ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF GREEK

One popular form of Greek art was pottery. Vases, vessels, and craters served both practical and aesthetic purposes. This krater depicts Helios, the sun god, and dates from the 5th century B.C.E.

The arts reflect the society that creates them. Nowhere is this truer than in the case of the ancient Greeks. Through their temples, sculpture, and pottery, the Greeks incorporated a fundamental principle of their culture: arete. To the Greeks, arete meant excellence and reaching one's full potential.

Ancient Greek art emphasized the importance and accomplishments of human beings. Even though much of Greek art was meant to honor the gods, those very gods were created in the image of humans.

Therefore, art and architecture were a tremendous source of pride for citizens and could be found in various parts of the city. Typically, a city-state set aside a high-altitude portion of land for an acropolis, an important part of the city-state that was reserved for temples or palaces. The Greeks held religious ceremonies and festivals as well as significant political meetings on the acropolis.

The Parthenon was built in honor of the goddess Athena, who represented the human aspiration for knowledge and the ideal of wisdom.

Greek Excellence: The Acropolis

In ancient Athens, Pericles ordered the construction of several major temples on the acropolis. Among these was a temple, the Parthenon, which many consider the finest example of Greek architecture.

Built as a tribute to Athena, the goddess of wisdom for whom the city-state Athens was named, the Parthenon is a marvel of design, featuring massive columns contrasting with subtle details.

Three different types of columns can be found in ancient Greek architecture. Whether the Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian style was used depended on the region and the purpose of the structure being built.

Doric Column Ancient builders developed several Orders, or rules, for the design and proportion of buildings, including the columns. Doric is the earliest and most simple of the Classical Orders set down in ancient Greece.

A Doric column is much plainer than the later Ionic and Corinthian   column styles. A Doric column is also thicker and heavier than an Ionic or Corinthian column. For this reason, the Doric column is sometimes associated with strength and masculinity. Believing that Doric columns could bear the most weight, ancient builders often used them for the lowest level of mufti-story buildings, reserving the more slender Ionic and Corinthian columns for the upper levels.

Features of a Doric Column:

·        Originally placed directly on the ground without a pedestal or base

·        Shaft is wider at the bottom

·        Shaft is fluted (grooved)

·        Smooth, round capitals (tops)

·        No carvings or other ornaments

Ionic Column: Ionic is one of three column styles developed in ancient Greece. More slender and more ornate than the earlier Doric style, an Ionic column has scroll-shaped ornaments on the capital, or top.

Features of an Ionic Column:

·        Stands on a base of stacked disks

·        Shafts are usually fluted, but can be plain

·        A pair of volutes (scroll-shaped ornaments) decorates the capital

Corinthian Column:The word Corinthian describes a column style developed in ancient Greece and set down in the Classical Orders for Architecture. The Corinthian style is more complex and elaborate than the earlier Doric and Ionic styles. The capital, or top, of a Corinthian column has lavish ornaments carved to resemble leaves and flowers.

Features of a Corinthian Column:

·        Fluted (grooved) shaft

·        Capital decorated with scrolls, acanthus leaves, and flowers

·        Ornaments on the capital flare outwards, suggesting a sense of height

 

 

THREE STYLES OF COLOUMNS

     

Many barely noticeable enhancements to the design of the Parthenon contribute to its overall beauty and balance. For example, each column is slightly wider in the middle than at its base and top. The columns are also spaced closer together near the corners of the temple and farther apart toward the middle. In addition, the temple's steps curve somewhat — lower on the sides and highest in the middle of each step.

Sadly, time has not treated the Parthenon well. In the 17th century, the Turks, who had conquered the Greeks, used the Parthenon to store ammunition. An accidental explosion left the Parthenon with no roof and in near ruin. In later years, tourists hauled away pieces of the Parthenon as vacation souvenirs.

Beauty in the Human Form

Ancient Greek sculptures were typically made of either stone or wood and very few of them survive to this day. Most Greek sculpture was of the freestanding, human form (even if the statue was of a god) and many sculptures were nudes. The Greeks saw beauty in the naked human body.

Early Greek statues called kouros were rigid and stood up straight. Over time, Greek statuary adopted a more natural, relaxed pose with hips thrust to one side, knees and arms slightly bent, and the head turned to one side.

Other sculptures depicted human action, especially athletics. A good example is Myron's Discus Thrower; another famous example is a sculpture of Artemis the huntress.

The piece, called "Diana of Versailles," depicts the goddess of the hunt reaching for an arrow while a stag leaps next to her.

Among the most famous Greek statues is the Venus de Milo, which was created in the second century B.C.E. The sculptor is unknown, though many art historians believe Praxiteles to have created the piece. This sculpture embodies the Greek ideal of beauty.

The ancient Greeks also painted, but very little of their work remains. The most enduring paintings were those found decorating ceramic pottery. Two major styles include red figure (against a black background) and black figure (against a red background) pottery. The pictures on the pottery often depicted heroic and tragic stories of gods and humans.

The Parthenon was the temple for the Goddess Athena

The Parthenon is one temple that is very famous and beautiful. Built between 447 and 438 BC, it was the first building to be constructed on the widely known Acropolis.

All the gods demanded they be satisfied by sacrifice, and so sacrifices were made at the temples. For this there was a great altar outside the east porch of every temple.  The Eastern side of every temple was the front of the building.

When talking about Greek temples, there are some things one must keep in mind. First, that Greek religion is not like that of the Christians. The Greeks thought their gods were of the same nature as man, except smarter and stronger. Second, that the temple was the house of the god they worshipped, so it had to be finer than that of man. Third, those worshippers did not meet in the temples to worship, as if it were a church. And last, that all the gods demanded they be satisfied by sacrifice, and so sacrifices were made at the temples. For this there was a great altar outside the east porch of every temple.

The Parthenon is recognizably Greek because of the huge columns which surround its walls and separate sections inside the temple.  These three columns represent the three styles of Greek architecture

The Parthenon was a Doric temple with Ionic features.  It was used as both a place of worship and a treasury.  . These three styles were called orders in architecture.  They called them orders because the columns were in order of the least to the most ornate.  The base of the Doric column is also the most simple as it stands on the floor; the other types have a separate piece at the base.  The separation of the frieze into metopes and triglyphs is also typical of the Doric order.  In other orders the frieze may have been covered by continuous reliefs uninterrupted by the triglyphs. 

The Acropolis of Athens is the best known in the world.  Acropolis means high city, or the "Sacred Rock”. The Acropolis is a flat-topped rock which rises 150 m above sea level in the city of Athens.

Traces have been found of the colors red and black as well as blue paint which came from Malachi quarried at the tip of Attica.  Metal was also used to add detail to sculptures.  The mane of one horses head has 33 holes in it which would have been originally held bronze or silver attachments. While ancient Greek metopes were sometimes carved from a single block of stone, some like those in the Parthenon were separate blocks slid into place. The images are in high relief, meaning that the figures are carved out of the background but project more than halfway out; a cursory look makes them seem more like statues put in place. They were originally painted, though the colors have disappeared over the centuries. Like most Hellenic (i.e., ancient Greek) art, the figures were designed to look naturalistic and idealized. Many figures are nude or wear little clothing.