Homeric period in the history of Greek art. Features of the art of ancient Greece Features of the art of ancient Greece Homeric

Y. Kolpinsky

The earliest initial period in the development of Greek art is called Homeric (12th - 8th centuries BC). This time was reflected in the epic poems - "Iliad" and "Odyssey", the author of which the ancient Greeks considered the legendary poet Homer. Although Homer's poems were formed in their final form later (in the 8th - 7th centuries BC), they tell about more ancient social relations characteristic of the time of the decay of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a slave society.

During the Homeric period, Greek society as a whole still retained its clan structure. Ordinary members of the tribe and clan were free farmers, partly shepherds. Handicrafts, which were predominantly rural in nature, received some development.

But the gradual transition to iron tools, the improvement of farming methods increased labor productivity and created conditions for the accumulation of wealth, the development of property inequality and slavery. However, slavery in this era was still of an episodic and patriarchal nature, slave labor was used (especially at the beginning) mainly in the economy of the tribal leader and military leader - Basileus.

Basileus was the head of the tribe; he united in his person judicial, military and priestly power. Basilevs ruled the community together with the council of clan elders, called bule. In the most important cases, a popular assembly was called - agora, consisting of all the free members of the community.

Tribes settled at the end of the 2nd millennium BC on the territory of modern Greece, were then still at a late stage in the development of pre-class society. Therefore, the art and culture of the Homeric period took shape in the process of processing and development of those, essentially still primitive, skills and ideas that the Greek tribes brought with them, who only to a small extent adopted the traditions of a higher and more mature artistic culture of the Aegean world.

However, some legends and mythological images that developed in the culture of the Aegean world entered the circle of mythological and poetic representations of the ancient Greeks, just as various events in the history of the Aegean world received figurative and mythological transformation in the legends and in the epic of the ancient Greeks (the myth of the Minotaur, the Trojan epic cycle, etc.). The monumental architecture of ancient Greek temples, which originated in the Homeric period, used and reworked the type of megaron that had developed in Mycenae and Tiryns - a hall with a passage and a portico. Some of the technical skills and experience of Mycenaean architects were also used by Greek craftsmen. But in general, the entire aesthetic and figurative structure of the art of the Aegean world, its picturesque, subtly expressive character and ornamental, patterned forms were alien to the artistic consciousness of the ancient Greeks, who initially stood at an earlier stage of social development than the states of the Aegean world that had gone over to slavery.

12th - 8th centuries BC. were the era of the addition of Greek mythology. During this period, the mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. In large cycles of epic songs, the people's ideas about their life in the past and present, about gods and heroes, about the origin of earth and heaven, as well as the popular ideals of valor and nobility, were reflected. Later, already in the archaic period, these oral songs were consolidated into large artistically completed poems.

The ancient epic, along with mythology inextricably linked with it, expressed in its images the life of the people and their spiritual aspirations, having a tremendous impact on the entire subsequent development of Greek culture. His themes and plots, rethought in accordance with the spirit of the times, were developed in drama and lyrics, reflected in sculpture, painting, drawings on vases.

The fine arts and architecture of Homeric Greece, with all their direct folk origin, did not reach either the breadth of coverage of public life or the artistic perfection of epic poetry.

The earliest (of the extant) works of art are vases of the "geometric style", decorated with geometric patterns applied in brown paint over the pale yellowish background of an earthen vessel. Ornament covered the vase, usually in its upper part, with a row of ring belts, sometimes filling its entire surface. The most complete picture of the "geometric style" is given by the so-called Dipylon vases, dating back to the 9th - 8th centuries. BC. and found by archaeologists in an ancient cemetery near the Dipylon gate in Athens (ill. 112). These very large vessels, sometimes almost as tall as a person, had a funerary and cult purpose, repeating in shape the clay vessels that served to store large quantities of grain or vegetable oil. On the Dipylon amphoras, the ornament is especially abundant: the pattern most often consists of purely geometric motifs, in particular the meander braids (the meander pattern was preserved as an ornamental motive throughout the development of Greek art). In addition to geometric ornamentation, schematized plant and animal designs were widely used. The figures of animals (birds, animals, for example, a fallow deer, etc.) are repeated many times over individual stripes of the ornament, giving the image a clear, albeit monotonous, rhythmic structure.

An important feature of the later Dipylon vases (8th century BC) is the introduction into the pattern of primitive subject images with schematized figures of people reduced to an almost geometric sign. These plot motives are very diverse (the rite of mourning for the deceased, the competition of chariots, sailing ships, etc.). For all their schematic and primitive figures, the figures of people and especially animals have a certain expressiveness in conveying the general character of movement and the clarity of the story. If, in comparison with the paintings of the Cretan-Mycenaean vases, the images on the Dipylon vases are coarser and more primitive, then in relation to the art of pre-class society they certainly signify a step forward.

The sculpture of Homeric time has come down to us only in the form of small plastic, for the most part of an obviously cult character. These small figurines depicting gods or heroes were made of terracotta, ivory, or bronze. The terracotta figurines found in Boeotia, completely covered with ornaments, are distinguished by their primitiveness and indivisibility of forms; some parts of the body are barely outlined, others are inordinately highlighted. Such is, for example, the figure of a seated goddess with a child: her legs are fused with the seat (throne or bench), her nose is huge and like a beak, the transfer of the anatomical structure of the body does not interest the master at all.

Along with terracotta figurines, bronze ones also existed. "Hercules and the Centaur" and "Horse", found in Olympia and dating back to the end of the Homeric period (ill. 113 a), give a very clear idea of \u200b\u200bthe naive primitiveness and schematism of this small bronze sculpture intended for dedication to the gods. The figurine of the so-called "Apollo" from Boeotia (8th century BC) with its elongated proportions and general construction of the figure resembles images of a person in Crete-Mycenaean art, but sharply differs from them in frontal stiffness and schematic convention of the transfer of face and body.

The monumental sculpture of Homeric Greece has not reached our time. Its character can be judged from the descriptions of ancient authors. The main type of this sculpture was the so-called xoans - idols made of wood or stone and which were, apparently, a roughly cut tree trunk or a block of stone, completed with a barely outlined image of the head and facial features. Some idea of \u200b\u200bthis sculpture can be given by geometrically simplified bronze images of the gods found during excavations of a temple in Dreros in Crete, built in the 8th century. BC. the Dorians, who had already settled on this island long before.

Only a few terracotta figurines from Boeotia dating back to the 8th century, such as the figurine depicting a peasant with a rogue (ill. 113 6), have features of a more lively attitude to the real world; despite the naivety of the decision, this group is comparatively more truthful in terms of the motive of the movement and is less bound by the stillness and conventionality of the art of the Homeric period. In such images, one can see some parallel to the epic of Hesiod, created at the same time, glorifying peasant labor, although here, too, the fine arts seem to be very far behind literature.

By the 8th century, and possibly also by the 9th century. BC, include the most ancient remains of monuments of early Greek architecture (the temple of Artemis Orphia in Sparta, the temple in Thermos in Aetolia, the mentioned temple in Dreros in Crete). They used some of the traditions of Mycenaean architecture, mainly a general plan similar to the megaron; the altar-hearth was placed inside the temple; on the facade, as in the megaron, two columns were placed. The most ancient of these structures had walls of adobe bricks and timber frames, set on a stone plinth. Remains of the ceramic lining of the upper parts of the temple have been preserved. In general, the architecture of Greece in the Homeric period was at the initial stage of its development.

