Ancient Greek Culture, Painting, and Sculpture Notes

What is a kore?

A female statue during the Archaic period, typically clothed, and painted.

What is foreshortening?

A technique used in perspective to create the illusion of an object receding strongly into the distance or background.

Why was it acceptable for female figures to be shown nude?

But you probably didn't notice all the similarities because you were busy noting that the female statue is clothed while the male statue is nude. That's because women's bodies were not considered ideal, especially not in Athens, which was considered the artistic center of Greece by the Archaic period.

What is something the Greeks introduced into two-dimensional art?

Chiaroscuro.

What are the differences between Greek art during this time and Egyptian art?

Egyptians made their statues in closed form so that nothing would break off. Greek sculptors on the other hand, wanted to show the human body the way it appeared in life. Since few people have the area between their legs and arms filled in, he carved the kouros (which means young man) in open form.

Do Classical Period sculptors convey realism or idealism?

Idealism. (Naturalism =/= Realism)

What do the different shapes of Greek ceramics mean?

In Greek ceramics, different shapes equaled different functions for each ceramic.

What are some characteristics of the Geometric stylistic period?

Not very naturalistic. A lot of registers. A lot of geometric patterning. Uses horror vacuui.

What's the second step?

Once the painter had finished this, the pot was fired in three stages. This process turned the slip black and retained the terra cotta color of the surface. So you ended up with something like this.

Who created the canon of proportions for Classical Greek sculptures?

Polykleitus.

What is still not naturalistic in black figure painting?

Still uses frontal vs profile eye, skin color to differentiate between the sexes, and the figures are often very stiff looking.

What is the Classical Period considered to the Greeks and why?

The Classical period is considered the high point, the golden age of Greek sculpture. The naturalism that the Archaic sculptors had sought has now been found.

What was something the Greek focused on?

The Greeks were very focused on the world around them and celebrating humanity.

What else changed during the archaic stylistic period?

The number of registers has been reduced drastically. The focus is clearly on the representation and, typically, there's only one register with such scenes. Horror vacuui isn't used as much. We also see the composite pose we've seen in Ancient Egypt, the Near East, and the Aegean. But very quickly we see the attempt to make the image reflect how real people are seen.

When does red figure painting appear and what can it be described as?

The red-figure technique, which first appears around 530 B.C., can be described as the reverse of the Black-Figure Style

Describe the Nike of Samothrace.

This statue was placed at the edge of a cliff overlooking a harbor. It was a place where the wind blew in from the sea. The placement of the sculpture makes it appeal to the viewer who saw it in context. The Nike (victory goddess) was part of the viewer's world before they moved it to the Louvre.

What was the most naturalistic of all the styles?

White-ground.

When was the Geometric stylistic period?

c. 1000-700 B.C.

When was the Archaic stylistic period?

c. 600-480 B.C.

When was the Orientalizing stylistic period?

c. 700-600 B.C.

What were the different stylistic period in Greek vase painting?

Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic (consisting of Black-Figure and Red-Figure styles), and White Ground.

What is a kouroi?

A male statue during the Archaic period, typically nude, and painted.

What is clearly shown throughout the different stylistic periods in Greek vase painting?

A very clear progression toward naturalism.

When was white-ground style introduced?

A little before 500 B.C.

What two different styles occurred during the archaic period?

Black figure and red figure.

What came first, Black figure or red figure?

Black figure came first at the beginning of the 6th century (500s B.C.)

What is Chiaroscuro?

Chiaroscuro is the use of light and dark colors to give the illusion of roundness and make things look like they have mass.*Only applies to two-dimensional art, NOT sculpture.

How was black figure painted vases created?

Clay was shaped into the vase (sometimes in parts that were "glued" together with watered down clay), and then the painter took over. The painter applied slip in the areas that [s]he wanted to turn black. Then, [s]he used a needle to incised lines into the slip and thus made details.

What is the Archaic smile?

During the Archaic period, sculptors solved the problem of a blank face with an expression called the Archaic smile.

What did Exekias use when he made Achilles and Ajax playing draughts, c. 540?

Exekias used foreshortening above to make it look like the shoulder is protruding toward the viewer in his image of Achilles and Ajax.

What's the first step of using a slip to make black figure?

First of all, color of the slip was not very different from the color of the clay that you were painting on. (Ignore the purple and white slips, here. They were rather rare.) We're discussing the slightly darker terra cotta color that shows the face and body of the figure.

How did the artists add details onto human figures during the Orientalizing stylistic period?

He leaves the base color and uses dark lines to paint those details. At this point, no method of including details on the dark figures had yet been developed.

What historical circumstances may have spurred the movement toward creating Hellenistic art?

In the 330s Greece had more or less been dominated by the Macedonian king Philip II. His son Alexander the Great sealed that domination of Greece and extended it to North Africa, the Near East and even South Asia. While not technically Greek himself, Alexander loved all that was Greek and extended the reach of Greek culture over this vast territory. In doing so, he also polluted (excuse the derogatory nature of the term) that culture. He exposed it to many other ideas and cultures, and he himself forced some Macedonian ideas on the Greeks. Macedonians had a far higher opinion of women then the Greeks did. The relative instability of Greece at this time has also been linked to images of death, drama, and other things unideal.

What other bold move did Praxiteles make?

In the Aphrodite of Knidos (aka Knidian Venus), we see a far bolder move. For the first time in Greek art we see a life-size female nude. In this work, Praxiteles depicted something that had been considered unideal (the female body) for centuries. This innovation caused the temple that had originally commissioned the work to reject it. Lucky for the temple of Aphrodite at Knidos, they accepted the reject.

