Chap' 6 Greeces Golden and Hellenistic Ages

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Chap. 6 Greeces Golden and Hellenistic Ages

• The ancient Greeks developed a civilization that
• greatly influenced Western history. By the
• 700s B.C. great Greek city-states had developed.
• They were led by Sparta and Athens. For years
• the Greek city-states fought off threats from
• Persian invaders. At Plataea in 479 B.C., Athens
• and Sparta joined to end the Persian threat.
• Following this victory, Greece entered an era of
• great cultural progress. In this chapter, you
  will
• learn about the development of Greek culture and
• how a rising power from outside of Greece helped
• to spread Greek achievements throughout the
• ancient world.

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Section 1 Greek Art of the Golden Age

• The Story Continues
• After the Persian Wars, the wealth and power of
  Athens drew artists and teachers from across
  Greece. These people worked to make Athens a
  center of learning and artistic achievement. As
  Pericles said to his fellow Athenians
• We are lovers of the beautiful, yet with
  economy, and we cultivate the mind without loss
  of manliness. . . . To sum up I say that Athens
  is the school of Hellas Greece.

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I. The Arts of the Golden Age

• 400s B.C. - the golden age of Greek culture

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I. The Arts of the Golden Age

• Artists and teachers from across Greece made
  Athens a center of learning and art

An Athenian boy receiving instruction in rhetoric
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A. Architecture

• Athenians built temples, gymnasiums, and
• theaters decorated with artwork and
• sculptures

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A. Architecture

• The Acropolis was the center of the original
  city-state it held the Parthenon, a marble
  temple dedicated to Athena

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A. Architecture

• A colonnade surrounded the temple with sculpted
  figures above the columns

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A. Architecture

• Inside the Parthenon stood a statue of Athena
  made of ivory and gold

A reconstruction of the statue of Athena (Athena
Promachos "she who fights in the front line"),
built between 450 BC and 448 BC, made by the
sculptor Phidias, who had been placed in charge
of the decoration of the Parthenon by the
Athenian politician Pericles. "The statue is made
of ivory and gold," the Greek author Pausanias
writes, "She has a sphinx on the middle of her
helmet, and griffins on either side of it. She
stands upright in an ankle-length tunic with the
head of Medusa in ivory on her breast. She has a
spear in her hand and a shield at her feet, and a
snake beside the shield.
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B. Painting

• Painting was important in Greece, but most
  paintings have been lost or damaged

Fresco painting depicting the moment the Olympic
flame is lit by the priests to commence the
ancient Olympic games
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B. Painting

• Preserved paintings which illustrated everyday
  life and mythology are found on vases

Black-figure vase painting depicting a
blacksmiths shop
Orpheus singing to Thracians Vase painting from
Sicily, c. 440 BC
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B. Painting

• Vase painters showed graceful and natural
  movements, using light and shade to show contour
  and depth

Attic red-figured kylix attributed to Douris the
painter and Python the potter, circa 480 B.C.
(1,766,000)
The calyx- krater depicts the death of Actaeon
(1,051,000)
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C. Sculpture

• Works of Greek sculpture are rare, but many
  copies were made by the Romans

Aphrodite of Melos, aka Venus de
Milo
Laocoön and His Sons ca. 200 BC.
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C. Sculpture

• Like paintings, early Greek sculpture shows
  Egyptian influences

In Greek mythology, Biton and Kleobis were the
sons of Cydippe, a priestess of Hera. Cydippe was
traveling from Argos to an important festival.
The oxen to pull her cart were late and her sons
volunteered to pull the cart. Cydippe was
impressed with their devotion and she prayed to
Hera, asking her to give her children the best
gift a god could give to a mortal. Hera ordained
that the brothers would die in their sleep, and
after the feast the youths lay down in the temple
of Hera, slept and never woke.
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C. Sculpture

• Golden age artist Myron sculpted the famous
  statue The Discus Thrower

Myron's Discobolus (Discus Thrower) statue from
the 5th century B.C. The original bronze statue
disappeared long ago, but before its
disappearance a Roman artist made this copy in
marble, which today is housed at the Italian
National Museum in Rome.
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C. Sculpture

• Phidias created statues of Athena but his
  greatest work was the statue of Zeus at the
  Temple of Olympia

The statue of the Zeus at Olympia was created
about 450 BC by Phidias. One of the Seven Wonders
Athena of Nashville
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C. Sculpture

• Praxiteles sculpted human figures that were more
  lifelike and natural in form and size

Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus. ca. 330 B.C.
APHRODITE OF KNIDOS
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II. The Nature of Greek Art

• Greek art reflected the Greeks view of
  themselves and the world in four main ways

Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders
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A. Human Art

• 1. Greek art glorified and idealized the human
  body - statues of athletes, warriors, and
  ordinary citizens

Athenian hoplites who died in the Peloponnesian
War 400s B.C.
Olympian wrestlers 5th. century B.C.
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A. Human Art

• 2. Art reflected the Greek ideals of beauty,
• strength, intelligence, pride, grace, and
• courage

Warrior of Riace, bronze, c. 450 BCE, height 6'
8 Found in sea off of Riace, Italy in 1972
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B. Pride in City-states

• 3. Greek art showed pride in the power and glory
  of their city-states

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C. Greek Beliefs

• 4. Greek art expressed Greek beliefs in harmony,
  balance, order, and moderation

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C. Greek Beliefs

• Moderation meant simplicity and restraint,
  qualities emphasized in everyday life

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D. Beauty and Usefulness

• Greek art combined beauty with usefulness. Most
  Greek art was functional and had a clear purpose