Ancient Greek art stands out among that of
other ancient cultures for its development
of naturalistic but idealized depictions of
the human body, in which largely nude male
figures were generally the focus of innovation.
The rate of stylistic development between
about 750 and 300 BC was remarkable by ancient
standards, and in surviving works is best
seen in sculpture. There were important innovations
in painting, which have to be essentially
reconstructed due to the lack of original
survivals of quality, other than the distinct
field of painted pottery.
Greek architecture, technically very simple,
established a harmonious style with numerous
detailed conventions that were largely adopted
by Roman architecture and are still followed
in some modern buildings. It used a vocabulary
of ornament that was shared with pottery,
metalwork and other media, and had an enormous
influence on Eurasian art, especially after
Buddhism carried it beyond the expanded Greek
world created by Alexander the Great. The
social context of Greek art included radical
political developments and a great increase
in prosperity; the equally impressive Greek
achievements in philosophy, literature and
other fields are well known.
The earliest art by Greeks is generally excluded
from ancient Greek art, and instead known
as Aegean art; this includes Cycladic art
and the art of the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures
from the Greek Bronze Age. The art of ancient
Greece is usually divided stylistically into
four periods: the Geometric, Archaic, Classical,
and Hellenistic. The Geometric age is usually
dated from about 1000 BC, although in reality
little is known about art in Greece during
the preceding 200 years, traditionally known
as the Greek Dark Ages. The 7th century BC
witnessed the slow development of the Archaic
style as exemplified by the black-figure style
of vase painting. Around 500 BC, shortly before
the onset of the Persian Wars (480 BC to 448
BC), is usually taken as the dividing line
between the Archaic and the Classical periods,
and the reign of Alexander the Great (336
BC to 323 BC) is taken as separating the Classical
from the Hellenistic periods. From some point
in the 1st century BC onwards "Greco-Roman"
is used, or more local terms for the Eastern
Greek world.In reality, there was no sharp
transition from one period to another. Forms
of art developed at different speeds in different
parts of the Greek world, and as in any age
some artists worked in more innovative styles
than others. Strong local traditions, and
the requirements of local cults, enable historians
to locate the origins even of works of art
found far from their place of origin. Greek
art of various kinds was widely exported.
The whole period saw a generally steady increase
in prosperity and trading links within the
Greek world and with neighbouring cultures.
The survival rate of Greek art differs starkly
between media. We have huge quantities of
pottery and coins, much stone sculpture, though
even more Roman copies, and a few large bronze
sculptures. Almost entirely missing are painting,
fine metal vessels, and anything in perishable
materials including wood. The stone shell
of a number of temples and theatres has survived,
but little of their extensive decoration.
== Pottery ==
By convention, finely painted vessels of all
shapes are called "vases", and there are over
100,000 significantly complete surviving pieces,
giving (with the inscriptions that many carry)
unparalleled insights into many aspects of
Greek life. Sculptural or architectural pottery,
also very often painted, are referred to as
terracottas, and also survive in large quantities.
In much of the literature, "pottery" means
only painted vessels, or "vases". Pottery
was the main form of grave goods deposited
in tombs, often as "funerary urns" containing
the cremated ashes, and was widely exported.
The famous and distinctive style of Greek
vase-painting with figures depicted with strong
outlines, with thin lines within the outlines,
reached its peak from about 600 to 350 BC,
and divides into the two main styles, almost
reversals of each other, of black-figure and
red-figure painting, the other colour forming
the background in each case. Other colours
were very limited, normally to small areas
of white and larger ones of a different purplish-red.
Within the restrictions of these techniques
and other strong conventions, vase-painters
achieved remarkable results, combining refinement
and powerful expression. White ground technique
allowed more freedom in depiction, but did
not wear well and was mostly made for burial.Conventionally,
the ancient Greeks are said to have made most
pottery vessels for everyday use, not for
display. Exceptions are the large Archaic
monumental vases made as grave-markers, trophies
won at games, such as the Panathenaic Amphorae
filled with olive oil, and pieces made specifically
to be left in graves; some perfume bottles
have a money-saving bottom just below the
mouth, so a small quantity makes them appear
full. In recent decades many scholars have
questioned this, seeing much more production
than was formerly thought as made to be placed
in graves, as a cheaper substitute for metalware
in both Greece and Etruria.Most surviving
pottery consists of vessels for storing, serving
or drinking liquids such as amphorae, kraters
(bowls for mixing wine and water), hydria
(water jars), libation bowls, oil and perfume
bottles for the toilet, jugs and cups. Painted
vessels for serving and eating food are much
less common. Painted pottery was affordable
even by ordinary people, and a piece "decently
decorated with about five or six figures cost
about two or three days' wages". Miniatures
were also produced in large numbers, mainly
for use as offerings at temples. In the Hellenistic
period a wider range of pottery was produced,
but most of it is of little artistic importance.
In earlier periods even quite small Greek
cities produced pottery for their own locale.
These varied widely in style and standards.
Distinctive pottery that ranks as art was
produced on some of the Aegean islands, in
Crete, and in the wealthy Greek colonies of
southern Italy and Sicily. By the later Archaic
and early Classical period, however, the two
great commercial powers, Corinth and Athens,
came to dominate. Their pottery was exported
all over the Greek world, driving out the
local varieties. Pots from Corinth and Athens
are found as far afield as Spain and Ukraine,
and are so common in Italy that they were
first collected in the 18th century as "Etruscan
vases". Many of these pots are mass-produced
products of low quality. In fact, by the 5th
century BC, pottery had become an industry
and pottery painting ceased to be an important
art form.
The range of colours which could be used on
pots was restricted by the technology of firing:
black, white, red, and yellow were the most
common. In the three earlier periods, the
pots were left their natural light colour,
and were decorated with slip that turned black
in the kiln.Greek pottery is frequently signed,
sometimes by the potter or the master of the
pottery, but only occasionally by the painter.
Hundreds of painters are, however, identifiable
by their artistic personalities: where their
signatures have not survived they are named
for their subject choices, as "the Achilles
Painter", by the potter they worked for, such
as the Late Archaic "Kleophrades Painter",
or even by their modern locations, such as
the Late Archaic "Berlin Painter".
=== History ===
The history of ancient Greek pottery is divided
stylistically into five periods:
the Protogeometric from about 1050 BC
the Geometric from about 900 BC
the Late Geometric or Archaic from about 750
BC
the Black Figure from the early 7th century
BC
and the Red Figure from about 530 BCDuring
the Protogeometric and Geometric periods,
Greek pottery was decorated with abstract
designs, in the former usually elegant and
large, with plenty of unpainted space, but
in the Geometric often densely covering most
of the surface, as in the large pots by the
Dipylon Master, who worked around 750. He
and other potters around his time began to
introduce very stylised silhouette figures
of humans and animals, especially horses.
