History of Art: Greek and Hellenistic

"That brief but thorough empire-building campaign changed the world: It spread Greek ideas and culture from the Eastern Mediterranean to Asia. Historians call this era the "Hellenistic period"."

Greek and Hellenistic: 850 BCE - 31 BCE

Characteristics: Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)

Chief Artists and Major Works: Parthenon, Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos, Praxiteles

Historical Events: Athens defeats Persia at Marathon (490 BCE); Peloponnesian Wars (431 BCE - 404 BCE); Alexander the Great's conquests (336 BCE - 323 BCE)

The world "Hellenistic" comes from the word Hellazein, which means "to speak Greek or idenity with the Greeks".

Between 334 and 323 BCE, Alexander the Great and his armies conquered much of the known world, creating one of the worlds biggest known empires that stretched from Greece and Asia Minor through Egypt and the Persian empire in the Near East to India. This contact with cultures around the world spread Greek culture and its arts, and exposed Greek artistic styles to a host of new and exotic influences.

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE traditionally marks the beginning of the Hellenistic period.

Hellenistic Art is a richly diverse art period in subject matter and in stylistic development. It was essentially created during an age characterized by a strong sense of history. For the first time the Greeks had museums and great libraries. Examples of these include those at Alexandria and Pergamon. The artists of the Hellenistic period copied and adapted earlier styles and also made great innovations. The representations of the Greek Gods took on new forms. One famous example is the nude Aphrodite who reflects the increased secularization of traditional religion. Also prominent in Hellenistic art are the representations of Dionysos, the God of wine and legendary conqueror of the East, as well as those of Hermes, the god of commerce. In strikingly tender depictions, Eros, the Greek personification of love, is portrayed as a young child.

Because of the new international Hellenistic milieu, there was a widened range of subject matter that had little precedent in earlier Greek art. There were now representations of unorthodox subjects such as grotesques, and of more conventional inhabitants, such as children and elderly people. These images, as well as the portraits of ethnic people, especially those of Africans, describe a diverse Hellenistic populace that Alexander the Great created.

Hellenistic Greece became a time of substantial maturity of the sciences. In geometry, Euclid's elements became the standard all the way up to the 20th Century, and the work of Archimedes on mathematics along with his practical inventions became influential and legendary. Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth within 1500 miles by simultaneously measuring the shadow of two vertical sticks placed one in Alexandria and one in Syene. The fact that the earth was a sphere was common knowledge in the Hellenistic world. This precision was also evident in art within the Hellenistic period with exact proportions of the human form.

"Alexander's empire broke apart on his death, with several Hellenistic (Greek-like( kingdoms appearing. The great art centers of the mainland gave way to cities on Islands such as Rhodes or in the eastern Mediterranean (Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamum).

Sculpture had tendencies toward classicism, rococo, and baroque -- in other words, no clear direstion or restriction. Art glorified the gods and great athletes, but it also serves to decorate the homes of the newly rich.

Heroic portraits and massive groups were popular, but so were humble themes and portrayals of human beings in all walks and stages of life—even caricature became popular. From architecture came an awareness of space that added landscapes and interiors to sculpture and painting. 
Whereas Hellenic art was restrained and attempted to show the perfect and the universal, Hellenistic art was preoccupied with the particular rather than the universal. Patrons and artists alike preferred individuality, novelty (including ethnicity and ugliness), and artistic inventiveness. Hellenistic art built on the classical concepts, but became more dramatic, with sweeping lines and strong contrasts of light, shadow, and emotion. 
Idealism gave way to naturalism, the culmination of the works of fourth-century b.c.e. sculptors Lysippos, Skopas, and Praxiteles, all of whom emphasized realistic expression of the human figure. Greatness and humility, characteristic of the Charioteer of Delphi, gave way to bold expression during tense moments, typified by the Boy Jockey.
Unlike Hellenic art, sculptures showed extreme emotion: pain, stress, anger, despair, or fear, but depiction of the outward subject was insufficient for many Hellenistic sculptors. Posture and physical characteristics were used to show thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. 
Hygeia, of which only the head remains, is a statue that reflects the Hellenistic style. Although done in conformance to classical standards and ideals, Hygeia has an expression of concern and understanding."

There was also more and more art collectors who commissioned original works of art and copies of earlier Greek statues. Likewise, increasingly affluent consumers were eager to enhance their private homes and gardens with luxury goods such as fine bronze statues and statuettes, intricately carved furniature decorated with bronze fittings, stone sculptures and elaborate pottery with mold-made decoration. These items, that were considered as lavish and known to be only in high society, were manufactured on a grand scale as never before.

