Term
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Definition
Ancient Egypt organized dynastically, time based on who is ruling at the time
Dynasties: Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom
Very little change within these dynasties due to geography
Nile River very important to Egyptian culture
Overflowed every year and deposited fertile silt
Ebb and flow related to the wealth of Egypt
More or less stayed the same
Bread basket of the east due to the Nile
From South to North: Nubia, Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt
Major elements of Old Kingdom Egyptian style:
Size hierarchy: bigger people more important
Frontal/profile figures: some parts of body profile, others head on
Registers: different levels
Horror vacui: fear of empty spaces |
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Term
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Definition
Palette that held make up
Took utilitarian object and made into an art object -> Not a working palette
Made into a totemic, apotropaeic object
Approximately 3,000 B.C.
Recto: Front, Verso: Back
Verso shows register, frontal/profile figures, horror vacui, and size hierarchy
Narmer wearing a crown that has a representation of a papyrus plant which represents Lower Egypt
Scribe writing everything down on the far left
Top register of bulls (Hathor)
Violence during the unification is shown on the far right
Two animals with necks intertwined being controlled by humans
Unification of upper and lower Egypt
Recto shows hierarchy of size, largest figure most important
Figure shows legs and face in profile and upper body and eye not in profile
Palette is divided into series of registers
No empty space
Bird sacred to upper Egypt and standing on papyrus (Lower Egypt) shows harmony
Man on the left holding writing objects is recording this moment of unification
Top register is the double representation of a bull (protective bull Hathor)
Mythological character of a king
Narmer wearing a tapered crown which is the crown of Upper Egypt
Based on the crowns he’s wearing both the king of Upper and Lower Egypt
Earliest dynastic object of Europe because commemorates a historical event
Joining of Nubia, Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt into one unified state
During same period as Narmer, Egyptians buried their dead
Mastaba: Derived from Arabic term for bench, first burial architecture in Egypt
Marker for the grave stone, body buried underneath the mastaba
2,800 B.C. mastaba tradition
Old Kingdom |
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Term
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Definition
In Saqqara first pharaonic funeral precinct
2,600 B.C. still Old Kingdom
Necropolis: city of the dead
Zoser buried at Saqqara
Earliest appearance of an architects name -> Imhotep
Stepped pyramids
An entire area made at Saqqara
Earliest example of engaged columns (part of the wall, decorative)
Have a shaft with a capital at the top that flairs out and has vegital decoration at the top of the flair
Sculptural interpretation of reed bundles
Has transformed destructible reeds into something eternal
When the pharaoh dies, the “Ka” or soul/spirit has to be comfortable so mummify the body and make it eternal |
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Term
| The Great Pyramids of Giza |
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Definition
About 2,500 B.C.
An entire precinct
Body of the pharaoh go down the nile and dock at the water that was right at the front of the precinct
Pass down the causeway that is guarded by the sphinx and into the pyramid
Sphinx face of a man body of a lion
Three pharaohs all died around the same time
The Great Pyramid (center pyramid) holds the body Kafre(h) or Chefre(h)
Approximately 2.5 mil blocks of 2.5 tons each
Top is smoother because stucco gilded
Originally painted off-white because all pharaohs seen as gods of the sun
Body kept in the middle of the pyramid
Why a pyramid?