These often represent funeral processions,
or battles, presumably representing those
fought by the deceased.The Geometric phase
was followed by an Orientalizing period in
the late 8th century, when a few animals,
many either mythical or not native to Greece
(like the sphinx and lion respectively) were
adapted from the Near East, accompanied by
decorative motifs, such as the lotus and palmette.
These were shown much larger than the previous
figures. The Wild Goat Style is a regional
variant, very often showing goats. Human figures
were not so influenced from the East, but
also became larger and more detailed.The fully
mature black-figure technique, with added
red and white details and incising for outlines
and details, originated in Corinth during
the early 7th century BC and was introduced
into Attica about a generation later; it flourished
until the end of the 6th century BC. The red-figure
technique, invented in about 530 BC, reversed
this tradition, with the pots being painted
black and the figures painted in red. Red-figure
vases slowly replaced the black-figure style.
Sometimes larger vessels were engraved as
well as painted. Erotic themes, both heterosexual
and male homosexual, became common.By about
320 BC fine figurative vase-painting had ceased
in Athens and other Greek centres, with the
polychromatic Kerch style a final flourish;
it was probably replaced by metalwork for
most of its functions. West Slope Ware, with
decorative motifs on a black glazed body,
continued for over a century after. Italian
red-figure painting ended by about 300, and
in the next century the relatively primitive
Hadra vases, probably from Crete, Centuripe
ware from Sicily, and Panathenaic amphorae,
now a frozen tradition, were the only large
painted vases still made.
== Metalwork ==
Fine metalwork was an important art in ancient
Greece, but later production is very poorly
represented by survivals, most of which come
from the edges of the Greek world or beyond,
from as far as France or Russia. Vessels and
jewellery were produced to high standards,
and exported far afield. Objects in silver,
at the time worth more relative to gold than
it is in modern times, were often inscribed
by the maker with their weight, as they were
treated largely as stores of value, and likely
to be sold or re-melted before very long.During
the Geometric and Archaic phases, the production
of large metal vessels was an important expression
of Greek creativity, and an important stage
in the development of bronzeworking techniques,
such as casting and repousse hammering. Early
sanctuaries, especially Olympia, yielded many
hundreds of tripod-bowl or sacrificial tripod
vessels, mostly in bronze, deposited as votives.
These had a shallow bowl with two handles
raised high on three legs; in later versions
the stand and bowl were different pieces.
During the Orientalising period, such tripods
were frequently decorated with figural protomes,
in the shape of griffins, sphinxes and other
fantastic creatures.Swords, the Greek helmet
and often body armour such as the muscle cuirass
were made of bronze, sometimes decorated in
precious metal, as in the 3rd-century Ksour
Essef cuirass. Armour and "shield-bands" are
two of the contexts for strips of Archaic
low relief scenes, which were also attached
to various objects in wood; the band on the
Vix Krater is a large example. Polished bronze
mirrors, initially with decorated backs and
kore handles, were another common item; the
later "folding mirror" type had hinged cover
pieces, often decorated with a relief scene,
typically erotic. Coins are described below.
From the late Archaic the best metalworking
kept pace with stylistic developments in sculpture
and the other arts, and Phidias is among the
sculptors known to have practiced it. Hellenistic
taste encouraged highly intricate displays
of technical virtuousity, tending to "cleverness,
whimsy, or excessive elegance". Many or most
Greek pottery shapes were taken from shapes
first used in metal, and in recent decades
there has been an increasing view that much
of the finest vase-painting reused designs
by silversmiths for vessels with engraving
and sections plated in a different metal,
working from drawn designs.Exceptional survivals
of what may have been a relatively common
class of large bronze vessels are two volute
kraters, for mixing wine and water. These
are the Vix Krater, c. 530 BC, 1.63m (5'4")
high and over 200 kg (450 lbs) in weight,
holding some 1,100 litres, and found in the
burial of a Celtic woman in modern France,
and the 4th-century Derveni Krater, 90.5 cm
(35 in.) high. The elites of other neighbours
of the Greeks, such as the Thracians and Scythians,
were keen consumers of Greek metalwork, and
probably served by Greek goldsmiths settled
in their territories, who adapted their products
to suit local taste and functions. Such hybrid
pieces form a large part of survivals, including
the Panagyurishte Treasure, Borovo Treasure,
and other Thracian treasures, and several
Scythian burials, which probably contained
work by Greek artists based in the Greek settlements
on the Black Sea. As with other luxury arts,
the Macedonian royal cemetery at Vergina has
produced objects of top quality from the cusp
of the Classical and Hellenistic periods.Jewellery
for the Greek market is often of superb quality,
with one unusual form being intricate and
very delicate gold wreathes imitating plant-forms,
worn on the head. These were probably rarely,
if ever, worn in life, but were given as votives
and worn in death. Many of the Fayum mummy
portraits wear them. Some pieces, especially
in the Hellenistic period, are large enough
to offer scope for figures, as did the Scythian
taste for relatively substantial pieces in
gold.
== Monumental sculpture ==
The Greeks decided very early on that the
human form was the most important subject
for artistic endeavour. Seeing their gods
as having human form, there was little distinction
between the sacred and the secular in art—the
human body was both secular and sacred. A
male nude of Apollo or Heracles had only slight
differences in treatment to one of that year's
Olympic boxing champion. In the Archaic Period
the most important sculptural form was the
kouros (plural kouroi), the standing male
nude (See for example Biton and Kleobis).
The kore (plural korai), or standing clothed
female figure, was also common, but since
Greek society did not permit the public display
of female nudity until the 4th century BC,
the kore is considered to be of less importance
in the development of sculpture. By the end
of the period architectural sculpture on temples
was becoming important.
As with pottery, the Greeks did not produce
sculpture merely for artistic display. Statues
were commissioned either by aristocratic individuals
or by the state, and used for public memorials,
as offerings to temples, oracles and sanctuaries
(as is frequently shown by inscriptions on
the statues), or as markers for graves. Statues
in the Archaic period were not all intended
to represent specific individuals. They were
depictions of an ideal—beauty, piety, honor
or sacrifice. These were always depictions
of young men, ranging in age from adolescence
to early maturity, even when placed on the
graves of (presumably) elderly citizens. Kouroi
were all stylistically similar. Graduations
in the social stature of the person commissioning
the statue were indicated by size rather than
artistic innovations.Unlike authors, those
who practiced the visual arts, including sculpture,
initially had a low social status in ancient
Greece, though increasingly leading sculptors
might become famous and rather wealthy, and
often signed their work (unfortunately, often
on the plinth, which typically became separated
from the statue itself). Plutarch (Life of
Pericles, II) said "we admire the work of
art but despise the maker of it"; this was
a common view in the ancient world. Ancient
Greek sculpture is categorised by the usual
stylistic periods of "Archaic", "Classical"
and "Hellenistic", augmented with some extra
ones mainly applying to sculpture, such as
the Orientalizing Daedelic style and the Severe
style of early Classical sculpture.
