4 Chapter 4: Classical Period to Middle Ages

Greece—called themselves the Hellás (this is why as Alexander the Great conquers the known world, he Hellenizes it).  Considered the beginning of the civilized world and Western civilization. The height of human development. Some of the ideals we took from the Greeks are city/states, architecture, government, philosophy, math, science, theater, and elections by vote, and the greatest was education for the common man.  Chronologically, the beginnings of Greek civilization are contemporary with the cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt we studied previously. Geographically, the Greeks shared the Mediterranean basin with some of these cultures and absorbed their influences. Ultimately, however, Western civilization owes its formative impulses, above all, to Greece. Before we delve into the beginnings of Western civilization in Greece, let’s clarify the primary time periods in ancient Greece that we will be studying.

Art and Architecture of Pre-Classical Greece (The Aegean period): The introduction of the curved line is one of the most lasting contributions to the art of decoration given to us by the Aegeans.

Minoan culture (ca. 2500–1400 BCE), Crete, named by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evens after the legendary King Minos.

Cycladic culture (ca. 3200–1050 BCE) named for the irregular circles of islands.

Mycenaean culture (ca. 1400–1200 BCE), Agamemnon’s city.  Used the corbelled arch mostly in Tholos = tombs.

Art and Architecture of Classical Greece:

Archaic Period (ca. 700–480 BCE). Examples: Kouros and Kore.

Classical Period (ca. 480–323 BCE).  A period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BCE).  Very timeless and serene.  More about the perfection of the male physical form.

Hellenistic Period (ca. 323–30 BCE).  The age of Alexander the Great.  His rise concludes the transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic Period.

Classical Period Greek Sculpture

The Greeks would eventually achieve a complete and correct understanding of human anatomy and proportions during the Classical period, which culminated around 450–440 BCE. Contributing to this naturalism in sculpture was the knowledge of the principles governing weight shift, or contrapposto (shifting of the main parts of the body around the vertical, but flexible, axis of the spine), in free-standing sculpture. This contrapposto pose is seen in statues throughout the Classical period (and later the Renaissance). The development of a formulaic, idealized canon of human proportions began with works such as the Kritios Boy, from ca. 480 BCE, and culminated in Polykleitos’ Doryphoros (450–440 BCE), which marks the onset of the Early Classical period. The Doryphoros, or Spear Bearer, was often cited as a model statue to be imitated by other artists, especially those in training.

  Doryphoros (The Spear Bearer)  A well-preserved Roman period copy, by Polykleitos, Marble.  Height: 6 feet, 11 inches.

 

The Discobolos, or Discus Thrower (below), is a highly dramatic sculpture, as the athlete is shown at the moment of just about releasing the discus, when the musculature is at its most tense. The impending release of the energy and of the discus become almost tangible. Romans were great collectors of Greek sculpture and copied or imported such works on a grand scale. Many masterworks of Greek sculpture have survived only in the form of such Roman copies. Telltale signs of a Roman are the “struts” and “trunks” that are meant to support and stabilize the base of the sculptures.

Myron, Discus Thrower/Discobolos, ca. 450 BCE, Roman marble copy after a bronze original.

 

Zeus/Poseidon, Original ancient Greek sculpture. Believed to be Zeus, but when they raised it out of the Mediterranean Sea, people thought it looked like the god Poseidon rising out of the sea. Created by the lost wax method.

 

The Classical Orders

1.  Doric is the 1st order, the most basic, most masculine.

 2.  Ionic is the 2nd order, elegant, feminine, complex, with tall slender columns. Attached to the Ionic order are the Caryatid (female supporting column) and the Atlas (male supporting column).

 3.  Corinthian, the 3rd order, is the most elaborate, most elegant, and most extravagant.

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece: Built by Pericles on top of older temples. The four remaining buildings are the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Propylaea. It was badly damaged in 1687 when the Ottomans stored gunpowder in the Parthenon and a cannonball hit the pile and it exploded.