Most stable form -> permanence, stability
Proper form for marking something that needs to be stable |
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Term
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Definition
Serap: Statue that is intended to house the ka should the mummified body decay
Protecting bird on his shoulder
Pharaonic headdress and skirt and papyrus on chair
All seraps very rigid, right angles, upright
Body locked into the throne, forever
All the limbs attached to the body and body attached to the chair so they can’t be broken off
Physically locked in |
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Term
| Sculpture of a seated scribe |
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Definition
Showing other social classes
Loosening of strict, formal characteristics of pharaonic class such as right angles
Moving away from block-like material of diorite
Made of terra cotta (clay) that is an additive process |
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Term
| Sculpture of an attendant of the pharaoh Khafre |
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Definition
Attendant Ka-aper
Made of wood
More curved and natural-looking, easier to carve
Reductive process of wood
Circular qualities similar to that of the tree that it came from |
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Term
| Subset of Egyptian sculpture -> Jewelry |
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Definition
Pendant intended to hang from a chain
Evident of efficient gold smithing works
Exceptionally sophisticated because gold drawn out into a wire
Formal characteristics:
Symmetric
Tends to have religious significance related to symbolic animals
Blue beetle (scarab) or cobras
High level of goldsmith work |
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Term
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Definition
1300s BC new pharaoh Ankhenaten
First pharaoh to come from Nubia; different racial type
Ankhenaten taller and longer, more feminine features with large hips, thick lips and round belly
Ankhenaten’s movement stated that the only god was Ka the sun god and he was the son of Ka
Christian background, monotheistic system
Ankhenaten in relief has the same features
Married to Nefertiti who is also from Nubia and has many similar featu |
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Term
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Definition
| Tiy or Tiye Ankhenaten’s mother 1350 BC wood carving from ebony wood to show she is a different racial type Nubian |
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Term
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Definition
1473-1458 BC
Precinct: Area dedicated to Hatshepsut that has some religious significance
Neither a temple nor a tomb
Very influential for architecture of Greek and Rome
Built into the live rock
Axial building plan
Oracle stayed in the precinct and people would make pilgrimage to honor Hatshepsut |
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Term
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Definition
30,000-25,000 B.C.
Painting, sculpture, and architecture used for spiritual reasons to help everyday life
Lots of cave art due to colder weather, looking for shelter |
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Term
| Venus (Woman) of Willendorf |
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Definition
Discovered in a cave in Austria near Willendorf
Related to the goddess of love due to nudity, enlarged breasts
Formal and stylistic characteristics:
Made of limestone, originally painted red
Face, arms, and feet suppressed, emphasis on the belly, genitals visible
Hair pulled down over the face, very evident belly button
25,000-20,000 B.C.
First abstraction of the human form, in the round
Meaning:
Individual identity not important, most likely a fertility object, represents women as a whole, most important thing is procreation
Only four inches tall so that you could carry it, amuletic, totemic or magical, apotropaeic |
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Term
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Definition
Found in a cave in southern France outside of Louselle around 20,000 B.C.
Has similar characteristics such as enlarged breasts, face covered, feet and arms suppressed, belly enlarged
Different because can’t carry it around (not amuletic), in relief, also holding a horn which is an attribute of fertility
“Horny”
Horn can be filled up |
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Term
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Definition
Pyrnees between Spain and France, 30,000-20,000 B.C.
Do all of the cave drawings for apotropaeic reasons, very intent on making these cave drawings
Have to eat to survive, arrows pointing at the animals
Used charcoal for some lines, also blew powder onto the surface to create bodies
Not entirely flat, gives it sense of volume=model, plastic=can be formed, shaped
Handprints blown on, leave impression of his humanity at the site |
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Term
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Definition
Can be used as a shelter, protects from the elements
3,000 B.C. prehistoric megalithic architecture
Shelters a dead body, protects the spirit after death
Elevated from the rest of the territory around it by about three feet, isolates it from the mundane
These stones are cut (dressed) to be the same size
Post and lintel system is a trabeated architectural system
Henge: Purposeful setting up of stones for a magical reason
Made of blue limestone, carried 150 miles from the site, had some magical purpose
Building that helps human beings tell the passing of time/seasons
Both centrally planned and axially planned
Centrally planned: Architectural plan equal from the center
Oriented toward the heelstone so axially planned |
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Term
| Art of Helladic Civilizations |
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Definition
Helladic comes from Hellene which the Greeks used to describe themselves
Means expressly pre-Greek; did not speak Greek
Cultures: Cycladian (Cyclades), Minoan (Crete), Mycenean (Mycenae)
