Transcript The Art of Ancient Greece

Greek Vase Painting
Vase Shapes
“bell” krater
used for mixing
hydra
used for water
amphora
used for wine
Vase Shapes (cont.)
kylix
used for drinking wine at a symposium
lekythos
used for oil
Click here for more on Greek vase shapes.
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Geometric Krater
by the Dipylon Master
from the Dipylon
Cemetery, Athens, GR
ca. 740 BCE
3’ 4 1/2” high
The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, NY
Q 1.1: Characterize the art of the Geometric period.
Q 1.2: What is the narrative on this krater?
Q 1.3: How is the human figure portrayed on the krater?
Q 1.4: What is ameander, meander, and how is it used on this krater?
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Françoise Vase (Attic
black-figure volute krater)
Kletias and Ergotimos
from Chiusi, Italy
ca. 570 BCE
approx. 2’ 2” high
Museo Archeologica,
Florence, IT
This krater is known as the “Francois Vase“.
Q 2.1: What narrative, if any, is represented on the krater
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Achilles and Ajax playing a
dice game (detail from
black-figure amphora)
from Vulci, Italy
Exekias
ca. 540 - 530 BCE
whole vessel approx. 2’
high
Vatican Museums, Rome,
IT
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Q 3.1: How does this painting reveal Ajax and Achilles as great warriors? How does it
humanize them?
Q 3.2: What kinds of weapons and armor did these great Greek warriors have at their
disposal?
Q 3.3: Examine Exekias' Achilles and Queen Penthesilia. How does the portrayal of
Achilles differ in this painting?
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Signature of
Exekias
black on red
Louvre, Paris, FR
4.1: This signature of Exeklias reads thus: “Exekias made me.” (Note: The Greeks did not
put spaces between their words, as we do in English.)
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Achilles and Ajax playing a
dice game (Attic bilingual
amphora)
from Orvietto, Italy
Andokides Painter
ca. 525 - 520 BCE
black-figure side (left)
red-figure side (right)
approx. 1’ 9” high
Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston
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Definition: bilingual pottery
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Q 5.1: What might account for the emergence of bilingual pottery?
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Q 5.2: Why might an artist prefer the bilingual style?
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Q 5.3: Eventually, the bilingual style becomes unfashionable. What might account for this?
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Oedipus and the Sphinx
Achilles Painter
ca. 440 - 430 BCE
red-figure amphora
Staatliche
Antikensammlugen,
Munich, Germany
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Definitions: red-figure pottery
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Q 6.1: The Achilles painter is considered to be
one of the finest red-figure painters. What formal
and content advancements does the red-figure
style allow that the black-figure style doesn't?
Web Resources
• Wikipedia's entry on Ancient Greek Pottery
• The Beazley Archive: Classical Art Research Centre [Note:
Beazley is known as the first significant scholar of Greek
pottery after Wincklemann.]
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art's web page on Athenian
pottery – both black- and red-figure pottery is discussed.