2. Ancient Greece
• Not one
unified
country, but
many city-states,
each
made up of a
city and the
agricultural
land
surrounding it
3. • The most powerful city-state was Athens.
• During the Persian War, Athens aided
other city-states
to
stop the
Persian Empire
from conquering
Greece.
4. • Athens emerged a powerful force, imposing its will on
Greece; other city-states had to pay tribute to Athens,
and it became wealthy
• This wealth and power were used to fund arts and culture
that led to a Golden Age in the fifth century BCE.
5. Athenian Values
•Open society: prosperous trade
and love of learning and exchange
of ideas
• Glorified humanity as the most
important creation in the universe
• Searched for natural explanations
– made knowledge supreme over
faith
6. Greek Religion
• Polytheistic and local
(each city had personal god)
• Sacrifice of animals or
lighting candles was
essential to avoid
reprisals from the gods
• Fate is a powerful force no
one could escape (not
even the gods)
8. •Art was a striving for perfection –
Greeks believed that if nature left
things unfinished, humans could make it
better (and making something beautiful
was a way of worshipping the gods)
•Had a fascination with human and divine
(painful conflicts between gods and
mortals)
9. Pottery
Adorned with human figures and depicted
gods battling, heroes fighting, ordinary
people working and playing – always
people in action
14. Lady of Auxerre,
from the seventh
century BCE, was
crafted in the stiff,
formal style of early
Greek sculpture
15. Details of the head of the Metropolitan
Kouros, Early Archaic, c. 615- 590 B.C.
16. • The Golden Age was an artistic revolution
that brought statues to life
• You can see muscles, gentle facial
expressions, folds of gowns
• Greeks sought to make figures flawless
(created ideal figures) to express perfect
beauty and power of the gods and reflect the
wonders of the world the gods created
17. In Venus of Arles,
the fluid,
expressive style of
Golden Age
sculpture brings a
Greek goddess to
life
18.
19. Roman copy of the
diskobolos or “discus
thrower” by Myron.
Scholars recognized
Myron’s statue as the
model for the Roman
copies because of a
passage in the 2nd
century CE author,
Lucian, who describes
the original work in detail.
22. Architecture
• Greeks brought sense of grace,
balance and simple perfection to
architecture
• Greeks focused all of their energy
and wealth on public buildings, like
temples and theaters
23. Doric Columns
• Doric =
thick and
powerful, no
base,
topped with
plain round
capital
24. Ionic
Columns
•Ionic = taller and
more slender,
rounded base,
scroll-shaped
capital, elegant
expressive style
25. Corinthian Columns
• Corinthian = like Ionic
columns but added capitals
intricately carved with
delicate leaf patterns,
ornate style (did not
become popular until
Roman times)
26. The Parthenon
•blend of Doric and Ionic elements
•sculptures and friezes depicted myths and
history of Athena and Athens
•not a place where worshippers
congregated, but home of a goddess
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32. Erechtheion
Temple to Poseidon (God of
Sea), purely Ionic; begun in 421
BCE and because of the
Peloponnesian War decorations
may never have been completed
35. Theaters
•Stage was dugout of a hill and seats were
wooden planks up the side of the hill
•Orchestra - a round circle which was the
playing area; middle of circle is an altar with a
statue of Dionysus
•Proskenion – behind the orchestra was an
elevated platform to give levels (also had trap
doors)
•Skene building used for dressing room, and its
roof could be used in plays; had several doors
and was used as backstage
36. •Mechane – crane which could hang actor
over stage as a god
•Ekkyklema – wheeled out from skene to
display a tableau (dead Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra – no violence was permitted
onstage)
•Parados - two gangways on which chorus
and actors made their entrances from either
side into the orchestra.
•Theatron – audience area
42. The styles the Greeks
originated are so universally
admired, they’ve been imitated
for 2,500 years, setting the
standard in Western
civilization for the meaning of
“classic.”
44. From law and government, to modern
necessities like indoor plumbing, Romans set
the standard for civilization. They built on a
grand, daring scale as they conquered
territories from Britain to the Middle East.