First archaeologists
Heinrich Schlieman
In the 1880s took Homer literally and succeeded in finding Troy and Mycenae
Sir Arthur Evans
Went to Crete to try to find palace of King Minos and did |
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Term
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Definition
2500 B.C.
Generally objects no larger than two feet
Nomadic culture because objects are amuletic, portable, apotropaeic
Objects have a face with features suppressed except for the nose
Breasts and genital area emphasized, arms folded over the torso
Body is abstracted, bottom part tapered
Similarity to Venus of Willendorf
Possibly amuletic fertility object |
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Term
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Definition
Not fortified; peaceful trading society
Oriented toward the sea so you can always see the sea
Indication that may be matriarchy in Helladic world
Precincts are dominated by central court, large areas for storage
Chambers for extended royal family |
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Term
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Definition
Small base
Thick shaft
Bulbous capital
Top panel that supports the lintel
Tapered at the bottom
Painted |
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Term
| Fragment of a Minoan fresco from the Palace of Knossos |
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Definition
Sometimes called “La Parisienne” or “A Woman from Knossos”
1500 BC
Characteristics similar to Egyptian art
Fresco: mural painting, pigments applied to wet surface
Informality of the hair |
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Term
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Definition
1500 BC
Made out of ivory and painted
Snakes and bulls involved in Minoan religion
Garbed in typical Minoan style
Breasts exposed and very fitted waist
Holding two snakes and has a bird on top of her cap |
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Term
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Definition
Fresco reconstructed by Sir Arthur
Indicates a ritual conducted in Minoan culture
1500 BC
Ritual of jumping over a wild bull
Fragment of a sculpture of a bull leaper |
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Term
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Definition
Double hornet pendant
SImilar to Egyptian jewelry
Symmetrical (form)
Use of insects/animals (subject matter)
Excellent gold smithing work (material)
Egyptian influence in pendant but with Minoan subject |
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Term
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Definition
First pottery came from Crete that was made on a wheel
Smooth interior and shape shows that potters wheel used to make it
Black, white, red/ruddy very typical of Minoan potte |
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Term
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Definition
Spiral form that loops around to form another spiral
Thrown on a wheel
Minoan color scheme
Bottom register otherwise none
Unregistered and unmoored probably because seafaring people
Greek artists later looked at this |
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Term
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Definition
1500 BC
Found in Knossos, no register all floating
Happy octopus in the center of the field
Almost spherical shape with small base
Interstitially put in seaweed and coral |
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Term
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Definition
Religious object related to a seasonal harvesting ritual
Made of material closer to diorite
Carved in relief
Depicts a harvesting ritual of marching and singing
Men done in Egyptian style
Might have contained a substance used in religious ritual |
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Term
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Definition
Not sure for what purpose it was amde
Found in Peloponnese in Vaphio
Man done in Minoan style with a bull
Made out of wooden relief on a cylinder and then wrapped in gold and hammered
Subject matter is man trying to control the bull
Very Greek
Different from bull leaping fresco
Could be Minoan or Mycenean because there was some contact around 1400 BC
Special object because made of gold |
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Term
| Why Minoan culture died after 1400 BC |
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Definition
Possibly due to:
Volcanic explosion on one of the Cycladic islands
Mycenean culture invaded Crete and destroyed everything
Combination of both |
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Term
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Definition
Heinrich Schliemann excavated Mycenae
Didn’t use the carful tools of today; used a steam shovel
All objects from this period come from 1500-1200 BC |
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Term
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Definition
Fortified with walls and guard houses
Aggressive, militaristic culture very different from Minoan culture
Surrounding walls made by piling large stones; this is called a cyclopean wall
Seemed like a man could not make it, made by cyclops