=== Materials, forms ===
Surviving ancient Greek sculptures were mostly
made of two types of material. Stone, especially
marble or other high-quality limestones was
used most frequently and carved by hand with
metal tools. Stone sculptures could be free-standing
fully carved in the round (statues), or only
partially carved reliefs still attached to
a background plaque, for example in architectural
friezes or grave stelai.Bronze statues were
of higher status, but have survived in far
smaller numbers, due to the reusability of
metals. They were usually made in the lost
wax technique. Chryselephantine, or gold-and-ivory,
statues were the cult-images in temples and
were regarded as the highest form of sculpture,
but only some fragmentary pieces have survived.
They were normally over-lifesize, built around
a wooden frame, with thin carved slabs of
ivory representing the flesh, and sheets of
gold leaf, probably over wood, representing
the garments, armour, hair, and other details.In
some cases, glass paste, glass, and precious
and semi-precious stones were used for detail
such as eyes, jewellery, and weaponry. Other
large acrolithic statues used stone for the
flesh parts, and wood for the rest, and marble
statues sometimes had stucco hairstyles. Most
sculpture was painted (see below), and much
wore real jewellery and had inlaid eyes and
other elements in different materials.Terracotta
was occasionally employed, for large statuary.
Few examples of this survived, at least partially
due to the fragility of such statues. The
best known exception to this is a statue of
Zeus carrying Ganymede found at Olympia, executed
around 470 BC. In this case, the terracotta
is painted. There were undoubtedly sculptures
purely in wood, which may have been very important
in early periods, but effectively none have
survived.
=== Archaic ===
Bronze Age Cycladic art, to about 1100 BC,
had already shown an unusual focus on the
human figure, usually shown in a straightforward
frontal standing position with arms folded
across the stomach. Among the smaller features
only noses, sometimes eyes, and female breasts
were carved, though the figures were apparently
usually painted and may have originally looked
very different.
Inspired by the monumental stone sculpture
of Egypt and Mesopotamia, during the Archaic
period the Greeks began again to carve in
stone. Free-standing figures share the solidity
and frontal stance characteristic of Eastern
models, but their forms are more dynamic than
those of Egyptian sculpture, as for example
the Lady of Auxerre and Torso of Hera (Early
Archaic period, c. 660–580 BC, both in the
Louvre, Paris). After about 575 BC, figures,
such as these, both male and female, wore
the so-called archaic smile. This expression,
which has no specific appropriateness to the
person or situation depicted, may have been
a device to give the figures a distinctive
human characteristic.Three types of figures
prevailed—the standing nude youth (kouros),
the standing draped girl (kore) and, less
frequently, the seated woman. All emphasize
and generalize the essential features of the
human figure and show an increasingly accurate
comprehension of human anatomy. The youths
were either sepulchral or votive statues.
Examples are Apollo (Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York), an early work; the Strangford
Apollo from Anafi (British Museum, London),
a much later work; and the Anavyssos Kouros
(National Archaeological Museum of Athens).
More of the musculature and skeletal structure
is visible in this statue than in earlier
works. The standing, draped girls have a wide
range of expression, as in the sculptures
in the Acropolis Museum of Athens. Their drapery
is carved and painted with the delicacy and
meticulousness common in the details of sculpture
of this period.Archaic reliefs have survived
from many tombs, and from larger buildings
at Foce del Sele (now in the museum at Paestum)
in Italy, with two groups of metope panels,
from about 550 and 510, and the Siphnian Treasury
at Delphi, with friezes and a small pediment.
Parts, all now in local museums, survive of
the large triangular pediment groups from
the Temple of Artemis, Corfu (c. 580), dominated
by a huge Gorgon, and the Old Temple of Athena
in Athens (c. 530-500).
=== Classical ===
In the Classical period there was a revolution
in Greek statuary, usually associated with
the introduction of democracy and the end
of the aristocratic culture associated with
the kouroi. The Classical period saw changes
in the style and function of sculpture. Poses
became more naturalistic (see the Charioteer
of Delphi for an example of the transition
to more naturalistic sculpture), and the technical
skill of Greek sculptors in depicting the
human form in a variety of poses greatly increased.
From about 500 BC statues began to depict
real people. The statues of Harmodius and
Aristogeiton set up in Athens to mark the
overthrow of the tyranny were said to be the
first public monuments to actual people.At
the same time sculpture and statues were put
to wider uses. The great temples of the Classical
era such as the Parthenon in Athens, and the
Temple of Zeus at Olympia, required relief
sculpture for decorative friezes, and sculpture
in the round to fill the triangular fields
of the pediments. The difficult aesthetic
and technical challenge stimulated much in
the way of sculptural innovation. Unfortunately
these works survive only in fragments, the
most famous of which are the Parthenon Marbles,
half of which are in the British Museum.Funeral
statuary evolved during this period from the
rigid and impersonal kouros of the Archaic
period to the highly personal family groups
of the Classical period. These monuments are
commonly found in the suburbs of Athens, which
in ancient times were cemeteries on the outskirts
of the city. Although some of them depict
"ideal" types—the mourning mother, the dutiful
son—they increasingly depicted real people,
typically showing the departed taking his
dignified leave from his family. They are
among the most intimate and affecting remains
of the ancient Greeks.In the Classical period
for the first time we know the names of individual
sculptors. Phidias oversaw the design and
building of the Parthenon. Praxiteles made
the female nude respectable for the first
time in the Late Classical period (mid-4th
century): his Aphrodite of Knidos, which survives
in copies, was said by Pliny to be the greatest
statue in the world.The most famous works
of the Classical period for contemporaries
were the colossal Statue of Zeus at Olympia
and the Statue of Athena Parthenos in the
Parthenon. Both were chryselephantine and
executed by Phidias or under his direction,
and are now lost, although smaller copies
(in other materials) and good descriptions
of both still exist. Their size and magnificence
prompted emperors to seize them in the Byzantine
period, and both were removed to Constantinople,
where they were later destroyed in fires.
=== Hellenistic ===
The transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic
period occurred during the 4th century BC.
Following the conquests of Alexander the Great
(336 BC to 323 BC), Greek culture spread as
far as India, as revealed by the excavations
of Ai-Khanoum in eastern Afghanistan, and
the civilization of the Greco-Bactrians and
the Indo-Greeks. Greco-Buddhist art represented
a syncretism between Greek art and the visual
expression of Buddhism. Thus Greek art became
more diverse and more influenced by the cultures
of the peoples drawn into the Greek orbit.In
the view of some art historians, it also declined
in quality and originality. This, however,
is a judgement which artists and art-lovers
of the time would not have shared. Indeed,
many sculptures previously considered as classical
masterpieces are now recognised as being Hellenistic.
