2. DISCLAIMER
This presentation is an overview of the material in your text. It is not
comprehensive, nor is it meant to be. This presentation allows you to introduce
yourself to concepts and images in the respective chapter. Best practice says
to view this presentation with your book open, as many of the images in this
presentation are small or incomplete.
3. Guiding Questions
• What do Greek workers
("artists") change in their
styles to distance
themselves from ancient
Near Eastern and
Egyptian influences?
• How do the Greeks
become "Greek," in terms
of visual culture?
4. Guiding Historical
Periods
• Geometric and
Orientalizing Periods--ca.
900-500 BCE
• Increasing contact with
civilizations of Egypt and
Mesopotamia
• Archaic Period--ca. 600-
480BCE
• First stone temples
• Establishment of Doric and Ionic
orders
5. Geography determines
culture. The Aegean
civilizations that influence
the early Greeks very
much depend on the sea
for their subsistence and
economic wealth.
Aegean civilizations also
develop an aesthetic that
looks to natural forms
and values harmony,
balance, and symmetry—
the cornerstones of the
Greek aesthetic.
Where in the world are we?
6. Aegean Influences
Self Study:
Notice how
the images
decorating the The Greeks develop from Aegean
vessels to the cultures. The early Greeks will adopt
an Aegean love of:
right reflect
A. Harmony between object and the
the shape of painting
the vessels. B. Movement and pattern
The warriors
C. Symmetry and ratios
emphasizes
the
horizontality of
the krater and
the octopus
reflects the
curvature of
the flask.
7. Geometric Period
• Vessels served as grave
markers
• Figures in black silhouette are
geometric and angular
• Many registers break up the
space of the vase
• Abstract linear and geometric
shapes fill "empty" spaces
• Sculpture is rigid, upright, and
lacking in naturalism
8. Orientalizing
Period
• Vessels are painted with floral
motifs, powerful beasts, and
conflated beings (i.e. sirens with
wings)
• Black figure painting is
elaborated with white incisions
and reddish or purplish slip
• Designs clearly show an
exchange with Mesopotamian
cultures
9. Archaic
Period
Problems
Solved
The Archaic period is
•In statuary, figures marked by a moving
become more natural, away from, though not
relatively speaking entirely, outside cultural
influences. It is easily
recognizable by the
•In vase painting, red- "Archaic Grin."
figure painting gives
more detail than
black-figure
techniques
•In architecture,
temples become less
bulky and more
proportional
10. In subsequent presentations, you will
explore:
• Apprenticeship in Ancient Greece
• The New York Kouros
• Temples of Paestum, Italy
