Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Ancient Greece and Rome Midterm
identification and terms
20
Art History
Undergraduate 2
03/02/2010

Additional Art History Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
[image]
Definition

DIMINI: after 5,000 B.C

 

Dimini covers an area of only 2 acres
hectares and is also located in
Thessaly.
The astonishing fact about this site are
the six concentric circular enclosures
to better organization of the land.


 

Term
[image]
Definition

Figural Sculpture of Neolithic Greece: “The Thinker” 4,500 B.C.

 

The Thinker” is a clay figurine found in the town on Karditsa in Thessaly.
Called this due to the position of the figure-hand to head.
This is the largest Neolithic figurine found on mainland Greece.
Dated to 4500 ­ 3300 BC.
Now in the Athens National Museum.

 

Term
[image]
Definition

 

These figurines are the most iconic images from the Cycladic culture.
Called ‘STARGAZERS’ due to positions of folded arms  around stomach, head tilted upwards, always on tiptoes.
Usually female. Fertility Idols?
Use Unknown, FOUND IN BURIAL CONTEXTS.
Made from ‘white, sugary’ local island marble.
Range in size from a few inches to life size.
Many were painted with red and blue pigments, depicting features, jewelry, dress.
They are very stylized and ‘contemporary  looking.

 

Term
[image]
Definition

Minoan Bull Leaping Fresco, Knossos

Bull=mascot of all that is male, brutish, strong, fertile

Acrobats Fresco= showing 3 primary positions

a sport reserved for men

main event in courtyards

man vs. beast

Term
[image]
Definition

The Harvester Vase: Hagia Triada,
c. 1550-1500 BC. Carved from Steatite

shows men coming back from the field

cistrum (from Egypt) on man plays as men sing along leaving with rich bounty

continuous narrative around vase

Term
[image]
Definition

Grave Circle A Gold Mask:“I have gazed into the face of Agamemnon”-Heinrich Schleimann

Grave Circle A contained 13 cist graves. It is believed about 9 adult males, 8 adult females, and 2 children / teenagers were buried there. Their bodies were wrapped in shrouds, and lowered into the shaft pits. Male bodies were adorned with gold masks.

Term
[image]
Definition

The Lion Gate:
Monumental Sculpture

two lions, back legs on the ground front legs on podium

next to the column (all that is mycenaean?)

relieving triangle made of lighter rock, tuffa?

The end of the Phrygian kingdom is a fixed date, about 675 B.C.

Term
[image]
Definition

The so-called “Lefkandi Centaur”. Body of a horse, upper body of a man.
Date 1000-900 B.C.
Found in 2 parts in the two separate burials at the Heroon at Lefkandi.
Depicts a centaur, an image adopted from Cyprus.
Terracotta painted with geometric patterns.
One of only sculptures we have from the Dark Ages. They know of Greek mythology?

Term
[image]
Definition


The ‘Dipylon Amphora’, 750-700B.C.: Made of terracotta, from Athens
The Dipylon cemetery in Athens provides important advance in pottery. We find huge vases used as burial markers in 2 shapes Krater (top) for men, Ampora (bottom) for women.
Holes in the bases of the large vases (over

Term
[image]
Definition

Early Temple Models., 800-700 B.C.,  Terracotta Temple/House from Perachora,
probably made in Corinth. See Lawrence & Boardman

Apsidal entrance way/step into something greater. 

Height 33cm Athens

Term
[image]
Definition

The Eleusis Amphora, 650 B.C.:
Masterpiece of Proto-Attic Pottery

This amphora depicts the blinding of Polyphemus at the top, a scene from Homer’s “The Odyssey”.
Boars-and-lions on the shoulder.
Body of vase, the hero Perseus and the Gorgon sisters. Hero that killed Medusa.
This Attic piece used eastern motifs to tell two stories in narrative scenes - note the drinking cup in Polyphemus' hand, and the attempt to distinguish Odysseus by painting him in white and show him in action.
Proto-Corinthian pottery does not do this, just decorative.

Term
[image]
Definition

Calf-bearer (Moschophoros), 560 B.C.

