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Chapter Three:
Classical Greece and the
Hellenistic Period
Culture and Values, 8th Ed.
Cunningham and Reich and
Fichner-Rathus
TimeLine
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Late 6th century bce democratic system of government est. in Athens
485-410 bce Protagoras of Abdera
479-323 bce Classical period
480 bce The Acropolis
479 bce Persian Wars end
472 The Persians by Aeschylus performed
469-399 bce Socrates
460 bce Thucydides born
461 bce Pericles comes to power in Athens
454 bce Athens moves money from The Delian Leauge in order to fund Parthenon
449 bce The Acropolis begun by Phidias, sculptor
447-438 bce The Parthenon built
431- 404 B.C.E. Peloponnesian War
431 bce Greek War
428- 347 bce Plato
424 bcew Thucydides elected General of Amhipolis
429 bce Pericles dies
421-406 bce Erechtheum, temple, built
404 bce fall of Athens
384-322 bce Aristotle
The Classical Ideal
Classical period (500-323 B.C.E.)
Contributions of “pioneers”
Search for order and control
Value of human potential, capability
Thucydides 460-424 bce
Athens
Exemplar of human achievement
– Defeat of Persians (479 B.C.E. )
Democratic Government
– Ecclesia, boule, magistracies
Delian League
– Peloponnesian War (431- 404 B.C.E.)
Pericles
Thucydides
3.1 Cresilas, Pericles, 2nd century B.C.E.
Marble, 23” (58.5 cm) high. British Museum, London, United
Kingdom
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The Delian league of Greek city-states
Pericles and the Athenian
Acropolis
Pericles’ building program
– Delian League funds
Parthenon
– Proportion, balance
– Ideal beauty in realistic terms
Erechtheum
– Porch of the Maidens (caryatids)
3.4 Ictinus and Callicrates, The Parthenon, 447–432 bce. Parthenon. Column
height 34´ (10.36 m), Acropolis, Athens, Greece. Diagram after Andrew Stewart.
Contemporary photo © William Katz/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Kallikrates and Iktinos. The Parthenon, Acropolis. 447–432 BCE.
3.8 The Erechtheum with the Temple of Caryatids
Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 430-406 B.C.E.
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The Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee is a full-scale replica of the original
Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial
Lapith Fighting a Centaur. c. 447–432 BCE. Height 56”.
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Life-size pediment sculptures from the Parthenon in the British Museum
Recreation of Pheidias’ Huge Gold and Ivory Figure.
Classical Sculpture and Vase
Painting
Naturalism, realism
– Myron’s Discus Thrower
New standard of human beauty
– Proportion, symmetry, balance
– Riace Bronzes
– Polykleitos of Argos, The Canon
Focus on individual
– Emotional responses
– Death and mourning
Contrapposto
Humanism, rationalism, idealism
“Man is the measure of all things”
Dr Spivey on contrapposto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88gXWW3qN7o
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Spear Bearer
 Copy after
original bronze of
circa BCE 450440. Total view
from front center
 Creator Name:
Polykleitos
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360 view of Polykleitos’ Spearbearer
3.12 Myron, Discobolos (Discus Thrower). Roman copy of bronze original of c.
450 BCE. Marble, 5´1˝ (156.5 cm) high. Museo Nazionale Romano—Palazzo
Massimo alle Terme, Rome, Italy
3.11 Warrior,
c. 460-450 bce.
From the sea
off Riace, Italy.
Bronze with
glass, bone,
silver, and
copper inlay,
6´6˝ (2 m)
high. Museo
Archeologico
Nazionale,
Reggio
Calabria,
Italy//©
Scala/Art
Resource, NY
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Doryphorus (Spear Bearer) of Polykleitos. Roman copy after the original bronze of c. 450-440 BCE
Polykleitos’ Canon and the Idea of Symmetria (link)
3.14 Niobid Painter, Artemis and Apollo Slaying the Children of Niobe, ca. 450
B.C.E. Orvieto, Italy. Athenian clay, red-figure (white highlights) calyx krater, 21
¼” high x 22” diameter (54 x 56 cm). Musee du Louvre, Paris, France.
Great video resources for our Greek Chapter:
The Parthenon, NOVA PBS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCW0zKR4xk
Optical Tricks of the Parthenon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzhA3yiEofI&featur
e=relmfu
Engineering an Empire, the Greeks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqGTCgL3tcw
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Resources for Art History
Met’s Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/
UMich Mother of All Art History Links
http://www.umich.edu/~motherha/
Smarthistory
http://smarthistory.org/
Real/Virtual at Columbia University
http://www.learn.columbia.edu/ha/html/ancient.html
Google Art Project
http://www.googleartproject.com/
Engineering an Empire – History Channel Series
http://www.history.com/search?searchfield=Engineering+an+Empire&auto-search=true
Philosophy
in the Late Classical Period
Protagoras
– Sophists
Socrates
– Fate of the individual
– Questioning traditional values
– The Socratic problem
Philosophy
in the Late Classical Period
Plato
– Disciple of Socrates
• Apology, Crito, Phaedo
– The Academy
– Political theory / ideal society
• Theory of Forms
• Inspired by chaos of 4th c. Greek politics
Philosophy
in the Late Classical Period
Aristotle
– Pupil of Plato
– The Lyceum
– Platonist vs. Aristotelian
– Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics,
Rhetoric, Poetics
– “Master of those who know.”
