Misplaced Pages

#558441

149-397: Greek architecture , technically very simple, established a harmonious style with numerous detailed conventions that were largely adopted by Roman architecture and are still followed in some modern buildings. It used a vocabulary of ornament that was shared with pottery, metalwork and other media, and had an enormous influence on Eurasian art, especially after Buddhism carried it beyond

298-480: A base of stone which protected the more vulnerable elements from damp. The roofs were probably of thatch with eaves which overhung the permeable walls. Many larger houses, such as those at Delos, were built of stone and plastered. The roofing material for the substantial house was tile. Houses of the wealthy had mosaic floors and demonstrated the Classical style. Many houses centred on a wide passage or "pasta" which ran

447-418: A building in which each of these could be housed. This led to the development of temples. The ancient Greeks perceived order in the universe, and in turn, applied order and reason to their creations. Their humanist philosophy put mankind at the centre of things and promoted well-ordered societies and the development of democracy. At the same time, the respect for human intellect demanded a reason, and promoted

596-433: A cheaper substitute for metalware in both Greece and Etruria. Most surviving pottery consists of vessels for storing, serving or drinking liquids such as amphorae , kraters (bowls for mixing wine and water), hydria (water jars), libation bowls, oil and perfume bottles for the toilet, jugs and cups. Painted vessels for serving and eating food are much less common. Painted pottery was affordable even by ordinary people, and

745-432: A different purplish-red. Within the restrictions of these techniques and other strong conventions, vase-painters achieved remarkable results, combining refinement and powerful expression. White ground technique allowed more freedom in depiction, but did not wear well and was mostly made for burial. Conventionally, the ancient Greeks are said to have made most pottery vessels for everyday use, not for display. Exceptions are

894-404: A few large bronze sculptures. Almost entirely missing are painting, fine metal vessels, and anything in perishable materials including wood. The stone shell of a number of temples and theatres has survived, but little of their extensive decoration. By convention, finely painted vessels of all shapes are called "vases", and there are over 100,000 significantly complete surviving pieces, giving (with

1043-505: A large number of sites around the Eastern Mediterranean , including Mainland Greece , Western Asia Minor , Southern and Central Italy . Being more expensive and labour-intensive to produce than thatch, their introduction has been explained by the fact that their fireproof quality would have given desired protection to the costly temples. As a side-effect, it has been assumed that the new stone and tile construction also ushered in

1192-639: A large part of survivals, including the Panagyurishte Treasure , Borovo Treasure , and other Thracian treasures , and several Scythian burials, which probably contained work by Greek artists based in the Greek settlements on the Black Sea . As with other luxury arts, the Macedonian royal cemetery at Vergina has produced objects of top quality from the cusp of the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Jewellery for

1341-399: A lintel, which in a stone building limited the possible width of the opening. The distance between columns was similarly affected by the nature of the lintel, columns on the exterior of buildings and carrying stone lintels being closer together than those on the interior, which carried wooden lintels. Door and window openings narrowed towards the top. Temples were constructed without windows,

1490-469: A low pitched gable or pediment. The earliest temples, built to enshrine statues of deities, were probably of wooden construction, later replaced by the more durable stone temples many of which are still in evidence today. The signs of the original timber nature of the architecture were maintained in the stone buildings. A few of these temples are very large, with several, such as the Temple of Zeus Olympus and

1639-401: A millennium of Greek pottery making, but also in the architecture that was to emerge in the 6th century. The major development that occurred was in the growing use of the human figure as the major decorative motif, and the increasing surety with which humanity, its mythology, activities and passions were depicted. The development in the depiction of the human form in pottery was accompanied by

SECTION 10

#1733085286559

1788-646: A much later work; and the Anavyssos Kouros ( National Archaeological Museum of Athens ). More of the musculature and skeletal structure is visible in this statue than in earlier works. The standing, draped girls have a wide range of expression, as in the sculptures in the Acropolis Museum of Athens . Their drapery is carved and painted with the delicacy and meticulousness common in the details of sculpture of this period. Archaic reliefs have survived from many tombs, and from larger buildings at Foce del Sele (now in

1937-406: A naturally occurring sloping site where people could sit, rather than a containing structure. Colonnades encircling buildings, or surrounding courtyards provided shelter from the sun and from sudden winter storms. The light of Greece may be another important factor in the development of the particular character of ancient Greek architecture. The light is often extremely bright, with both the sky and

2086-399: A passion for enquiry, logic, challenge, and problem-solving. The architecture of the ancient Greeks, and in particular, temple architecture, responds to these challenges with a passion for beauty, and for order and symmetry which is the product of a continual search for perfection, rather than a simple application of a set of working rules. There is a clear division between the architecture of

2235-524: A piece "decently decorated with about five or six figures cost about two or three days' wages". 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 is of little artistic importance. In earlier periods even quite small Greek cities produced pottery for their own locale. These varied widely in style and standards. Distinctive pottery that ranks as art

2384-431: A rectangular hall with a hearth in the centre, was the largest room in the palaces, and also larger houses. Sun-dried brick above rubble bases were the usual materials, with wooden columns and roof-beams. Rows of ashlar stone orthostats lined the base of walls in some prominent locations. The Minoan architecture of Crete was of the trabeated form like that of ancient Greece. It employed wooden columns with capitals, but

2533-593: A regular grid of paved streets and an agora or central market place surrounded by a colonnade or stoa . The completely restored Stoa of Attalos can be seen in Athens . Towns were also equipped with a public fountain where water could be collected for household use. The development of regular town plans is associated with Hippodamus of Miletus , a pupil of Pythagoras . Public buildings became "dignified and gracious structures", and were sited so that they related to each other architecturally. The propylon or porch, formed

2682-699: A result of Alexander's conquest of other lands, and later as a result of the rise of the Roman Empire, which adopted much of Greek culture. Before the Hellenic era, two major cultures had dominated the region: the Minoan ( c.  2800  – c.  1100 BC ), and the Mycenaean (c. 1500–1100 BC). Minoan is the name given by modern historians to the culture of the people of ancient Crete , known for its elaborate and richly decorated Minoan palaces , and for its pottery,

2831-436: A sculptural entity within the landscape, most often raised on high ground so that the elegance of its proportions and the effects of light on its surfaces might be viewed from all angles. Nikolaus Pevsner refers to "the plastic shape of the [Greek] temple [...] placed before us with a physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building". The formal vocabulary of ancient Greek architecture, in particular

2980-409: A series of solid stone cylinders or "drums" that rest on each other without mortar, but were sometimes centred with a bronze pin. The columns are wider at the base than at the top, tapering with an outward curve known as entasis . Each column has a capital of two parts, the upper, on which rests the lintels, being square and called the abacus . The part of the capital that rises from the column itself

