlier Greek art in terms of technique and representation. It is at this time that the Mediterranean is absorbed within the Roman Empire. New word! Fresco A durable method of painting on a wall by using watercolours on wet plaster. Advantages: Durable, even surface that holds pigment very well. Plaster also ages much better than canvas or panel and does not warp or stretch etc. Disadvantages: Very difficult to do! Plaster dries very quickly and you can only paint on wet plaster. Therefore takes an enormous amount of skill. Also, if there are any structural problems, water gets onto the plaster or it is badly executed it can crack, flake or look uneven. Famous examples: Michelangelos Sistine Chapel, Raphaels School of Athens and MANY MANY MORE. (Youll learn about them soon enough!) In the first style, c. 200 BC until 80 BC, the walls are painted to seem as though they are covered with colorful stones, especially marble slabs and masonry blocks. Such stones were typically seen in more upper class homes. Thus, this style means to project the wealth of the villa owner. The first style accentuates the flatness of the wall with panels that imitate imported, and therefore expensive, stone. This emphasis on flatness changes drastically in the second style. Roman painting mostly exists in the form of fresco paintings in villas that have survived. Other paintings did exist, but did not last. Broadly speaking there were four Roman fresco styles. Make brief notes summarizing the styles and ask if you have any questions: The second style, 1st century BC, replaces the reproduction of stone blocks with landscape scenes. Wall paintings of the second style creates the illusion of a three dimensional space from what is actually a two dimensional space. The style opens the wall by portraying windows and porticos (which are essentially roofs supported by columns, almost like a porch) which guide the viewers eye towards imaginary scenes that were usually framed by painted columns and other architectural elements. So the space transcends the room using several perspective devices. Idyllic landscape paintings of the second style usually have sacred buildings and figures. Some scenes also feature events that stem from Hellenistic myth and theater. The third style, 2010 BC., limits pictorial illusion in order to create framed images where the framing is actually painted on. The overall appearance is flat in contrast to the three dimensional space created in the second style. The third style closes up the walls making a sort of picture gallery effect. The third style also abandons the second styles realistic architectural elements and open vistas. The architecture that is shown in the paintings of the third style is now slender, fine, and unrealistic. In some third style paintings, elongated candelabras (or decorative candlesticks that look like columns) replaces the second styles painted columns. The fourth style, c. 6079 AD, incorporates elements from earlier styles. The architecture in fourth style wall paintings is more realistic and the wall has a tendency to open up like the second style although not as much. Deriving from the third style, fourth style paintings have an almost portable quality about them. They frequently have aediculae (or a small Roman shrine) and tapestries painted using the art technique of tromp-loeil, which means that a three dimensional space is imitated. But something that is only seen in the fourth style is the imitation of stage backgrounds. Homework for next lesson: Please read Page 138 from the second paragraph The Parthenon is the supreme example of the Doric to page 141 ending with political significance, to suggest the unity of the Greek world led by Athens against the Persians. in Honour and Fleming. Make note of any questions you have and try to look up any words you dont know in the books glossary and write them down. We will be covering all of the content in the lesson, but there is a lot to get through and in order to have time for discussion its crucial that you have at least some familiarity with it.