ART HISTORY

“THE GREEKS”

“ Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in. ~Amy Lowell”

DIFFERENT PHASES OF ANCIENT GREEK

ART

Mycenaean art (1550 to 1200 BC )

- The latter learned a few thing, including how to

build gates and tombs.

- Mycenaean were awesome goldsmiths and

potters.

- They raised pottery from merely functional to

beautifully decorative, and segued right out of the

Bronze Age into their own insatiable appetite for

gold.

Proto-Geometric (1025 - 900 BC)

- decorated with simple shapes, black bands and

wavy lines.

- both technique in creating, and shapes of pots

were being refined.

Geometric Art (900 - 700 BC)

- Pottery decoration moved beyond simple shapes to also

include animals and humans.

- use of simple geometric shapes.

Archaic Art (700 - 480 BC)

- best known for the beginnings of realistic

depictions of humans.

- limestone kouros (male) and kore (female)

statues were created - always showing

young, nude, smiling persons.

Classical Art (480 - 323 BC)

- period that human statues became so heroically proportioned.

- they were reflective of Greek Humanistic belief in the nobility

of man

- desire to look a bit like gods.

GREEK TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE

temple of Athena , Greek goddess of

wisdom, on the Acropolis in Athens. The

Parthenon was built in the 5th century

BC, and despite the enormous damage it

has sustained over the centuries, it still

communicates the ideals of order and

harmony for which Greek architecture is

known.

Doric order

Ionic order temple from the middle classical period of Greek

art and architecture, built on the Acropolis of

Athens between 421 and 405BC.

The Erechtheum contained sanctuaries to

Athena Polias, Poseidon, and Erechtheus.

Corinthian

Order

Is the highest, most slender, and

most decorative among the three. It

uses Oriental decorative elements

like the acanthus leaves at the top

of the column. It exaggerated

sentiment and emotional

extravagance of the Hellenistic

Period.

Fourth Century BC

GREEK IDEAL OF BEAUTY

Near the end of 5th century…

•Artists achieved art mastery

•Ordinary Greek people became more conscious of Art

•They wanted less ideal, more natural and more graceful works of art

Praxiteles

•Pupil of Phidias, said to be one of the greatest sculptors of Classical Greece

•Became the Chief sculptor in 4th Century Greek Society

Praxiteles

• “Hermes holding the infant Dionysus”

• Graceful appearance achieved by using the “S Curve” or later known as the “Praxiteles Curve”

• Less god-like and more natural appearance

Praxiteles

•“Venus de Medici”

•Either done by Praxiteles himself or his school

•Said to be the first Portrayal of a nude feminine body

Other works attributed to Praxiteles’ school of art

Erechtheum

• A three-in-one temple for Erechtheus, Poseidon, and Athena

Notable Traits of Erechtheum• Caryatids

Notable Traits of Erechtheum• One of the best usages of Ionic Order

• Ionic Order

• Architectural design focusing on the use of Volutes

Notable Traits of Erechtheum• “Nike untying her Sandal”

Lysippus

•Personal sculptor of Alexander the Great

•Emphasized the faces of his work’s animation and expression of personality

•One the great sculptors of Classical Greece

Lysippus• Face of Alexander the Great

Lysippus• Eros stringing the bow

GREEK MUSIC

Greek Music

•Two Meanings:

•Mathematics of Music

•Music and Poetry

Mathematics of Music

• Laws of Governing Vibrations of tones and their application in the seven scales used in Greek Music

• Used a unique and much more complicated scale compared to the common “major” and “minor” scales used nowadays

• Added sub-scales to the now common diatonic scales

Mathematics of Music• Ancient Greek Musical System

Mathematics of Music

• Differences of Ancient Greek Music to Modern Music

• Contained no Harmony in the modern sense

• When the term Harmony is used by them, it meant “melody”

• When the term “Symphony” is used, it meant two tones being heard at the same time

Music and Poetry

• Musicality of Poetry

• Music existed without poetry but poetry could not exist without music

• Word and tone, poem and melody were created simultaneously

• Melody supported and vivified the poetic text

• Two-, three-, or four-beat measures of poems originated from the “iambic, trochaic, anapaestic, and dactylic” meters of Greek poetry

Music and Poetry• Singing should always be accompanied with instruments

Music and Poetry

• Seven Stringed Lyre

• Accompanied Lyric Poetry

• Due to its restrained tone

• Said to be also the instrument Apollo played

• Instrument of the Apollonian cult from Delos

Music and Poetry

•Cithara

• Accompanied Lyric Poetry and preferred by professional players over the lyre

• More sonorous than the lyre, but it is simply a type of lyre

Music and Poetry

• Aulos

• Has a shrill and penetrating sound

• “More stirring and Passionate”

• Used by the cult of Dionysus

Music and Poetry• Festival of Dionysus

• Dionysus is the God of Wine, merrymaking and fertility

• Plays, mostly Greek tragedies, were held inside the Theatre of Dionysus on the Southern slope of Acropolis

Music and Poetry

• Highest form of Choric Poetry:

• Dithyramb

• Consists of :

• Strophe (Turn) - first part of an ode, chanted from right to left

• Antistrophe (counter turn)–response to Strophe, chanted in the opposite direction

• Epode (Aftersong) – third part of an ode, completed the movement

Music and Poetry

• Dithyramb was chanted by twelve singers in a chorus

• Chanted in slow, rhythmic, steps

• Tried to follow Ethos

• Basis of the Greek Tragedies

• Followed an AAB pattern

GREEK LITERATURE

Aeschylus

• Both a musician and a fighter

• Lived during the time of the Persian Wars

• Contributions:

• Removed the restrains of the form of Dithyramb

• Added another actor

• Reduced the chorus to fifteen from its previously 24 member status

• Made around 90 plays

Aeschylus

• “Will to live in face of death” is a common underlying theme in his plays

• Exalts death and suffering

Tragedy

• Aristotle said:

• Imitation of life situations that are serious, complete, of considerable magnitude, and couched in poetic language

• Dramatic and evokes emotions such as fear, pity, and others

• Should show the transition from happiness to misery of a character

• Should be integrated very well that any scene cannot be removed

• Emphasize Catharsis (“Purging”)

Sophocles

• Wrote 123 plays (7 survived the passage of time)

• Wrote famous plays that had shown warmth and human sympathy

• Writer of “Oedipus Rex”

Euripides

• Most modern Greek tragedy writer

• Well acquainted to people’s sufferings

• Critical, subversive, destructive

• Lived during the Peloponnesian war

• Portrayed the hideousness of cruelty and passion

Aristophanes

• Master of Greek Comedy

• Wrote 40 comedies (11 surviving)

• Comedy

• Mad, rollicking, vivacious, and lively

• Three actors, 24 chorus (song and dance)

• Included a commentary by the author halfway through the performance