Ok! This next lecture will be about the Classical period in Greece. So, the period
following the Persian Invasions
when the city of Athens really becomes a cultural and
artistic center. So we'll be looking at some examples of
sculpture to start and thinking about this new nationalism or this heightened
naturalism that we see
during the Classical period where there's a new attention to the human form,
and an attention to the movement of the body,
and the idea of harmony in the
different parts of the body. So, we'll start off by looking at some representations of
the human form, and then move on to some large-scale
building projects following the Persian invasions, and then
get through all or some of the Acropolis building projects
moving into the period of the Peloponnesian War when Athens will
actually fall from power,
as we move towards the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods.
So, starting off, I show you a representation of the "Doryphoros" or
the spear bear
by Polykleitos, which is actually a Roman copy that we see here,
So we don't have an original, but this one gives you a sense -- this image gives
you a sense -- of what the original looked like. So,
you have a figure holding on to a spear, shifting into a dramatic contra-
pposto pose, so that pose
that we saw with the "Kritios Boy", where the figure is shifting his weight
onto one leg, and this causes the whole body to
react, so the shoulders will move; the hips will move;
the knees will move. So, the entire body will shift
and react to this "contrapposto" pose and, of course, this is a much more natural
way for the human body to stand. Typically, we do not stand
with our way equally shifted [or balanced] on two feet. Typically, we will shift our weight on to one
leg. So, it's actually a much more naturalistic way of
doing it. If we look at the figure -- if we look at this
other image which is a reconstruction of a figure holding on to a
spear, you can see that this figure is all about balance and harmony, so
Polykleitos was very interested in the idea
of how to create the ideal set of portions for the human body,
and how to have this reaction on one side and another. So you'd
have one diagonal going in one direction, and another diagonal going in another, so direction so
if one diagonal's going up, another one should be going down.
One going up, another should be going down, so you have that nice sense of
harmony.
Also, in the idea of what should the proportions be. This was considered the
ideal
proportions at that time set out by Polykleitos.
For example, the head should fit inside the body seven times,
so the size had should then fit inside the body seven times.
You can see that the contrapposto is a little bit more dramatic here,
and the fact that this is a Roman copy tells us -- hints for us -- as we move
towards the ancient Romans in our lectures
that the Romans are great admirers of the Greeks --
the Classical period, as well as other periods, and so
works like this by Polykleitos became very well respected,
and copied in marble later on. A lot of Greek originals were created in
bronze, and so they were melted down, or they just don't survive to us due to age.
So, in this case it's good that the Romans did like to copy them because we
are able to see or
get an idea of Polykleitos' original,
although it is not the actual original. Another work that's quite famous by Myron,
"The discus thrower"
again is a Roman marble copy, so another example of a sculpture that was
appreciated by
the ancient Romans, also dating to about 450 BCE.
And, again, we get this sense of balance, so one
diagonal going this way, another going this way, one going this way, and another going this way.
And, the artist the selected this moment at the height of the action, right?
So, this moment where the discus thrower has whipped his arm
back, and he's in this momentary pause before releasing his discus.
You can see that there's a new attention to anatomy.
You can see details of the ribs here, details
of the muscles throughout the arms. Again, this is a Roman copy,
but we presume that there are some details that are
mimicking
what was seen in the Greek original.
In both cases things like this support -- this marble support --
if it were created in bronze originally, it would not be necessary.
Marble lacks a certain tensile strength, so you need to have that kind of support.
If we go back, you can see this one has a little tree trunk sticking out of it, as
well as a strut
that connects the hand and the hip, and so this is
yet another support that's necessary for marble sculptures
that were created by the Romans. So, we have this moment of momentary pause
before
the "Discus Thrower" is to release his discus.
So, really the only unnaturalistic thing about this
is the serious expression that we see on the face here,
which really reveals no emotion, so we've got to keep this in mind because as we move toward
the Hellenistic period,
we'll see some dramatic emotion incorporated into these sculptures
but at this point we're not seeing too much expression. Ok,
let's move on to the type of building projects that we see at this time.
