Ancient Greece Flashcards
Achilles and Ajax Playing a Dice Game
Artist: Exekias
Culture/period: Archaic
Location: Vulci, Italy
Medium: Clay
Technique: Ceramics
Function: Likely to store foodstuffs and/or serve as decoration
Audience: Wealthy owners, houseguests
Cultural context: Exekias, the sculptor who created this amphora, was the master of the black-figure technique during and even after the Archaic era, renown for his refined technique and detailed artistry. He was also known for shaking up traditional conventions at the time and elevated black-figure painting to levels never surpassed. He was also one of the few sculptors credited as both painter and potter on the majority of his pieces, including this one–a rarity for the time.
Significance: This amphora presents a subtle but significant break from the Archaic tradition of the time, placing the figures of Achilles and Ajax in a large, single-framed pane as opposed to a series of horizontal bands. Making the viewer focus on a single register and setting it at the widest part of the amphora allows for a more cohesive and effective distillation of information not previously seen. Moreover, whereas most Archaic art was characterized by dramatic action, this piece shows a sort of “calm before the storm” creating an atmosphere of gravity and tension that would go on to heavily influence later Classical art.
Kouros (Metropolitan/New York Kouros)
Artist: Unknown
Culture/period: Archaic
Location: Attica, Greece
Medium: Marble
Technique: Freestanding sculpture
Function: Grave marker
Audience: Mourners
Cultural context: Kouroi (“youth”) statues were designed not to depict specific individuals, but to embody a generalized ideal type, allowing them to serve myriad of purposes. They replaced large vases, like the Dipylon krater, as grave markers and were often donated to temples by various different cities as votive offerings to the gods. Despite their stunning appearance, kouroi were never found in palaces, but they were an excellent way of tracking stylistic change over time, as their function and subject never changed.
Significance: Kouroi statues emulated the stance common in Egyptian statuary, being rigidly frontal with the left foot advanced slightly and arms to the side. The statue was also clearly an idealized archetype and not at all being an accurate representation of the human body. However, it differed from the Egyptian tradition in that the statue was liberated from the stone block in order to indicate motion as opposed to stability/permanence and that the figures were also entirely nude.
Peplos Kore
Artist: Unknown
Culture/period: Archaic
Location: Athens, Greece
Medium: Marble
Technique: Freestanding sculpture
Function: Votive offering
Audience: Worshippers
Cultural context: This statue is in many ways a stylistic sister to the Metropolitan kouros statue, exemplifying many of the same traits. Whereas the Metropolitan statue was a grave marker though, this one is a votive offering, depicting an unknown goddess dressed in multiple garments that were once thought to be a peplos, which was a simple, long, woolen-belted garment. The missing left hand would’ve held the goddess’s attribute, allowing us to identify her. Unlike the male kouroi statues, female korai statues were always clothed and often rendered a bit more naturally then their kouroi counterparts, though not by much.
Significance: Although not as stylized as the Metropolitan kouroi, the Peplos kore is certainly not a naturalistic rendering, although the paint it once had been coated with likely would’ve made it appear that way. In many Greek texts talking about the ideal human figure, the canon of proportions for women was akin to that of a column, which we can see in the simple, almost flat verticality of the statue. This is in some ways indicative of just how confined and restricted women were in Ancient Greek society, unable to even break free of the stiff proportions artists sought to trap them in.
Kritios Boy
Artist: Unknown, once thought to be Kritios
Culture/period: Classical
Location: Athens, Greece
Medium: Marble
Technique: Freestanding sculpture
Function: Votive statue placed along processional to the Acropolis
Audience: Worshippers, townsfolk
Cultural context: After the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, Greek art went under drastic stylistic changes, seen here in the Kritios Boy, which for the first time in art history aims to depict how humans naturally stand. Although the body is still heavily idealized, it is also much more naturalistic, containing all the contours, musculature, and dimension of the natural human body.
Significance: Being one of the important statues in the history of art, this Kritios Boy demonstrates a clear artistic shift for the Greeks. Although still technically a kouros statue, it’s so markedly different from those of the Archaic period that it might as well not be. Most important is the clear shift of weight onto the left leg, which in turn affects the entire rest of the statue’s form as it follows the vertical axis of the spine. His hip dips slightly to right, leaving his right leg at ease while his left carries the rest of the body’s weight, and his head turns slightly to the right and tilts, breaking the age old Archaic rule of frontality.