The keenest of collectors were the Romans who decorated their town houses and country villas with the Greek sculptures according to their interests and tastes. The wall paintings from the villa at Boscoreale, some of which clearly echo lost Hellenistic Macdonian royal paintings, and exquisite bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum's collection testify to the refined classical environment that the Roman aristocracy cultivated in their homes. By the first century BCE, Rome was a center of Hellenistic art production, and many Greek artists came there to work.

The conventional end of the Hellenistic period is 31 BCE, the date of the battle of Actium. Octavian, who later became the emperor Augustus, defeated Marc Antony's fleet and, consequently, ended Ptolemaic rule. The Ptolemies were the last Hellenistic dynasty to fall to Rome.

Interest in Greek art and culture remained strong during the Roman Imperial period, and especially so during the reigns of the emperors Augustus (r. 27 BCE - 14 CE) and Hadrian (r. 117 CE - 138 CE). For centuries, Roman artists continued to make works of art in the Hellenistic tradition.

Sources:
www.infoplease.com
www.visual-arts-cork.com
www.history.com
earlyworldhistory.blogspot.co.uk
ancient-greece.org
www.google.co.uk

Up Next: Roman Art

History of Art: Ancient Egypt

"Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic."

Egyptian: 3100 BCE - 30 BCE

Characteristics: Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting

Chief Artists and Major Works: Imhotep, Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti

Historical events: Narmer unites Upper and Lower Egypt (3100 BCE); Rameses II battles the Hittites (1274 BCE); Cleopatra dies (30 BCE)

"Ancient Egyptian art must be viewed from the standpoint of the ancient Egyptians to understand it, The somewhat static, usually formal, strangely abstract, and often blocky nature of much Egyptian imagery has, at times, led to unfavorable comparisons with later, and much more 'naturalistic,' Greek or Renaissance art. However, the art of the Egyptians served a vastly different purpose than that of these later cultures."

One has to remember that the artwork of the Ancient Egyptians were not created to be seen by people in this world. Much of the artwork that was in tombs and pyramids were there to symbolize the wealth and power of the one who had laid to rest there and they would take this into the afterlife along with everything else that they were buried with. The artwork, whether statues or relief, were there to benefit a divine being, such as Tutankhamen, or the deceased recipient.

There are technically twelve different periods of Ancient Egyptian Art. These include;
Prehistoric (before 3000 BCE +- 100 BCE)
Early Dynastic (c. 3000 BCE - 2680 BCE)
Old Kingdom (2680 BCE - 2259 BCE)
Middle Kingdom (2258 BCE - 1786 BCE)
New Kingdom (1786 BCE - 1069 BCE), including the Amarna Period (1085 BCE - 1055 BCE)
Third Intermediate Period (1069 BCE - 664 BCE)
First Persian Period, Late Period and Second Persian Period (664 BCE - 332 BCE)
Ptolematic Kingdom (332 BCE - 30 BCE)
Roman Egypt (30 BCE - Fourth Century CE)

There are many characteristics of Ancient Egyptian art that are spread across all time periods of the Egyptians. This includes the hierarchical scale of portraying. This means that the size of people drawn or painted determined how important they were in the social order. For example, a Pharaoh like Tutankhamen, is usually the largest figure depicted to symbolize the ruler's powers. The Egyptians often believed these to be superhuman powers because they were made the Ruler. Therefore, figures of high officials or tomb owners are usually smaller. The smallest that you can be drawn if you were a servant, an entertainer, animal, tree and also architectural details.

The Egyptians are commonly known for their sculptures and architecture. The Pyramids, Sphinx and The Valley of The Kings come under this.

The technique that the Egyptians used is called sunk relief, which is well suited to very brilliant sunlight, like that in Egypt. This is where the image is made by cutting the relief sculpture itself into a flat surface. In a simpler form the images are usually mostly linear in nature, like in hieroglyphs, but in more cases the figure itself is in low relief, but set within a sunken area shaped round the image, so that the relief never rises beyond the original flat surface. Because there is large amount of brilliant sunlight in Egypt, the Ancient Egyptians used this to their advantage as the strong sunlight is used to emphasise the outlines and forms by shadow, as no attempt was made to soften the edge of the sunk area, leaving a face at a right-angle to the surface around it.
The main figures in reliefs adhere to the same figure convention as in painting, with parted legs (where not seated) and head shown to the side, but the torso from the front, and a standard set of proportions making up the figure, using 18 "fists" to go from ground to the hair-line on the forehead. Some conventions make statues of males darker than female ones. This points out very quickly as to which statue is which gender. This would also generally make the eye drawn to the male figures.

