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welcome to our first lesson on ancient


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greek art and architecture
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this material is extremely important for
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our understanding of western art because
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many of the great works of later periods
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were modeled after or reacting to
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greek models
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so when we get to rome we'll be dealing
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with a similarly important period of art
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history with similar echoes in later
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works of art in fact many scholars refer
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to the greco-roman tradition
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not just in the history of art and
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architecture but also in the history of
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ideas the history of social institutions
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and so on
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many of the works of art and
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architecture that are being created
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today
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are reliant in some way upon the
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greco-roman tradition
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and still other works of art and
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architecture are being made as reactions
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to
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and sometimes against this tradition
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some of the most obvious references to
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the greco-roman tradition can be seen in
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governmental buildings and also in the
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architecture of university campuses
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as we move through the greek and roman
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lessons start looking at the public
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works of art and architecture around you
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for example on campus and in town
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and see if you can pick up on some of
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the greco-roman models that modern arts
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artists and architects have used
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consider why these styles could have
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been adopted
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and what messages are meant to be sent
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by those particular building
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so we're going to begin with a little
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background on ancient greece
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here is ancient mycenae
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mycenaean dominance in the aegean ended
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around 1100 to 1025 bce
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and that was followed by a period that
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some scholars have called a dark age
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in which many of the cultural and
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technological advances we learned about
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in the aegean
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lessons
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including written language were either
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destroyed or forgotten
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in the 9th and 8th centuries bce we see
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the development of greek city-states
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like athens
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corinth
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and sparta
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each of these city-states was an
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autonomous region with a city as its
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cultural religious political and
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economic center
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each one was independent with its own
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form of government economy foreign
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affairs and so on
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because the greek mainland was not
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particularly rich with farmland
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these city-states were extremely
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dependent upon trade
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and they traded wine olive oils ceramics
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and metal work for not much needed
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supplies of grain and raw materials
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so the strength of these city-states
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depended as much upon their trade ties
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as it did upon their military might
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in the 7th century bce greek city-states
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adopted two important developments
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first written language came from the
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phoenicians
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and coinage which came from asia minor
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and these helped strengthen greek
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developments in literature and in
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commerce
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corinth was one of the earliest and most
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powerful of the greek city-states
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it was located on major sea and land
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trade routes
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by the 6th century
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athens became the preeminent city-state
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both culturally and economically
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by the end of the sixth century that
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city had a representative form of
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government in which every community had
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its own assembly and magistrates
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every citizen participated in the
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assembly and had a right to vote and own
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private property
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athenian citizens were also entitled to
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freedom of speech
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and the opportunity to hold public
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office
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it sounds great but you need to know
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that citizenship was only granted to men
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women children and slaves were not
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considered citizens
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thus citizenship was only granted to a
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small number of residents a census in
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athens in 309 bce listed 21 000 citizens
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10 000 foreigners
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and 400 000 others those others were the
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women children and slaves
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the greeks believed in a large pantheon
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of sky gods who had defeated the earth
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gods known as the titans in a great
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battle at the beginning of the world
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the sky gods made their home atop mount
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olympus located in the northeast corner
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of the greek mainland
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greek gods had supernatural powers and
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immortality and each one was responsible
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for a particular aspect of greek life
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but they were also subject to the same
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faults and weaknesses as humans
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for example
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zeus
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here the king of the gods and the god of
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thunder and lightning was quite the
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straying husband and he cheated numerous
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times on his wife hera
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who was the goddess of marriage
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a number of zeus's illegitimate children
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were the heroes of greek legend
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among the other important gods were
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apollo the god of healing arts and the
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sun
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and his sister artemis a virgin goddess
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of the moon hunting and wild animals
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poseidon the god of the sea and athena
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the virgin goddess of wisdom war and
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victory who sprung from the head of zeus
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fully armed
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there is also ares god of war and
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aphrodite goddess of love
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i've provided you with a pdf on greek
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gods
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for in in your readings for this topic
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and i've also put that in the resources
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for this particular
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uh module in canvas there are also lots
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of great resources out there on greek
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mythology
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many of the myths about the greek gods
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read like stories about an extremely
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dysfunctional family
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with cheating spouses petty jealousy
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feuds and fights between siblings and
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other family members and so on
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and if you're interested um rick riordan
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has a wonderful series of young adult
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novels
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that deal with uh the greek gods they're
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really great
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you
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now we're looking at a view of the
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sanctuary of apollo at delphi
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the greeks worshiped their gods in
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outdoor
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sites called sanctuaries
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these sanctuaries grew up around natural
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features of the landscape like a rock a
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mountain a cave or a spring
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that were considered to be sacred to one
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or more gods
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this site delphi was believed to be the
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omphalos or naval of the world and it
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was believed that a group of sacred
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birds had indicated this spot in ancient
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times
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the site of a greek sanctuary would be
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enclosed and designated as sacred ground
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and then built with outdoor altars or
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shrines
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over time a sanctuary would include
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multiple temples
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treasuries for offerings from the
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faithful
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housing for priests and visitors an
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outdoor performance space like a theater
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or dance floor
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and a stadium for athletic events
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these buildings were often approached
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and linked together with a processional
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way
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that wound through the sanctuary
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each feature in a greek sanctuary was
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placed in such a way that it interacted
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with the landscape and the natural
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setting was treated as a crucial
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component in the overall design
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one of the best examples of this
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integration at delphi is the great
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outdoor theater built in the 4th century
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bce
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with its 35 tiers of seats it could
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accommodate roughly 5 000 spectators at
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plays poetry readings and musical
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performances that took place throughout
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the year
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as you can see rather than being
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enclosed the way that a modern theater
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would be this one is out in the open
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overlooking a spectacular view of
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mountains and a gorge
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many greek theaters were built into the
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natural curving areas in the landscape
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to take advantage of the terrain and
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minimize the expense of construction
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the greeks designed the acoustics of
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their theaters very carefully in such a
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way that the audience could clearly hear
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all the words spoken from the central
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stage area which was called the
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orchestra
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orchestra is from the greek for dancing
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place
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the central feature of the sanctuary of
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apollo was the temple of apollo and you
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can see
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that rectangular construction with some
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of its remaining columns
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sort of at the center of my slide here
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the current ruined temple was built in
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the 4th century bce
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after an earthquake had destroyed an
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earlier temple
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the very earliest temple on the site was
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built in the 7th century bce
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although worship of the god apollo can
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be documented at this site as early as
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the 9th century bce
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the temple would have contained a statue
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of apollo but public worship took place
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at the outdoor altar which was located
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directly in front of the temple
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here's a view of the karnak temple
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complex in egypt from google earth
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unlike the greeks the egyptians were
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concerned
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with a strict axial alignment
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of all the structures within the temple
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complexes and even the processional
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waves were long straight avenues
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generally temple buildings were situated
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either parallel
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or perpendicular
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to the nile
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and of course they also reflected the
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east-west line
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followed by the sun as it traveled
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across the sky
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you should recall that many rituals
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involve the dial and that
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the important culture statues would be
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taken across the nile
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during special religious festivals each
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year
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patronage of these complexes tended to
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be royal
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with rulers striving to put their own
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stamp on a temple through the addition
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of pylons
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a hull
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apple obelisks and so on
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access to the interior was restricted to
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the highest ranks of the priesthood and
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nobility
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and the cult statues tended to be kept
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in dark small inner sanctuaries
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so let's contrast that with delphi
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here at delphi on the other hand we have
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a typical greek arrangement
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the site is holy due to a special
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natural feature
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um in this case an opening known as the
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omphalos or the navel of the world
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the greeks believed delphi was the very
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center of the world and the oracle of
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delphi was a special priestess who would
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sit above this fissure in the earth and
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allow volcanic gases to give her visions
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these were reported as prophecies and
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people came to delphi for centuries
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in order to consult the the oracle
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because of the reliance on natural
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features for greek holy sites
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sanctuaries tended to be integrated into
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the landscape and their layout is more
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organic than the strict geometry we saw
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in egyptian sites
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patronage here could be royal but most
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patronage tended to be that of
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city-states and individuals
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like the egyptians the greek the greeks
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kept their cult statues in protected
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inner chambers of their temples
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but the altars and most of the
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ceremonies were outside in the open air
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by the 8th century bce delphi was also
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famous for its oracle a priestess known
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as pithia
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who made private prophecies when she sat
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on top of a tripod and breathes
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poisonous gases that came from a chasm
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in the earth
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according to plutarch
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who served as a priest at delphi in the
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1st century ce
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the pythia would enter the innermost
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chamber of the temple of apollo and sit
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on her tripod and breathe the gases when
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she made her prophecies under the
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influence of the gases they would be
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interpreted by the priests of apollo for
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visitors to the site who had requested
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the prophecies
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oftentimes these prophecies were
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confusing and open to multiple
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interpretations which could make them
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pretty problematic for visitors to the
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site
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here we're looking at a reconstruction
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drawing and a plan of the sanctuary of
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apollo at delphi
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as you can see delphi is set on a fairly
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steep slope
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if you look at the plan you'll notice
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that the processional way and that's
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this red line here
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particularly the lower areas was lined
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by monuments and treasuries donated by
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greek city-states
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so this one here
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you'll notice that small rank rectangle
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right next to the processional way was
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built by the city-state of athens
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treasuries and other monuments were
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built to symbolize the devotion
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and gratitude that various city states
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had to the god apollo and to the oracle
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so here's the athenian treasury shown in
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two views and a plan
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it was built between 490 and 480 bce
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like the other treasuries at delphi it
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consisted of a fairly simple plan of a
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cella
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preceded by a porch and you can see a
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plan of a similar treasury from delphi
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on the right
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with its thick windowless walls and high
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podium
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this treasury served to protect the
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offerings made to the sanctuary by the
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citizens of athens
English (auto-generated)
AllListenableWatched
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in this topic we're going to spend some
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time on greek funerary traditions and
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examine some of the works from the
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geometric period and other periods used
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as grave markers
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and we're looking here at a view of the
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karamakos cemetery in athens this is
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located just outside the old walls of
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the city
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i think you can immediately see the
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greek funerary monuments were a lot less
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elaborate than the ones we've seen so
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far from other ancient civilizations
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here the burials are quite simple with
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the body in a relatively small
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rectangular chamber or sarcophagus
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and the grave marker could be a stila or
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a vessel
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and we're going to
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discuss funerary stele in more detail as
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we continue
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the greeks believe that at the moment of
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death
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the psyche or spirit of the dead left
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the body as a little breath or puff of
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wind
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the deceased was then prepared for
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burial according to time-honored rituals
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ancient literary sources emphasized the
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necessity of a proper burial
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neglecting burial rites was seen as an
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insult to human dignity
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relatives of the deceased primarily the
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women of the family would conduct a
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burial ritual consisting of three parts
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first the body would be laid out
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then there was a funeral procession
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and finally the internment of the body
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or its cremated remains
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and what you see here is the laying out
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of a body on a late greek vase
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along with two views of a funerary stila
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showing a little girl with a dove
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and that dove could be seen as possibly
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a reference
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to the psyche
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the greeks would visit the graves of
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their dead to offer libations or liquid
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offerings
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what you see here is a grave stila from
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athens carved of marble along with a
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number of vessels that could be used for
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liquid offerings
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the ceramic lekka thoy
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would be used to pour liquid offerings
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and smaller glass jars of perfume and
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scented oils
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could simply be left at the tomb
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along with other items like reeves
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again these rituals focus on the
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experience of those left behind
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rather than dwelling on any sort of
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afterlife
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we do know that the greeks believed in
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an afterlife in the underworld but it
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was a pretty grim and gloomy place
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this is a large and magnificent face
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known as a crater and it was found in
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the dipylon cemetery in athens
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rather than having the typical function
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of a crater
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that is as a mixing vessel for water and
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wine this one was used as a grave marker
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a practice that was common in the greek
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geometric period
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it stands just over three and a half
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feet high
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this face represents the geometric style
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which takes its name from geometric
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shapes that constitute its artistic
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language
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the vase also represents greek funerary
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practices and includes scenes that tell
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us about the deceased as well
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after someone's death his or her body
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would be laid out on a high bed or beer
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within the family house after it was
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ritually washed and anointed with oil
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at this point friends and relatives
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would come over to mourn and pay their
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respects
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a scene depicting the deceased laid out
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in the home and being visited by
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mourners can be seen where i'm pointing
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with my arrow
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the funeral procession would take place
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at dawn
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and at that point the body would be
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placed in the grave
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the greeks placed just a few objects in
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their tombs but they did mark them with
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either largish mounds of earth or
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rectangular built tombs
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that had statuary or marble stelae or
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sometimes a vase like this
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to ensure that the deceased wouldn't be
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forgotten
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of course in the geometric period large
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vases like this one were used as
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monumental grave markers
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women would make regular visits to
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graves with offerings including small
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cakes and libations which were offerings
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of liquid poured out onto the graves
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grave site
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let's take a closer look at that
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funerary scene
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here the figure seated at the foot of
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the beer might be the dead man's wife
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and the smaller figure on her lap could
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be her their child
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for optimal clarity
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the deceased is shown on his side and
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the checkered shroud that would have
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normally covered the body
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and
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you know obscured our view of it has
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been raised and regularized into a long
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rectangle
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the figures on either side of the beer
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are depicted with simplified rather
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geometric bodies and they raise their
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arms over their heads in a gesture of
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anguish
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as if they're tearing their hair in
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green and grief
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in the band below the funeral scene
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chariots stand hitched to teams of
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horses and warriors carry spears and
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large shields
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the figures might refer to military
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exploits of the deceased
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however since the hourglass shaped
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shields were more common in a time long
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before this uh vessel was made
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this scene probably evokes the glorious
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ancestry and the traditions to which
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this dead man belong so he could have
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been a warrior or he could simply have
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been descended from warriors
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here we're looking at another geometric
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crater that comes from the same
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cemetery in athens the dipylin cemetery
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it stands four feet high so it's almost
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six inches taller than the one we just
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talked about
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and as you can see it has many of the
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same geometric motifs we saw on the
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previous vase
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like the continuous meander pattern let
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me show you that here in red
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uh that follows the upper edge of the
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vase
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and the zigzag patterns and stripes that
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separate the registers
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and i've got a detail of this vase here
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on the right so you can see how its
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massive handles were shaped
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like the crater in the previous slides
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this particular one
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shows the body of the deceased laid out
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on its beer with borders in attendance
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and below are scenes referring to
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military accomplishments
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um again implying that this face marked
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the grave of either a warrior or someone
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descended from warriors
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craters like this were associated with
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male barols
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and that's partly because a crater was
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traditionally used to mix water and wine
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and used in a symposium and i have that