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Features of the art of Ancient Greece

The ancient era left a particularly deep mark in the history of European civilization. In the years when most of the population of Europe was in a state of barbarism, in the cities of the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, on the islands of the Aegean Sea, the foundations of the future culture were laid by a small but capable people of the Hellenes. Ancient Greek philosophers and public figures, poets and playwrights, architects, sculptors, and artists laid the foundation for European culture.

The ability to express feelings in various artistic ways - in architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry, music - was characteristic of man.

The ancient Greeks were familiar with various types of art. Their majestic temples are world-famous, it is difficult to name a person who would not admire the proportions in the drawings on Greek vases. But especially the plastic embodiment of feelings was inherent in the Hellenes. Even in the complex architectural structures of the Greeks, their plastic basis first of all appears. The philosophical understanding of the world then acquired a special plastic concreteness in mythological images, in well-aimed aphoristic statements. Least of all was the abstraction of thinking characteristic of the Hellenes, which later captured the consciousness of their European descendants.

There are several stages in the history of ancient Greek art. In the Cretan-Mycenaean, or Aegean, period (III-II millennium BC), not only the art of the masters of the Cretan state flourished, but the creative activity of the Achaean tribes on the Balkan Peninsula turned out to be a powerful force. XI to VIII century BC e. the period, conditionally called Homeric, continues, characterized by the widespread use of ceramics and small plastic arts of the geometric style. Archaic era, falling on the VII-VI centuries BC e., was the time of the emergence of independent city-states on the Balkan Peninsula and the rapid development of art. The classical period covers the 5th and 4th centuries BC. e. Within its limits, early classics are distinguished - the first half of the 5th century BC. e., high classics - the third quarter of the 5th century BC. e. and late classics - IV century BC. e. In the late period of Greek art III-I centuries BC. e. - the era of Hellenism - there is a strong Hellenization of the culture of the peoples living in the Mediterranean basin.

The ancient Greeks created a new culture in the full sense of the word. They were familiar with the achievements of science and art of the peoples of the East - the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and yet they went their own way both in the field of new socio-political formations, and in relation to artistic and aesthetic views of the world.

The culture and art of the Hellenes have always attracted the attention of people for whom they were already history. In the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, in the centuries of modern times, artists saw in the art of the ancient Greeks a wonderful example, an inexhaustible source of feelings, thoughts, inspiration. At all times, with his characteristic inquisitiveness, man strove to penetrate the mystery of the perfection of ancient Greek art, trying to comprehend the essence of Hellenic monuments with reason and feeling.

Cretan-Mycenaean (Aegean) period

The origins of the ancient culture of the Aegean Sea basin go back to the distant past, in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, when in the III millennium BC. the strong city of Troy flourished, original monuments of art were created on the islands of Paros, Naxos, Syros, and on the Balkan Peninsula in the Thessalian villages and in the Peloponnesian towns of Sesklo, Dimini, Lerna, the most ancient structures found now in ruins were erected, ceramic figurines and terracotta were made. A particularly striking focus, where the foundations of the later European civilization were laid, was the Minoan culture of the island of Crete, whose art reached its prime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC.

Crete was mentioned in the poems of Homer, where the island was called hundred-city, inhabited by many peoples. The historians Herodotus and Thucydides wrote about Crete, who considered Minos the first creator of the fleet, the ruler of the Cyclades islands and the mighty ruler of the sea. Hesiod called Minos "the most royal of all mortal kings."

This information was known for a long time, but the real meaning of the myths and testimonies of ancient authors became obvious when archaeologists unearthed a huge palace in Crete and found monuments of Minoan art and culture, unique in their beauty and originality, dating back to a long period from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. until the XI century BC

Distinguish several stages in the history of Minoan culture. Ancient - lasted from 2600 to 2000 BC. - was named early Minos, after the legendary Minos. The flourishing of culture dates back to the first half of the II millennium BC, from 2000 to 1425, - to the periods of the Middle Minoan and the beginning of the Late Minoan. The time from 1425 to 1150 was the end of the Late Minoan period. These centuries saw the destruction both by natural forces and by the Achaean tribes of the city of Knossos, the decline of the power of Crete, the death of its culture and the advancement of the Achaean centers of the Balkan Peninsula.

Kings ruled Crete, who often performed the role of priests, since religious ceremonies were given a significant place. There was an army, a strong navy. The Cretans were known as fearless sailors who maintained a brisk trade with other peoples. Nature has not offended this Mediterranean island. Lush grasses on pastures for livestock, lush vegetation in fertile valleys, an abundance of grapes, olive groves, crops of flax, saffron - Crete was famous for all these since ancient times.

The area of \u200b\u200bthe Minos palace reached sixteen thousand square meters. Around the front yard there were rooms of different sizes and shapes in two, and possibly three floors. Since it was almost impossible to capture any system in their layout, the palace was perceived as a complex labyrinth built by the legendary Daedalus.

The columns used by the architect were peculiar. Downwards they did not expand, as in the buildings of other ancient peoples, but narrowed. Their trunk was not likened to the plant prototypes of the Egyptian supports, repeating the shape of papyrus or lotus stems stretching upwards. The Knossos column has no resemblance to the images of wildlife. The architect refused to imitate nature, which appeared in Egyptian architecture, found the language of architectural forms for the elements of the structure, based on proportional and numerical ratios, and laid bare the essence of the column as a support, highlighting and emphasizing this very function.

There were no openings in the walls, similar to the windows of later buildings, in the Knossos palace. The light passed through the holes in the ceiling (light wells) to the first floor, creating a different degree of illumination in the halls of the palace - close or far from the light openings. The confusion of passages and exits, sudden descents and ascents of stairs, unexpected turns characteristic of the “Daedalus Labyrinth” were complemented by the special mystery of unexpected lighting effects, the play of light and shadow in either brightly lit or semi-dark rooms.

The walls of Minos' chambers were covered with numerous colorful images. The sophistication of the profile line of a young woman on one of the frescoes, the grace of her hairstyle, which reminded archaeologists of fashionable and flirty French women, made them call her “Parisian,” and this name has remained with her to this day. The walls of the palace were often decorated with an ornament - most often in the form of a wave or flexible spiral-shaped curls, melodious and elastic, stretching in a continuous ribbon, where some bright colors were replaced by others. It is especially characteristic of the art of the Cretans, where everything is permeated with movement, now impetuous, now more restrained. The proximity of the sea, the perpetual movement of waves, gusts of a squall, a gentle gentle breeze that inflates the sails of ships - the elements that surrounded Cretan artists contributed to the emergence of dynamic compositions in their art.

The frescoes of the Palace of Knossos allow you to see scenes of solemn ceremonies, religious processions associated with religious holidays, games with the sacred animal in Crete - the bull. The artist showed on one of the frescoes a huge bull, which rushes almost without touching the ground with its hooves, bending its mighty head heavily and thrusting its horns forward. One of the Cretans, clutching the horns, is about to jump on the animal's back, so that then gently descend to the ground behind the bull. A procession of ceremoniously marching youths with rhyton is presented on the wall of the southern propylaea of \u200b\u200bthe palace, where people constantly passed. The depicted characters seemed to repeat the movement of real Cretans.

