In Greece, within the framework of a slave-owning society, the first principles of democracy in history developed, which made it possible to develop bold and deep ideas that affirmed the beauty and significance of man. Greek tribes and tribal unions inhabited valleys separated by steep mountain ranges and islands scattered across the sea. During the transition to a class society, they formed a number of small city-states, the so-called policies
Art Ancient Greece is closely connected with philosophy, because it was based on ideas about the strength and beauty of man, who was in close unity and harmonious balance with the surrounding natural and social environment, and since in ancient Greece As social life developed greatly, art also had a pronounced social character. A huge achievement was the establishment of the secular social and educational role of art, which only in form had a cult character. Compared to art Ancient East this was a big step forward.
Architecture is the leading art form in which the civic ideas of the city-police are reflected. Temple - center public life, the embodiment of the idea of inviolability and perfection of the city-state. In Greece there was no special caste of priests, similar to the one that existed in Egypt or the states of Mesopotamia. Only at some pan-Greek sanctuaries there were a few priestly organizations.
The legacy is ancient greek architecture lies at the basis of all subsequent development of world architecture and related monumental art. The reasons for such a lasting influence of Greek architecture lie in its objective qualities: simplicity, truthfulness, clarity of composition, harmony and proportionality. general forms and all parts, an organic connection between architecture and sculpture, in the close unity of architectural-aesthetic and structural-tectonic elements of structures. Ancient Greek architecture was distinguished by the complete correspondence of forms and their structural basis, which formed a single whole.
The period of Greek history from the 11th to the 9th century. BC usually called Homeric , because the main written sources for studying it are the Iliad and the Odyssey. The economic and social history of Homeric Greece represents a transitional stage from a tribal system to a slave system. The political form of this transitional system was military demography.
12th - 8th centuries BC were the era of addition Greek mythology. During this period, the mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Later, already during the archaic period, these oral songs were compiled into large, artistically completed poems.
From architectural structures From this period, only ruins have been preserved, on the basis of which it can be established that construction developed on the basis of the traditions of Mycenaean culture.
First steps Greek art are most clearly visible on painted vases, terracotta and bronze figurines. The artistic style of vase painting from this period is called geometric , because the ornaments on vases are combinations of geometric elements.
Hero and centaur (bronze figurine, 11 cm). Horse (bronze). Terracotta figurine of a centaur from the tomb of Fr. Euboea.
Archaic period – the period of formation of the Greek slave society and state. Both in the field of political life, religion, literature, philosophy, and in art, the archaic era laid the foundations for those most fruitful processes that were fully developed during the classical period. Already in the archaic, all the most important trends characteristic of the mature art of Ancient Greece appeared.
A new culture emerges from the ruins of Mycenaean cities. Palaces and fortresses were replaced by numerous sacred buildings (ritual, religious). Secular construction receded into the background. Ancient Greek temples were small in size compared to ancient Egyptian ones and were proportionate to a person. Divine services took place outside the walls of the temple, which was considered the house of God. In the center of the temple was a statue of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated.
Two artistic trends in architecture have emerged: Doric And Ionic . Doric was distinguished by its desire for monumentality, seriousness, and perfection of proportions. In the Ionian direction, on the contrary, lightness, grace, and whimsical lines were valued. These concepts do not completely coincide with the geographical area of distribution of both styles.
Main structural elements two orders are the same. The basis for them is a platform processed along the entire perimeter with steps - a stylobate. On it, along the entire outer contour of the temple, columns consisting of three parts were installed; base, trunk and capital.
In the Doric style, the columns did not have bases, capitals were simple and consisted of a square slab ( abacus ) and the round pillow supporting it ( Echina ); the frieze is divided into rectangular, slightly protruding parts ( triglyphs ) and the square boards located between them ( metopes ).
In the Ionic style, the columns had profiled bases, the capitals included a spiral shape volutes , the frieze was smooth ( zoophoric frieze ). Both styles arose in adobe buildings, and later their forms were converted into stone. Order system (from Latin “ordo – row, order”) changed later only in relation to proportions and in the drawing of details. Temples from the second half of the 7th century. BC were built from individual blocks of stone without the use of mortar.
Corinthian the style is even lighter than the Ionic and should be considered as a secondary formation that arose on the basis of the Ionic.
