Greek Art Is Characterized by the Representation of What Beans

Temple of Hephaistos (449) Athens.
The intact Doric style columns and
pediments are withal conspicuously visible,
only the friezes and other decorations
have been lost.

Discus Thrower (Discobolus)
Roman copy of the original
bronze past Myron (425 BCE)
National Museum, Rome.

Origins

Aegean art of Classical Artifact dates back to Minoan civilisation of the 3rd Millennium BCE, when the inhabitants of Crete, known every bit Minoans after their King Minos, began to establish a thriving culture around 2100 BCE, based on their successful maritime trading activities. Influenced by Sumerian art and other strands of Mesopotamian fine art, they built a series of palaces at Knossos, Phaestus and Akrotiri, too as the creation of a broad range of fresco painting, rock carvings, ancient pottery and other artifacts. During the 15th century BCE, afterwards a catastrophic earthquake, which destroyed nigh of her palaces, Crete was overrun by warlike Mycenean tribes from the Greek mainland. Mycenean civilization duly became the dominant strength in the eastern Mediterranean. And then, not long after launching the Trojan War (c.1194–1184), the city of Mycenae, forth with its architecture and cultural possessions, was destroyed past a new set of maurauders, known as Dorians. At this point, almost product of ancient art came to a standstill for near 400 years (1200-800), as the region descended into an era of warring kingdoms and chaos, known as the "Greek Dark Ages" (or the Geometric or Homeric Age).

Historical Background

Ancient Greek fine art proper "emerged" during the 8th century BCE (700-800), as things calmed down around the Aegean. (See also Etruscan fine art) About this fourth dimension, iron was made into weapons/tools, people started using an alphabet, the first Olympic Games took place (776), a complex faith emerged, and a loose sense of cultural identity grew up effectually the idea of "Hellas" (Greece). By about 700, kingdoms began to be replaced by oligarchies and urban center-states. However, early on forms of Greek art were largely bars to ceramic pottery, equally the region suffered continued disruption from widespread famine, forced emigration (many Greeks left the mainland to colonize towns in Asia Small-scale and Italian republic), and social unrest. This restricted the development of architecture and most other types of fine art. Not until about 650, when maritime trade links were re-established between Greece and Egypt, also as Anatolia, did Greek prosperity finally return and facilitate an upsurge of Greek civilization.

Venus de Milo (c.100 BCE)
(Aphrodite of Melos)
Louvre, Paris. An icon
of Hellenistic sculpture.

Pigment PIGMENTS
For details of colours and
pigments used past painters
in Ancient Greece, see:
Classical Color Palette.

Chronology of Greek Art

The practice of fine art in ancient Greece evolved in three basic stages or periods:

• Archaic Period (c.650-480 BCE)
• Classical Menstruation (c.480-323 BCE)
• Hellenistic Period (c.323-27 BCE).

The Archaic era was a flow of gradual experimentation. The Classical era and so witnessed the flowering of mainland Greek ability and artistic domination. The Hellenistic Flow, which opened with the death of Alexander the Keen, witnessed the creation of "Greek-way fine art" throughout the region, equally more than and more than centres/colonies of Greek culture were established in Greek-controlled lands. The period also saw the decline and fall of Greece and the rise of Rome: in fact, information technology ends with the complete Roman conquest of the unabridged Mediterranean basin.

Note: Information technology is important to annotation from the start, autonomously from pottery, nearly all original art from Greek Artifact - that is, sculpture, mural and panel paintings, mosaics, decorative art - has been lost, leaving us about entirely dependent upon copies past Roman artists and a few written accounts. As a result, our knowledge of the chronology, evolution and extent of Greek visual culture is jump to be extremely sketchy, and should not be taken too seriously. The truth is, with a few exceptions, we know very fiddling about the identity of Greek artists, what they painted or sculpted, and when they did it. For later artists inspired by the classical sculpture and architecture of ancient Greece, meet: Classicism in Art (800 onwards).