The walls of the palace were covered not only with frescoes, but also with low painted reliefs. One of them shows a young man in a tall diadem crowned with feathers. The designs on the diadem reproduce the stylized shape of a lily. The necklace follows the same outline. The motive of this exquisite flower sounds here several times. In such patterns, life glimmers. They seem to have lost the qualities of a living flower, but have not yet become ornaments. In many monuments of Cretan art, a keen sense of reality is intertwined with exquisite stylization. In the interpretation of the figure of a young man, there is an Egyptian convention: the legs and face are shown in profile, but the shoulders are turned full face and the eye looks directly at us. However, the immediacy of the worldview makes the image deeply different from the monuments of Egypt. A person in the art of Crete seems to be much freer from admiration for an incomprehensible and distant deity than in Egyptian art. The people depicted on the Cretan frescoes are perceived as an integral part of nature, they merge with the landscape in which the artist shows them.

The monumental round sculptures of Crete have not reached us. On the other hand, the many objects of small plastic discovered by archaeologists convinces that the Cretan craftsmen knew various materials: faience, clay, ivory, bronze. Of particular interest are the low earthenware figurines of women with snakes in their hands found in the Knossos palace, striking with their grace and skill. They undoubtedly had a cult significance, perhaps they depicted priestesses with snakes - deities taking care of the welfare of the house. There are also known statuettes of bull jumpers, executed in metal and ivory.

Virtuosos of their craft were the Cretan potters, who created dishes with walls no thicker than eggshells, but very strong after firing in ovens. The vases are mostly spherical, juicy; the colors are bright. The vessels of the so-called “kamares” style are exquisite, on the dark surface of which, as if dressing them with lace, ornamental patterns applied with light colors appear. A circle or spiral motif is often used. Eternal continuous movement here, like fresco ornaments, finds its expression. Later, the color scheme of the painted vases in Crete changed. In the 16th century, images of sea animals or flowers were painted on a light background. The Cretan vase painter always strove to emphasize the shape with a drawing and preferred to show an octopus on a spherical vessel, while on a vase extended upwards he placed slender stems of plants. This quality of the Cretan paintings, harmoniously combined with the form, will subsequently be adequately appreciated by the Greeks. By the end of the 16th and beginning of the 15th century BC. a group of especially luxurious vases of the so-called "palace style" belongs to. It is noteworthy that, as a rule, there are no human figures on the ceramic vessels of Crete. The artist used flowers, ornaments, and images of animals to decorate the objects necessary in everyday life, without trying to show plot compositions carrying a semantic load.

In the 15th century, possibly taking advantage of the powerful volcanic eruption in Santorini, which damaged Crete, the Balkan Achaeans seized the island and subdued it, further experiencing the strong influence of the Minoan culture. With the fall of Knossos, the leading role in this region of Europe passed to the Achaeans, who defeated the Cretans, but were significantly inferior in their cultural level.

In each of the cities of Mycenae, Tiryns, Athens, Pylos and other Achaean king ruled. The settlements were often located not on the plain, like the Cretan ones, but on the hills from which the surrounding area is clearly visible, not on the seashore, but at a distance from it. High fortress walls protected them from attack, as the danger of unexpected pirate raids worried the inhabitants. It was as if the giants were lifting huge stones, folding these walls and towers, called "cyclopean". The dark gray color of the huge boulders, of which the fortifications of the “strong-walled” Tiryns are made, gives a special austerity to its appearance. A complex system of galleries and passages was located in the wide fortress walls. There were water cisterns, food warehouses, weapons supplies. In the dense thickets of bushes on the slope of the acropolis, there was a secret passage with a staircase leading to the fortress and the palace. The royal chambers, of which only the foundations have been fairly well preserved in Tiryns, can be considered a typical ceremonial building of that time. In the Knossos construction of Minos, attention was drawn to the lack of a clear system in the arrangement of rooms and halls. The royal palace of Tiryns is dominated by the central room - the megaron - with four internal columns supporting the roof and framing the hearth. Similar megarons were discovered by archaeologists at Mycenae and Pylos.

The gate leading to the Achaean citadels had a solemn appearance. The entrance to the acropolis of Mycenae, called the Lion's Gate, was decorated with a slab of golden-yellow stone depicting two lionesses leaning with their front paws on a pedestal with a column resembling a Cretan one (ill. 5). Not far from the Lion Gate were the graves of the Achaean rulers. In the deep, mine-like tombs of the 17th-16th centuries, a large number of all kinds of jewelry and utensils made of precious metals were found - silver and gold cups, luxurious tiaras, masks made of thin sheet gold applied to the face of the deceased, gold plaques that adorned clothes, as well as daggers inlaid with complex compositions of gold. All these monuments clearly testify to the customs of the Mycenaean nobility, about the burial rite, the type of objects that were placed in the graves. The luxury of burials characterized the mores of the Achaeans, their desire for the splendor of ornaments.

Masks that to some extent convey the individual characteristics of faces, of course, cannot be called portrait masks. In the desire to capture and preserve the facial features of a king or a military leader, a military leader, there is a desire, unfamiliar to the Cretans, to magnify his role (ill. 6). The emergence of such monuments testifies to the nature of the relationship in the life of the Achaean tribes. The triumph of physical strength permeated this culture, found expression in the power of the fortress walls, in the depiction of battle plots and hunting scenes on vases and frescoes.

The forms of the vessels are also new and unlike the Cretan ones. The character of the goblets from the 16th century mine graves is varied: some are smart, decorated with rosettes, their contours are graceful; the beautiful alabaster vessel has intricate curving handles. Many are distinguished by laconic decor, unpretentious silhouette, severity and simplicity of forms. In the famous “Nestor's Cup” from the fourth shaft tomb, the constructive base of the bowl is noticeable, despite the decoration of the handles with doves.

Rigidity and static composition prevail in the art of the Achaeans. On gold round plaques sewn on clothes and found in mine tombs, octopuses and butterflies are shown, but the contour lines, details of these images of wildlife are reduced to dry ornament. Craftsmen love strict symmetry, schematic forms. Even the patterns of the spiral are losing the dynamism that the Cretan artist felt in them.

The daggers found in the Achaean tombs are interesting not only as examples of weapons, but above all for the scenes inlaid on them. The elongated blade is skillfully used to depict either the dangerous struggle of a man with a lion, or the figures of animals spread out in the run. The plot - the hunt - is perceived as new in comparison with the Cretan art. On one of the daggers, on a narrow strip, it turned out to be possible to place a landscape, in a complex inlay technique to show a river with swimming fish, bushes growing along the banks, and a wild cat grabbing a bird. Particularly noteworthy in these daggers is the color of the materials used - gold of different tones, silver, copper, black. Homer narrated about the skill of artisans who made weapons and jewelry from gold, silver, ivory and other materials in the Iliad, describing in detail the shield of Achilles.

Late mine graves at the end of the 15th-14th centuries BC. domed tombs were erected, which were laid out of stone, round in plan, with rooms converging at the top, hidden under a burial mound.

In Mycenae, Tiryns and other cities of the Balkan Peninsula, the walls of palaces were decorated with frescoes, vase painting and toreutics were widespread. However, monumental sculptures and reliefs were rarely created. Partly because of this, sculpture in the Homeric era would be less developed than vase painting.

In the performance of the frescoes of Tiryns, new features can be seen in comparison with the painting of Crete. Two women, depicted by an ancient artist, move in a chariot past the schematically indicated trees growing on the sides of the road. In this fresco, the details are Greek - a chariot, women's clothes. The contours of the figures, the horse carts are cutting, the forms are frozen - they are more static than in the paintings of Crete. The individual elements of the pattern decorating the fresco are not connected with each other. There is no mobility of forms characteristic of Crete ornaments. The line, which fully and flawlessly expressed the mood and feelings of the master in the art of Crete, is now only a means of depicting a particular object.