The composition of Greek temples is different. The simplest and earliest type of temple was distillate , or " temple in anta " It consists of a sanctuary - cella , rectangular in plan, the front façade of which is a loggia with a central opening. On the sides the loggia is limited by side walls, which are called anta. Two columns were placed between the antas along the front pediment (that’s why the temple was called “distile” - “two-columned”). The second, also relatively simple type of temple is prostyle, having on the facade not two, but four columns. Third type - amphiprostyle . This is a kind of double style - porticoes with four columns are located on both the front and rear facades of the building. The fourth type of temple is peripter . This is the most common type of temple. It is surrounded by columns on all sides, along the perimeter. Usually there are six columns on the front and rear facades, and the number of side ones was determined by the formula 2π + 1, where π is the number of columns on the front facade. Sometimes on the side facades there were not one, but two rows of columns. This type of temple is called dipter . There was another type of temple in Greece - a round peripterus, where the sanctuary - cella - had a cylindrical shape and the entire perimeter of the temple was surrounded by a ring of columns.
Temple of Hera in Paestum (6th century BC).
Temple of Poseidon in Paestum (5th century BC).
The most typical examples of archaic plasticity were youthful nude athletic figures - kouros and women's dressed - bark . Mere mortals, gods, and goddesses could be depicted this way. Human perfection was revealed through a chaste image of nudity, glorifying the natural principle. Statues of kouros served as tombstones and were erected in honor of the winners of competitions. By the middle of the 6th century BC. in the statues of kouros, the structure of the body and the modeling of forms are more accurately outlined, the face is enlivened by a smile. This so-called “archaic smile” is conventional in nature and sometimes gives a somewhat mannered appearance.
From the second half of the 6th century BC. realistic ideas about the image of a person began to appear more consistently in sculpture. One of the achievements of archaic art was the statues of girls (kor) in elegant clothes found on the Acropolis. Their slender figures are correct in proportion, their gentle faces are enlivened by clear, slightly surprised smiles. Carefully crafted folds of clothing and strands of hair seem to flow in a smooth and varied rhythm.
Stele of the brothers Dermilos and Kotyla (Tanagra).
Moschophorus (“calf-bearer”, Acropolis of Athens).
Apollo from Tenea (height - 1 m 61 cm).
Kora in peplos from the Acropolis of Athens (height - 1 m 18 cm).
Kouros from Cape Sounion.
The turn of the 7th and 6th centuries BC. BC - the emergence of a new style of vase painting - black-figure; refusal of polychrome painting, bringing man and myth to the fore. The Archaic period was a time of development of artistic crafts, especially ceramics. The word itself « ceramics" comes from the name of one of the suburbs of Athens - Keramik, famous in the 6th and 5th centuries. BC by their potters. Greek vases were extremely varied in shape and size. Large amphoras intended for storing wine and oil, hydria with three handles for carrying water, slender narrow lekythos for incense, from wide kylika drank wine.
The placement of paintings on vases and their compositional structure are closely related to the plastic form. The development of vase paintings went from schematic, decorative images to compositions of a plot nature. The bold realistic quests of vase painters were ahead of the development of other forms of art. The so-called black-figure vase painting became most widespread during the archaic period. The design of an ornament or figure was filled with black varnish and stood out well against the background of baked clay. Sometimes, for greater expressiveness, black silhouettes were scratched or covered with thin white lines, emphasizing individual details. The famous painter of the mid-6th century BC. was Exekius. His painting is distinguished by its poetry, subtle sense of rhythm and perfection of composition, organically connected with the purpose and shape of the vessel.
The technique of red-figure painting was discovered in the middle. 6th century BC It gave the artist much more opportunities, allowing him to more carefully develop the anatomical structure of the body, muscles, and draperies. Greater individualization of characters, the desire for realism in the image, for harmony between the paintings and the shape of the vessel. This technique is first seen on vases made in the workshop Andokida .
François Vase is a large crater made by Clytius and Ergotimus (1 – vase painter, 2 – potter).
Amphora of the master Exekius (Achilles and Ajax playing dice).
The struggle of Hercules and Antaeus - the crater of the master Euphronius.
Yu. Kolpinsky
The oldest initial period in the development of Greek art is called Homeric (12th - 8th centuries BC). This time was reflected in the epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, the author of which the ancient Greeks considered the legendary poet Homer. Although Homer's poems developed in their final form later (in the 8th - 7th centuries BC) - they tell about more ancient public relations, characteristic of the time of decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a slave society.
During the Homeric period, Greek society as a whole still retained the tribal system. Ordinary members of the tribe and clan were free farmers, partly shepherds. Crafts that were predominantly rural in nature received some development.
But the gradual transition to iron tools, improvement of methods of conducting agriculture increased labor productivity and created conditions for the accumulation of wealth, the development of property inequality and slavery. However, slavery in this era was still episodic and patriarchal in nature; slave labor was used (especially at the beginning) mainly in the household of the tribal leader and military leader - the basileus.
Basileus was the head of the tribe; he united in his person judicial, military and priestly power. The basileus ruled the community together with a council of tribal elders, called the boule. In the most important cases, a national assembly was convened - the agora, consisting of all free members of the community.
