Greek Architecture Part 1

More info. for my Art Classes. This will probably take several posts to get through the Architecture…

Early Greek temples were made of mud and bricks with wood roofs. They had a simple rectangular structure with a sheltered porch area. We have had to piece together their structure and look by ruins, descriptions, and small ceramic models. This model of a temple was found in the Sanctuary of Hera. Notice the geometric design on the steeply pitched roof. The main room was called a cella or naos. There would have been a statue of the god or goddess in this area that the temple was dedicated to. There was a small reception area that preceded the main hall that functioned as the temples vestibule.

Greek temples grew in both size and complexity. Stone and marble began to replace the mud, bricks, and wood. Of course using stone and marble created problems with weight and the designs of temples had to be worked out carefully so that the columns and walls could support the roof and the decorative architectural elements that began to be added on.

A number of standardized plans began to develop. Builders experimented with the elevations of temples..or the proportions and appearance of columns and entablatures. During the archaic period two distinct designs developed, the Ionic Order and the Doric Order. The Corinthian Order would come later and, at first, be used largely in interior areas.

The Temple of Hera (The wife of Zeus) is one of the earliest standing temples. It was built in about 550 BC. (Actually there are two Temples of Hera, built right next to one another about 100 years apart…they are generally referred to as Hera I and Hera II.)

Hera I is a large, rectangular temple with a post-and-lintel structure. There is a stepped foundation that supports a peristyle. A peristyle is a row of columns that surround the cella (main area) on all four sides. The single peristyle plan is also called a peripteral temple. See figures E through G. Both Hera I and the Parthenon are examples of a peripteral temple.

Hera is also a Doric Temple, meaning it used the Doric Order, or set of proportions in it’s construction. Working with stone and marble presents several difficulties because of the weight of the stones. The Greeks found that columns of a certain diameter and height could support the rest of the structure. In general, the Doric order has shorter, fatter columns than the other orders and is the oldest of the Orders. The columns sat directly on the floor of the temple and had a very plain capital. Each successive order would elaborate on these basics, adding more decoration, more heights, and thinning the columns.

Let’s take a look at each of the parts of the temple so that we can compare the orders and look at some examples.

The columns is generally what we think of as being distinctive of each Order. The columns are an upright support hat extends from a base at the bottom to a capital at the top — much like the feet, body, and head of the human figure. The central part is known as the shaft. The shaft is not one huge solid piece, but several drum shaped pieces that are stacked onto a metal pole. This provides flexible support, allowing these works of art to survive time and earthquakes. The capital was often a stylized representation of natural forms, such as animal horns or plant leaves.

You can see the basic parts of a column below. A Doric Column did not have a pedestal, but sat directly on the floor of the temple, or the stylobate. Greek temples generally had stepped foundation and the top level, which was also the floor of the temple was the stylobate. The entire stepped foundation was called the stereobate.

The columns support a horizontal element…hence the post-and-lintel construction. This element is called the entablature and is divided up into three different parts: the architrave, the frieze, and the cornice.
At each end there was a triangular gable called the pediment.

In Hera I you can see the classic components of a Doric Temple. The fluted shafts of the columns that rest without any bases on the stylobate and the very plain capitals made up of necking transition to a cushionlike echinus and then a square abacus on the top.

There is a three part entablature that has a plain flat band that is the architrave, it is topped by a decorative band called a frieze. In the Doric order the frieze has flat areas called metopes that alternate with projecting blocks that have three vertical lines on them called triglyphs. This part of the entablature were usually painted, or carved and then painted in bright colors.

The Doric column is only about four times as high as the diameter of the column. This design creates a feeling of stability and permanence. The columns are wider the middle than at the tops or bottoms. Hera I has an uneven number of columns and there is a central row of columns that supported the roof, and divided the main cella in two. This suggests that there were two deities worshiped here, possible Hera and her mate Zeus…or Hera and Poseidon, patron god of the city.

Here is some additional info and a summary from Greek Architecture for Dummies.

