Classical Greece 5

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Classical Greece 5

• CNE/ART 354
• 3/29/06

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Porch Metopes

• 12 sculpted metopes decorated the front and back
  porches
• Subject 12 labors of Herakles, founder of the
  Olympic Games.

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Olympic Oracle

• There was an oracle, but we dont hear much about
  it.
• Famous families of seers lived in Elis and
  interpreted the gods will by looking at flames
  and smoke.

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Stadium

• What you see today is the 3rd of the stadia built
  at Olympia. Kept getting bigger/grander with
  increasing popularity of the Games.
• Foot races were held here.
• Races for men were panhellenic but the womens
  footrace was for the unmarried women of Elis
  only. The womens footrace was in honor of Hera,
  founded by Hippodameia (mythical founding).

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Other Agones
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Nike of Paionios (420 BCE)

• Inscription on statue base in the sanctuary says
  that Paionios made it and that he was also
  commissioned to make the acroteria (roof
  sculpture) for the Temple of Zeus.
• 6 feet 5 inches tall, set on top of a triangular
  pillar, 33 feet in the air.
• Dedicated to celebrate a military victory.
• Drapery is carved so as to illustrate the rush of
  her flight through the air, accentuates her body.

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Nike of Paionios, Continued

• The action shown the moment of her landing.
• Her wings would have been outspread.
• Important piece of sculpture
• High quality carving
• Stylistically midway between the Parthenon
  sculptures and the wet look drapery of the
  Athena Nike parapet sculptures.

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Changes in Votive Patterns

• Archaic Period large numbers of small metal
  objects, often personal possessions of
  individuals (raw offerings, primary function
  unrelated to their place in a sanctuary).
• Classical Period Large drop in number of metal
  statuettes dedicated. Shift to terracotta
  votives? Personal possessions no longer seemed
  appropriate to give to the gods. Shift to
  converted offerings (objects specially made to
  be votives).

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Vase-painting, 5th-4th Centuries

• J.D. Beazely spent his life analyzing Greek
  fine-ware pottery and assigning styles to
  painters.
• Published Athenian Black-Figure Pottery, Athenian
  Red-Figure Pottery.
• His system is based on 3 categories of naming.

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Beazleys Categories

• We actually know who the painter was because he
  signed the pot (so and so painted this ???afe?).
  Rare.
• The potter says, so and so made this ?p???se?).
  Also rare.
• Descriptive name
• Name of museum holding the pot (Berlin Painter)
• Description of subject matter or characteristic
  style/pose (The Achilles painter, the Elbows Out
  painter)

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Brief Review

• By the 6th c. Athens had begun to export her
  pottery far and wide.
• By mid 6th c. Athens established as the chief
  ceramic center of the Mediterranean. Corinth had
  been eliminated from the market.
• Tombs and sanctuaries all over the Med. World
  (especially Etruria) contained Attic vases.
• Athens ceramic dominance lasted c. 150 years.

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Changes in Greek Drawing

• Until mid 6th c figures were purely two
  dimensional, drawn either in full profile or with
  full front trunk attached to profile arms and
  legs.
• Draperies stiff and lifeless.
• Depth suggested by overlapping forms.

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Changes in Greek Drawing

• Circa 530 a change begins.
• Attempts made to show figures in three quarter
  views.
• Drapery folds became more natural.
• By 450 three quarter views are mastered.
• Depth suggested by receding views.

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Changes in Greek Drawing

• By the 4th century the attainment of depth is
  fully realized.
• Vase-painting now reflects the achievements of
  wall painting.

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Plain Wares

• Athenian potters also made lots of plain wares
  for daily use.
• High Classical Period (5th c.) vases of all kinds
  were decorated in a plain, shiny black gloss.
• These were very popular.

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Attic Plain Black Glaze Ware
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Pottery Uses

• 8th-7th c
• huge Attic vases were used for elite burial
  markers.
• Other painted wares were used for utilitarian
  purposes
• Amphorae/hydria for storage
• Kraters for mixing wine, oinochoe for holding
  wine, kylikes kantharoi for drinking wine
• Lekythoi for olive oil (cleansing), aryballoi for
  gym olive oil, alabastra for perfume.
• White-Ground Lekythoi grave offerings

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Famous Artists

• Nessos Painter (620-530)
• Beginning of ABF
• Figures are large-scale, with big features.
• Monsters and animal friezes still appear.