45. Characteristics of Roman Architecture
• Actually Greco-Roman – combined elegance of
detail and refinement of form of Greece with
pragmatic functionalism, civic scale and sense
of power of Rome
• Unlike Egyptian architecture, which focused on
the next world, Roman architecture focused on
the here and now – solved problems and civic
needs of the present
• Public spaces and enclosed spaces very
important – Roman civilization focused on city
as basic element
46. Roman values
• Rigid self-discipline
• Patriotic responsibility
• Serious purpose
• Deep respect for duty and tradition
• Strict morality
• Pragmatism and realism (no great
Roman theoretical scientists –
Rome produced engineers and
builders)
47. Roman innovations
Concrete: not liquid, but a viscous mixtrue of
sand, lime, water, and aggregate. It was laid
down in layers inside wooden or brick forms
work, and solidified
into a dense
artificial stone that
was light, strong,
fireproof, and
waterproof.
Five thousand tons of concrete
shape the dome of the Pantheon
48. Roman innovations
Arch: Uses small wedge-shaped
stones to span a
void; when keystone is
locked into place, it
supports itself as well as
immense loads on top,
and requires less
material than a wall;
post and lintel can
barely span 15 feet,
but an arch can span
150 feet
49. Roman innovations
Arcade: a series of arches carried by columns or
piers, a passageway between arches and a solid wall,
or a covered walkway that provides access to
adjacent shops
50. Roman innovations
Barrel Vault: An arch extended in a straight
line or multiplied in depth (curved ceiling over
two parallel walls, may be
combined to form arcades)
51. Roman innovations
Groin Vault: Produced by the
intersection at right angles
of two barrel vaults
52. Roman innovations
Dome: an arch
rotated 360 degrees
horizontally; like
arches, have a great
deal of structural
strength when
properly built and can
span large open
spaces without
interior supports
53. Flavian Amphitheater (Coliseum)
Romans joined two Greek theatres to form oval amphitheater.
The arena floor was laid over subterranean chambers and
passageways for gladiators and beasts; seats rose in tiers to
an outer wall of stone arcades; could hold about 50,000 people
54. Pantheon
A temple to all gods, symbolizing the earth as a disc covered
by a heavenly dome; the dome is half of a perfect sphere; the
oculus (eye) is the only source of light, whose beam slowly
creeps across the floor and wall like a timepiece; the dome
exerts tremendous downward thrust, diverted by eight radial
barrel vaults inside the wall
“The design not of a man but of an angel.”
- Michelangelo
55. Trajan’s Forum
At the heart of Roman cities was the forum: the civic open
space surrounded by curia (city offices) and basilica (court).
Covered, open passageways line the courtyard; on the hillside
were public markets and the forum contained a temple and two
libraries as well as the great stone column of Trajan
56. Baths of
Caracalla
Not just for washing – contained shops, restaurants, exercise
yards, libraries, lecture halls and reading rooms arranged
around spacious gardens filled with sculptures, in addition to hot
baths and warm baths heated with furnaces beneath, cold baths
and swimming pools.
58. The Byzantine Empire
• Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman
Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed
Constantinople (330 CE)
• When the western Roman Empire fell to the Germanic
tribes, the eastern Roman Empire survived for another
thousand years as the Byzantine Empire, until it fell to
the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
• During most of its
existence, it was the
most powerful
economic and
cultural force in
Europe
59. Byzantine Style:
• fused Oriental (especially Persian) and Greek motifs
• created a lush, mystical style with symbolic decoration
full of geometric patterns and an appeal to emotion
• illustrated change
in religion: under
Roman paganism,
external appearance
was emphasized over
interior; under
Christianity, it was
just the opposite
60. Typical
Characteristics of
Byzantine Style:
• Mosaics
• Domes
• Curves
• Plain outside, but
lavish inside
Emperor Justinian
61. “Byzantine art and architecture were devoted to
reinforcing religious experience, in which the familiar
physical world of human sensation is transformed into
a suggestion of the transcendental world. Images of
stylized reality, captured in the glittering mosaics,
evoke a spiritual presence in an otherworldly
atmosphere of resplendent grandeur. In the
ambience of shimmering light from countless
windows, reflected from high, mosaic-lined domes,
and the flickering of innumerable lamps and candles
filtered through the rising haze of pungent incense,
the early Christian and , later, the Byzantine Church
celebrated the fusion of secular and religious rule and
the endeavor to create an earthly simulacrum pointing
to heavenly perfection.” -- Roth and Clark,
Understanding Architecture
