ARTKids - ARTAges Classical Ages Art in Summary

ARTAges- Classical Ages in Summary

CLASSIC 800 BC - 337 AD (BCE-CE)

Classicism
Aesthetic attitudes and principles based on the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and characterized by emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, and restrained emotion.
Classicism and Neoclassicism, in the arts, historical tradition or aesthetic attitudes based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity. In the context of the tradition, Classicism refers either to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired by that of antiquity; Neoclassicism always refers to the art produced later but inspired by antiquity. Thus the terms Classicism and Neoclassicism are often used interchangeably.

Classicism is used as the opposite of Romanticism, characterizing art in which adherence to recognized aesthetic ideals is accorded greater importance that individuality of expression.

Hellenistic Art 323-150 BC

Dying Gaul from Monument to Attalos II
Pergamon (Roman marble copy after c240 bronze Rome, Capitoline Museum)

After the death (323 BC) of Alexander the Great, his extensive empire was dissolved into many different kingdoms. This fragmentation was symbolic of the diversity and multiplicity of artistic tendencies in the Hellenistic period.
The great art centers were no longer in mainland Greece but in the islands, such as Rhodes, and the cities in the eastern Mediterranean--Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamon. Sculpture The variety of artistic directions makes a general statement about the sculpture of the period rather difficult. There was a tendency toward classicism, but also another toward the baroque or even the rococo; a tendency toward idealization, but also a tendency toward realism. The Hellenistic period was, above all, a period of eclecticism. Art still served a religious function or to glorify athletes, but sculpture and painting were also used to decorate the homes of the rich. There was an interest in heroic portraits and in colossal groups, but also in humbler subjects. The human being was portrayed in every stage and walk of life; there was even an interest in caricature. The awareness of space that characterized architecture also began to emerge in sculpture and painting. As a result landscapes and interiors appeared for the first time in both reliefs and painted panels.

Other examples were echoed in Roman copies and in adaptations of the originals from Rome and Pompeii, or they survived in mosaics, which were already being produced in the classical period and reached their highest point in Pella and Delos during the Hellenistic period.

Quoted from Anastasia Dinsmoor's Essay
from the Exhibition at Fondazione Memmo

( also see Roman art )

Etruscan Art 6th - 5th century BC

( see Greek art )

( see Roman art )

NON WESTERN

Olmec, Mexico 800 BC - 600 AD

This stone head is one of 16 that have been attributed to the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica (1500-300 bc). These monolithic works, ranging in height from 2.4-3.6 m (8-12 ft), are carved out of basalt and weigh about ten tons. Anthropologists are not sure if these are the heads of gods or rulers, but they all have similar features and wear circular helmets.
Tom Owen Edmunds/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York

Zapotec, Mexico 100 - 200 AD

The influence of the Teotihuacán and Maya cultures can be seen in the design of this urn from the Zapotec era. It is probably a burial urn and is made of limestone. The face on the urn has a feline quality, which may have a connection to the jaguar deity of the Olmec civilization.

Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York