Archaic Period (c.650-480 BCE)

Archaic Greek Pottery

The most developed art grade of the pre-Archaic menstruum (c.900-650) was undoubtedly Greek pottery. Often involving large vases and other vessels, information technology was decorated originally with linear designs (proto-geometric style), then more than elaborate patterns (geometric manner) of triangles, zigzags and other similar shapes. Geometric pottery includes some of the finest Greek artworks, with vases typically made according to a strict system of proportions. From about 700, renewed contacts with Anatolia, the Black Body of water basin and the Middle E, led to a noticeable eastern influence (Oriental style), which was mastered past Corinth ceramicists. The new idiom featured a wider repertoire of motifs, such equally curvilinear designs, also every bit a host of blended creatures like sphinxes, griffins and chimeras. During the Archaic era itself, decoration became more than and more figurative, every bit more animals, zoomorphs so human figures themselves were included. This ceramic figure painting was the commencement sign of the enduring Greek fascination with the human being body, as the noblest subject for a painter or sculptor: a fascination rekindled in the High Renaissance painting of Michelangelo and others. Some other ceramic style introduced by Corinth was black-figure pottery: figures were first fatigued in black silhouette, then marked with incised detail. Boosted touches were added in purple or white. Favourite themes for black-figure imagery included: the revels of Dionysus and the Labours of Hercules. In time, Athens came to boss black-effigy manner pottery, with its perfection of a richer black pigment, and a new orangish-scarlet pigment which led to cerise-figure pottery - an idiom that flourished 530-480. Famous Greek Archaic-era ceramic artists included the genius Exekias, every bit well as Kleitias (creator of the celebrated Francois Vase), Andokides, Euthymides, Ergotimos, Lydos, Nearchos and Sophilos. For more details and dates, see: Pottery Timeline.

Archaic Greek Compages

It was during sixth and 7th centuries that stone was used for Greek public buildings (petrification), especially temples. Greek architecture relied on simple post-and-lintel edifice techniques: arches weren't used until the Roman era. The typical rectangular building was surrounded by a line of columns on all four sides (see, for instance, the Parthenon) or, less often, at the forepart and rear just (Temple of Athena Nike). Roofs were constructed with timber beams overlaid with terracotta tiles. Pediments (the triangular shape at each gable end) were decorated with relief sculpture or friezes, as was the row of lintels between the roof and the tops of the columns. Greek architects were the outset to base their architectural blueprint on the standard of proportionality. To do this, they introduced their "Classical Orders" - a gear up of pattern rules based on proportions between individual parts, such every bit the ratio between the width and acme of a column. In that location were three such orders in early Greek compages: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The Doric style was used in mainland Greece and later on Greek settlements in Italy. The Ionic order was used in buildings along the west coast of Turkey and other Aegean islands. Famous buildings of ancient Greece constructed or begun during the Primitive menstruation include: the Temple of Hera (600), the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis (550), and the Temples at Paestum (550 onwards). See also: Egyptian Architecture (c.3000 BCE onwards) and the importance of Egyptian architects such every bit Imhotep and others.

Greek architecture continued to be highly influential on after styles, including Renaissance too as Neoclassical architecture, and even American compages of the 19th and 20th century.

The history of fine art shows that building programs invariably stimulated the evolution of other forms of fine art, similar sculpture and painting, also as decorative fine art, and Archaic Greek architecture was no exception. The new temples and other public buildings all needed plenty of decorative sculpture, including statues, reliefs and friezes, as well as landscape painting and mosaic art.

