Greek Art (Fifth Edition 2016) by JOHN BOARDMAN PDF
Greek Art (Fifth Edition 2016) by JOHN BOARDMAN PDF
Greek Art (Fifth Edition 2016) by JOHN BOARDMAN PDF
Introduction
CHAPTER
Archaic Greek Art
3
CHAPTER
Hellenistic Art
6
CHAPTER
Greek Art and the Greeks
7
CHAPTER
The Legacy
8
Chronological Chart
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Copyright
Preface to the Fifth Edition
2 Achilles binds the wounds of his companion
Patroklos at Troy. Interior of an Athenian red-figure
cup by the Sosias Painter. About 500 BC. From
Vulci. (Berlin, Staatliche Museen 2278)
GEOMETRIC VASES
The full Geometric period belongs to the 9th
and 8th centuries BC. It begins with, or rather
slowly develops from, the relative obscurity of
the Protogeometric, and ends with a new,
prosperous Greece of strong cities, whose
merchants and families were already travelling
far from the home waters of the Aegean to
trade and settle, and whose nobles were
already looking for something of the luxury
and the trappings of court life as it was known
in the older civilizations of the Near East and
Egypt, and as it had been known in Greece’s
own Golden Age of Heroes, the Bronze Age.
On the vases we soon begin to see a new
repertory of patterns as well as the decorative
development of old ones. The vases are girt
by continuous bands of meanders, zigzags
and triangles, to name only the most popular
motifs [19]. The circles and semicircles are
seen less often. The friezes are divided from
each other by neat triple lines, and the pat-
terns themselves may be drawn in outline and
hatched. Several new vase shapes are intro-
duced, as well as refinements of the old, to
suit the more varied needs of a more prosper-
ous and sophisticated community. While in the
Protogeometric period the artist confined his
decoration to clearly defined areas of the
vase, the Geometric painter soon let friezes of
zigzags and meanders cover the whole ves-
sel, filling in the blank spaces of the earlier
vases with strips of simple pattern. The overall
effect is fussy, but precise, and the shape is
still well enough expressed by setting the em-
phatic patterns at the neck, shoulder or
between the handles. But it looks as though
the artist was more intent on the patterns
themselves, and variants upon them, to the
detriment of the general effect of the vase as
an expression of the wedded crafts of potter
and painter. The zones are broken into panels
with individual motifs of circles, swastikas or
diamonds, and the resultant chequered ap-
pearance has a depressingly rhythmic and
mechanical effect. There seems almost a di-
vergence of purpose, perhaps already a spe-
cialization of role, potter and painter, and it is
possible to find two painters’ hands on a
single vase.
19 An Athenian Geometric crater with meanders,
zigzags and early representations of horses. The lid
knob is fashioned as a small jug. About 800 BC.
Height 57 cm. (Louvre A 514)
OTHER ARTS
The figure style of the Geometric vases reap-
pears on many other objects, in other materi-
als. We know about these from the richer gifts
which now accompany burials, and from their
appearance as offerings in sanctuaries – both
the national sanctuaries at Delphi and
Olympia which attracted dedications from all
over the Greek world and sometimes outside
it, and the local shrines. Their relevance to the
life of the craftsman can be judged by the fact
that many seem to have been made locally to
serve the visiting market. This indicates a de-
gree of specialization to serve religious needs
as well as the obvious domestic ones, of life
or cult (funerals), that were the stock occupa-
tion of craftsmen at home.
Figures resembling the more elaborate
painted examples are found incised on the flat
catchplates or bows of safety-pins (fibulae)
found in Athens and Euboea as early as the
9th century, and made in a more elaborate
form in Boeotia towards the end of our period
[25]. There are simpler figures impressed on
gold bands found on the bodies of the dead,
but these succeed a more thoroughgoing Ori-
entalizing type with animal friezes. Another
early intimation of the influence of the Near
East is the resumption of seal-engraving in
Greece. There are 9th-century seals of ivory
and in the 8th century stone ones made in the
islands – simple square stamps with designs
which are wholly Geometric and not Eastern
in spirit [26].
25 Bronze safety-pin (fibula), its pin missing, made
in Boeotia about 700 BC but found in Crete. One
side of the catchplate shows a duel over a ship; the
other, a hero fighting twin warriors. Length 21 cm.
(Athens 11765)
26 Impression of a Geometric stone seal showing a
centaur (horse-man) attacked by a bowman, pos-
sibly Heracles. Width 2.2 cm. (Paris, BN M 5837)
VASE PAINTING
The most obvious effects of the Orientalizing
revolution are observed in a field largely ig-
nored by the Easterner but which, as we have
already seen, meant much to the Greeks. Few
if any Greeks saw the figure painting on
Assyrian walls, but on the imported bronzes
and ivories the Greeks found an art which was
as conventional as their own Geometric,
though far more realistic. The strictly profile or
frontal views were the rule but the masses of
the body were more accurately observed, and
anatomical detail stylized into more realistic
patterns. They also found a variety of floral
devices such as Geometric art had shunned,
both as the principal subject of a pattern and
as subsidiary decoration. Changes in the vari-
eties of background-filling motifs used in figure
scenes suggest that foreign textiles too might
have been influential. These new styles had
their effect in different ways in the various
pottery-producing centres of Greece, as in the
other arts. The animals may have done little
more than enliven or even energize what they
decorated though the monsters soon found a
role in Greek myth; the human figures allowed
more implicit narrative than had the Geomet-
ric; while the floral carried both a message of
fertility and provided near-abstract motifs in
which the artist could build essays in design-
symmetry and create framing patterns which
were to become an integral element in Greek
art.
In Corinth, a powerful state guarding the
landward approach to the Peloponnese from
the north as well as the east–west passage
across a narrow isthmus, the Geometric styles
of Athens had been matched, as in other
Greek states, but figure scenes were gener-
ally avoided and instead we see a fondness
for precise drawing of simple Geometric pat-
terns. This meant that without a strong tradi-
tion in Geometric figure drawing, like the
Athenian, Corinthian artists were perhaps the
more prepared to accept the new figure styles,
and the intricate floral friezes. These they ad-
apted in various ways [43]. The silhouette
style of Geometric figure painting was also in-
adequate when it came to the detailing of
eyes, manes and muscles and to showing
overlapping figures in vigorous action. The
Corinthian painters invented a new technique
in which the figures are drawn still in silhou-
ette but details are incised, to show the pale
clay beneath in thin clear lines. Red and white
paint came to be used also to pick out odd
features, like ribs or hair [44]. This new tech-
nique we call black figure, and it is practised
first on vases called Protocorinthian by ar-
chaeologists (to distinguish them from the
later Archaic Corinthian series). It could have
been inspired by the incised decoration of
Eastern bronzes and ivories; the only alternat-
ive technique, as we shall see, could have
been outline drawing or a greater disposition
of colour than was available to simple vase
painting. At its very best the style is miniatur-
ist, and tiny figures barely one inch high are
painted – etched, rather – on the small
perfume-flasks (aryballoi) which seem to have
been one of the most important products of
Corinth’s potters’ quarter [45]. Larger figures
are rarely attempted, but a version without the
incision was used to decorate with figures the
clay metopes on some 7th-century architec-
ture in central Greece (e.g. at Thermon). The
decoration is set in friezes round the vase, as
it had been in the preceding period. Animals
are the main subjects (lions, goats, bulls and
birds), but there are some new monsters too,
re-introduced from the East – sphinxes,
griffins and similar creatures. These, and the
lions, had already appeared on some Geo-
metric vases but then their forms had been
geometricized by the artists [23]. Now the new
conventions are observed; their bodies fill out,
jaws gape, tongues loll, ribs and muscles
bulge. Some Eastern models are still closely
observed, and the Syrian type of lion gives
place to the pointed-nose Assyrian. The back-
ground is filled with small dot rosettes or ab-
stract motifs just as on the Geometric vases
where linear patterns were used to fill the
gaps which the painter would not leave empty.
The creatures generally pace aimlessly round
the vase, but sometimes they are posed her-
aldically facing each other over a floral, itself a
version of the Eastern Tree of Life. There are
very few scenes with human figures but to-
wards the middle of the 7th century we find
more heroic episodes as well as a number of
battle scenes showing the latest hoplite tactics
with disciplined ranks of bronze-clad soldiers
[46]. Floral friezes – the Eastern lotus and bud
or palmette – appear on the shoulders of the
vases, while below the main frieze there may
often be a smaller one with a row of animals
or a hare-hunt. At the base upward-pointing
rays recall the spiky lotus blossoms which
decorate the rounded bases of many Eastern
and Egyptian vases.
