G reek Art & A rchitecture Dilisa V.

Townsend
February 2, 2007
I. Greek Art

A. Gender
1. men were usually represented
a. they were most often nude
b. genitals were most often on display
2. women were also represented
a. they were most often clothed in a peplos

B. Greek art & Architecture placed an emphasis on order,

harmony, and balance.

C. Casting bronze began being practiced in the 9th century.

D. Greek art idealized the human form.

1. Human form was integrated into structures.

E. Vase painting
1. only consistent guideline to development of artistic
concepts
a. early - crude, curvilinear and naturalistic motifs
b. middle years - 10th century more proficiently
decorated work of a severe, spare type.
~ Proto-Geometric: characterized by bands of
sparse, simple geometrical decoration.
c. mature - 9th & 8th century
~ narrower bands with more varied decoration
~ included rigid little figures of men & animals

2. In Attica, mature style of vase painting was “highly”

developed.

3. Geometric art was the dominant artistic style of ancient

Greece from 1000B.C. Through 700 B.C..

4. Artists who worked in the geometric style adorned many

of their pieces with precise curvilinear & rectilinear or
geometric
patterns.

F. Sculpture
 1. The origin of monumental Greek sculpture lies within the
7th century.
2. Prior to 650 B.C. Greek sculptures were made of wood
and small in size.
3. Stimulus from Egypt & Mesopotamia prompted Greeks
to attempt production of large figures in stone and develop
their
own sculptural style.
4. Votive Sculpture – smaller sculptures of bronze and clay
very often represented as animals.
a. these presented a better sacrifice than a living
victim
b. Scholars have suggested the purpose of Korai was
to serve as votive offerings.
5. Polychrome is how Greeks decorated their works.

G. Archaic Period
1. 650 B.C. Through 480 B.C.
2. Ancient Greek artists came into contact with ideas &
styles outside Greece.
3. Greek ideals were reflected in vase painting and
sculpture.
4. Kouros (young men) & Kore (maidens) were represented
in statue form.
a. This brought about a particularly Greek artistic
obsession of idealization of the human figure.
5. Vase painting reached a level of technical & artistic
excellence.

H. Classical
1. Early classical also called severe classical.
2. There was a revolution in Greek statuary.
a. this is attributed to the rise of democracy & the
end of the autocratic culture associated with the
kourai
3. Technical skill of depicting the human form greatly
increased.
4. The individual names of the sculptors are known for the
first time during the classical period.
a. Phidias
b. Praxiteles
5. Each transition during the classical period is critical.
a. changes were subtle but distinct
6. There were marked difference between the Archaic &
Classical styles.
7. A marked interest between youth and old age is seen.
II. Architecture
A. common materials used:
1. wood – supports & roof beams
2. unbaked bricks – walls
3. limestone & marble – columns, walls & upper portions of
temples & public buildings
4. terracotta – roof tiles & ornamentation
5. metals – decorative details

B. Archaic & Classical architects constructed five types of

buildings:
1. religious
2. civic
3. domestic
4. funerary
5. recreational

C. During the 6th century B.C., buildings went though

petrification.
1. slowly replacing wooden columns with stone ones
2. Buildings began being erected with stone at this time.

D. Most buildings were rectangular & made of limestone or tufa.

1. tufa is shell limestone

E. Marble was used mainly for sculptural decoration, not

structural functionality, because it was hard to transport.

F. Most buildings were usually surrounded by a columned portico

of columns on all four sides.

G. Roofs were wood beams covered with overlapping terracotta

tiles.

H. Between roof & top of column, a row of lintels formed the

entabulature.
1. This is where you'd see a frieze.

I. Early 5th century Greeks laid out cities in grid-like patterns.

J. There were two types of homes built in Greece.

1. small rooms arranged around a colonnaded interior
courtyard
2. interior courtyard with large rectangular hall as the
primary living space that led to a columned porch
K. There were three architectural styles.
1. Doric
a. 7th century B.C. - 5th century B.C.
b. characterized by columns that stood directly on
flat pavement without a base
c. Vertical shafts were fluted with 20 parallel concave
grooves.
d. topped by a smooth capital that flared to meet a
square abacus at the intersection with the horizontal
beam they carried the weight of
e. Pronounced features of Greek Doric order are:
~ triglphs – decoratively grooved and
represent the wooden end beams which rest on
the plain frieze that
occupies the lower half of the entablature
~ metopes – the spaces between triglphs left
plain or carved in low relief
2. Ionic
a. Originated in the mid 6th century B.C. In Ionia.
b. Columns usually stand on a base.
c. Capital has characteristic paired scrolling volutes
in the molded cap.
d. Below volutes there may be a wide collar or
banding separating capital from fluted shaft.
e. 24 hollow flutes in shafts.
f. More slender than Doric.
3. Corinthian
a. Characterized by a slender fluted column and
ornate capital decorated with acanthus leaves &
scrolls.
b. Was seldom used in Greek Architecture.
c. Seen as enrichment of Ionic.
d. Has no neck beneath its capital.
e. Usually fluted.
f. More flexible than Doric or Ionic in styling.
g. Abacus has concave sides to conform to the out
scrolling of capital.
h. Term used when at least two orders are combined.