Tribes that settled at the end of the 2nd millennium BC on the territory modern Greece, were then still at a late stage of development of pre-class society. Therefore, the art and culture of the Homeric period took shape in the process of processing and developing those essentially still primitive skills and ideas that the Greek tribes brought with them, having only to a small extent assimilated the traditions of a higher and more mature artistic culture Aegean world.
However, some legends and mythological images that developed in the culture of the Aegean world entered the circle of mythological and poetic ideas of the ancient Greeks, just as various events in the history of the Aegean world received figurative and mythological translation in the legends and epics of the ancient Greeks (the myth of the Minotaur, the Trojan epic cycle, etc.). The monumental architecture of ancient Greek temples, which originated in the Homeric period, used and in its own way reworked the type of megaron that had developed in Mycenae and Tiryns - a hall with a vestibule and a portico. Some of the technical skills and experience of Mycenaean architects were also used by Greek craftsmen. But in general, the entire aesthetic and figurative structure of the art of the Aegean world, its picturesque, exquisitely expressive character and ornamental, patterned forms were alien to the artistic consciousness of the ancient Greeks, who initially stood at an earlier stage of social development than the states of the Aegean world that switched to slavery.
12th - 8th centuries BC were the era of the formation of Greek mythology. During this period, the mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Large cycles of epic songs reflected the people's ideas about their life in the past and present, about gods and heroes, about the origin of earth and sky, as well as people's ideals of valor and nobility. Later, already during the archaic period, these oral songs were compiled into large, artistically completed poems.
Ancient epic along with the mythology inextricably linked with him, he expressed in his images the life of the people and their spiritual aspirations, having a huge influence on the subsequent development of Greek culture. His themes and plots, reinterpreted in accordance with the spirit of the times, were developed in drama and poetry, reflected in sculpture, painting, and drawings on vases.
The fine arts and architecture of Homeric Greece, with all their directly popular origins, did not reach either the breadth of social life or the artistic perfection of epic poetry.
The earliest (of those that have reached us) works of art are vases of the “geometric style”, decorated with geometric patterns applied brown paint on the pale yellowish background of the clay vessel. The ornament usually covered the vase in its upper part with a series of ring belts, sometimes filling its entire surface. The most complete picture of the “geometric style” is given by the so-called Dipylon vases dating back to the 9th - 8th centuries. BC and found by archaeologists in an ancient cemetery near the Dipylon Gate in Athens (ill. 112). These very large vessels, sometimes almost as tall as a person, had a funerary and cult purpose, repeating in shape clay vessels that were used to store large quantities of grain or vegetable oil. On the Dipylonian amphorae the ornamentation is especially abundant: the pattern most often consists of purely geometric motifs, in particular meander braiding (the meander ornament remained as an ornamental motif throughout the development of Greek art). In addition to geometric patterns, schematized plant and animal patterns were widely used. Animal figures (birds, animals, such as deer, etc.) are repeated many times throughout individual stripes of the ornament, giving the image a clear, albeit monotonous, rhythmic structure.
Important feature later Dipylon vases (8th century BC) is the introduction into the pattern of primitive plot images with schematized figures of people, reduced almost to a geometric sign. These plot motifs are very diverse (the ritual of mourning the deceased, a chariot race, sailing ships, etc.). For all their sketchiness and primitiveness, the figures of people and especially animals have a certain expressiveness in rendering general movement and clarity of the story. If, in comparison with the paintings of Cretan-Mycenaean vases, the images on the Dipylonian vases are more crude and primitive, then in relation to the art of pre-class society they certainly mark a step forward.
The sculpture of Homer's time has reached us only in the form of small sculptures, most of which are clearly of a cultic nature. These small figurines depicting gods or heroes were made of terracotta, ivory or bronze. Terracotta figurines found in Boeotia, completely covered with ornaments, are distinguished by their primitiveness and undifferentiated forms; Some parts of the body are barely outlined, others are excessively highlighted. Such, for example, is the figure of a sitting goddess with a child: her legs are fused with the seat (throne or bench), the nose is huge and beak-like, the master is not at all interested in conveying the anatomical structure of the body.
Along with terracotta figurines, there were also bronze ones. “Hercules and the Centaur” and “Horse”, found at Olympia and dating back to the end of the Homeric period (ill. 113 a), give a very clear idea of the naive primitiveness and schematism of this small bronze sculpture, intended for dedications to the gods. The figurine of the so-called “Apollo” from Boeotia (8th century BC) with its elongated proportions and general structure of the figure resembles images of a person in Cretan-Mycenaean art, but differs sharply from them in its frontal rigidity and schematic convention of conveying the face and body.