The technical ability of Hellenistic sculptors
is clearly in evidence in such major works
as the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the
Pergamon Altar. New centres of Greek culture,
particularly in sculpture, developed in Alexandria,
Antioch, Pergamum, and other cities, where
the new monarchies were lavish patrons. By
the 2nd century the rising power of Rome had
also absorbed much of the Greek tradition—and
an increasing proportion of its products as
well.During this period sculpture became more
naturalistic, and also expressive; the interest
in depicting extremes of emotion being sometimes
pushed to extremes. Genre subjects of common
people, women, children, animals and domestic
scenes became acceptable subjects for sculpture,
which was commissioned by wealthy families
for the adornment of their homes and gardens;
the Boy with Thorn is an example. Realistic
portraits of men and women of all ages were
produced, and sculptors no longer felt obliged
to depict people as ideals of beauty or physical
perfection.The world of Dionysus, a pastoral
idyll populated by satyrs, maenads, nymphs
and sileni, had been often depicted in earlier
vase painting and figurines, but rarely in
full-size sculpture. Now such works were made,
surviving in copies including the Barberini
Faun, the Belvedere Torso, and the Resting
Satyr; the Furietti Centaurs and Sleeping
Hermaphroditus reflect related themes. At
the same time, the new Hellenistic cities
springing up all over Egypt, Syria, and Anatolia
required statues depicting the gods and heroes
of Greece for their temples and public places.
This made sculpture, like pottery, an industry,
with the consequent standardisation and some
lowering of quality. For these reasons many
more Hellenistic statues have survived than
is the case with the Classical period.
Some of the best known Hellenistic sculptures
are the Winged Victory of Samothrace (2nd
or 1st century BC), the statue of Aphrodite
from the island of Melos known as the Venus
de Milo (mid-2nd century BC), the Dying Gaul
(about 230 BC), and the monumental group Laocoön
and His Sons (late 1st century BC). All these
statues depict Classical themes, but their
treatment is far more sensuous and emotional
than the austere taste of the Classical period
would have allowed or its technical skills
permitted.
The multi-figure group of statues was a Hellenistic
innovation, probably of the 3rd century, taking
the epic battles of earlier temple pediment
reliefs off their walls, and placing them
as life-size groups of statues. Their style
is often called "baroque", with extravagantly
contorted body poses, and intense expressions
in the faces. The reliefs on the Pergamon
Altar are the nearest original survivals,
but several well known works are believed
to be Roman copies of Hellenistic originals.
These include the Dying Gaul and Ludovisi
Gaul, as well as a less well known Kneeling
Gaul and others, all believed to copy Pergamene
commissions by Attalus I to commemorate his
victory around 241 over the Gauls of Galatia,
probably comprising two groups.The Laocoön
Group, the Farnese Bull, Menelaus supporting
the body of Patroclus ("Pasquino group"),
Arrotino, and the Sperlonga sculptures, are
other examples. From the 2nd century the Neo-Attic
or Neo-Classical style is seen by different
scholars as either a reaction to baroque excesses,
returning to a version of Classical style,
or as a continuation of the traditional style
for cult statues. Workshops in the style became
mainly producers of copies for the Roman market,
which preferred copies of Classical rather
than Hellenistic pieces.Discoveries made since
the end of the 19th century surrounding the
(now submerged) ancient Egyptian city of Heracleum
include a 4th-century BC, unusually sensual,
detailed and feministic (as opposed to deified)
depiction of Isis, marking a combination of
Egyptian and Hellenistic forms beginning around
the time of Egypt's conquest by Alexander
the Great. However this was untypical of Ptolemaic
court sculpture, which generally avoided mixing
Egyptian styles with its fairly conventional
Hellenistic style, while temples in the rest
of the country continued using late versions
of traditional Egyptian formulae. Scholars
have proposed an "Alexandrian style" in Hellenistic
sculpture, but there is in fact little to
connect it with Alexandria.Hellenistic sculpture
was also marked by an increase in scale, which
culminated in the Colossus of Rhodes (late
3rd century), which was the same size as the
Statue of Liberty. The combined effect of
earthquakes and looting have destroyed this
as well as other very large works of this
period.
== Figurines ==
=== Terracotta figurines ===
Clay is a material frequently used for the
making of votive statuettes or idols, even
before the Minoan civilization and continuing
until the Roman period. During the 8th century
BC tombs in Boeotia often contain "bell idols",
female statuettes with mobile legs: the head,
small compared to the remainder of the body,
is perched at the end of a long neck, while
the body is very full, in the shape of a bell.
Archaic heroon tombs, for local heroes, might
receive large numbers of crudely-shaped figurines,
with rudimentary figuration, generally representing
characters with raised arms.
By the Hellenistic period most terracotta
figurines have lost their religious nature,
and represent characters from everyday life.
Tanagra figurines, from one of several centres
of production, are mass-manufactured using
moulds, and then painted after firing. Dolls,
figures of fashionably-dressed ladies and
of actors, some of these probably portraits,
were among the new subjects, depicted with
a refined style. These were cheap, and initially
displayed in the home much like modern ornamental
figurines, but were quite often buried with
their owners. At the same time, cities like
Alexandria, Smyrna or Tarsus produced an abundance
of grotesque figurines, representing individuals
with deformed members, eyes bulging and contorting
themselves. Such figurines were also made
from bronze.For painted architectural terracottas,
see Architecture below.
=== Metal figurines ===
Figurines made of metal, primarily bronze,
are an extremely common find at early Greek
sanctuaries like Olympia, where thousands
of such objects, mostly depicting animals,
have been found. They are usually produced
in the lost wax technique and can be considered
the initials stage in the development of Greek
bronze sculpture. The most common motifs during
the Geometric period were horses and deer,
but dogs, cattle and other animals are also
depicted. Human figures occur occasionally.
The production of small metal votives continued
throughout Greek antiquity. In the Classical
and Hellenistic periods, more elaborate bronze
statuettes, closely connected with monumental
sculpture, also became common. High quality
examples were keenly collected by wealthy
Greeks, and later Romans, but relatively few
have survived.
== Architecture ==
Architecture (meaning buildings executed to
an aesthetically considered design) ceased
in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean period
(about 1200 BC) until the 7th century, when
urban life and prosperity recovered to a point
where public building could be undertaken.
Since most Greek buildings in the Archaic
and Early Classical periods were made of wood
or mud-brick, nothing remains of them except
a few ground-plans, and there are almost no
written sources on early architecture or descriptions
of buildings. Most of our knowledge of Greek
architecture comes from the surviving buildings
of the Late Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic
and Roman periods (since ancient Roman architecture
heavily used Greek styles), and from late
written sources such as Vitruvius (1st century
BC). This means that there is a strong bias
towards temples, the most common major buildings
to survive. Here the squared blocks of stone
used for walls were useful for later buildings,
and so often all that survives are parts of
columns and metopes that were harder to recycle.For
most of the period a strict stone post and
lintel system of construction was used, held
in place only by gravity. Corbelling was known
in Mycenean Greece, and the arch was known
from the 5th century at the latest, but hardly
any use was made of these techniques until
the Roman period. Wood was only used for ceilings
and roof timbers in prestigious stone buildings.