Charioteer of Delphi
Artist: Unknown
Culture/period: Classical
Location: Delphi, Greece in the Sanctuary of Apollo
Medium: Bronze
Technique: Freestanding sculpture, lost-wax casting
Function: To commemorate Polyzalos of Gela’s brother’s victory in the Delphic Pythian Games
Audience: Worshippers, royals
Cultural context: Bronze statues were, at this time, very expensive and impractical to make, making the fact that this charioteer was once part of a much larger set all the more impressive. Lost-wax casting was a very complicated, intricate, labor intensive process comprised of numerous steps that had to be repeated multiple times, as, unlike small, Archaic, bronze figurines, they could not be created using a single simple mold and instead had to be created in parts and then put together.
Significance: Although likely a mere mortal, the charioteer’s stance and gravitas evokes a certain sense of divinity, posturing him as an almost demigod-like figure. His stance is almost Archaic, but opposite facing feet, slight twist of waist, and turn of head indicates a preference for the Severe style. Moreover, unlike most male figures, the charioteer is completely clothed from head to toe and, in fact, more so evokes the Archaic Peplos kore with its columnar figure than the Metropolitan kouros. His garment emphasizes the verticality and calm of the figure and recalls the fluting of a Greek column. For a side character in the display, he alone possesses an exceptional amount of detail, from the defined veins and toenails in the feet, a hint of sideburns, and the individually soldered on eyelashes.
amphora
a tall ancient Greek jar with two handles and a narrow neck; used as storage and transport vessels for olives, cereal, oil, and wine
black-figure painting
a style in which figures and ornamentation are drawn on the natural red clay surface of a vase in glossy black pigment; the finishing details were incised into the black paint before being fired
Archaic smile
the curve of the lips on Archaic Greek statuary indicating that the subject is alive
lost-wax casting
a method of casting metal by a process in which a wax mold covered with clay and fired leaves a hollow form for metal molds to be made
Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)
Artist: Polykleitos
Culture/period: Classical
Location: Pompeii, Italy
Medium: Original bronze, Roman copy marble
Technique: Freestanding sculpture
Function: To demonstrate the ideal human form
Audience: Greek and, later, Roman sculptors
Cultural context: The Doryphoros accompanied a treatise by Polykleitos outlining the subject of the ideal human form, which was to be harmoniously balanced via precise mathematical equations. The aim was to essentially impose order on the human form and perfect it; in other words, the systemization of idealization.
Significance: This statue was a clear break from the Egyptian tradition noticeable in the statuary of the Archaic era, being far less rigid and more dynamic and asymmetrical. Although highly idealized, this new style also emphasized a certain level of naturalism in the contours of the human face and body and the stance each statue assumed, with their weight shifted onto one leg rather than both, as in the Archaic statuary. And although very similar to the Kritios Boy, the Doryphoros is much more relaxed than its more rigid counterpart.
The Parthenon
Artist: Iktinos, Phidias, Kallikrates
Culture/period: Classical
Location: Athens, Greece
Medium: Marble
Technique: Post-and-lintel, high and low relief sculpture, freestanding sculpture
Function: The Parthenon was the central and largest building of the Acropolis, which sat at the top of Athens and served as a religious center for the city. The Parthenon specifically served as a temple for Athena Parthenos, Athena’s virgin guise.
Audience: Athenians, priests, the gods
Cultural context: The Parthenon on display today is the one that was rebuilt after the sacking of Athens by the Persians in 480 BCE. In response, the Greek city-states formed an alliance called the Delian League in order to push back the Persians, which they successfully did. In the aftermath, Pericles, the ruler of Athens at the time, took money from the League’s treasury meant to support victims of the war to rebuild Athens in all its glory. Pericles’s reasoning was that Athens was the first of the great Greek polises and as such, represented all Greece, so it only made sense that Athens be a beacon of wealth and prosperity for the rest of the ancient world.
Significance: The Parthenon was the ideal solution to Greek architects’ quest for perfect proportions in Doric temple design. Like Polykleitos, Greek architects believed beautiful proportions resulted from strict adherence to harmonic numerical ratio. However, the Parthenon’s harmonic design disguise its irregular shape, which greatly deviated from the strictly horizontal/vertical lines of traditional Greek post-and-lintel designs. Vitruvius, a Roman architect, later said that these adjustments were made to compensate for optical illusions. The Parthenon is also irregular because it incorporates Ionic elements, most notable in its inner friezes and a small set of columns supporting the roof on the inner shrine. These Ionic elements were likely implemented due to the belief that Ionians were descended from Athenians, as well as the Athenian conception that Athens was the leader of all Greece.