The monumental sculpture of Homeric Greece has not reached our time. Its character can be judged from the descriptions of ancient authors. The main type of this sculpture were the so-called xoans - idols made of wood or stone and apparently representing a roughly processed tree trunk or block of stone, completed with a barely outlined image of the head and facial features. Some idea of this sculpture can be given by geometrically simplified bronze images of gods found during excavations of a temple in Dreros on Crete, built in the 8th century. BC the Dorians, who had already settled on this island long before.
Features of a more lively attitude towards real world Only a few terracotta figurines from Boeotia dating back to the 8th century are possessed, such as, for example, a figurine depicting a peasant with a rogue (ill. 113 6); Despite the naivety of the solution, this group is comparatively more truthful in its motive of movement and less bound by the immobility and conventionality of the art of the Homeric period. In this kind of images one can see some parallel to the epic of Hesiod created at the same time, glorifying peasant labor, although here fine arts looks very far behind the literature.
By the 8th century, and perhaps also by the 9th century. BC, include oldest remains monuments of early Greek architecture (the temple of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, the temple in Thermos in Aetolia, the mentioned temple in Dreros in Crete). They used some traditions of Mycenaean architecture, mainly general plan, similar to megaron; the hearth-altar was placed inside the temple; On the facade, as in the megaron, two columns were placed. The most ancient of these structures had walls made of mud brick and a wooden frame, placed on a stone plinth. Remains of ceramic cladding have been preserved upper parts temple. In general, the architecture of Greece in the Homeric period was at the initial stage of its development.
After the conquest by the Dorians of the Achaean tribes, weakened in the Trojan War, follows the Homeric period in the history of ancient Greek art (XI-VIII centuries BC), characterized by a patriarchal way of life, the fragmentation of small farms and the primitiveness of the culture that was beginning to take shape. There are almost no architectural monuments left from this time, since the materials used were mainly wood and unfired, but only sun-dried raw brick. An idea of architecture at its origins can only be given by poorly preserved remains of foundations, drawings on vases, terracotta funeral urns likened to houses and temples, and some lines of Homer’s poems:
“Friend, we, of course, have come to Odysseus’s glorious home,
It can easily be recognized among all other houses:
A long row of rooms, spacious, wide and cleanly paved
Courtyard surrounded by battlements, double gates
With a strong lock, no one would think of breaking into them by force.”
Rare sculptures, simple in shape and small in size, were also created in that era. The decoration of vessels, to which ancient Greeks were treated not only as objects necessary in everyday life. In various, sometimes bizarre, ceramic forms, in simple but expressive designs, they showed a desire for beauty, for an artistic understanding of the world.
The style of paintings of this time is called geometric due to the nature of the patterns. It existed among the Greek tribes for three centuries. The end of the 11th century BC. e. Its earliest examples are dated back, in the 10th and 9th centuries there is a slow development of its forms, and by the first half of the 8th century it reaches its peak.
In the second half of the 8th century BC. e. features of its decline are revealed. Monuments of the geometric style, widespread over a vast territory, are found in Balkan Peninsula and in Asia Minor, Crete, Cyprus and other islands of the Aegean Sea.
In the forms and designs of vases that arose before the 9th century BC. e., the simplicity of expressing the feelings of the people who created them appeared. The vessels were usually covered with ornaments in the form of simple figures: circles, triangles, squares, rhombuses. Over time, the patterns on the vessels became more complex, and their shapes became more varied. At the end of the 9th - beginning of the 8th century BC. e. vases appeared with the surface completely filled with ornaments. Body of an amphora from the Munich Museum applied arts divided into thin belts - friezes, painted geometric shapes, like lace lying on a vessel. Ancient artist decided to show on the surface of this amphora, in addition to patterns, animals and birds, for which he allocated special friezes, located one at the top of the throat, another at the very beginning of the body and the third near the bottom. The principle of repetition characteristic of the early stages of the development of art different nations, also appears among the Greeks in ceramic paintings; the vase painter here used, in particular, repetition in the depiction of animals and birds. However, even in simple compositions, differences are noticeable on the throat, body and bottom. At the corolla the deer are calm; they graze peacefully, nibbling grass. In the place of the body where the arms begin to rise and the shape of the vessel changes sharply, the animals are shown differently - as if in alarm they turned their heads back and perked up. The disruption of the smooth rhythm of the contour line of the vessel is echoed in the image of the fallow deer.
