The first and greatest period of classical art began in Greece about the middle of the 5th century BC. By that time Greek sculptors had solved many of the problems that faced artists in the early archaic period. They had learned to represent the human form naturally and easily, in action or at rest. They were interested chiefly in portraying gods, however. They thought of their gods as people, but grander and more beautiful than any human being. They tried, therefore, to portray ideal beauty rather than any particular person. Their best sculptures achieved almost godlike perfection in their calm, ordered beauty.
I. A Glance at the Greek and Roman period
A. The Greek Art and Beauty Period
• The Ancient Greek (1100 B.C. - 31 B.C.)
Ancient Greece is the period in Greek history that lasted for around one thousand years and ended with the rise of Christianity. It is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. The art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture. The ancient Greeks were especially skilled at sculpture. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models. Well into the 19th century, the classical tradition derived from Greece dominated the art of the western world.
The art of Ancient Greece is usually divided stylistically into four periods: the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic. 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, conservative in character, and the requirements of local cults, enable historians to locate the origins even of displaced works of art.
1. Greek Dark Ages (1100 - 750 B.C.),
This is known as the period between the fall of the Mycenean civilization and the readoption of writing in the eighth or seventh century B.C. After the Trojan Wars the Mycenaeans went through a period of civil war and invasions. Greece entered a period of relative impoverishment, depopulation, and cultural isolation. The art of writing was lost for most of that period. The country was weak and a tribe called the Dorians invaded from the north and spread down the west coast.
During the Dark Age, Greeks settled Ionia. Artisans in Athens produced an abstract style of painted pottery called protogeometric (meaning "first geometric"). The precision of the painting on this pottery foretell the character of later Greek art. Around 800 B.C., the Hellenic civilization began to arise. The last 2 centuries of the Dark Age, are called the Geometric period. That refers to a primarily abstract style of pottery decoration of the time. The Greeks probably adapted Phoenician alphabet at the same time, (around 800 B.C).
During most of its ancient history, Greece was a disunited land of scattered city-states, and wars between the city-states probably first occurred by the end of the 8th century B.C. The 8th century also saw Greek expansion into southern Italy and Sicily, where city-states from the Greek mainland established their first colonies.
2. Geometric period
The Geometric period of about 900 to 700 BC, a time of dramatic transformation that led to the establishment of primary Greek institutions’. With the development of the Greek city states came the constructions of large temples and sanctuaries dedicated to patron deities, which signaled the rise of state religion. By the end of the eight century B.C, the Greeks had founded a number of major Panhellenic sanctuaries dedicated to the Olympian Gods.
3. The Archaic Period
The period from 750 B.C. to 480 B.C. is called the archaic period. After about 750 B.C. ancient Greek artists increasingly came into contact with ideas and styles from outside of Greece. In the seventh and sixth centuries many cities came to be ruled as democracies. The best known of these is the Athenian democracy. Greek colonization of Southern Italy and Sicily begins.
By 6th century B.C. the Greek world presents a picture in many respects different from that of the Homeric Age. This is the period when monumental stone sculpture, vase painting and other developments began to reflect Greek ideas. Monumental building programs became part of the competition, as each community attempted to establish itself as culturally superior. In this period, kouros and kore statues were created. These stylized figures of young men and maidens express the birth of a specifically Greek artistic obsession - the idealization of the human figure. The art of vase painting reached a level of artistic and technical excellence.
A threat to Greece developed in the East. Persia expanded into Ionia and to the rim of the Aegean Sea. The Persian Wars, between Persia and Greece, broke out in the early 5th century, and ended in victory for Athens and the Greeks.
4. The Classical Period
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 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 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. Unfortunately 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 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 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 the greatest statue in the world.
The greatest works of the Classical period, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Statue of Athena Parthenos (both chryselephantine and executed by Phidias or under his direction), are lost, although smaller copies (in other materials) and good descriptions of both still exist. Their size and magnificence prompted emperors to seize them in the Byzantine period, and both were removed to Constantinople, where they were later destroyed in fire
5. Hellenistic period
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 the Greco-Bactrians and the Indo-Greeks. Greco-Buddhist art represented a syncretism between Greek art and the visual expression of Buddhism.
During this period sculpture became more and more naturalistic. Common people, women, children, animals and domestic scenes became acceptable subjects for sculpture, which was commissioned by wealthy families for the adornment of their homes and gardens. 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. 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 standardization and some lowering of quality. For these reasons many more Hellenistic statues have survived than is the case with the Classical period.