43 A Protocorinthian perfume-flask (aryballos) with
the new outline-drawn repertory of animals and flor-
als including a stylized Eastern Tree of Life. About
700 BC. Height 6.8 cm. (London 1969,1215.1)
44 A Protocorinthian jug (olpe) with friezes of
sphinxes and animals, including dogs chasing a
hare, in the black-figure technique with the charac-
teristic dot-rosettes. About 640 BC. Height 32 cm.
(Munich 8964)
45 A Protocorinthian perfume-flask (the Macmillan
aryballos) with its neck moulded as a lion’s head.
The friezes have florals, a fight, riders, a hare-hunt
and rays – all on a vase barely 7 cm high. From
Thebes. About 650 BC. (London 1889,0418.1)
OTHER ARTS
The conventions of Greek Orientalizing art,
which we best observe on the vases, determ-
ine also the decoration of other objects and
other materials. Besides the painted vases
there are large clay jars with decoration in low
relief. These are best known in Crete, Boeotia
and in the Greek islands, and the scenes on
them, freely modelled or impressed, introduce
us to some new subjects in the artist’s reper-
tory, including the Trojan Horse [55]. Engaging
small vases in the shape of animals or heads
were made as perfume-flasks, and we have
already seen the necks of vases moulded as
griffins’ or lions’ heads. Clay and bronze figur-
ines reflect the styles of larger works in stone,
and painted clay revetments begin to appear,
to protect the wooden parts of buildings, or as
decoration on temples and altars [56]. Sheet-
bronze is often used for the sheathing of parts
of furniture or weapons. On it we find the early
technique of hammering with beaten details,
for floral or figure scenes. A different tech-
nique involves incision of detail lines and ap-
pears at its best on the decorative cut-out
plaques made in Crete [54] and a number of
shield blazons found at Olympia. One offers a
characteristic Greek treatment of an Eastern
monster, tamed and domesticated: a mother
griffin suckling her young [57].
54 Cut-out bronze plaque in very low relief with in-
cised details, of a type peculiar to Crete. Two hunts-
men, one with a wild goat (ibex) on his shoulders.
About 630 BC. Height 18 cm. (Louvre MNC 689)
55 The neck of a clay relief vase found on
Mykonos. The Trojan Horse, on wheels, the Greeks
within it shown as through windows out of which
they hold their weapons. Others have dismounted
already. The body of the vase has panels showing
the slaughter at Troy. About 650 BC. Height of frieze
35 cm. (Mykonos)
56 The monstrous Gorgon with her child, the
winged horse Pegasus, on a clay relief which may
have decorated the end or side of an altar at Syra-
cuse. Her kneeling pose is the Archaic convention
for running or flying. Her face is that of a humanoid
lion. About 600 BC. Height 55 cm. (Syracuse)
57 Cut-out bronze plaque from Olympia, with in-
cised details, showing a mother griffin with her
young. This was probably the blazon from a
wooden shield. About 600 BC. Height 77 cm.
(Olympia)
The stone seals which were being cut at
the end of the Geometric period were re-
placed in the Peloponnese by ivory. In the is-
lands, however, an unexpected source in-
spired an important new school of stone-seal
engravers. Fine Mycenaean and Minoan seals
found in plundered tombs or in fields were
studied by artists on Melos, who copied the
shapes of the stones and, as soon as they
had mastered the technique (on softer
stones), some of the distinctive motifs. For the
most part, however, they used the Orientaliz-
ing animal and monster devices which we see
on island vases [58]. These Island Gems –
once mistaken for prehistoric – provide a con-
tinuous tradition of engraving until well into the
6th century, when a new source introduces
new shapes and initiates a more fruitful tradi-
tion. In the islands again, and East Greece,
goldsmiths exploit to the full their newly
mastered techniques in some of the finest
decorative jewellery we have from antiquity
[59].
58 An Island Gem of serpentine showing a lion and
a dolphin. About 600 BC. Length 2.2 cm. (Paris, BN
N 6)
59 A gold roundel. On the petals are pairs of gold
flies, human (Daedalic) heads and bulls’ heads.
Probably made in one of the Greek islands
(Melos?) in about 625 BC. Width 4 cm. (Paris, BN)
SCULPTURE
Of larger works of art in this early period we
know very little. Wall-paintings there may have
been, but we can only guess about them from
their hypothetical influence upon vase paint-
ing, and the influence might as easily have
passed the other way. Wooden sculpture
there must have been and there are literary
references to early cult statues of wood
(xoana) but they were probably very primitive
in appearance, although they could have been
large. Nothing wooden has been preserved
except for a few statuettes from the water-
logged temple site on Samos [60]. The
hammered bronze sheathing of wooden
statuettes at Dreros, in Crete, displays forms
akin to other early Orientalizing hammered
work in bronze and gold, of 8th-century date.
60 A wooden loving couple from the Heraeum of
Samos showing a god and goddess, perhaps Zeus
and Hera, with the eagle between their heads. A
heavily orientalized Greek style of about 620 BC.
Height 18 cm. (Samos)
COLOUR
A white marble statue of Queen Elizabeth II
was recently unveiled to popular acclaim. If it
had been realistically coloured it would not
have been taken so seriously, but consigned
to the status of ‘popular art’ or for the likes of a
waxworks museum. All coloured sculpture
today is so regarded however skilfully made
(e.g. by Jeff Koons, or even the occasional se-
lection for the Royal Academy). This is be-
cause the Renaissance’s knowledge of ‘clas-
sical sculpture’ was of marbles robbed of all
colour by time, or blackened bronzes. So it
has remained. When archaic sculpture which
had not been long buried in antiquity was
found coloured (as our [78, 80, 83]) it seemed
not too inappropriate to its apparently unsoph-
isticated (i.e. not totally realistic) style. Re-
search over the last fifty years has demon-
strated without any doubt that all classical
marble sculpture, down well into the Roman
period, was realistically painted, that different
alloys of bronze could create sunburned and
paler effects, and that classical architecture
too, even columns and walls, was coloured.
Ancient Athens was not the scrubbed clean
and crisp city of popular imagination and
scholarly reconstruction, but a riot of colour,
however hard this may be for us to stomach.
Medieval European art was not without colour.
One 19th-century English artist recognized the
truth, but seldom dared follow the ‘right’ path
[65].
65 A version of Praxiteles’ Venus with body colour
added and placed in a classical shrine, by John
Gibson, about 1851–56. (Liverpool, Walker Art
Gallery)
ARCHITECTURE
The only public buildings of any importance,
which might have encouraged elaboration of
design and display, had been temples, and we
cannot say whether other states emulated the
palatial scale of the early Lefkandi building
[15] for what was presumably a ruling family.
Otherwise the Greeks had been used to fairly
simple brick or stone structures with no decor-
ative elaboration beyond the occasional use of
a narrow sculptural frieze on walls, in the
Eastern manner. In Egypt they saw massive
stone architecture and stone columns with
carved capitals, all highly coloured.
In Greece already at least one temple (on
Samos) had been given an encircling stone
colonnade in the 7th century and the Greeks
were not slow to take the hint about the elab-
oration of a feature which had emerged as an
integral element in their architecture in the Le-
fkandi building. In origin it perhaps did no
more than distinguish the building as a house
of the god and provide a covered ambulatory
round the walls of the one-roomed cella which
held the cult statue. In practical terms it could
support overhanging thatch or eaves and
provide a covered area from which to watch
processions, like later stoai. The Eastern con-
tribution was in the patterns of stone bases
and furniture which were copied by Ionian ar-
chitects, and in the occasional use of figures
in the place of columns in temple porches.
The beginnings of the major stone orders
of architecture in Greece [66, 67] can be
traced back to the 7th century. In mainland
Greece the Doric order was evolved, with
simple columns, reminiscent of both Mycenae-
an and Egyptian types, having cushion capit-
als, fluted shafts and no bases. The upper
works were divided rhythmically into a frieze
of triglyphs (the vertical bands) and metopes
(at first painted, later sculptured) which were a
free adaptation of the woodwork in these parts
of earlier buildings. A triglyph was normally
centred over a column below, which could
prove awkward in designing the corners; I
suspect the Greeks worried less about this ‘tri-
glyph problem’ than modern scholars. In East
Greece and the islands the other major order
of stone architecture, the Ionic, borrowed its
decorative forms from the repertory of Orient-
alizing art, with volutes and florals which in the
Near East had never graced anything larger
than wooden or bronze furniture, or – like the
volute capitals of Cyprus and Phoenicia – had
never formed an element of any true architec-
tural order. The first capitals (known at
Smyrna [68] and Phocaea) are bell-shaped
with lotus and overlapping leaf patterns in re-
lief upon them. They are followed by the Aeol-
ic capitals, with the volutes springing from the
shafts [69], which give way to the broader Ion-
ic, with the volutes eventually linked. The
column shafts have more flutes than the Dor-
ic, with, in time, flat ridges between them.
