Art in Focus

Chapter 8: Greek Art

Lesson Summaries-English

          More than 30 centuries ago Greece was the birthplace of Western civilization. Its contributions to the arts have had a profound effect on artists up to the present day.

Lesson 1
The Birthplace of Western Civilization

          In about 1100 B.C. a people known as the Dorians overcame the Mycenaean culture, Greece’s earliest culture. Then towns grew into small, independent city-states. In the fifth century B.C., the city-states finally formed an alliance known as the Delian League to fight off invaders from Persia. As the most powerful city, Athens became the head of the league. Athens’s leader, Pericles, used the league’s treasury to beautify his city.

          This defeat of Athens led to a century of conflict and the eventual conquest of Greece by Macedonia in 338 B.C. During Greece’s prosperity, the Greeks made many contributions to art. They built magnificent temples for their gods. Pericles built the Parthenon for the goddess Athena using the basic features of Greek architecture: post-and-lintel construction, a sloping roof, and a colonnade. Although the building looks straight, its features actually curve slightly in the middle, giving it a sense of stability. Its stone would have been painted in bright colors. The Parthenon was built along with other structures on a sacred hill known as the Acropolis.

          These structures remain today as reminders of a great civilization. Over the centuries, the Greeks developed three orders, or decorative styles. The first, the Doric order, features simple, heavy columns without bases. The second, the Ionic order, has columns with elaborate bases and capitals carved into double scrolls. The third, the Corinthian order, has columns with elongated capitals that are decorated with leaves. Greek vases were also created in different styles. The earliest vases, from the Geometric period, were decorated with bands of simple geometric patterns. Then vases began to show figures, which became more and more lifelike.

Lesson 2
The Evolution of Greek Sculpture

          Greek sculpture evolved through time. It first began in what is known as the Archaic period. Sculptors carved large, freestanding figures of youths and maidens known as kouroi and korai. The kouroi show male youths in stiff, straight poses. They may have represented gods or athletes. The kourai show clothed women, also in stiff poses with strong vertical lines.

          Later, during Greek sculpture’s Classical period, artists such as Myron created figures that appeared to move in space. The artist Phidias created a massive sculpture of Athena that stood in the Parthenon. He also supervised the creation of elaborate relief sculptures that decorated the Parthenon. One long band, or frieze, on the Parthenon depicts a lively procession in honor of Athena. Statues by the artist Polyclitus show figures in contrapposto, where the weight of the body is balanced on one leg while the other is free and relaxed. This gives the figures a freer, more lifelike look.

          After the Peloponnesian War, Alexander the Great attempted to spread Greek culture throughout the world. Sculpture from this period, known as the Hellenistic Age, is dramatic and often violent. Hellenistic works express intense emotions and spirited movement. Greek sculpture progressed from being solid and stiff to show movement and beauty and, later, drama and emotion.