The use of large terracotta roof tiles, only
held in place by grooving, meant that roofs
needed to have a low pitch.Until Hellenistic
times only public buildings were built using
the formal stone style; these included above
all temples, and the smaller treasury buildings
which often accompanied them, and were built
at Delphi by many cities. Other building types,
often not roofed, were the central agora,
often with one or more colonnaded stoa around
it, theatres, the gymnasium and palaestra
or wrestling-school, the ekklesiasterion or
bouleuterion for assemblies, and the propylaea
or monumental gateways. Round buildings for
various functions were called a tholos, and
the largest stone structures were often defensive
city walls.
Tombs were for most of the period only made
as elaborate mausolea around the edges of
the Greek world, especially in Anatolia. Private
houses were built around a courtyard where
funds allowed, and showed blank walls to the
street. They sometimes had a second story,
but very rarely basements. They were usually
built of rubble at best, and relatively little
is known about them; at least for males, much
of life was spent outside them. A few palaces
from the Hellenistic period have been excavated.Temples
and some other buildings such as the treasuries
at Delphi were planned as either a cube or,
more often, a rectangle made from limestone,
of which Greece has an abundance, and which
was cut into large blocks and dressed. This
was supplemented by columns, at least on the
entrance front, and often on all sides. Other
buildings were more flexible in plan, and
even the wealthiest houses seem to have lacked
much external ornament. Marble was an expensive
building material in Greece: high quality
marble came only from Mt Pentelus in Attica
and from a few islands such as Paros, and
its transportation in large blocks was difficult.
It was used mainly for sculptural decoration,
not structurally, except in the very grandest
buildings of the Classical period such as
the Parthenon in Athens.There were two main
classical orders of Greek architecture, the
Doric and the Ionic, with the Corinthian order
only appearing in the Classical period, and
not becoming dominant until the Roman period.
The most obvious features of the three orders
are the capitals of the columns, but there
are significant differences in other points
of design and decoration between the orders.
These names were used by the Greeks themselves,
and reflected their belief that the styles
descended from the Dorian and Ionian Greeks
of the Dark Ages, but this is unlikely to
be true. The Doric was the earliest, probably
first appearing in stone in the earlier 7th
century, having developed (though perhaps
not very directly) from predecessors in wood.
It was used in mainland Greece and the Greek
colonies in Italy. The Ionic style was first
used in the cities of Ionia (now the west
coast of Turkey) and some of the Aegean islands,
probably beginning in the 6th century. The
Doric style was more formal and austere, the
Ionic more relaxed and decorative. The more
ornate Corinthian order was a later development
of the Ionic, initially apparently only used
inside buildings, and using Ionic forms for
everything except the capitals. The famous
and well-preserved Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
near the Athens Acropolis (335/334) is the
first known use of the Corinthian order on
the exterior of a building.Most of the best
known surviving Greek buildings, such as the
Parthenon and the Temple of Hephaestus in
Athens, are Doric. The Erechtheum, next to
the Parthenon, however, is Ionic. The Ionic
order became dominant in the Hellenistic period,
since its more decorative style suited the
aesthetic of the period better than the more
restrained Doric. Some of the best surviving
Hellenistic buildings, such as the Library
of Celsus, can be seen in Turkey, at cities
such as Ephesus and Pergamum. But in the greatest
of Hellenistic cities, Alexandria in Egypt,
almost nothing survives.
== Coin design ==
Coins were (probably) invented in Lydia in
the 7th century BC, but they were first extensively
used by the Greeks, and the Greeks set the
canon of coin design which has been followed
ever since. Coin design today still recognisably
follows patterns descended from ancient Greece.
The Greeks did not see coin design as a major
art form, although some were expensively designed
by leading goldsmiths, especially outside
Greece itself, among the Central Asian kingdoms
and in Sicilian cities keen to promote themselves.
Nevertheless, the durability and abundance
of coins have made them one of the most important
sources of knowledge about Greek aesthetics.
Greek coins are the only art form from the
ancient Greek world which can still be bought
and owned by private collectors of modest
means.
The most widespread coins, used far beyond
their native territories and copied and forged
by others, were the Athenian tetradrachm,
issued from c. 510 to c. 38 BC, and in the
Hellenistic age the Macedonian tetradrachm,
both silver. These both kept the same familiar
design for long periods. The most artistically
ambitious coins, designed by goldsmiths or
gem-engravers, were often from the edges of
the Greek world, from new colonies in the
early period and new kingdoms later, as a
form of marketing their "brands" in modern
terms. Of the larger cities, Corinth and Syracuse
also issued consistently attractive coins.
Some of the Greco-Bactrian coins are considered
the finest examples of Greek coins with large
portraits with "a nice blend of realism and
idealization", including the largest coins
to be minted in the Hellenistic world: the
largest gold coin was minted by Eucratides
(reigned 171–145 BC), the largest silver
coin by the Indo-Greek king Amyntas Nikator
(reigned c. 95–90 BC). The portraits "show
a degree of individuality never matched by
the often bland depictions of their royal
contemporaries further West".Greek designers
began the practice of putting a profile portrait
on the obverse of coins. This was initially
a symbolic portrait of the patron god or goddess
of the city issuing the coin: Athena for Athens,
Apollo at Corinth, Demeter at Thebes and so
on. Later, heads of heroes of Greek mythology
were used, such as Heracles on the coins of
Alexander the Great. The first human portraits
on coins were those of Persian satraps in
Asia Minor. Greek cities in Italy such as
Syracuse began to put the heads of real people
on coins in the 4th century BC, as did the
Hellenistic successors of Alexander the Great
in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere. On the reverse
of their coins the Greek cities often put
a symbol of the city: an owl for Athens, a
dolphin for Syracuse and so on. The placing
of inscriptions on coins also began in Greek
times. All these customs were later continued
by the Romans.
== Painting ==
The Greeks seem to have valued painting above
even sculpture, and by the Hellenistic period
the informed appreciation and even the practice
of painting were components in a gentlemanly
education. The ekphrasis was a literary form
consisting of a description of a work of art,
and we have a considerable body of literature
on Greek painting and painters, with further
additions in Latin, though none of the treatises
by artists that are mentioned have survived.
Unfortunately we have hardly any of the most
prestigious sort of paintings, on wood panel
or in fresco, that this literature was concerned
with.
The contrast with vase-painting is total.
There are no mentions in literature at all,
but over 100,000 surviving examples, giving
many individual painters a respectable surviving
oeuvre. Our idea of what the best Greek painting
was like must be drawn from a careful consideration
of parallels in vase-painting, late Greco-Roman
copies in mosaic and fresco, some very late
examples of actual painting in the Greek tradition,
and the ancient literature.There were several
interconnected traditions of painting in ancient
Greece. Due to their technical differences,
they underwent somewhat differentiated developments.
