Greek Art and Architecture

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Painting

Figures in the vase painting of the Middle Classical period are drawn in a rudimentary linear perspective that gives them a three-dimensional appearance. Such vase paintings probably resemble the lost works of the famous painters Apollodorus and Zeuxis. The latter is reported to have painted a bunch of grapes so realistically that birds tried to peck at them.

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Late Classical Period

(c. 400-323 bc). Architectural projects in Greece declined when Athens, defeated in the Peloponnesian War, lost political supremacy in the Greek world. In the visual arts a new, detailed characterization of figures reflects an interest in the individual that was also shown by poets and philosophers of the time.

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Architecture

Temples still were built in the Doric style, but the porch at the rear was omitted. An example is the Temple of Aesculapius in Epidaurus (c. 380 bc). Corinthian columns (the third Greek order), modified Ionic columns with acanthus leaves on the capitals, were used in the interior of the circular Tholos (360 bc) at Epidaurus, designed by Polyclitus the Younger. Theatres, which formerly consisted of wooden benches set on a hillside, were now constructed in stone, as, for example, the extant theatre of Epidaurus (350 bc), also by Polyclitus the Younger, built on sloping ground around an orchestra circle.

A renaissance of the Ionic style took place in Asia Minor. Its most imposing edifice was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the enormous tomb of Mausolus, king of Caria (fl. c. 376-353 bc), which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Raised on a pedestal, it was surrounded by an Ionic colonnade and topped with a pyramid and a quadriga, a sculptured chariot with four horses. According to tradition, each side was decorated with friezes by Scopas and three other Attic sculptors. Remains of the structure are in the British Museum, London, together with the colossal statue of Mausolus, an imposing portrait of a typical ruler of the time.

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Sculpture

Late Classical sculpture was dominated by Lysippus, Praxiteles, and Scopas. Lysippus created lithe young athletes, such as the lost bronze Scraper (c. 330 bc). Perhaps the most outstanding of the three was Praxiteles, who worked in a soft, graceful style. In his Hermes with the Infant Dionysus (c. 330-320 bc, Archaeological Museum, Olympia), the tree trunk that supports Hermes is drawn into the composition by the voluptuous curves of the figure. His Aphrodite of Cnidus (c. 350 bc, Roman copy in the Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican City), with her right hand in front of her body in a gesture of modesty, set the example for later female nudes. Her expression combines dignity, delicate charm, and worldliness. Her lower eyelids are indicated only by very light carving, and the surface of the figure is sculpted in a manner that produces a soft play of light and shadow upon it.

Sculpture in the 4th century bc further advanced the achievements of Polyclitus. Lysippus introduced a new set of proportions that dictated a more slender body and a smaller head. As the court sculptor of Alexander the Great, Lysippus brought figures of rulers into the repertoire of statuary subjects. Scopas, his contemporary, gradually abandoned the serene expressions of the Classical period in favour of bestowing on the faces of his images expressions of passion and intense emotions, preserved in the sculptures (now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens) from the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea.

Many 4th-century statuettes of unfired terracotta, called Tanagra figurines after Tanagra in Boeotia, where the type was first found, are extant. These charming pieces come mainly from tombs. Most of them are hollow because they were made in moulds. They are painted in tempera and depict such subjects as comic actors, women in fashionable dress, dwarfs, and miniature deities.

The Attic gravestone of the 5th and 4th centuries consisted of a slab decorated in relief with figures conveying the sadness of parting. The figures were often flanked by pilasters surmounted by a cornice.

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Painting

All 4th-century bc Greek murals, including those of the great Apelles, have perished. Their influence, however, may probably be seen in the trompe l'oeil landscapes and architectural scenes depicted on the walls of Roman houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 1st century ad.

After 320 bc no more pottery was exported from Athens, and only prize vases for athletes competing at the Panathenaea were made there. Italian ware took the place of Athenian vases in the Mediterranean market. The Italian vases exhibit a great variety of types, among which are those from Canosa, a city in southern Italy, as well as the so-called Calene ware from the neighbouring city of Cales. Both types often bear the signatures of the potters. The vases from Centuripe in Sicily are more elaborate, being decorated with figures in scenes painted in hues recalling those of modern pastels. The bodies of the vessels themselves are adorned with three-dimensionally modelled floral and figural forms.