The Dipylon amphora dates back to the 8th century, which served tombstone in the cemetery of Athens (Fig. 10). Its monumental forms are expressive; The body is wide and massive, and the high throat rises proudly. It seems no less majestic than a slender column of a temple or a statue of a powerful athlete. Its entire surface is divided into friezes, each of which has its own pattern, with a frequently repeating meander of various types. The depiction of animals on the friezes here follows the same principle as on the Munich amphora. At the widest point there is a scene of farewell to the deceased. To the right and left of the deceased are mourners with their hands clasped above their heads. The sadness of the drawings on the vases that served as tombstones is extremely restrained. The feelings presented here seem harsh, close to those experienced by Odysseus as he listened to the exciting story of Penelope, who was crying and had not yet recognized him:
“But like horns or iron, the eyes stood motionless
For centuries. And he did not give vent to tears, being careful!”
In the laconicism of paintings of the 10th-8th centuries, qualities were formed that later developed in the plastically rich forms of Greek art. This era was a school for Greek artists: the strict clarity of geometric style drawings owes to the restrained harmony of archaic and classic images (ill. 11).
In a geometric style they appeared aesthetic feelings a people who began their journey to the pinnacle of civilization, who subsequently created monuments that eclipsed the glory Egyptian pyramids and the palaces of Babylon. The determination and inner composure of the Hellenes at that time found an echo in the extreme laconicism of the paintings with an inexorable rhythm, clarity and sharpness of lines. The conventional nature of the images, the simplicity of the forms are the result not of sophistication, but of the desire to express with a graphic sign general concept any very specific object in the real world. The limitation of this image principle lies in the absence of specific, individual features of the image. Its value lies in the fact that a person at an early stage of development begins to introduce an element of system and order into a world that still seems incomprehensible and chaotic. Schematic images of geometry will be saturated in the future with increasing concreteness, but Greek artists will not lose the principle of generalization achieved in this art. In this regard, the paintings of the Homeric period are the first steps in the development of ancient artistic thinking.
Attic art, represented by the Dipylonian vases, happily combines forms developed over centuries in various regions of Greece - on the islands, in the Doric centers, in Boeotia. In Attica, especially beautiful vessels are created with eloquent and lively paintings. In Argos the compositions are extremely laconic, in Boeotia they are expressive, and on the islands of the Aegean Sea they are elegant. But for everyone art schools, the originality of which was already evident in the Homeric period, and especially the Attic one, is characterized by common qualities - an increase in interest in the human image, the desire for a harmonious correspondence of forms and clarity of composition.
The sculpture of the geometric style has no less originality than vase painting. Small plastic decorations decorated ceramics, when figurines of animals made of clay or bronze were attached to the lids of vessels and served as handles. There were also figurines of a cult nature not associated with vessels, which were dedicated to deities, placed in temples or intended for graves. Most often these were figurines made of baked clay with only outlined facial features and limbs. Only occasionally did sculptors take on complex tasks and solve them using rather original methods of their style. For the most part, geometric figurines are intended to be viewed in profile and appear flat, similar to images on vases. The silhouette is of great importance in them; only later will the master’s interest in volume begin to awaken. The elements of the artist’s plastic understanding of the world are only outlined.
In the sculpture of the geometric style, such works of a narrative nature are still rare, such as the bronze image of a centaur and a man, kept in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, designed to be viewed from the side. However, already here one can clearly observe what will appear later in the Greek archaic - the nakedness of the male figure, the emphasized muscles of the hips and shoulders (ill. 12).
In the second half of the 8th century BC. e. features appear in the geometric style that indicate a rejection of its strict rules. There is a desire to show the figure of a person, an animal, various objects, not schematically, but more vividly. This can be seen as the beginning of a departure from the conventions of paintings and sculptures. Gradually, Greek masters move on to more full-blooded, vitally concrete images. Already at the decline of the geometric style, the first signs of a process were emerging that, from the conventionality of the forms of early antiquity in the geometric style, would lead to the utmost concreteness of the reproduction of the world in the monuments of late antiquity. With the emergence of more mature human ideas about the world, the need for not a schematic, but a detailed image appears, leading to a crisis in the geometric style and the emergence of new forms in the monuments of the archaic period of the 7th-6th centuries BC. e.