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word here
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in ancient greece
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a symposium was a social gathering of
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men
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um men would gather to eat and drink and
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often to debate
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plot
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boast of their accomplishments or have
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poetry competitions
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you're seeing a scene
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here on a greek drinking cup in berlin
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with a symposium and i'd like you to
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notice that there are several types of
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vessels shown including some that mimic
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the shape of body parts
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but the crater was the key vessel for
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the symposium because it held the wine
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and water mixture that was poured into
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the other vessels you can see a couple
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of examples of craters at the top left
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in the modern era we tend to use the
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word symposium to refer to an academic
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gathering
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usually one in which scholars present
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scholarly papers to each other but i
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want you to remember
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this earlier greek definition of
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symposium for the purposes of this class
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so
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why did i go into that about craters
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it's because we have another shape of
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base to deal with
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this is yet another funerary vase but
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you might notice that it has a different
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shape
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this is called an amphora
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which is a vase that has a neck narrower
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than its body
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and two handles one on each side
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and you're looking at a diagram here
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that shows sort of a typical amphora
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there's variations on them but i think
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between the one in the diagram and the
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one in the photo you can get an idea
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so the the amphora we're looking at in
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the photo is in the national museum of
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athens it stands just over five feet
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high
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and i love this photo because with the
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guy there looking at it it gives you a
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good sense of the scale of these
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funerary vases
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when they weren't being used as funerary
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markers amphorae were associated with
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the greek household
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they were used to store grain water and
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olive oil and also to carry water
9:32
and because of this association with
9:35
domestic life and with the home
9:38
amphorae were particularly associated
9:41
with female graves and you can see that
9:44
this amphora lacks the military-themed
9:46
male-oriented decoration that we saw on
9:49
the two geometric craters that we looked
9:52
at earlier
9:53
i expect you to know that male burials
9:56
were associated with craters and female
9:59
burials with m4a and the reasons for
10:02
this distinction
10:23
you
0:04
this tiny bronze statuette
0:07
represents a man and centaur locked in
0:10
combat i'm showing you two views i like
0:13
the second photo because it shows us the
0:15
volume of these figures
0:17
and we can also see a critical feature
0:20
of this statuette and that is a weapon
0:24
protruding from the side of the centaur
0:27
typical of the geometric style of
0:29
depicting human forms like we saw in the
0:32
faces in the previous topic this man and
0:34
centaur have been reduced to simple
0:36
angular shapes
0:38
their narrow waists are also
0:40
representative or reminiscent of the
0:42
aegean figures we saw on the baffio cups
0:45
for example in lesson five
0:48
the man stands upright naked except for
0:51
a broad belt and a tall conical helmet
0:54
with both legs firmly planted on the
0:56
ground he towers over the centaur
0:59
reaching out with his left arm while
1:01
holding back the raised right arm of the
1:03
centaur
1:04
the centaur probably held a branch of a
1:08
tree or another weapon in his hand and
1:10
with his left hand the centaur grasped
1:13
the man's right arm which held a weapon
1:16
a spear or a sword the remains of which
1:19
protrude from the centaur's side
1:22
the centaur also stands upright with all
1:25
four legs planted firmly on the ground
1:28
like the man he has a conical helmet
1:31
a line of hair representing as
1:33
represented as a herringbone pattern
1:36
delineates the centaur's horsey spine
1:39
all the way to his tail
1:41
although the human portion of the
1:42
centaur and the man are very similar in
1:45
appearance the man is distinguished by
1:47
his taller stature and his deep set eyes
1:50
which could originally have been inlaid
1:53
with something
1:54
this bronze figural group was cast using
1:57
lost wax method which we discussed back
2:00
in lesson 3.2
2:02
as you should recall this method of
2:04
casting bronze is technically
2:07
and conceptually demanding
2:09
suggesting the sophistication of the
2:11
craft behind the man
2:13
and the centaur's simplicity of form
2:16
as we get into later greek art we're
2:18
going to see some really magnificent
2:21
examples of cast bronze sculpture
2:23
but you can think of this small early
2:25
work as a really promising beginning
2:29
the geometric style of vase painting
2:32
didn't last past the start of the 7th
2:34
century bce and then greek vase painters
2:37
began to incorporate larger motifs of
2:40
real and imaginary animals
2:43
plant forms and human figures into their
2:46
decoration
2:48
in corinth which was a city with trade
2:50
ties to egypt in the near east
2:53
innovative new designs appeared
2:55
relatively quickly
2:57
athens in comparison was a lot more
2:59
conservative artistically
3:01
corinth was where the new orientalizing
3:04
style began
3:06
the orientalizing style was named for
3:08
the decorative motifs adapted from
3:11
egyptian and near eastern designs that
3:13
corinthian artists encountered in their
3:16
cosmopolitan trading center of a city
3:19
and so here you're seeing two different
3:21
examples of corinthian vases
3:24
in the orientalizing style
3:26
this decoration should hopefully remind
3:29
you of some of the assyrian
3:31
neo-babylonian and persian art that
3:33
we've seen so far
3:35
think back to some of those reliefs from
3:37
the assyrian palaces for example or the
3:40
ishtar gate in babylon and the reliefs
3:42
that we saw in persepolis
3:45
this shouldn't be too surprising
3:47
considering the fact that corinth was an
3:50
important sea trading port in the
3:51
ancient world
3:53
many of these works are quite small and
3:55
intricately decorated
3:58
and i urge you to look for the
4:00
corinthian vases the next time you visit
4:02
a major museum collection they're lovely
4:05
little things
4:08
now i want to move to early architecture
4:10
and i want to start with a little
4:12
background on greek temples as we saw
4:14
earlier in this lesson the greeks
4:16
worshiped their gods and sanctuaries at
4:19
an outdoor altars located near temples
4:22
that housed the statue of their god
4:25
the earliest temples had walls and roofs
4:28
made of mud brick and wood
4:31
but these have been lost
4:32
scholars have been able to find the
4:35
remains of stone foundations
4:37
and fragments of stone columns lentils
4:39
and sculptures
4:41
and thus reconstruct the basic plan of
4:44
early greek temples from the geometric
4:46
period
4:47
there are also a few surviving temple
4:50
models like the terracotta model that
4:52
you see on the left
4:53
this was made in the 8th century bce
4:57
early temples like this were rectangular
5:00
in shape with a door on one end
5:02
sheltered by a projecting porch
5:04
supported by two posts
5:06
on the right is the plan of the
5:09
syphilian treasury at delphi
5:11
that reflects this early temple plan
5:14
the large main room was called the cella
5:16
or not naos
5:19
and let me put that word up there
5:22
and the small reception area or
5:24
vestibule in the front was called the
5:26
pronaos
5:29
now look back at the temple model
5:31
above the porch the steeply pitched
5:34
triangular area formed by the roof was
5:36
called the pediment
5:38
the pediment had a rectangular opening
5:41
in it that was placed directly above the
5:43
door
5:44
and the front of the temple was called
5:47
the facade
5:50
now i want to show you a couple of
5:52
temples located in the greek colony of
5:55
paisteum
5:57
in southern italy
5:59
both of these temples are built in the
6:01
doric style we'll talk about what that
6:03
means in a moment
6:05
both were also dedicated to the goddess
6:08
hera the wife of zeus and goddess of
6:10
marriage
6:11
the earlier one known as the temple of
6:14
hera 1 was built between about 550 and
6:18
540 bce the later temple known as the
6:21
temple of hera2 was built between 470
6:25
and 460 bce
6:27
so approximately 70 to 90 years of
6:30
separate these two temples
6:32
and together they're going to provide us
6:34
with a great example of how the doric
6:37
style
6:38
changed over time as we're going to see
6:42
i mentioned before that the earliest
6:44
greek temples have been lost but here at
6:47
paisteum
6:48
we have one of the oldest surviving
6:51
doric style temples built in stone
6:54
and it's called the temple of hera one
6:57
was built during the archaic period
6:59
which lasted from about 600 to 480 bce
7:03
it was during this period that the greek
7:05
city-states on the mainland
7:07
in the aegean and also in the greek
7:09
colonies grew and flourished and athens
7:12
was the most prominent of those
7:14
city-states as we'll see later on the
7:17
archaic period was marked by great
7:19
developments in the arts but for now
7:22
we're going to look at the temple of
7:23
hero1 and paiston as an early example of
7:27
a doric border temple we're going to
7:29
start with the plan of the temple and
7:31
then move on to what makes this temple
7:35
doric
7:37
so here's the plan of the temple of hera
7:40
the hera1 on the right and a detail of
7:43
the temple on the left
7:45
you should notice right away that this
7:47
temple has a much more complex plan than
7:50
the geometric temple model we looked at
7:52
a moment ago
7:54
the rectangular cella
7:57
here at the center of the temple was
7:59
surrounded by a row of columns on all
8:02
sides called a peristyle and those are
8:06
here
8:08
the greek root peri means around and
8:12
style refers to columns
8:15
a temple like this one with a parastyle
8:18
surrounding it is called a peripheral
8:20
temple
8:22
inside the peristyle you can see that
8:24
the cella was preceded by a pronaus
8:29
a vestibule that preceded the cello or
8:31
naos and then at the rear of the cella
8:34
was an additon an unlit interior chamber
8:39
the temple was raised up on a platform
8:42
that consisted of a stereobait and a
8:45
stylobate
8:46
stereobait
8:49
oops and that just flashed up there
8:52
refers to the lower levels of the
8:54
platform that stepped up to the top
8:56
level
8:57
and the top level is the stylobate upon
9:00
which the columns of the temple stood
9:03
so the way to remember this is the greek
9:06
root style refers to columns so you can
9:08
remember that the stylobate is that
9:11
upper level that the columns actually
9:14
stand on
9:17
now let's take a look at the doric order
9:19
diagram as it applies to the temple of
9:23
hera one and there are three main
9:27
architectural styles associated with
9:30
greek architecture
9:31
doric ionic and corinthian and we'll see
9:35
some variations on these when we get
9:37
into roman art and architecture but
9:40
these are artistic or architectural
9:43
styles
9:44
that are then echoed for centuries in um
9:49
in other periods
9:50
so they're they're kind of the
9:52
underpinnings of this sort of
9:54
greco-roman
9:56
tradition of architecture
9:59
so the columns
10:01
here
10:02
of the temple stand on
10:06
the stylobate
10:07
and there is a two-step
10:10
stereo bait
10:12
beneath that
10:14
greek architects constructed temples
10:16
using the post and lentil technique that
10:19
we've learned about way back in lesson
10:21
two but this is a much more complex
10:24
version of that
10:25
here the column
10:27
uh is the post and
10:30
so you can see that's the extent of the
10:32
column
10:33
the entablature is the lentil
10:36
and each of these parts is divided up
10:39
into additional parts
10:43
a column like this one was made up of a
10:47
shaft and you see that
10:49
here
10:50
and a capital
10:52
the capital
10:55
there we go
10:57
consists of the portion of the column
10:59
above the shaft it has various parts but
11:02
we're not going to deal with those here
11:04
if you took a greek art course
11:07
you would need to know the parts of the
11:09
capital
11:10
the entablature
11:12
which consisted of the architrave
11:16
the freeze
11:18
and the cornice
11:20
rested on top of the capital
11:23
the freeze was oftentimes decorated with
11:26
sculpture and in the case of a dork
11:29
temple it was divided up into
11:32
triglyphs and metapiece and we'll see
11:35
those in more detail in a moment
11:38
unfortunately this portion of the
11:40
entablature as well as the cornice and
11:43
the triangular pediment above
11:45
have not survived on the temple of hera1
11:50
but if you visit pie stone today
11:53
you should go to their excellent museum
11:55
because the surviving architectural
11:57
sculpture from the temples is housed
11:59
inside the museum
12:01
at the bottom of this slide we're
12:03
looking at a sculpted metaphy flanked by
12:06
two triglyphs from the temple of hero1
12:09
scholars believe the triglyphs are a
12:11
reference to the wood construction of
12:13
the earliest greek temples and that
12:16
these elements are meant to recall the
12:19
ceiling joists in wood temples
12:22
as you can see each triglyph consists of
12:24
three projecting vertical lines
12:27
alternating with grooves
12:29
and these resemble three planks laid on
12:31
and next to each other like ceiling
12:34
joists
12:35
the space in between is roughly square
12:37
and it's filled with sculpture
12:39
this is the menopause
12:41
triglyphs and metapees are one of the
12:44
hallmarks of the doric order along with
12:47
the rather simplified capitals of that
12:49
word
12:52
this is the kind of photo that really
12:54
turns me on because it shows
12:57
how something was made
12:59
this is an image from a ruined greek
13:01
temple
13:02
and it shows that the tri-lifts were
13:05
sculpted right into the blocks of the
13:07
freeze and made so that the sculpted
13:10
metapees could be securely slid in
13:13
in between them
13:15
if you look at the block in the
13:16
foreground you can actually see
13:19
that the triglyph would
13:21
partially overlap the metapee on each
13:23
side
13:24
so that it would be held more firmly in
13:27
place
13:29
so for characteristics of the doric i
13:32
want you to particularly notice the
13:34
shape of the column shafts and capitals
13:36
at the temple of hera1
13:39
and imagine um if this
13:42
temple still had all of its entablature
13:45
as shown in the diagram and it's
13:47
pediment as well so the capitals here
13:50
seem widened out and flattened like
13:53
they've been squashed by the weight of
13:55
all the elements that they support kind
13:57
of like marshmallows that you know have
13:59
gotten sort of soft and mushed between
14:01
graham crackers
14:04
similarly the columns appear to be
14:06
responding to the weight by winding out
14:09
and bowing outward in the center
14:12
this bulge in the middle of the columns
14:14
is a refinement called entices
14:17
that we see being used more subtly in
14:19
later greek temples including the famous
14:22
parthenon in athens
14:24
the capitals and the shafts
14:26
seeming to respond to the weight of the
14:29
architecture above them
14:31
makes the building appear more dynamic
14:34
and elastic
14:35
and it prevents it from looking thin and
14:38
brittle
14:39
if you look at some modern buildings
14:41
that have completely straight up and
14:43
down columns
14:45
supporting a massive and tablature
14:47
impediment
14:48
the lack of entices
14:50
can cause them to look sort of fragile
14:53
and brittle
14:54
and we'll look at this
14:57
type of architectural refinement and
14:59
this sort of
15:00
sculptural treatment of architecture in
15:03
more detail when we get to the parthenon
15:07
so another thing that makes pisces such
15:10
a wonderful archaeological site
15:12
is the fact that it boasts not only one
15:15
of the oldest surviving greek temples
15:17
but also has two more greek temples and
15:21
so here we're looking at the temple of
15:23
hera1 in the foreground with the temple
15:26
of hera2 in the background
15:28
these two temples were built about 70 to
15:31
90 years apart from each other so we can
15:33
look to the temple of hera2
15:35
to get an idea of the changes and
15:37
refinements that occurred in greek
15:39
temples of the dora quarter over that
15:42
time period and that's exactly what
15:44
we're going to do right now
15:48
so this is sort of the postcard shot i
15:51
guess you could say
15:52
of the temple of hera2 and you can
15:54
immediately see this temple is in a
15:56
better state of preservation
15:58
than the earlier temple
16:00
the entire entablature has survived so
16:03
we can see the architrave and cornice
16:05
marked on the diagram as well as the
16:07
freeze with its triglyphs and metapiece
16:10
you can also see that the triangular
16:13
pediment has survived on the facade
16:16
along with the freeze the pediment was
16:18
an important
16:19
area for sculptural decoration on greek
16:22
temples and we're going to see some
16:24
architectural sculpture from temple
16:26
pediments
16:27
as we move on
16:30
so to finish this topic we've moved to a
16:33
view of the opposite facade of the
16:35
temple of hera2
16:37
and this photo really shows the
16:39
stylistic differences in this later
16:42
newer temple
16:43
looking at it you can see that the doric
16:45
order became more subtle
16:48
particularly in the design of those
16:50
columns and capitals the capitals are
16:53
narrower and appear a lot less squished
16:56
and the columns although they do they
16:58
still have entices
17:00
don't bulge nearly as dramatically as
17:03
they did in the earlier temple
17:06
keep this movement towards subtlety in
17:08
mind because we're going to see this
17:11
again when we get into the classical
17:13
period of greek architect
17:28
you
0:03
in the beginning of the 6th century bce
0:06
athens was an important center for the
0:09
formation and painting of pots
0:11
and many of the techniques used by the
0:14
athenian artists were based on
0:16
corinthian techniques
0:18
the athenians quickly moved on in
0:20
markets
0:21
for ceramic wares that had been
0:24
previously dominated by the corinthians
0:26
and so athens really becomes the
0:28
artistic center
0:30
and what particularly helped in athens
0:32
was the fact that the city had a really
0:34
abundant supply of high quality clay
0:38
that turned a lovely reddish orange
0:40
color when fired
0:44
after the clay was originally dug it had
0:46
to be cleaned of impurities
0:48
this was done by mixing it with water
0:50
and then letting the impurities sink to
0:53
the bottom of the mixture
0:55
this was done over and over again until
0:57
the clay was pure enough for the potter
1:00
then the clay would be hand kneaded like
1:02
bread dough until it reached the desired
1:05
consistency
1:06
and then put on a wheel
1:08
with the wheels spinning at speed
1:10
probably controlled by the potter's
1:12
kicks the clay would be pulled up with
1:15
his or her fingers to the desired shape
1:18
pots were made in multiple pieces
1:20
the body of the vessel was one the spout
1:23
handles and feet were all separate
1:26
sometimes the bodies of larger vessels
1:28
like the dipylon base we saw in the
1:30
previous
1:32
topic
1:33
would be made in sections
1:35
then all the pieces would be allowed to
1:38
air dry until they had a consistency
1:40
like leather
1:41
and at this point the pieces would be
1:43
joined together with slip
1:45
and i'd like you to remember that slip
1:47
is just a watery form of clay it could
1:50
also be used for glue and also for
1:53
painting decoration as we'll see
1:56
so finally the artist would decorate the
1:58
pot
1:59
greek face painters use slip for
2:02
decoration the color depended upon the
2:05
amount of iron in the slip and also the
2:08
fact that the slip oxidized during the
2:11
firing process you could control the
2:13
color
2:14
uh with heat
2:16
black and cherry red tones and you see
2:18
both of those here on the decoration
2:21
came from slip with varying amounts of
2:23
iron in them
2:24
white came from slip that had been
2:26
washed and purified to the point that
2:28
all the iron was gone and just pure
2:31
white clay remained
2:33
so here are examples of all three of
2:36
those colors
2:37
the black the cherry red which sometimes
2:39
looks purple
2:41
and the white
2:42
as you can see other details were
2:44
incised into the slip after it was
2:46
painted on
2:48
cutting away the slip and exposing the
2:50
red clay beneath
2:52
so here the broad areas of cherry red
2:55
and white have been painted in slip but
2:59
the fine reddish lines have been in size
3:02
and this is an example of the so-called
3:04
black figure style
3:08
here's a great fragment from the greek
3:11
phase a greek face done in the red
3:13
figure style
3:14
in which the background and details are
3:17
painted in slip and the fingers are
3:20
allowed to remain the red color of the
3:22
clay
3:23
and we'll get into the differences
3:25
between these techniques a bit later on
3:28
right now what i want you to notice is
3:30
the fact that if you look carefully
3:33
it's possible to see the texture of the
3:35
slip that forms the black painted areas
3:38
on this vase fragment
3:40
you can see the thickness of the slip
3:42
decoration particularly in the heavy
3:45
raised contour line
3:47
of around the head and shoulders of this
3:50
male figure
3:51
and also in the curved band of greek key
3:54
and checkerboard decoration that runs
3:56
above him
4:01
this is a diagram of a greek kiln
4:04
based on archaeological excavations in
4:06
several parts of the greek world
4:09
in the kiln the painted vases would be
4:11
fired until the bodies of the pots
4:14
turned red
4:15
and the areas painted the slip turned
4:18
black
4:19
this took place in a three-stage process
4:22
that i'm going to simplify a lot
4:26
first the pots would be fired to a red
4:28
hot temperature of about 850 to 975
4:33
degrees celsius
4:35
with a wood furnace this would take
4:36
about eight or nine hours to achieve
4:40
next the oxygen supply would be cut
4:43
and moist green wood would be introduced
4:46
into the furnace
4:47
the resulting carbon monoxide and slowly
4:51
cooling temperatures in the furnace
4:53
would cause the slip decoration to reach
4:56
its final color
4:57
and vitrify at that state that that is
5:00
turned glassy
5:02
then when oxygen was reintroduced to the
5:05
kiln it would re-oxidize the exposed
5:08
clay of the pot but not the areas
5:11
covered by the slip
5:13
once it was fully cooled and polished
5:16
the vase would be done
5:17
of course this is a process that's
5:19
pretty risky
5:20
stack your pots incorrectly and a
5:22
collapse could
5:24
could destroy the whole batch
5:26
or if a pot hadn't dried enough before
5:28
it was fired it could explode
5:31
you could even have disasters like that
5:33
today in computerized kilns
5:36
and
5:37
i didn't take ceramics in college but
5:40
i took glass and you have to they have
5:42
to have similar precautions with glass i
5:45
remember when a piece of mine exploded
5:47
and took out about half the pieces of
5:50
the other
5:51
folks in the class you do not want to be
5:53
that person
5:56
now we're going to shift from
5:58
strictly discussing technique
6:01
to looking at some really magnificent
6:04
examples of
6:07
artistry in black figure pottery
6:10
black figure vases were made of athenian
6:12
red clay and then decorated with slip
6:15
that turned black when fired
6:17
and the painter would draw the outlines
6:19
of figures and then
6:21
and decorative elements
6:22
against the orange red ground of this
6:24
the clay starting with contour lines and
6:27
then colored them in with more slip
6:30
finally details were in size using a
6:33
sharp tool
6:34
so the fine reddish orange wines that
6:36
you see here in the garments of the
6:39
figures their hair and so on
6:41
these are all in size lines that expose
6:44
the orange red clay beneath the slip
6:48
you should have no problem remembering
6:50
that black figure pottery has figures
6:52
and designs done in black
6:55
so now we're going to look at two
6:57
different faces done by the painter
6:59
execus
7:00
who is widely thought of as
7:03
the finest athenian artist of the
7:05
archaic period
7:07
and he did amazing black figure work
7:10
executives signed many of his vases both
7:13
as potter and as painter and he is
7:16
particularly known for his skilled
7:19
portrayal of human emotional states
7:22
execus painted subjects from greek
7:24
mythology
7:26
which was likely viewed in his own day
7:29
as greek history
7:31
many of his works depict events from the
7:33
trojan war in this amphora he painted
7:36
the hero's achilles and his cousin ajax
7:40
playing a game of dice
7:42
this is an event that took place just
7:44
before the death of achilles and would
7:46
have been a subject familiar to most
7:48
greeks including execus and his patron
7:52
the identities of the figures and their
7:54
dialogue is made clear by the
7:55
inscriptions on the base and what makes
7:58
this a particularly poignant moment
8:01
is the knowledge on the part of the
8:03
audience that this game is taking place
8:05
just moments before achilles will die on
8:08
the battlefield
8:10
and ajax will be the one to carry his
8:12
dead body off the battlefield
8:16
here's a closer view of the that base
8:20
and compositionally execus has matched
8:23
his painting
8:24
in this upper portion of the vase with
8:26
the bending poses of the two seated
8:28
warriors
8:29
and he echoes the curve of the vase with
8:32
their backs
8:34
their shields set aside beside them
8:37
fill out the frame of this
8:39
this area
8:41
and you should notice the fineness and
8:43
the intricacy of
8:45
execuses in size detail
8:48
hair and cloaks of the two heroes are
8:51
particularly well done
8:53
they're filled with precise intricate
8:55
patterns
8:57
other areas like eyes bodies and details
9:00
of the armor
9:02
are rendered in bold contrast to the
9:04
intricately detailed cloaks
9:07
they're dramatic large areas of black
9:10
given only the smallest amount of linear
9:12
detail
9:14
execus's use of curving lines here can
9:17
rightly be called
9:19
lyrical
9:22
so here is our second black figure vase
9:25
by execus
9:27
and this is a continuation of the same
9:29
top tragic tale from the trojan war
9:33
although ajax was achilles cousin
9:36
after the death of the great hero the
9:38
greeks awarded achilles armor to
9:41
odysseus rather than to ajax
9:44
so ajax was humiliated and devastated by
9:48
the loss of achilles and he committed
9:51
suicide by following falling on his
9:53
sword
9:55
again as in the previous vase execus has
9:58
chosen sort of a pregnant moment
10:01
one where we as the audience know what's
10:03
going to happen
10:05
and we anticipate the tragic event
10:08
that's coming
10:10
ajax has now set aside his helmets
10:13
shield and spear
10:14
and he's setting up his sword in a small
10:17
mound of earth in preparation for
10:19
suicide
10:21
he's ren execus has rendered ajax really
10:24
simply he's a nearly solid black figure
10:28
with just a few
10:29
fine lines to delineate his body parts
10:32
and facial features
10:34
and this gives ajax a really
10:37
heavy solemn
10:39
uh feel that is appropriate to this
10:43
action
10:45
the positioning of ajax's head is also
10:47
really effective his beard points
10:50
straight down toward the mound that he's
10:53
using to bury the sword in
10:55
and his eye is trained unflinchingly on
10:59
that sword
11:00
i find the closeness of the sword to his
11:03
head and to his eye
11:06
just kind of creeps me out when i see
11:08
this
11:09
in terms of the vase's composition
11:12
the curving shape of the palm tree
11:15
ajax's back
11:17
and the piled shield and helmet conform
11:20
beautifully to that sort of bulbous
11:23
upper portion of the amphora
11:25
it's not really difficult to understand
11:27
why execus is considered to be
11:30
the greatest black figure painter of the
11:32
archaic period because look at just how
11:35
how stark and
11:38
effective this composition truly is
11:43
now i want to shift and spend a little
11:45
bit of time on the wives of ancient
11:46
greek women because we have a wealth of
11:49
surviving material that tells us about
11:51
their lives
11:52
much of this information comes from the
11:55
greek vases that would have been present
11:57
in many greek homes
11:59
our first work related to this theme is
12:01
a vase showing a wedding procession
12:03
it's attributed to the amasses painter
12:06
an important early painter
12:08
we'll discuss uh his style and technique
12:12
a little bit later but for now
12:14
i want to indicate the the scene that we
12:17
see here it consists of a procession
12:19
of horse-drawn carts and attendants on
12:22
foot
12:23
that moved toward the house of a group
12:25
of the groom
12:26
the passage from the bride's house to
12:29
that of her husband was a very symbolic
12:32
event for the greeks
12:34
it made it clear that the bride was sort
12:36
of
12:38
a piece of property frankly
12:40
um being transferred from her family
12:44
to that of her husband
12:47
and the primary role of a respectable
12:49
ancient greek woman was to marry and
12:51
bear children
12:52
marriage took place in the early teens
12:55
prior to marriage a young woman was
12:57
looked after by the male members of her
12:59
family and once she was married she
13:02
belonged to her husband
13:05
respectable ladies were generally kept
13:07
out of the public eye
13:09
and rarely interacted with guests so
13:11
women had sort of an isolated existence
13:15
here's another vase credited to the same
13:18
painter the amasses painter this one
13:20
shows women spinning weaving dying and
13:23
finally folding up a wooden cloth
13:26
in the three views i brought in you see
13:28
the end and beginning first with two
13:31
women folding the cloth
13:33
the very next scene shows two women
13:35
spinning thread
13:37
and then we see them working in an
13:38
enormous loom weaving cloth and finally
13:41
dyeing the finished cloth
13:43
domestic tasks like this were undertaken
13:46
by women in their homes or if they were
13:48
wealthy enough by their servants or
13:50
slaves
13:52
the place of respectable women in
13:54
ancient greece was in the home during
13:56
domestic tasks or delegating them to
14:00
to and overseeing
14:02
servants
14:03
women were also expected to visit the
14:05
graves of family members with offerings
14:08
and that was one of the few times that
14:10
they would leave their homes
14:13
we're going to finish this topic with a
14:15
final vase
14:17
this is an example of red figure pottery
14:20
and you're seeing scenes of both the
14:22
front and the back
14:24
in the last third of the 6th century bce
14:27
some vase painters moved away from the
14:30
black figure technique and began to
14:31
create works using a new red figure
14:34
technique
14:35
they still used pots of reddish orange
14:37
clay and slip that fired black but they
14:40
essentially reversed the technique of
14:42
the black figure painters a red figure
14:45
painter started in the same way as a
14:47
black figure painter
14:48
drawing in the fine contour lines of all
14:51
the figures and decorative elements with
14:52
slip
14:53
but then everything reversed
14:56
the background of the pot was filled in
14:58
with slip and positive areas of the
15:01
composition meaning figures and
15:02
decorations
15:04
were left unpainted
15:06
linear details were added using fine
15:08
lines painted with slip
15:10
and some other details like inscriptions
15:13
would be incised
15:15
so this work was potted by
15:18
uxetheos and painted by euphronius
15:22
and it is a great example of a
15:25
collaboration between a potter and a
15:27
painter
15:28
i hope you also recognize it as a crater
15:31
with those two lug handles
15:34
it's also an extremely rare example in
15:37
that it is virtually undamaged although
15:40
it was found in pieces none of the
15:42
decoration was lost
15:44
this face was also part of a relatively
15:47
recent scandal it was found to have been
15:50
illegally looted from an etruscan tomb
15:52
near rome and had to be returned by the
15:55
metropolitan museum of art two italian
15:58
authorities
15:59
in 2008 and i was lucky enough to see
16:02
this base
16:04
in the museum to which it has been
16:06
returned a small regional museum
16:09
outside of rome in 2018.
16:12
so briefly the decoration shows two
16:15
scenes from the trojan war
16:17
the more famous side shown at the top
16:20
shows sarpadan or sarpidon
16:23
prince of lysia who had just died in the
16:26
trojan war
16:27
and he's being carried off the
16:29
battlefield by sleep and death so that
16:32
he can have a hero's funeral
16:34
on the opposite side we have soldiers
16:36
arming for battle
16:38
so the vase is a good expression of
16:40
before and after effects in war
16:43
now let's look at this in more detail
16:46
just the the front of it
16:47
our subject here is the lician prince
16:51
sarpedan
16:52
son of zeus and europos who was killed
16:55
at troy by patroclos the friend of
16:58
achilles
16:59
at his death sarpaden's father zeus was
17:02
stricken by grief to assure a decent
17:05
burial zeus ordered the hypnos and i
17:08
have him here
17:10
and thanatos
17:12
um so hypnosis sleep thanatos is death
17:16
these are the winged twin sons of night
17:19
and zeus ordered them to carry
17:22
sarpadan to his homeland for a huge rose
17:25
funeral
17:27
and he's being lifted gently off the
17:29
ground
17:30
and that's all directed by hermes
17:33
the messenger of the gods so there's his
17:35
name
17:36
hermes is identifiable by an inscription
17:39
and by his attributes
17:41
these are a winged hat and his
17:45
caduceus that's a staff with coiled
17:48
snakes at the top
17:50
here hermes is being shown in his
17:53
alternate rule
17:54
as the guide who leads souls to the
17:57
underworld
17:58
the diagonals of the blood that still
18:00
runs from the hero's wounds demonstrate
18:03
that sarpadine is being moved from left
18:06
to right
18:07
sarpadan is the largest figure in the
18:09
composition
18:10
and this is in keeping with the legend
18:12
as recorded by virgil who tells us
18:14
sarpadan was a very tall man
18:19
what makes this a masterpiece of greek
18:21
face painting
18:23
is euphronias's use of fine lines to
18:25
portray the intricate details of the
18:28
wings of hypnos and thanatos
18:31
and the hair drapery and musculature of
18:33
all the figures
18:35
as well as the painter's
18:37
skillful use of massive and crowded
18:40
figures
18:41
to create a dramatic and energetic
18:43
composition
18:46
as you can see in this detail euphronias
18:48
also used a technique called
18:50
foreshortening
18:51
a means of depicting limbs and objects
18:54
receding in space in order to create the
18:57
illusion of depth
18:59
so if you look at sarpana's left leg in
19:01
the foreground that's
19:03
a wonderful example of foreshortening
19:05
logically we know that his leg is longer
19:08
than what we are being shown
19:11
and the fact that it has been shortened
19:13
allows us to imagine that it is receding
19:17
into the space of this painting at an
19:19
angle
19:20
similarly the foot and especially the
19:22
toes on sarpadan's same leg are a very
19:26
skillful example of foreshortening
19:58
you
0:04
in this next topic we're going to be
0:06
moving to the island of aegena and you
0:09
can see that here roughly
0:12
by the center of our map
0:14
um and we're going to be looking at some
0:17
architectural sculpture on a temple
0:19
there
0:19
[Music]
0:21
now we're going to look at the east
0:22
pediment of the temple of afaya at
0:24
aegena which dates to circa 490 bce
0:28
aphaya was a local goddess who was
0:30
worshipped only in aegena and she was
0:33
associated with fertility this is a
0:36
general view of the ruined temple and
0:37
you should recognize it as a doric order
0:40
building from the use of triglyphs and
0:43
metapees
0:44
and from the distinctive doric column
0:46
which doesn't have a base
0:50
i hope you notice that
0:52
like many greek temples the one the
0:55
temple of afaya at aegina
0:57
is not in the greatest of shape and so
0:59
here is a wooden reconstruction in
1:02
munich
1:03
that shows how the temple would have
1:06
looked
1:07
and we're going to be looking at
1:10
one of the two pediments in particular
1:14
so here we're seeing a reconstruction in
1:17
the glyptotech in munich of the west
1:20
pediment of the temple of afaya at
1:22
aguina at the top of the slide
1:25
and then down below
1:27
are
1:28
two views representing the east pediment
1:31
a photo of the remaining sculptures and
1:33
a reconstruction drawing down below
1:36
you are not responsible for knowing the
1:38
west pediment but i'm showing it to you
1:40
because
1:41
uh we'll see other views of that
1:44
pediment in some color reconstructions
1:47
very shortly
1:49
you are responsible however for knowing
1:52
the east pediment which is shown in the
1:55
middle photo and in the drawing
1:59
before we move on anymore i want to
2:02
briefly discuss the subjects of the two
2:04
pediments in the center of each pediment
2:06
stands athena the goddess of wisdom and
2:09
war and she presides over scenes of
2:11
soldiers fighting
2:13
both pediments include heroes from agona
2:16
fighting on the athenian side in battles
2:18
from the trojan war
2:20
achilles and ajax appear in the west
2:23
pediment group while heracles can be
2:25
seen on the east pediment
2:27
as you can see on both pediments the
2:30
poses of the soldiers have been
2:31
calculated to fit within the triangular
2:34
space provided and
2:36
unlike earlier architectural relief
2:39
sculptures
2:40
these figures were made as freestanding
2:43
sculptures that were then installed
2:45
within the space of the pediment
2:47
so in earlier buildings they tended to
2:51
be carved right onto the blocks
2:55
and you
2:56
you end up with a composition that
2:58
doesn't work quite as well there tends
3:01
to be sort of awkward
3:03
here uh we also have a unity of scale
3:07
with uh athena being taller than
3:10
everyone else but of course that is
3:12
because of her divine status and all of
3:14
the other soldiers are on this are of
3:17
the same size with each other
3:20
now i'm showing you a couple of photos
3:22
from an exhibition about polychromy in
3:24
ancient greek sculpture
3:26
and you should recall that polychromy
3:28
means multiple colors
3:31
so something that has polychromy has
3:33
been painted in multiple colors
3:36
in these views you see a reconstruction
3:38
of part of the west pediment from the
3:40
temple of athaya at aegona
3:43
like many other early temples and their
3:46
sculpture the temple in aphaya at aegina
3:48
was brightly painted i'm emphasizing
3:51
this because many people think of greek
3:53
sculpture as being made just of cool
3:56
white marble
3:57
very much like the images of greek
3:59
sculptures that you might see on
4:01
wedgewood ceramics for example
4:03
the reality was very different as you
4:05
can see
4:07
i want you to notice the figure of
4:09
athena here in particular she's the
4:11
standing figure
4:13
as befitting her status as goddess of
4:15
war she's wearing a crested helmet and
4:18
carries a shield
4:19
in her other hand she originally carried
4:21
a spear
4:22
and she's wearing a snakey cloak over
4:24
her garden garment
4:26
this is called an aegis
4:29
generally athena's aegis is shown with
4:31
the head of medusa on it
4:33
aegis in modern usage refers to
4:36
protection and you should remember the
4:38
protective nature of the gorgon's head
4:41
um
4:43
this is you know sort of the stuff of
4:45
legend um and in fact uh the the head of
4:49
a gorgon
4:50
would be used to protect wine from going
4:53
bad inside of wine jugs so there are
4:56
lots of amphorae that have uh medusa's
4:59
face on them for that reason
5:02
and many many soldiers would put the
5:06
gorgon head
5:07
onto their shields when they marched
5:09
into war again
5:11
as a way of sort of warding off egypt
5:14
evil this was a
5:16
uh
5:17
an apotropaic
5:19
sort of thing
5:21
now we're looking at the images that i
5:24
do particularly want you to know for the
5:26
temple of afayab at aegina the
5:28
sculptural fragments of the east
5:30
pediment and the dying warrior from the
5:32
left hand side of the same pediment
5:35
i'm not going to spend too much time on
5:38
the view at the top
5:39
since it's so fragmentary but i think
5:41
you can get a good idea here of how the
5:44
sculpture sculptor used very active
5:46
poses
5:47
to cleverly fit all of these
5:49
freestanding sculptures within the
5:51
triangular space of the vitamin
5:54
the best preserved portion of the east
5:56
pediment is the dying warrior
5:58
he's fallen and is struggling to rise
6:01
and he's using his hand and his shield
6:04
for support
6:05
with his free hand he also struggles to
6:07
remove a now missing bronze arrow from
6:10
his chest and you can see the hole for
6:12
the arrow just below his right nipple on
6:15
our left
6:17
although he supports himself with his
6:19
shield you can see that the arm in the
6:20
warrior shield appears to be weakening
6:23
and he's in danger of his arm slipping
6:26
out
6:27
his bicep is fully flexed as he
6:29
struggles for control
6:31
another very effective portion of this
6:33
dying warrior is his front leg which
6:36
actually falls off the ground line that
6:38
all the other figures are standing upon
6:41
it's a nice metaphor for his struggle
6:43
not to slip away from life and the
6:45
futility of that struggle
6:47
you should also notice the expression on
6:49
this soldier's face it seems relatively
6:52
calm
6:54
the greeks valued stoicism so you
6:56
wouldn't see a greek soldier
6:57
representing as represented as screaming
7:00
in pain
7:01
our dying warrior instead faces his end
7:04
with stoicism and nobility on his face
7:07
despite his twisted and painful
7:11
if you take a look at the warrior's face
7:15
he is really meeting death head-on
7:19
he is accepting his fate with stoicism
7:24
he's not having a temper tantrum or some
7:28
other breakdown
7:30
his nudity is also a marker of his
7:34
status here in this case heroic
7:36
um and it was effect
7:39
possible for greek men to appear nude in
7:41
public under certain conditions it's
7:44
also meant though because you wouldn't
7:46
go nude into battle
7:48
as an a means of emphasizing the
7:51
vulnerability of this dying warrior
7:54
and we'll look at a lot of other heroic
7:57
nudes as we continue on
8:00
so keep the meaning of this nudity in
8:03
mind
8:06
this is a detailed photo i took when i
8:08
visited munich oh a long time ago in
8:11
2011.
