Greek Red Figure Pottery

The ancient Greeks believed in a strong mind and a strong body. Their celebration of the physical beauty and ability of the human body can be seen in their sculpture, writings, and sporting events. The physical beauty of the human body is shown in the marble sculpture “Kraisos” (Benton and DiYanni 64). The sculpture shows a male with a defined muscular mid-section, broad shoulders, and thick legs. There is more detail and a more natural appearance in this sculpture compared to a similar statue from approximately 60 years earlier. The face of the sculpture is realistic and the left foot is forward, as seen in Egyptian sculpture. The art of thought was established by the philosophers of ancient

The bilingual amphora was painted in Athens, Greece during the ancient Greek period in a black figure and red figure style. This was a typical style in Athens, Greece at that time and it was mainly to decorate fine pottery. Most of the amphoras were made in sections initially (neck and body) and were put together afterwards (the foot and handles). This pottery was not for everyday use, but it was affordable for most of the population. This fine Greek pottery goes back to the Minoan and Mycenaean pottery of the Bronze Age. The black figure technique focused

he Harvester’s Vase, a fascinating 3500 year old stone sculpture from the Aegean Bronze Age was a product of cultural interactions between the Minoans and the outside world. The vase is “unprecedented” in ancient art history due in part to the animated facial features and accurate human anatomy, thanks to the Minoans long history in making art and their mercantile economy. While Mycenaeans and Hellenic Greeks are more well-known and studied, Minoans played a huge in part in laying the foundations of Western art. Discovered in ruins of the Hagia Triada on the island of Crete. The Harvester’s vase was created around 1500 to 1450 BC, the vase is unique in that it is one of the few well preserved artifacts of the Minoan Kamares where they have

Throughout the times in Greek art, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods have changed overtime from the sculptures in the form, style, and symmetry.

Greek art took many ideas from Egypt and Mesopotamia however as the years passed they started to develop and create their own unique style. This style was more realistic and natural visually. One of their goals was for the viewer to believe they are seeing a moment standing still in time. You can see this when you compare Kroisos from, Anavysos Greece, and Doryphorus from Pompeii, Italy. These pieces are roughly dated 80 years apart however the difference between the two-forms are so remarkable. This paper will be discussing and addressing the evolution of a more naturalistic art form, from the statue of Kroisos compared to the statue of Doryphorus during the Greek art period. At a first glance of the statues you may not see the dramatic differences between the two however they were both approached in different ways to be created. They have different meanings yet both were created to be more naturalistic than what came before it.

The first vessel is a red figure bell krater, from around 380 BC, attributed to artist known as the Erbach painter. Typically red figure style deals with scenes of everyday life rather than myth, this pot differs from this as it does contain myth but rather than depicting the action from a mythological tale, it portrays a general scene of the Greek god, of wine drama and fertility, Dionysus. In this scene Dionysus is seen as a young man lounging on a blanket holding a thyros

Compare to another vase from the textbook in chapter 5, page 121, Andokides Painter, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game (Athenian bilingual amphora), from Orvieto, Italy, ca. 525-520 BCE. Black figure side (left) and red-figure side (right). It is 1’ 9” high, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This two sides of vase shows both black-figure and red-figure in one vase. It has two handles painted in red and black-figure on the shoulder. The differences between the two techniques can best be studied on a series of experimental vases with the same composition painted on one black and one red-figure. According to the textbook,

In the ancient Near East, human depictions in art varied over time and distance; as

Red-figure artwork replaced the easier black figure artwork which is its opposite. To create a red-figure art piece you must start with a slip to outline the figures. Once complete, the piece gets fired in three stages. The first turns the whole vase red and “fixes” the color to the vase. The second step is to reduce the oxygen in the kiln to a minimum, this turns the piece black.

The background of the vase has the ochre-red color, the color of the unglazed clay from which the amphora was made. All decorations – the narrative images and ornaments - was painted over the leather-hard pottery with a black clay slip. (Before a firing process this type of the clay slip has usually a dark-brown color, and it turns black during the firing process.) The sharp stylus was used for scratching lines inside the painted silhouette, so the ochre color appeared to separate forms and shapes. Several details were also painted with a white slip as a convention recommended to paint women’s flash. For instance, Athena’s and maenads’ faces, hands, and feet are white. Additionally, the brown-red color was applied for depiction of beards and some details of cloth. Therefore, the author used four colors: white, black, ochre-red colors, and brown-red to create the decoration of the

In this example Artefact B is painted in the style known as black figure. This was the dominating style throughout Mediterranean pottery from C. 625 BC until C.475 BC (Cartwight, 2012), when red figure overtook this style in popularity.

What is the main purposes for humanity? Is it a universal motive, or could it be more than one? You may think it depends who you are talking to, and this idea may have some true to it. There is a divergent range of beliefs of what these goals or purposes in life are. Some people would base it on religion, love, happiness, tradition, culture values or many other things that could even be unknown to some individuals. For the most part most of these categories can be linked in some way, They can be complete opposite but they are still followed with desire and passion. One of the main things that human’s can’t hide even if they try is this desire to express or show what they feel. Sometimes it is even without thinking that we express with body movements, sounds,

The Black Figure style included painting black figures upon an orange background and then incising additional details for further distinction of the characters. Flower-like patterns were used to decorate the brims of the pottery, and specific colours were painted on for particular purpose. (White was generally used when painting female skin, black was used when painting a male’s skin, and purple and red were used for clothing and embellishments.) Pottery artists also first begun inscribing their signatures on their own work throughout this era. These features can all evidently be identified on the amphora as there are two wealthy women using a Greek loom to spin and weave cloth. The designs on the amphora have been painted with relevant colours and the appropriate use of floral patterns have been illustrated around the edges of the amphora. The artist’s signature is also evident on the base. The first signed amphora dates back to 570 BC. A large number of other individual painters have been identified with confidence through their signatures. (artists usually signed their name as ‘...... made this’.) as time progressed, Black Figure pottery became exceedingly popular all through the rest of Greece and was used by many other Greek artists when painting Greek

Alexander the Great conquered all the known world in 336 B.C. He united all of Greece and built an empire, but he dies 13 years later. The period from 323 B.C. to 31 B.C. is known as the Hellenistic period. The word Hellenistic comes from the word hellenize which means to spread Greek influence. After Alexander’s death, his empire divided into four kingdoms: Syria (the kingdom of the Seleucids), Egypt, Pergamum, and Macedonia.

The Erechtheion was built to house the wooden statue of Athena Polis. It is an unusual and irregular temple situated on the north side of the acropolis. The temple was named after an early Athenian king named Erecthonios. During Erethonios reign a statue of Athena Polis fell to earth and this statue was placed into the Erechtheion. The exterior of the temple is designed so that there are four sets of columnar supports, three structural units with individual roofs and four different levels. There is no way to fully understand what the Erechtheion looked like on the inside as it was destroyed but we know that the main central building is spilt into parts, the eastern and the western cellars along with smaller porches on the north and south. The