Chapter 5 – Greek Art
· Ancestors of Western Civilization.
· Western civilization is based on the images of the Greek and Roman worlds.
· Greek thinkers looked at many dualities of life.
o Order from disorder, Cosmos from Chaos.
o Civilization vs. Barbarianism
§ Light v. the Dark
· It is a mistake to think that we perceive the works in the same manner the ancient Greeks did.
· There are generally three sources on Greek art, that are sometimes conflicting.
o The works themselves.
o Roman and Greek copies.
§ Sometimes multiple copies contradict each other. We don’t know what the original looked like.
§ Roman copies tend to reflect Roman culture.
o Literature.
· Emergence of Greek Art: The Geometric Style.
o First speaking Greek groups emerge about 2,000 B.C.E.
§ Dorians
§ The Ionians
§ Aeolians
o Known as geometric style because of the predominance of linear designs.
· Stone Sculpture – 103
o Show affinities with techniques and proportional systems used by the Egyptian sculptures.
o Four distinct sides reflecting the sides of the block.
o Frontal – Standing.
o They were free standing.
o They were more stylized than Egyptian works.
o Nudity:
§ Egyptians forced slaves to be nude.
o Not a lot of identifying details.
§ More along the lines of ideals of the body.
§ Shared by mortals and immortals alike.
§ Only wealthy patrons could afford them.
· Archaic Period:
o 700-450 B.C.E.
o Dating periods are made on the naturalism of the sculptures.
§ They are difficult to date.
· Synoptic Narrative – Two different points in a story fused into one.
· The Classic Age
o From the end of Persian wars 490 B.C.E to the Death of Alexander the Great.
o Sought visual harmony in proportioned systems and artists achieved heightened naturalism in depicting the human form.
o More detail emphasized the sculptures three-dimensionality and encouraged a viewer to move around it and brought out the naturalism of the pose.
o The natural lines incurred by poses also brought the feeling of movement.
o 125 – Artists contrasting vigorous action and firm stability. Shows the artists understanding of bodies and the craft and knowledge of their art.
o Some were studies in anatomy against compositional styles. 126
§ Individual body elements speaking to a whole pose.
o The Greeks admired great men and their deeds.
o Their ideals were personified by the gods and expressed. Their art was a blend of art, deeds and myth 129.
o Art was a reflection of their ideals and perfection and nuances to emotion, composition, and craft all elevated the impact of the works.
§ Implied movement
§ Facial expressions
§ Posing
§ All in line to compare and contrast morality
o 133 – Aristotle notes only a slight resemblance to morality through sculptures and painting. If one likes the copy, then one likes the original.
o People should learn to draw in order to help them become judges of the beauty of the human form.
· Hellenistic Sculpture: Expression and Movement.
o Explored emotion, three-dimensional movement.
o Heightened drama in viewer involvement.
o Portraiture was a chief development.
o Individual likeness was used.
o Alexander the Great is attributed to the movement as portraiture as his image was used all over.
o A distant gaze was given to Alexander and would be used for other great generals.
o Dramatic subjects infused with emotion were the preferred.
o 155; “Gone is the Classical tradition of referring to the enemy through mythological analogy.”
o 157: Greek Classicism: Winckelmann was to capture an ideal beauty that transcended nature.
o Hellenistic Realism.
o Baroque – extreme emotions, extravagant gestures and theatrical locations.
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