Ancient Greece

  • Greeks are interested in the human figure the idea of perfection.
  • Greek Temples provide a foundation for European architecture and reflects the idea of obtaining perfection with mathematical ratios.
  • The Greek time period starts at around 900 BCE, about 200 years after the collapse of the Mycenaeans.
  • In the 5th century, the Greeks defeated the Persians, though it left Athens in ruins (rebuilt by Pericles) = Start of the Classical time period
  • Polykleitos's canon of proportions: The head should be 1/7 of the body. The chiastic stance that expresses the alternating relaxed and stressed muscles.
  • The Peloponnesian War in 432 BCE (lasted about 27 years) devastated and crushed Athens by the victorious Spartans = Start of the Hellenistic
  • Alexander the Great took over and united the Macedonians with the Greeks in the 4th century and after his death, his empire gave into Roman rule.
Periods:
  • GEOMETRIC: simplified, smooth
  • ARCHAIC: Idealization, stylized, FRONTAL, rigid
  • SEVERE: Contrapposto, movement
  • CLASSICAL: Idealization, unemotional, PERFECTION, self-contained
  • LATE CLASSICAL: NATURAL, humanized, relaxed, elongation
  • HELLENISTIC: EMOTIONAL, dramatic, exaggeration, movement, individualistic
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