Tony Art History Post 2
.pdf
School
Montecito High (continuation)**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
A EN 101
Subject
Arts & Humanities
Date
Jan 12, 2025
Pages
3
Uploaded by Saloumeh
The Greek Archaic period lasted from 550 BCE to the 6th c. Visually, the period is knownfor its more realistic portrayals of the human form. Previously, Greek art focused on geometricrepresentations of culture and history. In the Archaic period, Greek sculptors created largemarblekouros(male youth) andkore(female youth) figures. The kouros and kore were usuallyplaced as grave markers. Greeks were buried in simple tombs. The kouroi and korai weremeant to idealize the physical ideal of the Greek form as it relates to moral excellence. TheAnavysoskouros (Figure 1) was usually posed with arms stiff at his side and one leg in front ofthe other. The kouros was also represented as a naked male figure, highlighting a complicatedhairstyle and athletic physique. Kore was never portrayed as nude. In thephrasikleia korefigureat the right (Figure 2), the sculptor carved her draped in fabric but also with jewelry and a crown.The kouros and kore depicted below are typical of the universal, emotionless, rigid sculptures asGreek sculptors attempted to formally represent the human form. The stiff form of the kouroi andkorai were influenced by the posture of earlier Egyptian representative statues.Figure 1: Left: Marble Statue of Anavysos (Kroisos) Kouros, c. 530 B.C.E., NationalArchaeological Museum, Athens. Figure 2: Right: Parian marble statue of Aristion of Paros,Phrasikleia Kore, c. 550–540 B.C.E., National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Kleiner, 2019.The Etruscans were a people who lived in Tuscany, in Northern Italy, before the foundingof Rome. They were mysterious and enigmatic and the first superpower of the Mediterranean.Along with the ancient Greeks, the Etruscans established the first cities in Europe. Rome wouldlater assimilate the Etruscans into Roman Society. Etruscans were influenced by the Archaictime period of the ancient Greeks but without nudity. They remain mysterious because none oftheir histories or literature survived. Most of what we know about the Etruscans comes from theirtumuli,or tombs, which made up part of their larger necropoli. Tumuli are rounded structureswith a door leading into a brightly painted space. To the Etruscans, death is a celebration of life.Romans would borrow many of Etruscan cultural styles, and because Etruria was close toancient Greek, Etruscan art was influenced by ancient Greek culture and art. The Etruscans,like the Romans, borrowed many of the names of the Greek Gods and heroes and changedthem to fit their culture. Etruscans adopted many late Greek archaic styles, but the subjects aredistinctly Etruscan. Greeks were buried in simple tombs and Etruscans were buried in elaboratedecorated vaults. The statue of Apulu (Figure 3) resembles the korai and korai of Archaic
Greece with similar representations of the human form. The statue of Apulu below is standingstraight with arms out and one leg forward but the universal expression on the face along withthe intricate hairstyle notable of the Greek Archaic period. This statue is wearing a draped robethat covers one shoulder and goes down to the knee.Figure 3: Statue of Apulu (Apollo of Veii) from the roof of the Portonaccio temple, Italy, c.510-500 B.C., Muzeo Nazionale de Etrusco di Villa Guilia, Rome, Kleiner, 2019).The statue of Apulu comes from the rooftop of a temple in the Portonaccio sanctuary atVeii. Popularly known as the Apulu ,or Apollo, of Veii, it is one of a group of at least four paintedterracotta figures that adorned the temple’s ridge beam. These statues tell the story of one of 12labors of Herakles (Hercules) (Gardner 126). With this stature, Apulu confronted Herakles forpossession of the hind of Ceryneia, a wondrous gold-horned animal sacred to the god’s sisterArtumes (Artemis).It is also important to know that both the ancient Greeks of the Archaic period and theEtruscans created art that celebrated the Gods and Goddesses, and their sculptures like theGreek kouroi and korai and Apulu of Veii are similar in their representation of the ideal humanform as moral excellence.Both ancient Greece and Etruscan cultures had bold frescoes on the walls of their tombsthat called back to Neolithic cave art paintings. The fresco on the left wall of the secondchamber of Tomb of Hunting and Fishing in the Monterozzi Necropolis depicts a common sceneof diving and fishing.
Figure 4: “Diving and fishing, detail of the left wall of the second chamber of the Tomb ofHunting and Fishing, Monterozzi necropolis, Tarquinia, Italy, ca. 530-520 BcE, Kleiner, 2019.A similar frieze was found in Greece depicting a battle between Alexander the Great andPersian King Darius, perhaps the Battle of Issus (Figure 5). It is part of a larger mosaic knownas the Alexander Mosaic. Both friezes share commonalities with Neolithic Art in that they arefunctional and represent the lives and beliefs of the people of ancient Greece and Etruria. TheEtruscan frieze depicts a common scene of fishing and diving while the Alexander Mosaicfreeze represents the story of a battle.Figure 5:Alexander Mosaic, c. 100 B.C.E., Roman copy of a lost Greek painting, House of theFaun, Pompeii, c. 315 B.C.E., Kleiner, 2019)