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Famous Artists

• Kleitias, chief painter of the second quarter of
  the sixth century.
• He and potter Ergotimos signed the Francois
  krater.
• Master storyteller.

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Kleitias, Continued

• With his juxtaposition of the killing of Troilos
  by Achilles with a scene of daily life (women at
  the fountain house), he conveys something of the
  same kind of pathos Homer achieved in his account
  of the death of Hektor.

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Famous Artists

• Exekias (550-540)
• Potter painter
• Considered the finest BF artist.
• Mythological scenes
• Elegant style
• Ex. Ajax Achilles playing game. Outline of the
  backs of the figures echoes the curve of the vase.

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Famous Artists

• Amasis Painter, c. 540.
• Painted both large and small pots
• Some of his most famous are scenes of daily life
  (women working wool, wedding procession).

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Red-Figure Technique

• 530-400.
• Within a decade or two of its invention, RF was
  dominant.
• In the early part of this period, masterful
  painters produced decorated vases as the
  Peisistratid tyrants ruled, the reforms of
  Kleisthenes, and the early days of Athenian
  radical democracy.

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Famous Artists

• Euphronios (510-500)
• Outstanding drawing ability
• Improvements in the rendering of figures
• Ex. Herakles and Antaios wrestling, Death of
  Sarpedon

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Famous Artists

• Kleophrades Painter
• 500-475
• Painted over 100 extant vases, mostly
  amphorae/hydriai
• Highly individual style firm flowing line,
  spaciousness of composition, monumental quality.

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Kleophrades Painter, Continued

• Used mythological illustrations to convey new
  ideas and depth of feeling.
• Ex. Fall of Troy scenes emphasize brutal,
  pointless destruction, suffering of
  non-combatants.
• Heartfelt indictment of war, during the Persian
  Wars.

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Famous Artists

• Berlin Painter
• 500-480
• More than 200 vases have been attributed to him,
  none are signed.
• Graceful/flowing figures with much anatomical
  detail, love of pattern.
• Single groups spotlighted against black
  background.

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Continued Use of BF

• Until the mid 5th c BF was used as a secondary
  technique, mostly for small lekythoi,
  neck-amphorae, and oinochoae.
• From the mid 6th c., the Athenians had awarded
  amphorae of olive oil as prizes in the
  Panathenaic Games. Religious conservatism
  required that these were always BF, with Athena
  on one side, and a scene from the Games on the
  other.
• These continued in use, looking very archaic,
  until late in the 4th c. We know exact dates of
  pots when painters began inscribing the names of
  archons on pots.

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475-450 BCE

• A new spirit enters RF vase-painting.
• Some artists, evidently inspired by the wall
  paintings of Polygnotos and his associates,
  produced ambitious compositions on large vases
  with figures placed on different levels in hilly
  landscapes.
• Combats of Lapiths/Centaurs and Greeks/Amazons
  are favorite themes.

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Famous Artists

• The Brygos Painter (499-475)
• Superb at rendering everyday scenes
• Style catches both the emotion and movement of
  his figures.

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Famous Artists

• Niobid Painter
• 460-450
• Incorporates depth representation from wall
  painters.
• Sets figures on different ground lines up and
  down the field of the picture.

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Free Style Period

• 450-420 BCE
• Coincides with Perikles political power and the
  Parthenon sculptures.
• While the greatest artists were used in this
  period to work on sculpture, architecture, and
  wall-painting, some excellent vase-painters were
  still at work.

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Famous Artists

• Achilles Painter
• 450-440
• quiet grandeur
• Over 200 vase-ptgs are attributed to him.
• Master of WG style.
• Mood close to the ideal calm of Parthenon
  sculptures.
• Ancient writers dont mention WG vases (minor
  works at time).

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Achilles Painter WGL
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Famous Artists

• Meidias Painter
• Circa 410, his style was adopted by many.
• Decorated a hydria in London with 2 mythological
  scenes rape of the Leukippidae and Herakles in
  the Garden of the Hesperides.