In the subject of Achaean works, there are many plots related to the struggle taking place in the world: hunting for lions, hounding a wild boar by dogs, preparing the Achaeans for the campaign, saddling war horses. One of the 12th century Mycenaean vases depicts warriors in high helmets, with spears and shields, walking one after another. The drawing on the vessel, which served as a decorative pattern in the ceramics of Crete, has now become the expression of a complex and profound idea. The manner of painting seems to be careless, the figures can sometimes seem funny, although the artist was far from thinking of presenting anything funny in his composition.

12th century BC - the time of the decline of the Aegean civilization. The movement of peoples is noticeable on the Balkan Peninsula. Dorians are advancing from the north. In all archaeological layers of the XII century from Macedonia to Crete, scientists find traces of destruction and fires. In the XII century, the Hittite state ceased to exist in Asia Minor, and clashes of various tribes were noted in Egyptian documents. Significant social and cultural changes are taking place on the shores of the Mediterranean. During this period, the Aegean culture perishes.

Homeric period

After the conquest of the Achaean tribes, weakened in the Trojan War, by the Doryans, the Homeric period in the history of ancient Greek art (XI-VIII centuries BC) follows, characterized by patriarchal life, fragmentation of small farms and the primitiveness of a culture that began to form. From this time almost no architectural monuments remained, since the material was mainly wood and unbaked, but only dried in the sun, raw brick. Only poorly preserved remains of foundations, drawings on vases, terracotta burial urns, likened to houses and temples, and some lines of Homeric poems can give an idea of \u200b\u200bthe architecture at its origins.

Rare monuments of sculpture, simple in form and small in size, were also created in that era. Especially widespread was the decoration of vessels, to which the ancient Greeks regarded not only as necessary in everyday life. In various, sometimes fancy ceramic forms, in simple, but expressive

In the forms and patterns of vases that arose before the 9th century BC. e., was the simplicity of expressing the feelings of the people who created them. Vessels were usually covered with ornaments in the form of the simplest figures: circles, triangles, squares, rhombuses. Over time, the patterns on the vessels became more complex, and their forms became diverse. At the end of the 9th - beginning of the 8th century BC. e. vases appeared with a continuous filling of the surface with ornaments. The body of an amphora from the Munich Museum of Applied Arts is divided into thin belts - friezes, painted with geometric figures, like lace, lying on a vessel. The ancient artist decided to show on the surface of this amphora in addition to patterns - animals and birds, for which he singled out special friezes, located one in the upper part of the throat, another at the very beginning of the body and the third near the bottom. The principle of repetition, characteristic of the early stages of the development of art of different nations, also appears among the Greeks in ceramic paintings; the vase painter here used, in particular, repetition in the depiction of animals and birds. However, even in simple compositions, differences are noticeable on the throat, body and bottom. At the corolla, the fallow deer are calm; they graze peacefully, nibbling the grass. In the place of the body, where the arms begin to rise and the shape of the vessel changes sharply, the animals are shown differently - as if in alarm they turned their heads back, startled. Violation of the smooth rhythm of the contour line of the vessel found an echo in the image of the fallow deer.

The Dipylon amphora, which served as a tombstone in the Athens cemetery, dates back to the 8th century. Its monumental forms are expressive; broadly massive body, high throat proudly rises. She seems no less majestic than the slender column of a temple or the statue of a powerful athlete. Its entire surface is divided into friezes, each of which has its own pattern, with frequently repeating meanders of various types. The depiction of animals on the friezes is subject here to the same principle as on the Munich amphora. At the widest point there is a scene of farewell to the deceased. To the right and left of the deceased are mourners with their arms folded over their heads. The sorrow of the drawings on the vases that served as tombstones is extremely restrained.

In the laconicism of the paintings of the 10th-8th centuries, qualities were formed that later developed in the plastically juicy forms of Greek art. This era was a school for Greek artists: the strict clarity of the geometric style drawings are due to the restrained harmony of the images of the archaic and the classic.

In the geometric style, the aesthetic feelings of the people were manifested, which began the path to the top of civilization, which subsequently created monuments that eclipsed the glory of the Egyptian pyramids and the palaces of Babylon. The decisiveness and inner composure of the Hellenes at that time found an echo in the extreme laconicism of the paintings with an inexorable rhythm, clarity and sharpness of lines. The conventional character of the images, the simplification of the forms are not the result of refinement, but of the desire to express with a graphic sign the general concept of a completely definite object of the real world. The limitation of this principle of the image is the absence of specific, individual features of the image. Its value is that a person at an early stage of development begins to bring into the world, which still seems incomprehensible and chaotic, an element of a system and order. The schematic images of geometry will be saturated in the future with more and more concreteness, but Greek artists will not lose the principle of generalization achieved in this art. In this regard, the paintings of the Homeric period are the first steps in the development of ancient artistic thinking.

Attic art, represented by the Dipylonian vases, happily combines forms that have been developed for centuries in various regions of Greece - on the islands, in the Doric centers, in Boeotia. In Attica, especially beautiful vessels are created with long-spoken, living paintings. In Argos, the compositions are extremely laconic, in Boeotia they are expressive, on the islands of the Aegean Sea they are elegant. But for all art schools, the originality of which is already outlined in the Homeric period, and especially for the Attic, common qualities are characteristic - an increase in interest in the human image, a desire for harmonious correspondence of forms and clarity of composition.

There is no less originality in sculpture of the geometric style than in vase painting. Small plastic adorned ceramics, when animal figurines made of clay or bronze were attached to the lids of vessels and served as handles. There were also figurines of a cult nature that were not connected with vessels, which were dedicated to deities, placed in temples or intended for graves. Most often these were figurines made of baked clay with only outlined facial features and limbs. Only sometimes did sculptors take on complex problems and solve them with rather original methods of their style. Most of the geometric figurines are intended for contemplation in profile and seem flat, like images on vases. The silhouette is of great importance in them, only later will the master's interest in volume begin to awaken. Elements of the artist's plastic understanding of the world are only outlined.

In the sculpture of the geometric style, such works of a plot nature are still rare, such as the bronze depiction of a centaur and a man, kept in the New York Metropolitan Museum, designed for perception from the side. However, already here one can clearly observe what will appear later in the Greek archaic - the nakedness of the male figure, the accentuated muscles of the hips and shoulders.

In the second half of the VIII century BC. e. in the geometric style, features appear that indicate the abandonment of its strict rules. There is a desire to show the figure of a person, an animal, various objects, not schematically, but more vividly. In this one can see the beginning of a departure from the conventionality of paintings and sculptures. Gradually, the Greek masters move on to more full-blooded, vitally specific images. Already at the end of the geometric style, the first signs of a process were outlined that, from the conventionality of the forms of early antiquity in the geometric style, would lead to the utmost concreteness of reproducing the world in the monuments of late antiquity. With the emergence of more mature human ideas about the world, there is a need not for a schematic, but for a detailed image, leading to a crisis of the geometric style and the appearance of new forms in the monuments of the archaic period of the 7th-6th centuries BC. e.

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During the Homeric period, Greek society as a whole still retained its clan structure. Ordinary members of the tribe and clan were free farmers, partly shepherds. Crafts, which were predominantly rural in nature, received some development.