Shaft graves when you first walk in to city |
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Term
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Definition
Entrance to the citadel
1500 BC
Sculpted relief above the lintel
Beginning of the european tradition of pedimented front
Minoan column between the two lions shows they had some contact
Post and lintel/trabeated system
Stones are dressed
Heads of lions probably made of precious material (like gold) that was stolen
Minoan and Mycenean cultures connected as seen though use of Minoan column and Mycenean lions |
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Term
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Definition
Came from shaft graves
Gold relief of a man’s face; probably learned in contact with Crete which was learned from contact with Egypt
Gold imported from Egypt treated in Mycenean context
Repousee: wood carving made then gold hammered
Schlieman thought it was the face of Agamemnon
Large ears, almond eyes, abstract eyes/eyebrows
Overlap with Minoan culture as seen in Vaphio cup |
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Term
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Definition
Ceremonial objects found in the shaft graves
Metal dagger shaft that has blackened with gold pattern inlain
Minoan shape -> volute, seen in Minoan pottery
Illustrates the lions hunt; figures become more contorted/bending as the shaft gets skinnier
Will be used later in the pediment of Greek temple |
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Term
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Definition
Figurative with soldiers/militaristic in character
Figure comes from Egyptian style -> combo profile and full frontal
Registers used |
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Term
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Definition
Two kinds of graves -> shaft graves and tholos tomb
Tomb built into the living rock -> tholos tomb, tholoi tombs
Pass cyclopean walls and a trabeated archway with triangular top
Corbelled arch
Arcuated system
Cyclopean dome
Inside the tholos tomb centrally planned
Ceremonial right location -> similar to a church in this sense
Tomb itself in a chamber next to the circular area |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Item that is intended to work on the world in a magical, totemic way |
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Term
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Definition
| Architectural plan equal from the center |
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Term
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Definition
| has an axis running through the middle |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
Marked by pottery styles geometric in character
Mycenean registers, curved, wave-like pattern
Minoan floating in space, anti-gravitational
No human subject matter
Regularized pattern
Combination of Mycenean and Minoan cultures
Absorbing and restating Helladic cultures
Crater: Mixing vessel with wide neck
900-700 BC |
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Term
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Definition
700-650 BC
Funerary krater
Grave marker
Figures holding a body and a procession
Holes in the bottom
Leak honey, wine, water to nourish the body underneath
No interstitial area between two registers of geometric pattern
Scene framed between two handles
Horror vaccui: Egyptian
Deceased laid out on a funerary bed
Emotions expressed openly
People wailing and pulling hair out in agony |
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Term
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Definition
Ceremonial depiction, not a serap
Made out of diorite
Right angular
Figures joined together and not separate from the block
Contrast between immobility and idea of stepping forward |
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Term
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Definition
Archaic
Two brothers
650-620 BC, very end of geometric period
Beginning of the Archaic period
Sons of a priestess who was the caretaker of the sanctuary of Hera, Zeus’s wife
When it started raining their mother had to perform a ceremony but she got stuck in the mud on the way and the two boys had to take the place of the oxen in the cart and take her to the temple
Hera visits mother in a dream and honors sons by having them die the next day
Immortalized as young heroes
Very Greek idea
Statues commemorate their heroics
Kourous figure, kouroi plural
Nude statue
Heroic celebration of the nude body
No interstices, completely fleshed out
Smile, frozen in an immortalized grin
More human
Hair abstracted like rope, very symmetrical
Compare to Mycernius
Knees, genitals, elbows, ankles emphasized
Parts of the body that are flexible and capable of movement
Trying to make it more human
Anthroporentrism: Focus on human form and impose humanity upon all --> stars
Anthopormorphic: Focus on the human form
Tekne: Apply human rational thought to a problem which leads to the solution of the problem over time |
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Term
| Metropolitan Museum of Art Kouros |
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Definition
600 BC
Similar features as Kleobis and Biton
Parts of the body more emphasized
Further development
Body is more slender and more sense of movement
Stiff formality of the hair
Relatively more realistic
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
550 BC found at Anavysos
Hair more realistic, hips fully round
Chest looks more human and skinlike
Moves in a slightly more realistic way
Face very human and smiling
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
500 BC
Transitional period
Legs look more natural, relaxed looking, actual movement
Engaged leg and free leg --> contrapposto
Heroic figure, much more realistic features
Lost the Archaic smile
Expression of detached repose
Fleshy character |
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Term
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Definition
650-630 BC
Similar characteristics to Kleobis and Biton
Hair stylized in a rope-like fashion
Archaic smile
Was once brightly painted
Face in an ovoid shape, not realistic
Wide open eyes
Abstract tubular shape of the bottom of her dress
No sense of limbs underneath
Clothed in comparison
Specifically female priestesses
Hand in a religious gesture
Tight synched belt with breasts displayed
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
540-530 BC
Wearing a clothing article called a peplos
Holding something in her hand related to a certain ritual
Hair realistic and falls more naturally in strands
Still some pattern that recalls the woman from the Louvre
Face looks like skin has been pulled over skeleton
Impression of two limbs underneath her dress
Archaic smile
Entirely painted beforehand
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
520-510 BC
Found on the island of Chios in the Cyclades
Archaic kore with an Archaic smile
Drapery far more realistic and complicated
Once entirely painted
Hair not symmetrical anymore
More realistic hair
One hand reaching out and the other hand down |
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Term
| Temple of Aphaia at Aegina |
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Definition
Built in 510 BC, Archaic Period
In about 490 BC temple suffered destructive force
Invaded by the Persians
East part of the temple destroyed and rebuilt 490-480 BC, Transitional Period |
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Term
| Fragments of the Pedimental Sculpture from the West Pediment |
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Definition
510 BC, Archaic Period
Have to deal with triangular problem of a pediment by posing the figures in a way to conform to the architectural challenge
Also seen in the Helladic daggers from Mycenae |
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Term
| Dying Warrior West Pediment-Archaic |
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Definition
510 BC
Not natural because not weighted properly
Smiling despite being a fallen warrior
Disconnected between scenario and expression
Legs are positioned awkwardly
Fallen linearly in a plane
Not realistic |
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Term
| Dying Warrior East Pediment-Transitional |
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Definition
490-480 BC
No Archaic smile
Strain and twisting in his body and struggle
Artist understands contrapposto
One side weighted and the other isn’t
Leg is in front of the architectural boundary of the pediment
Not boxed linearly in a plane
Much more distance and open space |
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Term
| Archer West Pediment-Archaic |
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Definition
Archaic smile
Figure in a relatively planar form
Less muscle definition
Once heavily painted |
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Term
| Archer East Pediment-Transitional |
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Definition
Face more realistic, losing Archaic smile
Crouched in a natural position
More muscle definition, takes up a bigger plane |
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Term
| Archaic Temple - Temple A Paestum |
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Definition
550 BC
Greek colony in Italy with both an Archaic Temple and Transitional Temple
City of Paestum
Doric temple - Part of the Doric Order
Base called the stereobate with a few steps
Columns flank all sides of the temple (peripteral)
Cella holds the statue or important figure
Narrow porch through which you pass to enter the cella - pronaos
Opisthodomos the rear treasury where precious dedications to the temple kept
Made by rolling cylindrical blocks to the site and stacking them on top of each other
Doric columns - Part of the Doric Order
Fluted shaft
Doesn’t have a base, resting directly on the platform of the stereobate
Shaft supports a capital
Rectangular top - Abakus
Cone like shape - Echinus
Capital supports the architrave
Lead dowel placed between the parts of the column to hold it together
Column displays entasis
Gets bigger at the base, reflects function of the column as a support force
Supports an architrave
Rational structure between function and form
Made to look like a human body - anthropormorphic
Doric Order - Form follows function |
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Term
| Transitional Temple - Temple B Paestum |
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Definition
500 BC
Same elements as Temple A