Features of the art of Ancient Greece The art of Ancient Greece made a significant contribution to the development of all world art. Among the main characteristics of Greek art: harmony, balance, orderliness and beauty of forms, clarity and proportionality. It considers man as the measure of all things and is idealistic in nature, since it represents man in his physical and moral perfection. The three-dimensional, plastic, sculptural nature of Greek art was a reflection of the extremely holistic and harmonious model of the world of the ancient Greeks. The Aegean period (III-II millennium BC) wall paintings (frescoes) and ceramics impress with their free picturesqueness, imagination, and high artistic level of execution. The frescoes of the palace indicate that main character Cretan art - a person, his impressions of the surrounding life, which were used as the basis for depicting landscapes and animals. Knowing only five colors - white, red, blue, yellow and black, knowing only a “color silhouette”, painters were able to create vivid emotional images. Homeric period (XI-IX centuries BC) The main thing in the art of this period is not the depiction of the surrounding world, not the transfer of impressions from it, but the creation of a new product, work in material, construction of new forms that do not exist in nature. Style becomes more strict, the compositions become more harmonious. The orderliness of form and style is caused by ideas about the orderliness of the world. Plastic arts and monumental sculpture begin to develop rapidly. Sculptors are looking for opportunities to freely and vividly depict the human body, first in a static position, and then in dynamics. Archaic period (8th-6th centuries BC) Poetry flourished, in which architects, vase painters, and the most famous musicians were glorified. Greek architecture is entering a new stage in its development: temple construction is becoming especially widespread. Archaic vase painting undergoes qualitative changes: in an effort to convey space, volume and movement, masters change their depiction technique, and silhouette black-figure painting is replaced by red-figure painting. The red-figure style made it possible to realize the plan: the paintings received the necessary volume and depth of space. Works appeared in sculpture that convey human image, close to reality. The classical period (V-IV centuries BC) began the appeal to man as a free individual and the growth of individualism, which manifested itself in the culture of Ancient Greece at the end of the 5th century. The ideal is a person who is an individualist, unique and special, and not a citizen-collectivist, i.e., the process of forming new cultural values begins. Attention is paid to everything unique and special. The requirements for works of art are changing. They expressed man's new attitude to the world, the loss of its clarity and harmonies. The man began to feel acutely tragic conflicts life. This was reflected in works of architecture and sculpture. Hellenistic (end of the 4th - beginning of the 1st century BC) is characterized by exceptionally intensive development of all artistic forms, with an expansion of horizons. Architecture is rapidly developing as a result of the development of old and the construction of new cities and sculpture, reflecting the desire of many rulers to glorify the power of their states and yourself in monuments. Art forms related to the decoration of buildings and interiors are flourishing: mosaics, painted ceramics, decorative sculpture. The art of the Hellenistic era is more democratic, devoid of rigid norms and canons, more realistic and humanistic, for man with his passions and in real form became the center of attention of the art of that period.
Homeric period (XI-IX centuries BC)
The art of the Homeric era is characterized by a new type. Artistic craft flourishes, and the master craftsman who creates skillfully made things is especially valued. The main thing in the art of this period is not the depiction of the surrounding world, not the transmission of impressions from it, but the creation of a new product, work in material, the construction of new forms that do not exist in nature, in contrast to what happened in the Minoan period. Gradually, analysis, calculation, and the search for the rational prevail over the poetic vision of the world, that is, the human mind becomes more and more independent of nature. The style becomes more strict, the compositions become more harmonious.
The orderliness of form and style is caused by ideas about the orderliness of the world, the cosmos, its triumph over chaos. Calculation, rhythm, symmetry in art receive a philosophical justification, and beauty as an aesthetic category and the rules of beauty receive a mathematical one. numeric expression. The basis for this new, more developed form of culture was Greek mythology, which provides a cosmogonic picture of the origin of the world. It was during this period that gods, heroes, and mythological creatures received a human form, that is, the abstract-symbolic form was replaced by a pictorial one. Plastic arts and monumental sculpture begin to develop rapidly. Sculptors are looking for opportunities to freely and vividly depict the human body, first in a static position, and then in dynamics.
Archaic period (VIII-VI centuries BC)
With the development of cities, agriculture and trade, the mythological understanding of the world becomes more complex. In the culture of Ancient Greece, such changes characterize the archaic period (VII-VI centuries BC). Poetry flourished, in which architects, vase painters, and the most famous musicians were glorified. Greek architecture is entering a new stage in its development: temple construction is becoming especially widespread.
Architecture and vase painting are the most developed areas of artistic culture during the archaic period. Archaic vase painting is undergoing qualitative changes: trying to convey space, volume and movement, masters change the technique of depiction, and silhouette black-figure painting is replaced by red-figure painting. The red-figure style made it possible to realize the plan: the paintings received the necessary volume and depth of space. Works appeared in sculpture that convey a human image close to reality.
Classical period (V-IV centuries BC)
The transition from archaic to classic (VI-V centuries BC) was largely due to social and political changes in society. As a result, in the worldview of the Greeks there was a transition to a qualitatively new understanding of the world, which manifested itself in art in the form of new forms of artistic expression. Center ancient culture Athens becomes the classical era. The Athenian state became an example in its desire to develop the culture of its citizens. Theatre, sports competitions, and all kinds of celebrations became available not only to aristocrats, but also to ordinary citizens. The cult of the body and physical beauty has become one of the aspects of personality education. The flourishing of architecture and the scope of construction characterize the cultural rise of Athens in the 5th century. BC The sculpture of Athenian masters became an example of classical perfection.