8:13
and
8:14
this is uh the dying warrior up close
8:18
he's even more effective and i think you
8:21
can also see
8:22
some of the features of him as an
8:25
example of the archaic style
8:29
this uh there's a
8:31
kind of interesting interplay going on
8:33
here
8:34
between naturalism
8:37
and that is an eye to
8:40
really representing nature
8:43
and stylization so let me explain what i
8:46
mean
8:47
if you look at the musculature of his
8:49
arm it's clear that the artist who
8:51
sculpted this warrior
8:53
wanted to imply that the warrior was
8:55
working very hard
8:57
tensing all of his muscles in his
8:59
struggle
9:01
as he's trying to sort of drag himself
9:03
forward or possibly prop himself up
9:06
this contrasts very effectively with the
9:09
much more stylized treatment of the face
9:13
and
9:15
blood vessels and things like that
9:18
um so we have a an emphasis on linear
9:21
details
9:23
like the linear veins that we see
9:25
popping out or
9:27
the really heavy lids around the eyes of
9:30
this figure the treatment of the facial
9:33
hair
9:34
and so on and this combination of
9:37
naturalism
9:39
and stylization
9:41
leads to the creation of an ideal a
9:44
warrior who is at one point
9:47
dying and vulnerable
9:50
and struggling to maintain control
9:53
over his failing body
9:56
but at the same time sort of perfect and
9:59
detached
10:00
and
10:02
serene to me he looks like he is in pain
10:07
but that he's also maintaining
10:10
self-control
10:11
um
10:12
he also has kind of a generic face
10:15
and so that allows us as viewers to kind
10:18
of
10:19
insert ourselves into
10:22
this moment
10:23
and imagine ourselves perhaps in his
10:26
place and respond to him that way
10:30
so something that is uh in addition to
10:32
that kind of
10:33
um
10:34
interplay between naturalism and
10:36
stylization and the the linear details
10:40
um that kind of abbreviate things we
10:43
also have this
10:45
expression on his face that we call an
10:48
archaic smile and we see it in
10:51
a lot of archaic art and we'll see it
10:53
some more as we go forward
10:57
let's just finish here with two views
10:59
you can see how the figure truly is
11:02
carved as a sculpture in the round
11:05
rather than as a relief
11:07
and the sculptor has included details
11:09
here that would be impossible to see if
11:12
this figure
11:15
were up on the pediment of the temple we
11:18
have the advantage now as viewers in the
11:20
museum of being able to see him
11:22
from all sides but that wasn't the
11:25
original design
11:27
so here we can see the buttocks the
11:29
backs of the knees
11:31
the twisting pose of the back
11:33
and the detail on the rear of the shield
11:37
so why did the sculptor bother
11:40
maybe it's because the sculptor felt
11:42
compelled to treat this figure
11:44
as real and three-dimensional as a real
11:47
being in order to make him more
11:49
effective for us
11:51
would the front view have been as
11:53
effective if the artist had neglected
11:56
the rear
11:57
it's an interesting possibility to
11:59
consider
12:19
you
0:04
the earliest greek sculptures were made
0:06
in wood
0:07
but by about 650 bce
0:10
the greeks were sculpting in stone
0:14
early greek monumental stone sculptures
0:16
are extremely similar to egyptian ones
0:19
in pose
0:20
and in proportion
0:22
and this is probably due to the trade
0:24
ties that the two civilizations had with
0:26
each other
0:27
there were even semi-permanent greek
0:29
trading camps along the nile
0:31
in the 7th century bce
0:34
the greeks learned to quarry stone and
0:36
plan the execution of large-scale
0:38
statues from the egyptians who had been
0:41
working with hard stones for centuries
0:44
here we see one of the earliest
0:46
freestanding marble sculptures from
0:48
attica the region around athens
0:50
it's a type of sculpture known as a
0:53
choros
0:54
or male youth and this is a particular
0:57
example made around 600 bce
1:00
the koros was characteristically
1:02
depicted nude with the left leg striding
1:06
forward and hands clenched at the sides
1:09
most choroid were made in the archaic
1:12
period between the late 7th and early
1:14
5th centuries bce
1:16
and they're believed to have served as
1:18
grave markers or as dedications to the
1:21
sanctuary of a god
1:24
the pose of the koros derives from
1:26
egyptian art and was used by greek
1:28
sculptors for more than a hundred years
1:31
from the very beginning however
1:33
the greeks depicted their male figures
1:36
in the nude while the egyptians were
1:38
normally clothed in kilts
1:41
the greek artist who
1:43
also evenly dis distributed the weight
1:45
of this figure as though he was in the
1:48
what act of walking
1:50
um eliminating the rectangular pillar of
1:52
stone that is found on the back of
1:54
egyptian statues
1:56
so the freak the greek koros is truly a
2:00
freestanding sculpture
2:02
unlike the egyptian striding sculptures
2:04
that we've seen which are really high
2:07
relief sculptures
2:09
although this greek chorus looks stiff
2:11
and unnaturalistic to us
2:14
it exemplifies two important aspects of
2:17
archaic greek art
2:19
an interest in life lifelike vitality
2:22
and a concern with design
2:26
this early chorus which many scholars
2:28
call the new york koros is characterized
2:31
by his geometricized features
2:34
his hair and his musculature have been
2:36
simplified down to geometric patterns
2:39
on the head
2:40
all the features are placed on the front
2:42
plane
2:43
leaving the sides
2:45
fairly flat with an ear placed much too
2:48
far to the back
2:50
although the artist has made a beautiful
2:52
design of the complex structure of the
2:54
ear itself
2:55
the long curly hair is rendered as
2:58
strings of beads
2:59
and other details were added in paint as
3:02
we can see in traces on the figure
3:07
here are some detail views of the new
3:09
york chorus along with a general view on
3:11
the right
3:12
as you can see certain areas like the
3:15
chest and ribcage are rendered more as
3:18
linear than its rounded flesh so there's
3:21
a raised curved line defining the thighs
3:24
and the additional lines on the abdomen
3:26
knees and shins
3:29
i also want you to notice that the
3:30
sculptor of this chorus left a portion
3:33
of the stone between the thighs and
3:34
hands which is a bit of a holdover from
3:37
the egyptian tradition of leaving stone
3:40
between the legs and between the arms
3:42
and the body
3:45
this chorus known as the anavisos chorus
3:48
for the cemetery it was found in the
3:50
antiviso cemetery
3:52
was made roughly 70 years after the new
3:55
york koros
3:57
we know he was meant to be a grave
3:59
marker because
4:00
he was found in a cemetery
4:02
and also because he bears an inscription
4:06
and that's at the base of the statue it
4:08
reads stop and mourn at the grave of
4:11
dead croissants whom the raging ares
4:14
defended when he fought among the
4:16
defenders
4:17
ares of course refers to the greek god
4:19
of war so the message here is that
4:22
chrysos died in war
4:24
it's possible that this sculpture
4:26
represents croissants himself
4:29
but it's equally possible that this
4:31
choros is simply a representation of
4:34
ideal male youthful beauty
4:36
the antivisos koros is a lot fleshier
4:39
than the new york koros
4:41
you can see that all the parts of his
4:43
body have been completely sculpted in
4:45
the round
4:46
with no excess stone joining the hands
4:48
to the thighs
4:50
the only real holdover that we see from
4:52
the earlier choros is the bead-like
4:55
treatment of the hair
4:57
which has been augmented here with the
4:59
addition of tightly curled
5:01
bangs
5:02
and you should notice that the the face
5:04
of this particular chorus is also
5:07
a lot more three-dimensional and less
5:09
frontal than the earlier new york chorus
5:12
and the proportions of the face are a
5:14
lot more naturalistic
5:16
the new york koros you might remember
5:18
had kind of large almost bug-like eyes
5:23
adding to the naturalism of the
5:24
antivisus chorus is the fact that he was
5:27
also originally polychromed and you can
5:30
see traces of that paint
5:32
really clearly on his eyes and in his
5:35
hair
5:36
the end of isoscoros also has another
5:39
feature i want you to particularly
5:40
notice
5:41
this is the positioning of his lips in
5:44
what we call conventionally the archaic
5:47
smile
5:48
this is characteristic again of many
5:50
archaic sculptures we saw it on the
5:53
dying warrior and we'll see echoes of it
5:55
when we get into etruscan art in our
5:58
next set of lessons
6:01
now let's move to representations of
6:03
females
6:04
this is the so-called peplos corey
6:07
and she receives her name from the
6:09
garment a peplos that she wears i'll get
6:12
into more about that garment shortly
6:16
she is uh
6:18
like
6:19
the the anavisos koros or the new york
6:22
chorus
6:23
she represents sort of a generic
6:26
young woman in this case corey is the
6:29
the word for
6:30
uh
6:31
young woman
6:32
um and she has stylized hair
6:35
but it falls in a believable way around
6:38
her head and shoulders
6:39
it's possible to get some sense of her
6:41
body beneath her garments
6:44
although she really has been kind of
6:47
simplified geometrically
6:49
um you can make out though that she has
6:52
breasts and two legs
6:54
her arms are rather fleshy and
6:57
really fairly naturalistic
6:59
you'll notice though that her left arm
7:01
is partially missing
7:03
the missing portion originally projected
7:05
forward and either carried some sort of
7:07
an object like a bow you see in the
7:10
right reconstruction on the right or
7:12
perhaps a bowl or vase for pouring out a
7:15
libation
7:17
this is also kind of an interesting
7:19
moment to mention that
7:21
not all marble sculptures were made in a
7:24
single piece
7:26
marble could be
7:28
glued together and joined together and
7:31
oftentimes when you had
7:33
a portion that would have been
7:35
projecting like the missing arm it would
7:38
have been set up in a socket arrangement
7:40
and you can see how
7:42
the sleeve of this figure has been set
7:44
up to kind of hide that join
7:48
here again i'm showing you a couple of
7:50
reconstructions
7:52
of the original coloring on the peplos
7:55
corey these come from that
7:57
exhibition of painted greek sculpture
7:59
that we also saw when we were looking at
8:01
the sculptures from agina
8:04
scholars used traces of the encaustic
8:07
paint
8:08
visible on the surface of the marble to
8:10
extrapolate the original coloring on
8:13
this chorae
8:14
and so in these two examples you can see
8:16
their reconstructions
8:18
based on that
8:20
um
8:21
there's also uh on the in the central
8:24
figure there uh the middle of the slide
8:27
you can see that they also reconstructed
8:29
a metal crown on this figure
8:32
you might remember from the end of the
8:34
egyptian chapter when we were looking at
8:36
um the thyme mummy portraits that
8:40
encaustic paint is made out of pigment
8:42
suspended in melted wax
8:44
and that when it dries it leaves a hard
8:47
shiny surface it would have been a
8:50
really effective way of painting this
8:53
marble and fairly permanent
8:55
let's discuss the garment of the peplus
8:58
corey the pepperos was a very
9:00
old-fashioned greek garment and it was
9:03
one of the simplest it considered it's
9:05
consisted just of a large rectangle of
9:07
cloth
9:08
usually wool that was folded over on the
9:10
top and then folded in half
9:13
pins were placed at the shoulders
9:15
and it was tied at the waist
9:17
the tie could either be above or below
9:20
the folded over portion as you can see
9:22
if you compare the image of the peplos
9:24
corey with the central image of artemis
9:27
there from a greek vase
9:30
on the open side of the peplos the cloth
9:32
was generally arranged so that it fell
9:35
in neat folds down one side
9:38
and you can see those folds in the image
9:40
of artemis and also in the marvel relief
9:43
image from of the little girl with a
9:45
dove that's a grave marker you might
9:47
recall
9:48
note that the relief of the little girl
9:51
shows her with her peplos untied so you
9:54
can actually see her rear end exposed by
9:56
the open side of her peplos
10:02
now our final example of a quarry
10:05
was uh found like so many of the others
10:09
um in the debris of the acropolis we'll
10:11
just discuss
10:12
why that's significant when we get to
10:14
classical athens
10:16
this quarry was probably made by a
10:18
sculptor from kiosk
10:20
an island off asia minor and style
10:23
scholars specializing in archaic greek
10:26
sculpture
10:27
have identified distinctive stylistic
10:29
traits for sculptures made on various
10:32
greek islands including naxos and paros
10:35
in the cyclades
10:37
kiosks and samos off asia minor and for
10:40
argos and the peloponnese
10:43
the drapery patterns on this corey
10:45
strongly resemble the style of
10:47
sculptures from cora from from kiosk
10:51
and the high quality of this sculpture
10:54
with its intricately carved drapery and
10:56
traces of color pole polychromy make it
10:59
really impressive despite its obvious
11:01
damage
11:03
i want you to notice how the garments on
11:05
this carre
11:06
seem to more reveal her curvaceous
11:09
feminine body
11:11
than to mask it and contrast that in
11:13
your head with our peplos corey whose
11:16
body is really mostly obscured by
11:19
uh the garments and she's turned into
11:21
sort of a columnar form
11:24
this tendency
11:26
towards a more naturalistic portrayal of
11:28
the human form and revealing the body
11:31
beneath drapery is one that we're going
11:32
to see more and more as we progress
11:35
into later greek art and we've also seen
11:40
a similar contrast between the new york
11:42
koros and the anavisos chorus
11:45
this move towards increasing naturalism
11:48
and
11:49
a real sense of the body as something
11:51
fleshy
11:53
we also have a quarry here that's
11:55
wearing two different garments
11:58
i've brought in diagrams of both
12:00
underneath she's wearing a chitin which
12:03
is a kind of
12:04
more elaborate version of a peplos
12:08
what you have in this case is a tube of
12:10
fabric with multiple pins or brooches at
12:13
the shoulders that gather the fabric and
12:16
then it has seams down both sides
12:19
and this would be belted and you can see
12:21
makes you know quite a lovely dress
12:24
on top is a hymation and that's a
12:27
diagonally draped mantel
12:30
fastened on one shoulder with one or
12:32
more fastenings
12:34
and you can see that the sculptor here
12:36
has given us the impression
12:38
of
12:39
really fine kind of crepe-like fabric in
12:42
the undergarment
12:44
and then heavier fabric on the upper
12:46
garment it's really welded
13:04
you
:04
the subject of this lesson is the art of
0:07
the early classical period and athens
0:09
during the high classical period
0:12
classical greek art was produced between
0:14
circa 480 and 323 bce
0:18
two major events formed the boundaries
0:20
of this period
0:22
first the defeat of the persians in 480
0:25
bce and the death of alexander the great
0:28
in 323 bce
0:31
classical art is further divided into
0:33
the early classical or transitional
0:35
period
0:36
the high classical period and the late
0:38
classical period
0:40
art of the classical period is based on
0:42
three general concepts humanism
0:45
rationalism and idealism
0:47
so in the next few topics we'll see
0:50
early classical works of art that embody
0:52
all three concepts
0:54
the early classical period took place
0:56
between about circa
0:58
480 and 450 bce
1:01
and high classical between about 450 and
1:04
400 bce
1:06
we're going to start in olympia at the
1:09
great sanctuary of zeus where the
1:11
surviving sculptures are some of the
1:14
greatest examples of early classical
1:16
greek art
1:18
the sanctuary of olympia is located just
1:21
a short distance from the town
1:23
on a hill named after the titan kronos
1:26
father of the greek gods of olympus
1:28
here the sanctuary is dedicated to zeus
1:31
and there's also a temple to his wife
1:33
hera
1:34
in this view my pushpin is on the
1:36
remains of the temple of zeus and the
1:38
smaller temple to hera is just to the to
1:41
the north
1:43
we'll look at a map of the site just in
1:45
a moment but first i want to give you a
1:48
short historical introduction
1:51
the earliest settlers in olympia came in
1:53
the third millennium bce but there's no
1:55
evidence that this area was regarded as
1:58
sacred until many centuries later
2:01
the mycenaeans were active here between
2:03
about 1400 and 1100 bce
2:06
and though a number of significant
2:08
mycenaean remains have been found in the
2:10
area
2:11
archaeologists haven't yet discovered
2:14
the mycenaean city that dominated this
2:16
particular region of greece
2:20
sometime between 1100 and 800 bce
2:23
this site began to be regarded as sacred
2:27
and a number of bronze votive offerings
2:29
have been found the date to the 9th
2:31
century bce
2:33
according to tradition the olympic games
2:35
were first held here in 776 bce
2:40
when three major city-states declared a
2:43
sacred truce and came together in
2:45
peaceful contests at olympia
2:48
this festival quickly spread beyond just
2:51
the three original city-states
2:53
to include competitors from all over the
2:56
greek mainland its island and its
2:58
colonies
3:00
major renovations took place at the site
3:02
beginning in 668 bce and that resulted
3:06
in new temples and the earliest
3:08
treasuries dedicated by individual
3:10
city-states
3:11
like the ones that we've seen at delphi
3:14
the 5th century was really important for
3:17
olympia
3:18
in the early part of the century around
3:20
490 the persian invasion was
3:23
successfully repelled by an alliance of
3:25
greek forces
3:26
and there are references to the persian
3:28
war in the sculptures that we're going
3:30
to cover in this topic
3:32
the rise and spread of democracy in the
3:34
480s and 470s brought changes to the
3:38
sanctuary and to the organization of the
3:40
games
3:41
and the new temple of zeus was begun in
3:43
470
3:44
bce our subject in this topic is the
3:47
sculpture from that temple which was
3:50
completed in 456 bce
3:53
the enormous sculpture of zeus that used
3:55
to occupy the interior of the temple was
3:58
created in 430 bce by the great sculptor
4:01
phidias
4:04
so here's a map of the sanctuary of
4:06
olympia and you can see that it's placed
4:08
beside a hill
4:09
named for kronos
4:12
the largest temple is the temple of zeus
4:16
here
4:17
you can see the temple of hera
4:20
just here
4:22
and i want you to know the location here
4:25
of the great stadium and the line of
4:28
treasuries that are dedicated
4:31
by various city-states in between the
4:34
top two arrows and you might notice that
4:36
most of the buildings on this planet are
4:38
colored light orange
4:40
that means that most of the construction
4:42
was done during the classical period
4:45
following the end
4:46
of the the persian wars
4:49
keep this fact in mind because those
4:52
wars are referenced in the sculptures
4:54
that we're going to see
4:58
shortly after the greeks defeated the
5:00
persians in 479
5:02
the citizens of olympia began to
5:04
construct a new dork style temple to
5:06
zeus in the sanctuary of zeus and
5:08
olympia
5:09
the architect was named wyben of ellis
5:12
and when the temple was completed it was
5:14
the largest temple on the greek mainland
5:17
measuring 89 by 210 feet
5:21
the temple is in ruins today as you can
5:24
see
5:25
but it's surviving sculpture is
5:26
preserved nearby in the museum
5:29
and we're going to be looking at the
5:31
architectural sculptures from this
5:33
temple
5:34
um but first we're starting with a
5:36
reconstruction of the temple to get a
5:38
better sense of the sculpture in situ
5:43
so here's a reconstruction drawing of
5:45
the east facade of the temple
5:47
i'm showing you this view so that you
5:49
can get an overall idea of the doric
5:52
order temple
5:54
and we're going to start with
5:56
the west pediment
5:58
because that is more important for our
6:01
purposes the east pediment sculptures
6:04
aren't as well preserved as those from
6:05
the west and they don't tend to be
6:07
studied as much
6:10
this is a cutaway view into the temple
6:13
and it shows the enthroned sculpture of
6:16
zeus that was made by phidias the artist
6:19
responsible
6:20
for the great sculpture of athena made
6:22
for the parthenon in athens
6:25
both so both of those great works have
6:27
now been lost they were made of gold and
6:29
ivory and so were probably just
6:33
pilfered away because of their valuable
6:35
materials
6:36
uh the view on this view also gives you
6:39
a good idea of this overall structure of
6:42
the now destroyed temple
6:46
now we're looking at a composite image
6:49
that shows both the west and east
6:52
pediments of the temple of zeus and
6:54
olympia
6:55
although both pediments suffered damage
6:57
over the centuries
6:59
enough survives that we can reconstruct
7:01
the arrangement of each one
7:03
and as i said we're concerned with the
7:06
west pediment in this course but i
7:08
brought in the east pediment as well
7:10
just to make you aware of it so i've put
7:13
the west pediment the one that we're
7:15
paying attention to at the top of this
7:18
slide so the top two
7:20
views are what we're going to be looking
7:22
at in greater detail
7:26
so here it is the west pediment its
7:29
subject and i should say it was sculpted
7:31
between about 470 and 460.