Above the architrave is the triglyph (panel divided into three elements and raised) and the metope (flat element)
Entire part called the triglyph and metope frieze
Often decorated with sculpture
Guttae underneath the triglyph
Differences between Temple A and Temple B in proportion
Temple A squatter
Temple B more slender and more vertical character |
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Term
| Francois Vase - Black Figure |
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Definition
About 590 BC
Signed by both potter and the painter
“One made me and one painted me”; pot tells you
Two different professions in the Greek world
Surface organized in registers
Comes from Mycenean and Egyptian
Subject matter clearly human in character with some animals
Anthropocentric
Horror vaccui --> Egyptian
Black figures on a reddish ground
Black figure style
Glazed and fired and made black then the black surface picked off to make figures
Related to what the figures look like
Makes the figures hard in character
Subject matter- Legend of the Lapiths
Lapiths got in a fight with centaurs because the centaurs would drink wine at Lapiths parties and try to carry away all of the Lapiths women
Centauromachy - Battle between Centaurs and Lapiths
Centaurs done in an Egyptian style and Lapiths done in full profile
Early notion of Greeks looking at the character of a human being
Human resides somewhere between beast and god
Thin line between insanity and inspiration --> wine
Dionysus god of wine also god of madness and ecstasy
Remnants of the Geometric style with tight waists
Archaic |
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Term
| Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice |
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Definition
540-530 BC
Made by Exekias
Black figure
In this round, Achilles rolls a four Ajax rolls a three and loses
Exekias responded by the shape of the pot by having the figures curve forward
Handles symmetrically frame the sides of the composition
Spears lined up symmetrically draw your eye to the game
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
525 BC
One side of the pot black figure other side red figure
Black figure is the older figure style
Red figure style is done with a brush
Much more fluid style
Andiokes painter a student of Exekias
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
Son of Zeus, Sarpedon main subject
Sleep and death tending to him
Greek idea of a long sleep = death
Paint applied more fluidly than a black figure vase
Red figure
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
Holds the wine that was poured out of the krater
Drink out of a kylix
Once you drink the wine see Dionysus at the bottom
God of wine, tending to you in either your insane state or your inspired state
Dionysus gets his power from the grape vine
Reminiscent of Minoan art
Free floating figures
Archaic |
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Term
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Definition
| Greek period of art starting from about 460 BC |
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Term
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Definition
adjective, describing art from this period
artistic ambition which attempts to use geometrical proportions to elevate a figure to the ideal; this ideal figure is not human, but godlike |
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Term
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Definition
460 BC from Riace
Bronze, 9 feet tall
Found in the ocean
Lips outlined in copper
Teeth and nipples originally silver
Originally held a spear and shield
Advancement in contrapposto, exaggerated
Muscles and butt clenched
Arms bigger, shoulders broader
Hair symmetrical, curled |
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Term
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Definition
460 from Riace
Inlaid eyes, copper lips
Wearing a helmet
Developed sense of musculature in the torso
Exaggerated contrapposto in comparison to Kritios Boy
Loose treatment of the hair, more natural |
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Term
| Explanations for Differences in Statue A and B |
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Definition
Statue A older than Statue B, but found at the same place, same time
Statue A could be representing a more important figure than Statue B
Statue A and Statue B meant for different sites
Made from the same shop, but master and apprentice
Statue A more Archaic, perhaps made by older artist, master
Statue B maybe made by the apprentice of the older artist |
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Term
| Doryphoros - Spear Bearer |
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Definition
450 BC
Marble Roman copy of a Greek bronze
Made by Polykleitos
Emphasis in the proportion of the parts
Canon: Example of ideal proportion
This man does not exist in reality --> Ideal beauty
Standing in contrapposto
Classical |
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Term
| Diskobolus - Discus Thrower |
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Definition
450 BC
Roman copy of a Greek bronze
Made by Myron
Freezes the figure in a moment of perfect proportions
Makes the figure ideal
Mixture of double “C” curves
Symmetrical, elevates figure to godlike
Classical |