What was the subject matter of the painting inside kylixes?

In the bowl of these rather shallow wine cups, you often saw the after effects of consuming alcohol. Sometimes, it was simply drinkers vomiting, but there were also images of Maenads or images of Dionysus, the god of drink. In many of these pictures there's an image warning you not to get too drunk or bad things will happen.

What was unnaturalistic about the Archaic smile?

It is nearly impossible to smile the Archaic smile. Most people widen their mouth and the top lip rises fairly uniformly.

What problem did the development of Black Figure solve?

It resolved the problem of including details on the painted figure.

What was white-ground style typically used on?

It was used mainly on lekythos, vessels that held olive oil, cups (especially the kylix) and kraters, mainly used during rituals.

What are some characteristic of art during the Hellenistic period?

Leans toward realism instead of idealism, very emotionally driven, greek artists no longer strove for summetria (balance) or arete (perfection/excellence/refinement).

What is contrapposto?

Literally, contrapposto means counter pose. It relates to the twist in the waist.

What are some characteristic of the Orientalizing stylistic period?

More fluid, organic lines used to represent people, flora, and fauna. Steps toward naturalism. The vases still have lots of registers, which is not naturalistic, but now, the registers that show subject matter are larger than those with just geometric patterns. Allows more focus on the representation. Still uses horror vacuui.

Who does Dr. Barrows believe Hellenistic art began with? Why?

Praxiteles, because he had rewritten the canon of proportions that had held since Polykleitos had come up with them. The body is thinner and longer than previous Classical sculpture. Furthermore, we see Hermes tempting his young brother Dionysos with a bunch of grapes (this is what he held in the arm that has since fallen off). It's rare to see this kind of playful subject matter in classical art, and rarer still to see a toddler squirming out of control.

What else did Hellenistic sculptors figure?

The ability to evoke emotion via placement also figured in Hellenistic architecture.

What is this period called?

The Archaic Period.

What did the Greeks begin adopting in the middle of the seventh century (c. 650 B.C.)?

The Greeks began adopting aspects of Egyptian statues. It is pretty clear that around 650 the Greeks started to make life-size statuary inspired by Egyptian examples.

Why did the Greeks create art?

The Greeks didn't define art as something that serves a function in the next life, that placates the gods, that reminds people of the leaders' ferocity, etc. Instead, they merely tried to repeat what their eyes had seen.

What came after the Classical period?

The Hellenistic period (c. 320 B.C)

What came after the archaic period?

The classical period (c. 480 B.C.)

What do artists start doing now that they found an easier method of adding details?

They started to twist the figures in space and added the profile eye; they make figures even more naturalistic.

What did the Greeks strive to achieve in their art?

They strived for naturalism, because of their stress on humanity.

What were Greek vases most commonly used for?

They were functional. In some cases, they were trophies given to winners of games, poetry contests, etc., but they were also used in everyday activities.

What Hellenistic fueled changes can we see in the Pergamon Altar?

The standard floor plan of the Greek Archaic and Classical temple has been changed from a rectangle to a Ushape. This alteration in shape allows for two long walls to project outward around a tall stairwell. Since rituals took place on the porch of the temple (both at the Parthenon and the Pergamon), most people experienced the ritual from the front of the building. At the Parthenon, the ritual was fairly close to you. At the Pergamon Altar, it was far above you. That's more dramatic. Also, at the Parthenon, the sculpture that decorated the building was relatively calm and it was far above you. At the Pergamon Altar, the sculpture was brought down to the base of the temple. In fact, it's just above your head. So it's close to you and what you see is intimidating.

What was the subject matter of the sculpture on the Pergamon Altar and what feelings can it convey?

The subject of the Gods battling the Titians is gruesome and emotional.

What formal elements did Hellenistic sculptors use to create drama and convincing illusions of movement in their art?

The use of diagonal lines is everywhere in Hellenistic sculpture. These convey dynamic movement, be it writing in the clutch of a sea serpent, falling down dead, or passing out. Hellenistic sculptures also used drills to undercut the stone. Undercutting is a sculptural technique, a cut behind a form that traps shadows between a form and the background.) This creates a greater contrast of light and dark. More contrast—more drama. See all the contrast in Laocoon's face and hair. That's from using a drill to create undercuts. More contrast—more drama.

Why wasn't white-ground popular?

The white slip was relatively fragile and not suited to the functional nature of the vases.

What were kylixes?

These are drinking cups that were used for public events, such as symposia. (Symposia were either intellectual get-togethers or drunken parties, or both.)

How were white-ground style vases painted?

To paint a White-Ground Style vase, the artist covered the lekythos with watered down-white clay (white slip) and then painted over it with various other colors and densities of slip. The kiln was NOT the three-stage reduction that turned slip black for Red and Black Figure Styles. The resulting images were very much like drawings or watercolors on a white surface.

What did early Greek sculpture look like?

Very undeveloped and unnaturalistic. If we compare sculpture to painting in ancient Greece, we find that the stylization of early painting is reflected in the sculpture.

What do art historians look at to see the progression of two-dimensional Greek art and why?

What do art historians look at to see the progression of two-dimensional Greek art and why?Art historians look at ceramics/vases to identify the progression of Greek 2D art, because little Greek wall or panel painting has survived.

How was slip used in red figure painting?

When painting a Red-Figure vase, the painter made the details by painting lines with a brush dipped in slip. Then the background was covered with slip.

Who were the Maenads?

Women who unintentionally ripped the best poet in Greece to shreds while they were drunk.

What can we notice in The Amazon Pethesilea stabbed through the Heart by Achilles, c. 460 B.C.?

You can see the soldier to the left turn to look back and it's convincing.