Music
in the Classical Period
Popularity of instrumental music
Doctrine of Ethos
– Plato
– Aristotle
Pythagorean principals
– Octaves, fourths, tetrachords, modes
Rhythmic instrumentation
Musical notation
Drama Festivals of Dionysus
Theater = religious ritual
3 Tragedies + Satyr Play
– Plots
– Actors and props
– Function of Chorus
Athenian Tragic Dramatists
– Aeschylus
– Sophocles
– Euripides
3.17 Polyclitus the Younger, Theater of Epidaurus, Greece, ca. 350
B.C.E. Photography by Raymond V. Schoder S.J., c. 1999 BolchazyCarducci Publishers, Inc.
Performance of Greek
Tragedy
 Held as part of religious celebrations in
particular, those to the god Dionysus
 Performed outside in amphitheaters
 Audience would watch 5 plays a day
 Written at the prompting of the government and
were held as competitions—the winner was
given a crown of ivy
 The performers were male Athenian citizens.
 Usually only 3 actors in one play who would
perform several different roles.
 The Poet would also perform in his play.
 Actors wore masks and ceremonial robes.
Characteristics
 2 parts: chorus sung in lyric meters with
music and dialogue between characters
 In general the chorus plays the part of
spectators of the action, humble in rank,
taking a limited part in but rarely
initiating action, sympathizing with one
or other of the chief characters, and
commenting on or interpreting the
dramatic situation. (typically 15
members of chorus) dance and singing
Structure
1. Prologue-before the chorus,
establishes the subject and
situation
2. Parodos-chorus enters singing
3. Episodes-scenes with 2 or more
actors and the chorus
4. Stasima-chorus songs between
episodes
5. Exodos-final episode
Origins of Tragedy
 Earliest record in 5th century b.c. from
Athens
 Thought to develop from earlier Greek
choral performances
 The Greek word for actor translates to
“answerer;” thus it is thought that actors
began by answering questions the
chorus asked
 Stories from Greek tragedy were almost
always from mythology and were well
know in their time.
Tragedy
 tragedy (i.e. tragic drama), from Greek trag idia, ‘goat song’.
There is no satisfactory explanation of this name. It may have
arisen because, it has been suggested, the chorus in tragedy
originally wore goat-skins, or in connection with a goatsacrifice, or even because there was a competition with a goat
as prize.
 (Tragedy is, as old books inform us, a kind of story concerning
someone who has enjoyed great prosperity but has fallen from
his high position into misfortune and ends in wretchedness.
Tragedies are commonly written in verse with six feet, called
hexameters.)
Sophocles
 496-406 b.c.
 7 surviving plays
 Known for complex plot
and characters
 Typically explores the
relationship between
people and the gods.
 Won numerous
dramatic competitions
 Was a citizen and welleducated
Sophocles (496-406 B.C.E. )
Friend of Pericles
Consequences of human error
Most traditionally religious in theme
Antigone, Oedipus the King
Oedipus
 Part of a trilogy: Oedipus
Tyrannus, Oedipus at
Colonus, and Antigone.
 Name actually translates to
“swollen foot”
 Oedipus is King of Thebes,
husband of Jocasta
 Story was told by Homer in
The Odyssey and Iliad
 Also a play by Aeschylus
and Eruipides
 Declared by Aristotle who
literally wrote the book on
Greek drama the greatest
tragedy
Characters
 Oedipus-strong ruler, decisive, man of
action, but rash, confident but proud,
 Creon-voice of reason, stable, is sent by
Oedipus to the Oracle so trustworthy,
but quick to banish Oedipus at the end
 The Chorus-voice of status quo, has the
last word
 Jocasta-wife of Oedipus, wife of Laius,
mother of Oedipus
 Prophet-
Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E. )
Optimistic philosophy / themes
Orestia Trilogy (458 B.C.E. )
– Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers,
The Eumenides
– Growth of civilization through reason
and order
Euripides (484-406 B.C.E. )
Realistic, rational
– Social, political, religious injustice
– Concern for psychological truth
Suppliant Women, Helen, Iphigenia
in Taurus, Bacchae
Aristophanes (450-385 B.C.E.)
Athenian comic poet
Political satire + fantasy
– The Birds
– Lysistrata
Late Classical Sculpture
Realism and emotion
– Fate of the individual (Plato)
Praxiteles
– Female body = object of beauty
Lysippus
– Portraiture, scale
3.20 Lysippus, Apoxyomenos ( Scraper), Roman copy of a bronze statue of ca.
330 B.C.E. Marble, 80 ¾” (205 cm) high. Musei Vaticani, Vatican City State,
Italy.
3.22
Theodoros
of Phokaia,
the Tholos
of the
Sanctuary
of Athena
Pronaia, c.
375 bce.
Marble and
limestone,
diameter of
cella
28´25⁄8˝ (8.6
m). Delphi,
Greece
The Hellenistic Period
Division of Macedonian Empire
– Syria, Egypt, Pergamum, Macedonia
– Spread of Greek influence
Artistic freedom vs. Classical order
New patrons = new artistic roles
Altar of Zeus at Pergamum
– Laocoön
Return to Classic principles
3.26
Athenadorus,
Agesander,
and Polydorus
of Rhodes,
Laocoon and
His Sons, early
first century
ce. Roman
copy, marble,
82 ¾” (210 cm)
high. Musei
Vaticani,
Vatican City
State, Italy.
Chapter Three: Discussion Questions
 In what ways can the manifestation of chaos,
confusion, and uncertainty be seen in art from
the Classical and/or Hellenistic periods?
Explain, citing specific examples.
 What is the “Classical Ideal”? In what works is
this ideal best illustrated? Explain.
 Compare the Acropolis with the buildings at
Pergamum. How does each entity symbolize the
cultural attitudes of its time and locale?
Explain.
 What role did drama and music play in the lives
of the Greeks? How were the two forms
interrelated?