Ancient Greece Flashcards
What is balance in Lysippos, Weary Herakles?
This piece is unbalanced because he is leaning on a club on a stone, and if you were to move the stone the statue would fall over.
What is the anatomy/proportion in the Lysippos, Weary Herakles?
We get ponderation in this sculpture but that is the only thing.
What is the motion in Lysippos, Weary Herakles?
In this sculpture you can see that Herakles is tired and in-the-round.
What is happening in the Lysippos, Weary Herakles?
The Lysippos, Weary Herakles is trying to fit the massive bodybuilder build and head together, while before it was just the body. Kanon is not used in this.
What is happening in the Polykleitos, Doryphoros?
The Polykleitos, Doryphoros is the most copied Roman sculpture there is. We know of 50 of them, but there are probably more we don’t because they probably have been damaged too much for us to figure that out. Polykleitos is a big math nerd, he loves symmetry, balance, and even numbers. He made the original in bronze to show what the male body should be from math and formulas. This is the perfect body that he wrote in a book called Kanon. The book doesn’t survive, but we know of it because the Romans quoted from it for 800 years.
What is the balance in the Polykleitos, Doryphoros?
It is a very balanced piece, with the solid right leg balanced by the little movement of the left arm. The left arm balances out the left leg.
What is the anatomy/proportion in the Polykleitos, Doryphoros?
In this sculpture we get the contrapposto in the hips.
What is the motion in the Polykleitos, Doryphoros?
He is looking slightly right with spear pointing left.
What is happening in the Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus?
The Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus is a roman copy. Praxiteles didn’t put them in Kanon not because he doesn’t know what it is, but because he just didn’t want to.
What is the balance in the Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus?
The balance in this sculpture is the god of wine, Dionysus is him as a baby and he is reaching out for the grapes that Hermes is holding.
What is the anatomy/proportion in the Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus?
There is ponderation in the hips. The hips are going one, and the shoulders are going another which creates a s curve and this a more natural stance. Hermes is not in Kanon because his hair is asymmetrical, his torso is too long, and legs are too short. Dionysus is also not in Kanon because he is a baby.
How is the Parthenon perfect?
The reason that the Parthenon is perfect is because the doric temple is a 9 x 4 which is called the golden rectangle. It is so perfect that it has a formula y = 2x + 1.
How is the Parthenon imperfect, and why did they do this?
The Parthenon is imperfect because it is the perfect doric temple, but it has an ionic frieze. They did this because Ionians were going to visit it the most, so they were trying to keep them happy. There is entasis in the Parthenon columns, which is a bulge that is ⅓ of the way up. They did this so that you would have to look up. They had smaller column spacing, so that you would have to look in the middle and up to where Athena and the pediment is. The stylobate is curved 4 inches upward. They did this to make it look like the stairs were rising.
How does the Delian League fit into the Parthenon?
The Delian League fits into this because Athens founded the Delian League, which is a way to protect themselves in case the Persians try to invade Greece again. It was in Delos, but that is not where they had the money, the money was in Athens. Pericles was not the king, but a statesman and a good public speaker. Whatever he said, most people listened to him. He takes 80% of the Delian league and embezzles it to build the Acropolis. The Greeks didn’t know he did this otherwise they wouldn’t have built the Acropolis.
Who is the main sculptor for the Parthenon?
The Parthenon sculptor is Phidias.
What are three physical differences between Doric and Ionic?
Doric has metopes, triglyphs, and plain capitals
Ionic has frieze and volutes on capitals
What are the 5 parts of the temple?
The 5 parts to a temple are the innermost room where the statue is and that is a Cella or naos. In front of the Cella or naos is the pronaos. On the other side of the Cella is the opisthodomos. All three of the rooms are on the stylobate. All of the columns have a perimeter which is the colonnade.
How does the “Venus” de “Milo” fit into humanism?
The “Venus” de Milo is Aphrodite; we know that her left hand came out and had apples in them. She has the apple of Paris, which is an automatic sex symbol for Greeks
Since Aphrodite is the goddess of love and she is naked it is a depiction of sexuality. She is barely holding up her peplos, it is following down, and she is looking at the viewer. She is doing a primal function of the human body.
How does Nike adjusting her sandal fit into humanism?
Nike adjusting her sandal is off the pedestal because she is doing a human activity herself. She has to hold up her dress which has 18 folds. This is human activity but clothed.
How does Aphrodite of Knidos fit into humanism?
Aphrodite of Knidos is a roman copy, it has a support between her and the dress. She is the first naked woman in sculpture and a goddess. She is looking down at the water, wanting to take a bath. She is covering up her genital area. She is not in Kanon,
because it only works for male bodies. In her hips she has ponderation. This is the 2nd step of the pedestal, but this sculpture is not sexual.
What is the highest step for “Venus” de “Milo”, Nike adjusting her sandal, and Aphrodite of Knidos?
Nike adjusting her sandal
What is the “lowest”/most like us between “Venus” de “Milo”, Nike adjusting her sandal, and Aphrodite of Knidos?
Venus de Milo
What is the Barberini Faun?
The Barberini Faun is about he is tired from having sex all night because a Faun has sex all night long. This is an automatic sexual appeal because he is a man spreading a lot, which is a way of asking to join, his horns, and most of the lines on his body are pointing to his genitalia.
What is the Old Market Woman?
The Old Market Woman is about how a woman is going to or from the market. She is a follower of Dionysus and she is going to a party. She is old, half-dressed, her peplos is close to falling off her, she has her mouth open, and some people say she is senile.