But the gradual transition to iron implements, the improvement of farming methods increased labor productivity and created conditions for the accumulation of wealth, the development of property inequality and slavery. However, slavery in this era was still of an episodic and patriarchal nature, slave labor was used (especially at the beginning) mainly in the economy of the tribal leader and military leader - Basileus.

However, some legends and mythological images that developed in the culture of the Aegean world entered the circle of mythological and poetic representations of the ancient Greeks, just as various events in the history of the Aegean world received figurative and mythological transformation in the legends and in the epic of the ancient Greeks (the myth of the Minotaur, the Trojan epic cycle, etc.). The monumental architecture of ancient Greek temples, which originated in the Homeric period, used and in its own way reworked the type of megaron that had developed in Mycenae and Tiryns - a hall with a passage and a portico. Some of the technical skills and experience of Mycenaean architects were also used by Greek craftsmen. But in general, the entire aesthetic and figurative structure of the art of the Aegean world, its picturesque, subtly expressive character and ornamental, patterned forms were alien to the artistic consciousness of the ancient Greeks, who originally stood at an earlier stage of social development than the states of the Aegean world that had gone over to slavery.

12th - 8th centuries BC. were the era of the addition of Greek mythology. During this period, the mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. In large cycles of epic songs, the people's ideas about their life in the past and present, about gods and heroes, about the origin of earth and heaven, as well as the people's ideals of valor and nobility, were reflected. Later, already in the archaic period, these oral songs were consolidated into large artistically completed poems.

The ancient epic, along with the mythology inextricably linked with it, expressed in its images the life of the people and their spiritual aspirations, having a tremendous impact on all subsequent development of Greek culture. His themes and plots, rethought in accordance with the spirit of the times, were developed in drama and lyrics, reflected in sculpture, painting, drawings on vases.

The fine arts and architecture of Homeric Greece, with all their direct folk origin, did not reach either the breadth of coverage of public life or the artistic perfection of epic poetry.

112. Dipylon amphora. 9-8 centuries. BC e. Athens. National Museum.

The earliest (of the extant) works of art are vases of the "geometric style", decorated with geometric patterns applied in brown paint over the pale yellowish background of an earthen vessel. Ornament covered the vase, usually in its upper part, with a row of ring belts, sometimes filling its entire surface. The most complete picture of the "geometric style" is given by the so-called Dipylon vases, dating back to the 9th - 8th centuries. BC. and found by archaeologists in an ancient cemetery near the Dipylon gate in Athens. These very large vessels, sometimes almost as tall as a person, had a funerary and cult purpose, repeating in shape the clay vessels that served to store large quantities of grain or vegetable oil. On the Dipylon amphoras, the ornament is especially abundant: the pattern most often consists of purely geometric motifs, in particular the meander braids (the meander pattern was preserved as an ornamental motive throughout the development of Greek art). In addition to geometric ornament, schematized plant and animal ornaments were widely used. The figures of animals (birds, animals, for example, a fallow deer, etc.) are repeated many times over individual stripes of the ornament, giving the image a clear, albeit monotonous, rhythmic structure.

An important feature of the later Dipylon vases (8th century BC) is the introduction into the pattern of primitive subject images with schematized human figures reduced to an almost geometric sign. These plot motifs are very diverse (the rite of mourning for the deceased, the chariot race, floating ships, etc.). For all their schematic and primitive figures, the figures of people and especially animals have a certain expressiveness in conveying the general nature of movement and the clarity of the story. If, in comparison with the paintings of the Cretan-Mycenaean vases, the images on the Dipylon vases are coarser and more primitive, then in relation to the art of pre-class society they certainly signify a step forward.

The sculpture of Homeric time has come down to us only in the form of small plastic, for the most part of an obviously cult character. These small figurines depicting gods or heroes were made of terracotta, ivory or bronze. The terracotta figurines found in Boeotia, completely covered with ornaments, are distinguished by their primitiveness and indivisibility of forms; some parts of the body are barely outlined, others are inordinately highlighted. Such is, for example, the figure of a seated goddess with a child: her legs are fused with the seat (throne or bench), her nose is huge and like a beak, the transfer of the anatomical structure of the body does not interest the master at all.

113 a. Horse. Hercules and the centaur. Bronze statuettes from Olympia. 8 c. BC e. New York. Metropolitan Museum.

Along with terracotta figurines, bronze ones also existed. "Hercules and the Centaur" and "Horse", found in Olympia and dating back to the end of the Homeric period, give a very clear idea of \u200b\u200bthe naive primitiveness and schematism of this small bronze sculpture intended for dedication to the gods. The figurine of the so-called "Apollo" from Boeotia (8th century BC) with its elongated proportions and general construction of the figure resembles images of a person in Crete-Mycenaean art, but sharply differs from them in frontal stiffness and schematic convention of the transfer of face and body.

The monumental sculpture of Homeric Greece has not reached our time. Its character can be judged from the descriptions of ancient authors. The main type of this sculpture was the so-called xoans - idols made of wood or stone and which were, apparently, a roughly cut tree trunk or a block of stone, completed with a barely outlined image of the head and facial features. Some idea of \u200b\u200bthis sculpture can be given by geometrically simplified bronze images of gods found during excavations of a temple in Dreros in Crete, built in the 8th century. BC. the Dorians, who had already settled on this island long before.

113 6. Plowman. Terracotta from Boeotia. 8 c. BC e. Paris. Louvre.

Only a few terracotta figurines from Boeotia dating back to the 8th century, such as, for example, a figurine depicting a peasant with a rogue, have features of a more lively attitude to the real world; despite the naivety of the decision, this group is comparatively more truthful in terms of the motive of the movement and is less bound by the immobility and conventionality of the art of the Homeric period. In such images, one can see some parallel to the epic of Hesiod, created at the same time, glorifying peasant labor, although here, too, the fine arts seem to be very far behind literature.

By the 8th century, and possibly also by the 9th century. BC, include the most ancient remains of monuments of early Greek architecture (the temple of Artemis Orphia in Sparta, the temple in Thermos in Aetolia, the mentioned temple in Dreros in Crete). They used some of the traditions of Mycenaean architecture, mainly a general plan like the megaron; the altar-hearth was placed inside the temple; on the façade, as in the megaron, there were two columns. The most ancient of these structures had walls of adobe bricks and timber frames, set on a stone plinth. Remains of the ceramic lining of the upper parts of the temple have been preserved. In general, the architecture of Greece in the Homeric period was at the initial stage of its development.

Greek archaic art

During the Archaic period (7th - 6th centuries BC), Greek art moved far from the primitive art forms of the Homeric period. It has become incomparably more complex and, most importantly, has embarked on the path of realistic development, with difficulty overcoming the stable stagnation of long-established conventional forms and fighting it. Progressive conquests and discoveries in the art of the archaic period were carried out unequally in different fields of art; most of them were in architecture and vase painting, relatively fewer in sculpture, still largely constrained by conservative cult traditions.

The complexity and contradictions of the art of the archaic period were explained by the transitional nature of this historical stage in the development of Greek society.

The power of the head of the tribe, Basileus, back in the 8th century. BC. was severely limited by the domination of the clan aristocracy - the Eupatrides, who concentrated wealth, land, slaves in their hands - and then, in the 7th century. BC, disappeared altogether. The decomposition of the old primitive communal relations, property inequality, as well as the increasingly widespread use of slave labor, led to the formation of the slave system in Greece. The development of trade and crafts caused the flourishing of urban life and temporary growth along with slave and free labor, and with it - the demos, that is, the masses of free citizens of the polis, opposed to the old clan aristocracy.