Primitive Greek Sculpture

Archaic Greek sculpture during this flow was still heavily influenced by Egyptian sculpture, every bit well as Syrian techniques. Greek sculptors created stone friezes and reliefs, likewise as statues (in stone, terracotta and bronze), and miniature works (in ivory and bone). The early mode of freestanding Daedalic sculpture (650-600) - every bit exemplified by the works of Daedalus, Dipoinos and Skyllis - was dominated by two human stereotypes: the standing nude youth (kouros) and the standing draped girl (kore). Of these, the male person nudes were seen as more of import. To begin with, both the kouros and the kore were sculpted in a rather rigid, "frontal", Egyptian style, with wide-shoulders, narrow-waists, artillery hanging, fists clenched, both feet on the basis, and a fixed "archaic grinning": see, for instance, Lady of Auxerre (630, Louvre) and Kleobis and Biton (610-580, Archeological Museum of Delphi). Equally time passed, the representation of these formulaic statues became less rigid and more than realistic. Later, more advanced, Archaic versions of kouroi and korai include the "Peplos Kore" (c.530, Acropolis Museum, Athens) and the "Kritios Male child" (Acropolis Museum, Athens). Other famous works include: the Strangford Apollo (600-580, British Museum); the Dipylon Kouros (c.600, Athens, Kerameikos Museum); the Anavysos Kouros (c.525, National Archeological Museum of Athens); and the fascinating frieze of the Siphnian Treasury, Delphi (c.525).

Primitive Greek Painting

Since almost vases and sculptures were painted, the growth of pottery and sculpture during the 7th century led automatically to more piece of work for Greek painters. In improver, the walls of many temples, municipal buildings and tombs were decorated with fresco painting, while their marble or wooden sculpture was coloured with tempera or encaustic paint. Encaustic had some of the lustre of oil painting, a medium unknown to the Greeks, and became a popular painting method for rock statues and architectural reliefs during the sixth century. Archaic Greek painting boasts very few painted panels: the only examples we have are the Pitsa panels decorated in stucco coloured with mineral pigments. Unfortunately, due to erosion, vandalism and destruction, few original Greek paintings have survived from this period. All that remains are a few painted slabs of terra cotta (the terracotta metopes from the temple of Apollo at Thermon in Aitolia c.630), some wooden panels (the iv Pitsa panels found in a cavern in the northern Peloponnese), and murals (such as the 7th century battle scene taken from a temple at Kalapodi, well-nigh Thebes, and those excavated from underground tombs in Etruria). Apart from certain individuals, like Cimon of Cleonae, the names of Primitive Greek painters are generally unknown to us. The most prevalent fine art form to shed light on ancient Greek painting is pottery, which at least gives u.s. a rough idea of Archaic aesthetics and techniques. Note, however, that vase-painting was seen as a low art class and is rarely referred to in Classical literature.

Classical Flow (c.480-323 BCE)

Victory over the Persians in 490 BCE and 479 BCE established Athens as the strongest of the Greek city states. Despite external threats, it would retain its leading cultural role for the next few centuries. Indeed, during the fifth century BCE, Athens witnessed a artistic resurgence which would not only dominate time to come Roman fine art, merely when rediscovered by Renaissance Europe ii,000 years later, would constitute an absolute creative standard for another four centuries. All this despite the fact that most Greek paintings and sculptures have been destroyed.

The primary contribution of Greek Classicism to fine fine art, was undoubtedly its sculpture: in particular, the "Catechism of Proportions" with its realization of the "ideal human body" - a concept which resonated so strongly with High Renaissance fine art, a k years afterward.

Classical Greek Pottery

During this era, Ceramic art and thus vase-painting experienced a progressive refuse. Exactly why, we don't know, but, judging by the lack of innovations and the increasing sentimentality of the designs, the genre appears to accept worn itself out. The final creative evolution was the White Footing technique, which had been introduced around 500. Different the black-figure and blood-red-figure styles, which relied on clay slips to create pictures, the White Ground technique employed paint and gilding on a white dirt groundwork, and is all-time illustrated by the funerary lekythoi of the tardily 5th century. Apart from this unmarried innovation, classical Greek pottery declined significantly in both quality and artistic merit, and eventually became dependent on local Hellenistic schools.

Classical Greek Architecture

Like most Greek visual fine art, building blueprint reached its apogee during the Classical catamenia, as the two main styles (or "orders") of Greek architecture, the Doric and the Ionic, came to ascertain a timeless, harmonious, universal standard of architectural beauty. The Doric mode was the more than formal and austere - a style which predominated during the quaternary and 5th centuries - while the Ionic was more than relaxed and somewhat decorative - a style which became more popular during the more easy-going Hellenistic era. (Note: The Ionic Club later gave rise to the more ornate Corinthian style.)

