Greek Sculpture

General characteristics
The roots of this sculpture are oriental and present a clear Egyptian influence. But, with the time, Greek developed their own sculpture, based on the depiction of human body. Their worry was the depiction of beauty, expression, movement and volume.
The chronology signals and evolution with three periods: Archaic until 5th century BC, Classical, 5th and 4th centuries BC and Hellenistic from the end of 4th century BC to the Roman conquer in 1st century BC.

The ideals appear in the depiction of human body as the reincarnation of physical beauty and spiritual equilibrium. Beauty comes from the measure and proportion and from this evolved the idea of canon. Naked human body becomes the thematic axis of Greek sculpture.
Artists look for the expression, understood as the exteriorization of the feelings. In this spiritual and physical dimension mix together. But it is an idealised expression where quietness and serenity, added to perfect equilibrium, are the basis of that physical and spiritual beauty. Only during the Hellenism real feelings appear with less idealization.
Greek artists tend to depict movement. They began by adapting the images to the architectonical frame to create single images or groups in which different characters are related in a dynamic way. Movement reinforced expressive values.
Artists were worried about volume depiction. They quickly abandoned the Egyptian look at the front to conceit the sculpture to be seen from any point of view. Thanks to this flat depictions were left apart but for the walls and pediments.
Materials used are: limestone during the archaic period, and bronze. During the classicism white marble was preferred. Many Greek works we have knowledge of reach to our times through Roman copies in marble of bronze originals.

Archaic period (7th- 6th BC)
The most representative creations are the Kuros (young athletes naked) and the Kore (dressed woman, probably priest). There is a certain unity of style. In general, images are rigid, looking at the front. The kuroi are monumental, with the arms glued to the body in symmetric compositions. Hair is disposed in a geometric way, eyes are almond-shaped, articulations are rigid and they try to smile. They tried to depict with naturalism the anatomy even when they tend to geometry. Worried about life, artists followed an evolution towards naturalism.
Korai were votive sculptures made of terracotta or stone that were left in tombs as a sacrifice. They are of small size (at least compared to the Kuroi) and their body is quite a flat piece of marble, a bit smaller at the belly and with a bit of volume in the breast. The character of block is more evident than in the kuroi. They are not expressive and there is a tendency towards ecstatic idealization. Their hair is rigid, following the Egyptian stile, with different levels. They were the traditional peplum, with very few folders and pretty symmetric. Their aspect is rigid, mainly in the case of those wearing the Dorian peplum, while the Ionic is more asymmetric and dynamic, with abundant folders. Geometry is a mark of identity.

Transition to the Classicism. The way towards perfection.
Sculpture received its impulse from the relief. Around 500 BC the pediments of Egina and Olympia were done. They are samples of composed sculptures, where the images are accommodated to the architectonical frame. They are an example of the evolution towards naturalist forms, with moderate depiction of feelings. Images adopt natural attitudes, but they still being rigid, clashing with the first notes of movement. This major flexibility is completed with a bigger thematic variety.
Apart from the pediments mentioned, other good examples of this period are the Ludovisi throne, where the clothes permit the visualization of the feminine body, and the bronze of the Delphi’s Cart Rider, an ecstatic image with very expressive face, eyes that appear to be natural and polychrome in order to offer a more naturalistic image.

Classical plenitude. (5th -4th BC).
It is the golden age of Greek art, with the prototypes of classical beauty. It is Pericle’s century, a period of economic and political expansion. The ideal of beauty does not have just a physical dimension but a deep spiritual dimension too. Proportion and equilibrium are the basis for the Athenians citizenship that reaches a zenith with the triumph of the democracy.
Miron: He was the author of the Discobolous in which he expressed his interest in the depiction of human characters in movement. The composition is ambitious and multiplies points of view. Anatomic study is correct, with well worked muscles but the expression of the head does not belong to the moment of maximum effort depicted.
Polyclitus (theorist of human anatomy). His main worries were body proportions and the influence of the masses in the attitudes. In his work he theorised about the canon or rule. For him beauty stands in the harmony of the body. His work Doriforus, presents an idealised anatomy and the canon is 1/7, this is, the head is the seventh part of the body. Geometry influences in the depiction of some parts of the body, using perfect segments. The face is divided into three parts: forehead, nose and mouth. Everything is measured. The head is a perfect sphere to which hair is adapted. It is a depiction of perfection and rationality. Composition is asymmetric, with contraposto or a foot advance to demonstrate physical and spiritual equilibrium. This dynamism allowed the multiplication of points of view. Other work is Diadumenos.
Phidias (Creator of the prototypes that depict the ideal of classical beauty, the sculptor of Gods). His work is linked to Pericles and Athens. He directed the works of the Parthenon and the decoration of its walls, its metopes, triglyphs and the sculpture of Athenea Parthenos. He was reputed by the serene beauty of the faces, the flexibility and transparency of the clothes and the combination of equilibrium and life. His images are grandiose, with exquisite proportions. The relieves of the Parthenon are his best work due to the wise composition and the beauty and grandiosity of the attitudes. The technique of the wet clothes allowed him to depict the anatomy of the characters and accentuates the effect of the light on the surfaces.

