Aegean to Golden Age Culture
The Foundations of Classical Style
Minoan Art Fresco
Painting on a moist, plaster surface
Minoan Art
Priestess with Snakes1500 BCE
Mycenaean Architecture
Lion GateCitadel at Mycenae1250 BCE
Aegean Sculpture
Sounion KourosMarble590 BCE
Peplos KoreMarble525 BCE
Music
Instruments Aulos Lyre Kitharode
Terms Mousikê
(music) Melos
(melody) Harmonia
(harmony)
Pythagoras Monochord
2:1 Octave
3:2 Fifth
4:3 Fourth
The mathematical foundation for all music Western 12 tone Japanese 5 tone Arabic 17 tone
Stasimon Chorus from OrestesEuripides c. 408 BCE
Who was Orestes? Stasimon
An ode sung by the chorus
Context The women of
Argos are pleading for Orestes’ life.
Emotions Voices
“You wild goddesses who dart across the skies seeking vengeance for murder, we beg you to free Agamemnon’s son from his raging fury… We grieve for this boy. Happiness is brief among mortals. Sorrow and anguish sweep down on it like a swift gust of wind on a sail boat, and it sinks under the tossing seas.”
Stasimon Chorus from OrestesEuripides c. 408 BCE
Classical Style Order
If music was mathematical, then why not art? Proportion
Calculated body measurements Symmetry
Humanism Focus on human beings
Realism Faithful to nature
Idealism Perfection that surpasses nature
Classic Sculpture
Kritios BoyMarble480 BCE
Sounion KourosMarble590 BCE
Columns in Chicago
Doric Columns
Ionic Columns
Corinthian Columns