By David Garnand – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35169845

The Parthenon

 

 Hellenistic Period

Following the Classical Period, the Hellenistic Period (323–30 BCE) saw a decline of the ideals espoused by the age of Pericles and Phidias. Athenian dominance in Greece came to an end with a disastrous defeat of the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War in 404 BCE and the subsequent subjection by Philip of Macedon. Philip hailed from Macedonia, a territory to the north of Greece. It was an epoch of civil wars and social and political unrest. As a result of these events, the traditional balance between the city-state and the individual was lost.

Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, set out to conquer most of the Near and Middle East, including Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and even parts of India. The city of Alexandria, in the north of Egypt and famous for the library established there by Alexander the Great, is named after him. Therefore, the period of Alexander’s rule saw an influx and subsequent absorption of Eastern cultural and artistic influences by Greek artists (and vice versa).

Drastic changes in Greek art, henceforth called Hellenistic, came about and emphasized the following: Departure from the Classical canon of idealized human beauty, drama, violence, suffering, age, and physical decay became the focus of interest of Hellenistic artists. Nude female figures emerged as a subject for sculpture.

Winged Victory or Winged Nike from Samothrace ca. 200–190 BCE, marble.  One of the few Hellenistic originals, not a Roman copy.  Located at the Louvre museum. It was found on the island of Samothrace in pieces and put back together. Arms and head are still missing. Nike means victory.

 

Laocöon group.  There is nothing more quintessentially Hellenistic than the Laocöon group, sculpted by Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus in the early 1st century BCE. It is the pinnacle of late classical Greek (= Hellenistic) sculpture. The violent scene depicts three muscular male figures attacked by serpents. Its story was derived from a myth dating to the times of the Trojan War, which was related by the Roman author Virgil. Laocöon was a Trojan priest. The Greeks were laying siege to Troy and crafted a Trojan horse to gain access to the enemy city. Laocöon warned his fellow Trojan citizens of the Greeks’ ruse, but the gods (Apollo, Poseidon, or Hera) sided with the Greeks and sent sea serpents to exact revenge on the priest and his two sons. We hence see them in the process of being strangled by sea serpents. The depiction of pain and writhing figures is typical for Hellenistic art, as exemplified in this group. It is a Roman copy (the Romans copied many of the bronzed Greek works in marble; most of the bronzed pieces were melted down).  The original was most likely done in bronze and was melted down.

Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydorus, Laocöon, early 1st century BCE (?), marble

Watch the following video on the Laocöon and His Sons:
https://youtu.be/C3cwGCezgSQ

 

The Roman period—Known as the Latins. Rome was founded in 753 BCE and remained a monarchy until 509 BCE, when the last of the Roman kings was expelled and the territory became a republic. Rome was a republic for over 500 years until Julius Caesar.  Subsequent expansion catapulted Rome from a regional power to, ultimately, a world power. Neighboring tribes were subjugated, and both Greek settlers (in the south) and Etruscans (in the north) were absorbed into the Roman populace. Rome’s greatest strength was absorbing other cultures and making them their own and building them on a grander scale (example: arches and aqueducts). The ancient Romans contributed greatly to the development of law, art (copied many of the Greek works), engineering, literature, architecture, technology, and much more.  Take a look at the animated map of the Roman Empire from 500 BCE to the fall of the last Byzantine successor state of Rome to see the territorial expansion and loss of the empire.

Pompeii

A lot of our knowledge about daily life in Republic Rome comes from the town of Pompeii and neighboring Herculaneum, which were preserved under a thick layer of ashes following a major volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on August 24, 79 CE. A vivid account by writer Pliny the Younger tells us of a catastrophe that resulted in major loss of life; afterward Pompeii ceased to exist. Some of the volcanic dust from the eruption was later found as far away as Iceland.

