A slideshow connected to a lecture of Greek Art available at Art History Teaching Resources (http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/), written by Alexis Culotta.

1. Greek Art
800–31 BCE

2. PERIODS OF GREEK ART
ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
• Age of Sophocles (496–406 BCE), Herodotus (485–425 BCE),
and Euripides (485–425 BCE)
HIGH CLASSICAL: 450–420 BCE
• Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE)
• Age of Plato (429–347 BCE)
LATE CLASSICAL: 420–323 BCE
• Rule of Alexander the Great (336–323 BCE)
HELLENISTIC: 323–31 BCE
• Greece becomes province of Rome (146 BCE)
EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE
• Age of Socrates (469–399 BCE)
GEOMETRIC: 800–700 BCE
• First Olympic Games (776 BCE)
• Homer (writing 750–700 BCE)
ORIENTALIZING: 700–600 BCE

3. HUMANISM
Idea that humans were
“the measure of all things”
(Protagoras)
CENTRAL PRINCIPLE TO GREEK ART
The perfect individual form,
defined by ideal scale and
proportions, became the Greek
ideal.

4. GEOMETRIC: 900–700 BCE
Funerary Krater, Dipylon Cemetery, c. 760 BCE. (source)
GEOMETRIC STYLE:
dominated by abstract
motifs and animals
conveyed through black
slip
Emerging from the “Dark Ages” . . .

5. GEOMETRIC: 900–700 BCE
GEOMETRIC STYLE:
dominated by
abstract motifs
and animals
conveyed through
black slip
MEANDER PATTERN

6. ORIENTALIZING: 700–600 BCE
Mantiklos Apollo, Greece, c. 700–680 BCE. (source)
“Mantiklos dedicated
me as a tithe to the
far-shooting Lord of
the Silver Bow; you,
Phoibos [Apollo],
might give some
pleasing favor in
return. . .”
Increasing Exposure to the East

7. ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
Exekias, Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice, c. 530 BCE. (source)
BLACK FIGURE STYLE:
figures and forms are
created through the
application of black slip
before firing

8. ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
Euphronios, Death of Sarpedon Krater, 515 BCE. (source)
RED FIGURE STYLE:
figures and forms
created through the
absence of black slip,
allowing the red of
the terra cotta to
come through;
allowed for greater
design detail and
finesse; appeared late
sixth century BCE

9. ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
Phiale Painter, Hermes Bringing the Infant Dionysos to
Papposilenos, c. 440–435 BCE.
WHITE GROUND STYLE:
figures and forms painted
on white clay pot, which
allowed for greater detail
and polychromy; also
appeared late sixth
century BCE

10. ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
Statue of a Kouros, c. 580 BCE. (source)
KOUROS: Greek for
“young man”; statuary
type depicting a young
man
KORE: Greek for “young
woman”; statuary type
depicting a young woman

11. ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
Kore of the Acropolis, c. 500 BCE. (source)
KOUROS: Greek for “young
man”; statuary type
depicting a young man
KORE: Greek for “young
woman”; statuary type
depicting a young woman

12. ARCHAIC: 600–480 BCE
New York Kouros, Attica,
c. 580 BCE, 6 feet high.
Kroisos Kouros, Anavysos,
c. 530 BCE, 76 inches high. (source)

13. Kritios Boy, 480 BCE.
Kroisos Kouros,
Anavysos, c. 530 BCE.
New York Kouros, Attica,
c. 580 BCE.
EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE

14. EARLY CLASSICAL: 480–450 BCE
Kritios Boy, 480 BCE, 34 inches high. (source)
CONTRAPPOSTO: posing of
the human figure in which
one part is turned in
opposition to another part,
typically with the weight of
the body being thrown to one
foot, creating a
counterbalance of the body
about its central axis

15. FROM ARCHAIC TO EARLY CLASSICAL:
480–450 BCE
West Pediment (top), and detail of Dying Warrior (bottom),
Temple of Aphaia, c. 500–490 BCE.

16. versus
FROM ARCHAIC TO EARLY CLASSICAL:
480-450 BCE
Dying Warrior, West,
500–490 BCE (top)
East Pediment,
490–480 BCE (bottom)
Temple of Aphaia,
Aegina (source)

17. HIGH CLASSICAL: 450–420 BCE
Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), Roman copy of 440 BCE original. (source)

18. LATE CLASSICAL: 420–323 BCE
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE)
resulted in Sparta’s victory over Athens.
Athens attempted to maintain control of its
territory, but another military defeat by
Philip II of Macedon in 338 BCE forced
Greece to give up independence.
Philip II died in 336, bequeathing his empire
to his son, Alexander (the Great), who
expanded the Macedonian territory far into
the Eastern world.

19. LATE CLASSICAL: 420–323 BCE
Praxiteles, Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, Roman copy of c. 340 BCE original. (source)

20. Head of Alexander the Great, Greece, c. 320 BCE. (source)
HELLENISTIC STYLE: 323–31 BCE
With Alexander the Great’s
death in 323 BCE, his
empire was divided among
his chief generals. This
ushered in the period of
Hellenistic art that
continued until Roman
Emperor Augustus’s defeat
of Antony and Cleopatra at
the Battle of Actium in 31
BCE.

21. Gallic Chieftain Killing Himself and His Wife, Roman copy of c. 320–220 BCE original.
HELLENISTIC STYLE: 323–31 BCE

22. Defeated Boxer, c. 100–50 BCE.
HELLENISTIC STYLE: 323–31 BCE