Ancient Greek Art

 

https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/korecouple.jpg

    This piece of artwork is from the Archaic Period, which was from c. 600-480/479 B.C.E. Two of the most distinctive forms of free-standing sculpture (kouros and kore) emerged from this time period. Kourai can represent heroes and gods, but they were mostly grave markers because these statues idealized characteristics of the youth: beauty, athleticism, etc. Korai can be either larger than life or less than life but were always made with marble. These statues were made of marble because years before this time period, most of their art was made of bronze. However, they discovered that bronze melts, which destroyed their artwork. The statue to the left is a kouros (male youth), and the statue to the right is a kore (female youth). The kouros in the picture above (and all other kouros) have a conventional pose. The head and body are divided by a central line, and the legs are parted so the weight is placed equally in the front and back, like so. As you can see, their mouths are in a fixed smile, which is actually a symbolic expression of "excellence". A kouros was always naked, while a kore was always dressed. In fact, a kore was draped in layers of fabric and wore jewelry and a crown.

    Before the Archaic Period was the Bronze age, which took place around 3200 – 1100 B.C.E. During this time period, artwork was not as realistic as in the Archaic Period. Instead, artisans in the Bronze Age made statues to express heroism and power. Therefore, there was not much emotion put into pieces during this time period.

    Artwork from Ancient Greece is especially unique because even though such pieces were made so long ago, they are familiar to the eyes of people even in my generation. For example, if you have ever been to Caesar's palace in Las Vegas, there are statues that are similar to these everywhere. In a way, Caesar's Palace expresses the culture that was explained in this week's readings. Additionally, the readings mentioned Greek God's such as Achilles, Odysseus, etc. Although these mythological characters were created so long ago, they are still relevant to us. In fact, my senior year of high school I took Greek Mythology.