B. The Roman Art and Beauty Period
The Roman Era is a period in Western history, when Ancient Rome was the centre of power of the world around the Mediterranean Sea, where Latin was the lingua franca. Depending on sources, the Roman era starts somewhere in the 2nd or 1st century BC (e.g. 146 BC, Greece subjugated by Rome for the first time - 30 BC, the Roman empire stabilized for many centuries to come by Caesar Augustus), and ends when the Middle Ages start. From early times the Romans had felt the artistic influence of Greece. In 146 BC, when Greece was conquered by Rome, Greek art became inseparably interwoven with that Rome. “Greece, conquered, led her conqueror captive”. Is the poet’s way of expressing the triumph of Greek over Roman culture. The Romans, however, were not merely imitators, and Roman art was not a decayed form into which Greek art had fallen. Not were for the most part, borrowed, they expressed in them, especially in their architecture, their own practical dominating spirit.
In the 2nd century BC the Roman generals began a systematic plunder of the cities of Greece, bringing back thousand of Greek statues to Grace their triumphal procession. Greek artists flocked to Rome to share in the patronage that was so lavishly bestowed, owing to the rich conquest made as the Roman power was extended. The wealthy Romans built villas, filled them with works of art in the manner in the plutocrats, and called for Greeks artists or Roman inspired by Greek tradition to paint their walls and decorate their courts with sculpture. The ruins excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum show us how fond the Romans and their neighbors in Italy were of embellishing not only their houses, but the object of daily use such as household utensils, furniture, etc. Preceding Rome, Ancient Greece, and in particular Athens, had been the center of power and intellectual activity in the Western world. Even during the Roman era, Greece was highly respected for its rich cultural history, but it had lost its worldly power.
Pliny,Ancient Rome’s most important historian concerning the arts, recorded that nearly all the forms of art—sculpture, landscape, portrait painting, even genre painting—were advanced in Greek times, and in some cases, more advanced than in Rome. The Greek antecedents of Roman art were legendary. In the mid-fifth century B.C., the most famous Greek artists were Polygnotos, noted for his wall murals, and Apollodoros, the originator of chiaroscuro. The development of realistic technique is credited to Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who according to ancient Greek legend, are said to have once competed in a bravura display of their talents, history’s earliest descriptions of trompe l’oeil painting. In sculpture, Skopas, Praxitele, Phidias, and Lysippos were the foremost sculptors. It appears that Roman artists had much Ancient Greek art to copy from, as trade in art was brisk throughout the empire, and much of the Greek artistic heritage found its way into Roman art through books and teaching. Ancient Greek treatises on the arts are known to have existed in Roman times but are now lost.[4] Many Roman artists came from Greek colonies and provinces.
The high number of Roman copies of Greek art also speaks of the esteem Roman artists had for Greek art, and perhaps of its rarer and higher quality. Many of the art forms and methods used by the Romans—such as high and low relief, free-standing sculpture, bronze casting, vase art, mosaic, cameo,coin art, fine jewelry and metalwork, funerary sculpture, perspective drawing, caricature, genre and portrait painting, landscape painting, architectural sculpture, and trompe l’oeil painting—all were developed or refined by Ancient Greek artists. One exception is the Greek bust, which did not include the shoulders. The traditional head-and-shoulders bust may have been an Etruscan or early Roman form. Virtually every artistic technique and method used by Renaissance artists 1,900 year later, had been demonstrated by Ancient Greek artists, with the notable exceptions of oil colors and mathematically accurate perspective. Where Greek artists were highly revered in their society, most Roman artists were anonymous and considered tradesmen. There is no recording, as in Ancient Greece, of the great masters of Roman art, and practically no signed works. Where Greeks worshipped the aesthetic qualities of great art and wrote extensively on artistic theory, Roman art was more decorative and indicative of status and wealth, and apparently not the subject of scholars or philosophers. Owning in part to the fact that the Roman cities was far larger than the Greek city-states in power and population, and generally less provincial, art in Ancient Rome took on widening, and sometimes more utilitarian, purposes. Roman culture assimilated many cultures and was for the most part tolerant of the ways of conquered peoples. Roman art was commissioned, displayed, and owned in far greater quantities, and adapted to more uses than in Greek times. Wealthy Romans were more materialistic; they decorated their walls with art, their home with decorative objects, and themselves with fine jewelry.
In the Christian era of the late Empire, from 350-500 AD, wall painting, mosaic ceiling and floor work, and funerary sculpture thrived, while full-sized sculpture in the round and panel painting died out, most likely for religious reasons. When Constantine moved the capital of the empire to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople), Roman art incorporated Eastern influences to produce the Byzantine style of the late empire. When Rome was sacked in the 5th century, artisans moved to and found work in the Eastern capital. The Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople employed nearly 10,000 workmen and artisans, in a final burst of Roman art under Emperor Justinian (527-565 AD), who also order the creation of the famous mosaics of Ravenna.
