Existing comment:
The Greeks:
"We do not imitate but are models for others."
-- Perikles
The ancient Greeks defined themselves as people who spoke Greek -- and in antiquity Greeks lived throughout the Mediterranean. The most important settlements were in modern-day Greece and the western coast of Turkey, the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, and South Italy. A distinctive Greek culture began to emerge in the early Iron Age about 1000 BC, and both Greek history and art are divided into four periods: Geometric (ca 900-700 BC), Archaic (ca 700-480 BC), Classical (480-323 BC), and Hellenistic (323-30 BC). The Hellenistic period ended when the Romans conquered Ptolemaic Egypt, the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms.
The gods of the Greeks took human form, and it is perhaps for this reason that Greek artists developed ever more naturalistic modes to depict the human body. The most abundant evidence of this trend is from vases, but developments in vase painting paralleled developments in panel painting and sculpture in both stone and bronze (the more prestigious material). Human figures from the early periods, when the Greeks were greatly influenced by the great civilizations of Egypt and the Near East, appear stiff and schematic. In the Classical period, artists created more naturalistic figures but sought to depict the ideal human who could maintain an outward calm in all circumstances. Experimenting with new subjects and genres, Hellenistic artists often expressed the full range of human emotions and created complex, multi-figural compositions.
Greek art, like Greek literature, political thought, science, and philosophy, lies at the heart of the western tradition. Though the Greeks freely drew from other cultures, they have provided the models that others have followed for much of the past 2500 years. |