Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol.original_ [10]
Mask of King Tutankhamen, 1352 B.C., The Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Even within the final coffin, the face of the mummy was concealed by a beaten-gold mask.
GREECE: THEY INVENTED A LOT MORE THAN THE OLYMPICS
The history — some would argue the zenith — of Western civilization began in ancient Greece. For a brief Golden Age, 480-430 B.C., an explosion of creativity resulted in an unparalleled level of excellence in art, architecture, poetry, drama, philosophy, government, law, logic, history, and mathematics. This period is also called the Age of Pericles, after the Athenian leader who championed democracy and encouraged free thinking.
Greek philosophy was summed up in the words of Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.” This, combined with other philosophers’ emphasis on rational inquiry and challenging the status quo, created a society of intellectual and artistic risk-takers.
Just as man’s dignity and worth were central Greek concepts, the human figure was the principal motif of Greek art. Where Greek philosophy stressed harmony, order, and clarity of thought, Greek art and architecture reflected a similar respect for balance.
PAINTING. The Greeks were skilled painters. According to literary sources, Greek artists achieved a breakthrough in realistic trompe l’oeil effects. Their paintings were so lifelike that birds pecked murals of painted fruit. Unfortunately, none of these works survive, but we can judge the realistic detail of Greek painting by the figures that adorn their everyday pottery.
VASE PAINTING. Vase painting told stories about gods and heroes of Greek myths as well as such contemporary subjects as warfare and drinking parties. The earliest (c. 800 B.C.) vase design was called the Geometric Style, because the figures and ornaments were primarily geometric shapes. The later Archaic Period was the great age of vase painting. In the black-figured style at the outset of this period, black forms stood out against a reddish clay background. The artist scratched in details with a needle, to expose the red beneath. The red-figured style, starting around 530 B.C., reversed this color scheme. The figures, on a black background, were composed of natural red clay with details painted in black.
Exekias, “Dionysus in a Sailboat,” c. 550-521 B.C., Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich. From the Archaic Period, this scene may be the earliest instance in which an object (the soil) was presented realistically rather than in some stylized manner.
“Youth Singing and Playing the Kithara,” c. 490 B.C., MMA, NY. This amphora (a two-handled vessel) is an example of the red-figured style (red figure/black background), as opposed to the earlier black-figured style (block figure/red background).
SCULPTURE: THE BODY BEAUTIFUL. The Greeks invented the nude in art. The ideal proportions of their statues represented the perfection of both body (through athletic endeavor) and mind (through intellectual debate). The Greeks sought a synthesis of the two poles of human behavior — passion and reason — and, through their artistic portrayal of the human form (often in motion), they came close to achieving it.
Greek statues were not the bleached white marble we associate with Classical sculpture today. The marble was embellished with colored encaustic, a mixture of powdered pigment and hot wax applied to hair, lips, eyes, and nails of the figure. Although male nudity was always acceptable in sculpture, the representation of female images evolved from fully clothed to sensually nude. In earlier statues, clinging folds of drapery united the figure in a swirling rhythm of movement. Another innovation was the discovery of the principle of weight shift, or contrapposto, in which the weight of the body rested on one leg with the body realigned accordingly, giving the illusion of a figure in arrested motion.
ETERNAL YOUTH: INFLUENCE OF THE GREEK IDEAL
The ideal proportions of