3129-588: A similar development in sculpture. The tiny stylised bronzes of the Geometric period gave way to life-sized highly formalised monolithic representation in the Archaic period. The Classical period was marked by a rapid development towards idealised but increasingly lifelike depictions of gods in human form. This development had a direct effect on the sculptural decoration of temples, as many of the greatest extant works of ancient Greek sculpture once adorned temples, and many of

SECTION 20

#1733085286559

3278-449: A source of decorative motifs employed by ancient Greek architects as particularly in evidence in the volutes of capitals of the Ionic and Corinthian Orders. The ancient Greek architects took a philosophic approach to the rules and proportions. The determining factor in the mathematics of any notable work of architecture was its ultimate appearance. The architects calculated for perspective, for

3427-409: A treasury or repository for trophies and gifts. The chambers were lit by a single large doorway, fitted with a wrought iron grill. Some rooms appear to have been illuminated by skylights. On the stylobate, often completely surrounding the naos, stand rows of columns. Each temple is defined as being of a particular type, with two terms: one describing the number of columns across the entrance front, and

3576-449: A triangular structure called the pediment. The tympanum is the triangular space framed by the cornices and the location of the most significant sculptural decoration on the exterior of the building. Every temple rested on a masonry base called the crepidoma , generally of three steps, of which the upper one which carried the columns was the stylobate . Masonry walls were employed for temples from about 600 BC onwards. Masonry of all types

3725-424: A white-ground interior and a red-figure exterior image. White-ground painting is less durable than black- or red-figure, which is why such vases were primarily used as votives and grave vessels. The development of white-ground vase painting took place parallel to that of the black- and red-figure styles. In the course of that development, five sub-styles can be noted: Early use . The earliest surviving example of

3874-486: Is a second horizontal stage called the frieze . The frieze is one of the major decorative elements of the building and carries a sculptured relief. In the case of Ionic and Corinthian architecture, the relief decoration runs in a continuous band, but in the Doric order, it is divided into sections called metopes , which fill the spaces between vertical rectangular blocks called triglyphs . The triglyphs are vertically grooved like

4023-453: Is a statue of Zeus carrying Ganymede found at Olympia , executed around 470 BC. In this case, the terracotta is painted. There were undoubtedly sculptures purely in wood, which may have been very important in early periods, but effectively none have survived. Bronze Age Cycladic art , to about 1100 BC, had already shown an unusual focus on the human figure, usually shown in a straightforward frontal standing position with arms folded across

4172-460: Is called the echinus. It differs according to the order, being plain in the Doric order, fluted in the Ionic and foliate in the Corinthian. Doric and usually Ionic capitals are cut with vertical grooves known as fluting . This fluting or grooving of the columns is a retention of an element of the original wooden architecture. The columns of a temple support a structure that rises in two main stages,

4321-464: Is far more sensuous and emotional than the austere taste of the Classical period would have allowed or its technical skills permitted. The multi-figure group of statues was a Hellenistic innovation, probably of the 3rd century, taking the epic battles of earlier temple pediment reliefs off their walls, and placing them as life-size groups of statues. Their style is often called " baroque ", with extravagantly contorted body poses, and intense expressions in

4470-552: Is increasingly replaced by painted yellowish-brown lines. The so-called "semi-outline" technique is a combination of the first and the second technique, used only in the first half of the 5th century BC, virtually exclusively on lekythoi and alabastra. Type III . In the first quarter of the 5th century, the workshop of the potter Euphronios develops a four-colour painting style using a combination of shiny clay slip and mineral paints. The images are made up of outline drawings in shiny slip and coloured areas in mineral paint. This style

4619-423: Is monochrome silhouette drawing. Images are not created from reservation (paint-free areas) and painted internal detail (as in red-figure vase painting), but from drawn outlines and painted internal detail. This style is used since the end of the 6th century BC, especially on cups, alabastra and lekythoi . Initially, the outline of the figures is executed in the form of a relief line , but from about 500 BC, this

Ancient Greek art - Misplaced Pages Continue

4768-416: Is stone. Limestone was readily available and easily worked. There is an abundance of high quality white marble both on the mainland and islands, particularly Paros and Naxos . This finely grained material was a major contributing factor to precision of detail, both architectural and sculptural, that adorned ancient Greek architecture. Deposits of high-quality potter's clay were found throughout Greece and

4917-555: Is the Achilles Painter . Type V . The fifth style was polychrome lekythos painting. It replaced Early Classical lekythos painting around the middle of the 5th century BC. By this time, white-ground can be identified most closely with three principal shapes : the lekythos , the krater , and cups. Black shiny slip and white paint now disappeared from the paintings. Female bodies were again rendered as simple outline drawings. Non-ceramic mineral paints also ceased to be used. At

5066-580: Is the case with the Classical 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). All these statues depict Classical themes, but their treatment

5215-435: Is used especially on pyxides and cups. Some details, such as fruit, jewellery, weaponry or vessels can be executed in clay slip in such a fashion as to attain a slight plasticity, additionally they may be gilded. The paints used are limited to tones of red and brown, yellow, white and black. Type IV . Early Classical lekythos painting combined shiny slip, mineral paints and non.ceramic mineral paints, This type developed in

5364-560: The Farnese Bull , Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus ("Pasquino group"), Arrotino , and the Sperlonga sculptures , are other examples. From the 2nd century the Neo-Attic or Neo-Classical style is seen by different scholars as either a reaction to baroque excesses, returning to a version of Classical style, or as a continuation of the traditional style for cult statues. Workshops in

5513-752: The Barberini Faun , the Belvedere Torso , and the Resting Satyr ; the Furietti Centaurs and Sleeping Hermaphroditus reflect related themes. At the same time, the new Hellenistic cities springing up all over Egypt , Syria , and Anatolia required statues depicting the gods and heroes of Greece for their temples and public places. This made sculpture, like pottery, an industry, with the consequent standardisation and some lowering of quality. For these reasons many more Hellenistic statues have survived than

5662-511: The Byzantine period, and both were removed to Constantinople , where they were later destroyed in fires. The transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period occurred during the 4th century BC. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great (336 BC to 323 BC), Greek culture spread as far as India , as revealed by the excavations of Ai-Khanoum in eastern Afghanistan , and the civilization of

5811-608: The Geometric and Archaic periods. White-ground vases were produced, for example, in Ionia , Laconia and on the Cycladic islands , but only in Athens did it develop into a veritable separate style beside black-figure and red-figure vase painting. For that reason, the term "white-ground pottery" or "white-ground vase painting" is usually used in reference to the Attic material only. The light slip

