Hi! This brief lecture goes over
some of the key works from the Geometric and Archaic
periods in ancient Greece. So, the title of the lecture: "Representations of the human
body
in Ancient Greece before and after the Persian Invasions" relates to the idea that
the representation of the human body changes dramatically
between the periods or going from about 490 BCE
into about 479 BCE.
There's this dramatic shift in terms of the naturalism of the human form.
But, even before Persian Invasions, you really see the human form transforming in
ancient Greece, so we'll be tracking
that in some of the artworks that we're looking at here, So, here I show you an
archaic
kouros [kouros = male youth] sculpture and then the "Kritios
Boy" that we'll see as a result after the Persian
Invasions. So before we get to the Persian
Invasions, there is this period, following the ancient Aegean
civilizations -- those civilizations being
Mycenae, the Minoan civilization on Crete, and the Cycladic cultures --
we do have this period known as the Greek "Dark Ages", which runs from 1200 BCE to 800 BCE,
so after the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces and citadels (except for
Athens),
the Greeks seem to have lost a lot of their knowledge. So, knowledge of masonry --
that is stone working -- reading and the arts. So we actually see the alphabet changing.
Writing does reappear in 800 BCE,
but with a different alphabet. So what we also see
are probably changes in terms of the population.
So, there is a legend that the Mycenaeans -- so those of the Peleponnesian
region of southern Greece -- mixing with those from the north,
called the Dorians, and this
is a possibility in terms of what happened during this period
because we don't have a lot of records from it. About 800 BCE is the time when
we think
the poetry of Homer would have been composed. So, just to give you a sense
of the literary period as well.
So, we enter into the Geometric Period around 800 BCE -- coming out of the "Dark Ages" --
and we see vessels like this. This is a geometric krater.
Kraters are vessels for mixing the tend to have large
openings at the top. This comes actually comes from a "Necropolis" or a
city of the dead, so it's actually
a grave marker or a funerary marker. And, on
the actual vessel we see a representation a funerary scene or a
burial scene, so we have a figure laid out on a bier
with at those that are mourning -- presumably the family members around him, and
a canopy above him, and those that are mourning on either side,
as well as a procession down below. We get a sense of how the Greeks are beginning to
perfect their techniques in terms ceramics, as well as
the idea that could work in this kind of impressive size. This is a very large vessel,
over three feet tall. It's now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
but it would have been part a a very famous cemetery: "The Dipylon
Necropolis" or "The Dipylon
Cemetery" near the gate in Athens. And, these vessels also would often have holes in
them where
you could pour liquid offerings to the deceased. So,
very important in terms commemorating the deceased,
and also important in terms of showing us this new geometric style.
So, as we zoom in, you can see that the geometric style
reflects very much the geometric forms that we see here, so
you can see that the upper bodies are created into triangles or reduced to
triangles
heads are simple circles, so a lot of the forms have been reduced to the "bare
bones".
You can see that the canopy is really just done as
a checkerboard pattern with really no sense of depth.
The horses -- you have three heads, and six legs
both in the front and the back, so we definitely know that there are three
horses here, but they're not represented in a
very naturalistic way. These figures here are holding on to shields
and they have very unnaturally thin waists, which we also saw in the Minoan culture and some of
the artworks from the Mycenaean culture.
But here it seems even more extreme, and then you can see the geometric forms
incorporated into the decoration
between the different registers -- so the decoration here
and here and also just in terms of the Greek key pattern along here.
So, now we move into the "Archaic Period", and we'll start to see human body becoming
slightly more naturalistic. So, we see this, for example,
in the "Kouros" figure -- and Kouros just means "youth"
or young man in Greek. These kouros figures were often
put up in honor of gods -- for example, Apollo. You would often commission a
Kouros figure, and place it in his honor. Also, we see examples
placed in the honor young man, who have died, so
those are two possibilities. We can see that this one dates to around 600 BCE. So it's a
relatively early example of a Kouros.
He has very large eyes, and that traditional
type of textured, stylized hair that we expect to see from Kouros figures around
this time.
We start to see some naturalistic indication of musculature,
but still some elements of the body that remain quite Geometric.
So, for example, the kind of angular nature of his
hips, as well as his ribs here. So, you can see the ribs have been reduced basically to a
triangle.
You can see the knees have been reduced to basic geometric forms.
The eyes are a little bit too large for the face, so were moving closer toward
naturalism than we saw on the other vessel -- the geometric vessel,
but we're still not quite there yet.
There is a debate as to whether the Kouros figures were influenced by
Egyptian art.
So, most art historians do agree that there must be some kind of influence coming from
Egypt because we do you see these figures
with one foot forward just like we see with the Kouros -- so one foot forward in
both of these Egyptian examples, but you can see that
both the Egyptian examples -- they're high relief sculptures. They are still attached to
the
stone on the back, and they have one-foot forward,
but they haven't quite shifted their weight forward. There still
leaning their weight down in that back leg, so what we see with the "Kouros"
is that actually that weight has been shifted and is now
in between the two legs, and also they're fully carved in the
round, so that's something that we don't really see before.
You can see the additional geometric forms just of the elbows here,
a little bit of the knee cap, as well. And just the straight line at the hair, which later on
in Kouros figures, the hair will actually fall much more naturally.
Another key work is the Kouros at the Getty Villa,
which is a much more controversial Kouros, which number of scholars have
identified
as a forgery or believed to be a forgery, so the way it's labelled today at
the Getty Villa
is that it says "about 530 BCE, or a modern forgery".
It was purchased as a real antiquity -- as a genuine antiquity
by the Getty Villa in the
1980s I believe, and there were a number of problems
with its documentation -- with its "provenance" -- so certain documents were
found to be forged,
the style the body is thought to be problematic. It's kind of an amalgam of
different
Kouros figures from different regions in Greece.
