Propylaia

Monumental entrance to Acropolis, 437-432 BCE          

Erechtheion

the real Temple of Athena, 421-405 BCE

                        Ionic style, Karyatid porch (south)

Temple of Athena Nike (Victory)

427-424 BCE

                        Sculpture from balustrade of temple = Nike  (42” ht.)

Temple of Artemis, Ephesu

• Sculpture on the temple is confined to the pediment, a triangle between the ceiling and the roof that serves as a screen to protect the wooden rafters behind it from moisture
• Sculpture undercut the figures on the relief so strongly that they are nearly detached from the background
• The figure in the center of the pediment representds medusa – served to represent the power of divinity and dominance over nature
• The sculpture fused two separate moments from a single story to bring the story to life – synoptic narrative

Persepolis

Audience hall/throne room (Apadana) of Darius I, Xerxes (late 6^th cent. BCE) 

• palace is a synthesis of materials and design traditions from all parts of the empire which results in a clear statement of internationalism
• theme of empire at the entrance
• colossal winged and human headed bulls
• columns of magnificent scale
• animals on columns evoke animal motifs of Iranian art as seen in the form of the rhyton
• its contrasting with the military narratives of the assyrians, reliefs embellished the platform of audience hall and its double stairway proclaim a theme of harmony and integration along the multicultural empire.

Doryphoros (spear-bearer)

Naples, Archaeological Museum, ca.450-440 BCE, marble, 6’6” in ht.

Roman copy of Greek original (in bronze)

·         Polykleitos – explored the principles of commensurability, symmetria, where pat related to part, and all the parts to the whole

            canon of idealism

contraposto (c.f. kouros) c.f. Riace Warrior

from S. Italy, in bronze, ca.440 BCE

• ideals of proportion and harmony
• chiastic pose, turn of the head is pronounced
• working left arm balances the engaged right arm in the forward position

east pediment

birth of Athena 

west pediment

contest between Athena and Poseidon for patronage of Athens

Pentelic marble 

from Mt.Penteli

hubris

excessive arrogance

measure

Man is the measure of all things

Parthenon

Function

certainly NOT a temple. NO evidence whatsoever for cultic function (NO ALTAR to the East of it) Rather: a  “treasure box” in the venerable shape of a temple.  Contained Athena Parthenos

Parthenon

Architects

Ictinos and Kallicrates, Pheidias (overseer of entire Periclean building program)

Parthenon

Material

fine quality white marble of Mt Penteli (rich in iron oxide that tints the skin of the marble with a reddish hue with the passage of time

Parthenon

Plan

8x17 (2x+1 or 4:9 ratio). Octastyle front (with eight columns), hexastyle (six columsn) porch (pronaos) and back porch (opisthonaos)

Parthenon

Cella

Π-shaped colonnade of two superimposed orders, lit by windows on either side of the entrance.

Parthenon

Optical Refinements

made it look good/disjunction between appearance and reality

Explicated in a book written by the architect (does not survive):

Parthenon

Lines

deviation from the straight and perpendicular, from the horizontal and vertical: i.e. the stylobate is slightly curved upward and this curvature corresponds to the curvature of the entablature.

Parthenon

Proportions

dominance of 4:9 ratio: width of stylobate (base)/length of stylobate

         width ot stylobate/height of order (columns and entablature together) and so on.

Parthenon

Ionic elements

the famous frieze, the octastyle facades, the hexastyle inner porches,

Mouldings, the columns of the back chamber (“Parthenon”)

Propylaia

·         monumental gateway, entrance), 437-432 BCE

mnesikles was the architect

o   Wider split in the middle columns to allow people to come through

o   Unique entrance bc on room on the side was an art building

o   Gate at the western end of acropolis

o   Designed the entire structure in marble

o   Conceived on 2 levels, the design transforms a rough passage among rocks into an amazing entrance

Erechtheion

the real Temple of Athena, 421-405 BCE

architect had to deal with difficult terrain

beneath it was said to have been the place where athena and poseidon competed for custody of Athens

designed to serve several religious functions at once

highly irregular plan included four rooms

had two porches

Temple of Athena Nike (Victory), 427-424 BCE

• May have been designed to celebrate the victory over the persians
• Decorative quality of ionic style – finer proportions than those found in the doric style
• First structure to greet a visitor to the acropolis

                        Sculpture from balustrade of temple = Nike  (42” ht.)

Delphi – town in Greece , Sanctuary of Apollo, Tholos, ca. 390 BCE

Doric peristyle (outside); 10 Corinthian capitals on interior

• Round temple
• Inside Corinthian, outside Doric
• More focus on interior
• Small space

Apoxyomenos (Scraper), mid-4^th cent.,

            Roman copy, after a bronze original by Lysippos, 6’ 9”  (Vatican Museum, Rome)

• Lysippos preferred more slender proportions for his athlete
• The head is 1/8 the bodies length instead of 1/7
• Free legs suggest freedom of movement
• Breaks the primacy of the frontal view for a standing figure bc his arm is out, which shortens it and causes a viewer to walk around the sculpture

Farnese Hercules,

Roman copy, after bronze original by Lysippos  (Vatican Museum, Rome)

Hercules stands with his left foot forward, and his right hip cocked out.  A rock or tree stump sits to his left, upon which stands his olive-wood club, which Hercules leans on as if it were a crutch.  Atop the club is draped the skin of the Nemean Lion, a beast which Hercules had to slay in order to complete the first of twelve labors assigned him by Eurystheus, king of Mycenae.  Hercules was unable to slay the lion with his arrows or club due to the beast’s invulnerable hide.  He eventually overcame the creature by strangling it.  Using its own claws to skin the lion, Hercules took the hide as a trophy.  The detail on the lion’s skin alone is stunning.  The animal’s face and mane are visible atop the club, and one can even tell which side of the skin is the exterior and interior, due to the fur carved from the ivory.