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Meidias Painter, Continued

• Graceful figures with clinging draperies are
  counterparts to the reliefs on the Athena Nike
  parapet (agonizing end stage of Pelop. War).
• Herakles is depicted as the late 5th c. liked to
  see him, not fighting monsters or his fate, but
  peacefully at rest, rewarded for his labors.

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Final Flowering of ARF

• RF continued to be produced, but demand declined.
  
• Fewer and fewer signatures of painters by end of
  4th c., signatures of potters had disappeared as
  well.
• Circa 350 - final flowering of Athenian RF.
• By 325, other markets such as North Africa began
  to import Southern Italian pottery instead of
  Athenian.
• Circa 320 RF stopped being made in Athens.

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South Italian Vases

• A serious rival to Attic pottery was the RF ware
  produced in Southern Italy from about 440 BCE.
  Earliest examples closely reflect contemporary
  Attic style, especially that of the Achilles
  Painter. By the turn of the century, local
  schools developed their own styles.
• It continued through the 4th century to supply
  local needs.
• South Italian glaze is not such an intense black,
  nor as lustrous, as Attic. Decoration is more
  florid.

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Leda, Zeus, Aphrodite, South Italian Ware
(Apulian), 4th c.
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Developments in Sculpture

• Circa 520 development of hollow bronze
  sculpture, using the lost wax method.
• Huge technological leap forward.
• Bronze is lighter than marble this technique
  enabled a different type of sculpture to arise.
  Poses could be made with different centers of
  gravity.

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Lost Wax Technique

• If necessary, make an armature for the clay model.

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Lost Wax Method 2

• Apply clay to the armature, if there is an
  armature.

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Lost Wax Method 3

• Apply wax to the clay model.

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Lost Wax Method 4

• Put a mold over the wax-covered model secure it.

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Lost Wax Method 5

• Apply heat, melting the wax.
• Gap made between clay model and mold.

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Lost Wax Method 6

• Pour molten bronze in, filling the gap.

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Lost Wax Method 7

• Remove mold, reveal bronze statue.
• Break the clay model on the inside, remove in
  pieces.

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Lost Wax Method 8

• Add details.
• Because both the material and the process of
  casting were so expensive (much more so than
  marble), the figures were usually not cast in one
  piece, but in several. If the casting went wrong
  for one piece, all would not be lost.

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Piraeus Apollo

• Greeks developed monumental bronze statues, like
  this over-life-sized one of Apollo, found in the
  Piraeus in 1959.
• Kouros-like stance, but arms are separated from
  the body and held out, unsupported. Held bow in
  left hand, another attribute in right.

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A Look Back Kritios Boy

• Statues start coming to life after the kouroi.
• Kritios Boy c. 480
• Anatomy still fairly stylized, but changed pose.
  Weight shifts onto back leg, head turned
  slightly.
• Kenneth Clark The first beautiful nude in art.
  
• Theseus? Athletic victor?

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Kritios Boy

• Gone archaic smile, rigid stance, formal
  symmetry.
• New, relaxed, asymetrical pose of a person at
  rest.
• Influence of bronze statues hair is inscribed in
  shallow lines inserted eyes.
• Pollitt seems as if he might turn and ask you a
  question, uncertainty.

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Blond Boy

• Head shows a tilt which accompanied a pose much
  like that of Kritios Boy.
• Broken remains of the Kritios Boy and the Blond
  Boy were found on the Acropolis.

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Roman Copies

• Most bronze statues were melted down and the
  material reused, but we do have Roman marble
  copies of the most famous Greek bronze statues.
• Marble lacks the strength of bronze, so sculptors
  had to add supports to hold up the top-heavy
  stone and prevent the statues from breaking at
  the ankles.
• Most were made using plaster casts from molds
  taken from the originals.

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Tyrannicides

• Roman marble copy of original bronze group.
• Depiction of action.
• Original technological innovations of the
  preceding generations used to convey inner life
  and character in a way not seen before in
  sculpture.