The highpoint of ancient Greek architecture was arguably the Acropolis, the flat-topped, sacred hill on the outskirts of Athens. The first temples, erected here during the Primitive menstruum, were destroyed by the Persians in 480, simply when the urban center-state entered its golden age (c.460-430), its ruler Pericles appointed the sculptor Phidias to oversee the construction of a new complex. Most of the new buildings (the Parthenon, the Propylaea) were designed co-ordinate to Doric proportions, though some included Ionic elements (Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheum). The Acropolis was added to, several times, during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. The Parthenon (447-432), remains the supreme example of classical Greek religious art. In its day, it would take been embellished with numerous wall-paintings and sculptures, yet fifty-fifty relatively devoid of adornment it stands as an unmistakeable monument to Greek culture. The biggest temple on the Acropolis hill, it was designed by Ictinus and Callicrates, and dedicated to the Goddess Athena. Information technology originally housed a colossal multi-coloured statue entitled Athena the Virgin (Athena Parthenos), whose pare was sculpted past Phidias from ivory and whose clothes were created from gilded fabric. Similar all temples, the Parthenon was decorated throughout with architectural sculpture like reliefs and friezes, also as gratis-standing statues, in marble, bronze and chryselephantine. In 1801, the art collector and antiquarian Lord Elgin (1766-1841) controversially shipped a large quantity of the Parthenon's marble sculpture (the "Elgin Marbles") to the British Museum in London.

Other famous examples of Classical Greek architecture include: the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (468-456), the Temple of Hephaistos (c.449 BCE), the Temple at Bassae, Arcadia (c.430), which contained the kickoff Corinthian uppercase, the Theatre at Delphi (c.400), the Tholos Temple of Athena Pronaia (380-360), the Mausoleum at Harnicarnassus, Bodrum (353), the Lysicrates Monument in Athens (335), and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (330).

Classical Greek Sculpture

In the history of sculpture, no menses was more productive than the 150 years between 480 and 330 BCE. As far as plastic art is concerned, in that location may exist sub-divided into: Early on Classical Greek Sculpture (480-450), Loftier Classical Greek Sculpture (450-400), and Tardily Classical Greek Sculpture (400-323).

During the era as a whole, there was a huge improvement in the technical power of Greek sculptors to depict the human being body in a naturalistic rather than rigid posture. Beefcake became more authentic and as a result statues started to look much more true-to-life. Likewise, bronze became the main medium for free-standing works due to its power to maintain its shape, which permitted the sculpting of even more natural-looking poses. Subjects were broadened to include the full panoply of Gods and Goddesses, along with minor divinities, an extensive range of mythological narratives, and a diverse option of athletes. Other specific developments included: the introduction of a Platonic "Catechism of Proportions", to create an idealized human figure, and the invention of contrapposto. During the Tardily Classical era, the first respectable female person nudes appeared.

Among the best known sculptors of the menstruum, were: Myron (fl.480-444), Polykleitos (fl.450-430), Callimachus (fl.432-408), Skopas (fl.395-350), Lysippos (c.395-305), Praxiteles (fl.375-335), and Leochares (fl.340-320). These artists worked mainly in marble, statuary, occasionally wood, bone, and ivory. Rock sculpture was carved by paw from a block of marble or a loftier-quality limestone, using metal tools. These sculptures might be gratis-continuing statues, or reliefs/friezes - that is, just partially carved from a block. Bronze sculpture was considered to be superior, not least because of the extra cost of bronze, and were typically bandage using the lost wax method. Even more expensive was chryselephantine sculpture which was reserved for major cult statues. Ivory etching was another specialist genre, for pocket-sized-scale, personal works, as was wood-carving.

