Greece and Athens/Sparta

Large Scale Figure Sculpture

*Arcaic Period: 700-500 BC

*Classical Period: 500-450 BC

-early classical/severe style/transitional

*High Classical Period: 450-400 BC

-“The Golden Age”

*Late Classical Period: 400-300 BC

*Hellenistic Period: 300 BC……

-meaning the spread of Greek culture

-Alexander the Great (Masedonian)

-teacher was Aristotle

*Hellenenes was the group of people and Hellous was the area of culture, basically what we call today or refer to as Greek.

*The Hellenistic period stops when the Roman Empire took over.

Archaic Statues:

*Formal pose and not focused on the body                                              *male nude/ woman is clothed and women had no voice, no ideas and were considered to be property.                                                         *Men would be seen exercising at the gym and around town during everyday life..in the NUDE

*Kouros (meaning youth)

-marble statue                                                              -590 BC Archaic                                                         -Greek

*Made to honor the deceased and served as tomb markers. They also acted as a votive offering at a temple.

Kore (female for youth) 

-marble statue                                                              -530 BC                                                                          -Greek

*Temendous emphasis on Youth                             -18 to 25 was considered to be the “apex of your life”                                                                               -that’s why all statues are young looking

*Screens – term used in art meaning marble connecting pieces of a statue together *Organic – treatment of the body that shows the actual figure of a body with depth, muscle and bone                                                             *Archaic smile – the same smile (botox smile) : )

Kouros, Apollo of Piracus

-marble     -520 BC    -Greek

*Has a little more gesturing but still mostly the same composition   *Most statues were very pigmented even though the statues we see today or think of today are bleach white.

Kritios Boy, Statue of an Ephebe

-marble    -480 BC  (early classical)    -Greek

*This particular piece was looked at as the transition into the Severe period.  This is the first show of movement in statues, weight shift is present and he has a more organic form to him.

*Controposto – positioned against (tention) half the body is tensed and half is relaxed.  This term was introduced by the Italians.

*The greeks try to grasp the concept of the body:                                   -the Gods were human (religion)                                                               -how the universe worked through the human form                              -believed in individual potential

*Athens is where democracy took hold (5th century)