7:34
its subject is the battle of the lapis
7:37
and the centaurs
7:39
the centaurs were a clan of creatures
7:41
who were half human and half horse
7:44
in mythology they were said to be
7:46
followers of dionysus god of wine
7:48
and subject to drunkenness and
7:51
misbehavior with women
7:53
according to legend the centaurs were
7:55
guests at the wedding of a king of the
7:57
human of a human tribe the lapis
8:00
and at the wedding the centaurs got
8:02
drunk and assaulted the female guests
8:04
and also attempted to carry off the
8:06
bride this touched off a major battle
8:10
in which the lapis drove the centaurs
8:12
out of thessaly
8:16
the west pediment as you see in the
8:17
drawing and in the reconstructed
8:20
fragments is covered with twisting
8:22
turning figures at battle
8:25
in the center
8:26
we have apollo
8:28
uh
8:29
representing the greek ideal he stands
8:32
calmly and raises his arm to stop these
8:35
disturbance
8:36
if you look closely at the remaining
8:38
faces of the centaurs you'll see that
8:41
they're
8:42
shown as angry or wild
8:44
apollo and the lapis on the other hand
8:48
are shown
8:49
as the very model of
8:52
self-control and stoicism
8:58
now we're going to
9:00
see the this contrast of the serenity of
9:03
the lapis who are here embodying the
9:07
greeks in a metaphor of the persian war
9:10
and the barbaric
9:13
bestial nature of the centaurs
9:16
who are being used as a metaphor for the
9:18
persians the enemies of the greeks we'll
9:21
look at these details over the next few
9:24
slides
9:25
so here's a detail of apollo and you see
9:27
his unemotional calm face and
9:30
outstretched arm
9:31
he's the model of self-control and
9:33
stoicism
9:35
uh he has the best qualities of greek
9:38
moderation and self-control
9:40
although the greeks still maintain their
9:42
independence city states after the
9:44
persian wars the persian invasion caused
9:47
them to come together symbolically as a
9:50
single civilization one with common
9:53
values
9:54
common philosophy
9:56
common religion and mythology and so on
10:02
here's some details of the left side of
10:04
the pediment with some of the best
10:05
preserved figures and i want you to
10:08
notice that although the lapis are
10:10
struggling they remain calm
10:12
they emulate apollo in histoicism
10:16
the greeks symbolized here by the lapis
10:18
are godlike in their cool self-control
10:22
that's the key concept here
10:25
their enemies symbolized by the centaurs
10:28
are out of control they're bestial in
10:31
their behavior and they are literally
10:33
half animal
10:35
there's also a contrast being made here
10:37
between muscular physicality of the
10:40
centaurs and the fit but more moderately
10:43
built lapis and apollo the heavily
10:46
muscled body of a bodybuilder builder
10:49
say like arnold schwarzenegger as conan
10:52
the barbarian this would be way outside
10:55
the greek ideal in the classical period
10:58
apollo here is muscular
11:01
yes but he's not
11:03
ripped
11:04
crazy ripped like a bodybuilder um
11:07
nothing is out of proportion
11:10
here's a detail of the centaur and
11:12
lapith from the left side of the
11:14
previous slide and i really like this
11:17
view because it embodies the contrast
11:20
between the calm lapis who represent the
11:23
greek people and their ideals and the
11:25
barbaric centaurs who represent the
11:28
greek enemies specifically the persians
11:30
so even though this lapis woman is being
11:33
groped and sexually assaulted
11:36
by a centaur who is grabbing her breast
11:39
she remains calm and unruffled and
11:42
elbows him in the head to get his hands
11:44
off of her
11:45
despite the fact that the centaur's head
11:47
has been heavily damaged you can still
11:50
see the wildness of his expression
11:53
and note the
11:54
unruly hair and beard
11:57
this lapis on the other hand has
11:59
maintained her hairstyle throughout the
12:02
assault and doesn't have a hair out of
12:04
place
12:05
she's not a victim but she's calm
12:10
now we're going to move to the freeze of
12:11
the temple of zeus at olympus and i've
12:15
and look at one of the metapees i
12:16
brought in a diagram of the doric order
12:18
to remind you
12:20
you should remember that the freeze of a
12:22
dora temple consists of triglyphs
12:26
alternating with menopes
12:28
and that the menopes are often
12:30
filled with relief sculpture so the
12:33
metaphy is that green area there
12:35
here at olympia the metapees were not
12:38
located below the pediments on the
12:39
exterior
12:41
instead they were located in the front
12:43
and rear of the cella or the inner
12:45
chamber of the temple so just outside
12:48
the room that held the colossal zeus
12:51
at olympia the metapees depicted the 12
12:54
labors of hercules
12:57
or heracles
12:58
heracles was the son of zeus an immortal
13:01
woman and because of this zeus's wife
13:04
hera tried repeatedly to kill heracles
13:07
once she managed to to drive him insane
13:09
and in his insane rage he killed his
13:12
wife and their three children
13:15
shocked in the sanity
13:17
heracles
13:18
sought to make amends and regain his
13:20
honor
13:21
he consulted with the oracle of delphi
13:23
who told him
13:24
to serve the king of mycenae for 12
13:27
years
13:28
together the mycenaean king and hera
13:31
came up with 12 tasks that were intended
13:33
to be impossible
13:35
these are the 12 labors of heracles
13:38
as he undertook them heracles was aided
13:40
by the goddess athena the patron goddess
13:43
of athens who was also the goddess of
13:45
wisdom and war and the helper of heroes
13:50
in the labor depicted here
13:52
heracles was sent to steal golden apples
13:55
from the hesperides nymphs who were
13:57
keepers of the apple trees
14:00
the garden of the hesperides was guarded
14:02
by a terrible multi-headed dragon
14:06
heracles convinced the titan atlas whose
14:09
task it was to hold up the heavens to
14:11
get the
14:12
apples for him
14:14
in return however heracles had to hold
14:17
up the heavens for atlas
14:19
and so the scene in this metapiece shows
14:21
heracles at the center holding up the
14:24
sky
14:25
his body betrays the extreme effort
14:28
required for the task
14:30
on the right atlas holds out the apples
14:33
to our hero
14:34
and behind heracles athena helps to
14:37
support the sky
14:38
just with one hand
14:41
like apollo on the west pediment the
14:43
goddess here and you can see in this
14:45
detail is serene and unruffled the very
14:48
embodiment of the greek ideal of reason
14:51
and stoicism
14:53
before we leave this work i want to
14:55
bring in an additional couple of views
14:58
taken by my friend charlotte
15:01
this
15:02
detail of athena is one of them you can
15:04
see her calm demeanor
15:07
uh in the detail on the left and the way
15:09
in which the artist here
15:11
has subtly revealed the the body of the
15:14
goddess beneath her heavy peplos
0:02
now we're going to move to freestanding
0:04
sculpture in the early classical period
0:07
and look at a very important example the
0:09
so-called critian boy or kritios boy
0:12
the name of this figure comes from the
0:15
fact that scholars have suggested it
0:16
might be the work of the sculptor
0:18
kritios
0:20
this is an original work of art not a
0:22
roman copy after an original
0:24
and unfortunately all of kritios's other
0:27
work is known only from roman copies
0:30
that's why we can't say absolutely
0:33
that this sculpture was done by critias
0:36
the figure is significantly smaller than
0:37
life size measuring only 3 feet 10
0:40
inches high
0:41
like many of the choroid that we saw
0:43
earlier in this lesson this sculpture
0:46
was excavated from the debris on the
0:48
acropolis
0:49
at the end of the persian wars the
0:51
persians had destroyed many of the greek
0:53
sanctuaries the greeks were so angered
0:56
by this that they took an oath after one
0:58
particular battle the battle of platya
1:01
that they would not rebuild their
1:03
sanctuaries and instead leave them in
1:05
ruins as a remember reminder of the
1:08
persian barbarism
1:10
in athens all the buildings on the
1:12
acropolis had been burned and sculptures
1:14
on the site had been destroyed and cast
1:16
down
1:17
all the athenians did on the ruins of
1:19
the acropolis was to tidy things up a
1:21
little but they didn't re-erect any
1:24
temples or restore any sculpture
1:27
since the kerdian boy was found in the
1:29
debris of the acropolis we know that he
1:32
was sculpted before
1:34
480 bce
1:37
the caribbean boy represents an
1:39
important turning point between the
1:41
koroz figures we saw
1:43
in the previous uh
1:45
in the previous lecture
1:47
and the early classical and transitional
1:50
sculptures that we have in this lesson
1:53
unlike the stiff and static archaea
1:56
koros the kerdian boy has a very organic
1:59
body cave that appears to be capable of
2:02
movement
2:03
like a koro's figure his right leg leg
2:06
comes forward while his left leg is back
2:09
but unlike a chorus the christian boy
2:12
shows a perceptible weight shift
2:14
the right leg is relaxed and free as if
2:17
he has been caught mid-stride and all
2:20
the weight is placed on his left rear
2:22
leg
2:24
in keeping with this his hips and
2:25
shoulders reflect the pose of his legs
2:28
the right hip is lower than the left and
2:30
the shoulders to have a slight tilt to
2:32
them
2:33
you can also see particularly in the
2:35
middle view that there is a definite
2:38
curve to the spine
2:40
and by turning the head slightly kritios
2:43
or whoever sculpted the critian boy
2:46
broke with that strict frontality that
2:48
we saw in the archaic chorus figures
2:51
the face has a large fleshy chin flat
2:54
cheeks full lips
2:56
thick eyelids and an overall composed or
2:58
serene expression
3:00
similar to what we saw on apollo athena
3:04
and the lapis in olympus
3:06
if you look at the mouth of the
3:08
caribbean boy you'll notice that he has
3:10
the slightly pursed lips
3:14
and it
3:16
kind of gives him more of an uh an
3:18
actual expression
3:20
that is very different from that stiff
3:23
archaic smile
3:25
i want to mention his empty eyes here um
3:28
in many sculptures
3:30
when the eyes were empty like this they
3:33
would be inlaid with some other material
3:36
and at least in bronze sculptures we
3:39
know that the greeks would make sort of
3:42
like a almost a taco shape
3:45
out of copper and then there would be
3:49
eyes made out of white stone with
3:51
colored centers
3:54
and those could be inserted into the
3:56
sockets on the statue
3:59
so imagine this figure enlivened by more
4:03
realistic looking eyes
4:06
now we're looking at one of the most
4:08
famous classical sculptures the
4:09
doriferos or spear bearer by the
4:11
sculptor polyclinus
4:14
and you're seeing
4:16
kind of a textbook sort of view
4:19
and then another view and a detail
4:22
from a slightly different angle
4:24
the doriferos was originally cast in
4:27
bronze around 450 bce
4:30
these views are of a roman copy in
4:33
marble that was found in pompeii
4:36
the copy that you see here is one of
4:38
more than 50 copies that have been
4:40
identified so far
4:42
and that attests to the popularity of
4:44
the doriforos among the romans
4:47
the original bronze sculpture would have
4:49
been much would have been hollow and it
4:52
would have been a lot more stable than
4:54
the marble the the physics of holding up
4:57
a bronze statue are quite different from
5:00
those of marble
5:02
and uh the tree trunk
5:04
and that is behind the the right leg of
5:06
the figure and the strut that you see
5:09
here
5:10
between his wrist and thigh were added
5:13
by the roman sculptor to make the marble
5:15
version more stable
5:17
they probably were missing in the bronze
5:20
original
5:23
one factor that makes this such an
5:25
important statue is polyclitus's use of
5:28
contrapposto
5:30
contrapposto is an italian word that
5:33
means counterpoise
5:34
it refers to the counter positioning of
5:37
parts of the human figure about a
5:39
vertical central axis
5:42
as when one
5:43
as when the weight is placed on one foot
5:46
and this causes the hip and the shoulder
5:48
lines to counter balance each other so
5:51
here i've drawn some lines to show you
5:53
what i'm talking about
5:55
the hips and the shoulders
5:57
counterbalance the figure's right hip is
6:00
up his right shoulder is down and we
6:02
have the reverse on his left with his
6:04
left shoulder up and his right hip down
6:07
this is an extremely relaxed pose not
6:09
unlike one that you and i might take if
6:12
we just
6:13
met on the street we're having a
6:14
conversation
6:16
you might notice yourself shifting your
6:18
weight from one leg to another when you
6:20
stand in one place for a while and in
6:23
fact if you take inquire or band they
6:26
usually encourage you to do that so that
6:28
you don't lock your knees and end up
6:30
keeling over
6:32
the contrapposto pose of the doriforos
6:35
would have been emphasized by the spear
6:38
that he was holding
6:40
uh he originally carried it in his left
6:42
arm and again i've drawn that in this
6:45
also would have acted as an additional
6:47
support for the figure
6:52
so here are three greek marble
6:54
sculptures that you should now be able
6:56
to identify pretty easily
6:58
on the left is the anabisos coros
7:01
the middle is the critian boy and the
7:03
right is the derivative
7:05
moving from left to right you can read
7:07
the progression from archaic to
7:09
classical sculpture in the increasing
7:12
naturalism of the figures and their
7:14
poses
7:15
things get fleshier less linear less
7:18
stylized and much more based on the
7:22
actual natural look and move of the body
7:26
and its musculature
7:28
although the antivisus chorus is
7:30
depicted striding forward
7:33
he seems much less capable of movement
7:35
than the critian boy or the derifuros
7:38
the dorifuros appears to as if he will
7:41
shift his weight any moment or stride
7:44
forward
7:45
this potential for movement
7:48
that is captured this this sense that
7:51
you're
7:52
seeing just a moment between movements
7:55
this is one of the great achievements in
7:58
classical greek sculpture and one of the
8:00
reasons that polyclydos
8:03
the artist responsible for the girifrose
8:05
is so very famous
8:08
the other reason that doripharos is
8:10
considered such an important sculpture
8:13
is that it represents polyclitus's
8:15
cannon a cannon was a set of rules for
8:18
constructing a human figure in art
8:21
polyclitus wrote his system down in a
8:23
tree that's called the
8:25
somewhere sometime around 450 bce
8:29
and he created a larger than life-size
8:31
figure of a spear bearer the deriveros
8:34
in bronze
8:35
to illustrate his system of ideal
8:37
proportions
8:38
and you might remember
8:40
um
8:41
that the the original derivatives has
8:44
been lost
8:45
so scholars use the numerous roman
8:47
copies of the derif rose to determine
8:50
the details of polyclinus's canon
8:53
and kind of
8:55
we do this with a lot of greek sculpture
8:57
figuring out what the original would
8:59
have looked like from all of the copies
9:02
kind of involves a lot of sort of
9:05
spreadsheet work really
9:07
um figuring out what the different
9:09
characteristics are and then looking at
9:12
um how often they show up in figures and
9:16
so
9:17
you end up with kind of a composite view
9:20
of what that work must have looked like
9:24
now this is not the first canon that
9:26
you've encountered in this course you
9:28
should recall that we saw a canon used
9:30
in egyptian art with all the parts of
9:32
the body
9:33
based on the measure of the human fist
9:35
and that's what you're seeing in the
9:36
center of the slide
9:38
you might also remember that the
9:40
egyptian canon changed between the old
9:43
kingdom and the new kingdom
9:45
with figures becoming sort of taller and
9:47
slimmer and
9:49
a little bit more relaxed in the new
9:51
kingdom
9:52
in the case of the doriforos and the
9:54
cannon of polyclydos
9:56
the unit of measure that determined uh
9:59
the measure of all the parts of the body
10:01
and this is something that scholars have
10:04
determined
10:05
by looking at this because that
10:07
book the canon is lost
10:09
um they've determined that the standard
10:12
of measure is the head
10:14
so here is the head of the derivative
10:17
and the doriforos stands seven heads
10:20
high
10:22
his body is roughly two heads wide
10:25
and the measurement of all other body
10:27
parts is similarly based upon the unit
10:30
of the height of the head
10:32
when we get to the late classical art
10:34
you'll see another somewhat taller
10:36
candidate proportions being used
10:48
you
0:02
despite the fact that the greek
0:04
sculpture galleries of most of the
0:06
world's museums are dominated by works
0:08
of marble we know that classical greek
0:11
sculptures worked primarily in bronze
0:14
athens was particularly well known for
0:16
its metalwork
0:18
unfortunately most of the original
0:20
bronzes have been lost and were left
0:22
with roman marble copies after the
0:23
originals
0:25
so why were they lost
0:26
bronze was a valuable commodity
0:29
and we know that old statues were
0:31
frequently recycled to make new ones
0:34
it's also very likely that bronze
0:36
statuary was melted down for other
0:37
purposes when people were faced with war
0:40
or hard times
0:42
this makes the few surviving greek
0:44
bronze sculptures even more important
0:47
and so now we're going to look at uh
0:49
some bronze sculpture
0:52
what you see here though is a red figure
0:55
helix a two handled drinking cup that
0:58
depicts a foundry scene it was made by
1:00
the foundry painter and he's named for
1:03
this particular vase which dates to
1:05
between 490 and 480 bce
1:08
the scene gives you a good idea of what
1:11
someone could encounter
1:13
in an early classical greek foundry for
1:15
casting life-size bronzes
1:18
here's a closer view of the vase one
1:21
that's more of a textbook view and you
1:23
can see
1:24
sketches hanging on the wall of the
1:27
forge
1:29
possibly depicting works that had either
1:31
been executed by the artists
1:33
or sketches prepared for consultation
1:35
with a patron
1:37
in front of the sketches
1:39
there's a worker
1:42
who is tending to the furnace and you
1:43
can see a half hidden figure behind the
1:46
furnace who might be using the bellows
1:50
in the center leaning on his staff is a
1:53
man who is very likely the supervisor
1:58
on the right side
1:59
there's a third worker busy assembling a
2:02
bronze figure and you can see the head
2:04
that he still has to attach
2:06
and it's between his feet
2:10
behind the figures hang tools and cast
2:12
body parts on the wall
2:16
anyone who has ever done metal casting
2:18
or just baked cookies in a hot oven
2:21
might wonder why these workers are being
2:24
shown nude or in the case of the man on
2:26
the right extremely lightly clothed
2:30
i can assure you molten bronze is
2:33
something you never want to have come in
2:35
contact with your flesh
2:37
now i hope that you read the brief
2:39
article i provided about nudity in greek
2:42
art
2:42
it suggests that there's more than one
2:44
explanation for nudity in greek art the
2:47
traditional interpretation for nudity is
2:50
that it signals heroism
2:52
however that's just a bit too limited
2:55
the new workers that we see here are
2:58
shown in this way to emphasize the sweat
3:01
and heat of their labor
3:03
and perhaps the fact that no sane person
3:06
would work around a bronze furnace in
3:07
the nude is something that the foundry
3:10
painter used to call attention to the
3:12
intense heat and sweat associated with
3:16
bronze casting if you think back to our
3:19
dying warrior
3:21
uh his nudity was heroic but it also
3:23
emphasized his vulnerability
3:26
um so there are other reasons for nudity
3:30
that you should consider
3:33
we owe the survival of our next work of
3:36
art to a disaster this time a shipwreck
3:40
two bronze warriors and uh we're really
3:43
only going to spend more time on just
3:45
one of them
3:47
were found in just 25 feet of water off
3:50
the italian coast near the town of
3:52
riyache in 1972.
3:55
it's thought that they could have been
3:56
the loot from a greek city possibly
3:58
corinth being brought to rome for sale
4:02
on the art and antiquities market
4:04
corinth was sacked by the romans in 146
4:07
bce
4:09
as much as the romans appreciated having
4:11
copies of ancient greek sculptures in
4:13
their homes they were even more enamored
4:16
of the rare originals so these warriors
4:19
would have fetched a very high price if
4:21
they had reached rome
4:24
these riyache warriors as they're called
4:27
were discovered by an italian chemist
4:30
who was on holiday he was going
4:32
snorkeling
4:33
and he spotted something dark on the sea
4:35
floor and swam down to see what it was
4:38
and it looked like a human hand
4:40
he dove down a few more times because
4:43
first he thought you know maybe he
4:44
needed to rescue somebody
4:46
um and determined that the hand belonged
4:48
to a bronze statue
4:50
he managed to uncover that statue and
4:53
the second statue nearby and then
4:56
contacted the authorities
4:58
divers from the caribbean erie the
5:00
italian national police later brought up
5:03
the two warrior figures and you see
5:05
those police divers posing with the
5:08
statue that has been named warrior b
5:12
no trace of a wrecked ship was ever
5:14
found which suggests that perhaps the
5:16
heavy bronze statues were pitched
5:18
overboard to save the ship during a
5:20
storm
5:23
here we have two views of warrior b on
5:26
the left
5:27
and in the center and on the right a
5:30
front view of warrior a
5:32
as you can see warrior b is a somewhat
5:34
older band than warrior a
5:37
warrior's b was warrior b's head was
5:40
shaped to fit a now missing helmet
5:43
which renders his head without the
5:45
helmet somewhat strange
5:47
and elongated in appearance
5:49
warrior b is also missing the bone and
5:52
glass inlay in one of his eyes and his
5:55
other eye has been too heavily damaged
5:57
to re to be restored
5:59
so that's why we tend to look at warrior
6:02
a
6:03
um warrior b also held a spear and
6:06
carried a shield originally
6:08
and since those were removable they were
6:10
probably packed separately for shipping
6:13
which is why they weren't found the
6:14
figures
6:16
it's very likely that both of these
6:18
warriors were part of a sculpture group
6:19
that celebrated victory
6:21
warrior a is in much better condition
6:24
than warrior b
6:25
and because he was not designed to wear
6:27
a helmet his head is a lot more pleasing
6:30
than that of warrior b
6:32
these are likely the the reasons that we
6:35
tend to focus
6:37
on warrior a on the right
6:40
so here are two views of him
6:43
this is a figure that stands six feet
6:45
nine inches high so slightly more than
6:48
life-size for ancient greece
6:50
i said before he originally held a spear
6:52
and shield and you can see the armband
6:54
of the shield on his left arm
6:57
the body of warrior a is an interesting
6:59
blend of idealized anatomy and
7:03
naturalistic detail
7:05
he's both muscular and fleshly
7:08
curvaceous at the same time
7:10
you can see there's a six-pack on his
7:12
abdomen
7:13
and he's got kind of a sway to his hips
7:17
and thighs
7:18
his body is smooth and idealized but at
7:21
the same time the artist has captured
7:23
particular details like the individual
7:26
strands of hair and the veins on the
7:28
back of his hands
7:30
one scholar has actually called the
7:32
artist treatment of the creep-like skin
7:35
of the warriors scrotum magnificent
7:38
i think this more than qualifies as a
7:41
minute anatomical detail
7:44
warrior a's pose is graceful and alert
7:48
and this would have been further
7:49
emphasized by the now missing spear and
7:52
shield because the warrior holds his
7:54
spear at rest in a somewhat slack arm
7:58
but has his shield raised on his other
8:01
arm
8:02
warrior a has the same potential for
8:04
movement that we saw in the derivatives
8:07
like polyclydos the artist here has used
8:09
contrapposto the great effect and it's
8:12
really easy to imagine this warrior
8:14
shifting his weight or striding forward
8:17
at any moment
8:22
here's a closer view showing
8:25
the the lips
8:27
uh of the the figure you can see they've
8:30
been done in copper he has silver teeth
8:33
you can see the uh the bone and uh
8:36
colored stone inlay of his eyes
8:40
and just get a better sense for
8:44
just how terrifically beautiful
8:47
this figure is
8:49
and
8:51
here i just want to bring in the the
8:54
effect of the use of other metals uh so
8:58
we don't only have the
9:01
the pinkish copper on the lips we also
9:04
have that on his
9:06
nipples um and again i want to mention
9:09
the the silver teeth
9:11
um the eyebrows are cast separately
9:15
um and provide some contrast
9:19
and it's you know it's kind of just
9:22
incredible the amount of detail that the
9:25
artist achieved here
9:27
in such a difficult medium as bronze
9:30
it's also interesting to note that when
9:32
these sculptures were recovered they
9:34
still have the clay cores from their
9:37
casting process inside
9:39
the clay actually
9:41
made the deterioration of the bronze
9:44
worse when these were in the sea
9:46
so when these sculptures were recovered
9:49
from the ocean
9:50
and conserved one of the first things
9:53
that happened was the clay cores were
9:55
carefully removed
10:11
you
0:02
the high classical period in greek art
0:05
roughly corresponds to the dominance of
0:07
two cities shown here
0:09
athens and sparta
0:11
the two cities had become the dominant
0:13
city-states after the end of the persian
0:15
wars
0:16
in art athens dominated the high
0:19
classical period this is because high
0:21
classical athens was a center of
0:23
creative expression
0:24
not just in architecture and sculpture
0:26
but also in philosophy theater and
0:28
historical writing
0:30
the most dominant sculptors of the
0:32
period were polyclitus who we learned
0:34
about the previous topic
0:36
and phidias who was responsible for the
0:38
sculptural decoration of the parthenon
0:41
as we'll see in this particular topic
0:44
sculpture of the high classical period
0:47
combined realism and idealism with
0:49
accurate depictions of human anatomy and
0:52
movement
0:53
combined with rather uh otherworldly and
0:56
distant facial expressions so we have
0:58
that same kind of stoicism we've seen
1:00
before
1:02
one of the most dramatic changes
1:04
associated with the new high classical
1:06
style was the treatment of drapery as
1:08
something that revealed rather than
1:10
concealed the body beneath
1:14
the dominant architects were ectinos
1:17
who was responsible for the parthenon
1:20
menezaquis who was responsible for the
1:23
propilea and the orecchion
1:25
and calicrines who is responsible for
1:27
the temple of athena nike
1:29
high classical architecture as we're
1:31
going to see
1:32
is characterized by grace and refinement
1:37
here's a map of ancient athens our next
1:39
few topics are going to focus on the
1:41
buildings and sculptures of the
1:43
acropolis
1:44
particularly the parthenon
1:47
when we discuss the parthenon we're
1:49
going to be talking about the
1:50
pan-affiliated procession
1:53
you can see the panathenaic way
1:56
uh marked on the map of athens and
1:59
uh it started from the dipylon gate
2:04
and then continued
2:06
uh
2:07
up to the acropolis
2:10
and
2:11
finally the procession would enter the
2:13
acropolis precinct
2:17
this is an aerial view of the acropolis
2:19
as well as a model reconstructing the
2:21
acropolis as it would have appeared
2:23
during the high classical period
2:25
the two are oriented the same way with
2:27
the famous parthenon here
2:30
and both views and you might notice that
2:33
there's a roman theater
2:36
visible here in this aerial view that's
2:38
missing on the reconstruction
2:41
i want to spend a little time on the
2:43
history of the acropolis now
2:46
acropolis means upper city in greek and
2:50
this term is a good description of the
2:52
rocky hill that rises over 500 feet
2:54
above athens
2:56
the acropolis was a sanctuary sacred to
2:59
athena
3:00
and according to the legend the earliest
3:03
kings of athens
3:04
had their residences here
3:06
the acropolis was an important political
3:09
symbol for athens as a whole
3:11
and more than once in its history
3:13
conquerors and would-be conquerors of
3:15
athens attempted to seize and destroy
3:18
the acropolis
3:20
beginning in the 6th century bce altars
3:23
and temples to athena were built on the
3:25
acropolis
3:26
on the site of the present acropolis our
3:29
present parthenon
3:30
was an enormous temple dedicated to
3:33
athena
3:34
this temple was originally built around
3:37
566 bce
3:40
about the time that the pan athinai
3:42
procession which we're going to discuss
3:43
later on was instituted in athens
3:46
by the end of the 6th century bce the
3:49
acropolis was purely a religious site
3:52
sacred to the goddess athena
3:55
and following the victory at marathon in
3:57
490 bce when a force of athenians drove
4:01
back the persian navy and prevented them
4:04
from landing on greek soil a massive
4:06
redevelopment program was begun on the
4:08
acropolis to celebrate athenian military
4:11
power
4:12
and the favor of their patron goddess
4:14
athena
4:15
this included construction of what is
4:17
now called the old parthenon on the site
4:21
of the new of the current parthenon as
4:23
well as a massive propilea or entrance
4:26
to the site
4:29
in 480 bce the persians took revenge for
4:32
their defeat at marathon 10 years
4:34
earlier and they occupied the city of
4:37
athens and sacked and burned the
4:39
acropolis
4:40
hundreds of statues and we've seen them
4:43
these images before in earlier topics
4:46
were hacked to pieces and shrines and
4:49
altars were violated
4:51
the old parthenon which wasn't yet
4:53
finished was destroyed along with
4:55
numerous other architectural monuments
4:57
on the acropolis
4:59
one year later before the battle of
5:01
platya greek forces swore not to rebuild
5:04
the sanctuaries violated by the persians
5:07
but rather to leave them in ruins as a
5:09
reminder of the brutality of the
5:10
barbarian forces
5:12
this was called the oath of platya
5:16
so the acropolis was neatened up for a
5:18
little but it was left in ruins for more
5:20
than 30 years
5:23
that's the oath of platypes apologize
5:29
so in order to defend against future
5:32
persian attacks
5:33
athens and her allies formed the delian
5:36
league this was an organization that
5:38
began as a voluntary alliance headed by
5:41
the city of athens
5:43
each member of the league had to
5:44
contribute either funds or ships
5:47
supervised by the athenians
5:50
the treasury was originally located on
5:52
the island of delos and that's roughly
5:54
in the middle of this slide uh with the
5:56
thumbtack
5:58
however the voluntary league
6:00
uh quickly oh and that's why we have the
6:02
name deleon league because of delos so
6:06
this voluntary league quickly became an
6:08
athenian-led empire
6:10
and the allies acted as subjects rather
6:13
than voluntary contributors
6:17
one of the key players in the
6:19
establishment of the athenian empire was
6:22
pericles he was leader of athens from
6:25
about 460 to his death in 429
6:29
he arranged for the delian league's
6:31
treasury to be moved from delos to the
6:33
acropolis in athens in 454 bce
6:37
after a treaty was negotiated between
6:39
persia and athens 448
6:42
pericles moved to revoke the oath of
6:44
platya that had prevented sanctuaries
6:47
from being rebuilt
6:49
and then he began rebuilding the
6:50
acropolis in order to
6:52
symbolize the revival of the city
6:55
after persian destruction
6:57
and to make athens the most glorious
6:59
city in the entire greek world
7:03
the rebuilt acropolis was meant to make
7:06
athens the leading political cultural
7:09
and artistic city in the ancient greek
7:11
world
7:12
funds came from the delia league
7:14
treasury and pericles is remembered
7:16
both for instituting this amazing
7:18
building campaign and also for looting
7:22
funds that were meant for defense not
7:24
building projects
7:25
pericles's visions for her for athens is
7:29
reflected in his funerary oration and
7:31
this is one of the optional readings
7:34
that you can read for this particular
7:37
topic
7:38
the projects undertaken by pericles and
7:41
his architects
7:43
were first the parthenon
7:45
then the propeller
7:48
and we're not going to look at this
7:50
entryway in in too much detail
7:53
then the
7:54
erecthion
7:56
here
7:57
and finally the temple of athena nikkei
8:00
and we're going to look at them in this
8:02
order
8:04
so now we're looking at a model of the
8:05
acropolis between 447 and 432 bce
8:10
that's at the royal ontario museum in
8:12
toronto
8:13
i want to use it to orient you just a
8:15
little more so dominating the acropolis
8:18
is of course the parthenon
8:20
and i want you to notice that it is
8:22
being shown with painted architectural
8:24
sculpture when we look at the parthenon
8:27
sculptures you'll notice that the
8:29
polychromy is gone but we do know that
8:32
these works were originally painted
8:34
certain pigments show up under uv light
8:37
and there are other traces that you can
8:39
see
8:41
a visitor to the site would enter the
8:43
acropolis by means of the propeller
8:46
which is here
8:48
next to which was the temple of athena
8:50
nike or nikkei
8:52
the sculpted balustrade around this
8:54
little temple was the original location
8:56
of a relief sculpture of nike or nikkei
8:59
that we're going to look at later on
9:03
like the sculptures on the parthenon the
9:05
sculptures on the temple of athena nike
9:07
are also shown painted
9:10
we're going to also look at
9:12
the erecthion
9:15
which is here
9:17
and you can see that this temple has a
9:19
rather unusual plan it was dedicated to
9:22
athena as well as to poseidon and
9:25
erechthias with separate chambers for
9:28
each god and it was built on multiple
9:30
levels as well with projecting porches
9:33
on either side of the main temple the
9:36
area that we're going to concentrate on
9:38
in this lesson isn't visible in this
9:41
image it's the so-called porch of the
9:43
maidens or cariatin porch and it's
9:46
blocked by some greenery in this view
9:50
i also want to use this image to trace
9:53
the root of
9:55
the pan-athenae procession
9:58
which we'll discuss a little bit later
9:59
on
10:00
the procession was part of the
10:02
pan-athanaea festival
10:04
and that took place every year on
10:06
athena's birthday roughly between
10:08
mid-july and mid-august by our modern
10:10
calendar
10:11
this was the most important festival in
10:13
athens and one of the grandest in the
10:15
entire greek world
10:18
it was remarkable because it was one of
10:20
the few festivals in which all athenians
10:22
took part not just male citizens but
10:25
women resident aliens and freed slaves
10:29
athena was honored as patron goddess of
10:31
the city during the annual panathinaia
10:34
and every four years there was a more
10:36
elaborate festival called the grand
10:38
panathinaia
10:40
the grand panathenaia had contests of
10:43
procession
10:44
and sacrifices there were athletic
10:47
musical and poetry competitions
10:49
but we're going to be more concerned