Every bit mentioned to a higher place, the Parthenon was a typical example of how the Greeks used sculpture to decorate and enhance their religious buildings. Originally, the Parthenon's sculptures barbarous into three groups. (1) On the triangular pediments at either end were large-scale costless-continuing groups containing numerous figures of Gods and mythological scenes. (2) Forth both sides were near 100 reliefs of struggling figures including Gods, humans, centaurs and others. (3) Effectually the whole building ran another relief, some 150 metres in length, which portrayed the Corking Panathenia - a religious 4-yearly festival in praise of Athena. Despite existence badly damaged, the Parthenon sculptures reveal the supreme creative ability of their creators. Above all, they - like many other classical Greek sculptures - reveal an amazing sense of movement every bit well as a noted realism of the human body.

The greatest sculptures of the Classical era include: Leonidas, Rex of Sparta (c.480), The Charioteer of Delphi (c.475); Discobolus (c.450) by Myron; The Farnese Heracles (5th Century); Athena Parthenos (c.447-v) by Phidias; Doryphorus (440) past Polykleitos; Youth of Antikythera (4th Century); Aphrodite of Knidos (350-40) by Praxiteles; and Apollo Belvedere (c.330) by Leochares.

Compare: Early on Roman Fine art (c.510 BCE to 27 BCE).

Classical Greek Painting

Classical Greek painting reveals a grasp of linear perspective and naturalist representation which would remain unsurpassed until the Italian High Renaissance. Apart from vase-painting, all types of painting flourished during the Classical period. Co-ordinate to authors like Pliny (23-79 CE) or Pausanias (agile 143-176 CE), the highest form was panel painting, washed in encaustic or tempera. Subjects included figurative scenes, portraits and still-lifes, and exhibitions - for instance at Athens and Delphi - were relatively common. Alas, due to the perishable nature of these panels along with centuries of looting and vandalism, not a single Greek Classical panel painting of whatever quality has survived, nor any Roman copy.

Fresco painting was a mutual method of landscape decoration in temples, public buildings, houses and tombs but these larger artworks generally had a lower reputation than console paintings. The most celebrated extant example of Greek wall painting is the famous Tomb of the Diver at Paestum (c.480), one of many such grave decorations in the Greek colonies in Italy. Another famous work was created for the Great Tomb at Verfina (c.326 BCE), whose facade was decorated with a large wall painting of a royal lion hunt. The background was left white, with mural being indicated past a single tree and the ground line. Besides as the style of its groundwork and subjects, the mural is noted for its subtle depictions of low-cal and shadow equally well as the utilize of a technique chosen Optical Fusion (the juxtaposition of lines of different colours) - a rather curious forerunner of Seurat's 19th century Pointillism.

The painting of stone, terracotta and wood sculpture was another specialist technique mastered by Greek artists. Rock sculptures were typically painted in bold colours; though usually, only those parts of the statue which depicted article of clothing, or pilus were coloured, while the skin was left in the natural stone color, but on occasion the entire sculpture was painted. Sculpture-painting was viewed a distinctive art - an early type of mixed-media - rather than merely a sculptural enhancement. In improver to paint, the statue might likewise exist adorned with precious materials.

The most famous 5th century Classical Greek painters included: Apollodorus (noted for his Skiagraphia - a primitive blazon of chiaroscuro); his student, the great Zeuxis of Heraclea (noted for his easel-paintings and trompe fifty'oeil); as well equally Agatharchos (the beginning to take used graphical perspective on a large scale); Parrhasius (best known for his drawing, and his picture of Theseus in the Capitol at Rome); and Timarete (one of the greatest female person Greek painters, noted for a panel painting at Ephesus of the goddess Diana).

During the late classical menstruation (400-323 BCE), which saw the flourishing of the Macedonian Empire under Philip Two and his son Alexander the Nifty, Athens connected to be the dominant cultural centre of mainland Greece. This was the high point of ancient Greek painting, with artists like the talented and influential Apelles of Kos - official painter to Philip Ii of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great - adding new techniques of highlighting, shading and colouring. Other famous 4th century artists included Apelles' rivals Antiphilus (a specialist in calorie-free and shade, genre painting and caricature) and Protogenes (noted for his meticulous finishing); Euphranor of Corinth (the only Classical creative person to excel at both painting and sculpture); Eupompus (founder of the Sicyon schoolhouse); and the history painter Androkydes of Cyzicus (known for his cntroversial history painting depicting the Battle of Plataea).