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Tyrannicides

• The two men are carefully differentiated (all
  kouroi were ideals of youth and vigor).
• Tyrannicides are representations of specific ages
  and personalities.
• Sought to reveal the minds inside the bodies,
  thoughts that determine actions.
• Depictions of the polarities of movement and rest.

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Riace Bronze Warrior A (460-450)

• Statues found off the coast of Riace in So.
  Italy. Show the new formula of the relaxed pose
  further developed and refined.
• Weight on right leg. Left leg bent, in front.
  Held shield on left arm. Right hip higher than
  left.
• Upper body unresponsive to the different degrees
  of tension in the 2 arms.

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Riace Bronze Warrior A

• Head is turned alertly figure seems alive with
  potential energy.
• Statue looks different from every side a slight
  S curve runs through it.
• 6 feet 9 inches tall.

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Riace Bronze Warrior A

• Face is intense
• Inlaid eyes
• Bronze eyelashes
• Red copper lips parted to show silver teeth
• Ringlets and curls cast separately, attached to
  head.
• Now in Reggio Museum.

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Riace Bronze Warrior A Face
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From the Marathon Monument at Delphi (c. 450)?

• Pausanias tells of a monument honoring those who
  fought at Marathon.
• Miltiades (heroized) strategos of Marathon, stood
  by Apollo Athena.
• 10 other figures, 7 Eponymous Heroes reflecting
  the tribal order of battle.

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Riace Bronze Warrior B
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Riace Bronze Warrior B As Found
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Riace Bronze Warrior B

• Helmeted
• Younger than A
• Copper lips and nipples
• Inlaid eyes
• 6 feet 6 inches.

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Tipped Back Helmet

• style adopted by posthumous portraits of Athenian
  Generals
• Example portrait of Perikles

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Riace Bronzes Back View

• Other theories
• Group of 10 Greek heroes waiting to see who would
  fight Hektor (by Temple of Zeus at Olympia)
  works for A, Athenian helmet odd for B)
• Eponymous Heroes in Agora (too warlike)
• Marathon Monument at Delphi (B fits with this)

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Artemision Zeus (460-450)

• Found off Cape Artemision, now in National Museum
  in Athens. 610.
• God shown hurling thunderbolt (now missing) at
  unseen enemy.
• Artist contrasts the straight arm with the bent,
  weight-bearing leg with the free leg.

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Zeus

• 2 problems
• The torso is not affected by the action of the
  limbs (could be a quietly standing figure like
  the Kritios Boy, or Riace Warrior)
• Statue only really works from the front or back
  the sides dont do much for the viewer.

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Diskoboulos, c. 450

• Made at the same time as the Artemision Zeus,
  became v. famous.
• Highly praised by ancient writers, much copied
  for Roman admirers.
• Myron chose to depict an instant of stillness in
  the midst of action the split second pause
  between back swing and forward thrust.

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Diskoboulos

• Archaic period beauty symmetry and formal
  repetition
• Discus thrower systematically negates both
  principles, now out of fashion.
• Right side dominated by the sweep of a continuous
  curve left is a zigzag of straight lines.

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Diskoboulos

• Myron has brought to his new aesthetic ideal the
  refinement of a mathematical proposition
• Curved vs. straight
• Smooth vs. angular
• Closed vs. open
• Chest is seen from the front, legs from the side.
• But torso still a study of static anatomy, no
  response to limb actions.
• Side views dont work so well.

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Doryphoros by Polykleitos

• Polykleitos developed a theory of proportions in
  a book called The Canon, illustrated it with his
  Young Man Carrying a Spear.
• Circa 440.

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Doryphoros

• Spear-bearer is shown pausing for a second as he
  steps forward.
• Action is slight compared to Myrons Diskobolos,
  but the torso is fully responsive to it.

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Doryphoros

• Left shoulder tensed and slightly raised.
• Left leg bears no weight, the hip drops, the
  torso extends.
• Right arm hangs relaxed at side, shoulder
  lowered. Right hip raised to support weight
  torso contracted.
• Contraposto or balance of opposites side views
  work well.

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Diadoumenos, c. 430

• Polykleitos was famous for his statues of men.
• Bronze youth tying a ribbon around his head.
  Roman copy.
• Same contraposto pose as Doryphoros (dynamic
  equilibrium).

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