Introduction
The art of ancient Greece stands out in time and has influenced the art and culture of several countries, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models. In the East, the exploits of Alexander the great resulted in exchanges between Greek, Central Asian, and Indian cultures, resulting in Greco-Buddhist art. Following the Renaissance in Europe, Greek art played a crucial role in inspiring several generations of European artists. The classical tradition derived from Greece dominated the art of the western world well into the 19th century.
The Greeks wrote a great deal, and ancient Greek literature is still available to us 2500 years later. Their writing is traditionally divided into many types: the epic, the poem, the plays, the history, the philosophical dialogues and treatises, and finally the speeches. Around 700 BC, Homer wrote two connected epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Two early Greek poems are Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days, both from around 700 BC. The oldest Greek plays that were tragedies were written by Aeschylus around 500 BC. There are also tragedies written by Sophocles (around 450 BC) and Euripides (around 425 BC). Aristophanes wrote comedy plays around 425 BC. Plays were generally written in verse form like poems. Two major histories were written by Herodotus and Thucydides. The first written philosophy was written by Plato around 380 BC in the form of a dialogue between two or more people. Later on both Plato and his student Aristotle wrote regular philosophical books, in prose without dialogues (Burckhardt, 1963). The three most famous speechwriters, belonging to 300 BC were Lysias, Isocrates, and Demosthenes (Burckhardt, 1963).
The art of Ancient Greece
The art of Ancient Greece is usually divided stylistically into four periods: the Geometric, the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic. The Geometric age is usually dated from about 1000 BC. The 7th century BC witnessed the slow development of the Archaic style as exemplified by the black-figure style of vase painting. The Archaic period and the Classical periods are separated by the Persian Wars (480 BC to 448 BC) and the reign of Alexander the Great (336 BC to 323 BC) is taken as separating the Classical from the Hellenistic periods. Ancient Greek art is seen today mostly in the realms of sculpture and architecture and also in minor art forms such as coin design, pottery, and gem engraving. There are some remnants of painted pottery from the Archaic period. The Greeks, like most European cultures, regarded painting as the highest form of art and the most widely respected and admired painter of mid 5th century BC was painter Polygnotus of Thasos (Carpenter, 1962). Greek painters worked mainly on wooden panels, and these could not be preserved over time. They perished rapidly after the 4th century AD. Today, one finds only a few examples of painted terra cotta and a few paintings on the walls of tombs, mostly in Macedonia and Italy. There are not many original Greek paintings today. However, the painting on the pottery that exists today provides a glimpse of Greek painting (Carpenter, 1962).
As in the case of painting, there are not many works of Greek sculpture or architecture. Many sculptures of pagan gods were destroyed during the early Christian era. Many of the Greek marble statues were burned to manufacture lime and during the Middle Ages, the majority of Greek bronze statues were burnt down due to a shortage of metal. The only statues that survived were those that were lost, buried, or forgotten. Likewise, many ancient Greek buildings were destroyed in war or earthquakes. A few temples such as the Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, have survived. It is interesting to note that the Greeks created four of the ancient Wonders of the World – the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. However, none of these have survived till today.
Ancient Greek pottery
The history of Ancient Greek pottery is divided stylistically into periods: the Protogeometric from about 1050 BC; the Geometric from about 900 BC; the Late Geometric or Archaic from about 750 BC; the Black Figure from the early 7th century BC; and the Red Figure from about 530 BC. (Burckhardt, 1963) During the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, Greek pottery was decorated with abstract designs. In later periods, as the aesthetic shifted and the technical proficiency of potters improved, decorations took the form of human figures, usually representing the gods or the heroes of Greek history and mythology. Battle and hunting scenes were also popular since they allowed the depiction of the horse, which the Greeks held in high esteem. In later periods erotic themes, both heterosexual and male homosexual, became common (Burckhardt, 1963).