Hellenism (c.323-27 BCE)

The period of Hellenistic art opens with the death of Alexander the Dandy (356-323) and the incorporation of the Persian Empire into the Greek earth. Past this point, Hellenism had spread throughout the civilized world, and centres of Greek arts and civilisation included cities similar Alexandria, Antioch, Pergamum, Miletus, as well as towns and other settlements in Asia Minor, Anatolia, Egypt, Italian republic, Crete, Republic of cyprus, Rhodes and the other islands of the Aegean. Greek culture was thus utterly dominant. Merely the sudden demise of Alexander triggered a rapid decline of Greek imperial power, as his massive empire was divided between iii of his generals - Antigonus I who received Greece and Macedonia; Seleucus I who took over controlled Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Persia; and Ptolemy I who ruled Egypt. Paradoxically therefore, this period is marked by massive Greek cultural influence, only weakening Greek ability. By 27 BCE, Greece and its empire would be ruled from Ancient Rome, but even then, the Romans would go along to revere and emulate Greek fine art for centuries.

Hellenistic Architecture

The sectionalisation of the Greek Empire into split entities, each with its own ruler and dynasty, created huge new opportunities for self-aggrandisement. In Asia Pocket-sized, a new capital city was built at Pergamon (Pergamum), by the Attalids; in Persia, the Seleucids evolved a grade of Baroque-style building design; in Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty synthetic the lighthouse and library at Alexandria. Deluxe architecture was revitalized and numerous municipal structures were congenital to heave the influence of local rulers.

Temple architecture, however, experienced a major slump. From 300 BCE onwards, the Greek peripteral temple (unmarried row of pillars on all sides) lost much of its importance: indeed, except for some activeness in the western half of Asia Minor temple construction came to a virtual stop during the tertiary century, both in mainland Greece and in the nearby Greek colonies. Fifty-fifty monumental projects, like the Artemision at Sardis and the temple of Apollo at Didyma near Miletus, made little progress. All this inverse during the second century, when temple edifice experienced something of a revival due partly to increased prosperity, partly to improvements made by the architect Hermogenes of Priene to the Ionic style of compages, and partly to the cultural propaganda war waged (for increased influence) between the various Hellenistic kingdoms, and between them and Rome. In the procedure, temple architecture was revived, and an extensive number of Greek temples - besides as small-scale structures (pseudoperipteros) and shrines (naiskoi) - were erected in southern asia Small-scale, Egypt and N Africa. Equally far as styles went, the restrained Doric manner of temple architecture fell completely out of style, since Hellenism demanded the more flamboyant forms of the Ionic and Corinthian Orders. Admired past the Roman architect Vitruvius (c.78-10 BCE), famous examples of Hellenistic architecture include: the Great Theatre at Ephesus (3rd-1st century); the Stoa of Attalus (159-138); and the clock house Tower of the Winds at Athens.

Hellenistic Sculpture

Hellenistic Greek sculpture connected the Classical trend towards ever greater naturalism. Animals, every bit well every bit ordinary people of all ages, became acceptable subjects for sculpture, which was frequently commissioned by wealthy individuals or families to decorate their homes and gardens. Sculptors no longer felt obliged to portray men and women as ideals of beauty. In fact, the idealized classical repose of the fifth and fourth centuries gave way to greater emotionalism, an intense realism, and an nearly Baroque-like dramatization of subject matter. For a typical style of this form of plastic art, see Pergamene School of Hellenistic Sculpture (241-133 BCE).