10:51
with the procession which assembled
10:53
before dawn at the dipylon gate in the
10:56
northern sector of the city
10:58
the procession made its way along the
11:00
pan after panathenaic way
11:02
through the agara toward the acropolis
11:05
only athenian citizens were allowed to
11:08
pass through the propeller and enter
11:11
um and then they stopped at the
11:13
parthenon
11:14
at the great altar of athena
11:16
and then at the erecthion
11:19
each year a newly woven peplos was taken
11:22
by the craftswoman
11:24
into the erecthion and placed on a
11:26
life-size old wooden statue of athena
11:29
polios
11:30
guardian of the city while every four
11:33
years
11:34
in the great panafenaya an enormous
11:36
peplos was taken to the acropolis for
11:38
the monumental statue of athena
11:40
parthenos in the parthenon
11:44
and when we get to this phrase of the
11:45
parthenon we'll discuss the panathenaic
11:48
procession in greater detail but for now
11:51
i just want you to have an idea of
11:52
what's happening at this site
11:57
before we deal with the parthenon
11:59
sculpture i want to start with the
12:01
architecture
12:03
pericles commissioned the architect
12:05
ektanos
12:06
to build a larger temple on the site of
12:08
the unfinished parthenon that had been
12:10
destroyed by the persians
12:12
work began in 447 bce and it was
12:16
dedicated
12:17
in 438 bc which means it was largely
12:20
finished
12:22
the sculpted pediments were complete by
12:24
432
12:26
um and that's why we
12:29
might have a difference in date ranges
12:32
um
12:33
one is from when the building was
12:34
complete the next is for when the
12:36
sculptures were in place
12:39
and titus used the finest materials
12:42
including beautiful white pentelic
12:44
marble from mount pentelicos that's
12:47
about seven miles from athens
12:50
although the parthenon is considered to
12:52
be the greatest of doric temples it
12:54
actually differs in some significant
12:57
ways from a typical dora temple
13:00
most dark temples had six columns across
13:02
the facade and if you count here you'll
13:05
see the parthenon has eight
13:07
the arrangement of 17 columns along the
13:10
sides however is typical of doric
13:12
architecture
13:14
another unusual feature of the temple is
13:16
the inclusion of an intersculpted freeze
13:19
above the inner columns
13:22
and inner walls of the temple this is a
13:25
continuous ionic freeze
13:29
and we're going to be looking at
13:31
the ionic style when we get to
13:34
the erecthion
13:38
ionic order columns were also used
13:41
inside
13:42
this area of the temple the opus
13:44
photomos
13:45
a large room on the western side of the
13:48
temple that was used as a treasury
13:50
and we'll see other examples of ionic
13:53
order
13:54
when we get to the erectheon and to the
13:57
temple of athena9k later on so
14:00
you'll get a better idea of what the
14:02
ionic
14:04
order actually looked like and there are
14:06
also diagrams you can download in the
14:08
modules area
14:10
so that you can familiarize yourself
14:12
with these different styles
14:16
so ectinos when he designed the
14:18
parthenon adhered to the ratio of 4 to 9
14:22
which is the same as 1 to 2.25 if you do
14:25
the math
14:27
this ratio was thought to create harmony
14:30
and balance in the entire design of the
14:33
parthenon
14:35
and you can see the ratio play out in a
14:37
number of places in the design
14:40
first of all
14:41
in the stereo bait the base upon which
14:44
the columns stand
14:46
its length is 2.25
14:49
longer 2.25 times longer than its width
14:53
and so it adheres to that 4-9 ratio
14:57
the column spacing
15:00
also uses this ratio the spacing between
15:03
the columns is 2.2 times wider
15:07
than the diameter of a single column
15:10
and since we're looking at a
15:11
three-quarter view it's a little hard to
15:13
tell this
15:14
um but you're just gonna have to trust
15:16
me
15:18
there is one exception to this spacing
15:21
rule but we'll get there in a moment
15:24
also
15:25
the width of the facade
15:28
is 2.2 times
15:30
2.25 times its height up to the cornice
15:34
that ratio is again a little hard to see
15:37
in this view because we have a
15:39
three-quarter view and so we're seeing
15:41
the temple kind of skewed rather than
15:44
face straight on
15:46
so again you'll have to take my word for
15:48
it
15:51
other architectural refinements were
15:52
used in the design of the parthenon as
15:55
well the two line drawings on the bottom
15:57
of the slide exaggerate one particular
16:00
refinement a subtle curve of the
16:02
stylobate and stereo bait of the temple
16:05
so that the center of each side of the
16:07
temple is slightly higher than the
16:09
corners
16:10
without this subtle curvature the
16:12
enormous temple might appear to sag in
16:15
the middle of each side
16:17
and it's also probably good for rain
16:19
water removal
16:21
another refinement is the placement of
16:23
the corner columns you'll notice if you
16:26
look closely
16:27
that the space between the corner column
16:30
and the one next to it is slightly
16:32
narrower than the space between the next
16:35
two columns
16:36
and this refinement can be found on all
16:38
four of the corners
16:40
the corner columns are also marginally
16:43
wider than the rest of the columns
16:45
and all the columns also lean slightly
16:48
inward
16:49
each column also swells very slightly at
16:52
the middle and this is a much subtler
16:53
form of enthesis than what we saw at the
16:56
temple of hero1 in piston
16:59
so the result is a temple with no right
17:02
angles at all but one that appears
17:05
completely perfect and harmonious to the
17:07
human eye
17:09
these architectural refinements were
17:11
used to make the parthenon appear to be
17:14
perfect and pleasing
17:16
and they were all incredibly carefully
17:18
thought out
17:21
with this image a drawing of the
17:23
parthenon from the 18th century showing
17:25
the temple when it contained a mosque
17:27
i want to make you aware of the
17:29
importance of the parthenon over the
17:31
centuries and the many changes that the
17:34
building went through over time
17:36
this temple which represented the ideal
17:39
doric temple in its own time is now
17:41
continued considered to be one of the
17:44
greatest if not the greatest work of
17:46
classical architecture
17:48
however because the acropolis was such a
17:51
powerful symbol of athenian identity and
17:54
superiority
17:55
and the parthenon the largest and most
17:58
spectacular temple on the site
18:01
every time athens was attacked
18:03
historically the parthenon was a
18:05
symbolic target
18:07
athens was sacked by germanic tribes in
18:11
the 3rd century ce
18:13
and by visigoths
18:16
in the 4th century ce
18:19
and during one of these attacks the
18:20
parthenon was burned its timber roof
18:23
collapsed and this caused great damage
18:25
to the interior
18:27
then sometime in the sixth or seventh
18:28
century ce the parthenon was converted
18:31
to a christian church
18:32
and you can see i think some of those
18:36
modifications here
18:39
many of the nude statues in the in and
18:42
on the parthenon were damaged by zealous
18:45
christians
18:46
the temple was altered with the addition
18:48
of walls and apps and some widened
18:51
doorways as well as christian theme
18:53
decoration
18:54
at some point in the middle ages the
18:56
parthenon became the cathedral of athens
18:59
and that led to additional changes
19:02
further changes took place in the
19:04
crusades when the parthenon became the
19:06
latin cathedral of our lady
19:09
and then after the ottoman conquest of
19:11
athens in the 15th century the parthenon
19:15
was converted to a mosque
19:17
during the second turkish venetian war
19:20
which began in 1687 the parthenon was
19:24
used for munition storage
19:26
unfortunately that same year of venetian
19:29
mortar caused the munitions to explode
19:32
and that destroyed the central portion
19:34
of the parthenon
19:36
the venetian commander then attempted to
19:38
remove the sculptures of the west
19:40
pediment and take them to venice but the
19:42
pulley system holding the statue snapped
19:45
and they crashed to the ground
19:48
a small mosque was
19:50
constructed inside the ruined temple in
19:52
1708
19:53
and what you see in this image is that
19:56
mosque kind of in the background
19:59
the parthenon was later given over to
20:01
military use later in the 18th century
20:04
and early 19th centuries
20:07
in 1801
20:09
thomas bruce earl of elgin and british
20:11
ambassador to constantinople
20:14
acquired many of the surviving
20:15
sculptures from the parthenon and to
20:18
arrange to have them shipped back to
20:20
london
20:21
he originally intended the pieces to
20:23
decorate his home
20:24
but financial difficulties led him to
20:27
sell off the sculptures for a low price
20:29
a few years later and what happened was
20:32
he actually
20:33
made the poor decision of deciding to
20:36
divorce his wife
20:38
um and she was the one with the money
20:42
now the sculptures reside in the british
20:44
museum in london
20:45
and most of the sculptures that we're
20:47
going to see from the parthenon in this
20:49
lecture
20:50
are part of what are called the elgin
20:52
marbles
20:53
the greek government has tried several
20:55
times to get the works back but they
20:57
remain in the british museum
20:59
the british argue that they are housing
21:01
the sculptures in the british museum
21:03
they have preserved them from the
21:05
terrible effects of acid rain and
21:06
pollution that affects modern-day athens
21:09
and that they had been legitimately
21:11
purchased by elgin back in the in early
21:15
1800s
21:18
i also want you to be aware of the
21:20
symbolic effect of the parthenon
21:23
in the 18th and 19th centuries the
21:25
parthenon was seen as the symbol of the
21:27
greatest of human virtues honesty
21:30
heroism and civic virtue as well as high
21:33
ideals in art and politics
21:36
as such the parthenon became the model
21:38
for many governmental buildings national
21:40
monuments and even homes
21:42
replicas of the parthenon were built in
21:44
germany in edinburgh scotland and here
21:48
in nashville tennessee
21:50
nashville's parthenon seen here was
21:52
built in 1897 for the centennial
21:55
exhibition and it symbolized the city's
21:58
identity as the athens of the south
22:02
if you take art history 112 which covers
22:04
material from the renaissance to the
22:06
modern day you'll see many references to
22:09
classical greek architecture
22:11
and the pam and the parthenon when you
22:13
learn about the neoclassical period
0:03
this topic and the next deal with the
0:05
sculptures of the parthenon which were
0:07
all related
0:09
the great sculptor phidias oversaw the
0:12
entire project
0:14
we'll start with the great cult figure
0:16
and then move to the pediments in this
0:18
topic and then deal with the sculpted
0:20
freeze and metaphase in topic six
0:24
inside the cella of the parthenon here
0:27
was an enormous statue of athena by
0:29
phidias that was sculpted in ivory
0:31
silver and gold it was dedicated in 538
0:35
bce the same time the entire temple was
0:38
dedicated
0:39
the statue stood nearly 29 feet high
0:43
and its immense size was the reason the
0:45
cell on the parthenon was designed to be
0:47
larger than usual
0:49
we refer to this particular sculpture as
0:52
a chris elephantine sculpture
0:54
because of its materials
0:56
chris means gold and elephantine means
0:59
ivory in greek
1:01
so although the sculpture has long since
1:04
been lost it is known through literary
1:06
descriptions by pausanias and pliny and
1:10
also through a few much smaller antique
1:12
copies
1:13
what we have here on the left
1:16
is a replica that was begun in 1982 for
1:19
the cella of the parthenon in nashville
1:21
tennessee
1:23
not out of ivory and gold but it was
1:26
painted and gilded
1:28
in 2002
1:31
here is how pausanias describe the
1:33
statue
1:34
the statue itself is made of ivory
1:36
silver and gold on the middle of her
1:39
helmet is placed the likeness of the
1:40
sphinx
1:42
and on either side of the helmet are
1:44
griffins in relief
1:46
the statue of athena is upright with a
1:48
tunic reaching to the feet and on her
1:51
breast the head of medusa is worked in
1:53
ivory she holds the statue of victory
1:55
about four cubits high and in her other
1:58
hand a spear and at her feet lies a
2:00
shield and near the spear as a serpent
2:03
the serpent would be erichthonios
2:05
on the on the pedestal is the birth of
2:08
pandora in relief
2:12
let's briefly discuss the iconography of
2:14
the lost athena partheno statue
2:17
athena is shown in her role as
2:19
protectress she's helmeted and armed
2:22
with a spear and shield
2:24
she wears the protective aegis with the
2:26
gorgon head
2:28
and her primary garment is the peplos
2:31
beside her stands a victory on a
2:33
pedestal and on her other side is eric
2:36
thornios
2:40
as you know the parthenon was heavily
2:42
damaged over time and much of it
2:43
collapsed in an explosion when the
2:46
turkish munitions stored inside were
2:48
destroyed by a venetian mortar that
2:51
happened in 1687.
2:53
one of the major consequences was the
2:55
loss of much of the architectural
2:57
sculpture including the central 40 feet
3:01
of the east pediment
3:03
the west pediment which had actually
3:05
survived the explosion was almost
3:07
completely destroyed when the venetian
3:09
commander attempted to take the
3:11
sculptures back to venice
3:13
the pulley system used to lower the
3:15
figures to the ground snapped and all
3:17
the sculptures crashed to the ground
3:19
what you see here is a collection of the
3:22
surviving fragments as they are
3:23
displayed in the british museum in
3:25
london
3:26
and it's pretty tough to make out the
3:28
overall
3:30
composition thanks to some
3:32
pre-destruction drawings though
3:34
we have reconstructions of the west
3:37
pediment sculptures the image above is
3:39
from the acropolis museum in athens and
3:41
the one below is on the nashville
3:43
parthenon
3:44
the subject of this west pediment was
3:46
the contest between athena and poseidon
3:50
over which god would be patron of the
3:52
city of athens
3:54
each god offered the city a gift
3:56
poseidon struck the ground and caused a
3:58
spring to appear while athena offered an
4:01
olive tree
4:03
since poseidon's gift was a saltwater
4:05
spring remember he was the god of the
4:07
sea it was less useful than athena's
4:10
her olive tree provided olives for both
4:13
oil and eating and also wood
4:16
according to tradition the ancient cult
4:19
image of athena was made of olive wood
4:21
and this is the one that would be
4:23
ritually washed and dressed each year
4:26
on the anniversary of athena's birth
4:28
even though we're not looking at this
4:30
particular impediment in detail it is
4:33
worthwhile knowing it's iconography
4:35
because it's a part of the overall
4:37
sculpture program for the parthenon
4:43
now we're moving to the east side of the
4:46
parthenon
4:47
the top two views are reconstructions
4:50
and like the west the east pediment of
4:52
the parthenon also suffered terribly it
4:55
lost all the figures from its center but
4:59
the surviving fragments on the sides are
5:01
in better condition
5:03
it's important to recognize that the
5:05
surviving sculptures
5:07
represent just a small fraction of the
5:11
overall program
5:13
the iconography of the pediment is the
5:14
birth of athena
5:16
according to greek mythology
5:18
zeus the ruler of the gods lusted after
5:21
metis a female titan
5:24
meetus
5:26
in took on all sorts of
5:29
animal shapes in order to elude zeus
5:32
and finally turned herself into a gnat
5:35
meanwhile zeus heard a prophecy that if
5:38
he had children by metis the second
5:41
child a son would overthrow him
5:44
so zeus swallowed medus while she was in
5:46
the form of a net
5:48
some time later he developed a terrible
5:50
headache from which he could get no
5:52
relief
5:53
finally hermes the messenger god figured
5:56
out what was going on and directed
5:57
hephaestus god of fire and the forge to
6:00
split open zeus's skull
6:03
the goddess athena was born from zeus's
6:05
head and she sprang forth fully grown
6:08
and wearing a suit of armor
6:11
this birth story is why she's associated
6:14
with both wisdom and war
6:17
at the center of the reconstructions you
6:19
can see
6:20
the enthroned zeus with an eagle that's
6:23
his symbol at his feet
6:25
and just to the right of him the newly
6:27
born athena
6:30
on either side the olympian gods draw
6:32
back and surprise at the site of
6:34
athena's birth
6:36
in the surviving fragments you see the
6:38
horses of the sun god helios just
6:41
entering the scene on the right on the
6:43
left and these are mirrored by the
6:46
horses of celine the moon goddess who
6:49
exits to the right
6:52
if we continue where we left off on the
6:54
previous slide the sun chariot of helios
6:57
on the far left
6:58
is following followed by a reclining
7:01
male figure of either heracles or
7:03
dionysus the god of wine
7:06
next are two seated goddesses possibly
7:09
demeter and her daughter persephone
7:12
followed by the running figure of iris
7:15
and she's the female messenger of the
7:17
gods
7:18
as you can see from these surviving
7:20
fragments the sculpture of the east
7:22
pediment skillfully managed to adapt the
7:24
poses of the figures
7:26
to the shape of the triangular pediment
7:28
without making any of the olympian gods
7:30
appear awkward
7:32
and even in their ruinous state you can
7:35
see that these are really magnificent
7:37
works of sculpture
7:41
from the far right side of the east
7:43
pediment comes one of the most famous
7:46
fragments of the east pediment of the
7:48
parthenon and this group is often called
7:51
the three goddesses so they're right
7:53
here
7:54
these figures were sculpted in the round
7:56
but also sculpted with stable flat bases
7:59
that could fit securely within the space
8:02
of the pediment
8:03
the foot of the leftmost goddess
8:06
would have projected dramatically
8:08
outward from the pediment
8:09
given the giving people the impression
8:12
that the goddesses could have left their
8:13
architectural space if they chose to and
8:16
you might remember the dying warrior um
8:19
at uh aguina similarly kind of crosses
8:23
that plane into the face the space of
8:25
the audience
8:26
the drapery on these uh figures is
8:29
what's commonly called wet drapery
8:32
um and the sculptor responsible for
8:34
these
8:35
goddesses carve the drapery to reveal
8:38
rather than conceal
8:39
their curvaceous female forms
8:42
that drapery clings to their bodies as
8:45
if it were soaked with water hence the
8:47
term wet drapery
8:50
the interplay between the intricate
8:52
folds ridges and valleys of drapery and
8:54
the long smooth curves of the female
8:57
bodies makes this a real erotic
9:00
masterpiece and a wonderful work of high
9:03
classical sculpture
9:07
so there's that term what drapery
0:03
as you may recall the parthenon had
0:07
two freezes
0:08
an outer doric freeze
0:11
and an inner ionic style one
0:14
we're going to first look at the doric
0:17
freeze which consisted
0:19
of
0:20
metapease like this one
0:23
and triglyphs of course alternating with
0:26
them
0:27
there were 92 metapeas and these were
0:30
filled with relief sculpture depicting
0:32
scenes of battle
0:34
the east side of the temple showed the
0:36
battle of the gods and giants the west
0:38
was greeks battling amazons the north
0:41
had greeks fighting trojans and on the
0:44
south were lapis battling centaurs and
0:47
that's what we're going to be looking at
0:49
in particular now
0:51
as olympus the subject matter on the
0:53
parthenon was meant to emphasize the
0:55
contrast between the greeks and their
0:58
barbarian enemies namely the persians
1:01
the menopes on the north east and west
1:04
of the parthenon suffered serious damage
1:06
over time but the ones on the south side
1:08
like this one that shows a lapis
1:11
battling a centaur
1:13
um in my detail and the one that we're
1:16
going to look at next right here
1:18
um are quite well preserved
1:21
even though you can see that they are
1:24
missing some some items like legs and
1:27
arms and heads
1:29
um but you can see that they're they're
1:31
sculpted in the round really beautifully
1:34
done
1:35
um and the bright sunshine of athens
1:39
would have made these extremely visible
1:42
to viewers even far down on the ground
1:45
so here's the metaphy we're particularly
1:47
interested in
1:48
um it's from the south side of the
1:50
parthenon and it depicts a lapis
1:52
battling a centaur
1:54
you should recall the battle of lapis
1:57
and centaur's story from
1:59
our topic on that at olympus
2:03
despite the damage that resulted in the
2:05
loss of both heads and portions of the
2:08
arms and legs on both of these figures
2:11
you see
2:12
this is still a really dramatic and
2:14
effective piece of sculpture
2:16
scholars have determined that the heads
2:18
of the two figures originally faced each
2:20
other
2:21
emphasizing the conflict between the two
2:24
the lapith male would have originally
2:26
held a spear or a roasting spit from the
2:29
wedding feast in his now lost right arm
2:33
the centaur's lost left arm originally
2:36
reached behind his back
2:38
possibly to pluck out an arrow or spear
2:40
already lodged there
2:42
the nudity of the lapis is strongly
2:45
contrasted with and emphasized by his
2:49
slipping cloak with its elaborate
2:51
drapery and in this case his nudity
2:54
should be called heroic
2:56
you should notice that the lapis also
2:58
maintains a graceful pose even in battle
3:02
unlike the awkward pose of the barbarian
3:04
centaur and to me it kind of looks like
3:07
you know suddenly he's left on to the
3:10
stage in a great ballet move
3:12
and you know sort of tata
3:15
i am here i am the lapis to save the day
3:20
um
3:21
this menope and the 91 others on the
3:23
parthenon would have made a very
3:26
effective statement about the
3:27
superiority of the greeks
3:30
to their enemies
3:32
so let's take a look at some details
3:35
here
3:36
um the last time i was in the british
3:38
museum which i believe was 2018
3:42
uh i had the chance to take some really
3:44
good photos of this particular work
3:47
and you can see just some wonderful
3:49
details like the the veins in the belly
3:53
of the centaur
3:55
uh the the turning of the legs the
3:59
undercut
4:01
legs here
4:02
and the fact that most of this lapis is
4:06
uh treated like a free-standing
4:08
sculpture rather than
4:10
a work in relief
4:12
and imagine with the the strong sunlight
4:16
and the contrast from that
4:18
how effective this would be and how easy
4:21
to see
4:24
the next area of sculpture that we're
4:26
going to look at on the parthenon is the
4:28
ionic freeze
4:30
which is located above the
4:31
intercollinate and inner wall of the
4:33
temple
4:34
both of these views are just meant to
4:37
orient you
4:38
on both sides you can see the outer
4:40
doric freeze with the triglyphs and the
4:42
menopes and
4:44
some of the surviving sculpture on them
4:46
you can get an idea of the damage here
4:49
and just inside you can see that
4:52
continuous ionic freeze
4:54
besides their locations the key to
4:56
telling these two freezes apart on the
4:58
parthenon is that the dork freeze simply
5:01
has sculpture on the menopedis which
5:04
alternate with the triglyphs
5:06
and these are individual isolated scenes
5:10
on the other hand the ionic freeze is a
5:12
continuous band of narrative
5:16
the fragments of the ionic freeze
5:18
visible on the parthenon today
5:20
are illuminated by sunlight because the
5:23
roof is now gone but originally they
5:25
would have been in a fairly shaded area
5:29
in 2012 a team of students at emory
5:32
university in nashville did an
5:35
experiment using painted reproductions
5:37
of the ionic freeze on the parthenon in
5:39
nashville
5:40
and they found that bright colors made
5:42
the freeze much more visible in the
5:44
shadows
5:45
considerably enhancing
5:48
the experience of viewers and they
5:50
actually had a questionnaire for viewers
5:53
um this was a group of students studying
5:56
the topic of polychromy and
5:58
they determined along with some other
6:00
scholars who have have studied the the
6:03
issue
6:04
uh they concluded that color would have
6:06
rendered the subject matter extremely
6:09
clear and and readable to the viewer
6:12
as we'll see this freeze was meant to be
6:15
seen by viewers as they walked around
6:18
the parthenon from one end to the other
6:20
and it would have been particularly
6:24
important
6:25
on the day of the panathenaic procession
6:30
scholars are split over the subject
6:33
matter of the ionic freeze of the
6:34
parthenon
6:36
many believe that it shows the
6:38
pan-afinite procession that took poor
6:40
place every four years
6:42
culminating in the presentation of the
6:44
new peplos for the cult figure of athena
6:47
others however believe it shows a
6:49
mythological event
6:51
the sacrifice by an early athenian king
6:54
of his youngest daughter in an attempt
6:56
to save the city from invasion
6:59
now since the first theory tends to be a
7:01
lot more prevalent
7:03
we're going to go with that represent
7:06
that
7:07
assumption
7:08
that the freeze represents a the
7:10
pan-ethnic procession
7:12
rather than the sacrifice of a young
7:14
woman
7:17
and
7:19
the freeze represents this procession
7:21
from beginning to end with the very
7:23
climax of the procession the
7:25
presentation of a peplos for the statue
7:27
of athena
7:28
being witnessed by a number of seated
7:30
gods
7:32
if you look at this diagram that i have
7:35
um you'll see that the peplos group at
7:38
the very front and and they're the
7:41
the the sort of culmination of this
7:44
procession
7:46
they were followed by
7:49
heroes
7:50
or magistrates
7:52
women
7:54
sacrificial animals
7:56
offering bearers
7:59
musicians
8:01
elders
8:03
chariots
8:04
and finally horsemen
8:06
and an inspection at the beginning of
8:09
the procession
8:11
the freeze was meant to be red
8:14
um
8:15
starting at the southwest corner and i'm
8:18
giving you the the star there
8:21
um
8:22
moving around
8:24
uh
8:26
to the center of the east freeze with
8:28
that pueblo scene so it began
8:31
where the star is and ended where i had
8:34
my oval earlier
8:36
to help to orient you on the plan you
8:38
should know that the pronaus and selah
8:41
of the parthenon opened on the east side
8:44
of the temple
8:45
so above that
8:48
was
8:51
above that was the scene of athena's
8:54
birth
8:56
and then just above that was the peplos
8:58
scene with athena receiving her birthday
9:01
gift
9:02
on the other side
9:03
uh where they would start the procession
9:05
that was where you would see the um
9:09
the
9:11
scene on the pediment showing athena's
9:13
contest with poseidon
9:16
so the presentation scene
9:18
here
9:20
takes place as close as possible
9:23
to the great cult figure of the goddess
9:26
inside the cella
9:28
and the
9:30
eastern pediment showing the birth of
9:32
athena
9:33
now we're looking at two views of
9:35
horsemen from the ionic freeze that come
9:37
from the north side of the parthenon
9:40
one wonderful thing about the freeze is
9:42
that the procession is shown
9:44
taking place at varying speeds and here
9:47
you can see a change in speed just
9:49
within this grouping
9:51
the horsemen are not all mounted
9:54
some of them are simply preparing to
9:55
mount as you can see on the right but
9:57
once they're mounted they surge forward
9:59
at great speed
10:01
the overlapping figures and horses
10:03
particularly the numerous limbs of the
10:05
horses give the impression of speed and
10:08
commotion
10:10
i brought this in both in black and
10:12
white and in color so that you can
10:14
better appreciate the effects of carving
10:16
here it's always kind of hard to
10:20
teach sculpture using slides unless you
10:23
have
10:24
something that's high contrast black and
10:26
white
10:27
so that you can see you know all of the
10:30
light and shadow but then there's also
10:32
something nice about seeing the color
10:34
image as well
10:37
here's a close-up of some of the
10:39
fluttering drapery on those horsemen
10:41
and you can see how the sculptor used
10:43
the drapery to imply the breeze created
10:46
by horses moving at speed
10:49
just behind the elbow of that figure you
10:51
might notice the agitated expression of
10:54
the horse behind him
10:56
that horse seems to have been captured
10:57
in the act of tossing its head even with
11:00
the obvious wear and tear the work has
11:02
suffered over the centuries i can still
11:05
i think you can still appreciate
11:08
how much of a masterpiece this really is
11:12
this is a famous view of young women
11:14
from the east side of the freeze
11:16
in contrast to the horsemen these young
11:19
women and marshals move at a much more
11:21
leisurely pace
11:23
the young women process forward singly
11:25
or in pairs and it's clear from the
11:27
placement of their feet that they're not
11:29
taking really long strides
11:32
instead they're moving in a kind of slow
11:34
stately fashion
11:36
the marshals facing them slow down the
11:39
perceived speed of this scene even more
11:42
because they're facing the women with
11:44
their backs toward the prevalent
11:46
direction of the procession
11:48
the feeling here is a lot more stately
11:50
and solemn especially compared to the
11:53
horsemen
11:56
at the center of the east side of the
11:58
ionix freeze is a scene showing the
12:00
presentation of a new peplos right here
12:04
for the cult figure of athena and so
12:06
just to remind you i brought back the
12:08
diagram that i drew of a peplos you
12:11
should recall it's simply just a large
12:13
piece of wool folded over and secured at
12:16
the shoulders and then tied at the waist
12:19
here you see an a little girl handing
12:22
that new will and garment to a man he's
12:25
either a priest or an official
12:27
and then the priestess of athena is next
12:30
to him
12:32
the priestess is turned
12:34
facing two young
12:36
women i'll take this away
12:39
um two young women who are carrying some
12:41
sort of supplies on their heads
12:43
and the woman nearest to the priestess
12:45
appears to be handing her a lit torch
12:49
i told you earlier the pan athenaea
12:51
festival
12:52
celebrated athena's birthday every year
12:55
the grand panathinai that
12:58
was every four years
13:00
included a procession that culminated in
13:02
the presentation of a new pueplos to the
13:05
old wooden cult figure of the goddess of
13:07
athena
13:09
but
13:10
this new peplos was really special it
13:13
took nine months to weave
13:15
and
13:16
i believe that the weavers were women of
13:19
particular status
13:22
it would be draped around the cult
13:24
statue which had been ritually washed in
13:27
an earlier festival about three months
13:29
earlier
13:30
this peploc scene was located on the
13:32
center of the east side of the ionic
13:34
freeze
13:36
also on the east side of the temple
13:38
was
13:39
the cella with the great chris
13:41
elephantine statue of athena
13:44
parthenos
13:45
and then also the east pediment showing
13:48
the birth of athena
13:50
so all of these images of athena were
13:52
meant to interrelate
13:54
and link that enormous figure inside the
13:58
temple
13:58
to a scene of her birth and to her
14:01
traditional birthday gift
14:05
now we're looking at a slightly
14:07
different view of the presentation of
14:09
the peplos
14:10
from the previous slide and i've got uh
14:13
the various figures labeled here this
14:16
time you see this a seated goddess and
14:18
god just to the right of the little girl
14:21
holding the portion of the garment
14:24
these are
14:25
actually representations of athena and
14:28
hephestos the god of the forge
14:31
and the central people's presentation
14:33
was flanked by a total of 12
14:36
seated olympian gods six on either side
14:39
so what's remarkable here is that we
14:42
have the athenians being represented in
14:45
the form of the young women the
14:47
priestess the man and so on
14:50
and they're shown immediately adjacent a
14:53
group of seated gods
14:55
although the gods are somewhat larger
14:56
than the athenians if athena stood up
14:59
for example she'd be significantly
15:01
taller
15:02
than the figures in the scene behind her
15:06
the fact that they're shown in the same
15:08
program as the athenians is rather
15:10
audacious the implication here is that
15:13
the gods of olympus lived among the
15:15
people of athens and participated in
15:18
their greatest festival
15:20
and the entire freeze does not show a
15:23
mythological scene which would be much
15:25
more appropriate for temple decoration
15:28
instead it shows a regularly occurring
15:30
event in the lives of the athenians
15:34
the ionic freeze of the parthenon
15:36
certainly goes to great lengths to show
15:39
the superiority of athens
15:41
and its people and this is very much in
15:43
keeping with pericles statement that
15:46
athens is the school of helas
16:01
you
0:03
the next building on the acropolis that
0:05
we're going to examine
0:06
is the erect theon an ionic temple with
0:09
a rather unusual plan
0:12
rather than being a simple rectangle the
0:14
arachion has multiple levels
0:16
multiple wings and multiple cult spaces
0:20
according to greek mythology the
0:22
erecthion stands on the site of a battle
0:24
between athena and poseidon
0:26
to decide which of the two gods would be
0:28
patron of athens
0:31
each one gave athens a gift poseidon
0:33
struck the ground with his trident and a
0:35
salt water spring was formed
0:38
athena gave an olive tree which could be
0:40
used for its fruit its olives or its
0:43
fruit its oil
0:44
and its wood
0:46
since hers was the more useful gift
0:49
athena was the winner and became patron
0:51
goddess of athens
0:54
this temple held
0:55
an ancient cult statue of athena made of
0:58
olive wood and it was the one clothed in
1:00
the new peplos in the panathenaic
1:02
festival
1:04
it also enclosed the sacred rock that
1:06
was believed to mark to have the marks
1:08
of poseidon's trident and there was an
1:11
additional cult space
1:13
dedicated to erect phys the mytholog a
1:15
mythological early king of athens
1:18
and the erection is uh if you look at
1:22
the ariel
1:23
view here it is uh
1:26
towards the
1:28
top of the acropolis in the slide
1:31
um and to the left
1:34
and
1:35
it's
1:36
roughly parallel with the parthenon um
1:39
and you can see it in the in the
1:42
reconstruction plan or reconstruction
1:44
model as well
1:46
so here it is
1:48
um we're looking at the temple from its
1:52
east porch and that's what i'm marking
1:55
with my arrow here
1:57
the temple had spaces for more than one
2:00
cult inside like i said
2:02
so the athena sculpture
2:05
the old cult statue made of olive wood
2:07
was kept here in the largest chamber
2:10
and there were also areas reserved for
2:13
poseidon and for eric phonios
2:16
this unusual plan also was an adaptation
2:20
to the fact that there's a sharp slope
2:23
here
2:24
on the building site
2:26
building on the erecthion took
2:28
a place between about 421 bce
2:33
and 405 but most of the construction is
2:37
really concentrated between 409 and 405.