Pottery was used for culinary purposes and also as trophies for games such as the Panathenaic Amphorae (wine decanters). The remnants of pottery that have survived till today include drinking vessels such as amphorae, kraters (bowls for mixing wine and water), hydria (water jars), libation bowls, jugs, and cups. Painted funeral urns have also been found. Miniatures were also produced in large numbers, mainly for use as offerings at temples. In the Hellenistic period, a wider range of pottery was produced, but most of it was too simple to be any artistic significance. At the end of the Geometric phase, abstract geometric designs were replaced by the more rounded, realistic forms of Eastern motifs, such as the lotus, palmette, lion, and sphinx. Ornament increased in amount and intricacy. The range of colors that could be used on pots was restricted by the technology of firing: black, white, red, and yellow were the most common. In the three earlier periods, the pots were left their natural light color and were decorated with a slip that turned black in the kiln. The fully mature black-figure technique, with added red and white details and incising for outlines and details, originated in Corinth during the early 7th century BC flourished until the end of the 6th century BC. The red-figure technique, invented in about 530 BC, reversed this tradition, with the pots being painted black and the figures painted in red. Red-figure vases slowly replaced the black-figure style. Sometimes larger vessels were engraved as well as painted.
The Aegean islands, Crete, and the Greek colonies of Southern Italy and Sicily were well known for their distinctively artistic pottery creations. By the later Archaic and early Classical periods, Corinth and Athens began to dominate the pottery field and exported pottery all over the Greek world, driving out the local varieties. They are very common in Italy that they were first collected in the 18th century as “Etruscan vases”. Many of these pots are mass-produced products of low quality. In fact, by the 5th century BC, pottery had become an industry and pottery painting ceased to be an important art form. Greek pottery is frequently signed, sometimes by the potter or the master of the pottery, but only occasionally by the painter.
Ancient Greek sculpture
Clay was the main material used to make statues until the Hellenistic era. During the 8th century BCE., in Boeotia, there are idols known as “Bell Idols”. These are female figures with mobile legs. The head is small compared to the remainder of the body and is perched at the end of a long neck, while the body is very full, in the shape of a bell. In later periods terracotta figurines were representing common characters. Figurines known as Tanagra appeared during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. During this same period, grotesque bronze figurines with bulging eyes and deformed body parts appeared in cities such as Alexandria, Smyrna, and Tarsus. Terracotta was rarely used to make statues but there is a painted terracotta statue of Zeus carrying Ganymede to Olympus, executed around 470 BCE (Lesky, 1996).
Ancient Greek sculpture influence Romans during the Italian Renaissance. During the Archaic period, the Greeks carved free-standing figures in stone. After about 575 BCE, figures, such as these, both male and female, wear the so-called archaic smile, which gave the figures a distinctive human characteristic. In the Classical period, sculptural poses became more naturalistic and about 500 BC statues began to depict real people. Example: the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton in Athens. The great temples of the Classical era were the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
The transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period occurred during the 4th century BC. Greco-Buddhist art was a combination of Greek art and the visual expression of Buddhism. During this period sculpture became more and more naturalistic. Sculpture, like pottery, became an industry during this Hellenistic period. Some of the best known Hellenistic sculptures are the Winged Victory of Samothrace (2nd or 1st century BC), the statue of Aphrodite from the island of Melos known as the Venus de Milo (mid 2nd century BC), the Dying Gaul (about 230 BC), and the monumental group Laocoön and his Sons (late 1st century BC).
There were two main styles (or “orders”) of Greek architecture, the Doric and the Ionic. The Doric style was used in mainland Greece and spread from there to the Greek colonies in Italy. The Ionic style was used in the cities of Ionia (now the west coast of Turkey) and some of the Aegean islands. The Doric style was more formal and austere, the Ionic more relaxed and decorative. The best-known surviving Greek buildings, such as the Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, are Doric. The Erechtheum, next to the Parthenon, however, is Ionic.
References
Lesky, Albin (1996). History of Greek Literature.
Carpenter, R. (1962). Greek Art: A Study of the Formal Evolution of Style. University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia. 1962.
Burckhardt, J (1963). History of Greek Culture. Frederick Ungar Publishing. New York. 1963.