5960-516: The Greco-Bactrians and the Indo-Greeks . Greco-Buddhist art represented a syncretism between Greek art and the visual expression of Buddhism. Thus Greek art became more diverse and more influenced by the cultures of the peoples drawn into the Greek orbit. In the view of some art historians, it also declined in quality and originality. This, however, is a judgement which artists and art-lovers of

6109-513: The Greek Dark Ages . The 7th century BC witnessed the slow development of the Archaic style as exemplified by the black-figure style of vase painting. Around 500 BC, shortly before the onset of the Persian Wars (480 BC to 448 BC), is usually taken as the dividing line between the Archaic and the Classical periods, and the reign of Alexander the Great (336 BC to 323 BC) is taken as separating

Ancient Greek art - Misplaced Pages Continue

6258-611: The Greeks , or Hellenes, whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese , the Aegean Islands , and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC. Ancient Greek architecture is best known for its temples , many of which are found throughout the region, with

6407-554: The Lady of Auxerre and Torso of Hera (Early Archaic period, c.  660 –580 BC, both in the Louvre, Paris). After about 575 BC, figures, such as these, both male and female, wore the so-called archaic smile . This expression, which has no specific appropriateness to the person or situation depicted, may have been a device to give the figures a distinctive human characteristic. Three types of figures were used—the standing nude youth (kouros),

6556-765: The National Archaeological Museum of Paestum ) in Italy, with two groups of metope panels, from about 550 and 510, and the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, with friezes and a small pediment . Parts, all now in local museums, survive of the large triangular pediment groups from the Temple of Artemis, Corfu ( c.  580 ), dominated by a huge Gorgon , and the Old Temple of Athena in Athens ( c.  530 -500). In

6705-472: The Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, which seats 45,000 people, was restored in the 19th century and was used in the 1896, 1906 and 2004 Olympic Games . The architecture of ancient Greece is of a trabeated or " post and lintel " form, i.e. it is composed of upright beams (posts) supporting horizontal beams (lintels). Although the existent buildings of the era are constructed in stone, it is clear that

6854-452: The Parthenon regarded, now as in ancient times, as the prime example. Most remains are very incomplete ruins, but a number survive substantially intact, mostly outside modern Greece. The second important type of building that survives all over the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre , with the earliest dating from around 525–480 BC. Other architectural forms that are still in evidence are

7003-516: The Parthenon , are between 60 and 80 metres (approx. 200–260 feet) in length. The largest temples, mainly Ionic and Corinthian, but including the Doric Temple of the Olympian Zeus, Agrigento , were between 90 and 120 metres (approx. 300–390 feet) in length. The temple rises from a stepped base or stylobate , which elevates the structure above the ground on which it stands. Early examples, such as

7152-563: The Temple of Zeus at Olympia, required relief sculpture for decorative friezes , and sculpture in the round to fill the triangular fields of the pediments . The difficult aesthetic and technical challenge stimulated much in the way of sculptural innovation. These works survive only in fragments, the most famous of which are the Parthenon Marbles , half of which are in the British Museum. Funeral statuary evolved during this period from

7301-404: The entablature and the pediment . The entablature is the major horizontal structural element supporting the roof and encircling the entire building. It is composed of three parts. Resting on the columns is the architrave made of a series of stone "lintels" that spanned the space between the columns, and meet each other at a joint directly above the centre of each column. Above the architrave

7450-619: The lost wax technique. Chryselephantine , or gold-and-ivory, statues were the cult-images in temples and were regarded as the highest form of sculpture, but only some fragmentary pieces have survived. They were normally over-lifesize, built around a wooden frame, with thin carved slabs of ivory representing the flesh, and sheets of gold leaf , probably over wood, representing the garments, armour, hair, and other details. In some cases, glass paste, glass, and precious and semi-precious stones were used for detail such as eyes, jewellery, and weaponry. Other large acrolithic statues used stone for

7599-493: 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. The range of colours which 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 colour, and were decorated with slip that turned black in

SECTION 50

#1733085286559

7748-520: The 6th century BC, where the rows of columns supporting the roof the cella rise higher than the outer walls, unnecessary if roof trusses are employed as an integral part of the wooden roof. The indication is that initially all the rafters were supported directly by the entablature, walls and hypostyle, rather than on a trussed wooden frame, which came into use in Greek architecture only in the 3rd century BC. Ancient Greek buildings of timber, clay and plaster construction were probably roofed with thatch. With

7897-474: The Archaic Period the most important sculptural form was the kouros (plural kouroi ), the standing male nude (See for example Biton and Kleobis ). The kore (plural korai ), or standing clothed female figure, was also common, but since Greek society did not permit the public display of female nudity until the 4th century BC, the kore is considered to be of less importance in the development of sculpture. By

8046-405: The Archaic period were not all intended to represent specific individuals. They were depictions of an ideal—beauty, piety, honor or sacrifice. These were always depictions of young men, ranging in age from adolescence to early maturity, even when placed on the graves of (presumably) elderly citizens. Kouroi were all stylistically similar. Graduations in the social stature of the person commissioning

8195-477: The Classical from the Hellenistic periods. From some point in the 1st century BC onwards "Greco-Roman" is used, or more local terms for the Eastern Greek world. In reality, there was no sharp transition from one period to another. Forms of art developed at different speeds in different parts of the Greek world, and as in any age some artists worked in more innovative styles than others. Strong local traditions, and

8344-498: The Classical period there was a revolution in Greek statuary, usually associated with the introduction of democracy and the end of the aristocratic culture associated with the kouroi . The Classical period saw changes in the style and function of sculpture. Poses became more naturalistic (see the Charioteer of Delphi for an example of the transition to more naturalistic sculpture), and the technical skill of Greek sculptors in depicting

8493-700: The Dorian people who lived on the Greek mainland. Following these events, there was a period from which only a village level of culture seems to have existed. This period is thus often referred to as the Greek Dark Age . The art history of the Hellenic era is generally subdivided into four periods: the Protogeometric (1100–900 BC), the Geometric (900–700 BC), the Archaic (700–500 BC) and the Classical (500–323 BC) with sculpture being further divided into Severe Classical, High Classical and Late Classical. The first signs of

8642-399: The Doric columns, and retain the form of the wooden beams that would once have supported the roof. The upper band of the entablature is called the cornice , which is generally ornately decorated on its lower edge. The cornice retains the shape of the beams that would once have supported the wooden roof at each end of the building. At the front and rear of each temple, the entablature supports