Pharaohs were always regarded as Gods. The larger sculpture survives from Egyptian Temples and Tombs; massive statues were built to represent Gods and Pharaohs and their queens, usually for open areas in or outside temples. This allowed the people of Egypt to see the power and importance that the Gods and Pharaohs held. The Great Sphinx of Giza however, was never repeated and is a statue in a million, but avenues lined with very large statues including sphinxes and other animals formed part of many temple complexes.

The most sacred cult image of a God in a temple, usually held in the Naos (a small shrine), was in the form of a relatively small boat or barque holding an image of a god, and apparently usually in precious metal - none have survived due to grave robbers who looted many graves of Pharaohs and temples dedicated to the Gods and the Pharaohs.

There were very strict conditions that had to be followed while crafting statues and specific rules governed appearance of every Egyptian God. For example, Horus (the sky God) was essentially to be represented with a falcon's head, Anubis (the God of funeral rites) was to be always shown with a jackal's head. Artistic works were ranked according to their compliance with these conditions or conventions, and the conventions were followed so strictly that, over three thousand years, the appearance of statues changed very little. This is why Ancient Egypt and its art seems to have changed very little over the time period of the Ancient Egyptians. The conventions were intended to convey the timeless and non-aging quality of the figure's ka.

Painting wasn't too big in Ancient Egypt. Less prestigious works were in tombs, temples and palaces and they were painted just on a flat surface. Stone surfaces were prepared by whitewash, however if they were a little rough, a layer of coarse mud layer was applied with a layer of smooth gesso above. Some finer limestones could take the paint directly. The pigments the Egyptians used were mostly mineral and chosen to withstand the strong sunlight that they experienced without it fading. The binding medium that they used in painting still remains unclear to us today. Egg tempera and various gums and resins have been tested, however none come out in the same way. It is clear that true fresco painted into a thin layer of wet plaster was not used. We believe that the paint was applied to dried plaster, in what is called "fresco a secco" in Italian. After painting, Egyptians would have applied a varnish or resin protective coating. Due to this technique that we believe the Egyptians used, many paintings with some exposure to the elements have survived remarkably well, although those on fully exposed walls rarely have.

Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived though due to the extremely dry climate that Egypt experiences. The paintings were often made with the intent of making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The themes that were painted included journeys through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to the Gods of the underworld, such as Osiris. Some tomb paintings found show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and that they wish to carry on for eternity.

In the New Kingdom and later, the Book of The Dead was buried with the entombed person and was considered an important introduction to the afterlife.

Even though painting wasn't big in Ancient Egypt, it was consistent, like the statues were. They are painted in such a way to show profile view and a side view of the animal or person. For example, the head may be in profile view but the body is from a frontal view. The main colours were red, blue, green, gold, black and yellow.

Bibliography:
www.google.co.uk
www.wikipedia.co.uk
www.wikipedia.co.uk
www.khanacademy.org

Up next: Greek and Hellenistic

Hyperrealism

"Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph."

The early 21st Century Hyperrealism was founded on the aesthetic principles of Photorealism. American painter Denis Peterson, whose pioneering works are universally viewed as an offshot of Photorealism, first used "Hyperrealism" to apply to the new movement and its splinter group of artists.
However, Hyperrealism is contrasted with the literal approach found in traditional photorealist paintings of the late 20th Century. Hyperrealist painters and sculptors use photographic images as a reference source from which to create a more definitive and detailed rendering, one that often, unlike Photorealism, is narrative and emotive in its depictions.

Hyperrealism, although photographic in essence, often entails a softer, much more complex focus on the subject depicted, presenting it as a living, tangible object. These objects and scenes in Hyperrealism paintings and sculptures are meticulously detailed to create the illusion of a reality not seen in the original photo. This is not to say they're surreal, as the illusion is a convincing depiction of (simulated) reality. Textures, surfaces, lighting effects, and shadows appear clearer and more distinct than the reference photo or even the actual subject itself.

Subject matter ranges from portraits, figurative art, still life, landscpaes, cityscapes and narrative scenes. The more recent hyperrealist style is much more literal than Photorealism as to exact pictorial detail with an emphasis on social, cultural or political themes. 

Hyperreal paintings and sculptures further create a tangible solidity and physical presence through subtle lighting and shading effects. Shapes, forms and areas closest to the forefront of the image visually appear beyond the frontal plane of the canvas, and in the case of sculptures, details have more clarity than in nature. Hyperrealistic images are typically 10 to 20 times the size of the original photographic reference source, yet retain an extremely high resolution in colour, precision and detail. Many of the painting are achieved with an airbrush, using acrylics, oils or a combination of both.