ARTKids - ARTAges Greek Art in Summary

ARTAges- Greek Art Summary

Very little painting has survived from the classical age of Greece and Rome. Decorated vases of the Greeks and wall paintings from Pompeii and Herculaneum are among the remains.

The "Agamemnon" Mask
Gold, from Tomb V at Mycenae
Sixteenth century BC
National Archeological Museum, Athens

The glory of Greece was its sculpture. The roots of Greek sculpture reach into the earlier cultures of Crete, Mycenae, and even Egypt. The figures of the 7th and 6th centuries BC lack life and movement; their faces wear the frozen smile peculiar to archaic sculpture. Even so, these early craftsmen, whose names are lost with the temples they decorated, show sensitivity to the qualities of marble and a superb sense of design. As if to make up for the lack of life in their statues, archaic sculptors sought naturalism by painting them.

Athena
Marble, h. 173 cm (5 1/2 ft)
First-century copy after a fifth-century BC original by Myron
Found in the Gardens of Lucullus, Rome
Liebighaus Museum, Frankfurt

Greek sculpture rose to its highest achievement in the 5th century BC, when the spirit of Greece itself was at its height. Of the temples built in this "golden age" of Pericles, the finest was the Parthenon, dedicated to Athena, goddess of Athens. It was ornamented by the master of Greek sculpture, Phidias.

Hagesandros, Athenodoros and Polydoros of Rhodes
Laocoon and his sons
c. 175-150 BC
Marble, height 242 cm (95 1/2 in)
Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican

Phidias could not possibly have done all the marvelous sculptures of the Parthenon, and only here and there can one be sure of the master's own hand. 'The Three Fates', designed to fit the triangular space of the pediment, are generally believed to represent the finest treatment of drapery in sculpture.

Two contemporaries of Phidias were Myron and Polyclitus. The works of these two men are known to us through Roman copies only, but in the 'Hermes with the Infant Dionysus' by Praxiteles (born about 380 BC) we have an original of idealized beauty.

Venus de Milo
Parian marble, h 2.02 m (6 1/2 ft)
Found at Milo
130-120 BC
Musee du Louvre, Paris

In the Louvre, in Paris, stands the famous 'Venus de Milo', found in 1820 on the island of Melos. The sculptor is unknown.

The same museum possesses the 'Nike', or 'Winged Victory', of Samothrace. The forward push of her body, with wings and draperies flying in the wind, recalls the Nikes, or goddesses of victory, that adorned the prows of ancient ships.

Winged Victory of Samothrace
Marble, h. 3.28 m (11 ft)
Found on the island of Rhodes
Around 190 BC
Musee du Louvre, Paris

The statue is dated between 250 and 180 BC, in the late Hellenistic period, following the death of Alexander the Great. Dramatic gestures and decorative detail replaced the quiet dignity and restraint of earlier days. In 1950 excavations on the island of Samothrace, on the site where the statue was discovered in 1863, uncovered the right hand of the figure. It was presented to the Louvre by the Greek government.

Under Alexander's expanding rule other Mediterranean countries and even the Orient came in contact with Greek art. The spirit of Greek sculpture was to live again in Rome, in the Renaissance.

Belvedere Apollo
Marble
h. 2.24 m (7 ft)
Roman copy of a Greek original from the fifth century BC
Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican

Discobolos
c. 450 BC
Roman marble copy after the bronze original by Myron
height 155 cm (61 in)
Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome

Man with Helmet
Bronze found in 1972 in the Bay of Riace, Calabria, Italy
The Greek original has been attributed to Phidias
Around 440 BC
National Museum, Reggio di Calabria