Lyrics and Greek tragedy, like the Homeric epic, performed both aesthetic and educational functions. In the tragedy, the concept of catharsis, that is, the purification, ennoblement of people, the liberation of their souls from negative emotions, received the most complete expression. The heroes of the tragedy defined the concept of truth and justice, the laws established by the gods. But in all tragedies, a person is dependent on the will of the gods, and only in the tragedies of Sophocles, and subsequently Euripides, is he a person who independently determines his choice. This began the appeal to man as a free individual and the growth of individualism, which manifested itself in the culture of Ancient Greece at the end of the 5th century. The ideal is a person who is an individualist, unique and special, and not a citizen-collectivist, i.e., the process of forming new cultural values begins. Attention is paid to everything unique and special.
The requirements for works of art are changing. They expressed man's new attitude to the world, the loss of its clarity and harmonies. Man began to acutely feel the tragic conflicts of life. This was reflected in works of architecture and sculpture.
Hellenistic (late 4th - early 1st century BC)
The art of this period is characterized by exceptionally intensive development of all artistic forms associated with both Greek and “barbarian” principles of culture, with the development of science, technology, philosophy, religion, and with the broadening of horizons. This is explained by extensive military campaigns, trade contacts, and scientific travel of that time. The boundaries on which the citizen of the polis existed and which shaped his worldview are removed, and a previously unknown “sense of the world’s open spaces” arises. This complex world, devoid of the usual harmony, was new. It had to be understood, and therefore expressed in artistic forms by means of art.
Architecture is rapidly developing as a result of the development of old and the construction of new cities and sculpture, reflecting the desire of many rulers to glorify the power of their states and themselves in monuments. Art forms related to the decoration of buildings and interiors are flourishing: mosaics, painted ceramics, decorative sculpture. The art of the Hellenistic era is more democratic, devoid of rigid norms and canons, more realistic and humanistic, for man with his passions and in real form became the center of attention of the art of that period.
Art of Homeric Greece
Yu. Kolpinsky
The oldest initial period in the development of Greek art is called Homeric (12th - 8th centuries BC). This time was reflected in the epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, the author of which the ancient Greeks considered the legendary poet Homer. Although Homer's poems took shape in their final form later (in the 8th - 7th centuries BC), they tell about more ancient social relations characteristic of the time of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a slave society.
During the Homeric period, Greek society as a whole still retained the tribal system. Ordinary members of the tribe and clan were free farmers, partly shepherds. Crafts that were predominantly rural in nature received some development.
But the gradual transition to iron tools and improved agricultural methods increased labor productivity and created conditions for the accumulation of wealth, the development of property inequality and slavery. However, slavery in this era was still episodic and patriarchal in nature; slave labor was used (especially at the beginning) mainly in the household of the tribal leader and military leader - the basileus.
Basileus was the head of the tribe; he united in his person judicial, military and priestly power. The basileus ruled the community together with a council of tribal elders, called the boule. In the most important cases, a national assembly was convened - the agora, consisting of all free members of the community.
Tribes that settled at the end of the 2nd millennium BC on the territory of modern Greece, were then still at a late stage of development of pre-class society. Therefore, the art and culture of the Homeric period took shape in the process of processing and developing those essentially still primitive skills and ideas that the Greek tribes brought with them, who only to a small extent assimilated the traditions of the higher and more mature artistic culture of the Aegean world.
However, some legends and mythological images that developed in the culture of the Aegean world entered the circle of mythological and poetic ideas of the ancient Greeks, just as various events in the history of the Aegean world received figurative and mythological translation in the legends and epics of the ancient Greeks (the myth of the Minotaur, the Trojan epic cycle, etc.). The monumental architecture of ancient Greek temples, which originated in the Homeric period, used and in its own way reworked the type of megaron that had developed in Mycenae and Tiryns - a hall with a vestibule and a portico. Some of the technical skills and experience of Mycenaean architects were also used by Greek craftsmen. But in general, the entire aesthetic and figurative structure of the art of the Aegean world, its picturesque, exquisitely expressive character and ornamental, patterned forms were alien to the artistic consciousness of the ancient Greeks, who initially stood at an earlier stage of social development than the states of the Aegean world that switched to slavery.
12th - 8th centuries BC were the era of the formation of Greek mythology. During this period, the mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Large cycles of epic songs reflected the people's ideas about their life in the past and present, about gods and heroes, about the origin of earth and sky, as well as people's ideals of valor and nobility. Later, already during the archaic period, these oral songs were compiled into large, artistically completed poems.