Early painting seems to have developed along
similar lines to vase-painting, heavily reliant
on outline and flat areas of colour, but then
flowered and developed at the time that vase-painting
went into decline. By the end of the Hellenistic
period, technical developments included modelling
to indicate contours in forms, shadows, foreshortening,
some probably imprecise form of perspective,
interior and landscape backgrounds, and the
use of changing colours to suggest distance
in landscapes, so that "Greek artists had
all the technical devices needed for fully
illusionistic painting".
=== Panel and wall painting ===
The most common and respected form of art,
according to authors like Pliny or Pausanias,
were panel paintings, individual, portable
paintings on wood boards. The techniques used
were encaustic (wax) painting and tempera.
Such paintings normally depicted figural scenes,
including portraits and still-lifes; we have
descriptions of many compositions. They were
collected and often displayed in public spaces.
Pausanias describes such exhibitions at Athens
and Delphi. We know the names of many famous
painters, mainly of the Classical and Hellenistic
periods, from literature (see expandable list
to the right). The most famous of all ancient
Greek painters was Apelles of Kos, whom Pliny
the Elder lauded as having "surpassed all
the other painters who either preceded or
succeeded him."Unfortunately, due to the perishable
nature of the materials used and the major
upheavals at the end of antiquity, not one
of the famous works of Greek panel painting
has survived, nor even any of the copies that
doubtlessly existed, and which give us most
of our knowledge of Greek sculpture. We have
slightly more significant survivals of mural
compositions. The most important surviving
Greek examples from before the Roman period
are the fairly low-quality Pitsa panels from
c. 530 BC, the Tomb of the Diver from Paestum,
and various paintings from the royal tombs
at Vergina. More numerous paintings in Etruscan
and Campanian tombs are based on Greek styles.
In the Roman period, there are a number of
wall paintings in Pompeii and the surrounding
area, as well as in Rome itself, some of which
are thought to be copies of specific earlier
masterpieces.In particular copies of specific
wall-paintings have been confidently identified
in the Alexander Mosaic and Villa Boscoreale.
There is a large group of much later Greco-Roman
archaeological survivals from the dry conditions
of Egypt, the Fayum mummy portraits, together
with the similar Severan Tondo, and a small
group of painted portrait miniatures in gold
glass. Byzantine icons are also derived from
the encaustic panel painting tradition, and
Byzantine illuminated manuscripts sometimes
continued a Greek illusionistic style for
centuries.
The tradition of wall painting in Greece goes
back at least to the Minoan and Mycenaean
Bronze Age, with the lavish fresco decoration
of sites like Knossos, Tiryns and Mycenae.
It is not clear, whether there is any continuity
between these antecedents and later Greek
wall paintings.
Wall paintings are frequently described in
Pausanias, and many appear to have been produced
in the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
Due to the lack of architecture surviving
intact, not many are preserved. The most notable
examples are a monumental Archaic 7th-century
BC scene of hoplite combat from inside a temple
at Kalapodi (near Thebes), and the elaborate
frescoes from the 4th-century "Grave of Phillipp"
and the "Tomb of Persephone" at Vergina in
Macedonia, or the tomb at Agios Athanasios,
Thessaloniki, sometimes suggested to be closely
linked to the high-quality panel paintings
mentioned above.
Greek wall painting tradition is also reflected
in contemporary grave decorations in the Greek
colonies in Italy, e.g. the famous Tomb of
the Diver at Paestum. Some scholars suggest
that the celebrated Roman frescoes at sites
like Pompeii are the direct descendants of
Greek tradition, and that some of them copy
famous panel paintings.
=== Polychromy: painting on statuary and architecture
===
Much of the figural or architectural sculpture
of ancient Greece was painted colourfully.
This aspect of Greek stonework is described
as polychrome (from Greek πολυχρωμία,
πολύ = many and χρώμα = colour).
Due to intensive weathering, polychromy on
sculpture and architecture has substantially
or totally faded in most cases.
Although the word polychrome is created from
the combining of two Greek words, it was not
used in ancient Greece. The term was coined
in the early nineteenth century by Antoine
Chrysostôme Quatremère de Quincy.
==== Architecture ====
Painting was also used to enhance the visual
aspects of architecture. Certain parts of
the superstructure of Greek temples were habitually
painted since the Archaic period. Such architectural
polychromy could take the form of bright colours
directly applied to the stone (evidenced e.g.
on the Parthenon, or of elaborate patterns,
frequently architectural members made of terracotta
(Archaic examples at Olympia and Delphi).
Sometimes, the terracottas also depicted figural
scenes, as do the 7th-century BC terracotta
metopes from Thermon.
==== Sculpture ====
Most Greek sculptures were painted in strong
and bright colors; this is called "polychromy".
The paint was frequently limited to parts
depicting clothing, hair, and so on, with
the skin left in the natural color of the
stone or bronze, but it could also cover sculptures
in their totality; female skin in marble tended
to be uncoloured, while male skin might be
a light brown. The painting of Greek sculpture
should not merely be seen as an enhancement
of their sculpted form, but has the characteristics
of a distinct style of art.For example, the
pedimental sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia
on Aegina have recently been demonstrated
to have been painted with bold and elaborate
patterns, depicting, amongst other details,
patterned clothing. The polychromy of stone
statues was paralleled by the use of different
materials to distinguish skin, clothing and
other details in chryselephantine sculptures,
and by the use of different metals to depict
lips, fingernails, etc. on high-quality bronzes
like the Riace bronzes.
=== Vase painting ===
The most copious evidence of ancient Greek
painting survives in the form of vase paintings.
These are described in the "pottery" section
above. They give at least some sense of the
aesthetics of Greek painting. The techniques
involved, however, were very different from
those used in large-format painting. The same
probably applies to the subject matter depicted.
It should be noted that strictly speaking,
vase painting was a separate skill or art
from potting. It should also be kept in mind
that vase painting, albeit by far the most
conspicuous surviving source on ancient Greek
painting, was not held in the highest regard
in antiquity, and is never mentioned in Classical
literature.
== Mosaics ==
Mosaics were initially made with rounded pebbles,
and later glass with tesserae which gave more
colour and a flat surface. They were popular
in the Hellenistic period, at first as decoration
for the floors of palaces, but eventually
for private homes. Often a central emblema
picture in a central panel was completed in
much finer work than the surrounding decoration.
Xenia motifs, where a house showed examples
of the variety of foods guests might expect
to enjoy, provide most of the surviving specimens
of Greek still-life. In general mosaic must
be considered as a secondary medium copying
painting, often very directly, as in the Alexander
Mosaic.The Unswept Floor by Sosus of Pergamon
(c. 200 BC) was an original and famous trompe
l'oeil piece, known from many Greco-Roman
copies. According to John Boardman, Sosus
is the only mosaic artist whose name has survived;
his Doves are also mentioned in literature
and copied. However, Katherine M. D. Dunbabin
asserts that two different mosaic artists
left their signatures on mosaics of Delos.