So, first off, as we looked at that discus thrower,
obviously games were very important -- athletic competitions.
So, what was the most famous athletic competition site?
Of course, to us, it's Olympia, which was a site dedicated to
the god Zeus. The first Olympic games were in 776 BCE,
but there was actually a new temple complex constructed
from 470 to 456 BCE.
So, this is actually a period following the Persian invasions.
The temple itself collapsed in the 10th century,
so this is all that survives today. You can see the area of the competition,
but this is an image done by computer generated
imagery. So this gives you a sense of what the sanctuary and the competition area looked like
originally.
Ok, so the temple of Zeus show us a few things about Doric
temples at this time. "Doric" is this relatively plain style of
column that we see here. So Doric temples would have included some painting
details,
some pedimental sculptures. The pediment again is that triangle.
And then, the typical dimensions would be you'd have a certain number of columns in the
front -- in this case 6
and then you would double that number and add one along the side (x=2y+1). So you have six
columns here,
and 13 along the side. You would have a lot of sculptures around as areas: so
sculptures of the gods, sculptures of
athletes, and any kind of disgraced athlete would have his
sculpture removed. But it's an interesting combination of both worship
and appreciation athletes and athletics.
So, here we can see the size of this temple. It was a big deal when this temple
was created
because it was created after the Persian invasions.
They spent a lot of money on it and they'd actually been an
oath taken after the Persian invasions that they wouldn't
rebuild the destruction -- they would not rebuild the destruction caused by the Persians,
and slowly people begin breaking this promise -- this idea of the "Oath
of Plataea", which is still somewhat controversial.
It's recorded by later historians,
but this idea that you're going to leave things as they
were when the Persians were there. And so slowly,
the Greek civilizations begin this large building projects
after the Persian invasions, when they're feeling pretty good.
So, this is the "Doric" order. You can see relatively plain column capital,
an area for decoration called the "metope", this area here with three lines called a
"triglyph".
The column itself sits directly on what's known as the "Stylobate",
and here you can just see a little bit more detailed version. The "Doric" order is
usually thought of as the more masculine and simple
order. Alright so this is a "peripteral" temple,
a "peripteral" temple just means there's a single row of columns all around the
outside.
In the inside is what's known as the "Cella" or "Naos". You have the porch or
the "Pronaos"
right here. These are called columns 'in antis" or columns
inside the porch columns, and what's known as the "Opisthodomos".
So, the "Opisthodomos" is usually a treasury area.
This is sometimes called a colonnade or peristyle -- just a row of columns,
and the idea is you're not really gonna go inside the cella.
It's not really for everyone to go into. This is where the cult
image would be and only certain people would be allowed it to see things like
this --
the reconstruction of the gold and ivory statue of Zeus by Phidias,
who also carve the one [of Athena] at the Acropolis.
So, the individual that's instrumental in the construction at the Acropolis
is Pericles -- so Pericles is a leader in the Greek government. We see him here with his
beard,
and he was instrumental because at this point we have the "Delian League",
which was important for funding for the Acropolis building project.
The Delian League was originally called, so that they could have
funds and also resources, so that they could
make sure that no invasions like the Persian invasions ever happened
again.
So, they have this as funding for that, but they end up starting to use the
money for other things,
and Athens takes control this fund, of this treasury.
So the Delian League, which was originally on Delos ends up
in Athens, and Pericles now has access to it or
it's available. They also no longer honor the "Oath of Plataea", as I mentioned
before, so they're now
building; they're now reconstructing. And so what do these new building projects look
like?
So, there had been a temple that they were working on for Athena. Well, now
it's even bigger and greater. They have a temple
that's called the "Parthenon" that will be even bigger than the temple dedicated to
Zeus [at Olympia],
as well as a small structure dedicated to Nike, the goddess of victory,
and a small temple know as the Erechtheion, that
houses the archaic image of Athena, as well as other
important sites and
commemorates other important events, so as we look
at the Parthenon, you can see it has that idea or same kind of decoration with the
pedimental sculpture, the decoration in the metopes, as well.