Aphrodite of Knidos, 340 BCE, for a sanctuary of Aphrodite in Asia Minor 

Roman copy, after an original by Praxiteles, 6’ 8” ht., (Vatican Museum, Rome)

• First nude statue of a goddess in the Greek world
• She is about to bathe or rising from the tub
• Head slightly turned so she doesn’t catch the viewer’s gaze directly
• Complete contrast from tradition rules – if someone saw a god/goddess nude, he/she would immediately die.

Praxiteles

first female nude sculpture. Even though he was greek, he worked with marble not bronze. Aphrodite of knidos

Lysippos

Farnese Hercules, Apoxyomenos

tholos

round circular building

Strigil

was a small, curved, metal tool used in ancient Greece and Rome to scrape dirt and sweat from the body before effective soaps became available

perspective

norm frontal view

chiaroscuro

In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"

art presenting a new reality by deception  (to which Plato reacts!)

Theater of Epidaurus, early 3^rd cent. BCE  (northeast Peloponnese, Greece)

Sanctuary of Asclepius, healing god of medicine

            Cavea, orchestra, skene

• Period of theatricality
• Views and theatre built into landscape
• Cavea- where audience sat
• Orchestra- the stage

Pergamon (Turkey, Asia Minor), ca. 2^nd cent. BCE

Acropolis, Sanctuary of Athena, Great Altar of Zeus, Gigantomachy

Today in the City Museum of Berlin.

Altar of Zeus

• Altar stood on a high podium with a large rectangular enclosure defined by an ionic colonnade
• A frieze encircles the base and portrays battles of gods and giants

Dying Gaul (or/ Dying Trumpeter), commissioned by Attalos

            Roman copy of bronze original of ca. 230-220 BCE , from Pergamon  (Asia Minor)

(Capitoline Museum, Rome)

• Celebrates the conqueror’s valor by exalting the enemy he overcame
• The greater the enemy the greater the victory
• The enemy is a gaul, represented by bushy hair, moustache, and by the band around his neck
• Gaul dies nobly
• Powerful body, with a lot of strength
• Very private moment draws viewer in

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros, ca. 100 BCE

            From Delos, National Museum, Athens

• Grips a slipper for self- defense
• Nude and a woman so very provocative
• Eros hovers between them

Fends off the half- man half- goat god of the forests

Drunken Old Woman, Roman copy of original, late 3^rd/early 2^nd cent. BCE

• Hellenistic realism – genuine interest psychology
• Emphasis on emotion, humor
• Tragic – loss of dignity, skelotony
• Wrinkled face
• Clutching a bottle of wine
• Wears a buckled tunic which identifies her as a member of an affluent social class

Aphrodite of Melos, mid-2^nd cent. BCE,  c.f. to Aphrodite of Knidos

• classical in essence
• innovatory features such as the spiral composition, the positioning in space, and the fall of the drapery over the hips

‘Hellenistic’  (330 BCE – 1^st cent. BCE)

Term referring to global Greek culture of the period

Alexander the Great (336-323 BCE), son of King Philip II of Macedonia

Ptolemies 

Greek dynasty of Egypt

Attalids

Greek dynasty of Pergamon

Segovia, Spain: Roman Aqueduct, 1^st-2^nd cent. CE

• Brought in water from 10 and a half miles away
• Showed improved standards of living
• 118 arches support the water channel
• Used granite and assembled without mortar and left unfinished to give it an air of strength

Palestrina (Praeneste),  Temple of Fortuna Primigenia

            SE of Rome, late 2^nd cent. BCE, oracular shrine, Nilotic mosaic, 16’ x 20’

• Oracular center where priests interpreted divine will by drawing lots
• Sanctuary ascended into 7 levels
• At the bottom is a basilica and senate house
• Upper levels grow in grand crescendo around a central axis
• Had double annular colonnade
• Made of concrete which plays easily with the landscape, transforming nature to heighten a visitor’s religious experience

Rome, Temple of Portunus, or ‘Fortuna Virilis’, ca. 80-70 BCE

• 80 to 70 BCE
• Italic style
• Stands on a podium (podium temple)
• Engaged lateral columns emphasize the frontal approach
• Ionic columns have slender proportions as Classical Greek temples did
• White marble stucco covering

Etruscan Temple, reconstruction

• Temples of mudbrick and wood
• Modest rectangular cellas
• Characterized by tall podiums with steps in the front leading to a deep porch

Portrait of a Roman Patrician, 2^nd quarter of 1^st cent. BCE

Male portrait, life-size, early 1^st cent. BCE, marble  (Vatican Museum, Rome)

• Veristic- meaning true because they were realistic
• Remnants of a veil suggest that the subject might’ve been a preist
• Images marked by age conveyed necessary requirements for political office since it appears they could’ve been in the military service
• Advanced age and wrinkled

Prima Porta Augustus, ca. 20 CE