There are bases too – swelling tori and discs,
elaborately fluted like the carefully turned
wooden furniture which inspired them. Some
of the earliest Ionic columns served as bases
for votive statues, such as the sphinx dedica-
tions made by Naxians at Delphi [70] and on
Delos. On Ionic buildings the upper works
over the colonnades are simpler than the Dor-
ic, but an important feature is the continuous
frieze, which is sometimes decorated with fig-
ures, or plain with carved beam-ends (dentils).
Altogether there is much more variety in the
Ionic order, more superficial ornament and
decoration [71]. It seems ornate and fussy be-
side the Doric, and the contrast was one hap-
pily exploited by architects of the Classical
period and in the Western colonies.
66 The Orders. The Doric order was developed by
about 600 BC. In Ionic architecture, from the mid-6th
century, the frieze is either sculpted (A) or a row of
dentils over decorative mouldings (B). Both may ap-
pear in different places on one building (the Erech-
theion) and from the 4th century on may be com-
bined
67 The Doric temple of Hera (the so-called Basilica)
at Paestum in central Italy. A good example of the
early cigar-shaped columns with bulging capitals.
Mid-6th century BC
68 Column capital from the unfinished Temple of
Athena at Old Smyrna, overthrown by the Lydians
about 600 BC. Carved in leaf patterns which appear
still between the volutes of later Ionic capitals.
Height 62 cm. (Izmir)
SCULPTURE
Of the statuary in the round the kouros figures
of naked youths, with their set, symmetrical
stance, hands clenched at the sides, one foot
advanced, remain unchanged in pose
throughout our period [73, 74], and so serve
as a useful standard on which to observe the
advances in technique and treatment which
are registered in different ways on other fig-
ures.
73 Marble kouros from Tenea in south Greece.
About 550 BC. Height 1.35 m. (Munich 168)
74 Marble kouros from a cemetery near Athens
(Anavysos). On the base was inscribed the verse,
‘Stop and grieve at the tomb of the dead Kroisos,
slain by wild Ares in the front rank of battle.’ About
530 BC. Height 1.94 m. (Athens 3851)
VASE PAINTING
Decorating clay vases seldom called for high
art, though some of the artists so occupied
were consummate draughtsmen. Their wares
were not expensive (a day’s wage for a de-
cent small vase) but some specialist produc-
tion, first in Corinth and later in Athens, won
markets all over and beyond the Greek world.
It must have looked as unusual and desirable
to many as Chinese porcelain did at first to
Europeans. It was not quite as novel every-
where, and regional schools in Greece are
busy through much of the 6th century, but
Athenian potters won rich markets in Etruria
and the Western Greek colonies, and held
them until local competition in South Italy
provided a real alternative. What attracted
must have been the quality of the potting, with
its fine black gloss paint, and the narrative en-
tertainment of the figure decoration. Such a
massive trade in breakables must have made
a lot of money for the middlemen. Its survival
qualities make it important for us as a field for
study in its own right and for what it may teach
about other and senior crafts.
By the end of the 7th century the Athenian
vase painter had adopted wholeheartedly the
black-figure technique, which had already
been practised at Corinth for a century. With it
came also the animal frieze style of Corinth,
and for a generation or more the greater part
of Athens’ vases is covered with rows of anim-
als – lions, goats, boars, sphinxes. But the
monumental character of Athens’ pottery had
not been forgotten, and while at Corinth the
gross creatures wandered lost in a maze of
filling rosettes in a repetitive, mass-produced
style, the Athenian beasts were better man-
aged. The Nessos Painter was one of the first
to use black figure in Athens. He still painted
large funeral vases, and beasts upon them
are commensurately massive, precisely and
boldly drawn in a manner not matched in Cor-
inth. And the narrative scenes persist beside
the animals on many vases, generally taking
the prior position. The success of this new
style in Athenian black-figure pottery is shown
by the way it penetrates markets hitherto
served only by Corinth.
92 Sarcophagus from the Troad. The man buried
within it seeks to equate his tomb with the one
taken to be that of Achilles nearby. It shows the
sacrifice of the Trojan princess Polyxena at Achilles’
tomb mound: a bid for association with the ‘heroic’
past. (Cesme)
OTHER ARTS
There are countless smaller objects, in clay,
bronze or more precious materials, upon
which the artists lavished their skills. Gener-
ally the style and subject-matter of the decora-
tion is as that of the major or better documen-
ted arts such as sculpture and vase painting,
but occasionally the special demands of ma-
terial, technique or purpose, or the inspiration
of different foreign models, produced original
and new art forms. The customers were not
always the very rich, it seems.
Figurines in clay, mass-produced from a
mould and generally painted before being
fired, are common dedications in sanctuaries,
but they were naturally not accorded any
place of honour and were from time to time
swept out or buried to make way for more.
The same figures, of men, women, gods or
animals, could serve as offerings in a grave,
toys for children or household decoration. The
original models, from which the moulds were
made, were often fine works of miniature
sculpture, to which the decorative figurines
which abound on sites and in museums rarely
do justice. A different class is the hollow
figure-vase serving as a perfume-flask [120].
The type had been known in the 7th century
and is further elaborated in the 6th. Clay fig-
ures in the round or in relief also serve as re-
vetments, acroteria or gutter terminals on the
smaller buildings, and some of these are not-
able works of art, especially those from
Western Greek sites (in Sicily and South Italy)
[119]. Here there was no fine white marble
and techniques of minor and major clay statu-
ary were soon highly developed.
119 Clay antefix for a roof from Gela in Sicily.
Satyrs are by this time often shown with human
ears, but these are still animal. Early 5th century BC.
Height 19.5 cm. (Gela)
120 Clay figure-vase of a youth binding his hair.
Probably Athenian, and from Athens. About 530 BC.
Height 25.5 cm. (Agora P 1231)
ATHENS
The gaudy pleated chiton in which the Archaic
korai were dressed is generally replaced now
by the heavier peplos, which leaves the arms
bare and has a heavy, straight overfall to the
waist [79]. The change in fashion also offered
a style of dress which seems more in keeping
with the new spirit and has helped character-
ize the Early Classical in Greece as the
Severe Style. The simple broad folds hang
naturally and acknowledge realistically the
shape of the body beneath. The peplos fig-
ures sometimes seem heavy and dull. There
is little to show for the style in Athens [138]
where there are no carved tombstones of this
date to display the new dignity which would
have suited them so well, but we may look for
examples on tombstones from the Greek is-
lands [139]. Here the narrow type of stele with
a palmette finial, which had been invented in
the islands of East Greece and had been
copied by Athens in the 6th century, was still
being made. The islands, a source of fine
statuary marble even after the resources of
Athens’ Mount Pentelikon had been realized
and exploited, always had important studios,
and the sanctuary island of Delos in their
midst attracted rich offerings. East Greece,
too, despite the even more imminent and con-
tinuing Persian threat, still had an active
sculptural tradition, more often now turned to
the service of their Persian-dominated neigh-
bours in Lydia, Lycia or Caria. It was East
Greek masons whom the Persians had taken
to work on their homeland palaces. Works of
the Classical period in Asia Minor attest a re-
gionalism, indeed a form of delayed archaism,
generated by the past history of the Graeciz-
ing arts of Lydia, Lycia and Phrygia, and by
Persian taste, which tended to favour the Ar-
chaic over the Classical. It became influential
far to the east. There is a similar degree of
‘sub-archaism’ to be detected also among the
western Greeks. For the pure Classical, we
must stay with Athens.
138 Votive relief from the Athenian Acropolis show-
ing Athena reading a decree or list of citizens fallen
in battle, whence the pensive pose. Her peplos has
a long belted overfall in the Athenian manner. About
470 BC. Height 48 cm. (Acr. 1707)
139 Gravestone of a girl from one of the Greek is-
lands, probably Paros. The lid of the box she holds
is on the floor. Her loose peplos is open all down
the side. About 450 BC. Height 1.39 m. (Berlin 1482)
FOURTH CENTURY
The 4th century was a troubled time for the
Greek world. Athens struggled to regain her
supremacy, while new powers and leagues
arose to challenge her position and that of
Sparta: first the Thebans, then the Macedoni-
ans, and it was the Macedonian Alexander
who, from 336 until his death in 323 BC, com-
pletely changed the course and climate of
Greek life and political thought. In the arts this
century saw important innovations and experi-
ment, although still rigidly within the frame-
work of the 5th-century Classical tradition. The
ethos of Phidian and Polyclitan sculpture still
pervaded the more sober studies, like those of
senior divinities. In sculpture greater attention
was paid to figures in the round, and a final
break made with the earlier one-view figures
in compositions which positively invite the
spectator to move round them by the twist of
the body, by contrasted directions of gaze and
gesture, or by a pose which from no one posi-
tion offered a fully satisfactory view of all im-
portant features. All this lends a sort of con-
trolled restlessness, which only broke out into
near-Baroque abandon in the succeeding
period. Dress was treated with greater skill
and virtuosity. The transparent drapery which
leaves the body beneath almost naked re-
mained popular and could only have been
achieved through the modelling technique em-
ployed to make the originals, for copying in
marble or casting in bronze.