Pompeii was rediscovered in the mid-18th century and gradually excavated. Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum fascinated 18th- and 19th-century artists and writers. The volcanic eruption preserved both commercial (small shops, offices, taverns, etc.) and residential sections of Pompeii, including a number of upscale private villas like the one below, richly decorated with frescoes.

The House of the Vettii is a typical example of a Pompeian town house with an atrium (i.e., an open courtyard), and an opening in the roof (compluvium). The frescoes are an example of the “Pompeian Fourth Style”: we find a mixture of narrative panels, trompe-l’oeil (means “trick of the eye” in French), architectural vistas, and stone imitation paneling. A possible influence was Roman theater design. Pompeian fresco paintings can be very sexually explicit: in the entrance foyer of this house, there is the life-size depiction of Priapus, the god of fertility, protector of horticulture and viticulture.

House of the Vettii, Pompeii, frescoes completed between 62 and 79 CE.

 

Imperial Rome

The Mediterranean Sea became known as the Roman lake, as Rome controlled all the land surrounding it.  Roman art was more naturalistic and less stylized than Greek art.  Romans were more interested in realism; Greeks were more interested in idealism.

The last years of Republican Rome were riddled with civil wars, which Octavian Caesar, the future Emperor Augustus, ended after defeating Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BCE. There followed a period called “Pax Romana” (“Roman Peace”), which lasted for about 150 years, during which Rome was ruled by a long line of emperors, the Julio-Claudians.

This time period was characterized by efforts to glorify the outer aspects of the empire with an emphasis on building public works, architecture, and infrastructure designed primarily to impress (propaganda) and to serve the needs of the living (utilitarian).

During the 2nd century, Rome was at the height of its power. Under the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, Rome reached its largest geographical expansion, from Britain to Egypt and Mesopotamia (see the map above showing the reach of the Roman Empire in 117 CE).

Starting in the 3rd century, tribes coming mostly from the northern fringes of the empire (Goths, Vandals, etc.) launched incursions that damaged the economic and administrative structures of Rome. These problems were magnified by mentality changes (e.g., emerging anti-materialism) from inside the empire, brought about by the introduction of Christianity, which had graduated from persecuted mystery cult, to toleration under Constantine the Great in 313, to official state religion in 380. At this point, the Roman Empire was on the verge of collapse, followed by a division into an eastern and western empire and the beginning of the Byzantine era in 395.

The Colosseum

The Colosseum is an example of an amphitheater, a Roman invention that consists of two semi-circular theaters enclosing an oval arena with a movable sun cover. The name derives from a giant (“colossal”) statue of Nero in front, which has since vanished. It stands out as a prime example of a public works monument destined to serve the general public. It was built on top of Nero’s pleasure lake by Emperor Vespasian (69–79 CE) and was completed in 80 CE by his successor, Titus. The Colosseum has 80 entrances. One door, the Porta Libitina, was used to bring out the dead; a second door, Sanivivaria, was used by victors & survivors; the third and fourth doors were for the emperor’s use. Events were held from sunrise to sunset (usually), starting with a procession that ended with riders saluting the emperor, followed by fantasy or comic fights, then blood sports and beast hunts, and ending with the executions.  Furthermore, at inauguration, a mock naval battle was staged with 3,000 participants, and the arena was flooded on purpose to hold naval ships.

Colosseum, Rome, 70–82.  By FeaturedPics – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95579199

Interior of the Colosseum, Rome, 70–82.  By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17071408

 

The Pantheon, Rome (original ca. 27 BCE–14 CE) Rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian (ca. 126 CE) The Pantheon is the best preserved and oldest ancient Roman building still in use today. After two thousand years, this dome is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.

By Rabax63 – File:Pantheon_Rom_1.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87626466

The Pantheon, inside view.

 

Arch of Constantine 312–315 CE, triumphal arch in Rome. The arch commemorates Emperor Constantine’s victory in the civil war that left him as the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.