The type of stone, the surface texture,
details of the feet and the hair have all been identified as problematic by certain
art historians.
But the bottom line is we're really not sure about this, and that's why
at the Getty they identify it as either an ancient work
or modern forgery. If it is a forgery, it is pretty well done in the fact that the
forgers were careful to use no modern tools or any modern tools that could be detectable
detectible
It's still debatable. A lot of people do feel it might be a forgery,
but it's up for discussion.
OK, we also see the "Peplos Kore" -- so we have the "Kouros", but we also have
the "Kore" --
so "Kore" being a "young woman", and this figure is very famous. She's wearing a peplos,
which was a traditional Greek garment at this time.
Also, it's from the Archaic period with the same stylized hair.
But, we see her with a lot of pigment that still survives on the surface
of this statue. And so this reveals to us how a lot of ancient sculptures
would have been painted, and there are two possibilities here represented.
So, the colors are quite dramatic, quite garish, one might say.
She is standing out making an offering presumably to the gods. She was found
in the area of the Athenian Acropolis, so she is probably making an offering to
Athena or to another figure who was important in Athens.
You can see that here the arm is fully reconstructed
in that gesture of offering. Important to note that men could be nude --
it was considered very heroic at this time -- but women at this time
needed to be fully clothed, and women in Greece had pretty restrictive
lives. They weren't able to go around as
some of their counterparts will be able to, for example
in the Etruscan civilization, so they [the Greek women] did not have a lot of freedom.
Looking at this vessel, this gives us a sense of how the
pottery techniques have developed in ancient Greece. This is black-figure pottery
because you can see the figures themselves are done in black. And, this
changing of color between red and black is done by manipulating
the amount of oxygen in a kiln. Here you have a story
of Achilles and Ajax -- they're both ready to go back into the
Trojan War, or go back into warfare at any time
You can see that they've got their shields and helmets ready.
But, they're playing a game of dice, which actually doesn't have a literary
story that accompanies it, that we know of, but
anyone who looked at it, would have known the story of the Trojan War. They would know
know the story that Achilles would eventually
die -- that he would be killed, and that actually Ajax would go off
and try and win his armor -- try to win the armor of Achilles,
but he would fail -- it would go to Odysseus -- and that he would eventually commit
suicide.
So, presumably you have that in mind -- you would know the story as a Greek
viewer. You would know also because of little speech bubbles coming out
that Achilles was the victor. He says something like "I have four" and
Ajax says "I have three" so you would know that Achilles, who was the greatest
warrior
the Greeks, was the victor in this game.
Exekias is the potter, and he was considered one of the masters of black-
figure pottery.
And, now we're moving towards the end of the
Archaic period, moving into what's sometimes called the "severe" style towards a more
naturalistic style of
the classical period. So, we see some dramatic differences
in what are called the dying warrior sculptures. So,
this is from a pediment or a triangular area of a temple -- called the Temple of
Aphaia at Aegina.
And, this is also from a triangular pediment -- right in the corners
at the edge of the temple.
And, this is from about 500 to 490 BCE, and this is from about 490 to
480 BCE. And what we can see is this dying warrior is becoming much more naturalistic:
he's turning, he's becoming more dynamic, more attention to the muscles in his
legs and arms,
a more attention to how expression should be, how
drama should be incorporated, how one would actually look
if one had been stabbed. So, both these figures are removing spears from their chests.
This one is in a relatively awkward position trying to remove his
spear. You can see there's still remnants of an "archaic smile", which is
a trace or a sign of the Archaic style --
where sculptors seem to have been struggling to get the curvature
the lips around the mouth -- so it's not a sign that they actually smiling
when they're dying, so that's good. But, here you can see this one's just much more
naturalistic.
You get a greater sense of gravity and weight, as the figure is trying to pull himself up
so this gives us a sense that after the trauma of the Persian invasion.
After
all things that happened during the Persian invasions, the art style does seem to
have changed. This temple
was damaged during the Persian invasions,
so this east pediment needed to be replaced, so this is what was produced,
so we know this is produced following the Persian invasions, and some
the destruction at Aegina.
So, the Persians -- by the Persians I mean the Achaemenid Persians, who we referred to earlier --
remember they have a huge empire, and there were some
revolts in Ionia -- over here -- and they began encroaching on the
the Greek area on this side.
Darius came in with the first invasion -- or
under Darius -- there was a first invasion, and then Xerxes comes in
for a second invasion around 480 BCE, so Darius'
invasion are around 490 BCE, and Xerxes are around
480 BCE. So, we have a couple key battles
The Battle of Marathon was the victory with primarily
Athenian troops, which indicated that they could be victorious.
The Battle of Thermopylae is very famous later on for a battle
where Xerxes was battling a relatively small number of
Spartan troops and the Persians did win, but the Spartans were greatly outnumbered,
and the story goes that they were betrayed.
And then finally we have the battle of Plataea, which is the final land battle between
the Greeks and Persians, and the Greeks
wins, and this seems to be the end of the Persian invasions.
So, similar to this dying warrior, which indicates a
move towards naturalism in the Archaic period, we also have what's known as the
"Kritios Boy"
so this figure here -- compared to
a figure from about 500-490 BCE known as "The Strangford Apollo".
So, the "Kritios Boy", what we see is, again, a much more naturalistic form.
Some people say he looks like he might turn and say hello to you --
so he looks more alive. His proportions are much more naturalistic. You can see
the weight of his hips shifting, and we call this a "contrapposto"
pose, so he is moving his hips, and his body is moving in response,
so all this indicates that following the Persian invasion,
there's a fundamental shift in the art that's being produced,
and in the naturalism of the human form.