Greek Art Essay Research Paper

Greek Art Essay, Research Paper

Greek art is a very important in the upper paleolithic period. Art objects and artifacts are

important sources of information about civilization prior to written history. The number of

artworks lost because of their impermanence can only be imagined, since many were created by

using organic materials subject to destruction by fire, flood, and decay. By comparison, objects

made from metal or stone are more likely to survive The Aegean basin was a center of artistic

activity from early times see AEGEAN CIVILIZATIONS the ravages of time and nature. They

too, however, are susceptible to deterioration and may bring to our eyes a decidedly different

appearance than they possessed originally. Among the earliest objects that have survived are

stone figures archaeologists have given the title of Venus of willendorf a small stone figure

found in Austria, dating from 20,000 B.C.. I think it is a symbolic sculpture most probably

designed to represent and call forth human fertility. In many early civilization, people associated

fecundity with the female rather than the male and chose to represent females in their ceremonial

images. The reduction of detail and the exaggeration of aspects of the human from in the

twentieth-century sculpture, in which a realistic representation of from is likewise not the artist.s

primary goal.

Because of their artistic quality, state of preservation, and antiquity, the paintings in the

Lascaux caves near Montiganac, France, are among the most important art discoveries of the

twentieth century. According to one widely accepted story, the paintings were discovered in

1941 by children playing in a field. Deep within those caves, early artists had painted humans

and animal figures and weapons, using mixtures of yellow and red ochre-natural found in iron

ore. In spite of fragile nature of material used in these paintings, the images have survived. In

places, the walls are nearly covered with stylized figures representing animals that inhabited

western Europe 15,00 years ago. It is one thing to represent an animal with proportional

accuracy, but quite another to express its nature and movement. These unnamed artists captured

the essence of the animals, by using expressive lines and subtle colors.

Because most of the record of the people of the Paleolithic period has been destroyed by

natural as well as human forces, we will never know with certainty the purposes of their art

objects. They may have been used in religious rituals related to some aspect of the hunt: they

may have express recognition of the common sprit among living things. Nevertheless, we can

safely conjecture that both the Venus of Willendorf and the cave paintings of Lascaux were

objects associated with the early religion. One thing is known: in those early millennia, art played

an important role in life.

The western world has always looked upon ancient Greece as the cradle of its cultural

development. The Greeks have always stride for perfection. In the Archaic age of Greek art,

extending from about100 B.C.., is the age in which the indigenous Greek art was slowly

developing. The second period, often called the Lyric Age and extending from 800 B.C., to the

sixth century B.C., is noted for its expressiveness and realism. This is the great age of lyric

poetry, from which the period takes its name. The Golden Age flourished in the fifth century

B.C. and went on to the fourth century B.C., is considered the high point of Greek culture.

During this era, there occurred such a development in drama, architecture, sculpture, and music

that the age is still looked upon as the source from which our own culture emerged. The

Hellenistic period of Greek culture dates from about 325 B.C. to 100B.C. and is viewed as a

period of decadent Greek art.

The importance of Greek art and architecture for the history of Western civilization can hardly

be overstated, for the Greeks established many of the most enduring themes, attitudes, and forms

of Western culture. The stories told in Greek art and literature of gods and heroes have been

retold ever since and continue to form a common ground for the art, literature, and even popular

culture of the Western world.

Greek artists were the first to establish mimesis (imitation of nature) as a guiding principle for art,

even as Greek philosophers debated the intellectual value of this approach. The repeated

depiction of the nude human figure in Greek art reflects Greek humanism a belief that “Man is

the measure of all things,” in the words of Greek philosopher Protagoras. Architecture is another

Greek legacy that the West has inherited, as Greece established many of the structural elements,

decorative motifs, and building types still used in architecture today.

Two great cultures-the MINOAN CIVILIZATION and the MYCENEAN CIVILIZATION-

developed complex and delicate art forms. After the invasion of the Doria

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