Equally a result of the spread of Greek civilization (Hellenization), there was also much greater demand from the newly established overseas Greek cultural centres in Arab republic of egypt, Syria, and Turkey for statues and reliefs of Greek Gods, Goddesses and heroic figures for their temples and public areas. Thus a large market place adult in the production and consign of Greek sculpture, leading to a fall in workmanship and inventiveness. As well, in their quest for greater expressionism, Greek sculptors resorted to more monumental works, a practise which establish its ultimate expression in the Colossus of Rhodes (c.220 BCE).

Famous Greek sculptures of the menses include: "The Farnese Bull" (2nd Century); the "Dying Gaul" (232) past Epigonus; the "Winged Victory of Samothrace" (c.1st/2nd century BCE); The Pergamon Altar (c.180-150); "The Medici Venus" (150-100); The Three Graces (2nd Century); Venus de Milo (c.100) by Andros of Antioch; Laocoon and His Sons (c.42-twenty BCE) by Hagesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus. For more data, please see: Hellenistic Statues and Reliefs.

For a general comparison, meet: Roman Sculpture. For a item genre, meet: Roman Relief Sculpture. For an excellent example of Hellenistic Roman art of the plough of the Millennium, delight see the extraordinary marble relief sculptures of the Ara Pacis Augustae (c.thirteen-9 BCE).

For the consequence of Greek sculpture on afterwards styles, meet: Renaissance Sculpture (c.1400-1530) and besides Neoclassical Sculpture (1750-1850).

Hellenistic Painting

The increased need for Greek-manner sculpture was mirrored past a similar increase in the popularity of Hellenistic Greek painting, which was taught and propagated in a number of separate schools, both on the mainland and in the islands. Regarding subject-matter, Classical favourites such as mythology and contemporary events were superceded past genre paintings, animal studies, withal lifes, landscapes and other similar subjects, largely in line with the decorative styles uncovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii (1st century BCE and later), many of which are believed to be copies of Greek originals.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of Hellenist painters was in portrait art, notably the Fayum mummy portraits, dating from the 1st century BCE onwards. These beautifully preserved console paintings, from the Coptic period - in all, some some 900 works - are the only significant body of art to accept survived intact from Greek Antiquity. Found more often than not around the Fayum (Faiyum) Basin in Egypt, these realistic facial portraits were attached to the funeral cloth itself, so as to embrace the faces of mummified bodies. Artistically speaking, the images vest to the Greek mode of portraiture, rather than any Egyptian tradition. See too Greek Landscape and Panel Painting Legacy.

Greek Tragedy

The real tragedy of Greek art is the fact that then much of it has disappeared. Only a very small number of temples - like the Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus - have survived. Greece built five Wonders of the World (the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Lighthouse of Alexandria), yet simply ruined fragments have survived. Similarly, the vast bulk of all sculpture has been destroyed. Greek bronzes and other works of Greek metalwork were mostly melted downward and converted to tools or weapons, while stone statues were pillaged or cleaved down for use equally building cloth. Roughly 99 per centum of all Greek paintings have also disappeared.

Greek Artists Have Kept Traditions Alive

But even though this part of our heritage has disappeared, the traditions that gave birth to it, live on. Here's why. By the time Greece was superceded by Rome, during the 1st century BCE, a huge number of talented Greek sculptors and painters were already working in Italy, attracted by the corporeality of lucrative commissions. These artists and their creative descendants, thrived in Rome for five centuries, earlier fleeing the city just before the barbarians sacked it in the fifth century CE, to create new forms of fine art in Constantinople the uppercase of Eastern Christianity. They thrived hither, at the headquarters of Byzantine art, for well-nigh a grand years before leaving the city (soon to be captured by the Turks) for Venice, to help outset the Italian Renaissance. Throughout this entire period, these migratory Greek artists retained their traditions (albeit adapted along the style), which they ancestral to the eras of Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Modern eras. See, for example, the Classical Revival in modern art (c.1900-30). During the 18th century, Greek architecture was an important allure for intrepid travellers on the Grand Tour, who crossed the Ionian Sea from Naples. In summary: Greek artworks may accept disappeared, but Greek art is all the same very much live in the traditions of our academies, and the works of our greatest artists.

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