The archaic period became a time of fierce class struggle between the old clan nobility - the Eupatrides and the people - demos, that is, the mass of free members of the community. Demos consisted of several social groups (farmers, artisans, merchants, etc.); their interests did not always coincide, but the Eupatrides were hostile to all of them. Therefore, although the forms of transition of the Greek communities to the slave system were different, the most important and typical for this time was the struggle of the demos against the Eupatrides. The Eupatrides sought to enslave the free communes, which could lead the development of Greek society along a path, to some extent reminiscent of the development of the eastern slave-owning despotism. It is no accident, therefore, in the process of the formation of Greek art in the 7th and 6th centuries. BC. there were works that were close in spirit to ancient Eastern art.

The significant influence of ancient Eastern cultures on the art of the archaic was mainly due to the fact that the artists of the slave-owning society emerging in Greece, solving the problems they faced, made extensive use of their experience and achievements. zheniy in the field of art of more ancient cultures of the slave-owning East. At the same time, as it became more and more clear that the path of formation of the slave-owning society in Greece significantly differs from the East, the originality of the paths of artistic development of Ancient Greece also became more vivid. Eastern influences, thus, faded into the background, and the actual antique features determined the nature of the most advanced and typical phenomena in archaic art.

The victory, complete or partial, of the broad mass of free peasants, artisans, merchants and seafarers and the liquidation of the old tribal institutions led to the establishment of the actually antique version of the slave society.

During the 7th - 6th centuries. BC. the boundaries of the spread of Greek settlements were widely extended. Insufficient land fertility, population growth on the mainland and the islands of Greece, the development of maritime trade and, in particular, the aggravation of social contradictions in the city-states led to the formation of Greek colonies on the remote shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Of particular importance in the further history of ancient Greek culture were the Greek settlements in southern Italy and Sicily (the so-called Great Greece).

The archaic period was the period of the creation of the Greek slave society and state and the addition of many important aspects of Greek culture and art. It was a period of rapid development of society, a period of growth of its material and spiritual wealth.

The history of archaic art was mainly the history of overcoming the old artistic culture of the clan society and the gradual preparation of the principles of realistic art of the slave polis, which was established later, in the 5th century. BC, after the defeat of the Eupatrides.

It was during the archaic period that a system of architectural orders was formed, which formed the basis for all further development of ancient architecture. At the same time, narrative plot vase painting flourishes and the path is gradually outlined to depicting a beautiful, harmoniously developed person in sculpture. The archaic culture is also distinguished from the most ancient period by the emergence and flowering of lyric poetry, which is extremely important for the formation of Greek realism, the emergence of which is associated with the separation of the personality from the clan and the interest in the world of human personal feelings.

The art of the archaic is notable for its great originality and has, with all its essential limited features, its own artistic merit.

In general, the fine arts of the archaic period still contained a lot of convention and schematism. The realistic features that arose in archaic art did not receive consistently realistic artistic generalization. The composition still had a conditional character, especially a group one: the image of an event was often reduced to a symbolic juxtaposition of figures, or, in vase painting and relief, to a number of separate images, often not connected by the unity of action, and sometimes even by the unity of place and time. At the same time, the diverse ancient myths and legends for the first time became the subject of wide reflection in the visual arts. By the end of the archaic period, themes taken from reality began to penetrate into art more and more often.

By the end of the 6th century. new, classical trends begin to come into ever greater contradiction with the methods and principles of archaic art. Although tribal differences still made themselves felt in the Greek art of the archaic period, the struggle of advanced forces in archaic art with currents hostile to them took place in all local schools of Greece and was more important and more significant than the differences between the Doric and Ionic schools, although these differences were quite distinct and quite significant.

Ionian (or Ionian) art was predominantly associated with the culture of the trading policies of the island and Asia Minor Greece, most of which were inhabited by the Ionian group of Greek tribes; in general, this art was distinguished by great grace, decorative sophistication, interest in the transmission of movement. The Doric (or Dorian) direction was associated mainly with areas of mainland Greece, mainly inhabited by Dorians. The Doric masters were especially persistent in developing the tasks of creating monumental heroic art; their merit consisted primarily in the truthful transmission of the human body and its proportions.

The Attic school took a special place in the art of the archaic era. It most fully expressed the progressive aspects of archaic art, especially at the end of the archaic period.

In archaic architecture, the progressive trends of the art of this time were manifested with the greatest force. Already in ancient times, the art of Greece created a new type of building, which in the course of the centuries became a vivid reflection of the ideas of the demos, that is, the free citizens of the city-state.

Such a building was a Greek temple, the fundamental difference of which from the temples of the Ancient East was that it was the center of the most important events in the social life of the citizens of the city-state. The temple was the repository of the public treasury and artistic treasures, the square in front of it was a place of meetings and festivities. The temple embodied the idea of \u200b\u200bunity, greatness and perfection of the city-state, the inviolability of its social structure.

The architectural forms of the Greek temple did not take shape immediately and underwent a long evolution during the archaic period. However, in the art of the archaic, a well-thought-out, clear and at the same time very diversely applied system of architectural forms was already basically created, which formed the basis of all further development of Greek architecture.

The times when the temple was a patrimonial or royal sanctuary have gone into the distant past. Already in the 7th century. BC. the altar was finally taken out of the temple building to the square in front of it. This was due to the fact that the temple and the square in front of it became the center of massive folk processions and festivities that united all free citizens of the city. In the archaic era, there were experiments in creating huge temples in which large masses of people could fit, but most often Greek temples were not too large compared to the structures of the Ancient East and did not suppress a person with their size.

Being the embodiment of the civil unity of the city-state, the temple was erected in the center of the acropolis or city square, gaining clearly emphasized dominance in the architectural ensemble of the city. Therefore, although in old sacred places (as, for example, in Delphi), often located at a distant distance from cities, new more perfect temples were built, the type of temple itself developed, solving the problem of creating an architectural center of social life, able to clearly express the spiritual and civil system of the city-state. The clarity and simplicity of the main architectural forms of the temple and their artistic perfection, accessible and close to the people, acquired special significance.

The social meaning and purely earthly, human character of the Greek temple did not change because it was dedicated to the god - the patron saint of the city: the development of the Greek religion itself went towards an increasingly decisive humanization of its images. The temple dedicated to God was always facing the east, the temples dedicated to the heroes deified after death turned to the west, towards the kingdom of the dead.

The simplest and most ancient type of stone archaic temple was the so-called "temple in antah". It consisted of one small room - naos, open to the east. On its facade, between the antes, that is, the protrusions of the side walls, two columns were placed. All this "the temple in antah" was close to the ancient megaron. As the main structure of the polis, the “temple in anty” was of little use: it was very closed and was designed to be perceived only from the facade. Therefore, he later, especially in the 6th century. BC, was used most often for small structures (for example, the treasuries at Delphi).

114 6. Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi. End of the 6th century BC e.

A more perfect type of temple was the prostyle, on the front façade of which four columns were placed. In amphiprostyle, the colonnade adorned both the front and rear façades, where the entrance to the treasury was.

The classical type of Greek temple was the peripter, that is, a temple that had a rectangular shape and was surrounded on all four sides by a colonnade. The peripter in its main features took shape already in the second half of the 7th century. BC. The further development of temple architecture proceeded mainly along the line of improving the system of structures and proportions of the peripter.

