Classical Era

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Classical Era

• Athens is most powerful polis after Persian Wars
• Athens was sacked in 480 BCE
• Persians defeated at Salamis
• Greeks adopt a sense of unity against the
  barbarians
• Anyone not Greek
• barbarian bar, bar, bar

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Classical Era

• Greek culture becomes unique
• Lays the foundation for Western Civilization
• Ethos vs. Pathos
• Ethos
• Greek
• Archaic smile
• Ability to withstand anything (intellect)
• Pathos
• Persian barbarians
• Passion

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Early High Classical

• (480-400 BCE)

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Statuary

• Changes to the Kore/Kouros
• More realism
• Less ideal
• Bald, fat, etc.
• Less rigid
• Weight shift (contrapposto)
• Drapery/clothing
• Sense of motion, life

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Statuary

• Other
• Marble and bronze
• Statues in architecture
• Ethos vs. Pathos
• The Archaic smile becomes replaced by emotion
• Self-absorbed expressions

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Kritios Boy

• Kritios?
• Acropolis
• Athens, Greece
• Circa 480 BCE
• Marble
• 2 10 tall

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Kritios Boy
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Kritios Boy

• Thought to be carved by Kritios
• Contrapposto
• counterbalance
• When one part of the body is shifted to balance
  and support weight
• Tension relaxation
• Separates Classical from Archaic

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Kritios Boy

• How a human stands
• Shift of weight
• Less rigid
• Spine hips
• Everything works together
• Right hip drops
• Weight shifted to left
• Right leg bent
• Head turned
• No longer frontal

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Warrior

• Sea near Riace, Italy
• Circa 450 BCE
• Bronze
• 6 6 high

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Warrior
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Warrior

• Bronze
• Lost wax process
• Clay model
• Clay mold
• Wax inside mold
• Fix details
• 2nd clay mold
• Liquid clay inside
• Fire It!
• (wax melts, clay hardens)
• Pour molten bronze in

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Warrior

• Sunken ship
• En route to Italy
• Several years to restore
• Details
• Spear, shield
• Inlaid eyes
• Silver teeth lashes
• Copper lips nipples

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Warrior

• Stylistic conventions
• Head
• Hips (weight)
• Shoulders
• Not frontal
• Not rigid
• Arms extend from body

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Diskobolos (Discus-thrower)

• Myron
• Circa 450 BCE
• Roman marble copy
• 5 1 tall

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Diskobolos (Discus-thrower)

• Only known through Roman copy
• Bronze vs. marble
• Cost
• Weight
• Changes
• Supports
• Other changes

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Diskobolos (Discus-thrower)

• Frozen action
• Right arm has not dropped in swing yet
• 2 arcs
• Like a bow
• Tension
• Not in face
• Does not look at audience
• Self-absorbed

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Doryphoros (Spear-bearer),

• Polykleitos
• Circa 440 BCE
• Roman marble copy
• 5 1 tall

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Doryphoros (Spear-bearer)

• Polykleitos
• Great sculptor
• Ideal male nude
• Canon
• Athlete or warrior
• Written treatise
• Contrapposto
• Hips
• Sense of movement

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Doryphoros (Spear-bearer)

• Opposite tensions
• Arms legs
• Mathematical proportions

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Parthenon (Temple of Athena)

• Iktinos and Kallikrates
• Acropolis, Athens
• Circa 447-438 BCE

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Acropolis

• Greek, high city.
• Usually the site of the citys most important
  temple(s)
• Rebuilt after Persian invasion
• Used the tributes of the Delian League
• Built by great Athenian leader Pericles
• Multiple buildings
• Parthenon
• Erechtheion
• Temple of Nike

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Acropolis

• More human creative genius concentrated on the
  Periclean Acropolis than in any other place or
  time in the history of Western civilization.
• - Gardners, p. 127

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Parthenon (Temple of Athena)