Elders and Maidens segment, east Ionic frieze
Artist: Phidias and assistants
Culture/period: Classical
Location: Athens, Greece (Parthenon)
Medium: Marble
Technique: High relief sculpture
Function:
Audience: Same as Parthenon
Cultural context:
Significance:
Erechtheion
Artist: Mnesikles
Culture/period: Classical
Location: Athens, Greece (Acropolis)
Medium: Marble
Technique: Post-and-lintel, high and low relief sculpture, freestanding sculpture
Function: Multiple shrine for other gods and demigods
Audience: Worshippers
Cultural context: Although once a temple dedicated to Athena before it was destroyed by the Persians, the rebuilt Erechtheion served as a shrine to multiple gods and demigods central to Athens’s history. More importantly, though, the temple housed the wooden cult statue of Athena central to the Panathenaic Procession, which happened every four years and saw the statue dressed with a new, finely woven garment. And, fittingly enough, the site of the temple is also the place where Athena and Poseidon competed over who would receive the city of Athens, with Athena obviously winning after summoning a laurel tree, of which there is one in the courtyard today.
Significance: The Erechtheion is a direct antithesis to the Doric, balanced Parthenon, being an Ionic temple designed with an asymmetrical floor plan. This asymmetry is due in part to the uneven terrain the temple rests on, making to where each side of the building rests on different levels. Its capitals are also highly embellished, being inlaid with gold, crystal, and colored glass, a rarity among Ionic order temples. The use of caryatids on the western porch also sets the Erechtheion apart from all the other temples on the Acropolis, with each statue containing a harmonious balance of rigidity to evoke the structural integrity of a column, and a degree of flexibility to suggest the living body.
Dying Gauls
Artist: Epigonos
Culture/period: Hellenistic
Location: Pergamon, Turkey
Medium: Originally bronze, Roman copies marble
Technique: Freestanding sculpture
Function: To glorify the defeat of the Gauls by the Greeks
Audience: Citizens, royalty, priests, foreign visitors
Cultural context: Around the time these statues were made, King Attalos I of Pergamon turned back an invasion of the Gauls in Asia Minor, which was later immortalized at the Altar of Zeus in mythological disguise. However, some earlier Pergamene sculptors more explicitly depicted the defeat of the Gauls in a series of statues, the centerpiece of which was a statue depicting a Gallic chieftain killing himself and his wife. Another noteworthy statue in the set is one of an injured trumpeter struggling to rise to his feet and face his opponent head-on.
Significance: These statues are one of the earliest examples of the Greeks’ conception of otherness. We see that the sculptors carefully studied the features of the foreign Gauls and steadily produced them–from their facial hair, bushy, untamed heads of hair, and the torques they wore around their necks. As in other Greek statuary of the era, the physical form is emphasized and musculature greatly exaggerated, as is evident in the bulging veins of the trumpeter. Moreover, the pathos and emotion of the Gauls are highly pronounced, showing a distressed but persistent enemy. Although the end goal was to glorify the Greeks, they still dignified the Gauls with a sort of noble sensitivity, portraying them as a foe, that, while inferior, certainly did not go down easy.
Nike of Samothrace
Artist: Unknown
Culture/period: Hellenistic
Location: Samothrace, Greece
Medium: Marble
Technique: Freestanding sculpture
Function: Placed in the Great Sanctuary of the Gods for worship or decoration
Audience: Worshippers
Cultural context: Similar to the Dying Gauls, Nike of Samothrace is very dramatic and intense, depicting yet another figure–this one the Greek goddess of victory–in motion. Unlike Classical sculptures, Hellenistic sculpture is characterized by the way it sets a scene, and Nike is no exception. We see her in the midst of landing upon a ship’s prow, water splashing against her drapes, which cling to her body and blow behind her in the wind. The statue being placed in the upper basin of a two-tiered fountain also amplified this theatrical effect which Hellenistic sculpture was known for.
Significance: Nike of Samothrace is one of the most famous–if not the most famous–Hellenistic sculptures and for good reason. Although her head and arms are missing, everything else about the statue perfectly embodies everything the Hellenistic art is about–drama, emotion, and storytelling.