2:42
the erection is an ionic water temple
2:44
and ionic
2:46
takes its name from ionia which was
2:48
greek asia minor this is where some of
2:51
the earliest temples of this style were
2:54
there are several major differences
2:56
between ionic and doric order temples
2:59
first the ionic order has bases for the
3:02
columns that sit on the stereo bait or
3:04
on the stylobate you might remember that
3:07
the doric columns sit directly on the
3:09
stylobate with no base at all
3:12
ionic capitals are also very distinctive
3:15
they consist of two rounded volutes that
3:17
look like scrolls
3:19
with palmette designs in between
3:22
and a collar of leaves down below
3:25
and what you see here on the right is a
3:28
sort of truncated column they've cut out
3:30
the middle of it
3:32
but it is inside the metropolitan museum
3:35
of art in new york city
3:37
and it's a really impressive example of
3:41
one of these ionic columns
3:44
as you learned earlier the ionic freeze
3:47
which is located here
3:49
is a continuous band rather than
3:52
sculpture being broken up between
3:54
triglyphs and metaphase with
3:57
you know the metaphase having the the
3:58
sculpture the north porch of the
4:01
orecchian which is the only one that you
4:03
can't see in this image
4:05
was widely hailed by later architects of
4:08
the best example of ionic architecture
4:11
however the the area that we're going to
4:13
be looking at is uh the area that you
4:16
see
4:17
to the left here the so-called porch of
4:20
the maidens on the south side of the
4:22
temple
4:26
so here it is this is a general view of
4:29
the porch of the maidens also called the
4:31
karyatin porch
4:33
on the south side of the orexion
4:36
on the right i have one of the original
4:38
maidens or caryatids supporting the
4:41
porch she's in the british museum the
4:43
rest are in the national museum in
4:45
athens i believe
4:46
and the karaokeds that you see today on
4:49
the porch uh of the erection if you were
4:52
to go to the acropolis
4:53
these are newer copies placed on the
4:56
porch so that the originals could be
4:58
better protected from the elements
5:00
um here on the erecthion we have six
5:03
cariatids wearing peploses and carved
5:07
they're carved using the wet drapery
5:09
technique that we saw on the three
5:11
goddesses from the parthenon
5:13
in true classical fashion they stand
5:16
with one engaged and one free leg and
5:19
you should hopefully re recall that pose
5:22
uh from our look at the derifurosa
5:24
polyclitos for example
5:26
here on the erectheon porch the engaged
5:29
leg of each cariatid
5:31
is uh on
5:33
the the side of the porch that she's
5:35
closest to
5:37
so the three carryotids on the right
5:39
side of the porch have their left legs
5:42
uh which we see on the right when we
5:44
look straight on engaged and the
5:47
carryontids on the left side have their
5:49
right legs engaged and so this gives a
5:52
better sense of stability when you look
5:54
at
5:55
uh the the porch from the side as we are
5:58
kind of here
5:59
um and you have a
6:02
more of a columnar type figure with the
6:05
the drapery folds looking like the
6:07
flutes on a column
6:10
so let's take a closer look at that
6:12
carriate in the british museum
6:15
as you can see she has a capital
6:17
decorated with an egg and dart molding
6:19
above her head
6:21
and it's sitting like a basket of goods
6:23
on her head
6:24
at the weakest possible point of
6:27
architectural support her neck
6:30
she's been strengthened with a massive
6:32
sculpted hairstyle
6:34
and the stability of the cariatid is
6:36
also emphasized by the strong verticals
6:39
in the drapery folds of her engaged leg
6:42
the cariotids of the orectheon are
6:44
masterpieces of both classical sculpture
6:46
and architecture combining utilitarian
6:49
function with gracefulness in a really
6:52
masterful way
6:54
our final temple on the acropolis is the
6:57
small temple of athena nike or nikkei
7:01
and that's located here it was built by
7:04
calligradies around 425 bce
7:08
and so we're looking at a general view
7:11
and a plan of the proper leia of the
7:12
acropolis and you should remember that
7:15
the propeller is the large gateway at
7:18
the entrance to the sanctuary
7:20
the propeller was also built as part of
7:22
pericles's campaign to renew the
7:24
acropolis and the architect responsible
7:27
was named
7:28
menezekles the huge unfinished gateway
7:32
was built in doric's style
7:34
and calligraphy's small temple of athena
7:36
nike built on a platform that extends
7:39
outward from the right side of the
7:41
propeller
7:43
strongly with the really heavy
7:46
uh
7:47
doric gateway because it has a very
7:49
delicate uh ionic style
7:52
athena nike refers to victory and war
7:56
nike was a minor goddess who who
7:58
symbolized victory and triumph and of
8:01
course that's what the running shoes are
8:03
are named after the whole athletic brand
8:05
um given the associations between the
8:08
athenian acropolis and the various wars
8:10
that had affected the
8:12
affected athens this temple had
8:14
particular symbolic significance for the
8:17
athenians
8:20
now we're looking at a side view of the
8:22
temple of athena nike and a plan
8:25
this temple has an amphipro style plan
8:28
there's the term
8:30
which means that it has two porches
8:33
this nearly square cella is entered
8:35
through a doorway flanked by square
8:37
pillars
8:38
bronze struts originally blocked off the
8:40
open areas to either side of the central
8:43
door
8:44
you might notice the continuous freeze
8:46
that surrounds the temple on all sides
8:49
it depicts scenes of battle from the
8:51
wars against the persians and the
8:53
peloponnesian war
8:54
appropriate subject matter for a temple
8:57
celebrating athena's role in athenian
8:59
victories
9:02
here's another view of the temple of
9:04
athena nike
9:05
in 407 eight years after the temple was
9:08
complete a low wall or balustrade was
9:11
built around the bastion of the temple
9:14
and you're seeing a couple details of
9:16
that balustrade on the right
9:19
it gets windy on the acropolis and
9:21
there's a sheer drop on three sides of
9:23
this temple so the one meter high
9:26
balustrade had an important safety
9:28
function
9:29
it also celebrated recent athenian war
9:32
victories
9:33
the decoration of the parapet consisted
9:36
of nikes victory figures in various
9:38
poses
9:39
like putting up victory trophies and
9:42
herding sacrificial animals you'll see
9:44
them hurting one down below
9:47
seated figures of athena decorated each
9:49
of the three sides
9:51
a couple of these surviving pieces again
9:53
can be seen on the right hand side of
9:55
the slide with two nikes leading a bull
9:58
to be slaughtered on the bottom
10:00
and
10:01
the upper relief which is the most
10:03
famous showing a nike tying her sandal
10:06
and we're going to discuss this in
10:07
detail as we finish this particular
10:10
sub-lesson
10:13
this sculpture that you see here shows a
10:16
nike or victory tying her sandal
10:18
she's easily identified as a victory
10:21
goddess from her wings which are still
10:23
visible despite the damage to the relief
10:26
the goddess is bending forward to tie
10:29
her sandal and as she does so her chitin
10:32
slips from her shoulder revealing her
10:34
upper arm
10:35
her pose is balanced by her wings which
10:37
are placed one up and one down
10:40
like the carryotids on the erection and
10:42
the seated
10:43
goddesses from the parthenon this nike
10:46
is clothed in wet drapery but this is
10:48
even more revealing than what we saw
10:51
before because instead of a heavy cloth
10:53
garment this nike is wearing a kite made
10:56
of rather thin cloth so nearly all of
10:59
her body is visible to us as it clings
11:02
to her form
11:04
this is an openly erotic image
11:07
especially due to the action being
11:09
performed by the nike figure
11:11
the last act of a bride on her wedding
11:14
night prior to losing her virginity was
11:16
to remove her sandals
11:19
so the disarray of the nike's garment
11:22
and
11:22
her act of adjusting her sandal are both
11:25
references to sex and more significantly
11:30
to acts of rape that so often occurred
11:32
in war
11:34
here the nike figure is being used not
11:35
only to acknowledge the existence of
11:37
this type of sexual violence
11:39
but it also seems to encourage rape as
11:42
the right of soldiers at war
11:45
although this is a beautiful work of art
11:47
and a gorgeous celebration of the female
11:49
form
11:50
it's important that we also acknowledge
11:53
the nastier side as well the the the
11:56
frightening and frankly kind of blood
11:59
chilling side um in which the female
12:02
body is being treated here as an object
12:05
that can be taken by force
12:08
as a spoil of war
12:27
you
0:06
the late classical period lasted from
0:08
roughly 400 bce to the death of
0:10
alexander in for 323 bce
0:14
the peloponnesian war which took place
0:16
between athens and sparta beginning in
0:18
431 bce
0:20
ended with the spartans defeating the
0:22
athenians in 404 bce
0:25
the spartans then set up their own
0:27
government in athens but it was so
0:30
oppressive that the athenians rebelled
0:32
within a year killing the spartan leader
0:34
pretty us
0:36
and restoring their democracy
0:38
although athens regained its
0:40
independence and restored its economy
0:43
its political and military dominance
0:45
over the greek world was never restored
0:48
however athens remained an important
0:50
center for the arts and intellectual
0:53
life
0:54
the great philosopher plato established
0:56
a school just outside athens in 387 bce
1:00
and later on his student aristotle did
1:02
the same
1:04
one of aristotle's students was
1:06
alexander of macedon
1:08
later alexander the great
1:11
now we're looking at a map of the empire
1:13
of alexander the great in the 4th
1:16
century bce
1:18
macedonia
1:20
which is here was to play an important
1:23
role in the late classical period
1:27
philip ii of mastodon came to the throne
1:30
in 359 bce
1:32
and he immediately began expanding his
1:34
territory beyond the boundaries of
1:36
macedonia
1:38
in a bid to control all the ancient
1:40
greek world
1:42
following some setbacks uh in his
1:45
campaign to conquer greece he managed to
1:47
take athens and other important cities
1:49
beginning in 338 bce
1:53
he was assassinated in 336 bce at which
1:57
point his 20 year old son alexander
2:00
took over a nearly unified greece
2:03
the young alexander quickly consolidated
2:05
his power
2:07
and then embarked on a campaign to crush
2:09
the persians
2:11
so if you look at these arrows
2:13
so this is this is sort of what
2:15
alexander
2:16
inherited here
2:18
uh macedon and
2:20
much of the greek world
2:22
but then he continued on in these two
2:25
directions conquering
2:27
not only the persians but the syrians
2:29
phoenicians and egyptians he continued
2:32
his conquests heading east until 326 bce
2:36
when he reached modern-day pakistan and
2:39
that's what you see it's sort of the
2:40
furthest right here
2:43
at that point his troops have refused to
2:45
go any further
2:47
and so he set off for home dying a fever
2:49
on the way
2:51
back to greece in 323 bce
2:55
at his death
2:56
alexander the great was just 33 years of
2:59
age
3:01
now we're looking at a map of the greek
3:03
city of militis located in ionia which
3:06
is part of present-day turkey along with
3:08
the reconstruction of the center of the
3:10
city which is roughly
3:13
here on the plan
3:15
the body of water that you see on the
3:17
left side of the reconstruction is the
3:19
same one on the other side of my arrow
3:21
on the plan
3:23
early greek cities like athens grew
3:26
somewhat organically with streets and
3:28
buildings being placed according to
3:30
people's needs and to the requirements
3:32
of the terrain
3:33
however as early as the 8th century bce
3:37
some western greek settlements were
3:39
developed using a strict grid plan or
3:42
orphanal plan
3:44
new cities and rebuilt old cities were
3:47
also planned out in this way with
3:49
straight evenly placed streets
3:51
intersecting at right angles to create
3:53
rectangular city blocks
3:55
you should be familiar with this type of
3:57
plan yourself most of our modern cities
3:59
and towns use a grid plan
4:02
in the classical period the grid was
4:04
considered to be the ideal group city
4:07
plan
4:07
and that fits well with the greek
4:09
emphasis on order and balance
4:12
the 5th century urban planner hippodamos
4:14
of miletus stated that the ideal city
4:17
should have no more than 10 000 citizens
4:20
divided into three different classes
4:22
artists farmers and soldiers
4:25
and that the city should then be divided
4:28
into three zones
4:29
sacred public and private
4:32
you can see here on the planet of
4:34
miletus how the hippodamian plan was
4:36
applied
4:38
my latest was built rebuilt in the
4:40
classical period after being partly
4:42
destroyed by the persians
4:44
so you can see how the grid is adapted
4:46
to fit within the flat terrain of the
4:48
coastline
4:49
and how various grids were applied to
4:52
differing shapes on the projecting
4:53
peninsula
4:55
we'll get more into town planning when
4:57
we get into roman art and architecture
4:59
in lesson seven after the midterm
5:04
so before we leave miletus i want to
5:06
mention one of the most famous monuments
5:08
from that city that's the my latest
5:11
market gate and it's located
5:13
here on the reconstruction below
5:16
and you see it above in two different
5:18
views from the paragamon museum in
5:21
berlin
5:22
my latest was an important city not just
5:25
for the greeks but also for the romans
5:27
and this gate was erected by the roman
5:29
emperor hadrian in the second century ce
5:33
the romans loved the greek past and they
5:36
were avid collectors of greek
5:37
antiquities both originals and also
5:40
relic replicas and we owe much of our
5:43
knowledge of the greeks and their world
5:45
to the romans
5:47
america has so few truly ancient sites
5:50
and we tend to guard our monuments
5:52
of the past and treat them like
5:54
respected relics
5:56
but many of the sites that we're
5:57
studying on the other hand
5:59
were and are living site sites and there
6:02
are centuries of occupation
6:05
so if you were to travel to athens or
6:07
rome today
6:08
you'll see centuries worth of arts and
6:11
architecture all mixed together
6:13
sometimes even mixed in a single
6:15
building or site
6:17
and to me that's what can make some
6:19
visiting some of these places so very
6:22
exciting
6:25
when we looked at uh the agora in athens
6:28
i
6:29
pointed out a round building close to
6:31
the bulaterion called atholos we know
6:34
the tholos was in the agaro was used for
6:37
administrative purposes but we don't
6:39
know the function of many of the other
6:41
foloy that's the plural built in ancient
6:44
greece
6:45
that's the case with this building this
6:48
is a tholos built in the sanctuary of
6:50
athena pronia in delphi
6:53
that's a sanctuary just down the
6:55
mountain from the great sanctuary of
6:56
apollo that we looked at back in lesson
6:59
6.1
7:01
this thalos was built between circa 388
7:04
and 370 bce
7:06
and the architects responsible is
7:08
believed to be theodoros from faucia in
7:11
asia minor
7:13
as you see in this view the exterior was
7:15
doric
7:16
and three columns and a portion of the
7:19
entablature have been restored
7:24
from remains of the site scholars
7:26
believe the inner ring of columns had
7:28
capitals carved to resemble the acanthus
7:31
plant an order that would then be called
7:34
corinthian in the roman period
7:36
the corinthian capital you see here is
7:39
actually from the temple of olympian
7:40
zeus in athens
7:42
and uh that that was actually built much
7:45
later but i'm using it here as an
7:48
example of a corinthian capital
7:50
decorated with stylized campus designs
7:53
on the right you see a photo of a campus
7:56
plant in bloom that i took in in rome
7:59
and as you can see
8:00
they have elaborate curling weaves that
8:03
have been stylized in the capital
8:06
and
8:07
just last year i was able to find some
8:09
acanthus
8:11
to grow in my garden here at home in
8:14
pennsylvania
8:15
um and it actually came back up this
8:18
year so i'm thrilled to have a little
8:21
piece of
8:22
ancient greece and rome in my garden
8:26
so here's the plan and a partial section
8:28
of the tholos and delphi
8:31
along with an alternate view of the
8:33
building
8:34
you can see the corinthian columns of
8:36
the building were placed inside a wall
8:38
that enclosed the center of the building
8:40
and that they supported the roof
8:42
corinthian columns were used in
8:44
interiors like this beginning in the
8:46
last quarter of the 5th century bce
8:50
but they weren't used on exteriors until
8:53
the hellenistic period
8:57
now we're going to move on to a great
8:59
work of funerary architecture this is
9:01
the tomb of mausolus of helicarnassus
9:05
and here you see one of several proposed
9:07
reconstructions for the tomb
9:10
because only the foundations and
9:13
fragments of the sculptures still
9:14
survive
9:16
this massive tomb from mausoleus is the
9:18
origin of our word mausoleum which
9:20
refers to a large tomb
9:23
and we know that it was round that's
9:25
important because we're going to see a
9:26
lot of round
9:28
mausoleums when we get into the roman
9:30
material
9:32
mausolus was the persian governor of
9:35
helicarnassus
9:36
and the surrounding region and he was
9:39
also a great admirer of greek culture
9:42
he brought the greatest sculptures from
9:44
greece to decorate his tomb
9:47
his wife artemisia
9:49
directed the completion of the project
9:51
after mausoleus died in 353 bce
9:56
artemisia must have mourned greatly for
9:58
her husband she's said to have drunk her
10:01
dead husband's ashes mixed with wine
10:06
unfortunately just the foundation some
10:08
scattered stones and some sculpture
10:10
fragments are all that remain from the
10:12
tomb
10:13
so because of this this reconstruction
10:15
drawing might not be accurate
10:17
but the fragments which include this
10:20
over life-size statue of a man
10:22
popularly identified as mausolus
10:25
all of these fragments are pretty
10:26
impressive
10:27
and we'll see um some other uh
10:32
portions of this in the next few slides
10:36
so here are two views of that wonderful
10:38
figure of mausoleus from the mausoleum
10:41
apollo canars helicarnassus
10:45
he and a number of other figures all of
10:47
her wife's size are believed to have
10:50
been placed roughly here
10:52
um in between ionic columns on the upper
10:55
level of the mausoleum
10:57
the figures represented the members of
10:59
the same great dynasty so this tomb
11:02
would have functioned not just as a tomb
11:04
and memorial to a single person
11:07
but also as a celebration of an entire
11:10
family wine
11:12
and think about this in comparison to
11:16
what we've seen earlier
11:18
from funerary art
11:20
in ancient greece uh this opening up of
11:25
new parts of the world
11:27
to greek culture and the
11:30
import of their culture into greece
11:33
this causes a lot of changes in
11:37
in greek art and architecture and in
11:39
attitudes
11:41
uh these are patrons with very new
11:43
demands
11:45
so we see a real sea change here
11:49
we're going to look at a freeze now
11:51
that's believed to have been placed just
11:53
below those dynastic figures roughly
11:56
here
11:57
that we just discussed
11:59
and scholars believe that this freeze
12:02
could have been sculpted by scopas one
12:04
of the three sculptors whose work
12:06
dominated the late classical period
12:09
we'll discuss the other two sculptors uh
12:11
in our next topic
12:14
unfortunately very few works survive
12:16
either as originals or copies that can
12:18
be reliably linked to scope us
12:21
plenty tells us that he worked at
12:23
helicarnassus
12:25
and the release showing battles between
12:27
the lapis and centaurs and greeks and
12:30
amazons from the mausoleum have been
12:32
tentatively identified as his work
12:35
that's because the reliefs seem to fit
12:38
with the literary accounts of the
12:40
sculptor's style but we can't be
12:42
absolutely sure
12:44
here you're looking at a portion of the
12:46
freeze showing greeks fighting amazons
12:50
scopas was celebrated for his depiction
12:53
of human emotion particularly stress and
12:56
tension
12:57
this was accomplished by sculpting
12:59
figures with rather square faces
13:02
deep set eyes bulging brows and open
13:05
mouths showing the intensity of their
13:07
emotional state
13:09
that was coupled by dramatic poses of
13:11
figures and emphasis placed on flexing
13:15
tense muscles
13:17
on one hand i think you can clearly see
13:19
how a work like this
13:22
relates to works like the metapees from
13:24
the parthenon
13:26
on the other hand it also gives us a
13:28
good glimpse of the heavier
13:30
more muscular bodies and extreme drama
13:33
that we're going to see in hellenistic
13:35
sculpture as we end this particular
13:38
lesson
13:51
you
0:03
along with scopus and lysippus
0:06
praxitales
0:07
was one of the most important sculptors
0:10
of the late classical period
0:12
and you see here a marvel statue of
0:14
hermes the messenger god with the infant
0:17
dionysus the wine guide
0:20
and it's credited to praxitiles in fact
0:22
the historian pausanias
0:25
writing in the second century ce
0:27
described it as a work of proximals i
0:30
brought in two
0:32
views on at the left and center
0:35
and i hope that you recognize the
0:37
derivatives of polyclinos on the right
0:40
the statue of hermes with dionysus was
0:43
excavated from the temple of hera in
0:44
olympia
0:46
and scholars are divided over whether
0:47
this is actually an original in marvel
0:50
by the great sculptor who did actually
0:52
specialize in marvel
0:55
or a work by a later greek sculptor or
0:57
perhaps a roman copy after an original
1:00
work of the 4th century bce
1:03
it could also be a sculpture by a
1:05
follower of proximals so for clarity's
1:08
sake let's assume that this is a copy of
1:11
an original by praxiteles
1:15
this sculpture of herpes with dionysus
1:17
stands over life size just over seven
1:19
feet
1:20
the sculptor presumably praxitly's
1:23
started with a standing male nude with
1:26
the same general stance as the
1:27
peripherals
1:29
and
1:30
you see here there's that
1:33
contrapposto pose
1:36
but what happens is that praxilles made
1:40
significant changes to that revered
1:43
classical model
1:45
the rather heavy and spare torso of
1:48
hermes hearkens back to the doriforos
1:51
but the messenger god here has long legs
1:55
and a rather small heads and these are a
1:58
development of the fourth century these
2:00
are new
2:01
to lake classical
2:04
late classical sculptors used a new
2:06
canada proportions that have the body
2:09
being eight or more heads high instead
2:11
of the seven heads of the canon of
2:13
polyclitos
2:15
also new
2:16
is the percent the pronounced s-curve of
2:19
the body you can see this particularly
2:22
in the rear view that i've brought in
2:24
and i'll uh bring that in a moment
2:27
um and
2:28
rather than simply shifting weight from
2:30
one leg to the other with the classic
2:33
contrapposto
2:34
stance of the doriforos our hermes seems
2:37
to sway to one side pushing out his hip
2:40
and slanting his torso back
2:43
and to the side
2:45
this placement of the body gives it a
2:47
feeling of imbalance and some
2:49
instability
2:51
rather than that relaxed stability that
2:53
we saw in the derivatives
2:55
and the pronounced s-curve is
2:57
particularly associated with the work of
3:00
praxillates
3:02
another characteristic of praxitly's
3:05
work is the treatment of the surface of
3:07
the marble to make the hard stone appear
3:09
smooth and soft
3:12
rather than emphasizing the distinct
3:14
planes of the body as you see in the
3:16
rather heavily muscled peripherals
3:19
everything on hermes here has been
3:21
smoothed and softened
3:24
this is particularly noticeable in the
3:26
figures legs and buttocks
3:28
the muscles are certainly there but
3:30
they're not delineated the same way that
3:32
we saw in the derivatives
3:35
the overall effect of this elongated
3:38
smooth curving body
3:41
is one of sensuality and langer and this
3:43
is echoed in the face which has a dreamy
3:47
expression and half smile
3:49
this is really far from the stoicism
3:51
that we saw in the early classical
3:54
portrayals of greek gods for example in
3:56
olympia olympia
3:58
and we're going to see more of this sort
4:00
of relaxed sensuality when we look at a
4:03
roman copy of praxitly's most famous
4:06
work in our next slide
4:10
here she is
4:11
one of the most famous statues ever made
4:14
the aphrodite of canitos by proxitalese
4:18
according to the account
4:20
of pliny praxitales made two different
4:23
sculptures of aphrodite
4:25
the greek goddess of love and he offered
4:27
both of them for sale
4:29
the people of koss another island in the
4:31
aegean close to the ionian coastline
4:34
chose to purchase a sculpture portraying
4:37
the clothes aphrodite
4:39
the other statue the nude was rejected
4:42
by those islanders on the grounds that
4:44
it was not modest enough
4:48
and so the people of uh nearby canados