In the treatment of the naked body it
seemed that all anatomical problems had
been solved and attention could be paid to the
quality and texture of flesh and muscle [155].
This leads for the first time to a deliberate sen-
suality in the rendering of women. At the end
of the 5th century Aphrodite could be shown in
closely clinging drapery. Now she is naked,
and so successful was Praxiteles in his cult
statue of the goddess at Cnidus that (in later
times) the marble was exhibited under peep-
show conditions and was even the object of
indecent assault. (My illustration below [173]
shows a Roman copy, and [65] a 19th-century
version.) Certainly a new dexterity in the
carving and finishing of white marble contrib-
uted to this effect. We can judge it from the
Hermes at Olympia [156], almost certainly a
close later copy of the original from Praxiteles’
hand, waxed and polished by generations of
temple attendants. The relaxed languor of the
figure just stops short of effeminacy to our
eyes. The athlete statues of the day present
new proportions – heavier bodies, smaller
heads – an adjustment from the Polyclitan
canon which is associated with the name of
Lysippus. In the treatment of the heads them-
selves there is the same softening and relax-
ing of the set Classical features which can be
observed in the carving of the bodies, but the
conventions of the ideal Phidian head were
not forgotten. For deities or figures at rest the
convention is a satisfying one [157]. Its unreal-
ity when applied to figures in violent action or
under emotional stress was at last acknow-
ledged.
155 Bronze statue of a boy retrieved from a wreck
off Marathon. The eyes are inset limestone, with
glass pupils; the nipples inlaid in copper. About 330
BC. Height 1.3 m. (Athens 15118)
156 Hermes holds the infant Dionysus, after an ori-
ginal work of about 340 BC by Praxiteles, which
stood just inside the Temple of Hera at Olympia.
Height 2.15 m. (Olympia)
157 Seated figure, perhaps a cult statue, from the
sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Cnidus. The
head was made in a separate piece of finer marble.
About 330 BC. Height 1.47 m. (London
1859,1226.26)
PORTRAITURE
It was a short step from this to the representa-
tion of the particular in both identity and emo-
tion, and in an age of great names – generals
and emperors – experience gained in portray-
al of specific emotions was readily transferred
to the problems of individual portraiture. At
first most of the subjects chosen were the
great men of the past, artists and politicians.
As there can rarely have been any contempor-
ary portraits of them, other than written de-
scriptions, the heads were more like charac-
terizations of personality in the light of what
was known of temperament and achieve-
ments. Greek portraits were of the whole fig-
ure, though we know them best from later
copies where the head or bust alone is
rendered. This almost idealized portraiture re-
mained a feature of Greek work. It tried to ex-
press ethos at the expense of realism, where
Roman portraiture (or rather, portraiture for
Romans, since Greek artists were still nor-
mally the executants) sought this end through
the equally effective means of sheer realism.
On the fringes of the Greek world portrait-
ure of contemporaries was admitted even be-
fore Alexander the Great’s appointment of a
Court Artist for this work (Lysippus). On the
great Mausoleum (see below) the features of
a Carian prince [159] combine portraiture with
a degree of ethnic appraisal.
159 Statue of a Carian noble (the so-called Mausol-
us) from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The
non-hellenic features and wild hair are a good eth-
nic characterization by a Greek sculptor working for
Carians. About 350 BC. Nearly twice lifesize. (Lon-
don 1857,1220.232)
ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTURE
With the eclipse of Athens and shift of power
in Greece we have to look elsewhere for ar-
chitectural practice which relies less and less
on the Athenian tradition. At Bassae, near Phi-
galeia, hidden in the mountains of Arcadia,
stood a Doric Temple of Apollo said to have
been designed by the architect of the Parthen-
on himself, Ictinus. Although intact to just be-
low its roof it was lost to the Western world
until 1765. Provincial in position and work-
manship, it incorporated dramatic new fea-
tures: a side door to the cella with the cult
statue facing it, Ionic capitals of unique pattern
with high swinging volutes for the engaged
columns within and a single example of a new
type of capital, the Corinthian [160]. This has
small volutes at each corner and a girdle of
acanthus leaves beneath. It was more versat-
ile than the Ionic capital, offering the same as-
pect from all sides, and it served the same
type of column and other mouldings, but not
until the Roman period did it become really
popular. The addition of the acanthus marks
the beginning of a new range of Greek floral
decoration, widely applied in all media and at
all scales. This temple, too, though Doric, had
a frieze, here running round the top of the wall
inside the cella. The stockier, more athletic fig-
ures of Greeks and Amazons [161], Lapiths
and centaurs, are in marked contrast to the
Classical Athenian style, but betray character-
istics which had long been the hallmark of
sculpture in southern Greece. The dress has
the clinging quality we observed at Athens to-
wards the end of the 5th century.
160 Restored drawing (by F. Krischen) of the interi-
or of the Temple of Apollo at Bassae. The Ionic
columns are engaged on the side walls and at the
end stands a Corinthian column, opposite a side
door (invisible here). About 400 BC
161 Frieze from the interior of the Temple of Apollo
at Bassae. Greeks fight Amazons. About 400 BC.
Height 63 cm. (London 1815,1020.21)
OTHER ARCHITECTURE
Monumental tomb architecture was still un-
known in Greece itself but there was a grow-
ing variety of other monumental buildings,
both temples and public buildings. Theatres
regularly received elaborated entrance pas-
sages. The stage buildings were given archi-
tectural façades, usually functional, for stage
front and scenery, but nothing yet to rival
those of the Roman period. Eventually a
raised stage was added [164]. Tiers of carved
marble seats replaced the bare slopes of the
hillside which in earlier theatres overlooked
the flat dancing-floor – orchestra. Colonnades
and façades were bound still by the Classical
orders, but increasing use was made of the
Corinthian capital, and interesting new
ground-plans developed. There had been few
circular and apsidal temples in Greece before
the Tholos at Delphi, but here the canonic
Doric order of the outer colonnade was
answered by slim Corinthian columns en-
gaged on the interior of the walls. Yet another
circular building offered an example of the
new style in subsidiary decoration – the plump
and pithy Archaic florals translated by now in-
to writhing hothouse shrubs at the sanctuary
of the healing god Asclepius, at Epidaurus,
where we have the Classic statement of what
a Corinthian capital should be [165]. Among
other monumental buildings we find now
council-houses and music-halls, stoa-shops
and hotels. The city-states were becoming
better and better equipped with public build-
ings to serve their citizens, while private archi-
tecture remained unpretentious. The houses
in 4th-century Olynthus in north Greece
provided modest if rather crowded accom-
modation for acomfortable middle class, with
uniform terrace-style houses, the courtyards
all facing the southern sun, and the odd one
affording a mosaic floor. But the day of the
palace and luxurious private house was not
far off – when new public buildings in old
Greece were as often as not the gifts of
princes overseas.
164 Reconstruction drawing of the theatre at Priene
in its Hellenistic form, with a raised stage and pan-
els between the engaged columns for setting stage
scenery. The theatre seated more than five thou-
sand
165 A Corinthian capital from Epidaurus, evidently
a model prepared by the architect for masons
carving capitals to be installed on the Tholos. About
350 BC. Height 66 cm. (Epidaurus)
WESTERN GREEKS
Most of the Greek cities in Sicily and South
Italy were founded in the later 8th and 7th
centuries BC. They quickly grew rich and
powerful. In the early 5th century they suc-
cessfully resisted the power of Carthage, and
they were soon being courted by the cities of
mainland Greece for their support in internal
disputes. Their rulers and tyrants made great
show in Greece, with their victories in the
Olympic chariot-races [137], and no mortal
prince of that day could have wished for more.
The outward signs of the wealth of the
Western cities are the temples they built at
home, and the pavilions and presents they
dedicated at the major sanctuaries of the
Greek homeland. Their architecture was pre-
dominantly Doric but it admitted Ionic details,
and sometimes even Ionic columns. In the
wide spacing of porches and colonnades
(pseudo-dipteral) some of the temples seem
to be deliberately planned in emulation of the
great temples built in East Greece. Much of
the most impressive architecture with sculp-
ture is Archaic (as at Paestum and Selinus),
continuing into the 5th century, with less of
note later [166].
