Greek Art Essay

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Ancient Greek art is broken into six major periods of magnificent creation; The Geometric Age (900-725 BCE), The Orientalizing Period (725-650 BCE), The Archaic Period (650-480 BCE), The Classical Period (480-400 BCE), The Late Classical Period (400-325 BCE), and The Hellenistic Period (325-350 BCE). The Greek’s were the first Western Humans to document their artwork and their artists’ using literature but Greek art is particularly difficult to study. The Greek work’s themselves are in fragments and many sculptures are Roman copies of the original Greek work; therefore, there is no way to tell whether the Roman’s imitated the art exactly as they saw or how they interpreted the art, “A copy was not necessarily intended as a strict imitation, but allowed for adapting the work according to the taste of skill of the copy-ist or the patron’s wishes” (Davies, 76)1. The Greek’s practiced a Polytheistic religion, yet they created their God’s in human form rather than half-animal, half-human like the Ancient Egyptians had done. “The Greek God’s and Goddesses, though immortal, behaved in very human ways” (Davies, 82)2. Some major God’s and Goddesses of Greek culture were “Zeus, the God of sky and weather; Hera, Zeus’ sister and wife; Poseidon, the God of the sea; Hades, the God of the underworld; and Persephone, Hade’s queen” (Davies, 82)3. The Greek God’s and Goddesses were incorporated into Greek art forms to create idealized human being’s to symbolize the strength of the God’s. These God’s represented power, authority, strength and greatness. Through the six period’s of Greek Art, the art work progressively becomes less Archaic, “rigidly frontal and conceived as four distinct sides, reflecting the form of the block from which they were carved” (Davies, 85)4; to a contrapposto stance, “a balanced asymmetry of this reflected stance…to represent movement with a new naturalism”

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