Wall Paintings

Question 1

In what regard was painting (on walls, pots etc) held by Gs?

Answer 1

high esteem, as a form of art proper

Question 2

What makes survival rate of wall paintings so low?

Answer 2

high levels of humidity
disrepair of buildings
Use of wooden panels on walls to display paintings (more susceptible to non survival)

Question 3

Why are Macedonian tomb wall paintings so signif?

Answer 3

stand as some of few wall paintings to survive and provide good material evidence to compare to literary stuff

Question 4

What is a key part of literary evidence for wall paintings?

Answer 4

Pliny HN.35 (AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.)

Question 5

In what media was painting done in AG?

Answer 5

pinakes (sing. pinax - painted wooden/terracotta pieces dedicated as votives)
pottery
walls

Question 6

What and when is a key early instance of tomb wall painting?

Answer 6

two tumuli from ancient Lycia dating to late 6th-early 5th cents
show myth or life in persian court all in v east Greek style

Question 7

What does tetrachromy mean? Signif?

Answer 7

four-colour palette
This was the range of colours used for early wall painting

Question 8

What colours were used in early painting? signif?

Answer 8

black
white
red
ochre
Associated with four elements

Question 9

Who was the great painter of mid 5th cent of grand tableaux at Athens and Delphi? Subject? Source?

Answer 9

Polygnotos of Thasos
Sack of Troy and Odysseus’ Descent to Underworld
Pausanias (material lost)

Question 10

What is a feature of figures in Tomb of the Diver that shows early date?

Answer 10

tonal depth added only to the cheeks (reddening)

Question 11

What does Pliny say was particularly good abt Apollodoros? When was this painter active?

Answer 11

he could ‘attract the gaze’ w his painting
c425-400 BCE

Question 12

What does the term skiagraphia mean?

Answer 12

shading; the use of light and shade variation in order to achieve lifelike results

Question 13

In what way was Apollodoros’ work innovative?

Answer 13

mixed tones to expand early palette
utilised fading in shadow

Question 14

What were the 2 vital features of wall painting from end of 5th cent BCE?

Answer 14

illusion of depth
light-and-shadow play

Question 15

What, after c400 BCE, became common features of wall painting? Why?

Answer 15

human figures, architectural forms, elements of scenery, the landscape
Showed off artist’s playing w light and shadow for realistic effect

Question 16

How did Plato and Aristotle understand art? Signif?

Answer 16

mimesis the imiation of reality
Evident (from materials and literature) that artists of classical and hellenistic periods aimed to achieve 3D effect.

Question 17

What is the term used for achievement of ultimate realism?

Answer 17

trompe l’oeil (trick the eye)

Question 18

What story (truth or legendary) does Pliny (HN) tell of aims of Classical painters to achieve ultimate realism?

Answer 18

masters Zeuxis and Passhasios were competing; Z painted grapes that were so real, birds came to eat; P painted a curtain that tricked even Z who thought the painting was obscured behind
details likely not true but the overall intent of the story demonstrates importance/value of mimesis at this time

Question 19

What is a medium through which lost paintings have been poss preserved? Examples?

Answer 19

Mosaics of hellenistic and roman periods.
Alexander mosaic, unswept room (only preserved in copies of the original mosaic)

Question 20

What are the different types of wall paintings seen in the Macedonian Tombs?

Answer 20

masonry style architectural structures
fully illusionistic 3D architectural style
friezes of figures and action

Question 21

Key facts of the Tomb of ‘Philip II of Macedonia’

Answer 21

320-10 BCE
from Vergina
tetrachromic
quasi-monumental entrance
royal hunt frieze

Question 22

Key facts of the Tomb at Agios Athanasios

Answer 22

c300 BCE
Thessaloniki
highly detailed
two 1.5m Maced guards above entrance
frieze of funerary banquet showing entombed person in military gear

Question 23

Key facts of the Persephone Tomb

Answer 23

c350-40 BCE
Vergina
NOT macedonian but plainer monumental cist-grave
sketch of later painted scene has been recovered underneath pigment
murals on 3 of 4 walls: Hades carrying off Persephone; others feature Demeter and the Fates

Question 24

At what point in time does G painting appear to have reached a high point?

Answer 24

late 4th cent

Question 25

What in context of Hellenistic politics, boosted G painting late 4th cent?

Answer 25

royal patronage esp from macedonians

Question 26

What was a particularly famous painting of AtG? Why?

Answer 26

Alexander Holding the Thunderbolt, T of Artemis Ephesos, late 4th cent BCE.
Thunderbolt was rendered in such a way as to appear coming out at the viewer

Question 27

What technique emerged in late fourth cent that became characteristic of late class early Hell exceptional paintings?

Answer 27

foreshortening to create perspective

Question 28

What was a feature that did not interest greek painters? (though did become popular in late hellenistic p and beyond)

Answer 28

landscape

Question 29

What did Pliny use as a source for his writings on G painting? What was key idea of this work?

Answer 29

theoretical works by major artist Xenokrates
Artists strived for recreation of perfection

Question 30

Why, from 4th cent BCE, did wall painting appear to be held in higher regard than sculpture or other crafts?

Answer 30

painting was a fine art that required much less physical labour and therefore accorded w elite ideals