4:52
purchased the rejected statue and over
4:55
the centuries
4:56
the nude aphrodite of proximilies the
4:58
one that you see here
5:00
proved to be the more famous and better
5:02
regarded work
5:04
the version that you're seeing here
5:07
is actually a composite
5:09
assembled from parts of two very similar
5:12
roman copies
5:13
and it's considered to be a fairly
5:16
accurate portrayal of praxitly's lost
5:18
original
5:21
so here we're looking at that first
5:23
version of the aphrodite of kenitos
5:25
along with a nice copy on the right seen
5:28
in two views that's in the art institute
5:30
of chicago
5:32
the aphrodite of canitos is said to be
5:34
the first fully nude female figure
5:37
produced by a well-known greek sculptor
5:40
you should remember the limited roles of
5:42
greek women that we discussed earlier
5:44
and i hope that you recall that unlike a
5:47
man no woman of good standing would have
5:49
been able to go nude in public
5:51
so this nude portrayal of aphrodite
5:54
despite the fact that she's the goddess
5:56
of love was quite shocking in its day
6:00
and praxitilis played up her nudity
6:04
notice the placement of her hand it's
6:06
placed in front of her pubic area and it
6:08
serves to partially block our view but
6:11
it also emphasizes the fact that the
6:14
goddess is uncovered
6:16
similarly the band of jewelry on her
6:18
upper arm serves to emphasize the fact
6:22
that the rest of her body is bare
6:25
this is a portrayal of aphrodite
6:27
disrobing just before a bath
6:29
casting aside her concealing garment and
6:32
the presence of the garment adds to that
6:34
overall feeling of sensuality or perhaps
6:37
she's been surprised
6:39
um we're made to feel as if we've caught
6:42
her unawares
6:43
and she's trying to shield herself from
6:46
our prying eyes
6:51
here's a closer look at that bracelet um
6:54
particularly on the uh the art institute
6:57
of chicago figure and again i think you
6:59
can see how that emphasizes her nudity
7:04
so according to legend when the goddess
7:06
herself saw the statue she cried when
7:09
did praxitaly see me naked
7:12
and the people of canada's played up
7:14
that nudity they circulated her image on
7:17
coins as you can see in these two
7:19
examples on the right
7:21
and on the island they placed her in an
7:23
open shrine that allowed visitors to see
7:26
her from all sides it was probably like
7:28
that
7:29
follows temple
7:31
on delphi
7:33
plenty tells us of the sexual attraction
7:35
of the statue
7:37
one male visitor to the site was
7:39
apparently so overcome with lust
7:42
that he hid himself in the temple during
7:44
the night and then embraced the
7:46
sculpture in his passion
7:49
leaving a stain on her backside
7:53
according to so um we also have this
7:56
other wonderful description
7:58
uh that comes from lucian of samostata
8:02
and he tells us that the temple
8:05
uh in which she was placed has a second
8:08
entrance for those who wish to
8:10
contemplate the goddess from behind
8:13
for none of her parts should escape
8:15
admiration
8:16
it's easy in that fashion
8:19
to gaze upon her hind beauty
8:25
our third famous sculptor from the
8:27
fourth century is lysippus and we're
8:30
going to look at two of his works pliny
8:33
described him as follows
8:35
lysippus from the abundance of his skill
8:38
made more works of art than anyone else
8:41
among them is a man scraping himself
8:43
epoxy aminos which marcus agrippa
8:46
dedicated in front of his baths to the
8:48
wondrous delight of the emperor tiberius
8:52
people say that the most important ideas
8:54
that he brought to sculptor sculpture
8:57
lay in his rendering of the hair
8:59
in making heads of figures smaller than
9:01
earliest earlier artists had made them
9:04
and bodies thinner and harder by which
9:07
means he made his figures seem taller
9:10
so the sculpture you see here is the
9:12
epoxy ominous or scraper described by
9:15
pliny
9:18
i brought in three views of the epoxy
9:21
aminos here
9:23
you might notice
9:24
in that in the middle view the fig leaf
9:26
has been removed fig leaves on greek
9:29
statues and roman copies of greek
9:31
originals were not a part of the
9:33
original sculptures
9:35
generally these teds were tended to be
9:37
added much later
9:39
many ancient sculptures were covered up
9:41
in this way during the new conservatism
9:44
of the catholic church in the counter
9:46
reformation period that's in the 16th
9:48
century ce
9:50
the view in the center of this slide
9:52
shows the epoxy aminos with his genitals
9:55
uncovered and you might notice that they
9:57
were also damaged at some point and the
10:00
damage probably occurred at the hands of
10:02
christian conservatives during the
10:04
middle ages
10:06
this sculpture is a roman copy after an
10:09
original bronze by leicesters and
10:11
ancient writers informed us
10:13
that this sculpture this sculptor
10:16
lycipus tended to work in bronze
10:19
like praxitilis lycippus had a taller
10:22
slenderer cannon
10:24
and this particular sculpture is roughly
10:26
the same height as the doriforos but the
10:29
smaller head and more slender build make
10:33
this one appear a lot taller
10:37
the subject matter is a greek athlete
10:40
but we have the athlete here doing
10:42
something unusual for the statue of an
10:44
athlete
10:45
rather than participating in an event
10:47
like the discus thrower standing at ease
10:50
like the derifuros or striding forward
10:53
like a poros
10:55
this athlete is engaged in the rather
10:57
ordinary activity of cleaning himself
11:00
greek and roman athletes oiled
11:02
themselves up and then used an
11:03
instrument called a strigil which you
11:06
see here
11:07
to scrape off the oil and dirt this was
11:10
part of the bathing process
11:12
also in ancient rome and remember plenty
11:14
described the placement of the epoxy
11:16
aminos in front of a bath complex in
11:19
ancient rome
11:20
if any of you have watched hbo's rome in
11:24
season one there's a scene of marc
11:26
antony scraping oil off his new body
11:29
with a stridule
11:30
in one of the episodes
11:34
so what's particularly interesting about
11:36
the epoxy aminos is the fact that
11:38
lycipus has allowed the figure to break
11:41
outside the usual boundaries of a greek
11:44
sculpture
11:46
rather than being enclosed in his own
11:48
sort of spatial envelope like the derif
11:51
rose or the aphrodite of canado's the
11:53
epoxy aminos
11:55
reaches out an arm that he's scraping
11:58
straight in front of him
12:00
this extends the visual space in the
12:02
statue and it invites the viewer to look
12:04
at this sculpture from multiple angles
12:07
rather than simply front and profile
12:10
views
12:11
you should also notice that the feet and
12:13
legs of the epoxy aminos are not in the
12:15
same axis
12:17
as the athlete's hips
12:19
this shift of the horizontal axis with
12:22
the out turned foot and bent knee
12:24
combined with the placement of the arms
12:27
means that the figure here is beginning
12:29
to move in three dimensions and when we
12:32
get to hellenistic art next we're going
12:35
to see a lot more of that
0:03
mysippus the sculptor responsible for
0:06
the epoxy ominous
0:08
acted as the color sculptor for
0:10
alexander the great
0:12
and what you're seeing here is a very
0:14
famous portrait of alexander this head
0:17
is believed to have come from one of
0:19
numerous copies of lysippus original
0:21
standing portrait of alexander the great
0:25
in the original portrait alexander was
0:27
shown holding a scepter in an upraised
0:29
arm in a posed believed to reference
0:32
another statue by lycipus this one of
0:35
zeus king of the gods
0:37
it must have been a really powerful
0:39
statement comparing alexander to the
0:41
chief of all the gods
0:43
according to ancient writers portraits
0:45
of alexander were all characterized by
0:47
unruly hair parted slightly off-center
0:51
and a certain set to the head that makes
0:53
alexander look somewhat challenging
0:56
plutarch tells us that lycippus depicted
0:58
alexander quote with his face turned
1:01
upward toward the sky
1:03
just as alexander was accustomed to gaze
1:06
turning his neck gently to one side end
1:10
quote here's another famous and
1:13
idealized portrait of alexander
1:16
this time from a thracian coin issued
1:18
after alexander's death
1:20
again we have that tulsaled hair even
1:24
more unruly than in the previous
1:25
portrait
1:26
as well as the low forehead
1:28
the thick neck and fleshy lips that we
1:31
saw before
1:32
the coin portrait also places extreme
1:35
emphasis on the eyes which are over
1:38
large for the face alexander is gazing
1:41
off into space he's shown here as a god
1:45
wearing a curled ram's horn headdress
1:47
that identifies him as the greek
1:50
egyptian god zeus ammon
1:54
even after the death of alexander the
1:56
greats his successors continued to
1:58
strike coins bearing his image because
2:01
of the incredible authority conveyed by
2:03
the image of this remarkable conqueror
2:06
on most of these examples alexander
2:09
appears as heracles and the reverse of
2:12
these
2:13
coins bore the image of zeus enthroned
2:16
so it was a symbolic way of linking
2:19
alexander the great with the ruler of
2:21
the gods
2:23
thanks to alexander the great and the
2:25
increased importance of macedonia in the
2:28
late classical period we see some truly
2:31
magnificent works of art made there and
2:33
also brought to macedonia from elsewhere
2:37
so here we're seeing a really impressive
2:39
collection of gold jewelry that is said
2:41
to have all been excavated from a late
2:43
classical grave in thessaloniki in
2:46
macedonia
2:48
there's a necklace armbands a ring and a
2:50
series of four matched pins called
2:53
fibulae
2:54
and fibulae are basically kind of like
2:57
an ancient safety pin we'll see more of
3:00
them
3:01
when we proceed further on in the class
3:05
during the late classical period we
3:06
begin to see some truly exceptional
3:09
grave goods particularly in the form of
3:11
jewelry worn by the deceased
3:14
most good museum collections have at
3:16
least a few pieces of late classical and
3:19
or hellenistic jewelry and these small
3:22
masterpieces are really worth searching
3:24
out although small they're incredibly
3:26
detailed
3:28
as we'll see when we
3:30
take a closer look at the earrings on
3:32
the right in our next slide
3:36
so these earrings are miniature
3:38
masterpieces made of gold between about
3:41
330 and 300 bce these earrings are less
3:45
than two and a half inches high
3:47
altogether
3:48
on each earring is a large palmette from
3:51
which hangs a sculpted group of ganymede
3:54
and the godz zeus
3:55
in the form of an eagle
3:58
in mythology ganymede was a beautiful
4:00
young man who caught the eye of zeus
4:03
so zeus swooped down onto mount ida in
4:06
the form of an eagle and abducted the
4:08
boy
4:09
making him the immortal cup bearer of
4:11
the gods
4:13
these earrings are most likely
4:14
references to a very famous sculpture
4:17
group showing zeus in ganymede that was
4:19
made by the sculptor leo carres around
4:22
325 bce
4:24
and you see here a roman copy in marble
4:26
after the bronze original
4:29
if you compare the two the earrings seem
4:32
even more erotic in nature
4:35
here on the earrings
4:36
and we'll go back to them
4:38
ganymede a fleshy and youthful nude
4:41
figure with fluttering drapery appears
4:43
to embrace the powerful eagle zeus there
4:46
is a clear emphasis on the homoerotic
4:49
content of this myth
4:51
the figures of ganymede are solid cast
4:53
using the lost wax process and the
4:56
eagles and the flowers above them are
4:57
constructed of cut and worked sheets of
5:00
gold
5:00
the goldsmiths used chasing and reposse
5:03
to shape the eagles and flowers and then
5:05
incise the intricate details of the
5:07
feathers and individual features
5:11
the goldsmith also used the technique of
5:13
granulation
5:14
remember that refers to tiny round
5:16
granules of gold soldered onto a flat
5:19
surface and these are at the center of
5:21
the flowers
5:22
these earrings are really masterpieces
5:24
of the goldsmiths art and masterpieces
5:27
of sculpture as well
5:30
here's an example of a wreath made of
5:32
gold and precious gems
5:34
that would have been placed on the
5:36
deceased in a grave it was found in a
5:39
late classical grave and it's one of a
5:41
number of really marvelous gold funerary
5:44
wreaths that i've had the pleasure of
5:46
seeing in museums
5:48
here the wreath is meant to represent a
5:50
wreath of olive leaves and the fruits of
5:52
the olive are made of emerald and gold
5:55
beads
5:56
if you look at my detail in the bottom
5:58
of the slide you can also see a gold
6:00
cicada right in the center
6:02
many of the reeves i've seen include
6:04
references to insects like the cicada
6:07
since cicadas are dormant for long
6:10
periods before re-emerging the inclusion
6:12
of this insect could be a reference to
6:14
the to the afterlife or at least to
6:17
some sort of life after death and
6:20
similarly since gold is a metal that
6:22
doesn't decay
6:25
it doesn't oxidize when it's buried the
6:27
way that say copper wood
6:30
it is
6:32
oftentimes associated with funerary
6:34
works
6:37
you might recall uh that when i
6:40
looked at a white ground like a those
6:43
a while back with you
6:45
i mentioned that we have almost no
6:48
examples of greek wall and panel
6:50
paintings however we have lots of
6:52
literary descriptions of those works and
6:54
the artists who made them
6:57
in addition to white grounds
6:59
ceramics scholars look to roman copies
7:02
of famous greek paintings to give us
7:04
some idea of what these lost works might
7:07
have been like
7:09
according to pliny philip sanos of
7:11
eritrea
7:12
painted a monumental wall painting of
7:15
alexander the great battling the persian
7:17
king darius around 310 bce
7:21
and what you're seeing here is a mosaic
7:24
copy after that
7:26
with alexander marked with number one
7:28
and
7:29
darius
7:30
marked with number two
7:33
there's a new theory that philip sanos
7:36
wasn't responsible for this painting at
7:38
all and that it was painted by helen in
7:40
egypt so it could also have been
7:43
a female painter but again what you see
7:46
here is a floor mosaic excavated from
7:48
pompeii believed to be a copy after this
7:51
famous work given the fact that romans
7:54
often acquired copies of famous greek
7:56
works scholars matched up this
7:58
beautifully executed floor mosaic in
8:00
pompeii with plenty's description of the
8:03
wall painting
8:04
but we can't be sure that this is a
8:07
precisely accurate copy of the original
8:11
despite that fact we're going to treat
8:13
this mosaic as a possible example
8:16
of 4th century greek painting
8:18
and the mosaic certainly is an
8:20
impressive work
8:23
our subject is the decisive moment of
8:25
the battle of isis between the greeks
8:27
and persians when alexander the great
8:30
confronted darius iii of persia on the
8:32
field of battle
8:33
you can see a busy battlefield littered
8:36
with discarded
8:37
weapons and wounded men and their horses
8:40
in the foreground and in the background
8:42
there's a seething mass of men horses
8:45
bodies and spears
8:47
on either side of the very center
8:49
alexander on the left locks eyes with
8:51
darius on the right and the jumbled mass
8:54
of soldiers seems to recede as we focus
8:57
on the confrontation between these two
8:59
leaders
9:01
here's that mosaic again and i've
9:03
cropped it to remove the frame and i've
9:06
also brought in a couple of details
9:07
showing alexander and darius at the top
9:10
here
9:11
alexander is shown without his helmet
9:13
riding with wild tussled hair
9:16
like his portraits as he makes a beeline
9:19
for darius he holds a spear in his right
9:21
arm that points directly at the chariot
9:24
of his enemy
9:25
alexander's armor and his horse head
9:27
horse's head are beautifully depicted
9:30
and intricate
9:31
you can easily imagine the sounds that
9:33
the charging horse could be making
9:36
darius iii is in his chariot drawn by
9:38
the black horses on the right of the
9:40
composition
9:41
and he's sped away by his determined
9:43
charioteer
9:45
darius
9:46
though wants to stay in the fight and
9:47
stretches his arms back toward alexander
9:50
it's a dramatic and effective image
9:53
especially because apart from the dead
9:55
one dead tree
9:56
there are no details of landscape to
9:59
distract us from this battle
10:01
and if you take a closer look at the
10:03
details you can see how effectively the
10:05
mosaicist who made this work use color
10:09
in order to create an illusion of 3d
10:11
dimensionality on the flat surface
10:14
lighter colors on the neck of
10:15
alexander's horse for example give the
10:17
illusion of raised areas of muscle that
10:20
glisten with sweat in the sunlight
10:23
alexander's armor appears to shine and
10:25
sparkle because of different shades of
10:27
white grayed black used by the artist
10:30
look finally at how alexander's spear
10:33
hand is rendered in the detail on the
10:35
left
10:36
the artist has used shades of peach
10:38
white pink red and brown to give the
10:41
illusion of three dimensional fingers
10:44
and a four shortened hand receding into
10:47
space
10:49
so if this is our glimpse through many
10:52
filters
10:54
of uh what
10:55
greek painting must have been like
10:58
imagine the masterpieces that have been
11:00
lost
11:19
you
0:02
our final topics deal with hellenistic
0:06
art and architecture
0:07
the conventional beginning of the
0:09
hellenistic period is 323 bc the death
0:13
of alexander the great
0:15
the end point of this period is also
0:17
marked by a historical event the battle
0:20
of actium which took place in 31 bce
0:25
and that is
0:26
when the roman forces of the west led by
0:29
octavian later augustus the first roman
0:32
emperor
0:34
defeated the romans of the east and
0:36
their egyptian allies led by antony and
0:38
cleopatra
0:40
so we call this period between 323 and
0:43
31 bce
0:45
hellenistic
0:47
because it witnessed the spread of greek
0:49
and macedonian ideas throughout that
0:52
entire area that had been alexander's
0:55
empire
0:56
and in return you know it's not just the
0:59
culture going one way
1:01
of course all of this affects
1:04
uh
1:04
the way things work in the the
1:07
traditional greek lands as well
1:11
so here are a couple of maps showing
1:13
alexander's empire um that's above
1:16
and the territories guided up by his
1:19
generals after his death that's the one
1:21
below
1:23
the new kingdoms were extremely hostile
1:25
to one another and there was constant
1:27
bickering in warfare i've labeled them
1:30
here by dynasty with arrows matching the
1:32
colors on the map
1:34
the largest territory with its capital
1:36
antioch was held by the seleucid dynasty
1:39
the seleucids controlled most of the
1:42
asian provinces although the ones
1:44
furthest east were quickly lost
1:47
the ptolemies controlled egypt from
1:48
their capital with alexandria and the
1:50
egyptians and people of cyprus
1:53
controlled the aegean
1:54
the antigonids controlled macedonia and
1:57
mainland greece
1:59
in the third century another kingdom
2:02
emerged and that was the athletes
2:05
this is in ionia in asia minor with its
2:08
capital at pergamon
2:10
and this new kingdom controlled by the
2:12
adulthood dynasty was very receptive of
2:14
greek culture
2:16
in the next topic we're going to be
2:18
examining some impressive works from
2:20
pergamon
2:24
here's a famous example of hellenistic
2:27
sculpture known as the barbarini fawn
2:30
and it shows a sleeping drunken fawn
2:34
so part part human part beast you know
2:37
sort of goaty
2:38
um and uh a follower of the god dionysus
2:42
the god of of wine
2:44
although the hellenistic period is
2:45
characterized by the spread of greek
2:47
influence over a large geographic area
2:50
and the greek reception of
2:54
all of the uh
2:55
sort of uh
2:57
styles and ideas of that large area
3:00
the art that we're going to see from
3:02
this time period is notably different
3:04
from what we've seen before
3:06
while archaic and classical artists can
3:08
concentrate it on generalism and
3:10
idealism
3:12
for example the fact that the athenians
3:14
on the parthenon freeze are generalized
3:17
idealized athenians rather than specific
3:20
people
3:21
artists of the hellenistic period were
3:23
concerned with the individual and the
3:25
specific
3:26
their works are generally very emotional
3:29
and even melodramatic with a greater
3:32
interest in representing real people
3:34
rather than the olympian gods
3:37
realism and even caricature was valued
3:40
over idealism as we're going to see
3:43
and when mythological figures were sown
3:45
in art they were shown in a very human
3:48
way
3:50
here in the case of the barbarini fun
3:52
we have a work that's openly erotic
3:54
rather than simply suggestive like the
3:57
aphrodite of canitis we have a very
3:59
sexualized body here that we're invited
4:02
to examine and enjoy at our leisure
4:05
because the subject is passed out from
4:07
too much wine
4:08
to that end there's an emphasis on heavy
4:11
musculature and also upon the
4:13
vulnerability of sleep with a subject
4:16
who is unknowingly revealing everything
4:19
to us
4:20
this lack of control would never have
4:22
been celebrated by the early classical
4:24
artists responsible for the lapis and
4:26
centaurs from olympia but here
4:30
it is the hellenistic style
4:35
you might remember me mentioning the
4:36
corinthian order when we looked at the
4:38
follows in delphi
4:40
here in athens and you can see the
4:43
acropolis with the parthenon in the
4:45
background marked by my arrow the
4:48
corinthian order was used on the
4:50
exterior of a building rather than just
4:52
the interior
4:54
for the first time on a full scale
4:55
building and this building was a temple
4:58
of olympian zeus which you see here the
5:01
temple was originally built as a doric
5:03
temple in the 6th century bce
5:06
but only the stereobait and stylobate of
5:09
this of this structure were completed
5:12
king antiochus iv who ruled the seleucid
5:15
dynasty from 175 to 164 bce
5:19
commissioned a roman architect named
5:22
kosuchis to complete the unfinished
5:25
temple
5:26
and use the corinthian order
5:29
kosuchius's plan called for the temple
5:32
to have triple rows of eight columns at
5:35
the front and back of the temple and
5:37
double rows of 20 columns along the
5:39
sides
5:40
unfortunately work stopped on the
5:42
project when antiochus iv died in 164
5:46
bce
5:47
and the incomplete temple was damaged in
5:50
86 bce when the roman general sula
5:54
attacked athens
5:55
solo's troops carried some of the
5:57
corinthian capitals back to rome and
6:00
it's believed that those capitals
6:01
influenced the development of the roman
6:04
corinthian order work was still
6:07
incomplete on the temple
6:09
until the time of the roman emperor
6:11
hadrian in 132 ce
6:15
and he caused kosuzia's design to
6:18
finally be finished despite its enormous
6:21
size
6:22
with 55 foot 5 inch high columns imagine
6:26
that
6:26
this temple adhered to the principles of
6:29
greek temple design just at a much
6:31
larger scale than its predecessors the
6:34
corinthian order is a lot like the ionic
6:36
order with slender columns that stand
6:38
upon bases and support a stepped out
6:41
architrave and a continuous freeze
6:48
here's a detail of one of the capitals
6:50
from the temple of olympian zeus in
6:52
athens and a photo that i took of the
6:55
campus plants in rome
6:57
and you saw this slide earlier but i
6:59
just wanted to bring it back to remind
7:00
you that the corinthian order has a
7:03
capital
7:04
decorated with stylized acanthus leaves
7:06
and flowers
7:08
unlike the doric and ionic capitals
7:10
which are fairly rigid in their design
7:13
corinthian capitals can have a lot of
7:14
variations so long as they're decorated
7:17
with acanthus designs and when we get
7:20
into early christian byzantine and early
7:22
medieval art we'll see new capital
7:25
designs that are based directly on this
7:28
corinthian order
7:33
although the greeks were performing
7:35
theatrical works well before the archaic
7:38
period
7:39
their greatest achievements in theater
7:42
construction were during the hellenistic
7:44
period
7:45
and what you're seeing is a
7:47
reconstruction of the theater of
7:48
epidurals one of the best preserved and
7:51
most acoustically perfect of all greek
7:54
theaters
7:55
the theater of the epidurals was
7:57
constructed in the 3rd century bce
8:00
and the upper tier of seeds here
8:03
were added in the 2nd century bce
8:08
like many other greek theaters the
8:10
theater in epidurals was built into a
8:12
sloping hillside and it takes advantage
8:14
of the natural landscape to provide
8:17
elevating elevated seating for the
8:19
spectators
8:20
this theater consists of a round
8:22
performance area called the orchestra
8:25
with a two-tiered structure behind it
8:28
this structure consists of the skine a
8:31
tall structure housing the backstage
8:33
dressing rooms and storage for props and
8:36
scenery
8:37
as well as a proscenium a raised
8:40
platform in front of the skine that was
8:42
increasingly used as an extension of the
8:45
performance space for the orchestra
