Ancient Greece Part IV- Hellenistic Period

I have posted on three earlier period of Greek art. Check out the Geometric Period, the Archaic Period, and the Classical Period.


Between 334 and 323 BCE, Greece took over many other countries. When the Greek ruler, Alexander the Great, died in 323 BCE, he had a huge empire. The people who lived in the areas the Greeks took over had art and culture of their own. Their styles blended with the Classical Greek artistic style to create something new. This began the Hellenistic Period of ancient Greek art.
During the Hellenistic Period, sculptors still created sculptures of gods, like Nike of Samothrace (above) and Venus de Milo (below).

They also sculpted children (such as Boy with Thorn, shown below), elderly people, and Africans. These subjects had not been popular before.
Hellenistic sculptors created many copies of earlier, Classical Period sculptures, as well, because wealthy art collectors wanted them for their homes.

After 31 BCE, art began to change again. This marked the end of the Hellenistic Period.

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Ms. Julie's Venus

Ms. Julie has posted a great video that teaches, step-by-step, how to draw Boticelli's Venus. It's pretty amazing to watch Venus' face appear on the page.

Enjoy!

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Leonard and the Flying Boy by Laurence Anholt

Welcome to Fantastic Fiction Friday!

Today’s pick is Leonard and the Flying Boy by Laurence Anholt, another book in the Anholt’s Artists series.

Zoro is a dutiful student of Leonardo da Vinci. He mixes paints and cleans brushes for Leonardo. Salai, another student, is not so well-behaved. He steals, cheats, and lies, but Leonardo loves him anyway.

While Leonardo is painting the Mona Lisa, Salai steals his flying machine and convinces Zoro to test it out. The boys take the flying machine to the top of a tall mountain and strap Zoro in for his flight.

Anholt’s illustrations are mixed with Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches and paintings. This allows readers to see Leonardo’s own designs for the flying machine, as well as designs for some of his other inventions.

I had chosen a different book for this week’s Fantastic Fiction Friday but today I had the pleasure of reading Leonardo and the Flying Boy with a group of 2nd graders. They loved it as much as I did. The book also inspired us to think of inventions of our own, just like Leonardo da Vinci did. The students drew pictures of their inventions and then shared their ideas. Maybe Leonardo and the Flying Boy with inspire you, too.

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Create Your Own Soap Bubble Art

Today’s project was inspired by Jean Simeon Chardin’s Soap Bubble (below), which I showed you yesterday. I had so much fun with this one. I hope you will, too.
Supplies Needed:

Washable kids paint
Plastic cups
Drinking straws
Bubble soap
Paper

Go outside!

I’m going to say that again. Put on an old t-shirt and go outside. This project can be messy.
Pour a little bubble soap into a few plastic cups. You’ll want one cup for each color. Mix in a squirt of paint. This isn’t a science. The more paint you mix in, the darker the colors will be, but keep in mind that if you add too much paint your mixture will no longer create bubbles.

Lighter colors, like pink, don’t show up as well as darker colors, no matter how much paint you add. You might want to stick with colors like blue, red, green, and purple. Experiment with as many colors as you want.

Dip a straw into a color. Do not suck up the bubble soap. You want as little soap as possible on the end (and you don’t want to drink soapy paint!).

Blow bubbles onto your sheet of paper. I laid my paper in the grass, sat next to it, and let the breeze blow the bubbles onto the paper. If you have a friend to create bubble art with, take turns catching the bubbles with the paper.
The longer the bubble sits on the paper before popping, the darker the ring of color will be. I found that larger bubbles popped more quickly than smaller bubbles.
When you like the way your painting looks, let it dry. The colors get very light when they dry.

Younger kids can enjoy this project as well. Just use bubble wands instead of straws and be prepared for a bigger mess. Bubble wands blow way more bubbles at a time than straws do.

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Jean Simeon Chardin

Jean Simeon Chardin was born in France in 1699. He lived in Paris all his life. He rarely travelled and when he did, he did not go far.

Chardin apprenticed with two painters of history before earning his way into the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

In 1737, Chardin showed his work at the Paris Salon, the official exhibition of art in France, for many years. He was very involved in the Salon. He went to meetings and helped organize shows.

Even though Chardin’s artwork was different from most art of the time, a lot of people liked his worked. Other artists admired his art and the King of France even paid him to paint.
As Chardin grew old, his eyesight got worse and worse. Eventually he couldn’t paint in his realistic style anymore. In his old age, Chardin created pastel drawings instead, like Self Portrait with Easel (above). They weren’t popular at the time but they are now. Chardin died in 1779.

During the mid-1700s, Rococo art was in style. These paintings were very decorative. There had curving shapes and soft colors. Rococo paintings often included mythological scenes or scenes of wealthy people having fun. Chardin did not paint in this style.
As you can see, Chardin didn’t use bright colors. He chose subdued colors, like browns, tan, copper, and deep red, instead. His paintings were so realistic that other artists of the time were amazed by his talent. Chardin painted still-lifes of food or kitchen items, like The Silver Goblet (above), and paintings of middle-class people. Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock (below) shows a girl getting ready to play badminton. Boy with Playing Cards (below) shows a boy setting up cards the way we sometimes set up dominos.

I especially like Soap Bubbles, which is shown at the top of this page. The bubble wand may look different than what we’re used to, but even in the 1700s kids enjoyed blowing bubbles.

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