Late Classicism (mid 4th century BC).
After the plenitude of the classicism there is a trend towards baroque sculptural forms, stylising the canons and losing the tighten orthodoxy of the complete equilibrium, harmony and proportion. This phenomenon is parallel to the historical moment of Greek history. The crisis of the democracy and the Peloponnesus Wars announced the dramatic expression that sculpture shows during this period. Realism can be seen in the proliferation of portrait. There is an intention of expressing human feelings. Religious subjects are treated as daily depictions, with more scepticism. Although classical idealism continues, sculptors tend to look for new forms or prototypes of ideal beauty. The main artists of the period are Praxitele, Scopas and Lyssipos.

Lyssipos with his work Apoxiomeno created a new canon of male beauty, longer and slimmer than Polyclitus. The head is now 1/8 of the body, with longer legs and less volume of the head. The subject is also different because it is not the triumphant athlete neither the moment of maximum tension, but the moment after the competition, nothing heroic, when the athlete is cleaning himself. It created a new spatial dimension at elongating the arms. It does not look at the front and the sculpture can be seen from any point of view.

Skopas represents the crisis of Phidias serenity. His images move with violence. The main are the Menade and Mausolo.

Praxitele in his works created human characters full of grace and without the majesty and seriousness of former periods. His images have the impression of being dreamers. The artist uses praxitelic bend to make the images indolent, with a body that curves. In the faces he used the sfumato, polishing the marble, especially around the eyes. These good transmit melancholic states of the soul, full of nostalgic feelings. Main works: Hermes of Olympia, Venus of Arles.

Hellenism (4th-1st BC)
It is a period of great chronological and geographical wideness where Greek tradition influenced the culture of other territories that were part of Alexandre’s empire. Classical tradition and oriental influences are mixed to create and express, through the art, a new conception of the life. They continue with the technical knowledge of classicism to which they add a deep realism. Disequilibrium is preferred to serene attitudes, drama to relaxed faces, and ugliness to classical beauty. Baroque work dominate, full of intense movement and tension.
Subjects are not the traditional (Gods, athletes, heroes). Artists look for inspiration in the life around themselves. The treatment is realistic and with deep psychology in the portrait, direct and sincere, without idealization. It is an attempt to individualise the portrayed person. Love Goddess is an important character of inspiration, but she appears in a great variety of attitudes. Daily characters and gestures are frequent. Old people, ugliness, imperfection, childhood, subjects before considered not important enough to be depicted now are the centre of sculpture. Relief reaches to depict the perspective of the backgrounds to create the illusion of deep sceneries. The unity of style of the former period is lost and there are several schools in Pergamun, Rhode, and Alexandria.
Rhode: Colossus, Samotracia’s Victory, Laoconte and his sons, Farnesio Bull.
Pergamun: Gale dying, Gigantomaquie.
Alexandria: The Nile.

Greek Architecture

Basic ideas
Greeks liked to create proportioned and equilibrated buildings. It is an architecture to be seen, not to enter in. Due to this the sculptural values and volumes are taken into account, as if the building was a sculpture. For the Greek artist beauty is proportion and measure, just the opposite to the architecture of some other old empires that developed a colossal architecture. Greek architecture has a human dimension, to honour their Gods, and it is just anti-colossal.

The way in which the polis were organised did not ease the development of a palace architecture but it paved the way for other buildings, both civilian and religious: theatres, sanctuaries, gymnasiums in which they combined the ideal of beauty with practical solutions according to city life.