The ancient epic, along with the mythology inextricably linked with it, expressed in its images the life of the people and their spiritual aspirations, having a huge influence on the subsequent development of Greek culture. His themes and plots, reinterpreted in accordance with the spirit of the times, were developed in drama and poetry, reflected in sculpture, painting, and drawings on vases.
The fine arts and architecture of Homeric Greece, with all their directly popular origins, did not reach either the breadth of social life or the artistic perfection of epic poetry.
The earliest works of art (that have come down to us) are “geometric style” vases, decorated with geometric designs painted with brown paint on a pale yellowish background of a clay vessel. The ornament usually covered the vase in its upper part with a series of ring belts, sometimes filling its entire surface. The most complete picture of the “geometric style” is given by the so-called Dipylon vases dating back to the 9th - 8th centuries. BC and found by archaeologists in an ancient cemetery near the Dipylon Gate in Athens (ill. 112). These very large vessels, sometimes almost as tall as a person, had a funerary and cult purpose, repeating in shape the clay vessels used to store large quantities of grain or vegetable oil. On the Dipylonian amphorae the ornamentation is especially abundant: the pattern most often consists of purely geometric motifs, in particular meander braiding (the meander ornament remained as an ornamental motif throughout the development of Greek art). In addition to geometric patterns, schematized plant and animal patterns were widely used. Animal figures (birds, animals, such as deer, etc.) are repeated many times throughout individual stripes of the ornament, giving the image a clear, albeit monotonous, rhythmic structure.
An important feature of the later Dipylon vases (8th century BC) is the introduction into the pattern of primitive plot images with schematized figures of people reduced almost to a geometric sign. These plot motifs are very diverse (the ritual of mourning the deceased, a chariot race, sailing ships, etc.). Despite their sketchiness and primitiveness, the figures of people and especially animals have a certain expressiveness in conveying the general nature of the movement and the clarity of the story. If, in comparison with the paintings of Cretan-Mycenaean vases, the images on the Dipylonian vases are more crude and primitive, then in relation to the art of pre-class society they certainly mark a step forward.
The sculpture of Homer's time has reached us only in the form of small sculptures, most of which are clearly of a cultic nature. These small figurines depicting gods or heroes were made of terracotta, ivory or bronze. Terracotta figurines found in Boeotia, completely covered with ornaments, are distinguished by their primitiveness and undifferentiated forms; Some parts of the body are barely outlined, others are excessively highlighted. Such, for example, is the figure of a sitting goddess with a child: her legs are fused with the seat (throne or bench), the nose is huge and beak-like, the master is not at all interested in conveying the anatomical structure of the body.
Along with terracotta figurines, there were also bronze ones. “Hercules and the Centaur” and “Horse”, found at Olympia and dating back to the end of the Homeric period (ill. 113 a), give a very clear idea of the naive primitiveness and schematism of this small bronze sculpture, intended for dedications to the gods. The figurine of the so-called “Apollo” from Boeotia (8th century BC) with its elongated proportions and general structure of the figure resembles images of a person in Cretan-Mycenaean art, but differs sharply from them in its frontal rigidity and schematic convention of conveying the face and body.
The monumental sculpture of Homeric Greece has not reached our time. Its character can be judged from the descriptions of ancient authors. The main type of this sculpture were the so-called xoans - idols made of wood or stone and apparently representing a roughly processed tree trunk or block of stone, completed with a barely outlined image of the head and facial features. Some idea of this sculpture can be given by geometrically simplified bronze images of gods found during excavations of a temple in Dreros on Crete, built in the 8th century. BC the Dorians, who had already settled on this island long before.
Only some terracotta figurines from Boeotia dating back to the 8th century have features of a more lively relationship to the real world, such as, for example, a figurine depicting a peasant with a rogue (ill. 113 6); Despite the naivety of the solution, this group is comparatively more truthful in its motive of movement and less bound by the immobility and conventionality of the art of the Homeric period. In this kind of images one can see some parallel to the epic of Hesiod, created at the same time, glorifying peasant labor, although here too the visual arts look very far behind literature.
By the 8th century, and perhaps also by the 9th century. BC, also include the oldest remains of monuments of early Greek architecture (the temple of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, the temple in Thermos in Aetolia, the mentioned temple in Dreros in Crete). They used some traditions of Mycenaean architecture, mainly the megaron-like general plan; the hearth-altar was placed inside the temple; On the facade, as in the megaron, two columns were placed. The most ancient of these structures had walls made of mud brick and a wooden frame, placed on a stone plinth. The remains of the ceramic cladding of the upper parts of the temple have been preserved. In general, the architecture of Greece in the Homeric period was at the initial stage of its development.