Ancient Greek art: Archaic and Classical
Man as the measure: the ideal nude body, the column orders and proportions set by number
How to recognise it
- Nude athletes in contrapposto
- Doric and Ionic columns
- Triangular pediment filled with figures
- Vases: black-on-red, then red-on-black figures
- Calm, emotionless faces
Why it emerged
City-states competed through temples and victories at the games, and citizens trained nude in gymnasia. Philosophy sought law and number in nature, and sculptors turned it into canons of proportion.
Examples
Parthenon447 BC–432 BC · Ictinus and CallicratesThe peak of the Doric order; its frieze and pediments defined 'classical'%2C%20Museo%20Arqueol%C3%B2gic%20de%20Delfos%20(Gr%C3%A8cia).jpg?width=640 "Vicenç Valcárcel Pérez · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons")
Charioteer of Delphic. 474 BCA rare surviving Greek bronze original — the Severe Style at classicism's threshold
Discobolusc. 455 BC · MyronThe instant before the throw: the first convincing motion in Greek statuary
Doryphorosc. 440 BC · PolykleitosThe 'Canon' statue: Polykleitos set out ideal body proportions in it
Statue of Zeus at Olympiac. 435 BC · PhidiasA 12 m gold-and-ivory Zeus — one of the Seven Wonders of the WorldMore in this style
- c. 750 BC Iliad — Homer
- c. 429 BC Oedipus Rex — Sophocles
- c. 421 BC–406 BC Erechtheion
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Mesopotamian art Middle East
- Ancient Egyptian art Africa
- Shang and Zhou bronzes Asia
- Olmec art Americas
- Nok terracottas Africa
- Scythian animal style Eastern Europe & Russia
- Hellenistic art Europe