II. The Major Works of Arts Beauty in Ancient Greek
The classical Greek adjective beautiful was καλλός. The Koine Greek word for beautiful was "ὡραῖος", an adjective etymologically coming from the word "ὥρα" meaning hour. In Koine Greek, beauty was thus associated with "being of one's hour". A ripe fruit (of its time) was considered beautiful, whereas a young woman trying to appear ancienter or an ancienter woman trying to appear younger would not be considered beautiful. ὡραῖος in Attic Greek had many meanings, including youthful and ripe ancient age. There is evidence that a preference for beautiful faces emerges early in child development, and that the standards of attractiveness are similar across different genders and cultures.
Ancient Greek art is mainly in four forms: architecture, sculpture, painting, and painted pottery. Architecture includes houses, religious buildings like temples and tombs, and public building like city walls, theaters, stadia, and stoas.
Sculpture includes small figurines and life-size statues, but also relief sculptures which were on the sides of buildings, and also tombstones.
We have very little Greek painting from the Classical period; most of what we have is from the Bronze Age. The paintings were painted on walls, as decoration for rooms, like murals or wallpaper. On the other hand, we have a good deal of painted pottery from all periods of Greek history (down to the Hellenistic).
a. The Geometric Period
In the 8th century BC, large-scale ceramic vessels were produced as grave markers. As these were originally decorated with just repeated angular patterns, the style became known as "Geometric" art. As time went by, small portions of the vessel might be filled with simple stick-figure people, often attending a funeral. The first image here is a funeray amphora, almost 6 feet tall, with a detail in the second image. The third image is a cross-section of the types of graves in which these vessels are found, showing their placement. The other vase is a little later than the first, with more detail, including a chariot procession. But not all geometric vase-paintings are as monumental in size. Here is a small cup decorated with similar stick-figures, apparently engaged in battle, but whether this represented a real or a fictional battle is unknown. Within a relatively short time, however, the pictorial scenes increase in size and detail, and shortly after 700 BC we find the first recognizable scenes taken from myths.
b. The Archaic Period
The Archaic period of Greek art spans about 200 years, from 700 to 500 BC. The two major types of art of this time, vase-painting and sculpture, show a real flourishing of realism and narrative iconography.
The primary technique of Archaic vase-painting (derived from the Geometric style) is known as the black-figure vase-painting technique. The first example below shows one of the very early examples, still somewhat rough and sketchy, but the second example shows the fully-developed technique. Note how the major figures are painted primarily with black paint (with a few details added in other colors) on a red-orange colored clay vessel. This does not necessarily mean that the people were black-skinned - it was merely the standard of this style of painting. Notice also that only the male figure is all black, and the two females on either side have their skin areas painted in white.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Archaic bronze sculptures no longer exist, having been 'recycled', i.e., melted down for other uses. A few figures have been found, however, such as this ithyphallic satyr from Delphi. Also there are some marble sculptures from the Archaic period, many from temples, and often in damaged condition, such as this sculpted metope from Sicily.
c. The Classical Period
The beginning of the 5th century B.C. marks the approximate start of the Classical period, which by its very name suggests that this marks the high point, the 'golden age', of ancient Greece. In vase-painting, the technique changes from 'black-figure' to 'red-figure', where the backgrounds (and details) are now painted in black, and the natural color of the red clay now represents flesh tones. Some vase-paintings are signed by their artist, while other artists have such a distinct style we can identify the same hand at work. Here is one of the finest examples of red-figure vase-painting by an artist known by the (artificial) name Kleophrades Painter.
Bronze sculpture was another major art form of Classical Greece, but as with Archaic bronzes, extremely few still exist today. Those that do, such as the two pictured here, were each discovered in modern times by underwater-archaeologists among the remains of sunken ships.
The Parthenon of Athens (a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena) is one of the major architectural works of the Classical period. It and other temples usually contain scuptures of mythological subjects.
d. The Hellenistic Period
The Hellenistic period is usually said to begin with the conquests of Alexander the Great, around 330 B.C., during which time Greek art and culture spread to other lands. The sculptures of Hellenistic times tends to be much more active and intense, often in groups engaged in violent activity. One of the best examples of this style is the sculptural decorations of the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamum. The first image shows the goddess Athena gripping a rebellious Giant by the hair; the second shows a close-up of Artemis' dog biting another giant.
Another well-known Hellenistic scupture is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, now in the Louvre, Paris. Although headless and armless, her rippling garment conveys a real sense of movement.
A. The Great Art and Beauty in Ancient Roman Period
From early times the Romans had felt the artistic influence of Greece. In 146 BC, when Greece was conquered by Rome, Greek art became inseparably interwoven with that of Rome. "Greece, conquered, led her conqueror captive" is the poet's way of expressing the triumph of Greek over Roman culture. The Romans, however, were not merely imitators, and Roman art was not a decayed form into which Greek art had fallen.
