| A Brief History of Greek Vase Art |
Greek artists achieved a level of sophistication and realism that is arguably unmatched by any other civilization in the west. It is easy to see why Greek Art has been a Paradigm for artists throughout the ages, emulated by most thriving western civilizations and held forward as an ideal known as Classical.
Greek History is much more complex than the simple history of Vases, for a better perspective on the forces in Greek History reasearch classical to hellenistic Age Greece, for a Timeline of Greek History Click Here
Greek Vase Painting can be traced back at its earliest examples to 1000 B.C and forwards to its last examples to around 31 BC
Of course Greek art can trace itself back to the Bronze Age through the Mycenaean and Minoan cultures. But essentially what we know as Greek Vase Art can be alotted a time period from 1000 to 30 BC
This is somewhat simplistic because the effects of Greek art design and concept have reverberated across western culture like a great wave, giving much greater force to its effect than a simple short period of time.
Greek Art is commonly categorized within this time period into 4 great Ages of Art, somewhat similar to its Historical Ages.
Geometric, Archaic, Classical & Hellenistic
Greek Art Periods
Geometric Art and Protogeometirc style was the dominant art style during the period of 1000 BC to 700 BC. Artists who worked this style adorned many of their works (vase paintings in particular) with precise curvilinear and rectilinear, or geometric patterns.
Archaic Art style developed during the years 700 BC to 480 BC and was an important era of innovation and achievemnent. During this period Greek artists came into contact with styles from outside of Greece. It was also a period when Greek art began to reflect Greek Ideals. This is when the idealization of the human figure began to influence Greek Art. Vase painting was perfected during this time.
Classical Art style is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and brilliant eras of artistic achievment in western civilization. This was however just a brief moment in time spanning the years 480 BC to 323 BC. This was a brief but extremely fruitfull period for the Greeks , particularly the Athenians and during this period Greek Vase art, Scuplture and Architecture was brought to a point of near perfection.
Hellenistic Art period Circa 323 BC to 31 BC moved increasingly away from idealization of classical Greek art towards more expressive forms. Drama and movement played a much more important role in Greek art than in earlier ages. Emotion in Greek Art, especially Sculpture, was a focus of much fascination and obsession. Emotion being very rare in pervious Greek art periods.
|
Greek Decoration Technique Periods
Greek Vase Art can be sectioned up into 4 major techniques of decoration. Orientalizing, Black-Figure, Red-Figure and White-ground.
Orientalizing period includes most of the Protogeometric and Geometric styles and is called such because of the Eastern influences on Greek Geometric Art during this period.
Black-Figure was the principle ceramic technique from about 600 BC to 500 BC and can be defined by the use of Black Figure Illustration on a red clay background.
Red-Figure was developed shortly thereafter and dominated the period from 500 BC to 300 BC and is defined by the use of Red Figure Illustration on a black background.
White-Ground technique utilizes figures on a background made white by using a special clay free of iron oxides, applied over the common reddish clay. This is the so-called White-Ground technique has quite a long history but is common only in Atherns during the 5th century BC It gives a much more realistic effect than the Black and Red Figures and can add colors ranging from yellow to pink, red, violet and blue, and probably comes closest to paintings on panels and walls. The technique of draftsmanship is however the same as Red-Figure.
The relationship between Greek Painting and Greek Pottery has intrigued scholars for along time. Greek pottery, even the finer types with figure decoration has been perserved in quantity. today more than 100,000 examples of Athenian pottery from 600 BC to 300 BC, are kept in museums and private collections worldwide. Greek Painting however from 1000 BC to 300 BC has scarcely survived. There are wall paintings from Bronze Age palatial structures and tomb-paintings from later 4th century BC Macedonia, but precious little from mainland Greece
The ancient sources describe advances made in the art of painting, and some can be paralled , broadly, on Athenian pottery. Until about 520 BC the human figure was depicted as it had been in earlier two dimensional art, in profile, or less commonly, in combination of profile and frontal views. Then, on some large well made clay shapes a few painters experimented towards the end of the 6th century BC , with more realistic poses, attempting to show the human body as it was in life, not stylized as it has been in art.
They also attempted to show it in movement. A man named Kimon from the town of Kleonai, is said to have invented three-quarter views during this period, showing figures in various poses, looking up, down, backwards etc, with parts of their bodies clearly articulated by muscles, bones and even veins. Similar advances can be seen in Sculpture, particularly low felief, from roughly the same time. However the initial steps towards artisitc change could have come from the draughtsmen.
In the middle of the 5th century BC a small number of fine, large shapes have figures disposed on different levels, not on a single groundline as in earlier art. At this time the ancient sources tell us that one of the most famous Greek painters, Polygnotos, from the Northern Greek Island of Thasos, introduced figures on different levels in paintings which he executed on some of the most prestigious buildings at Delphi and Athens. At the end of the 5th century they tell us that Parrhasios and Zeuxis, the greatest painters of their time, introduced new techniques. The former is said to have used outline in new ways which achieved greater realism, the latter introduced shading. These technical advances, as fundemental to later western painting as the abandonment of the rigid profile view at the beginning of the century, can be paralleled om some exceptional White-Ground pottery dated to around 400 BC.
|
|
|