The artist of the 4th-century BC Stag Hunt
Mosaic perhaps also left his signature as
Gnosis, although this word may be a reference
to the abstract concept of knowledge.Mosaics
are a significant element of surviving Macedonian
art, with a large number of examples preserved
in the ruins of Pella, the ancient Macedonian
capital, in today's Central Macedonia. Mosaics
such as the "Stag Hunt Mosaic and Lion Hunt"
mosaic demonstrate illusionist and three dimensional
qualities generally found in Hellenistic paintings,
although the rustic Macedonian pursuit of
hunting is markedly more pronounced than other
themes. The 2nd-century-BC mosaics of Delos,
Greece were judged by François Chamoux as
representing the pinnacle of Hellenistic mosaic
art, with similar styles that continued throughout
the Roman period and perhaps laid the foundations
for the widespread use of mosaics in the Western
world through to the Middle Ages.
== Engraved gems ==
The engraved gem was a luxury art with high
prestige; Pompey and Julius Caesar were among
later collectors. The technique has an ancient
tradition in the Near East, and cylinder seals,
whose design only appears when rolled over
damp clay, from which the flat ring type developed,
spread to the Minoan world, including parts
of Greece and Cyprus. The Greek tradition
emerged under Minoan influence on mainland
Helladic culture, and reached an apogee of
subtlety and refinement in the Hellenistic
period.Round or oval Greek gems (along with
similar objects in bone and ivory) are found
from the 8th and 7th centuries BC, usually
with animals in energetic geometric poses,
often with a border marked by dots or a rim.
Early examples are mostly in softer stones.
Gems of the 6th century are more often oval,
with a scarab back (in the past this type
was called a "scarabaeus"), and human or divine
figures as well as animals; the scarab form
was apparently adopted from Phoenicia.The
forms are sophisticated for the period, despite
the usually small size of the gems. In the
5th century gems became somewhat larger, but
still only 2–3 centimetres tall. Despite
this, very fine detail is shown, including
the eyelashes on one male head, perhaps a
portrait. Four gems signed by Dexamenos of
Chios are the finest of the period, two showing
herons.Relief carving became common in 5th
century BC Greece, and gradually most of the
spectacular carved gems were in relief. Generally
a relief image is more impressive than an
intaglio one; in the earlier form the recipient
of a document saw this in the impressed sealing
wax, while in the later reliefs it was the
owner of the seal who kept it for himself,
probably marking the emergence of gems meant
to be collected or worn as jewellery pendants
in necklaces and the like, rather than used
as seals – later ones are sometimes rather
large to use to seal letters. However inscriptions
are usually still in reverse ("mirror-writing")
so they only read correctly on impressions
(or by viewing from behind with transparent
stones). This aspect also partly explains
the collecting of impressions in plaster or
wax from gems, which may be easier to appreciate
than the original.
Larger hardstone carvings and cameos, which
are rare in intaglio form, seem to have reached
Greece around the 3rd century; the Farnese
Tazza is the only major surviving Hellenistic
example (depending on the dates assigned to
the Gonzaga Cameo and the Cup of the Ptolemies),
but other glass-paste imitations with portraits
suggest that gem-type cameos were made in
this period. The conquests of Alexander had
opened up new trade routes to the Greek world
and increased the range of gemstones available.
== Ornament ==
The synthesis in the Archaic period of the
native repertoire of simple geometric motifs
with imported, mostly plant-based, motifs
from further east created a sizeable vocabulary
of ornament, which artists and craftsmen used
with confidence and fluency. Today this vocabulary
is seen above all in the large corpus of painted
pottery, as well as in architectural remains,
but it would have originally been used in
a wide range of media, as a later version
of it is used in European Neoclassicism.
Elements in this vocabulary include the geometrical
meander or "Greek key", egg-and-dart, bead
and reel, Vitruvian scroll, guilloche, and
from the plant world the stylized acanthus
leaves, volute, palmette and half-palmette,
plant scrolls of various kinds, rosette, lotus
flower, and papyrus flower. Originally used
prominently on Archaic vases, as figurative
painting developed these were usually relegated
to serve as borders demarcating edges of the
vase or different zones of decoration. Greek
architecture was notable for developing sophisticated
conventions for using mouldings and other
architectural ornamental elements, which used
these motifs in a harmoniously integrated
whole.
Even before the Classical period, this vocabulary
had influenced Celtic art, and the expansion
of the Greek world after Alexander, and the
export of Greek objects still further afield,
exposed much of Eurasia to it, including the
regions in the north of the Indian subcontinent
where Buddhism was expanding, and creating
Greco-Buddhist art. As Buddhism spread across
Central Asia to China and the rest of East
Asia, in a form that made great use of religious
art, versions of this vocabulary were taken
with it and used to surround images of buddhas
and other religious images, often with a size
and emphasis that would have seemed excessive
to the ancient Greeks. The vocabulary was
absorbed into the ornament of India, China,
Persia and other Asian countries, as well
as developing further in Byzantine art. The
Romans took over the vocabulary more or less
in its entirety, and although much altered,
it can be traced throughout European medieval
art, especially in plant-based ornament.
Islamic art, where ornament largely replaces
figuration, developed the Byzantine plant
scroll into the full, endless arabesque, and
especially from the Mongol conquests of the
14th century received new influences from
China, including the descendents of the Greek
vocabulary. From the Renaissance onwards,
several of these Asian styles were represented
on textiles, porcelain and other goods imported
into Europe, and influenced ornament there,
a process that still continues.
== Other arts ==
Although glass was made in Cyprus by the 9th
century BC, and was considerably developed
by the end of the period, there are only a
few survivals of glasswork from before the
Greco-Roman period that show the artistic
quality of the best work. Most survivals are
small perfume bottles, in fancy coloured "feathered"
styles similar to other Mediterranean glass.
Hellenistic glass became cheaper and accessible
to a wider population.
No Greek furniture has survived, but there
are many images of it on vases and memorial
reliefs, for example that to Hegeso. It was
evidently often very elegant, as were the
styles derived from it from the 18th century
onwards. Some pieces of carved ivory that
were used as inlays have survived, as at Vergina,
and a few ivory carvings; this was a luxury
art that could be of very fine quality.It
is clear from vase paintings that the Greeks
often wore elaborately patterned clothes,
and skill at weaving was the mark of the respectable
woman. Two luxurious pieces of cloth survive,
from the tomb of Philip of Macedon. There
are numerous references to decorative hangings
for both homes and temples, but none of these
have survived.