8791-512: The East, but also became larger and more detailed. 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 and was introduced into Attica about a generation later; it flourished until the end of the 6th century BC. The red-figure technique , invented in about 530 BC, reversed this tradition, with

8940-475: The Geometric and Archaic phases, the production of large metal vessels was an important expression of Greek creativity, and an important stage in the development of bronzeworking techniques, such as casting and repousse hammering. Early sanctuaries, especially Olympia , yielded many hundreds of tripod-bowl or sacrificial tripod vessels, mostly in bronze , deposited as votives . These had a shallow bowl with two handles raised high on three legs; in later versions

9089-447: The Greek market is often of superb quality, with one unusual form being intricate and very delicate gold wreaths imitating plant-forms, worn on the head. These were probably rarely, if ever, worn in life, but were given as votives and worn in death. Many of the Fayum mummy portraits wear them. Some pieces, especially in the Hellenistic period, are large enough to offer scope for figures, as did

SECTION 60

#1733085286559

9238-457: The Hellenistic period most terracotta figurines have lost their religious nature, and represent characters from everyday life. Tanagra figurines , from one of several centres of production, are mass-manufactured using moulds, and then painted after firing. Dolls, figures of fashionably-dressed ladies and of actors, some of these probably portraits, were among the new subjects, depicted with a refined style. These were cheap, and initially displayed in

9387-529: The Islands, with major deposits near Athens. It was used not only for pottery vessels but also roof tiles and architectural decoration. The climate of Greece is maritime, with both the coldness of winter and the heat of summer tempered by sea breezes. This led to a lifestyle where many activities took place outdoors. Hence temples were placed on hilltops, their exteriors designed as a visual focus of gatherings and processions, while theatres were often an enhancement of

9536-877: The Late Archaic " Berlin Painter ". The history of ancient Greek pottery is divided stylistically into five periods: During the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, Greek pottery was decorated with abstract designs, in the former usually elegant and large, with plenty of unpainted space, but in the Geometric often densely covering most of the surface, as in the large pots by the Dipylon Master , who worked around 750. He and other potters around his time began to introduce very stylised silhouette figures of humans and animals, especially horses. These often represent funeral processions, or battles, presumably representing those fought by

9685-459: The Olympians at Athens being well over 300 feet in length, but most were less than half this size. It appears that some of the large temples began as wooden constructions in which the columns were replaced piecemeal as stone became available. This, at least was the interpretation of the historian Pausanias looking at the Temple of Hera at Olympia in the 2nd century AD. The stone columns are made of

9834-554: The Roman period. During the 8th century BC tombs in Boeotia often contain "bell idols", female statuettes with mobile legs: the head, small compared to the remainder of the body, is perched at the end of a long neck, while the body is very full, in the shape of a bell. Archaic heroon tombs, for local heroes, might receive large numbers of crudely-shaped figurines, with rudimentary figuration, generally representing characters with raised arms. By

9983-508: The Scythian taste for relatively substantial pieces in gold. The Greeks decided very early on that the human form was the most important subject for artistic endeavour. Seeing their gods as having human form, there was little distinction between the sacred and the secular in art—the human body was both secular and sacred. A male nude of Apollo or Heracles had only slight differences in treatment to one of that year's Olympic boxing champion. In

10132-470: The Temple of Zeus at Olympus, have two steps, but the majority, like the Parthenon, have three, with the exceptional example of the Temple of Apollo at Didyma having six. The core of the building is a masonry-built "naos" within which is a cella, a windowless room originally housing the statue of the god. The cella generally has a porch or "pronaos" before it, and perhaps a second chamber or "antenaos" serving as

10281-514: The architect Polykleitos the Younger . Greek towns of substantial size also had a palaestra or a gymnasium , the social centre for male citizens which included spectator areas, baths, toilets and club rooms. Other buildings associated with sports include the hippodrome for horse racing, of which only remnants have survived, and the stadium for foot racing, 600 feet in length, of which examples exist at Olympia, Delphi, Epidaurus and Ephesus, while

10430-501: The burial of a Celtic woman in modern France, and the 4th-century Derveni Krater , 90.5 cm (35.6 in) high. The elites of other neighbours of the Greeks, such as the Thracians and Scythians , were keen consumers of Greek metalwork, and probably served by Greek goldsmiths settled in their territories, who adapted their products to suit local taste and functions. Such hybrid pieces form

10579-562: The century, some first attempts at shaded painting can be observed, influenced probably by contemporaneous panel painting . Notable in this regard is the Group of the Huge Lekythoi , specialised in decorating large grave vessels. During the second half of the 5th century, white-ground vase painting was used nearly exclusively for grave lekythoi . When that vase type went out of use around 400 BC, white-ground vase painting also ceased. Later, during

10728-511: The complete human form, and very human behaviour. The home of the gods was thought to be Olympus , the highest mountain in Greece. The most important deities were: Zeus , the supreme god and ruler of the sky; Hera , his wife and goddess of marriage; Athena , goddess of wisdom; Poseidon , the god of the sea; Demeter , goddess of the harvest; Apollo , the god of the sun, law, healing, plague, reason, music and poetry; Artemis , goddess of chastity,

10877-452: The contexts for strips of Archaic low relief scenes, which were also attached to various objects in wood; the band on the Vix Krater is a large example. Polished bronze mirrors, initially with decorated backs and kore handles, were another common item; the later "folding mirror" type had hinged cover pieces, often decorated with a relief scene, typically erotic. Coins are described below. From

11026-531: The deceased. The Geometric phase was followed by an Orientalizing period in the late 8th century, when a few animals, many either mythical or not native to Greece (like the sphinx and lion respectively) were adapted from the Near East, accompanied by decorative motifs, such as the lotus and palmette. These were shown much larger than the previous figures. The Wild Goat Style is a regional variant, very often showing goats . Human figures were not so influenced from

11175-525: The depicted motifs. Grave scenes are predominant. Important Classical white-ground painters (5th century BC), in addition to the Achilleus Painter and Sabouroff Painter, include the Sappho Painter , Thanatos Painter , Bird Painter , Square Painter , Women Painter , Phiale Painter , as well as several representatives of Group R ( Reed Group ), including its eponymous Reed Painter . By the end of

11324-624: The division of architectural style into three defined orders: the Doric Order , the Ionic Order and the Corinthian Order , was to have a profound effect on Western architecture of later periods. The architecture of ancient Rome grew out of that of Greece and maintained its influence in Italy unbroken until the present day. From the Renaissance , revivals of Classicism have kept alive not only