The basic Greek building and the materialization of the aesthetic ideals is the temple, which is conceit as God’s residence, not as a place for praying. Due to this the inside lacks of importance while the exterior is carefully worked.

Urbanism had an important development. In Mileto the architect Hipodamo put into practice, for the first time, his orthogonal plan, with straight and uniform rooms, that would be the basis of modern urbanism in our times.

Building systems
Greek architecture is lintelled (this is, they use straight line in the superior part of doors and windows and in the covers). Horizontal and vertical lines, combined, offer the impression of serenity and equilibrium they aimed at achieving.

The column is the characteristic element, and its treatment defines the three architectonical orders (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian). The concept of order is the relation between the different parts of the building. Doric is the simplest style, with his column without basis, the shaft with lines ending in sharp edges and a simple capital, just with some mouldings. The tablature is divided in metopes and triglyphs. Ionic order is a bit higher and more stylised, with basis, column in which the shaft has lines but ending in blunt edges and the capital with volutes. The tablature is not divided vertically, but horizontally, with three bands. Corinthian is the most decorated. It is similar to the Ionic in the basis and the shaft but the capital is a kind of basket with acanthus leaves and small volutes. The tablature is similar to the Ionic.

The constructive materials were stone (limestone) and, during the classical period, white marble from the Penteliko. The stones of the walls are isodomus, this is, perfectly cut and ordered, without any kind of mortar. The buildings were polychrome.

Resources
Looking for visual harmony, Greek recoursed to several technical resources to correct the optical deformations a building produces when been seeing from the distance. Some of the measures taken were: the tablature and the estilobatus (last stair) are curved to the top in the middle; columns are curved to the middle, to eliminate the impression of fall, the entasis is the enlargement of the column in the middle, to avoid the impression of concavity. Columns in the sides are bigger than the rest so that from the distance all appear to be equal. The distance between columns is different too. All these imperfections made possible to see the building as perfect from the outside.

Greek temple

Its origins are in the pre-Hellenic megaron, which was built in wood. The structure is of a rectangular plan, with longitudinal axis. There are also temples with circular plan and centralised axis that are known as tholos.

The internal division consists of three rooms: the first one or porch, open to the outside is the pronao, the second one or main room is the nao or cella, where the chapel of the God and its gigantic sculpture were; the last room is the opistodomo, and its function was to keep the treasure of the temple.

Temples are located in isolated areas with holy character. The cult was celebrated in the outside, in front of the main temple. It was built on top a series of stairs or crepis to make it easier to be seen and separate from the humidity of the floor. The façade is the main part in which the orders are developed.

Typology of the temple
The classification is made taking into account the disposition and number of columns. Depending on the disposition, temples can be: antae when they have pillars in the lateral walls; when the building has columns in one of the façades is called prostyle, when the columns appear in frontal and back façades it is called amphiprostyle and when the building is surrounded by columns it is known as peristyle . When instead of a line of columns around this is double we are in front of a dipter temple. Finally, the circular temple is monpter because it has one line of columns.

The second classification depends on the number of columns in the main façade and the temple can be tetrastile with four columns, hexastile with six and octastile with eight.

In some areas, as in the case of Athens, the religious buildings are concentrated in a holy place that is known as the Acropolis.

Greek theatre
The plays had a chorus of up to fifty people, for whom the orchestra or first line of sites was. The centre was called skene and it was a circular space. The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand. Mathematics played a large role in the construction of these theatres, as their designers had to able to create acoustics in them such that the actors' voices could be heard throughout the theatre, including the very top row of seats. Other element was the paraskenia or wall behind the scene and behind it was the proskenion that separated the audience from the stage. In this area there were rooms for material and other elements of the theatre.

Other buildings
They were related to civil life:
· The propylon or porch, forming the entrance to temple sanctuaries (the best-surviving example is the one of the Acropolis of Athens
· The fountain house, a building where women filled their vases with water from a public fountain;
· The stoa, a long narrow hall with an open colonnade on one side, which was used to house rows of shops in the agoras (commercial centres) of Greek towns
· The palestra or a gymnasium, the social centre for male citizens. These peripterally enclosed space open to the sky were used for athletic contests and exercise.
· Greek towns also needed at least one bouleterion or council chamber, a large public building which served as a court house and as a meeting place for the town council.