To a large extent the art of the Romans was a development of that of their predecessors in Italy, the Etruscans, who, to be sure, had learned much from the Greeks (see Etruscans). Nor were the Romans themselves entirely without originality. Though their artistic forms were, for the most part, borrowed, they expressed in them, especially in their architecture, their own practical dominating spirit.
In the 2nd century BC the Roman generals began a systematic plunder of the cities of Greece, bringing back thousands of Greek statues to grace their triumphal processions. Greek artists flocked to Rome to share in the patronage that was so lavishly bestowed, owing to the rich conquests made as the Roman power was extended. The wealthy Romans built villas, filled them with works of art in the manner of our modern plutocrats, and called for Greek artists or Romans inspired by Greek traditions to paint their walls and decorate their courts with sculptures. The ruins excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum show us how fond the Romans and their neighbors in Italy were of embellishing not only their houses, but the objects of daily use, such as household utensils, furniture, etc.
But with the Romans art was used not so much for the expression of great and noble ideas and emotions as for decoration and ostentation. As art became fashionable, it lost much of its spiritual quality. As they borrowed many elements of their religion from the Greeks, so the Romans copied the statues of Greek gods and goddesses. The Romans were lacking in great imagination. Even in one of the few ideal types which they originated, the 'Antinous', the Greek stamp is unmistakable. In one respect, however, the Roman sculptors did show originality; they produced many vigorous realistic portrait statues. Among those that have come down to us are a beautiful bust of the young Augustus, a splendid full-length statue of the same emperor, and busts of other famous statesmen. All these have a historic as well as an artistic value. So, too, have the reliefs which adorn such structures as the Arch of Titus and the Column of Trajan, commemorating great events in these emperors' reigns.
A mosaic of a group of musicians was uncovered at Pompeii when the ruins of the city were excavated. Some of the best surviving examples of Roman art have been found preserved by the volcanic ash of Vesuvius in Pompeii and Herculaneum. --Robert Frerck--Odyssey Productions
In painting--though here, too, they learned from the Greeks--it seems probable that the Romans developed more originality than in sculpture. Unfortunately, as in the case of the Greeks, the great masterpieces of ancient painting no longer exist; but we can learn much from the mural paintings found in houses at Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome. The pleasing coloring, which in many of the paintings still remains fresh and vivid, and the freedom and vigor of the drawing, would seem to indicate that even from these ancient days Italy was the home of painters of great talent. Portrait painting especially flourished at Rome, where hack street-corner artists became so common that one could have his portrait painted for a few cents.
Although the art of Rome loses in comparison with that of Greece, still it commands our admiration, and we owe the Romans a debt of gratitude for helping to transmit to us the art of the Greeks, who were their great masters.
• Pompeii
In general, the sculptures of the Roman period continued the trends of the Hellenistic period, i.e., large, multi-figure groups with great detail and emotional intentisty. (In many cases, it is very difficult to distinguish between Hellenistic works, Roman copies of Greek works, and Roman originals). Good examples are the Farnese Bull and the Laocoön.
Many of the most important artworks from Roman times are those which have been discovered in or near the famous buried city of Pompeii. The eruption of nearby Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. completely covered this Roman seaside city but preserved it more-or-less intact. Also buried in the same event was a nearby city called Herculaneum, where many important artworks have been found. Below is an aerial photo of Pompeii, followed by some ground-level views showing the remains as they appear today.
Not only were items of daily life discovered, but also many painted walls with vivid scenes taken from myths, as seen below. Another technique that the Romans were quite skilled at was mosaic, the making of pictorial scenes, often quite large, from minute pieces of colored stones.
With the fall of the (Western) Roman Empire and the start of the Middle Ages, there began a period of about 1000 years during which there was little or no depiction of famous myths in art. It was only around the 14th century A.D. that the accomplishments of the Classical civilizations were rediscovered or revived, a time now referred to as the Renaissance (a word from French meaning "rebirth"). For this, see the next page here.
From early times the Romans had felt the artistic influence of Greece. In 146 BC, when Greece was conquered by Rome, Greek art became inseparably interwoven with that of Rome. "Greece, conquered, led her conqueror captive" is the poet's way of expressing the triumph of Greek over Roman culture. The Romans, however, were not merely imitators, and Roman art was not a decayed form into which Greek art had fallen. The art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models. Roman art includes the visual arts produced in Ancient Rome, and in the territories of the Roman empire. Major forms of Roman art are architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Metal-work, coin-die and gem engraving, ivory carvings, figurine glass, pottery, and book illustrations are considered to be 'minor' forms of Roman artwork.