The creation of the peripter made it possible to freely place the building in space and gave the entire structure of the temple a solemn, strict simplicity.

The main structural elements of the peripter are also very simple and deeply popular in their origin. In its origins, the construction of a Greek temple goes back to wooden architecture with adobe walls. From here comes a gable roof and (later stone) girder floors; the columns also go back to the wooden posts. But this does not mean that the construction of Greek temples was a mechanical transfer of wooden structures into stone architecture. The architects of Ancient Greece well understood and took into account the structural properties of building materials. At the same time, they sought to emphasize and develop the artistic possibilities hidden in the very structure of the building. As a result of this work, a clear and integral artistically meaningful architectural system was formed, which later, among the Romans, was called the order (which means order, structure). As applied to Greek architecture, the word order means in the broad sense of the word the entire figurative and constructive structure of Greek architecture, mainly the temple, but more often it means only the order of the ratio and arrangement of the columns and the entablature (overlap) lying on them.

The aesthetic expressiveness of the order system was based on the expedient harmony of the ratio of parts that form a single whole, and on the feeling of an elastic, lively balance of the bearing and the carried parts. Even very slight changes in the proportions and scales of the order made it possible to freely modify the entire artistic structure of the building.

In the Archaic era, the Greek order took shape in two versions - Doric and Ionic. This corresponded to the two main local schools of art.

The Doric order, according to the Greeks, embodied the idea of \u200b\u200bmasculinity, that is, the harmony of strength and solemn severity. The Ionian order, on the contrary, was light, slender and well-dressed; when in the Ionic order the columns were replaced by caryatids, it was not by chance that graceful and elegant female figures were placed.

The Greek order system was not an abstract stencil that was mechanically repeated in every next decision. The order was precisely the general system of rules proceeding from the general method of solution. The solution itself was always creative, individual in nature and was consistent not only with the specific tasks and goals of construction, but also with the surrounding nature, and in the classical period - with other buildings of the architectural ensemble. Each temple was created specifically for the given conditions, for a given place. Hence the feeling of artistic uniqueness that Greek temples evoke in the viewer.

All these remarkable qualities and features of Greek architecture were fully developed only during the classical period, in the 5th - 4th centuries. BC) but were prepared to a large extent already in the archaic period.

The Doric temple-peripter was separated from the ground by a stone foundation - a stereobath, which was somewhat wider than the colonnade of the temple and usually consisted of three massive steps running along all four facades. The upper step and the entire upper surface of the stereobath, or stylobate, served as a kind of pedestal for the temple. In the naos, that is, the rectangular room of which the temple itself consisted, light penetrated either through skylights in the ceiling, or through doors. The entrance to the naos was located behind the colonnade on the side of the main façade and was decorated with a pronaos, reminiscent of the portico of the “temple in antae”. Sometimes, in addition to the naos, there was also an opisthode - a room located behind the naos, with an exit towards the rear facade.

Naos (with pronaos and opisthodes) was surrounded on all sides by a colonnade called "pteron" ("wing"). The colonnade of the peripter (that is, the temple, "winged on all sides"), rising above the horizontal of the stylobate, supported the ceiling (support beams and cornice), above which a roof covered with tiles or marble tiles rose. It was cool inside the naos, and there was a slight twilight. The lively play of light and shadow in the colonnade created a transition from the bright light of day to the dusk of the naos. The temple, standing on the stereobath, created for the viewer with its elastic and powerful colonnade, holding the heavy ceiling, the impression of a clear and harmonious balance of forces.

The column was the most important part of the order, as it was the main bearing part (see figure). The Doric column rested directly on the stylobate; its proportions in the archaic period were usually squat and powerful (height equal to 4 - 6 lower diameters). The Doric column consisted of a trunk ending at the top with a capital. The trunk was cut by a series of longitudinal grooves - flutes; they went along the entire shaft of the column and, with the play of light and shadow, emphasized its volume, and also strengthened the general vertical structure of the entire colonnade. The Doric columns were not geometrically precise cylinders. In addition to the general narrowing upwards, at a height of one third, they had some uniform thickening - entasis, which was clearly visible on the silhouette of the column. Entasis, like the tense muscles of a living creature, created the feeling of an elastic force with which the columns carried the entablature. The Doric capital was very simple; it consisted of an echin, a round stone pillow, and an abaca, a low stone slab on which the pressure of the entablature rested.

The proportional relationship of Greek architectural orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.

The entablature consisted of an architrave, that is, a beam that lay directly on the columns and carried the entire weight of the ceiling, frieze and cornice. The Doric architrave was smooth. The Doric frieze consisted of triglyphs and metopes. Triglyphs originated from the projecting ends of the beams; they were divided into three stripes by vertical grooves. Metopes were rectangular slabs, sometime in the 8th - 7th centuries. BC, ceramic, and then, from the 7th century. BC. - stone; they filled in the spaces between triglyphs. The cornice completed the entablature.

The triangles formed on the front and rear facades - under the gable roof - were called gables. The ridge of the roof and its corners were crowned with sculptural (usually ceramic) decorations, the so-called acroteria. The pediments and metopes were filled with sculpture.

The column of the Ionic order is light and slender, it is higher and thinner in its proportions than the Doric column, its height is equal to 8-10 lower diameters. The Ionian column had a base from which it seemed to grow upward. The flutes, converging at an angle in the Doric column, in the Ionic column are separated by flat cut edges. From this, the number of vertical lines seemed to double, which gave the column a special lightness. Due to the fact that the grooves in the Ionic column were cut deeper, the play of light and shadow on it was richer and more picturesque.

The capital of the Ionic order had an echinus, forming two graceful curls - volutes. Due to the volutes, the capitals of the corner columns required a complex resolution. The architrave of the Ionic order was divided horizontally into three stripes, which made it seem lighter. The frieze ran in a continuous ribbon along the entire entablature. The cornice was richly decoratively processed.

The system of the Doric order in its basic features was already formed in the 7th century. BC. and determined the main line of development of Greek architecture in the Peloponnese and in Magna Graecia (that is, Sicily and southern Italy). The Ionian order took shape by the end of the 7th century. BC. It developed primarily in Asia Minor and insular Greece, in rich trading cities that were in close contact with the culture of the East.

Later, already in the era of the classics, the third order, the Corinthian one, was developed, which was close to the Ionic and differed from it mainly in that the columns in it, somewhat more elongated in proportion (the height of the column reaches 12 lower diameters), were crowned with a magnificent and a complex basket-shaped capital composed of floral ornament - stylized acanthus leaves - and curls (volutes).

The evolution of archaic Doric temples is characterized by a transition from heavy and squat proportions to proportions more slender and harmoniously clear.

Earlier temples often had too heavy capitals or too short columnar trunks; the ratio of the number of columns on the long and front sides was often such that the temple turned out to be excessively elongated in length; sometimes an odd number of columns were placed on the facade, which made it impossible to highlight the main entrance and make it the main axis of the composition. Gradually, all such shortcomings disappeared.

One of the oldest Doric temples was the Temple of Hera (Heraion) at Olympia (7th century BC); the surviving remains of this temple give a clear and vivid idea of \u200b\u200bboth the plan of the temple and the general arrangement and relationship of the parts of the archaic Doric peripter.

114 a. Temple of Hera (Heraion) at Olympia 7th century BC e.