166 Metope from Temple C at Selinus in Sicily.
Athena supports Perseus who is cutting off Me-
dusa’s head. She holds to her side her child, Pe-
gasus. About 530–510 BC. Height 1.47 m.
(Palermo)
COPIES
The account of Classical sculpture given
above is based primarily on preserved original
works and the evidence of date given by style,
context or inscription. Few statues have sur-
vived which either carry their artist’s signature
or can be identified from any ancient author
who names the artist and describes the sub-
ject. But we know the names of the great men
whose work set new standards for their con-
temporaries from the writings of scholars, en-
cyclopaedists and travellers of the Roman
period. They often describe the most famous
and influential works, and it has sometimes
proved possible to recognize surviving copies
of these statues, which had been made for
Roman patrons and others while the original
still stood. Comparing copies of the same
statue, and on rare occasions comparing cop-
ies with originals ([169], see [298]), we find
that many were probably very accurate, lack-
ing only the artist’s touch in the final carving of
details and features, and sometimes adapted
in pose or expression by the copyist. Another
difference, recognized in marble copies of
bronzes, is the addition of struts and supports
(such as tree-trunks) which were unnecessary
to a bronze original.
169 Marble copy of the bronze group of the Tyran-
nicides by Critios and Nesiotes which was set up in
Athens in the 470s to commemorate the slaying of
the tyrant Hipparchus in 514. Height 1.95 m.
(Naples G 103/4)
CLAY FIGURINES
The correspondence between a major and a
(miscalled) minor art is well illustrated by the
clay figurines which often closely match the
larger works in marble or bronze. There were,
in fact, also some large clay sculptures in
Classical Greece [135], but these represent a
legacy of Archaic practice and are not com-
mon. The smaller clay works are found as of-
ferings – standing or seated figures of wor-
shippers or divinities, and beside them more
original studies of mortals or animals, the sort
of thing that was probably becoming more
common in the house as well as serving as a
dedication in grave or sanctuary. The use of
moulds, and the copying of moulds, meant
that few of these managed to retain much of
the freshness of their original model. Hollow
masks, intended to hang from the wall, were
another form of clay votive, and we see them
shown on vases hanging, for example, by a
bronze sculptor’s furnace, to solicit divine pro-
tection for the firing [282]. In the later 5th and
4th centuries the small clay figures offer a
variety of subjects which the sculptor gener-
ally ignored but which were probably also
rendered at this scale in bronze. Of particular
interest are figures of actors [177], which can
tell us much about the dress and masks worn
on the Athenian stage. Beside them are
graceful genre studies of dancers [178] and
women at ease or in their best dresses, such
as are to become characteristic of the suc-
ceeding Hellenistic period. The Western
Greeks were particularly adept at preparing
fine moulds for such figures. They also
provide examples of a different sort of votive,
the clay relief plaque, and Locri, in South Italy,
has yielded an important series of Early Clas-
sical plaques with ritual scenes [179]. In the
Greek homeland the island of Melos produced
a notable series of cut-out plaques showing
mythological scenes. Later we find gilt-clay
and plaster reliefs used in various parts of the
Greek world to decorate wooden boxes and
coffins.
177 Clay group of actors, dressed as an old woman
and a man. They wear masks and the man has the
usual comic costume of padded tunic, phallus and
tights [cf. 217]. Mid-4th century BC. (Würzburg)
178 Clay figure of a dancing maenad with a fawn-
skin over her dress and holding a tambourine. From
Locri, South Italy. About 400 BC. Height 19 cm.
(Reggio 4823)
179 Clay plaque from Locri. The goddess Demeter,
seated holding corn ears and a cock, faced by
Dionysus with his drinking cup and vine. About 460
BC. Height 26.8 m. (Reggio)
Coroplast and vase painter often collabor-
ated in figure vases. These are usually elabor-
ate cups, in the form of human or grotesque
heads, or sometimes of more complicated
groups [180]. The animal-head cups copy a
familiar Eastern form, and there are clay ver-
sions of the more expensive metal cups in this
shape, either painted or in relief [181]. Some
of these are not simple cups but pourers
(rhyta) – for their mouths are pierced. This is a
version of an Eastern type of drinking vessel,
preferred for ritual in Greece, and there are
also many examples in which the drinking-
horn shape is closely followed.
180 Clay vase in the shape of a drinking horn with a
base comprising the group of a negro boy attacked
by a crocodile. The neck is decorated with maen-
ads and satyrs. In the manner of the Sotades Paint-
er, a specialist in such curiosities. About 460 BC.
Height 24 cm. (Boston 98.881)
181 Clay cup in the shape of a sheep’s head. The
relief group on the neck shows a fight between a
griffin and an Amazon, cast from a metal relief.
Made in South Italy. About 350 BC. Length 20.8 cm.
(Oxford 1947.374)
STATUETTES IN METAL
The range of individual figures was probably
very much as that in clay, but specialities were
cast attachments to vessels and other
utensils. Luxury goods of gold and silver have
generally not survived so our main evidence is
in bronze, though this could often be gilt. The
practice of casting handles and decorative at-
tachments for vases continued from the Ar-
chaic period, with less variety of subject than
hitherto; sirens adorn handle bases, heads
their tops. Occasionally figures in the round
appear on the lip or shoulder of the larger
vases – another Archaic practice; or a whole
relief group is fastened on the body of the
vase beneath the handle. The figures of wo-
men supporting mirror-discs survive also, and
in the details of their hair and dress they follow
closely the patterns of contemporary sculpture
[182]. They often stand on neat, folding stools,
while figures of Eros fuss around their heads,
and tiny animals and florals run over the at-
tachment to the disc and round it. This sort of
finicky embellishment is not much to modern
taste nor easily reconciled with the popular
idea of Classical simplicity. In the free-stand-
ing statuettes of bronze we also see a greater
variety of figures – athletes, deities, dancers
[183–85]. In much of this sort of work we be-
gin to feel perhaps for the first time in the his-
tory of Greek art that the artist is producing an
object which has no function but to please
mortal eyes, which is more than an appropri-
ate decorative addition to an implement or art-
icle of toilet, more than a proud expression of
wealth or piety in a god’s shrine.
182 Bronze mirror support. The woman wears a
chiton and pointed slippers, on a stool with animal
legs. Early 5th century BC. Height 24 cm. (Dublin,
Nat. Mus.)
183 Bronze figure of an armed runner (hoplito-
dromos) in the usual starting position, crouching,
feet close together. About 480 BC. Height 16.5 cm.
(Tübingen, Univ.)
184 Bronze statuette of Pan from Arcadia, shading
his eyes. Classical Pan may be more human in
physique and usually has a mainly human head
(see [195]). Mid-5th century BC. Height 9 cm. (Berlin
8624)
185 Bronze statuette of the young, booted
Dionysus. 4th century BC. Height 22.5 cm. (Louvre
Br 154)
PLATE
We have little enough by way of gold plate in
Greece until we move to the fringes of the
Greek world, where Greek craftsmen in Black
Sea colonies worked for Scythian nobles who
placed the vessels in their tombs [187]. The
Classical fat cats, even in a democracy such
as Athens, were torn between amassing great
stocks of gold and silver, and an ethos which
frowned on such hubris. Silver was in relat-
ively good supply, from Persian booty or
Greek mines, but much was absorbed by
state coinage, and plain silver vessels, care-
fully weighed, served as little more than large
denomination banknotes, especially in temple
treasuries where they are listed (with weights).
A special class is formed by phialai, shallow
bowls with small raised centres (navels –
mesomphalic) beneath which the fingers
would fit. The shape was Eastern, where
handleless round-bottomed cups were pre-
ferred to Greek shapes. From representations
on vases we can see that in Greece they were
commonly used for pouring libations. But we
have to judge much of what was possible in
pricier metals from what has survived in
bronze. Cast attachments have been men-
tioned already but much of the finest work was
either hollow-cast or hammered (repoussé),
sometimes with figures in exceptionally high
relief and most delicately modelled. These ap-
pear on vases [186], but on other objects too
– the cheek-pieces of helmets, belt-clasps,
and the folding backs of circular mirrors [188].
The reflecting surface of the mirror was a
bright, polished or silvered bronze, and where
mirror backs have no relief decoration there
may be incised figures [189], the cut lines
showing dark on the bright surface. This in-
cision on silver or bronze, mirrors or cups, is a
downmarket version of the finer reliefs, which
are commonly gilt. This may remind us that all
ancient bronzes, fresh from the artist’s studio,
had a bright appearance, far warmer and
more realistic than the dark patina of age or
the chocolate-coloured or dull brassy surface
produced by some modern cleaning methods.