11473-465: The earlier mudbrick and wood walls, were strong enough to support the weight of a tiled roof. The earliest finds of roof tiles of the Archaic period in Greece are documented from a very restricted area around Corinth , where fired tiles began to replace thatched roofs at the temples of Apollo and Poseidon between 700 and 650 BC. Spreading rapidly, roof tiles were within fifty years in evidence for

11622-709: The end of overhanging eaves in Greek architecture, as they made the need for an extended roof as rain protection for the mudbrick walls obsolete. Vaults and arches were not generally used, but begin to appear in tombs (in a "beehive" or cantilevered form such as used in Mycenaea) and occasionally, as an external feature, exedrae of voussoired construction from the 5th century BC. The dome and vault never became significant structural features, as they were to become in ancient Roman architecture . Most ancient Greek temples were rectangular, and were approximately twice as long as they were wide, with some notable exceptions such as

11771-432: The end of the period architectural sculpture on temples was becoming important. As with pottery, the Greeks did not produce monumental sculpture merely for artistic display. Statues were commissioned either by aristocratic individuals or by the state, and used for public memorials, as offerings to temples, oracles and sanctuaries (as is frequently shown by inscriptions on the statues), or as markers for graves. Statues in

11920-460: The enormous Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens with a length of nearly 2 1 ⁄ 2 times its width. A number of surviving temple-like structures are circular, and are referred to as tholos . The smallest temples are less than 25 metres (approx. 75 feet) in length, or in the case of the circular tholos , in diameter. The great majority of temples are between 30 and 60 metres (approx. 100–200 feet) in length. A small group of Doric temples, including

12069-644: The entrance to temple sanctuaries and other significant sites with the best-surviving example being the Propylaea on the Acropolis of Athens . The bouleuterion was a large public building with a hypostyle hall that served as a court house and as a meeting place for the town council ( boule ). Remnants of bouleuterion survive at Athens, Olympia and Miletus, the latter having held up to 1,200 people. Every Greek town had an open-air theatre . These were used for both public meetings as well as dramatic performances. The theatre

12218-417: The expanded Greek world created by Alexander the Great . The social context of Greek art included radical political developments and a great increase in prosperity; the equally impressive Greek achievements in philosophy , literature and other fields are well known. The earliest art by Greeks is generally excluded from "ancient Greek art", and instead known as Greek Neolithic art followed by Aegean art ;

12367-567: The faces. The reliefs on the Pergamon Altar are the nearest original survivals, but several well known works are believed to be Roman copies of Hellenistic originals. These include the Dying Gaul and Ludovisi Gaul , as well as a less well known Kneeling Gaul and others, all believed to copy Pergamene commissions by Attalus I to commemorate his victory around 241 over the Gauls of Galatia , probably comprising two groups. The Laocoön Group ,

12516-529: The finest vase-painting reused designs by silversmiths for vessels with engraving and sections plated in a different metal, working from drawn designs. Exceptional survivals of what may have been a relatively common class of large bronze vessels are two volute kraters , for mixing wine and water. These are the Vix Krater , c.  530 BC , 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) high and over 200 kg (440 lb) in weight, holding some 1,100 litres, and found in

12665-406: The flesh parts, and wood for the rest, and marble statues sometimes had stucco hairstyles. Most sculpture was painted (see below), and much wore real jewellery and had inlaid eyes and other elements in different materials. Terracotta was occasionally employed, for large statuary. Few examples of this survived, at least partially due to the fragility of such statues. The best known exception to this

12814-429: The form, proportions, details and relationships of the columns, entablature , pediment , and the stylobate . The different orders were applied to the whole range of buildings and monuments. White ground technique White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica , dated to about 500 BC. It

12963-495: The greatest statue in the world. The most famous works of the Classical period for contemporaries were the colossal Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon. Both were chryselephantine and executed by Phidias or under his direction, and are now lost, although smaller copies (in other materials) and good descriptions of both still exist. Their size and magnificence prompted emperors to seize them in

13112-409: The home much like modern ornamental figurines, but were quite often buried with their owners. At the same time, cities like Alexandria , Smyrna or Tarsus produced an abundance of grotesque figurines, representing individuals with deformed members, eyes bulging and contorting themselves. Such figurines were also made from bronze. Greek architecture Ancient Greek architecture came from

13261-414: The human form in a variety of poses greatly increased. From about 500 BC statues began to depict real people. The statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton set up in Athens to mark the overthrow of the tyranny were said to be the first public monuments to actual people. At the same time sculpture and statues were put to wider uses. The great temples of the Classical era such as the Parthenon in Athens, and

13410-406: The hunt and the wilderness; Aphrodite , goddess of love; Ares , God of war; Hermes , the god of commerce and travellers, Hephaestus , the god of fire and metalwork; and Dionysus , the god of wine and fruit-bearing plants. Worship, like many other activities, was done in the community, in the open. However, by 600 BC, the gods were often represented by large statues and it was necessary to provide

13559-424: The inscriptions that many carry) unparalleled insights into many aspects of Greek life. Sculptural or architectural pottery, also very often painted, are referred to as terracottas , and also survive in large quantities. In much of the literature, "pottery" means only painted vessels, or "vases". Pottery was the main form of grave goods deposited in tombs, often as "funerary urns" containing the cremated ashes, and

13708-683: The interior of large monumental tombs such as the Lion Tomb at Knidos (c. 350 BC). The Greek word for the family or household, oikos , is also the name for the house. Houses followed several different types. It is probable that many of the earliest houses were simple structures of two rooms, with an open porch or pronaos , above which rose a low pitched gable or pediment . This form is thought to have contributed to temple architecture. The construction of many houses employed walls of sun-dried clay bricks or wooden framework filled with fibrous material such as straw or seaweed covered with clay or plaster, on

13857-456: The kiln. Greek pottery is frequently signed, sometimes by the potter or the master of the pottery, but only occasionally by the painter. Hundreds of painters are, however, identifiable by their artistic personalities: where their signatures have not survived they are named for their subject choices, as "the Achilles Painter ", by the potter they worked for, such as the Late Archaic " Kleophrades Painter ", or even by their modern locations, such as

14006-508: The large Archaic monumental vases made as grave-markers, trophies won at games, such as the Panathenaic Amphorae filled with olive oil, and pieces made specifically to be left in graves; some perfume bottles have a money-saving bottom just below the mouth, so a small quantity makes them appear full. In recent decades many scholars have questioned this, seeing much more production than was formerly thought as made to be placed in graves, as