== Diffusion and legacy ==
Ancient Greek art has exercised considerable
influence on the culture of many countries
all over the world, above all in its treatment
of the human figure. In the West Greek architecture
was also hugely influential, and in both East
and West the influence of Greek decoration
can be traced to the modern day. Etruscan
and Roman art were largely and directly derived
from Greek models, and Greek objects and influence
reached into Celtic art north of the Alps,
as well as all around the Mediterranean world
and into Persia.In the East, Alexander the
Great's conquests initiated several centuries
of exchange between Greek, Central Asian and
Indian cultures, which was greatly aided by
the spread of Buddhism, which early on picked
up many Greek traits and motifs in Greco-Buddhist
art, which were then transmitted as part of
a cultural package to East Asia, even as far
as Japan, among artists who were no doubt
completely unaware of the origin of the motifs
and styles they used.Following the Renaissance
in Europe, the humanist aesthetic and the
high technical standards of Greek art inspired
generations of European artists, with a major
revival in the movement of Neoclassicism which
began in the mid-18th century, coinciding
with easier access from Western Europe to
Greece itself, and a renewed importation of
Greek originals, most notoriously the Elgin
Marbles from the Parthenon. Well into the
19th century, the classical tradition derived
from Greece dominated the art of the western
world.
== Historiography ==
The Hellenized Roman upper classes of the
Late Republic and Early Empire generally accepted
Greek superiority in the arts without many
quibbles, though the praise of Pliny for the
sculpture and painting of pre-Hellenistic
artists may be based on earlier Greek writings
rather than much personal knowledge. Pliny
and other classical authors were known in
the Renaissance, and this assumption of Greek
superiority was again generally accepted.
However critics in the Renaissance and much
later were unclear which works were actually
Greek.Due to Ottoman Empire occupation, Greece
itself could only be reached by a very few
western Europeans until the mid-18th century.
Not only the Greek vases found in the Etruscan
cemeteries, but also (more controversially)
the Greek temples of Paestum were taken to
be Etruscan, or otherwise Italic, until the
late 18th century and beyond, a misconception
prolonged by Italian nationalist sentiment.The
writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, especially
his books Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek
Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750) and
Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History
of Ancient Art", 1764) were the first to distinguish
sharply between ancient Greek, Etruscan, and
Roman art, and define periods within Greek
art, tracing a trajectory from growth to maturity
and then imitation or decadence that continues
to have influence to the present day.The full
disentangling of Greek statues from their
later Roman copies, and a better understanding
of the balance between Greekness and Roman-ness
in Greco-Roman art was to take much longer,
and perhaps still continues. Greek art, especially
sculpture, continued to enjoy an enormous
reputation, and studying and copying it was
a large part of the training of artists, until
the downfall of Academic art in the late 19th
century. During this period, the actual known
corpus of Greek art, and to a lesser extent
architecture, has greatly expanded. The study
of vases developed an enormous literature
in the late 19th and 20th centuries, much
based on the identification of the hands of
individual artists, with Sir John Beazley
the leading figure. This literature generally
assumed that vase-painting represented the
development of an independent medium, only
in general terms drawing from stylistic development
in other artistic media. This assumption has
been increasingly challenged in recent decades,
and some scholars now see it as a secondary
medium, largely representing cheap copies
of now lost metalwork, and much of it made,
not for ordinary use, but to deposit in burials.
== See also ==
Dionysian art
Death in ancient Greek art
Parthian art
List of ancient Greek temples
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Classical architecture
== Notes ==
== 
References ==
"Beazley" The Classical Art Research Centre,
Oxford University. Beazley Archive – Extensive
website on classical gems; page titles used
as references
Boardman, John ed., The Oxford History of
Classical Art, Oxford University Press, 1993,
ISBN 0198143869
Burnett, Andrew, Coins; Interpreting the Past,
University of California/British Museum, 1991,
ISBN 0520076281
Chamoux, Françios, Hellenistic Civilization,
translated by Michel Roussel, Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing, 2002 [1981], ISBN 0631222421.
Cohen, Ada, Art in the Era of Alexander the
Great: Paradigms of Manhood and Their Cultural
Traditions, New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2010, ISBN 9780521769044
Cook, R.M., Greek Art, Penguin, 1986 (reprint
of 1972), ISBN 0140218661
Dunbabin, Katherine, M. D., Mosaics of the
Greek and Roman World, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999, ISBN 0521002303
Hardiman, Craig I., (2010). "Classical Art
to 221 BC", In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington,
Ian, A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, ISBN 9781405179362.
Honour, Hugh, Neo-classicism. Style and Civilisation
1968 (reprinted 1977), Penguin
Howgego, Christopher, Ancient History from
Coins, Routledge, 1995, ISBN 041508993X
Karouzou, Semni, National Museum : Illustrated
Guide to the Museum (NM of Athens), 1980,
Ekdotike Athenon S.A., ISBN 9789602130049
(later edition)
Rasmussen, Tom, Spivey, Nigel, eds., Looking
at Greek Vases, 1991, Cambridge University
Press, ISBN 9780521376792, google books
Rawson, Jessica, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus
and the Dragon, 1984, British Museum Publications,
ISBN 0714114316
Smith, R.R.R., Hellenistic Sculpture, a handbook,
Thames & Hudson, 1991, ISBN 0500202494
Williams, Dyfri. Masterpieces of Classical
Art, 2009, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714122540
Woodford, Susan, An Introduction To Greek
Art, 1986, Duckworth, ISBN 9780801419942
Greece: From Mycenae to the Parthenon, Henri
Stierlin, TASCHEN, 2004
== Further reading ==
Betancourt, Philip P. Introduction to Aegean
Art. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press,
2007.
Burn, Lucilla. Hellenistic Art: From Alexander
the Great to Augustus. Los Angeles: J. Paul
Getty Museum, 2004.
Coldstream, J. N. Geometric Greece: 900-700
BC. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2003.
Jenkins, Ian, Celeste Farge, and Victoria
Turner. Defining Beauty: The Body In Ancient
Greek Art. London: British Museum, 2015.
Langdon, Susan Helen. Art and Identity In
Dark Age Greece, 1100--700 B.C.E. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Ling, Roger. Making Classical Art: Process
& Practice. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus,
2000.
Moon, Warren G. Ancient Greek Art and Iconography.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.
Pedley, John Griffiths. Greek Art and Archaeology.
5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice
Hall, 2012.
Plantzos, Dimitris. Hellenistic Engraved Gems.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999.
Pollitt, J. J. Art In the Hellenistic Age.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
--. Art and Experience In Classical Greece.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Smith, Tyler Jo, and Dimitris Plantzos. A
Companion to Greek Art. Somerset: Wiley, 2012.
Stewart, Andrew F. Classical Greece and the
Birth of Western Art. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008.
Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios. Epigraphy of Art:
Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions and Vase-Paintings.
Oxford: Archaeopress, 2016.
== External links ==
Greek Art History Resource
Ancient Greek Ceramics