Doric: Heavy simplicity

The oldest, simplest, and most massive of the three Greek orders is the Doric, which was applied to temples beginning in the 7th century B.C. As shown in Figure 2, columns are placed close together and are often without bases. Their shafts are sculpted with concave curves called flutes. The capitals are plain with a rounded section at the bottom, known as the echinus, and a square at the top, called the abacus. The entablature has a distinctive frieze decorated with vertical channels, or triglyphs. In between the triglyphs are spaces, called metopes, which were commonly sculpted with figures and ornamentation. The frieze is separated from the architrave by a narrow band called the regula. Together, these elements formed a rectangular structure surrounded by a double row of columns that conveyed a bold unity. The Doric order reached its pinnacle of perfection in the Parthenon.

Kids create their own city-states.

In my Ancient History class we did a little experiment last week. We have been studying the Ancient Greeks and

Great overview

comparing some of the city-states. We watched a PBS movie, The Greeks; Crucible of Civilization, that chronicled the development of Athens and Sparta through various monarchies, dictators, oligarchies, and eventually democracies. Each development filled a need and created others. Outside pressures, primarily from the Persians, pushed city-states that were often at war with each other, to unite against a common enemy. As tyrants rose and fell, land became a point of contention, and slave populations grew. We saw that laws were needed that were fair and that the people would abide by.

For our experiment I divided the kids up into 3 groups. It’s important that each group have some boys and some girls. I figured that since no one can chose where they are born I wouldn’t give the kids a choice about the groups they were in. I counted off the boys and the girls by threes, sending the twos to one area of the room etc. Once they were all in their groups I explained the rules of the game. Basically, for the next 2 1/2 hours the kids would be living as ancient Greeks in their city-states. Each group had their table and an area around the table to claim as their ‘land’. They were to live by basic laws honored in most Greek City-Sates.

Mandatory Rules

1. Boys must do all the work and make all of the decisions.

2. Girls must keep their homes and land clean and organized.

3. Girls may not travel unaccompanied by a male outside of their city-state. (This law in particular drew groans. The experiment included the next class period and our lunch break and the girls needed an escort to go to the store, the bathrooms, the kitchen, etc.)

At the end of the time period I had two judges come in. One to judge the boys ‘work’, and one to judge how well the girls did. The boys were assigned the following ‘work’. They had to name their city-state, make up ten laws, and draw a poster of the laws, name, flag etc. The girls were not allowed to help, they could humbly offer an opinion but all decisions had to be made by the boys.

Breaking any of the rules resulted in points being deducted. We had girls lose points for coloring on their posters and wandering off without an escort. If they completed their work in an exemplary fashion the boys could earn up to 10 points and the girls up to 5. Sorry girls, uneven pay scale back then.

The Results

I was happy to hear one 9th grade girl grumbling about 20 minutes into the exercise.   “I thought this was going to be so great, sit back and relax for a whole class and watch the boys do all the work…but it’s horrible. It’s boring. I have ideas too…” All the girls basically felt the same way and were very happy when they no longer needed escorts to walk about the building.

Here are some of the laws the kids came up with.

The first city-state was Atlantis and their flag consisted of a trident in waves. Some of their laws were:

1. Everyone must worship Poseidon.

2. Murder of a citizen is death by crucifixion.

3. Killing of cattle, or other animals, results in you having to repay double.

4. All citizens, slaves, and hetics are required to participate in any wars. (Hetics were people who moved into your city-state from another city-state, generally tradesmen.)

Our next city-state was Siligia. Some of their laws were:

1. Our official goddess is Athena and you must make an offering to her once a week.

2. Male citizens must serve 5 years in the military.

3. You must contribute 10% of your wealth to your city.

4. No public nudity, you must dress appropriately.

5. Children must be educated until the age of 18.

(The rest of theirs  were similar to the 10 Commandments.)