186 Gilt bronze crater with silver appliqués from
Derveni in Macedonia, decorated with relief
Dionysiac scenes, from a tomb where it served as
an ash urn. Late 4th century BC. Height 90.5 cm.
(Thessaloniki)
187 Gold phiale from a Scythian tomb at Kul Oba
near Kerch in the Crimea. The basic floral pattern is
embellished with heads of gorgons, animals and
bearded heads, while dolphins and fish swim
around the ‘navel’. From the same tomb as the
ivory [196]. 4th century BC. Diameter 23 cm. (St
Petersburg)
188 Bronze mirror cover with relief scenes of the
drunken Heracles assaulting the priestess Auge.
From Elis. 4th century BC. Diameter 17.7 cm.
(Athens)
189 Bronze mirror cover with incised scene of Aph-
rodite teaching Eros how to shoot. 4th century BC.
Diameter 19 cm. (Louvre MND 262)
JEWELLERY
The jeweller had long before mastered the
arts of filigree and granulation, and from the
later 5th century on, inlays of coloured stones
or enamel may be added. Generally, however,
Classical jewellery is monochrome, gold
rather than silver [191–93]. The tombs of
south Russia, both those of the Greek colon-
ies and those of the neighbouring Scythians
for whom Greek artists worked, are a rich
source of fine Classical gold-work. The So-
locha comb is effectively miniature statuary in
gold, illustrating a local encounter [190].
Signet-rings of solid bronze, silver or gold be-
come common for the first time in the 5th cen-
tury. The devices on them are often of women,
seated or standing, with wreaths or a tiny
Eros, or of Victories. They were probably re-
garded more as decorative than as personal
seals, for which smaller bronze rings seem to
have been preferred. They must have been
most popularly worn by women, but it is odd
that they are not worn by any of the figures
shown on contemporary vases which other-
wise give us vivid details of dress, jewellery
and furniture.
190 A gold comb from Solocha in the Ukraine. The
figures are wholly in the round. 4th century BC.
Height 5 cm. (St Petersburg)
COINS
The related art of engravers of the metal dies
from which silver coins were struck flourished
beside that of the gem-engraver [195]. We
may suspect that the same artists were in-
volved but this is hard to prove from style
alone since the techniques of die-engraving
were coarser than those of gem-engraving,
and there are more signed coin dies than
signed gems. In the heads of deities and,
later, of princes and kings which appear on
many coins we see a fully sculptural style and
often unusually high relief – a positive disad-
vantage in objects so much handled and so
easily rubbed, and particularly unfortunate
when frontal heads were attempted. There is
a great variety of animal studies too – greater
than that offered by gems because coins were
mass produced and more different types have
survived, while each gem was a unique cre-
ation. Conservatism dictated the devices on
the better-known issues of coins, which relied
on the ready familiarity of the types. But al-
though the devices on coins of states like
Athens and Corinth changed but slowly, other
cities struck series with brilliant and different
devices, sometimes with an abandon rivalling
that of the postage-stamp issues of some
countries today. A few issues commemorated
particular events or were at least occasioned
by them, and in this way have combined the
characters of medallions and coins.
PAINTING
Of all the major arts of the Classical period,
painting on wall or panel is the one about
which we know least, although in antiquity it
was most highly valued. The names of the
painters were honoured and remembered,
which is more than can be said of any vase
painters. We read of the great paintings by
Polygnotus and Mikon on the public buildings
of Athens and Delphi in the years before the
mid-5th century. These were, we are told,
done in a four-colour technique – black, white,
red and brown, and Polygnotus especially
sought to express emotion or atmosphere by
nuances of pose or gesture, often repeated on
vases or sculpture (as the Penelope type
[153]). These big compositions had compar-
ably big themes – the Sack of Troy, the Under-
world, or a mortal but heroic battle such as
Marathon. The figures were set up and down
the field, not diminishing as if to indicate dis-
tance, probably at about half life size. The
mode influenced some vase painters.
Later 5th- and 4th-century artists are cred-
ited with notable innovations in shading, in
suggesting depth and roundness, and in
trompe l’oeil compositions. Shaded contour
drawing was the commonest, but composi-
tions depending on colour and chiaroscuro are
also described. There was only an incipient
understanding of linear perspective and it
seems that in major compositions each sub-
ject had its own vanishing point rather than
one located centrally; and this, after all, more
closely reflects our own manner of looking
over a scene. The big names are Zeuxis and,
in the 4th century, Apelles, and their fame ri-
valled that of their sculptor contemporaries. Of
their work we can know nothing beyond the
suspected influence of such styles read in
contemporary vase paintings, and works like
the ivory plaques found in south Russia, which
were once painted, although now only the in-
cised outlines of the figures are at all clear
[196]. From the middle of the 4th century on
more evidence is now emerging from the dis-
coveries in Macedonian tombs [197, 198],
where, clearly, prime Greek painters were em-
ployed: they give just a glimpse of a major
Greek art form which, for colour and originality
of composition, might, if better known, do
much to counter the popular view of simplicity,
if not austerity in the arts. This was a medium
for both figure scenes and decorative floral
compositions. The same must have appeared
also on textiles, and Macedonia yields us one
tantalizingly fine example [199].
196 Incised and painted ivory plaque from a Scythi-
an tomb at Kul Oba near Kerch in the Crimea
(whence also [187]). Aphrodite with Eros at her
shoulder, from a scene of the Judgment of Paris,
with the two other contestants, Hera and Athena.
4th century BC. Height 22 cm. (St Petersburg)
197 Painting of Hades carrying off Persephone on
to his chariot. On the wall of a princely tomb at Ver-
gina in Macedonia. About 340 BC. Height 1 m
198 Landscape painting with hunting scene, from
the façade of the tomb of Philip II (died 336 BC) at
Vergina. Length of frieze 5.6 m
VASE PAINTING
Vase painting remains a prolific source of in-
formation about styles and subjects, and at all
times there are a few artists of quality whose
work can bring us close to that of their seni-
ors. Clay vases were relatively cheap but vir-
tually indestructible, whence their value to us
as evidence for the work of artists from the
hack to the sublime, as well as their highly in-
formative pictures. They provide an uninter-
rupted demonstration of changes in styles and
subjects. But it is a craft which will not outlast
the 4th century in Greece.
Persian occupation of Athens in 480 and
479 BC drove the citizens and artists from their
homes, and when they returned they had to
build afresh. Old wells and pits in the neigh-
bourhood of the potters’ quarter are found
filled with the debris from the potters’ shops.
But there is no significant break in production
or style. The same painters are at work. In
their hands the transition from Archaic to Clas-
sical in line drawing was achieved, as we
have seen it was already in the work of
sculptors. The cup-painters continue the tradi-
tion of the early years of the century, but have
at last abandoned the formal, almost Geomet-
ric fussiness of the Archaic pleats and zigzag
hemlines. The dress is shaking out into freer
folds. In details of drawing we find at last a
proper view of a profile eye in a profile head.
Bold foreshortening and three-quarter views
are successfully attempted and the artist can
experiment further with pose and gesture to
suggest emotion, and even give atmosphere
to a scene where before a simple event was
enacted by, as it were, lay figures. Subsidiary
floral ornament generally becomes more re-
stricted. The border and ground-line pattern of
meanders and squares derives from the Ar-
chaic patterns of woven hems and selvages.
A group of Mannerists represent the old
guard, clinging still to some of the Archaic
conventions and leaving their figures to act
with a stiff prettiness which seems awkward in
the hands of all but the best artists. Their lead-
er, the Pan Painter, could rise to better things
[202]. The monumental styles of contempor-
ary sculpture are best reflected in the work of
artists such as the Altamura Painter and the
Niobid Painter [203]. Their statuesque studies
of warriors and women are a close match for
the peplos figures and heroes of, for instance,
the Olympia sculptures, and their battle
scenes must owe much to contemporary wall-
paintings, both for subject and compositions.
The Niobid Painter is the first to set figures on
different ground-lines up and down the field of
the picture [204]; the manner was that adop-
ted by wall-painters to suggest space (though
not depth) and interrelationships of figures not
confined in, as it were, a shallow one-level
frieze. The device is not particularly suited to
vase painting and the Niobid Painter’s use of
it is unique at this time, but it recurs on later
vases.
202 Athenian red-figure pelike (oil container) by the
Pan Painter. A sleek Heracles confounds the Afric-
an servants of the Egyptian King Busiris, who inten-
ded to sacrifice him. The servants have African
traits as typically portrayed in Greek art (facial fea-
tures, circumcision) but the artist could not convey
dark skin – rather a problem in the red-figure tech-
nique though surmounted by others. From Boeotia.