• Temple to Athena Parthenos
• Athena the virgin
• Goddess of Heroes
• Lucky to be standing
• Catholic church
• Islamic mosque
• Blown up in rocket attack
• Statues broken while trying to be removed
• Air pollution

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Parthenon (Temple of Athena)

• Ideal Greek temple
• Proportions
• 94
• (Almost 12)
• 17 columns long
• 8 columns wide
• Cellas measurements
• Column to column
• Doric
• Also Ionic
• Common on Acropolis

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Peristyle

• In ancient Greek architecture, a colonnade all
  around the cella and its porch(es).
• A peripteral colonnade consists of a single row
  of columns on all sides

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Portico

• A roofed colonnade
• also an entrance porch

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Entablature

• The part of a building above the columns and
  below the roof.
• The entablature of a classical temple has three
  parts
• Architrave
• Frieze
• Pediment

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Erechtheion

• Acropolis, Athens
• Circa 421-405 BCE

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Erechtheion

• Multiple shrine
• Contest between Poseidon and Athena
• Poseidons trident mark
• Athenas olive tree
• Asymmetrical
• Had to include a lot
• Uneven terrain
• Ionic columns

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Ionic columns

• Capital
• Also more
• slender

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Caryatid

• A female figure that functions as a supporting
  column
• 7 7tall
• Combination of Archaic and Classical
• Kore
• Weight shift

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Temple of Athena Nike

• KALLIKRATES
• Acropolis
• Athens, Greece
• Circa 427-424 BCE

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Temple of Athena Nike
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Temple of Athena Nike

• Amphiprostyle
• The style of Greek building in which the
  colonnade was placed across both the front and
  back, but not along the sides

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Temple of Athena Nike

• Ionic
• Kalikrates
• Parthenon
• Ionic columns there?
• Political statement against the Persians
• Battle of Marathon

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Sculptures

• East pediment
• Birth of Athena
• West pediment
• Contest between Athena and Poseidon
• North Frieze
• Sack of Troy
• South Frieze
• Battle with the Centaurs

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Helios, his horses, and Dionysus

• East pediment of the Parthenon
• Circa. 438-432 BCE
• 4 3 tall

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Helios, his horses, and Dionysus

• Whole pediment depicts birth of Athena
• Helios (the Sun) and horses rise up
• Horses are alive awake
• Bottom of pediment acts as ground line
• Dionysus reclines
• Artist understood how the human body works
• Creative use of space

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Three goddesses

• East pediment of the Parthenon
• Circa 438-432 BCE
• 4 5 tall

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Three goddesses

• Hestia, Dione, Aphrodite
• Also a creative use of space
• Mastery of depicting drapery in stone
• Once painted
• Shows and hides body
• Textures
• Creates unity to group

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Inner frieze

• Two actual friezes
• Panathenaic procession
• Every 4 years
• Athenians themselves
• Begins in agora (an open square for
  meetings/business)
• Winds its way up the Acropolis
• Begins at rear (west) end of Parthenon
• Goes down both long sides (parallel)
• Ends in middle of east end over doorway to cella
• Upper part is in higher relief
• Made it easier to see, especially in the shade

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Horsemen

• West inner frieze of the Parthenon
• Circa 447-438 BCE
• 3 6 tall

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Horsemen

• West end
• Procession begins
• Young men mount horses at the beginning
• Motion
• Energy
• Balance of rearing horses

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Seated gods and goddesses

• East inner frieze of the Parthenon
• Circa 447-438 BCE
• 3 6 tall

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Seated gods and goddesses

• East end
• Gods are guests
• Do not participate, but watch instead
• Motion and energy almost come to an end
• Drapery
• Ethos
• Figures interact

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Late Classical

• 400 323 BCE

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Late Classical

• Peloponnesian War (431 404)
• Sparta vs. Athens
• Athens loses (plague)
• Attack by Philip of Macedonia
• Greeks band together again
• Philip wins in 338
• Philip assassinated in 336
• Son, Alexander the Great, takes over
• Alexander dies 323