You also that same ratio: 8 columns in the front
but then double it plus one, so in this case, you have it
8 by 17, so much, much larger than we saw
in Olympia. So, you also have
some
optical corrections. You have some things that are done to make sure that
you see straight lines --
even though they're not all straight -- so, for example, the columns
on the building bulge in the center. This is called "Entasis",
so there's a slight bulge to the columns, as they moved down,
so that the building looks stable and so the columns don't look weak.
Also, the steps appear straight along the edge but there are actually two
inches higher right here,
and four inches higher up here in the center than they are at the corners,
so you have this slight curvature along what's known as the "Stylobate"
or the floor of the temple, so this slight curve,
and this ensures that there's no look of saggy-ness right in the middle
of the temple.
So no sagging here, no sagging here.
This also gives a roundness to the temple or gives it a strength,
a look of strength. So, there's been lots of ideas about why
they made these refinements or optical corrections.
And, the final one here is just that the corner columns are thicker,
that they're really quite thick at the corner. This is because they're bathed in
light
on all sides, and if something is bathed in light, it can tend to look thinner,
so again, by keeping things looking strong, you're gonna keep those corner
columns a little thicker.
Ok, so here you can just see the floor plan or the ground plan. You can see there's a lot
of sculpture going on
all throughout this. We're just focusing on a few examples.
This is a reconstruction of the gold and ivory sculpture that was inside the
temple --
that very few people would be able to see. You can see "Athena Parthenos"
or "Athena the maiden" is holding on to Nike
the goddess of victory and has her helmet and
her shield here.
And then here we can see one of the pedimental sculptures -- that's actually a
reconstruction because they're all in pretty rough shape.
One pediment was "The Birth of Athena" and this one is "The Contest between
Athena and Poseidon". This was the contest to see who would be the patron
god or goddess
of the city of Athens, and Athena won. She won because she gave a gift of an olive tree
to the people at Athens.
You can see that olive tree peeking out in this reconstruction behind her.
Poseidon, god of the sea, holding his trident, he gave them
a bubbling brook or some water. He struck the rock and
water came out, and the Athenian people thought that was a good gift
but in fact that water was salt water, so they didn't really want that gift.
This area of the Acropolis -- this elevated area that was decorated with sacred
structures
was part of what was known as the Panathenaic Procession, so
every four years from the Dipylon Gate -- so that where the Dipylon cemetery or
necropolis was,
you would process through the Agora -- the mercantile center
the city -- and up towards the Acropolis. And, here you can see a reconstruction
of people moving
up towards the Parthenon, and the other temples and structures up above,
and they would bring a garment to dress the
Archaic image of Athena.
And, this was an image that was house in Erechthion, and it was made of olive tree wood,
and believed to have fallen from the sky.
There is a debate as to where the Parthenon marbles [marble sculptures] should be displayed.
Most of them -- or a lot of them -- were taken at the beginning of the 19th
century to the England,
and they're now in the British Museum, but very recently the Greeks have now opened
a museum that houses what marbles they have,
and also has a place for every marble from the British Museum,
so some people have suggested they should be returned, but as if now they're
still with the British collection.
The Ionic temple that we see or a structure that
demonstrates the Ionic types of columns -- the Ionic order --
we see here in the "Temple of Athena Nike", and you can see this would have had a
balustrade with decorations
of Nike in different poses, as well as decorations scenes from the Persian War.
Greeks defeating the Persians, and
areas for sacrifices, as well. The Ionic order has these curving volutes,
and is known as a more feminine order. We also have the
Erechtheion, which commemorates the olive tree that Athena gave,
and also the area where Poseidon struck the rock.
You can see it's also done in that Ionic order, and the architect
had to negotiate very, very uneven terrain.
We also see porch made out of what are known as "Caryatids".
So, these are columns made out of female figures,
so this concludes our tour at the Acropolis. There are many other
structures,
but this gives you a sense of what the Acropolis was all about,
and how it functioned.