About 460 BC. Height 31 cm. (Athens 9683)
203 Detail from a vase by the Niobid Painter with a
Greek fighting an Amazon. She wears a Greek
corselet with oriental skin cap and tights. From Gela
(Sicily). About 460 BC. (Palermo G 1283)
204 The reverse of the name vase (a calyx crater)
of the Niobid Painter, showing an assembly of her-
oes and gods, possibly before the battle of Mara-
thon, with Athena and Heracles prominent, perhaps
Theseus below. The multiple-groundline scheme
perhaps copied a wall-painting more closely than
many such later compositions. Guide lines on the
vase suggest that the Heracles figure was a statue
on a stepped base. From Orvieto. About 460 BC.
Height 54 cm. (Louvre MNC 511)
ARCHITECTURE
The great city of Pergamum in Asia Minor and
the buildings and sculptures commissioned by
its Attalid kings could almost serve as texts for
the study of all Hellenistic architecture and
sculpture. It is not clear where the earlier town
of Pergamum lay, but it was certainly not
centred on the massive hill which rises some
hundred metres above the plain beside the
River Caicus, where the Hellenistic kings built
their palaces. The crown of the windswept
rock was laid out by successive kings as their
capital. The view we have of it in drawings
and models [222] is one never appreciated in
antiquity, except by the birds, and we should
rather put ourselves in the position of a visitor
climbing to its walls, and through them on to a
succession of terraces and colonnades reach-
ing up and away. On the lowest stood an
open, colonnaded market place (agora). The
flanking stoai are versions of buildings which
had come to play an important role in Greek
civic life, with rows of shops behind and often
on two storeys, providing not only a market, or
offices, or hotel, but a shelter and meeting
place (as for the Stoic philosophers of
Athens). It was a Pergamene king who gave
Athens’ agora a new stoa, now reconstructed
as a museum [223]. Above Pergamum’s
agora, in an open court, stood the Great Altar
of Zeus, a monumental version of a type with
a long history in East Greece – a broad flight
of steps rising between projecting wings [224]
to a high platform. Higher stood the Temple of
Athena in its own colonnaded court, which
gave entrance to the library (our word parch-
ment derives from pergamena charta, Perga-
mene paper). At the top of the hill stood the
palace courtyards, barracks, and later a
temple built by the Roman Emperor Trajan.
Cut deep in the hillside was the theatre, seat-
ing some ten thousand.
CLAY VASES
The art of the vase painter went into a rapid
decline at the end of the 4th century BC, but
the more simply decorated wares persisted in
the Greek East, and some classes, like the
Hadra funeral vases found in Egypt (but
whose source was in Crete), offer a lively vari-
ety of floral and animal decoration [260]. Only
among some of the Italian schools do we find
a polychrome style of painting [261], usually
over the black paint covering the vase, which
approximates to the new realistic styles of ma-
jor painting, with their greater command of col-
our, shading and highlights [262]. Plain black
vases, sometimes metallic in their shapes and
in the bright gloss of the paint, had been in-
creasingly popular in the 4th century. The
paint, often miscalled a glaze, is in fact a clay
preparation which will fire to a permanent
black gloss if the atmosphere of the kiln is
changed from oxidizing to reducing, and then
back again. The technique of this painting has
only in recent years been rediscovered.
Wedgwood sought it without success, then
turned to imitating the easier dull black buc-
chero of Etruria, and making relief vases, the
technique of which is also Hellenistic in origin.
260 A clay hydria from Arsinoe in Cyprus, of a type
most familiar in the Ptolemaic (Hadra) cemeteries
of Alexandria. 3rd century BC. Height 37.5 cm.
(Brussels A 13)
261 Detail of a plate showing a battle elephant,
rendered in added colour, not red figure. From
Capena. 3rd century BC. Diameter 29.5 cm. (Rome,
Villa Giulia 23949)
262 Interior of a cup from Vulci showing a boy re-
laxing with a wine flask, his throwing-stick at his
knee. The drawing, with shading and high lights, re-
flects major painting. Made in Etruria (the Hesse
Group). 3rd century BC. (von Hessen Coll.)
OTHER ARTS
In the Archaic and Classical periods Eastern
and Egyptian techniques were practised in
Greece to produce opaque, coloured glass,
used for small flasks or decorative inlays,
moulded, cut or built up in coils. Only towards
the end of the Hellenistic period were the
techniques of blowing glass learned. It be-
comes a luxury craft with gilt [264] or cut dec-
oration and considerable colour variety, but
the full potential is only achieved under Rome.
264 Clear glass bowl with a gold leaf decoration of
florals; compare the cloth [199]. From Canosa in
South Italy. About 200 BC. Height 11.4 cm. (London
1871,0518.1)
IN ANTIQUITY
Greek artists were not evangelists. Others im-
posed their arts with their religion on the
conquered or converted; not the Greeks, or at
least not with the deliberation of Islam or
Christianity. The physical presence of Greek
artists in Italy certainly explains what
happened there, and to a lesser degree this is
true, for strictly limited periods, of what
happened in Persia and farther east. More de-
pended on travelling objects, and on copying
and re-copying. Trade carried even cheap
Greek goods like painted pottery (though not
cheap to the purchaser) far beyond even the
Mediterranean shores, while luxury objects
travelled as far or further, by trade or gift. The
Greeks were not always themselves the carri-
ers, but the results were the same. Objects
and copies do not inevitably carry with them
the ideas and identifications which their
makers intended, no museum labels or oper-
ating instructions, so the vestiges of Greek art
in many places were subject to drastic reinter-
pretation, and in most instances what we ob-
serve is local artists borrowing what may
already have been roughly familiar to them in
their own arts, or something which they could
use effectively in the service of their masters,
priests or fellows.
In the Archaic period the East Greeks had
foreign neighbours in Asia Minor (modern Tur-
key) and were at home in other areas of the
Near East and Egypt, where they had trading
stations. In Asia Minor what they had to offer
was mainly in matters of stone sculpture and
architecture. By the later 6th century the Per-
sian king Cyrus was recruiting East Greek and
neighbouring masons (working in a common
style) for his palace building in Persia itself,
and we can easily trace evidence of Greek
techniques and some forms in what became
Persian (Achaemenid) court architecture and
sculpture, especially in the Archaic disposition
of dress [288] and in masonry techniques, be-
side other and more influential forms derived
from other areas of the Persian Empire –
Mesopotamia and Egypt. In parts of the em-
pire in the 5th and 4th centuries Greco-Persi-
an styles developed, blending Greek treat-
ment and attitudes (more relaxed than the ori-
ental) to eastern subjects. The tendency was
towards the adoption of Greek pattern and to-
wards more realism in natural, especially an-
imal, forms.
287 Gilt silver rhyton. The shape is Eastern but the
floral is Hellenistic and so is the realistic rendering
of the stag, so this is Greek work for a Parthian
master. 1st century BC. Height 27.4 cm. (Malibu
86.AM.753)
288 Relief at Persepolis. Compare [80, 81, 86] for
the treatment of the stacked folds of dress
GENERAL BACKGROUND
CULTURAL HISTORY
Cambridge Ancient History new edition vols 3–7,
Cambridge 1982–94 and accompanying Plates
Volumes. Oxford History of the Classical World
(eds J. Boardman, J. Griffin, O. Murray) Oxford,
1985 and in separate volumes, Greek and Ro-
man. Murray, O. Early Greece London, 1993.
Hornblower, S. The Greek World 479–323 BC
London, 1983. Green, P. From Alexander to Acti-
um London, 1990
MYTHOLOGY
Rose, H.J., Handbook of Greek Mythology Lon-
don, 1960. Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2003
SCULPTURE
GENERAL
Ashmolf, B. Architect and Sculptor in Ancient
Greece London/New York, 1972, mainly
Olympia, Parthenon, Mausoleum. Lullies, R. and
Hirmer, M. Greek Sculpture London/New York,
1960. Mattusch, C. Classical Bronzes Cornell,
1996. Richter, G.M.A. The Sculpture and
Sculptors of the Greeks London, 1971 (4th ed.),
dated but good on names. Richter, G.M.A. Por-
traits of the Greeks (ed. R.R.R. Smith) Oxford,
1984. Houser, C. and Finn, D. Greek Monument-
al Bronze Sculpture London, 1983. Rolley, C.
Greek Bronzes London, 1986. Palagia, O. (ed.)
Greek Sculpture Cambridge, 2006, on materials
and techniques. Brinkmann, V. and Wünsche, R.
(eds) Gods in Colour Munich, 2007. Lapatin, K.
Chryselephantine Statuary Oxford. 2002. Mat-
tusch, C. Classical Bronzes Ithaca, 1996
ARCHAIC
Boardman, J. Greek Sculpture, the Archaic Peri-
od London/New York, 1978. Ridgway, B.S. The
Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture Chicago, 1993.