14155-498: The largest recorded statues of the age, such as the lost chryselephantine statues of Zeus at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and Athena at the Parthenon, Athens, both over 40 feet high, were once housed in them. The religion of ancient Greece was a form of nature worship that grew out of the beliefs of earlier cultures. However, unlike earlier cultures, man was no longer perceived as being threatened by nature, but as its sublime product. The natural elements were personified as gods of

14304-458: The late Archaic the best metalworking kept pace with stylistic developments in sculpture and the other arts, and Phidias is among the sculptors known to have practiced it. Hellenistic taste encouraged highly intricate displays of technical virtuousity, tending to "cleverness, whimsy, or excessive elegance". Many or most Greek pottery shapes were taken from shapes first used in metal, and in recent decades there has been an increasing view that much of

14453-476: The latter includes Cycladic art and the art of the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures from the Greek Bronze Age . The art of ancient Greece is usually divided stylistically into four periods: the Geometric , Archaic , Classical, and Hellenistic . The Geometric age is usually dated from about 1000 BC, although in reality little is known about art in Greece during the preceding 200 years, traditionally known as

14602-449: The length of the house and opened at one side onto a small courtyard which admitted light and air. Larger houses had a fully developed peristyle (courtyard) at the centre, with the rooms arranged around it. Some houses had an upper floor which appears to have been reserved for the use of the women of the family. City houses were built with adjoining walls and were divided into small blocks by narrow streets. Shops were sometimes located in

14751-510: The light to the naos entering through the door. It has been suggested that some temples were lit from openings in the roof. A door of the Ionic Order at the Erechtheion (17 feet high and 7.5 feet wide at the top) retains many of its features intact, including mouldings, and an entablature supported on console brackets. (See Architectural Decoration, below) The widest span of a temple roof

14900-402: The longer sides. A slightly greater adjustment has been made to the entablature. The columns at the ends of the building are not vertical but are inclined towards the centre, with those at the corners being out of plumb by about 65 mm (2.6 in). These outer columns are both slightly wider than their neighbours and are slightly closer than any of the others. Ancient Greek architecture of

15049-519: The most famous of which painted with floral and motifs of sea life . The Mycenaean culture, which flourished on the Peloponnesus , was different in character. Its people built citadels, fortifications and tombs, and decorated their pottery with bands of marching soldiers rather than octopus and seaweed. Both these civilizations came to an end around 1100 BC, that of Crete possibly because of volcanic devastation, and that of Mycenae because of an invasion by

15198-561: The most formal type, for temples and other public buildings, is divided stylistically into three Classical orders , first described by the Roman architectural writer Vitruvius . These are: the Doric order , the Ionic order , and the Corinthian order , the names reflecting their regional origins within the Greek world. While the three orders are most easily recognizable by their capitals, they also governed

15347-461: The most intimate and affecting remains of the ancient Greeks. In the Classical period for the first time we know the names of individual sculptors. Phidias oversaw the design and building of the Parthenon . Praxiteles made the female nude respectable for the first time in the Late Classical period (mid-4th century): his Aphrodite of Knidos , which survives in copies, was said by Pliny to be

15496-525: The narrowing is not regular, but gently curved so that each column appears to have a slight swelling, called entasis below the middle. The entasis is never sufficiently pronounced as to make the swelling wider than the base; it is controlled by a slight reduction in the rate of decrease of diameter. The Parthenon , the Temple to the Goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athens, is referred to by many as

15645-471: The new monarchies were lavish patrons. By the 2nd century the rising power of Rome had also absorbed much of the Greek tradition—and an increasing proportion of its products as well. During this period sculpture became more naturalistic, and also expressive; the interest in depicting extremes of emotion being sometimes pushed to extremes. Genre subjects of common people, women, children, animals and domestic scenes became acceptable subjects for sculpture, which

15794-433: The optical illusions that make edges of objects appear concave and for the fact that columns that are viewed against the sky look different from those adjacent that are viewed against a shadowed wall. Because of these factors, the architects adjusted the plans so that the major lines of any significant building are rarely straight. The most obvious adjustment is to the profile of columns, which narrow from base to top. However,

15943-475: The origin of the style lies in simple wooden structures, with vertical posts supporting beams which carried a ridged roof. The posts and beams divided the walls into regular compartments which could be left as openings, or filled with sun dried bricks, lathes or straw and covered with clay daub or plaster. Alternately, the spaces might be filled with rubble. It is likely that many early houses and temples were constructed with an open porch or "pronaos" above which rose

16092-472: The other defining their distribution. Examples: The ideal of proportion that was used by ancient Greek architects in designing temples was not a simple mathematical progression using a square module. The math involved a more complex geometrical progression, the so-called golden mean . The ratio is similar to that of the growth patterns of many spiral forms that occur in nature such as rams' horns, nautilus shells, fern fronds, and vine tendrils and which were

16241-511: The particular artistic character that defines ancient Greek architecture are to be seen in the pottery of the Dorian Greeks from the 10th century BC. Already at this period it is created with a sense of proportion, symmetry and balance not apparent in similar pottery from Crete and Mycenae. The decoration is precisely geometric, and ordered neatly into zones on defined areas of each vessel. These qualities were to manifest themselves not only through

16390-442: The pinnacle of ancient Greek architecture. Helen Gardner refers to its "unsurpassable excellence", to be surveyed, studied and emulated by architects of later ages. Yet, as Gardner points out, there is hardly a straight line in the building. Banister Fletcher calculated that the stylobate curves upward so that its centres at either end rise about 65 millimetres (2.6 inches) above the outer corners, and 110 mm (4.3 in) on

16539-401: 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. Erotic themes, both heterosexual and male homosexual , became common. By about 320 BC fine figurative vase-painting had ceased in Athens and other Greek centres, with the polychromatic Kerch style a final flourish; it

16688-403: The preceding Mycenaean and Minoan cultures and that of the ancient Greeks, with much of the techniques and an understanding of their style being lost when these civilisations fell. Mycenaean architecture is marked by massive fortifications, typically surrounding a citadel with a royal palace, much smaller than the rambling Minoan "palaces", and relatively few other buildings. The megaron ,

16837-461: The precise forms and ordered details of Greek architecture, but also its concept of architectural beauty based on balance and proportion. The successive styles of Neoclassical architecture and Greek Revival architecture followed and adapted ancient Greek styles closely. The mainland and islands of Greece are very rocky, with deeply indented coastline, and rugged mountain ranges with few substantial forests. The most freely available building material

16986-461: The processional gateway ( propylon ), the public square ( agora ) surrounded by storied colonnade ( stoa ), the town council building ( bouleuterion ), the public monument, the monumental tomb ( mausoleum ) and the stadium . Ancient Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly formalised characteristics, both of structure and decoration. This is particularly so in the case of temples where each building appears to have been conceived as

