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14 - Classical Greek Art and
Classical Greek Art and
Architecture
9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 2
The Severe Style
New Greek expertise in bronze casting allowed for poses
and definition impossible in the Archaic period
workers in marble, too, tried to imitate the new freedom
Severely dignified style, perhaps because of association with
funerary customs
Altered frontality, shifted weight with contrapposto
Successful depiction of figures at rest
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 3 The Charioteer of Delphi, 480-470 B.C. 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 4 The sculptor, Kritios, broke with the conventions of the Archaic Period:
- archaic smile has given way to a “severely fixed mouth”
- unrelieved frontality avoided by a slight twist of the torso and a barely tilted head
- first good example of contrapposto or counterpoise
- stylization of hair and musculature as well as rigid symmetry abandoned Kritian Boy, c. 480 B.C.
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 7 Diskobolos, or “the discus thrower” Myron, c. 450 B.C.
Roman marble copy of Myron’s
bronze original
9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 8 Doyphoros or “Spear Bearer” Roman copy of a bronze original by Polykleitos, c. 440 B.C. This statue was originally sculpted and cast to illustrate a treatise (now lost) written by Polykleitos called the Kanon , which set out to codify his theory of proportions
- Each limb bears a numerical relationship to
the overall measurements of the figure
- Focus is on symmetria , or “the
commensurability (proportionality) of parts”
- Achieved a balance of straight and bent,
tense and relaxed that marks it as an ideal
example of contrapposto
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 9 The Greek Sanctuary: Example of Delphi Choice of site: focal religious and aesthetic space 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 10 Model of Delphi and Shots of the Temple of Apollo
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 13 Panathenaic Procession entering the Acropolis
(artist’s rendition left with real shot
below)
9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 14 The Parthenon Perikles used league funds to rebuild the main temple to Athena on the Athenian akropolis Ictinus and Callicrates, architects Refinements for “apparent” perfection
entasis : columns bulge or
swell in the middle
column spacing not even
no straight lines, no true
horizontal, no real
perpendicular (stylobate
bows in middle)
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 15
Model of the Parthenon
9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 16 Examples of Refinements
(entasis, column spacing, etc.)
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 19 Metopes, sculpted by Phidias
Civilization vs. Barbarism: gods
and giants, Greeks and Trojans,
Lapiths and Centaurs, men and
Amazons
Important ideas: Panathenaea, glory of Athens, gods await procession with
tranquility and calm serenity (ideal of inner life), contemporary Athenians
pictured with the gods
Running Ionic Frieze: an Ionic innovation used in a Doric temple!
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 21 The running Ionic Freeze within the colonnade and around the cella and porch depicted the Great Panathenaic procession. Parthenon Floor Plan 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 22 View of interior Ionic frieze running around the inner cella
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 25 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 26 Running Ionic frieze with painted restoration
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 27 Statues from the East Pediment: gods and goddesses witness the birth of Athena
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 31 Model of the chryselephantine (gold and ivory) cult statue of Athena Parthenos 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 32 The Ionic Order Art in the Midst of War: “By the end of the Fifth Century a rich style was developed in which elegance, decorativeness and linear grace superseded all other values.” (Woodford, 138) Characteristics
Freer, more graceful, more embellished
Slender, delicate columns
Decorated column bases and volute capitals, complex moldings
Running frieze
In the context of the Peloponnesian War, more closely
associated with the Ionian majority within the Athenian
Empire
14 - Classical Greek Art and Comparison of Doric and Ionic Orders 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 34 Details of the Ionic Order
14 - Classical Greek Art and 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 37 Erechtheion Porch of the Maidens of the Erechtheion
Its famous caryatids (statues of maidens serving as supports) replace
conventional columns
14 - Classical Greek Art and The Erechtheion’s caryatids also reflect the last phase of Classical sculpture before the fourth century 9/29/2005 14 - Classical Greek Art and Architecture 40
- Decorative detail replaces naturalism
- Delights in linear effects such as modeling lines and motion lines
- Attention given to drapery and its potential for effect Late Classical Sculpture, last quarter of the fifth century
