3.5 Greek art

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Chapter 3 The Greeks

3.5 Greek art

Succescriteria

• You can name characteristics of Greek temples.
• You can name characteristics of Greek sculpting and painting.
• You can name characteristics of Greek theater. 

Tempels

• Greeks paid great attention to building beautiful temples

• A Greek temple consisted of a row of columns topped with a beautifully decorated frieze and a pediment

• Greek temples had a symmetric shape

Pediment

Frieze

Pillars

The admiration for Greek (and later Roman) art has always remained and sometimes went very far. The front of the Palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam is almost a copy of the Parthenon in Athens.

Columns

The Greeks supported the roofs of temples with columns

Columns could have three kinds of capitals (decorations):

Doric column

Simple with straight lines

D

Ionic column

Two curling decorations

I

Corinthian column

With elegant, curled leaves.

C

D

I

C

What do we call this column?

1. Doric column
2. Ionic column
3. Corinthian column

What do we call this column?

1. Doric column
2. Ionic column
3. Corinthian column

What do we call this column?

1. Doric column
2. Ionic column
3. Corinthian column

Greek statues

• Greeks took their sculptural art from the Egyptians
  
• These statues looked very stiff
• But Greeks wanted to make statues look "real"
• A technique to make images look real was contrapposto

Example

An Egyptian statue (left) and a Greek statue (right)

Example

A discus thrower. You can see the movement of the throw

contrapposto

• One leg was shown stretched, the other bent
  

• The figure thus assumes a more natural pose, making the image appear more realistic.

Perfection

• The statues looked like humans, but were supposed to represent gods
  
• Therefore the body had to be perfect
  
• So attractive, muscular and brightly coloured

Example

Small and large paintwork

• Painters were highly regarded in Greece
  

• Greek pottery was also often painted
  

• The Greeks already drew with perspective

Greek vases were mostly black and orange/brown coloured

Theatre

• The Greeks loved acting

• There were tragedies, drama plays
  

• And there were comedies, humorous plays

How did Greek statues differ from Egyptian statues?

1. They were bigger
2. They were of different material
3. There was more "movement" in the images
4. They depicted mostly gods rather than ordinary people

Temples and statues were often brightly coloured among the ancient Greeks.

1. Correct
2. False

Ionic

Doric

Corinthian

To work

• What? Make assignment 1 to 6 from section 3.5
• How? In your workbook
• Help? Teacher
• Finished? Finish your summary file and turn it in