Unit 2: Greek Art

Greek Art is considered as the origin and source of Western Art. It is idealized in the Western World and provided inspiration to the subsequent Roman and European art and architecture.

From my reading, Greek Art can be divided into 3 distinct periods: Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Each period is defined by historical events. And one can see the evolution of art through these periods.

One good example is the free standing sculpture. The Kouros boy statues are from the Archaic period around 600BC. The Kouros boy statue shows a nude young man in a stiff attitude with head held high, eyes to the front, arms hanging at the sides with fists clenched. His facial expression is an impassive stare or a knowing look. The Kouroi varied greatly in their anatomical accuracy.

Anavysos Kouros, funerary statue of Croisos (560-546 BC)

 
The Kritios boy (circa. 480 BC) from the Classical Period, on the other hand, has a more relaxed pose; the right leg is slightly bent at the knee, the weight is supported by the left leg, the head is turned slightly to the right. The Kritios boy is the most natural sculpture up to that time and this is achieved with an accurate understanding of human musculature and bone structure.

The Kritios Boy, (c.480 BC)

 
In the documentary “Greek Sculpture” in “How Art Made the World” produced by BBC, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gXWW3qN7o, it is postulated that the Greeks were not satisfied with natural realism of the Kritios boy and wanted to created something that is not real, something that is “more human than human”. The example used is the bronze warrior statue A from Riace: the crest of muscles across the waist (external abdominis obliques) are exaggerated, the legs are made artificially long, the centre groove of the chest is impossible deep (because the pectoralis major muscles are too hypertrophied) as well as the centre channel of the spine (because of overdevelopment of the trapezius and latissimus dorsi muscles) and there is no coccyx bone at the base of their spine. The conclusion was this is unrealistic body.

Riace Warrior A , (5^th century BC)

I don’t agree with Professor Ramanchandran’s opinion that the Greeks were bored with the Kritios boy and that is the reason why they made subsequent unrealistic statues. I think it is human nature to make something different and original rather than motivated by boredom and the need for unrealism. The evolution of Greek art is an illustration of the evolution of art by human in the subsequent periods.

There is still a lot about Greek Art besides the free standing sculptures. Below I provide a brief summary of the various works of art according to the periods.

Period	Free standing sculpture	Architecture	Relief sculpture
Archaic (8th to 6th century BC)	Kouros	Temple of Hera, Paestum	Treasury of Siphnians, frieze
Classical (5th to 4th century BC)	Kritios boy Discobolus Riace warriors	Parthenon	Parthenon frieze
Hellenistic (3rd to 2nd century BC)	Nike from Samothrace Venus de Milo	Pergamum	Alexander sarcophagus

Bibliography

Boardman J, (ed.) (1993) The Oxford history of classical art. New York: Oxford University Press

Dunlop G. (1989) The legacy of Greece. [DVD] United Kingdom: T.V.S. Television Ltd

Greek (6^th century BC) Anavysos Kouros, funerary statue of Croisos [marble]. [online image] Place: National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. Available from: http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed: 26 December 2010]

Greek (5^th century BC) The Kritios Boy [marble]. [online image] Place: Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece. Available from: http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed: 26 December 2010]

Greek (5^th century BC) Riace Warrior A [bronze]. [online image] Place: Museo Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, Italy. Available from: http://www.bridgemaneducation.com [Accessed: 26 December 2010]

Honour, H. and Fleming J. (2009) A world history of art. Revised 7^th ed. London: Laurence King

Varchol D. (2005) How art made the world: Episode 1: More human than human [online] available from <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gXWW3qN7o > [26 December 2010]