Many Doric temples were built during the Archaic period in Magna Graecia. The most famous are the ruins of the temples at Selinunte and the so-called "Basilica" at Paestum. The Basilica emphasizes, first of all, the power and stable strength of the structure; there is no harmony of proportions in it, especially because of too inflated entasis.

115. Temple of Apollo at Corinth. End of the 6th century BC e.

One of the most perfect structures of the late archaic was the Temple of Apollo in Corinth (in the Peloponnese). Its takase plan is still somewhat elongated (there are 6 columns on the facades, 15 on the long sides); strong and heavy columns are placed quite often. But in this temple, the clarity and harmony of proportions, the general monumental rigor and strength of architectural forms already come to the fore.

Temple of Apollo in Corinth, built in the second half of the 6th century. BC, is a work of mature craftsmanship. It should be seen as the direct predecessor of the remarkable temples of the classical period. It already expresses the moral greatness and harmony of the emerging new, democratic artistic culture of Greece with very great artistic fullness. If in the lyrics of the 7th - 6th centuries. BC. (Alkei or Sappho) found its artistic assertion the strength and beauty of the awakened feelings and experiences of a person - a citizen of a city-state, then in architecture the ideas of the greatness and beauty of the native polis and the unity of its most advanced democratic forces found their expression.

In the archaic architecture of both the Ionic and Doric orders, built from limestone, she found widespread using bright coloring. The main one was most often a combination of red and blue colors. The tympans of the pediments (that is, their triangular field under the gable roof) and the backgrounds of the metopes, triglyphs and some other details of the entablature were painted. The sculpture that adorned archaic temples was also painted. The coloring increased the feeling of festivity in the appearance of architecture and, moreover, especially in the Doric order, emphasized the architectonics of its parts.

Ionian architecture, which generally developed in the archaic period in the same direction as the Doric, differed from it in great richness of decoration, great grace and lightness. Even the old type of temple "in antas" the Ionic order has given an unusually elegant look; so they were built in the 6th century. BC. small buildings that surrounded the main temple, for example, the treasury of the Siphnians in Delphi with figures of festively dressed girls (kor) instead of columns.

The temples of Ionia, that is, the cities of the coast of Asia Minor and the islands, were especially large in size and luxury of decoration. This is reflected in the close connection of the city-states of Asia Minor Greece with the culture of the East. These temples were outside the main line of development of Greek architecture. The architecture of the Greek classics widely developed all the best sides of the Ionian order, but remained alien to the lush luxury of these grandiose temples of archaic Ionia; this feature of Ionic architecture received its further development only during the Hellenistic period.

Of the archaic temples of Ionia, the most famous was the first temple of Artemis in Ephesus, completed in the second half of the 6th century. BC. and reached more than 100 m in length. This temple was not a peripter, but a dipter - its colonnade was double. The deep pronaos consisted of four rows of columns, two in each row. The columns on the western and eastern facades rested on drums decorated with sculptural reliefs.

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Reconstruction.

Compared to the Doric peripters, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus impressed with its size and splendor, the rich play of chiaroscuro and the complex rhythm of alternating rows of columns, but it lacked the strict proportionality and clear simplicity inherent in the Doric temples of the late archaic. It was the builders of Doric temples who most fully expressed the advanced artistic ideas of their time, and later the thoughtful and strict type of peripter they developed was developed and improved as the leading type of architectural structure during the classical period.

The archaic period was the heyday of artistic crafts. The need for products of applied art was caused by the growth in the well-being of a significant part of the free population and the development of overseas trade. Greek ceramics reached a particularly high flowering.

Greek vases served a wide variety of purposes and needs. They were very diverse in shape and size. Usually the vases were covered with art painting. The best works of masters of archaic vase painting were genuine artistic creations, and, apparently, the masters themselves treated them with all seriousness and responsibility. It is no accident that therefore many vases bear the signature of the master who created them, and sometimes two - the potter and the artist. THIS5, by the way, indicates a grown sense of the value of the individual and her talents. Of course, the artistically executed and richly painted vases were not intended for everyday household needs. And yet the flowering of vase painting is closely connected with the artisan's creative attitude to his work and with his deep understanding of the unity of the practical and aesthetic value of a thing, which is so characteristic of folk art.

In the 7th and especially in the 6th century. BC e. a rather harmonious, although allowing for some variations, system of permanent forms of vases, which had different purposes, developed. Thus, the amphora was intended to store wine and oil; crater - for mixing (during a feast) water with wine; they drank wine from kilik; in a slender lekith, incense was kept for libations on the graves of the dead. In comparison with the ceramics of the Homeric period, the shapes and proportions of the vases have become stricter and more beautiful. With their clear, subtly felt rhythm, the proportionality of all parts, the Greek vases surpassed the vessels of both Ancient Egypt and the Aegean world. The placement of drawings on vases and their compositional structure were closely related to the shape of the vase.

Topic 11. General characteristics of the culture and art of Ancient Greece. Homeric period. Archaic.

In Greece, within the framework of a slave-owning society, the first principles of democracy in history were formed, which made it possible to develop bold and deep ideas that affirmed the beauty and significance of man. Greek tribes and tribal unions inhabited the valleys, separated by steep mountain ranges, scattered across the sea. During the transition to a class society, they formed a number of small city-states, the so-called policies.

The art of Ancient Greece is closely related to philosophy, because the basis of ᴇᴦο was the idea of \u200b\u200bthe strength and beauty of a person who was in close unity and harmonious balance with the natural and social environment, and since social life was greatly developed in ancient Greece, then art was bright pronounced social character.
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A huge achievement was the affirmation of the secular social and educational role of art, only in its form was of a cult character.
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Compared to the art of the Ancient East, this was a big step forward.

Architecture is the leading art form, which reflects the civic ideas of the city-polis. The temple is the center of social life, the embodiment of the idea of \u200b\u200binviolability and perfection of the city-state. In Greece there was no special caste of priests, similar to the one that existed in Egypt or the states of Mesopotamia. Only at some common Greek sanctuaries were there a few priestly organizations.

The heritage of ancient Greek architecture lies at the base of all subsequent development of world architecture and the associated monumental art. The reasons for such a sustainable impact of Greek architecture lie in its objective qualities - simplicity, truthfulness, clarity of composition, harmony and proportionality of general forms and all parts, the organic connection between architecture and sculpture, in the close unity of architectural-aesthetic and structural-tectonic elements of structures. Ancient Greek architecture was distinguished by the complete correspondence of forms and their constructive basis, which constituted a single whole.

The period of Greek history from the 11th to the 9th century. BC. it is customary to call homeric , because the main written source for the study of ᴇᴦο is the Iliad and Odyssey. The economic and social history of Homeric Greece represents a transitional stage from the tribal system to the slave system. Military demography was the political form of this transitional system.

12th - 8th centuries BC. were the era of the addition of Greek mythology. During this period, the mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Later, already in the archaic period, these oral songs were consolidated into large artistically completed poems.

Only ruins have survived from the architectural structures of this period, on the basis of which it can be established that the buildings developed on the basis of the traditions of the Mycenaean culture.

The first steps of Greek art are most clearly visible in painted vases, terracotta and bronze figurines. The artistic style of vase painting of this period is called geometric because the ornaments on the vases are combinations of geometric elements.

Topic 11. General characteristics of the culture and art of Ancient Greece. Homeric period. Archaic. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Topic 11. General characteristics of the culture and art of Ancient Greece. Homeric period. Archaic." 2015, 2017-2018.

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