Our last city-state was Equus Fuga which means Flying Horse in Latin. Some of their laws were:

1. Women must have their arms completely covered when in the polis.

2. All visitors will be cared for and receive hospitality. (They had a limit on how long families had to put up visitors and then someone else had to take them in.)

3. This city-state was concerned about noise pollution and had a law that you could not talk to someone who was more than 5 feet away, thus reducing shouting.

4. Concern over the spread of the plague brought about this next law…every person must boil water before it can be consumed.

5. The goddess Aphrodite is this city-states patron goddess and must be worshiped fervently for one hour.

This would be a fun exercise to continue if you have a small group of children and siblings.  You could continue to develop your city-state as you learned more about the different political systems, military experience, and family life in Greece.

Greek Vases Part 2

Continuing with our discussion of Greek Vase painting…See Part 1 if you are lost.

Greek Vase Priam painter

Not all subjects used for ceramics were gods and heroes. This Hydra or water jug was painted by an artist scholars have named the Priam Painter. In this work we get a glimpse of everyday life. Most women in ancient Greece were confined to their homes and so the daily trip to the water well or fountain was a welcome event. This was a time to gather, see friends, and swap gossip. On this vase we see a group of women with storage jars very like the one they are painted onto. The women are getting water for their homes. The painting has a very geometric pattern overlying it with the Doric columns and detailed boarders. There is a fine balance of vertical, horizontal, and rounded elements. The woman and jugs provide a contrast adding energy and life to the painting. The women’s skin has been painted white, a common convention for female figures that was also used by the Egyptians and Minoans. A bit of reddish purple paint has been to create details on the architecture and clothing.

At the same time the Priam Painter and others were creating their black-figure wares, some painters turned to another process called red-figure decoration. As its name suggests, this was a reversal of the previous method. The figures were now red set against a black background. The dark slip was painted on as the background around the outlined figures which were left unpainted. Details were then drawn on the figures with a fine brush dipped in the slip. The result was greater freedom and flexibility of painting rather than engraving the details. Artists quickly adopted this new method. One of the best known red-figure painters was an Athenian named Euphronios who was particularly known for his study of human anatomy.

On this piece done in 515 BC the painting is done on a Calyx Krater. The vase is called that because it’s handles curve up like the flower, calyx. Kraters were used to mix wine and water, the favored drink of the Greeks. They could also be used to cool wine down. The wine would be placed in a smaller vase and then cool water put into the Krater and the wine was then set in the cool water. The idea is similar to our placing champagne in a bucket of ice to chill it.

On this Krater we see the death of Sarpedon. According to the Illiad, written by Homer, Sarpedon was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. He was killed by the Greek warrior Patroclus during the war with the Trojans. In this depiction we see Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death) carrying Sarpedon from the battlefield. We see Hermes, who is the messenger of the gods and is identified by his winged hat and staff, ready to guide our warrior to the netherworld…another of Hermes responsibilities.

We see once again the importance to the Athenians of balance. In this composition the vertical and horizontal lines take the shape of the vase into account. There are fine details in the clothing, musculature, and faces of each figure.

Greek Vase Pan Painter

We now enter into the Classical Period of Greek Art. Over this brief span of about 160 years the Greeks would establish the ideal of beauty that we still strive for today. The classical period is defined by two events in history, at it’s beginning, the defeat of the Persians in 479 BC, and at the end, the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The speed at which art changed during this period is extraordinary. Here we will just be examining the vases of the classical period…in future posts we will examine the architecture of the period and the sculptures.

During the fifth century artists continued to work with red-figure painting. Among the outstanding artists of this period was the Pan Painter. He seemed to be inspired by the less heroic stories of the gods. In this bell krater we see Artemis slaying Actaeon. Artemas, the goddess of the hunt, was bathing and Actaeon happened upon the goddess. She was so outraged she caused Actaeon’s dogs to mistake him for a stag and attack him. Artemis then shoots the fallen hunter herself. We can see the slender and graceful figures have been painted in with delicate details.

