19 Chapter 5.2: Greek Art: Archaic Period and Greek Temples

THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

The term archaic suggests something that is outmoded or old fashioned, but it was during the Archaic period when Greek artists were developing styles and architectural forms that we identify as uniquely Greek.

Artstor Gallery for UNO Students

Here is a link to an Artstor gallery of Greek Archaic Period art.  This collection contains both painted vases and statues, as covered in this chapter section. This is only available to UNO Students.  If you are off-campus, you’ll need to log in. For a refresher, visit the UNO Libraries Libguide for using Artstor.

Archaic Period TASK

The video below examines Greek society and the arts during the Archaic period. After watching the video, please answer the accompanying questions.

Ancient Greek Art – Archaic Phase 

Archaic Period TASK prompts:

What are the dates of the archaic period?

What is the significance of the establishment of the Greek poleis?

What other improvements were made?

What happened when Greek civilization expanded?

Describe changes that occurred in Greek pottery, sculpture and architecture.

ARCHAIC VASE PAINTING

Major changes took place between the Geometric and Orientalizing periods in vase painting. In the Orientalizing period, new motifs from Egypt and the Near East replaced rigid geometric forms and although the stylized, the lines became more curvilinear and decorative. During the Archaic period, the human figure, which was formerly composed of geometric shapes, became increasingly significant and artists began to depict the great stories from Greek mythology. Instead of covering the vase with bands of ornament, Archaic vases illustrated stories in a frame on each side of the vase and confined ornament to the vessel’s lip, foot and handles. Individual artists achieved recognition for their skill and signed their pots.

Archaic Painting TASK 1

During the Archaic period the popularity of Greek vase painting soared and select artists became famous for their style, even signing their name on the vessels they created. The amphora examined in this video was created by one of the most famous artists of the Black-Figure style. The narrators describe his ability to create dramatic tension through even the smallest details. After watching the video, please answer the accompanying questions.

Attic Black-Figure: Exekias, Amphora with Achilles and Ajax Playing a Game

Archaic Painting TASK 1 prompts:

What activity is taking place in the image and how is this identified?

How did the artist create a sense of drama or tension?

How does it foreshadow what is to come?

How and where did the artist achieve a sense of three-dimensionality with the slip?

Where was this pot discovered and what does its location tell us about the significance of the artist?

Archaic Painting Task 2

In the later Archaic period a new style of vase painting emerged, the so-called Red-Figure style, which eventually overtook its predecessor, the Black-Figure style in popularity. This video compares the different techniques and stylistic qualities associated with these two different styles of vase painting. After watching the video below, please answer the accompanying questions.

Black Figure vs Red Figure Ancient Greek Vase Painting Techniques

Archaic Painting TASK 2 prompts:

What are the primary differences between black-figure and red-figure vase painting in terms of the application of slip and details?

When was red-figure painting introduced and who introduced it?

What was the appeal of the red-figure style and why did it likely gain favor over the black?

ARCHAIC SCULPTURE

During the early periods of Greek art, including the Geometric and Orientalizing, large scale sculpture was virtually nonexistent. Not since the time of the Minoans and Mycenaeans had Greece produced large statuary until the Archaic period. Influenced by interaction with ancient Mediterranean civilizations, Greek artists and patrons turned their eyes toward the monumental. Once the male and female figures emerged on the stage, they continued to undergo transformation throughout the Archaic period. The videos in this section study the influences and transformations of Greek representations of the human form.

Archaic Sculpture TASK 1

This video explores one of the earliest statues of a male nude figure produced in the Archaic period, examining its style, influences, and meaning. After watching the video, pleas answer the accompanying questions.

Metropolitan Kouros

Archaic Sculpture TASK 1 prompts:

When did Greeks begin creating large scale freestanding sculpture?

What influenced the style of early Greek sculpture in stone and how?

How did Greek sculptures differ from its source?

What is typically represented in these early sculptures and what is the name for this type of image?

Why was the nudity significant in terms of the function of the artwork?

Archaic Sculpture TASK 2

The Anavysos Kouros was created later in the Archaic period and displays the changes that took place in the representation of the human form. After watching the video, please answer the accompanying questions.

Anavysos Kouros

Archaic Sculpture TASK 2 prompts:

Identify a few changes that took place in the human form from the time of the earliest kouros figures.

What similarities were retained?

What was the purpose of the archaic smile?

Why was this figure made?

What does the inscription indicate?

Archaic Sculpture TASK 3

Along with the male “kouroi” statues, artists also produced life-size freestanding statues of female figures, that also developed toward a greater sense of naturalism as the Archaic period progressed. After watching the video below, please answer the accompanying questions.

Archaic Greek Art: the Kore

Archaic Sculpture TASK 3 prompts: 

How would the sculptures have originally appeared?

How did the artist communicate a sense of stillness in the Berlin Kore?

What qualities give the Peplos Kore a more lifelike quality than the Berlin Kore?

Likewise, what made the last Kore discussed seem even more lifelike?

GREEK TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE

Although a few temples are known from the Orientalizing period, it was in the Archaic period that the architectural form most associated with the ancient Greeks appeared: the temple. Evident in civic buildings in every city in the United States and across the world, Greek architecture’s influence on the modern world is inestimable. Before examining specific examples of Archaic Greek architecture, this section introduces the basic layout and decoration of the Greek temple.

Greek Temples TASK 1

This video explores the function, layout, and decoration of the standard type of Greek temple. After watching the video, please answer the accompanying questions.

Ancient Greek temple architecture: the basics

Greek Temples TASK 1 prompts:

What was the purpose of a temple?

How was the temple laid out and of what spaces did it consist?

What was the central room of the temple and what was its primary function?

What was the ideal ratio of columns?

What term describes a temple that has columns on all four sides?

What are the primary differences between the Doric and Ionic orders?

Greek Temples TASK 2

Although Greek temples might appear at first glance to be astonishingly similar, a glance at the details like the column capitals, reveals that the Greeks had different systems of decoration. This video explains the Greek orders and the decorative details that belong to each. After watching the video, please answer the accompanying questions.

The Classical Orders

Greek Temples TASK 2 prompts:

What does the term order describe on a Greek temple?

What form of architecture does a Greek temple represent?

What parts of the temple do the pediment and entablature describe?

How is the frieze of a Doric temple decorated?

What shape does the capital of a Doric temple take?

What is entasis?

What are the differences between the Doric and Ionic?

What motif decorates the capital of the Corinthian order?

Greek Temples TASK 3

Some of the best-preserved Greek temples are located in Paestum, Italy which was a former Greek colony. One from the Archaic period and one from the Classical period, the surviving temples display the evolution of Greek temple architecture. After watching the video, please answer the accompanying questions.

Ancient Greek temples at Paestum, Italy 

Greek Temples TASK 3 prompts:

What was the city of Paestum in Greek times?

Which temple was created in the Archaic period and which in the Classical?

How do the narrators characterize the details of the Archaic temple such as the shape of the columns and capitals?

Why is the number of columns and interior cella unusual for the Archaic temple?

How does the later temple deviate from the earlier one in the proportions of the details, overall visual characteristics, design of the cella colonnade and so on?