Dedication of one man named Rhombos, showing a man (himself?) carrying a calf to sacrifice on Athenian Acropolis.
5’5” in height
Version of the kouros.
Note early example of the ‘Archaic Smile’.

Term
[image]
Definition

Masterpiece of Greek Statueyy: The Peplos Kore, 530 B.C.

Found on the Athenian Acropolis.
Half life-size in height.
She wears a heavy woolen dress called a PEPLOS.
She was painted in bright colors.
Dedication to the goddess Athena
Wore a bronze wreath & earrings.

Term
[image]
Definition

‘Basilica’/ Temple of Hera
Oldest of the two, 600-550 B.C
at Paestum

The Basilica, aka Temple of Hera built around 550 BC by Greek colonists, is the oldest surviving temple in Paestum.
18th century  archaeologists named it "The Basilica" because they mistakenly believed it to be a Roman building. Inscriptions revealed that the goddess worshiped here was Hera.
Cella has central row of columns. Shafts taper 1/3 from diameter of the columns at base and their sides are convex (they swell outward), adding illusion of height and strength).
The entire pteron remains standing
 

Term
[image]
Definition

The Ionic Temple to Artemis at Ephesus, 560 B.C.

Ionic order used to create one of the largest temples in antiquity.
Ephesus is in modern-day Turkey, a Greek colony settled there.
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
King of Lydia, a King Croesus, paid for most of the columns of the Artemesion.
Theodoros, a Greek architect and engineer appears to have worked on this temple, along with a Cretan architect, and his son.

Term
[image]
Definition

Black-figure pottery typically depicted figures in silhouette, but it was somewhat limited in artistic scope due to the limitations of engraving tools.
Only a few painters are known by name, though many black-figure vases have been grouped on the basis of painting style and appear to be the work of distinct individuals or workshops.
The most famous named painter is Exekias, a vase painter of the 6th century BC who is best known for his battle scenes.
550 BC - 525 BC at Athen

Term
[image]
Definition

The Francois Vase, 570 B.C.

 

The François Vase, a milestone in the development of Greek pottery.
Large volute krater decorated in the black-figure style which stands at 66cm in height.
Found in 1844 in an Etruscan tomb and named after its discoverer Alessandro François; it is now in the Museo Archeologico at Florence.
Ergotimos made [me]; Kleitias painted [me
It depicts over 200 figures, many with identifying inscriptions, representing a number of mythological themes.
Principal subject is the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
In 1900 a museum guard threw a stool at the case that contained the vase and smashed it into 638 pieces! Restored but fragments now missing.

 

Term
[image]
Definition

 

Tomb of the Diver. 470 B.C.
Greek Wall Painting

Tomb of the Diver was discovered in 1968. Named after the poignant scene, of a lonely young man diving into a stream of water.
VERY important to our understanding of Greek wall painting as it is the ONLY example of Greek painting with figured scenes dating from the Orientalizing, Archaic, or Classical periods to survive in its entirety.
Among the thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700–400 BC), this is the only one to have been decorated with frescoes of human subjects.
The remaining four walls of the tombs are occupied by symposium related scenes,.
All the five frescoes are visible in the local National Museum,

 

Term
[image]
Definition


The Parthenon, 437-432 B.C.

First building Perikles commissioned.
Dedicated to patron goddess, Athena.
Doric temple.
Architects known: IKTINOS and KALLIKRATES.
Built partially on top of old temple ruins.
Made entirely of Pentellic marble.
Built to house the incredible ivory and gold cult statue of Athena, sculpted by PHEIDIAS (now lost).
He probabaly also desgined the pediment sculpture (“The Elgin Marbles”) as well as the sculptured metopes and inner frieze.

Term
[image]
Definition

CLASSICAL SCUPTURE:
The Charioteer of Delphi, 478-474

Masterpiece of Greek Sculpture. Dates to 478-474 B.C.
Part of a chariot scene dedicated and brought to Delphi  by winner of Chariot races at Olympic games, by a tyrant from Sicily!
Bronze, with copper lips, silver headband, eyes inlaid with glass and stone.
This charioteer stood in a four horse chariot led by a groom.
Reins still exist too.
Now at Delphi Museum

Supporting users have an ad free experience!