Greek Vase - classic period

In the late classical period artists were using the white ground method which was far more complex and involved painting the vases with tempura after firing. Unfortunately none of the murals painted during this period remain, although we have descriptions of them written down. Most of the vases made in this manner were used for non-utilitarian purposes, for example funeral vases. Funeral vases were used for pouring liquids during religious rituals. Most convey sadness and a depiction of the dead person being honored.The paint was to fragile to put on a water jug or something that would be handles regularly. In this example we see two women, the one girl, probably a servant moving a chair.

Greek Vases Part 1

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted information for my Art History Class, but here is what we’ve been covering in class the last few weeks on the Ancient Greeks. Today I’ll post about Greek Vases, hopefully tomorrow on architecture. (For those of you unfamiliar with my site, this is a class of Jr. High and High School Homeschool students.)

Following the Mycean and Minoan civilizations the next period of Greek art was the Geometric Period. During this time artists reduced human and animal body parts into simple geometric solids, and their designs were characterized by linear motifs, spirals, diamonds and cross-hatching. You will notice a marked difference from the sea creatures, birds and plants that were common in Minoan vase painting.

This figure, a centaur, is unusual because it is more than a foot tall and because it has a hollow body that was formed much like a vase on a potter’s wheel and then the artist added solid lines and a tail. The design was painted onto the body using slip. Slip is a mixture of water and clay that fires a different color than the clay it is painted onto. This centaur was discovered at a cemetery broken in half, with half in one person’s grave and the second half in the one next to it.

This next piece is a funerary vase and it shows the complex decoration typical of the Geometric style. In the bands, or registers of the vase we see the process of a funeral. The body of the deceased is placed on its side on a funeral bier (The Greeks had begun the new practice of cremation). We can see the mourners standing with their arms raised to their heads, an ancient expression of anguish, as the mourners literally tore out their hair. The bodies have been reduced to triangles and rectangles. No attempt has been made to show the forms in three-dimensional space. Despite this rigidity, we feel the strong accents of human loss.

Egyptian art, when dealing with death, explored the activities the deceased would enjoy in the afterlife; the Greeks focused on the emotions of those who survive in this life. According to the Greeks the deceased entered a place of mystery that we can not know. There was very little hope offered to the living, which led to an emphasis on the suffering of those left behind by the deceased.

By the seventh century BC vase painters were beginning to move away from the Geometric style. Painters were influenced by the arts of the Near East, Asia Minor, and Egypt. The Greeks were a sea-faring people and were re-establishing contact and trade with nations in these areas. They now began to use large and open motifs that included both real and imaginary animals, plants, and humans. This came to be known as the Orientalizing style and it began in Corinth, a port city that imported wares from the East. This pitcher is an Olpe, or a wide-mouthed pitcher which dates to 600 BC. You can see creatures painted in horizontal bands against a light background of stylized flowers. These flowers came to be know as rosettes. This is an example of black-figure pottery. It is decorated with dark shapes against a pale background which is the natural color of Corinthian clay. The artist has then incised the details inside the silhouetted shapes with a sharp tool and added touches of gloss, or clay slip to enhance his design.

The following description of Greek Painted Vase Techniques is from Art History by Stokstad. The three main techniques for decorating Greek painted vases were black-figure, red-figure and white-ground. The painters used a complex procedure that involved preparing a slip (a mixture of clay and water), applying the slip to the vessel, and carefully manipulating the firing process in a kiln (a closed oven) to control the amount of oxygen reaching the ceramics. This firing process involved three stages: in the first stage, oxygen was allowed into the kiln, which ‘fixed’ the whole vessel in one overall shade of red depending on the composition of the clay; then, in the second (reduction) stage, the oxygen in the kiln was cut back (reduced) to a minimum, turning the vessel black, and the temperature was raised to the point at which the slip partially vitrified (became glasslike); finally, in the third stage, oxygen was allowed back into the kiln, turning the unslipped areas back to a shade of red. The areas where slip had been applied, which were sealed against the oxygen, remained black. The ‘reds’ varied from dark terra-cotta to pale yellow.