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Late Classical

• Alexander the Great
• Dominates Greece, Persia, Egypt, and parts of
  India
• Whats this all mean?
• Political and cultural change and chaos
• Rational humans no longer control their world
• Loss of focus on community
• Focus is now on the individual
• Artists also create individual styles
• Calm orderly life fades away
• Emotion appears

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Hermes and the infant Dionysos

• Praxiteles
• Olympia, Greece
• Circa 340 BCE
• Marble copy
• 7 1 tall

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Hermes and the infant Dionysus

• Gods become less solemn and more sensuous
• Nude female goddesses
• Roman copy
• Hermes carries Dionysos through forest
• Rests against a tree
• Tree is in the original
• Held a bunch of grapes

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Hermes and the infant Dionysus

• Anecdotal moment
• Adult and child
• Not seen before
• Focus in on the moment AND the individual
  (Hermes)
• S-curve
• Common of Praxiteles
• Soft features texture

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Apoxyomenos (Scraper)

• Lysippos
• Rome, Italy
• Circa 330 BCE
• Marble copy
• 6 9 tall

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Apoxyomenos (Scraper)

• Lysippos
• Great artist
• Chosen by Alexander the Great to create his
  official portrait
• Political artist
• Athlete scrapes oil from his body after
  exercising

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Apoxyomenos (Scraper)

• Roman copy
• Slender proportions
• Polykleitoss Doryphoros
• New energy
• Not the calm ethos
• Not emotional pathos
• Nervous energy
• Moving as he scraped oil

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Apoxyomenos (Scraper)

• Meant to be viewed form multiple sides
• Not seen from the front
• Right arm comes forward
• Only understood when seen from different angles

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Hellenistic

• 323-31 BCE

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Hellenistic

• Starts with the death of Alexander the Great
• Ends with the Roman Empire under Augustus
• End of the classical Greek culture
• Culture becomes cosmopolitan
• Things become exaggerated
• Early High Late Hellenistic

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Hellenistic

• Emotional intensity (Pathos)
• Almost theatrical
• Figures put in a setting (on a stage)
• Increased sensuality
• Nude females for the first time
• New forms of subjects
• Children, lower classes, barbarians, old people

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Dying Gaul

• Epigonos
• Pergamon, Turkey
• Roman marble copy
• Circa 230-220 BCE
• 3 ½ tall

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Dying Gaul

• Pathos
• Facial expression
• Suffering
• Body language
• Also a tribute to the Greek that killed him
• Strong and brave foe
• Creates a scene
• Theater

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Nike of Samothrace

• Samothrace, Greece
• Circa 190 BCE
• Marble
• 8 1 tall

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Nike of Samothrace

• Second level of a fountain
• Nike stands on the bow of a warship
• Right hand held a wreath to crown the victorious
• Motion (wind)
• Drapery
• Wings
• Theatrical
• Uses the fountain to create the scene

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Venus de Milo (Aphrodite from Melos)

• Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander
• Melos, Greece
• Circa 150-125 BCE
• Marble
• 6 7 tall

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Venus de Milo (Aphrodite from Melos)

• One of the first nude females
• Sensuous
• Not fully nude
• Goddess of Love Beauty
• Hands
• Left hand held the apple
• Right hand held drapery

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Laocoon and his sons

• Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes
• Early first century ADE
• Rome, Italy
• Marble
• 7 10 tall

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Laocoon and his sons

• Trojan priest Laocoon
• Tried to warn against bringing the Trojan Horse
  in
• Athena sent serpents out of the sea to punish
  Laocoon and his sons
• Laocoon is Trojan
• Athena is Greek
• Who were the heroes?

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Laocoon and his sons

• His death misunderstood by the Trojans
• Sealed the deal on the Trojan horse
• Beware Greeks bearing gifts

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Laocoon and his sons

• Classic Hellenistic art
• Pathos
• Suffering
• Physical and emotional agony
• Sensuous texture
• Theatrical
• Very dramatic

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The End?