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| 8th century BCE. Greeks began developing a repertoire of pottery. Characteristic rectilinear meanders and geometric patterns cover the so called Dipylon Vase of about 750 BCE. Adding a narrative quality to this funerary amphora are images of animals and humans. Sculptors also modeled simialar figures in clay and bronze. Many painted vases bear incscriptions, and, indeed, this was the era of Homer's epic writings and the introduction of the alphabet. |
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| Between 725 and 650 BCE, nascent Greek city-states grew prosperous, and citizens sought luxury commodities from trade partners in Asia Minor, the East, and Egypt. Greek artists raptidly assimilated Eastern influences, experimenting with new techniques and developing an oriantalizing style. The port city of Corinth dominated ceramic production, and vase painters developed a black gloss slip to create outined and sillhoueted images with incised details. Sirens, griffins, and other Eastern mythical motifs abound on both miniatrue and monumnetal vessels. |
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| During this period of intense creativity, the great traditions of monumental stone sculpture and temple architecture appeared. Inspired by Egyptian examples, sculptors and builders experimented with proportional systems and adorned structures with larger than life-size figures. The two temples dedicated to Hera at Paestum and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos show the development of the Doric and Ionic styles as well as that of a relativley standard templ plan , with its central cella and porch. Large-scale sculpture enlivened architecture, notably the Temple of Artemis and the later Temple of Aphaia, whoe pedimants reveal artists' search for solutions to fitting lively narrative scenes into the awkward triangular space. Meanwhile, increasingly naturalistic and free-standing figures such as Kouroi and Korai are testaments to the Greek preoccupation with representing ideals of physical perfection. Vase painting saw important advancements as well, inclluding the black-figured and red-figured techniques. |
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| Scultptors mace great strices in the naturalistic representation of the human form; the contrapposto stance of the Kritios boy marks a critical point in Greek art, and sculptors took up the challenge of showing realistic movement in both stone and bronze. In sculpureal programs for the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Athenian Akropolis, artists continued to explore complex narrative and dualistic themes. |
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| The Late Classical Period |
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| Noteworthy during this period was the elaboration of a wider range of existing architectural types, such as meeting houses, theaters, and mausoleums. The Corinthian capital also developed form the Ionic style. The uncertain, somewhat pessismistic, mood of the age is est reflected in sculpture. The workds of Praxitles convey the capricousness of the gods toward humans, whereas Lysippos' Aposyomenos breaks into a viewr's space with its outrstretched, foreshortened arm. Intense emotion and illusionistic depictions of space became hallmarks of wall and vase painging as well , seen especially on funaerary vases painted with the white-ground technique. |
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| The Age of Alexander and The Hellenistic Period |
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| The plans of buildings, such as the Temple of Apollo at Didyma and of the city of Pergamon, offered a more personal experince via unexpected paths. breathtaking panoramas, and dramatic theatricality. Hellensitic sculpture also favored heightened drama and increased viewer involvement, bulding on Late Classical works. Emotional subjects and dramatic realism prevailed; portraiture developed as a genre and flourished thanks to the patrongage of Alexander the Great. Wall paintings display masterful brushwork, delicate shading,and spatial perspective. |
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