Black figure

GREECE

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776 BCE 1st Olympiad – traditional beginning of Greek History 750 – 600 BCE Greek emigration to Southern Italy and Sicily 510 – 508 BCE Democracy established in Athens 479 BCE end of Persian War 460 – 429 BCE Golden Age of Greece 431 – 404 BCE Peloponnesian Wars 336 – 323 BCE Alexander the Great rules Greece 146 BCE – 330 CE Roman rule of Greece Greece was composed of two groups, the Dorians who inhabited the Greek mainland and the Ionians who lived on the Greek islands, Asia Minor and the city of Athens. The Peloponnesian Wars pitted the Dorian city of Sparta and her allies against Athens.

Greek art periods:

1000 – 700 BCE Proto-Geometric and Geometric 700 – 600 BCE Orientalizing 600 – 400 BCE Archaic 480 – 450 BCE Early Classical 450 – 330 BCE Classical 330 – 146 BCE Hellenistic

Greek art is devoted, almost exclusively, to the human figure.

“Man is the measure of all things.”

Protagoras

“From the love of beauty has sprung every good in heaven and earth.” Plato This love of beauty will cause Greek art to be ideal rather than real. This preference for the ideal is also reflected in a statement by Socrates. He writes, “But when you want to represent beautiful figures, since it is not easy to find everything without a flaw in a single human being, do you not then collect from a number what is beautiful in each, so that the whole body may appear beautiful.”

In the Geometric Period our main concern will be on Greek vases and vase painting. Amazingly in the Orientalizing Period we, again, will concentrate on Greek vases and vase painting. In the Archaic Period we will not only look at the vases, but will extended our investigation of the art of Classical Greece by looking at both Greek sculpture and architecture. In the Early Classical, Classical and Hellenistic periods we will concentrate of architecture and sculpture.

“There can be no fairer spectacle than that of a man who combines the possession of moral beauty in his soul with outward beauty of form, corresponding and harmonizing with the former, because the same pattern enters into both.” Socrates The Greeks believed that an individual should strive for a balance between the body and the spirit. They felt the ideal person would have a healthy mind and a healthy body. This concept is beautifully exemplified in a Greek vase in the British Museum in London. On the pot is a painting of boys in a gymnasium, all the boys, but one, have beautiful bodies. The lone outsider is fat and unfit causing the others to mock him as his physical character revealed his lack of spiritual perfection.

Greek pottery and Greek vase painting

Greek pottery was essentially functional and there are numerous forms and functions. This list is just a sampling of the various vase forms. Types of pottery: Amphora Oenochoe a storage jar a wine jug similar to with a large opening water pitcher and a lid Krater Lekythos a mixing bowl for an oil flask used in wine and water funeral rites Kylix Arbyllos a drinking cup for a perfume bottle wine

There are five forms of painting that decorate the walls of Greek vases. • • • • •

Geometric Orientalizing Black figure Red figure White ground

1000 – 700 BCE 700 – 600 BCE 600 – 525 BCE 525 – 400 BCE 600 – 400 BCE

Vase painting became a minor art after the Archaic Period.

Early Geometric vases would have consisted of simple geometric patterns divided into zones or bands that encircled the pot. Animals would have been introduced in the 8th century BCE, the human figure a bit later.

Dipylon Krater ca. 740 BCE The Dipylon Krater is an excellent example of a late geometric krater. Because the image on the pot is of a funeral rite, we know this is a funeral krater. Pots in the Geometric Period were often used as a tomb marker. The figures on the Geometric pots are stylized rather than naturalistic.

During the Orientalizing Period we see the introduction of Egyptian and Near Eastern animals, real and mythical, as design motifs in Greek pottery. In the period we also will notice that the rigid horizontal breakup in Geometric design is relaxed creating large open areas that become the playing ground for the animals.

Lion headed arbyllos

Orientalizing Amphora ca. 625 – 600 BCE

Orientalizing Olpe

In the Archaic Period we will find Black-figure vase painting as well as the introduction in 525 BCE of Red-figure vase painting. Subject matter and narrative become very important in these periods. Images come from all aspects of Greek life. In the black figure technique the image is dark and the ground (base) is light. In Red figure this is reversed. The Andokides Painter introduced the Red figure style which is more painterly than Black figure.

Black figure Exekius Dionysus in a boat Kylix

Women at the well Hydria

Black figure Krater

Black figure Hydria

Red figure Powder Box

Because of the scene, a bride being brought to her groom on the powder box we know this is a wedding gift.

Douris – Kylix with Heterae ca. 490 – 480 BCE

In Classical Greek culture the genders were quite separated. At parties the wives and daughters would not participate the men would hire heterae, professional entertainers.

Euphronios – Death of Sarpedon ca. 515 BCE

Euphronios was the painter of this krater and Euxitheos was the potter. The image illustrates the death of Sarpedon, a son of Zeus, who was killed in the Trojan War. When Sarpedon was killed Zeus honored him by causing bloody rain to fall. This piece that has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York is one of the works that was forced to be returned to Italy during the debate over the repatriation of art objects. It was smuggled out of Italy in 1971.

White Ground Painting An arbyllos of conch shells

An Oenoche with a woman spinning. Notice the beautiful linear treatment of the clothing. This use of the contour line influenced later Classical artists.