Payne, H. and Young, G.M. Archaic Marble
Sculpture from the Acropolis London, 1936.
Richter, G.M.A. The Archaic Gravestones of At-
tica London, 1961. Richter, G.M.A. Korai Lon-
don, 1968. Richter, G.M.A. Kouroi London, 1970
CLASSICAL
Ashmole, B. and Yalouris, N. Olympia London,
1967. Boardman, J. Greek Sculpture, the Clas-
sical Period London/New York, 1984. Boardman,
J. Greek Sculpture: the Late Classical Period
London/New York, 1995, also Western Greek
sculpture. Ridgway, B.S. The Severe Style in
Greek Sculpture Princeton, 1970. Ridgway, B.S.
Fifth Century Styles in Greek Sculpture Prin-
ceton, 1981. Boardman, J. and Finn, D. The
Parthenon and its Sculptures London, 1985.
Palagia, O. The Pediments of the Parthenon
Leiden, 1993
HELLENISTIC
Bieber, M. The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age
New York, 1954. Smith, R.R.R. Hellenistic Sculp-
ture London, 1991. Smith, R.R.R. Hellenistic
Royal Portraits Oxford, 1988. Ridgway, B.S. Hel-
lenistic Sculpture I Wisconsin, 1990. Pollitt, J.J.
Art in the Hellenistic Age Cambridge, 1986
COPIES
Bieber, M. Ancient Copies New York, 1977.
Ridgway, B.S. Roman Copies of Greek Sculpture
Ann Arbor, 1984
WESTERN GREEK
Holloway, R. Influences and Styles in the Late
Archaic and Early Classical Sculpture of Sicily
and Magna Graecia Louvain, 1975. Boardman,
J. in Greek Sculpture: the Late Classical Period
see above
ARCHITECTURE
PAINTING
GENERAL
Arias, P., Hirmer, M. and Shefton, B.B. A History
of Greek Vase Painting London, 1961. Cook,
R.M. Greek Painted Pottery London, 1972.
Robertson, M. Greek Painting Geneva, 1959.
Greek Vases: Lectures by J.D. Beazley (ed. D.C.
Kurtz) Oxford, 1989. Webster, T.B.L. Potter and
Patron in Ancient Athens London, 1972. Bruno,
V. Form and Colour in Greek Painting London,
1977. Andronikos, M. Vergina Athens, 1984, the
Macedonian tombs
GEOMETRIC AND ARCHAIC
Desborough, V.R.d’A. Protogeometric pottery
Oxford, 1952. Coldstream, J.N. Greek Geometric
Pottery London/New York, 1968. Beazley, J.D.
The development of Attic Black Figure Berkeley,
1951. Boardman, J. Athenian Black Figure
Vases London/New York, 1974. Boardman, J.
Athenian Red Figure Vases, the Archaic Period
London/New York, 1975. Haspels, E. Attic Black
Figured Lekythoi Paris, 1936. Payne, H. Necro-
corinthia Oxford, 1931. Amyx, D.A. Corinthian
Vase Painting Berkeley/L.A., 1988. Cook, R.M.
and Dupont, P. East Greek Pottery London, 1998
CLASSICAL
Boardman, J. Athenian Red Figure Vases, the
Classical Period London/New York, 1989.
Robertson, M. The Art of Vase-painting in Clas-
sical Athens Cambridge, 1992. Kurtz, D.C.
Athenian White Lekythoi Oxford, 1985. Beazley,
J.D. The Berlin Painter, The Kleophrades Paint-
er, The Pan Painter Mainz, 1974. Kurtz, D.C.
The Berlin Painter Oxford, 1982, anatomical ob-
servation. Trendall, A.D. Red Figure Vases of
South Italy and Sicily London/New York 1989
OTHER ARTS
ICONOGRAPHY
PERIPHERAL
RELATED SUBJECTS
THE LEGACY
Bactria 289
Baiae 298
basketry 38
Bassae 20, 174; 10, 160, 161
Bellerophon 120; 52, 103, 200
Belvedere torso 245
Berlin Painter 128; 115
Bernini 236, 239
Boeotia 45, 46, 68, 249, 260; 25, 32, 202, 218, 219,
248
Boreas 281
Bronze: casting of sculpture 92, 240; fibulae 25, 35;
figurines 46, 68, 136, 147, 248; 27–29, 37, 122,
124, 137, 183; mirrors 192; 182, 188, 189;
plaques 120; 54, 57
Brygos Painter 129; 110
Byzantium 299; see also Constantinople
eastern art 42, 46, 52, 53, 55, 59, 60, 63, 68, 72,
78, 80–81, 106, 140, 192, 197, 200, 257, 268;
50, 287, 291
East Greece 45, 77, 68, 72, 74, 95, 88, 89, 95, 99,
101, 105, 106, 114, 117, 133, 137, 140, 151,
174, 179, 180, 231, 248, 253, 260, 289; 53, 80,
102, 118, 123
Echelos 152
Egypt/Egyptian art 21, 23, 24, 28, 32, 38, 53, 55,
63, 74, 77, 78, 80, 81, 85, 89, 106, 117, 137,
157, 228, 249, 253, 256, 257, 263, 268, 287,
289, 299; 202, 266, 267
Electra 300
Ephesus 88, 100, 184, 231; 71, 172
Epicurus 240
Epidaurus 179; 165
Epiktetos 128; 114
Eros 196, 218, 200, 226, 277; 189, 196, 211, 213,
29
Erotes 245; 215
Etruria/Etruscan art 17, 21, 79, 110, 114, 256, 291,
294, 295; 96, 102, 105, 262, 295, 296
Euboea 32, 35, 45, 51, 52
Euphronios 125; 112
Euthymides 125, 129; 113
Eutychides 221
Exekias 110, 114, 125; 98
Finlay, George 21
florals 59, 63, 68, 85, 100, 101, 110, 160, 174, 179,
209, 212, 223, 234, 248, 253, 256–57, 283–84,
287, 291; 45, 50, 187, 199, 216, 219, 255, 264,
287, 294
forgeries 28–29
Foundry Painter 282
François Vase 110; 94, 95
funeral vases 41, 45, 107, 248, 253; 20
Hadda 290
Hades 105, 197, 304
Hadra 253; 260
Heracles 99, 121, 124, 142, 146, 277–78, 304; 23,
26, 84, 85, 111, 115, 123, 110, 176, 188, 202,
204, 290, 306
Hermaphrodite 241, 245; 235, 236
Hermes 168, 190; 96, 110, 152, 156, 268, 304
Hermogenes 234
Hippodamus 268
Homer 42; 24, 246
Ictinus 3
Idaean Cave 52; 36
idealization 24, 89, 163, 167, 173, 237, 245, 260,
275, 304
Ilissos, River 158
India 289
Ionia see East Greece
ivory 15, 22, 46, 55, 59, 60, 72, 74, 142, 157, 160,
277; 39–42, 187, 196
jewellery 52, 72, 74, 137, 200, 204, 253, 285; 32,
34, 35, 78, 111, 191–93, 214, 265
Kaineus 120
Karditsa 28
Karneia Painter 214
Keratea 77
Kleophrades Painter 128; 116
Knossos 52; 34
korai 95, 100, 147; 70, 80
Kos 268
kouroi 77, 89, 92, 99, 105, 140; 64, 73, 74
Samos 22, 46, 55, 72, 77, 80, 88, 133, 160; 27, 30,
41, 60, 102, 123
Samothrace 231
sarcophagi 245; 92, 245
Sardis 231
Sasanians 291
satyr 117, 121, 245; 107, 108, 109, 110, 119, 127,
129, 174, 180, 235, 239, 256
Scopas 173, 190
Scythian 196, 253, 200, 249, 291, 284; 196, 294
seals see gems/cameos, seals
Selinus 180; 166
Sicyon 99, 260; 82
siren 55, 192; 38, 269
Smyrna 85, 228, 249, 268; 40, 68, 249
Sophilos 124
Sosias Painter 2
Sparta 117, 120, 151, 168; 31, 87, 103, 125
Spata 87
Sperlonga 245; 237
stelai see gravestones
Sunium 161; 47, 64
Syracuse 56, 195
Syria 22, 51, 52, 55, 59, 228, 289
Xanthos 174
Zeus 22, 31, 46, 141, 142, 146, 147, 157, 231, 237,
277; 1, 12, 60, 96, 131–136, 220, 224, 297
Zeuxis 209
First published in the United Kingdom in 1964 as
Greek Art
ISBN 978-0-500-20433-7
by Thames & Hudson Ltd, 181A High Hol-
born, London WC1V 7QX
and in the United States of America by
Thames & Hudson Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10110
eISBN 978-0-500-77350-5
eISBN for USA only 978-0-500-77351-2