In the black-figure technique, artists painted designs—figures, objects, or abstract motifs—with slip in silhouette on the clay vessels. Then using a sharp tool (a stylus) they cut through the slip to the body of the vessel, incising linear details within the silhouette. In the red-figure technique the approach was reversed. Artists painted the background around the figures with the slip and drew details within the figures with the same slip using a brush. In both techniques artists often enhanced their work with touches of white and reddish-purple gloss, pigments mixed with slip. Firing produced the distinctive black images.

White ground vases became popular in the Classical period. A highly refined clay slip produced the white ground on which the design elements were painted. After firing the vessel, the artists frequently added details and areas of bright and pastel hues using tempera, a paint made from egg yolks, water, and pigments. Because the tempera paints were fragile, these colors flaked off easily and few perfect examples have survived.

The Greek Potters created only a few vessel shapes. During the 6th Century BC Athens became the dominant center for pottery and trade and we move into the Archaic Period. The Athenians adopted the Corinthian black-figure techniques and at first they continued to decorate the vases with the traditional bands. An important transitional piece is this vase which dates to about 570BC. It is a volute krater, or a large vessel with a scroll-shaped or volute handles and was used for mixing the traditional Greek drink of wine and water. This was one of the earliest known vessels signed by both it’s potter (Ergotimos) and it’s painter. (Kleitias)

Kleitias was a great storyteller and this vase has over 200 figures that have been identified with inscriptions providing an important literary record. The main scene is the marriage of King Peleus to Thetis, a sea nymph. Together they would be the parents of Achilles. The different bands continue to tell more of the story. Even the footed base of the vase, which shows small warriors battling cranes, is the retelling of a story dating back to Homer.

Over time the Athenian painters decreased the number of bands and started making the figures larger, until generally one scene dominated the vase. A mid sixth century BC Amphora (a large, all purpose storage jar) illustrates this development. The depiction here is the wine god Dionysos with maenads, his female worshipers. This piece has been attributed to a painter called the Amasis Painter, because his work has such a distinctive style. Most of the Amasis Painter’s work is found on small vessels, so this is an exception. You can see the maenads arms around each other coming forward to present their offerings – a long eared rabbit and a small deer. These signify power over nature.

One of the finest of all of the Athenian artists is Exekias. He signed many of his vessels as both the artist and the painter, the inscription would read, Exekias made me. He was an expert of the Black figure method of vase painting and we can only be amazed at the details he was able to bring to life using this method.

Exekias took his subjects from Greek history. On this amphora he recounts an episode from the Trojan War. Ajax was a fearless Greek warrior, second only to Achilles in braverly. After Achilles died, however, the Greeks choose Odysseus to be his successor over Ajax. Along with his sorrow over losing his cousin Achilles and humiliation in being passed over Ajax prepared to commit suicide. Other artists frequently showed warriors after they had died, but Exekias chose to show Ajax as he prepared to die. He has set aside his helmet, shield, and spear and is crouching beneath a tree, planting his sword upright in the dirt so that he can fall upon it. There is balance in how Exekias has designed his work with two upright elements, the tree on the left and the shield on the right, framing and balancing Ajax in the center. The lines of the tree and the shield curve gently inward following the graceful line of the vase. The entire composition focuses our attention onto Ajax and his concentration on his work. It is a sad and poignant moment.

On this next vase, also created by Exekias, we see another unusual scene. When portraying gods and heroes, most Greek painters showed them either in battle, victory, or death. Here we have a Achilles and Ajax taking a break in their tent for a game of dice. Notice that Ajax’s shield is the same one as in the vase above. While they have set their shields aside they each still hold their weapons. The symmetry on this vase is also very graceful, reflecting the lines of the amphora. The details on the clothing are delicate and intricate. The two shields provide a frame for our heroes intent on their game. Neither Ajax nor Achilles would survive the Trojan War.