8:47
the skine also provided an architectural
8:50
backdrop for performance
8:52
the performers could enter and exit the
8:54
orchestra area and proscenium using
8:57
ramps and passageways
8:59
the audience sat in bench-shaped
9:01
limestone seats divided into equal
9:04
wedge-shaped sections that had rows of
9:06
steps in between
9:08
the seats closest to the orchestra
9:11
were constructed with arms and raised
9:13
backs like the example that you see in
9:16
the inset
9:17
these seats were probably reserved for
9:19
the most important personages and here
9:23
for the priests of dionysus
9:25
since this theater was sacred to
9:27
dionysus sacrifices to that god took
9:30
place before every performance
9:32
the rest of the seats in the theater
9:34
were shaped a lot more like stone
9:36
bleachers
9:37
the 55 rows of seats could accommodate
9:40
up to 12 000 spectators
9:45
here's the theater of epidurals as it
9:46
appears today
9:48
you'll notice that the skine and
9:50
proscenium are in ruins
9:52
you might have might have noticed if you
9:54
watch the youtube video that the closer
9:56
a performer stands to the center of the
9:59
orchestra
10:00
marked by the round white stone in this
10:03
view
10:04
the more clearly their performance can
10:06
be heard throughout the theater
10:08
even in the uppermost seats
10:11
now a team of acoustical engineers from
10:14
georgia tech
10:15
concluded that in addition to the shape
10:17
of the theater the excellent acoustics
10:20
are dependent upon the limestone seats
10:23
the rows of ascending seats act to
10:25
filter out background noise like wind
10:28
and the rustles and murmurs of an
10:30
audience
10:31
while they all amplify the sounds of a
10:34
performer or group of performers closer
10:36
to the center point of the orchestra
10:39
even today the theater of epidurals is
10:42
hailed as one of the best designed
10:45
theaters especially in terms of
10:46
acoustics ever
0:03
it seems appropriate after discussing a
0:05
theater to discuss dramatic examples of
0:08
hellenistic sculpture
0:10
and we're going to start with two works
0:12
showing enemy warriors being shown very
0:15
differently from what we've seen before
0:17
rather than being shown as the barbaric
0:20
other
0:20
in these works we see a sympathetic
0:22
treatment of the enemy
0:24
these works are both associated with
0:27
paragon
0:28
and with what is considered the
0:30
pergamine style
0:33
the first sculpture and you're seeing it
0:35
here in two views depicts a garlic
0:38
chieftain
0:39
committing suicide after killing his
0:41
wife
0:42
and stands over life-size at nearly
0:45
seven feet high
0:46
like the next sculpture we're going to
0:48
see this one is a roman copy in marble
0:51
after an original greek bronze from
0:53
about 220 bce
0:55
according to tradition the original
0:57
bronze statues were dedicated by king
1:00
adelos the first
1:02
in paramount to celebrate a victory over
1:04
the gauls
1:06
here the gallic chieftain is committing
1:08
suicide rather than be captured
1:10
he's already dispatched his wife in
1:12
order to prevent her from becoming a
1:14
slave in captivity
1:16
although the artist has accurately
1:18
rendered the dress of the wife the
1:20
hairstyles of both stiffened with lime
1:22
and the weapon of the chieftain there is
1:25
one major inaccuracy that can help us
1:29
interpret the meaning of this work
1:31
the chieftain is nude
1:34
and we know gaelic warriors wore
1:36
trousers into battle but here he's shown
1:39
as a heroic nude a noble enemy who makes
1:43
the ultimate sacrifice when faced with
1:46
defeat
1:48
even more than the epoxy ominous or
1:51
scraper of lycipus this work is meant to
1:54
be seen from all angles and interacts
1:56
with the space around it
1:58
you can particularly see this if you
2:00
look at the additional view that i
2:02
brought in
2:03
the chieftain's
2:05
rear leg is outstretched the elbow of
2:08
his sword arm juts out and the dangling
2:11
arm of his wife projects outward into
2:14
the space around the sculpture
2:16
i also want you to notice how this
2:18
artist had has endeavored to make this a
2:20
more emotional work of art
2:23
the poses are strong and dramatic and
2:26
the action of the chieftain's downward
2:28
sword thrust is emphasized by his tensed
2:32
and flexed muscles
2:34
his cloak appears to flap and move with
2:36
the force of his arm movement
2:39
in this moment preceding his death the
2:42
chieftain appears vigorously alive and
2:44
it's in contrast
2:46
to his wife's death
2:48
she's she has slackness in her limbs and
2:51
muscles
2:53
like the fourth century works we saw in
2:55
the previous
2:56
uh set of lessons the chieftain has
2:59
deeply set eyes
3:01
meant to accentuate his emotional state
3:04
his defiance and his
3:07
intense resolve
3:10
our next work in the paragaming style
3:12
depicts a single dying warrior
3:15
also a gaul this is the famous diengal
3:18
also a roman copy in marble of a bronze
3:21
original of around 220 bce
3:24
plenty of the elder attributed a
3:26
sculptor that might have been this one
3:28
to a sculptor named epigonos
3:32
the trumpet by which we identify this
3:34
figure lies at his side
3:36
his lime stiffened hair and twisted
3:38
metal torque kind of a heavy neck
3:40
ornament
3:41
identify this finger as a gall
3:44
we have ancient descriptions of what
3:46
their warriors look like
3:48
like the gaelic chieftain in the
3:49
previous slide this gaul has been
3:52
represented as a heroic nude he's very
3:55
close to death and seems barely able to
3:58
support himself as he bleeds from a
4:01
sword wound in his chest
4:04
here's a view showing the bleeding wound
4:06
and another angle on the dying gall
4:09
as i mentioned earlier this is a very
4:11
different way of representing an enemy
4:13
from what we've seen before in greek art
4:16
rather than being shown as a
4:17
mythological figure or a beast embodying
4:20
all the barbaric traits of an enemy
4:23
and think here of those centaurs at
4:26
olympia or on the parthenon
4:29
this is an enemy shown as human
4:32
and as a figure deserving of our respect
4:35
and our sympathy
4:37
one gets the feeling looking at this
4:38
little dying gall and at the group of
4:41
the chieftain and his wife that the
4:42
people of peregman
4:44
must have honored their defeated enemies
4:46
for their courage and determination
4:49
scholars believe that this gaul and the
4:51
sculpture of the chieftain and his wife
4:53
were originally part of a victory
4:55
monument that was meant to be seen from
4:57
all sides
5:01
here are two rear views of the dying
5:04
gallic trumpeter
5:05
as you look at this sculpture from the
5:07
rear you can see the sculptor has
5:09
represented this figure in the act of
5:12
collapse
5:13
he is about to fall to the ground he's
5:16
only resting his weight on one of his
5:18
buttocks
5:19
the upraised hip seems to indicate he's
5:22
about to collapse onto his side
5:25
and the way that his right arm is held
5:27
you can almost imagine it quivering with
5:29
the strain
5:30
of supporting his dying weight
5:33
this is truly a magnificent work and the
5:36
fact that this is a copy makes me wonder
5:39
at least how incredible that original
5:41
must have been
5:45
our next monument is also from pergamon
5:48
and we'll be looking at the original
5:50
rather than at a roman copy and i'm
5:52
showing you a plan here of the upper
5:54
city in paragabon on the turkish
5:57
mainland as it would have been in the
5:59
2nd century bce
6:02
the monument that concerns us
6:04
is the great altar which is located here
6:07
this monument might have been erected to
6:10
commemorate the successful defeat of the
6:12
gauls in 167 bce by eumenes ii the ruler
6:17
pergamon
6:18
as we'll see the sculpture on the altar
6:21
depicts the victory of the olympian gods
6:23
over the titans
6:25
but right now i want you to fix fix that
6:27
plan of the altar in your head it's
6:30
shaped like a rectangle with two
6:32
projecting wings
6:37
here's a photograph of the site
6:40
as it appears today and below i've
6:43
brought in a model of the altar as it
6:45
would have looked originally
6:48
the people gathered beneath
6:51
one of the trees in the photograph can
6:53
give you some sense of scale
6:57
the altar has been reconstructed inside
6:59
the paragon museum in berlin the same
7:01
museum that houses the ishtar gate and
7:03
processional way from babylon
7:06
and the militis market gate
7:08
just like the ishtar gate the pergamon
7:10
altar is not reconstructed to its full
7:12
size in berlin due to size constraints
7:15
at the museum
7:16
and so that's why i brought in the view
7:18
of the foundations and the model of the
7:20
altar to give you a better sense of
7:22
scale
7:24
what they've reconstructed in berlin is
7:26
just the front of the altar with its two
7:28
projecting wings and the front colonnade
7:31
but you'll notice that there's a large
7:33
area behind the colonnade flanked by the
7:36
remaining remainder of the two
7:38
projecting wings this area is not
7:41
reconstructed in berlin instead what
7:43
they've done is taken the sculpture from
7:45
that area and put it on the surrounding
7:48
walls of the room so you're kind of
7:51
seeing the sculpture in sort of an
7:53
inside out kind of way it's a little bit
7:55
odd
7:58
before we move on to look at the altar
8:00
as it's reconstructed in berlin
8:02
i want to tell you a little bit about
8:05
its history
8:06
and the excavation and its removal to
8:09
germany
8:11
excavation of paragon started in 1870
8:15
under carl human a german engineer
8:18
employed by the ottoman empire to run a
8:20
transport system through western turkey
8:22
lumon had heard that hellenistic
8:25
sculptors sculptures were being built or
8:28
i'm sorry being burnt in local lime
8:31
kilns
8:32
uh to make concrete and well actually
8:36
quicklime for concrete um so human
8:38
decided that he was going to save
8:40
whatever treasures he could get his
8:42
hands on
8:43
he got support from museum directors in
8:45
berlin
8:46
and together they conducted a series of
8:48
excavations in the 1870s and 80s
8:52
most of the fines were shipped off to
8:54
berlin
8:55
germany had just newly been unified into
8:58
one nation
8:59
and the government saw the acquisition
9:01
of a great artistic treasure from greek
9:04
antiquity to be highly symbolic it would
9:07
show that germany had the artistic
9:09
treasures as great as the elgin marbles
9:12
from the parthenon in london
9:14
and it would thus therefore set up
9:16
germany as sort of a cultural equal to
9:20
the british empire
9:21
so the government enthusiastically
9:23
supported the removal of the peregmon
9:25
altar and provided funds for a specially
9:28
designed museum
9:31
the altar was received so
9:33
enthusiastically in germany that in 1886
9:37
a paragaming
9:39
celebration was held in berlin with 1500
9:43
costumed actors
9:45
re-enacting an adelaide victory parade
9:48
uh celebrating an adeline triumph over
9:50
the gauls
9:51
and just as the greeks often represented
9:54
recent battles as historical or
9:56
mythological battles
9:58
think again of lapis versus centaurs as
10:02
a reference to the persian wars
10:04
the germans used their peregrimaine
10:06
celebration in 1886
10:09
to reflect recent victories over french
10:12
troops uh with the french being the
10:14
gauls in this in this case
10:17
later on the paragmon altar was the
10:19
inspiration for a number of
10:21
architectural monuments designed for the
10:23
nazis so it has a propaganda role in
10:27
german
10:30
history so here are three views of the
10:33
west side of the peregman altar
10:36
inside the paragon museum in berlin
10:39
the upper view is sort of a textbook
10:42
type of type of view
10:44
and the lower views are
10:47
from museum visitors
10:50
and you can see people inside the one
10:53
photo to give you a good sense of scale
10:56
what's difficult to see in all of these
10:58
views
10:59
is the fact that the entire sculpted
11:02
freeze from pergamon is on view in the
11:04
museum
11:05
and like i said before the portions that
11:07
are not
11:08
on the visible parts of the altar
11:11
are arranged on the walls in the in the
11:14
room that houses the altar
11:16
uh in as a reconstruction
11:19
um the pergamon altar is simply enormous
11:22
and even in this incomplete
11:25
reconstruction
11:27
it it really kind of knocks you flat
11:29
when you when you go into this room
11:31
uh the sculpted freeze stands seven feet
11:34
seven inches high
11:36
and i have to say this is a must see if
11:38
you ever go to berlin
11:40
luckily it's in the same museum as the
11:42
ishtar gates you can knock off some of
11:45
the the most important things that
11:47
you've seen in this course
11:49
by just visiting a single museum
11:54
here's the one portion of the freeze
11:55
from the paragon altar that i
11:57
particularly want you to know this is a
11:59
scene of the goddess athena battling
12:02
giants
12:03
if you think back to the sculptures of
12:05
the dying gallic trumpeter the gaelic
12:08
chieftain and his wife which are copies
12:10
of works from pergamon
12:11
the altar freeze takes on that same
12:14
emotional quality that we saw in those
12:17
sculptures
12:19
and then explodes it
12:21
this is an incredibly dramatic image
12:24
with athena appearing to explode into
12:27
action
12:28
the flowing drapery of her peplos
12:30
emphasizing the strength of her forward
12:32
stride
12:34
from the tilt of her missing head you
12:36
can almost imagine the disdainful
12:39
expression she must have had on her face
12:41
as she grabs alchionios the winged male
12:45
titan by his hair
12:47
alchianos is being doubly attacked
12:49
you'll notice that he's also caught in
12:51
the coils of a great serpent wrapped
12:54
around one thigh and an upper arm
12:57
the same snake bites him on the chest
12:59
just below the arm that he has raised to
13:01
grip athena's arm
13:03
snakes were often associated with athena
13:06
you might
13:07
remember the great python curled inside
13:10
of her shield
13:11
on the athena parthenos in that was
13:14
originally in the parthenon
13:16
and on the other side of athena is gay
13:18
the earth goddess and mother of
13:20
alchioneos and she's clearly begging
13:23
athena to save her son's life
13:26
above gay's head there's a winged nike
13:30
who flies up to crown athena with a
13:32
victory wreath what i want you to
13:35
particularly notice about these
13:36
hellenistic sculptures
13:38
is this strong emphasis on diagonality
13:42
um and dramatic content and those are
13:45
two things that we particularly
13:47
associate with the hellenistic period
13:52
here's our last slide of this topic
13:55
and it's just a detail of what you've
13:57
seen before
13:59
part of what makes this scene dramatic
14:02
is its composition
14:04
and again the artist has relied heavily
14:06
on strong diagonals athena and
14:09
alchionios are placed at opposing angles
14:13
and almost form an x
14:15
this draws the viewer's eye into the
14:18
action especially to the titan's
14:20
despairing face and athena's grip on his
14:23
hair
14:24
the sculptor also used a particular
14:27
technique that serves to emphasize and
14:30
dramatize the subject matter
14:32
um here
14:33
we have
14:35
more so than a chisel being used on the
14:37
ma on the the marble
14:39
um this marble has been drilled
14:42
and the artists cut very very deeply
14:46
into the marble
14:47
to create strongly contrasting areas of
14:50
light and dark
14:52
the intense dark shadows in the locks of
14:55
alkyonius's hair for example draw our
14:59
attention to the expression on his face
15:02
and the deep carving in the drapery
15:04
folds between athena's legs and around
15:07
the legs of the nike serve to emphasize
15:09
the powerful movements of the two
15:11
goddesses
15:13
finally the size of the freeze adds to
15:15
the drama it stands over seven feet high
15:18
so this viewer is struck by the size and
15:21
power of these gods and titans battling
15:24
each other
15:25
it's really not hard to to imagine why
15:28
the paragon altar was considered such a
15:31
prize by the late 19th century
15:33
government in germany
15:54
you
0:03
one of the most famous hellenistic
0:05
sculptures
0:07
is the layacawan group
0:09
and you see that work here in two views
0:14
the subject matter is probably
0:15
unfamiliar to you
0:16
in homer's iliad which
0:18
tells the story of the trojan war
0:21
layakawan was a priest of troy
0:24
he was the one who when the trojan horse
0:27
arrived
0:28
counseled his people to beware of greeks
0:30
bearing gifts
0:32
in order to stop him from examining the
0:34
trojan horse too closely and discovering
0:37
the greek soldiers inside
0:39
two olympian gods on the side of the
0:41
greeks athena and poseidon
0:43
sent enormous serpents to attack and
0:45
kill layaquan and his two sons
0:48
lyakawan is the ultimate example
0:51
of a noble individual victimized by fate
0:54
in trying to save his people he incurred
0:57
the wrath of the olympian gods though
0:59
who were intent on detroit destroying
1:01
his city
1:02
and he and his sons paid the ultimate
1:05
price
1:08
the lyakawan seen here in a detail has
1:11
been attributed by plenty to three
1:13
sculptors from rhodes
1:15
there's a wonderful description of this
1:17
work in plenty's natural history i have
1:19
it here
1:20
he says quote nor are there more famous
1:24
sculptors
1:25
since the number of artists that work on
1:27
a nut on a piece hampers the individual
1:30
reputation
1:31
in such a circumstance no single artist
1:33
gains fame
1:35
nor is the group able to claim the fame
1:37
which an individual might get this is
1:40
the case with the layakawan which is in
1:42
the house of the emperor titus a work of
1:44
art to be preferred to all other
1:46
paintings and sculptures
1:48
for the most consummate artists
1:50
kagasander pollodoros and athertodoros
1:53
of rhodes
1:54
created him and his children and the
1:57
miraculous intertwining of serpents out
1:59
of a single slab of marble from their
2:01
combined talents
2:03
end quote
2:06
so here we see layakawan half seated on
2:09
an altar to remind us that he's a priest
2:12
struggling alongside his two sons with a
2:15
pair of serpents that seem almost to
2:17
have no beginning or end
2:20
the snaky coils tie the three figures
2:22
together and force them into agonizingly
2:25
painful positions as they struggle for
2:28
survival
2:30
leiakowan has been depicted at the very
2:32
moment of a snake bite
2:34
and the pain and surprise on his face
2:37
along with his knowledge of his
2:39
impending death are clear to see
2:42
like the struggling titan alchianos from
2:44
the paragon altar
2:46
all of layakawan's muscles are tensed in
2:48
this sculpture to underscore the
2:51
intensity of his struggle and his pain
2:55
liakawan's wild hair too seems to echo
2:57
the chaos of the scene
2:59
even layakawan's feet with their flexed
3:02
toes and the sculptors emphasis upon
3:05
their tendons seem to struggle against
3:07
the inevitable
3:09
in contrast to the massive ripped body
3:11
of lyakawan his two sons seem almost
3:14
fragile and weak with their smaller
3:17
less muscular bodies
3:19
the son on the left appears to be dying
3:21
already or at least to have given up the
3:23
fight and you can see
3:25
just a bit of his head here in the
3:27
corner of my slide
3:30
this sculpture which pliny tells us was
3:32
kept in one of the roman emperor titus's
3:34
homes
3:35
was excavated in rome in 1506
3:39
ce
3:40
as you can imagine its discovery caused
3:43
an enormous stir
3:45
the famous sculptor michelangelo rushed
3:48
to the site to watch the excavations and
3:50
is said to have called this sculpture a
3:53
marvel of art
3:54
the sculpture was acquired by the pope
3:56
and it is today in the vatican museums
4:00
and it's one of the first great works
4:02
that you see as you sort of work your
4:05
way
4:06
uh through the customary tourist route
4:09
of of the vatican museum
4:13
the laaca one has a clear front and back
4:16
although it is sculpted in the round
4:18
in order to truly appreciate the
4:20
twisting movement and intense emotion of
4:23
this sculpture group it's important that
4:26
it's viewed from the front so the faces
4:28
of all the figures can be clearly seen
4:31
you might have noticed that even in
4:33
these three quarter views i'm not going
4:35
too far from showing you the front of
4:38
the sculpture group that's quite
4:40
different from a sculpture like the
4:41
epoxy ominous which engages the space
4:44
all around
4:45
this doesn't mean that hellenistic
4:47
artists only consider the front view of
4:49
sculptures because we're going to see
4:51
other works that were clearly meant to
4:53
be seen from all sides
4:55
this directional nature of the layakawan
4:57
might give us a clue about its original
4:59
setting however
5:01
let's consider the possibility that it
5:03
was originally placed in an enclosure
5:06
that would have made it
5:07
difficult to view from all sides like
5:10
some sort of a grotto or a niche for
5:12
example
5:15
here are two views and a reconstruction
5:18
of another famous hellenistic sculpture
5:21
the nike of samothrace
5:23
this is a marvel original from about 180
5:26
bce that stands just over eight feet
5:29
high
5:30
originally the nike stood in a sanctuary
5:33
building open at the front on a base in
5:36
the shape of a ship's prowl and you can
5:38
see this clearly in the reconstruction
5:40
and in the view on the right
5:42
she is depicted as if landing upon the
5:45
ship with her wings outstretched and her
5:48
drapery blowing in the wind
5:50
according to excavation reports from
5:52
sabbath race the sculpture and the ship
5:55
prow base were originally set in a
5:57
reflecting pool of water
5:59
placed opposite another pool studded
6:01
with jagged rocks
6:03
and the possible interpretation here is
6:06
that the nike guides the vessel through
6:08
perilous seeds seas to safety
6:12
there's also some indication that there
6:14
would have been water kind of
6:16
splashing upward onto this sculpture
6:20
making it even more dramatic
6:23
as you can clearly see the nike is
6:25
missing her head and arms and despite
6:28
this she still appears both strong and
6:30
graceful and we have here a wonderful
6:33
combination of the beauty and grace of
6:35
classical sculpture with the more
6:37
intense drama and movement of the
6:39
hellenistic
6:41
nike's drapery is plastered to her body
6:44
you can imagine the role of sea spray
6:46
and wind in creating this effect if she
6:49
really were a living goddess
6:52
landing on a ship
6:54
the sculptor of this impressive work of
6:55
art has so beautifully depicted the
6:58
textures of skin
7:00
drapery and feathers that it's easy to
7:03
look at this and forget that what we're
7:05
looking at is a piece of stone
7:09
the nike of sabbath races had an
7:11
incredible impact on popular culture
7:14
she was the inspiration for the nike
7:15
athletic logo and for the hood ornament
7:18
of rolls-royce automobiles there's even
7:21
a replica of the statue in front of
7:22
caesar's palace in las vegas
7:25
and here is a propaganda poster from the
7:27
spanish civil war with the words cindy
7:30
seplina victoria without discipline
7:33
there's no victory
7:35
and victory is symbolized here by none
7:38
other than the nike of samothrace
7:41
here's a still image from the film funny
7:44
face a musical comedy from 1957
7:47
with audrey hepburn and fred astaire in
7:49
the movie audrey hepburn becomes a
7:51
supermodel and goes to paris for a
7:53
number of important shows and photo
7:55
shoots
7:56
one memorable sequence in the film
7:58
features the actress running down the
8:00
stairs of the loom museum in paris
8:03
trailing her shawl behind her in
8:06
imitation of the nike of samothrace and
8:08
her wind-blown drapery
8:10
the grace beauty and sensuality of the
8:12
nike of samothrace were clearly the
8:15
inspiration for this movie sequence
8:19
we're going to finish our look at greek
8:22
art with the famous venus de milo also
8:25
known as the aphrodite of milos
8:27
unlike the works we've looked at so far
8:30
this hellenistic sculpture represents a
8:32
taste for the smooth and idealized style
8:35
of the fourth century
8:37
for example in praxitaly's group of
8:39
hermes and the infant dionysus or the
8:42
aphrodite of canidos
8:44
this being a hellenistic work however
8:47
everything is taken just a little
8:49
further
8:50
the aphrodite of milos has a more
8:53
turning twisting stance
8:56
a strongly projecting knee
8:58
and despite her cool and calm classical
9:01
demeanor
9:02
she's extremely erotic although she's
9:05
not depicted in the nude
9:07
the aphrodite milos is shown nearly nude
9:10
with her garments slipping down off of
9:13
her body
9:14
and if you look at the detail view i
9:16
brought in on the right you can see that
9:18
aphrodite's drapery has fallen away
9:20
almost as much as it can
9:22
and that there isn't too much left to
9:25
our imagination
9:27
the position of her drapery and the fact
9:29
that it's clearly slipping away
9:31
causes the viewer to consider what will
9:34
be revealed
9:35
the sculptor has caught a moment of
9:38
exquisite tension
9:40
between covered and nude
9:43
making this a highly erotically charged
9:46
work of art
10:05
you

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