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Term
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Definition
450 BC
Found off the Greek island of Artemision
Zeus throwing a lightning bolt
Original bronze statue
Conception of throwing a lightning bolt
Frozen in a moment of ideal, stable proportions
Elevates the figure to the super-real
Classical |
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Term
| Historical Context Leading to Ideal Art of 450 BC |
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Definition
Persians invaded and forced Athenians to leave 479 BC
When Athenians return to Athens, find city destroyed
478 BC Athenians decide to enlist as many city-states as possible under their auspices in order to repel future invasions
Delian League: confederation of Greek-speaking people and city-states
Athens begins to collect taxes from these city-states
454 BC Athenians declare formality and say that collect taxes and keep in one place in Athens
449 BC Peace treaty between Athens and Sparta, only part not in the Delian League
Generally large monuments/architectural projects made during times of peace
Reasons to celebrate peaceful times, not using money for war
With new money and time of peace, decide to rebuild Athens
479-450 BC infrastructure built; houses, roads, administration buildings
449 BC build the Acropolis due to Athenian sense of civic pride, leadership
Acropolis: City on high; city on a plateau
Athens at the time a pure democracy, all men over the age of 18 vote
Pericles the great statesman in Athens that convinces the Athenians to vote to build the Acropolis, patron
Iktinos architect of Acropolis
Kallikrates the engineer of Acroplis |
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Term
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Definition
Part of the Acropolis
Dedicated to Athena Parthenos
Patron goddess of Athens
Athena born out of the head of Zeus
447 BC and completed including sculptures 438 BC
Patron is Pericles
Iktinos architect, Kallikrates engineer, Phidias sculptor
Can see long side and short side at same time when entering the Acropolis --> See the corner
Peripteral Doric temple with a cella housing Statue of Athena and oposthodomus
Classical version of the Doric temple
Classical: the imposition of a geometric or arithmetic proportional system over a form that is accessible and realistic to elevate it to a godlike or ideal figure
Use of specific proportions in the architecture of the Parthenon
4:9 proportion
Ideal architectural form
Includes all regular Doric parts, but seen as Doric ideal through Tekne
Greek idea that architecture is frozen music
Should be harmonious
Optical adjustment: Building rises five inches to the center and rises three inches on the front side
Elevates the building even more
Building backdrop for the sacrificial rite itself
Dedicated to the goddess who is the protector
Sculptures on the pediment (438-432 BC), metope (447-432 BC), frieze (447-438 BC)
Phidias in charge of all of the sculpture
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Definition
Destroyed because materials used for other purposes
Chyrselephantine: Made out of many materials
Hammered gold sheets with ivory and ebony
Holding a winged victory figure in her right hand
Winged victory figure: Nike
Early on Poseidon and Athena battle to see who would win Parthenon, Athena won |
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| Pediment of the Parthenon |
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Definition
East Pediment
Athena and Zeus
West Pediment
Athena and Poseidon battling for Parthenon
Myths about Athens
Same use of making the figures crouch and stand depending on where they are located on the pediment
Drapery in the female bodies almost wet during 440s and 430s
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From the west pediment
Fits the shape of the right side of the pediment
“Wet” drapery
Corporeal: bodily, get a good sense of the female body underneath the drapery
Emerged about 440 BC
Typical Phidian sculpture and drapery
Elgian marbles
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Term
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Very few still in situ
Subject matter centauromachy: Battle of the centaurs and the lapiths
Classical moment
Made about 440 BC
Phidias has tried to compose the two forms in such a way that there is a symmetry or balance
Struggle has been elevated due to geometrical positioning of the figures, balanced interlocking forms
Instead of an intense battle, made into ideal, balletic
Originally painted
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Term
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Definition
Panathenaic procession
Every four years very large procession
Inside the Athena Parthenos
Delian League comes together peplos placed at the statue of Athena Poleis
Earliest civic stirrings of Athens
Expression of the self of the Athenian people
Beginning of the procession they are going to be yolked and meat distributed for consumption
Rhythm seen in the way people are facing in the procession
Imposition of some kind of order that elevates it to the super real or ideal
End of procession peplos is presented to a priestess from the Parthenon
Procession ends with gods sitting
Originally the Parthenon was painted
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