Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Ancient Greece Part II- Archaic Period

Before you read this, refresh your memory about the Geometric Period of Ancient Greek art. Remember how stylized and unrealistic the people and animals looked?

The Archaic Period began around 700BC and ended around 480BC. You’ll notice a big difference between the art of this period and that of the Geometric Period. During this period, Greek artists created much more realistic images. The people have muscles and their faces are detailed. The horses now look like real horses. And there’s something else you’ll notice (look at the bowl below)—the Greeks began to include mythical creatures like griffins (part lion and part bird) and sphinxes (part lion and part woman).
During the Archaic Period, Greek art was influenced by art from other areas of the world. This is because the Greeks were trading goods with neighboring areas. They were also setting up colonies to their east and west. Contact with other cultures allowed Greeks to learn to cut gemstones for jewelry, work with metals, and carve ivory.
Still, though, the Greeks continued to make sculptures and decorated vases. As I said earlier, the images became more realistic. Look at the decoration on the vases above. Big difference from Geometric Period vases, huh?
During this time, the Greeks began sculpting nude standing male figures (called kouros) and standing female figures with loose cloth draped over them (called kore). You have probably seen statues like the ones shown above.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is awesome for my class, thank you so much for making it