17135-484: The requirements of local cults , enable historians to locate the origins even of works of art found far from their place of origin. Greek art of various kinds was widely exported. The whole period saw a generally steady increase in prosperity and trading links within the Greek world and with neighbouring cultures. The survival rate of Greek art differs starkly between media. We have huge quantities of pottery and coins, much stone sculpture, though even more Roman copies, and

17284-455: The rigid and impersonal kouros of the Archaic period to the highly personal family groups of the Classical period. These monuments are commonly found in the suburbs of Athens, which in ancient times were cemeteries on the outskirts of the city. Although some of them depict "ideal" types—the mourning mother, the dutiful son—they increasingly depicted real people, typically showing the departed taking his dignified leave from his family. They are among

17433-426: The rise of stone architecture came the appearance of fired ceramic roof tiles . These early roof tiles showed an S-shape, with the pan and cover tile forming one piece. They were much larger than modern roof tiles, being up to 90 cm (35.43 in) long, 70 cm (27.56 in) wide, 3–4 cm (1.18–1.57  in ) thick and weighing around 30 kg (66 lb) apiece. Only stone walls, which were replacing

17582-461: The rooms towards the street. City houses were inward-facing, with major openings looking onto the central courtyard, rather than the street. The rectangular temple is the most common and best-known form of Greek public architecture. This rectilinear structure borrows from the Late Helladic, Mycenaean megaron , which contained a central throne room, vestibule, and porch. The temple did not serve

17731-492: The same function as a modern church, since the altar stood under the open sky in the temenos or sacred precinct, often directly before the temple. Temples served as the location of a cult image and as a storage place or strong room for the treasury associated with the cult of the god in question, and as a place for devotees of the god to leave their votive offerings , such as statues, helmets and weapons. Some Greek temples appear to have been oriented astronomically. The temple

17880-461: The same time, several painters, starting with the Sabouroff Painter , began to use red or blackish-grey matt paints, instead of shiny slip , for the contours. Only the contours are painted before firing, other paints are applied afterwards. Therefore, the durability of such vase paintings is very limited; many examples are badly preserved or completely worn. As a result, it is difficult to assess

18029-452: The sea vividly blue. The clear light and sharp shadows give a precision to the details of the landscape, pale rocky outcrops and seashore. This clarity is alternated with periods of haze that varies in colour to the light on it. In this characteristic environment, the ancient Greek architects constructed buildings that were marked by the precision of detail. The gleaming marble surfaces were smooth, curved, fluted, or ornately sculpted to reflect

18178-548: The second quarter of the 5th century BC. It was used in painting large grave lekythoi used in funerary cult. The images are mostly constructed of coloured areas. Pure outline drawing is only used for the depiction of male bodies at this stage. Female bodies are rendered in white paint, clothing in black shiny slip, mineral paints and occasionally non-ceramic paints such as cinnabarite or Egyptian blue . Many images depict scenes from women's life (the gynaikion ). Grave images are rare. The most important representative of this style

18327-505: The service of Pharaoh Psamtik I (664–610 BC), and were exposed to the monumental art of these countries. It is generally agreed that "Egyptian statuary of the 2nd millennium BC gave the decisive impulse for the innovation of Greek sculpture in life-size and in hyper formats in the Archaic Period during the late 7th century." Free-standing figures share the solidity and frontal stance characteristic of Eastern models, but their forms are more dynamic than those of Egyptian sculpture, as for example

18476-533: The stand and bowl were different pieces. During the Orientalising period, such tripods were frequently decorated with figural protomes , in the shape of griffins , sphinxes and other fantastic creatures. Swords, the Greek helmet and often body armour such as the muscle cuirass were made of bronze, sometimes decorated in precious metal, as in the 3rd-century Ksour Essef cuirass . Armour and "shield-bands" are two of

18625-459: The standing draped girl (kore) and, less frequently, the seated woman. All emphasize and generalize the essential features of the human figure and show an increasingly accurate comprehension of human anatomy. The youths were either sepulchral or votive statues. Examples are Apollo (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), an early work; the Strangford Apollo from Anafi (British Museum, London),

18774-434: The statue were indicated by size rather than artistic innovations. Unlike authors, those who practiced the visual arts, including sculpture, initially had a low social status in ancient Greece, though increasingly leading sculptors might become famous and rather wealthy, and often signed their work (often on the plinth, which typically became separated from the statue itself). Plutarch ( Life of Pericles , II) said "we admire

18923-455: The stomach. Among the smaller features only noses, sometimes eyes, and female breasts were carved, though the figures were apparently usually painted and may have originally looked very different. Inspired by the monumental stone sculpture of Egypt and Mesopotamia , during the Archaic period the Greeks began again to carve in stone: Greek mercenaries and merchants were active abroad, as in Egypt in

19072-444: The style became mainly producers of copies for the Roman market, which preferred copies of Classical rather than Hellenistic pieces. Discoveries made since the end of the 19th century surrounding the (now submerged) ancient Egyptian city of Heracleum include a 4th-century BC, unusually sensual, detailed and feministic (as opposed to deified) depiction of Isis , marking a combination of Egyptian and Hellenistic forms beginning around

19221-446: The sun, cast graded shadows and change in colour with the ever-changing light of day. Historians divide ancient Greek civilization into two eras, the Hellenic period (from around 900 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC), and the Hellenistic period (323 BC – 30 AD). During the earlier Hellenic period, substantial works of architecture began to appear around 600 BC. During the later (Hellenistic) period, Greek culture spread as

19370-574: The technique is a fragmentary kantharos signed by the potter-painter Nearchos c.  570 BC . It was found on the Athenian Acropolis (Akropolis 611). The technique was used to create strobing bands of colour that emphasize the shape of the vase. and is associated with the workshops of Andokides , Nikosthenes and Psiax . Type I . The use of a white ground in conjunction with outline painting did not develop until some fifty years later, when black-figure vase painting on white ground

19519-468: The time of Egypt's conquest by Alexander the Great . However this was untypical of Ptolemaic court sculpture, which generally avoided mixing Egyptian styles with its fairly conventional Hellenistic style, while temples in the rest of the country continued using late versions of traditional Egyptian formulae. Scholars have proposed an "Alexandrian style" in Hellenistic sculpture, but there is in fact little to connect it with Alexandria. Hellenistic sculpture

19668-538: The time would not have shared. Indeed, many sculptures previously considered as classical masterpieces are now recognised as being Hellenistic. The technical ability of Hellenistic sculptors is clearly in evidence in such major works as the Winged Victory of Samothrace , and the Pergamon Altar . New centres of Greek culture, particularly in sculpture, developed in Alexandria , Antioch , Pergamum , and other cities, where

19817-455: The wooden columns were of a very different form to Doric columns, being narrow at the base and splaying upward. The earliest forms of columns in Greece seem to have developed independently. As with Minoan architecture, ancient Greek domestic architecture centred on open spaces or courtyards surrounded by colonnades . This form was adapted to the construction of hypostyle halls within the larger temples. The evolution that occurred in architecture

19966-615: The work of art but despise the maker of it"; this was a common view in the ancient world. Ancient Greek sculpture is categorised by the usual stylistic periods of "Archaic", "Classical" and "Hellenistic", augmented with some extra ones mainly applying to sculpture, such as the Orientalizing Daedalic style and the Severe style of early Classical sculpture. Surviving ancient Greek sculptures were mostly made of two types of material. Stone, especially marble or other high-quality limestones

20115-412: Was across the cella , or inner chamber. In a large building, this space contains columns to support the roof, the architectural form being known as hypostyle . It appears that, although the architecture of ancient Greece was initially of wooden construction, the early builders did not have the concept of the diagonal truss as a stabilising member. This is evidenced by the nature of temple construction in

20264-513: Was also marked by an increase in scale, which culminated in the Colossus of Rhodes (late 3rd century), which was the same size as the Statue of Liberty . The combined effect of earthquakes and looting have destroyed this as well as other very large works of this period. Clay is a material frequently used for the making of votive statuettes or idols, even before the Minoan civilization and continuing until

20413-529: Was an important art in ancient Greece, but later production is very poorly represented by survivals, most of which come from the edges of the Greek world or beyond, from as far as France or Russia. Vessels and jewellery were produced to high standards, and exported far afield. Objects in silver, at the time worth more relative to gold than it is in modern times, were often inscribed by the maker with their weight, as they were treated largely as stores of value, and likely to be sold or re-melted before very long. During

20562-580: Was commissioned by wealthy families for the adornment of their homes and gardens; the Boy with Thorn is an example. Realistic portraits of men and women of all ages were produced, and sculptors no longer felt obliged to depict people as ideals of beauty or physical perfection. The world of Dionysus , a pastoral idyll populated by satyrs , maenads , nymphs and sileni , had been often depicted in earlier vase painting and figurines, but rarely in full-size sculpture. Now such works were made, surviving in copies including

20711-414: Was especially associated with vases made for ritual and funerary use, if only because the painted surface was more fragile than in the other main techniques of black-figure and red-figure vase painting . Nevertheless, a wide range of subjects are depicted. In white-ground pottery, the vase is covered with a light or white slip of kaolinite . A similar slip had been used as carrier for vase paintings in

20860-544: Was generally part of a religious precinct known as the acropolis . According to Aristotle , "the site should be a spot seen far and wide, which gives good elevation to virtue and towers over the neighbourhood". Small circular temples, tholoi were also constructed, as well as small temple-like buildings that served as treasuries for specific groups of donors. During the late 5th and 4th centuries BC, town planning became an important consideration of Greek builders, with towns such as Paestum and Priene being laid out with

21009-400: Was probably introduced by the potter Nikosthenes around 530/525 BC. After a short interval, this technique was also adopted by other workshops, including that of Psiax. The manner of painting is the same as in conventional black-figure, the colour of the grounding being the only difference. The ground is rarely pure white, but usually slightly yellowish or light beige. Type II . A second form

21158-690: Was probably meant to make the vases appear more valuable, perhaps by eliciting associations with ivory or marble . However, in no case was a vessel's entire surface covered in white slip. It has also been conjectured that this form of painting emerged in order to emulate the more prestigious medium of wall painting , but the thesis has been elusive of proof. Furthermore, the group of five Huge Lekythoi ( c.  70–100 cm high) are covered entirely in white slip, which suggests an imitation of marble lekythoi for funerary purposes. White-ground vase painting often occurred in association with red-figure vase painting . Especially typical of this are kylikes with

21307-449: Was probably replaced by metalwork for most of its functions. West Slope Ware , with decorative motifs on a black glazed body , continued for over a century after. Italian red-figure painting ended by about 300, and in the next century the relatively primitive Hadra vases , probably from Crete , Centuripe ware from Sicily , and Panathenaic amphorae , now a frozen tradition, were the only large painted vases still made. Fine metalwork

21456-626: Was produced on some of the Aegean islands, in Crete , and in the wealthy Greek colonies of southern Italy and Sicily . By the later Archaic and early Classical period, however, the two great commercial powers, Corinth and Athens , came to dominate. Their pottery was exported all over the Greek world, driving out the local varieties. Pots from Corinth and Athens are found as far afield as Spain and Ukraine , and are so common in Italy that they were first collected in

21605-543: Was towards the public building, first and foremost the temple, rather than towards grand domestic architecture such as had evolved in Crete, if the Cretan "palaces" were indeed domestic, which remains uncertain. Some Mycenaean tombs are marked by circular structures and tapered domes with flat-bedded, cantilevered courses. This architectural form did not carry over into the architecture of ancient Greece, but reappeared about 400 BC in

21754-574: Was used for ancient Greek buildings, including rubble, but the finest ashlar masonry was usually employed for temple walls, in regular courses and large sizes to minimise the joints. The blocks were rough hewn and hauled from quarries to be cut and bedded very precisely, with mortar hardly ever being used. Blocks, particularly those of columns and parts of the building bearing loads were sometimes fixed in place or reinforced with iron clamps, dowels and rods of wood, bronze or iron fixed in lead to minimise corrosion. Door and window openings were spanned with

21903-412: Was used most frequently and carved by hand with metal tools. Stone sculptures could be free-standing fully carved in the round (statues), or only partially carved reliefs still attached to a background plaque, for example in architectural friezes or grave stelai . Bronze statues were of higher status, but have survived in far smaller numbers, due to the reusability of metals. They were usually made in

22052-420: Was usually set in a hillside outside the town, and had rows of tiered seating set in a semicircle around the central performance area, the orchestra . Behind the orchestra was a low building called the skênê , which served as a store-room, a dressing room, and also as a backdrop to the action taking place in the orchestra. A number of Greek theatres survive almost intact, the best known being at Epidaurus by

22201-456: Was widely exported. The famous and distinctive style of Greek vase-painting with figures depicted with strong outlines, with thin lines within the outlines, reached its peak from about 600 to 350 BC, and divides into the two main styles, almost reversals of each other, of black-figure and red-figure painting, the other colour forming the background in each case. Other colours were very limited, normally to small areas of white and larger ones of

#558441