Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Ancient Greece Part I- Geometric Period

I took quite a long break, didn’t I? Sorry about that. I had a visitor for a long weekend and was busy running around D.C. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, as well.

This post is the first in a short series about the art of Ancient Greece.

The time period from about 1000BC to about 700BC in Ancient Greece was called the Geometric Period. This is because artists often decorated items, especially vases, with geometric patterns. You’ll notice this in the picture shown below.
Many of these vases were used as headstones in cemeteries.

You’ll also notice that the animals are very stylized. The horses don’t look the way real horses do but they look enough like horses that you can tell what they are. The people also look unrealistic. They aren’t just stick figures, though. The artists of this time period had a unique style that makes their art different from art of any other Greek period.
Above is a sculpture created during the Geometric Period. Like most sculptures from the period, it is bronze. The most important parts of the horse are the largest (such as the nose) and the least important are smallest (like the torso).

Some experts believe that these small sculptures were used as offerings to the gods.

Return to main page.

No comments: