Art of Homeric Greece
Y. Kolpinsky
The oldest initial period in the development of Greek art is called Homeric (12th - 8th centuries BC). This time was reflected in the epic poems - the Iliad and the Odyssey, the author of which the ancient Greeks considered the legendary poet Homer. Although Homer's poems took shape in their final form later (in the 8th - 7th centuries BC), they tell about more ancient social relations characteristic of the time of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a slave-owning society.
In the Homeric period, Greek society as a whole still retained the tribal system. 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 tools, the improvement of agricultural 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 episodic and patriarchal in nature, slave labor was used (especially at the beginning) mainly in the household of the tribal leader and military leader - the basileus.
Basileus was the head of the tribe; he united in his person judicial, military and priestly power. Basileus ruled the community together with the council of tribal elders, called bule. In the most important cases, a popular assembly was convened - the agora, which consisted of all the free members of the community.
The tribes that 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 assimilated the traditions of the 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 ideas of the ancient Greeks, just as various events in the history of the Aegean world received figurative and mythological implementation 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 vestibule and a portico. Some of the technical skills and experience of the Mycenaean architects were also used by the Greek craftsmen. But in general, the whole 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 passed to slavery.
12th - 8th centuries BC. were the era of the formation of Greek mythology. The mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received during this period its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Large cycles of epic songs reflected the ideas of the people about their life in the past and present, about gods and heroes, about the origin of the earth and sky, as well as the people's ideals of valor and nobility. Later, already in the archaic period, these oral songs were combined 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 huge 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 visual arts and architecture of Homeric Greece, for all their directly folk origin, did not reach either the breadth of coverage of social life or the artistic perfection of epic poetry.
The earliest (surviving) works of art are "geometric style" vases, decorated with geometric designs applied in brown paint on a pale yellowish background of an earthenware vessel. The ornament covered the vase, usually in its upper part, with a series of ring belts, sometimes filling its entire surface. The most complete idea 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 the height of a person, had a funerary and cult purpose, repeating the shape of clay vessels that served to store large quantities of grain or vegetable oil. On Dipylon amphoras, the ornament is especially abundant: the pattern most often consists of purely geometric motifs, in particular, the meander braid (the meander ornament was preserved as an ornamental motif throughout the development of Greek art). In addition to the geometric ornament, schematized plant and animal ornament was widely used. The figures of animals (birds, beasts, such as fallow deer, etc.) are repeated many times throughout the individual strips 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 of primitive plot images into the pattern with schematized figures of people reduced almost to a geometric sign. These plot motifs are very diverse (the rite of mourning for the deceased, the chariot race, sailing ships, etc.). For all their sketchiness and primitiveness, the figures of people and especially animals have a certain expressiveness in conveying the general nature of the movement and the clarity of the story. If, compared with the paintings of the Crete-Mycenaean vases, the images on the Dipylon vases are more crude and primitive, then in relation to the art of pre-class society, they certainly mark a step forward.
Sculpture of Homer's time has come down to us only in the form of small plastic, for the most part of a clearly cult nature. 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 undivided forms; individual parts of the body are barely outlined, others are exorbitantly highlighted. Such, for example, is the figure of a seated goddess with a child: her legs are merged 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, there were also bronze ones. "Hercules and the Centaur" and "Horse", found in Olympia and belonging to the end of the Homeric period (ill. 113 a), give a very clear idea of the naive primitiveness and schematism of this small bronze sculpture, intended for dedications to the gods. The statuette of the so-called "Apollo" from Boeotia (8th century BC) with its elongated proportions and general construction of the figure resembles the images of a person in Crete-Mycenaean art, but differs sharply from them in frontal stiffness and schematic conventionality of the transfer of the 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 representing, apparently, a roughly processed tree trunk or block of stone, completed with a barely outlined image of a head and facial features. Some idea about this sculpture can be given by geometrically simplified bronze images of gods found during excavations of a temple in Dreros on Crete, built in the 8th century. BC. Dorians, who had settled on this island long before.
Only a few terracotta figurines from Boeotia dating back to the 8th century have traits of a more lively attitude to the real world, such as, for example, a statuette depicting a peasant with a rogue (ill. 113 6); despite the naivety of the solution, this group is comparatively more truthful in terms of movement and 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 look very far behind literature.
By the 8th century, and possibly also by the 9th century. BC, the oldest remains of monuments of early Greek architecture (the temple of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, the temple in Thermos in Aetolia, the mentioned temple in Dreros in Crete) also belong. They used some of the traditions of Mycenaean architecture, mainly a general plan like a megaron; hearth-altar was placed inside the temple; on the facade, as in the megaron, two columns were placed. The most ancient of these structures had walls made of mud brick and a wooden frame, placed on a stone plinth. The remains of the ceramic facing 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.
Period from 11th to 8th c. BC e. known in history as the most important stage in the formation of Greek culture. Favorable historical circumstances contributed to the fact that during this period of time a patriarchal way of life was formed and the origins of a primitive economy arose.
But the most important event of the Homeric period was the appearance in the 8th century. BC e. real literary masterpieces - the Iliad and the Odyssey. By the way, from the name of the author - Homer, the name of this historical stage arose.
A few words about famous monuments of literature
From the opening lines of the epic poems, readers get an idea of Greek ideals. Thus, the description of the siege of Troy and the exploits of the Greek hero Odysseus shows the significant virtues and shortcomings of the Greek rulers, warriors and other characters, and also gives an idea of the beliefs and aspirations of the people, of the "palace secrets" and sincere feelings and experiences of historical persons. But the main value of the Iliad and the Odyssey lies in the fact that thanks to these works, researchers from different countries were able to learn the details of an important stage in the history of Greece, as well as neighboring and distant settlements.
In addition, from the lines of Homer's poems we get a brief idea of the architecture of famous religious and other buildings, of the features of hostilities. And as the Greek epic began to gain popularity and be discussed by critics in the West, gaps in the study of the mysterious history and mythology of this country began to disappear.
Development of sculpture and architecture
But the study of the famous architectural masterpieces of the Homeric era also took place on the basis of studies of the ruins of grandiose structures and miniature models of religious buildings. These studies gave a rough idea of the stylistic design of different types of buildings.
So, it is now known that the Mycenaean traditions were taken as the basis for the construction of houses. In the early periods of the development of architecture (from the beginning of the 11th to the 9th century BC), clay and mud brick served as the main building materials, and only in some cases - rubble stone. At the same time, the buildings of those times had one typical feature - the wall opposite the entrance was rounded.
However, when studying well-known structures of the 9th-8th centuries. BC e. (for example, the Temple of Artemis) another important trend was identified - wooden frames were present in the construction. In addition, fronts and porticoes made of pillars were used in religious buildings, thanks to which they acquired a more majestic appearance and became more practical. At the same time, the shape of all structures was standard - rectangular.
Studying the excavations of ancient buildings of the Homeric era, archaeologists also noted that the development of the sculptural craft in that period reached a high level. Thus, images of people, gods, animals, created from clay, bone and bronze, allow us to draw conclusions about the way of life and rituals of the Greeks.
Until the 8th c. BC e. the main style of sculpture, as well as other types of art, was "geometric". Crafts were flat schematic models, which, however, made it possible to judge the main features of the life and character of people. And only in the second half of the 8th c. BC e., when there were certain changes in the worldview of the Greeks, the sculptures began to take on a more lively, realistic look.
In ancient Greek works, there are other descriptions of the types of sculptural creations (for example, idols made of wood and stone). However, such models, unfortunately, have not yet been found.
Continuation of the traditions of the development of ceramics and painting
The development of ceramic craft began in the distant Aegean period. However, when comparing samples from different times, it was noted that it was the painted vases of the 9th-8th centuries. BC e. are special works of art. In addition, the art of creating unique laconic murals became a kind of school for Greek artists and creators of the archaic and classical period, who later learned to display human feelings and present a chaotic system of interconnections in a systematic and orderly manner. And, despite the fact that the drawings on these products were of a primitive nature, they became real masterpieces of ceramic craft.
Like the sculptures, they were painted in a unique "geometric style". Simple vases for domestic use and majestic amphoras of the 9th-8th centuries. BC BC, which were used as funerary and cult vessels, were decorated with patterns in the form of concentric circles, rhombuses or meander braids, and in some cases with schematic and monotonous images of Greek animals or plants.
However, already in the 8th c. BC e. a new trend appeared in the art of pottery and painting. Important scenes from the life of society (funeral rites, competitions, travels, etc.) were displayed on the so-called "Deeping" vases. And, although the images of the figures of people and events were schematic, the study of these examples of art allows us to supplement the pages of the history of the Homeric period of Greece with additional information.
Y. Kolpinsky
The oldest initial period in the development of Greek art is called Homeric (12th - 8th centuries BC). This time was reflected in the epic poems - the Iliad and the Odyssey, the author of which the ancient Greeks considered the legendary poet Homer. Although Homer's poems took shape in their final form later (in the 8th - 7th centuries BC), they tell about more ancient social relations characteristic of the time of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence of a slave-owning society.
In the Homeric period, Greek society as a whole still retained the tribal system. 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 tools, the improvement of agricultural 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 episodic and patriarchal in nature, slave labor was used (especially at the beginning) mainly in the household of the tribal leader and military leader - the basileus.
Basileus was the head of the tribe; he united in his person judicial, military and priestly power. Basileus ruled the community together with the council of tribal elders, called bule. In the most important cases, a popular assembly was convened - the agora, which consisted of all free members of the community.
The tribes that 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 assimilated the traditions of the 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 ideas of the ancient Greeks, just as various events in the history of the Aegean world received figurative and mythological implementation 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 vestibule and a portico. Some of the technical skills and experience of the Mycenaean architects were also used by the Greek craftsmen. But in general, the whole 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 passed to slavery.
12th - 8th centuries BC. were the era of the formation of Greek mythology. The mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received during this period its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Large cycles of epic songs reflected the ideas of the people about their life in the past and present, about gods and heroes, about the origin of the earth and sky, as well as the people's ideals of valor and nobility. Later, already in the archaic period, these oral songs were combined 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 huge 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 visual arts and architecture of Homeric Greece, for all their directly folk origin, did not reach either the breadth of coverage of social life or the artistic perfection of epic poetry.
The earliest (surviving) works of art are "geometric style" vases, decorated with geometric designs applied in brown paint on a pale yellowish background of an earthenware vessel. The ornament covered the vase, usually in its upper part, with a series of ring belts, sometimes filling its entire surface. The most complete idea 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 the height of a person, had a funerary and cult purpose, repeating the shape of clay vessels that served to store large quantities of grain or vegetable oil. On Dipylon amphoras, the ornament is especially abundant: the pattern most often consists of purely geometric motifs, in particular, the meander braid (the meander ornament was preserved as an ornamental motif throughout the development of Greek art). In addition to the geometric ornament, schematized plant and animal ornament was widely used. The figures of animals (birds, beasts, such as fallow deer, etc.) are repeated many times throughout the individual strips 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 of primitive plot images into the pattern with schematized figures of people reduced almost to a geometric sign. These plot motifs are very diverse (the rite of mourning for the deceased, the chariot race, sailing ships, etc.). For all their sketchiness and primitiveness, the figures of people and especially animals have a certain expressiveness in conveying the general nature of the movement and the clarity of the story. If, compared with the paintings of the Crete-Mycenaean vases, the images on the Dipylon vases are more crude and primitive, then in relation to the art of pre-class society, they certainly mark a step forward.
Sculpture of Homer's time has come down to us only in the form of small plastic, for the most part of a clearly cult nature. 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 undivided forms; individual parts of the body are barely outlined, others are exorbitantly highlighted. Such, for example, is the figure of a seated goddess with a child: her legs are merged 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, there were also bronze ones. "Hercules and the Centaur" and "Horse", found in Olympia and belonging to the end of the Homeric period (ill. 113 a), give a very clear idea of the naive primitiveness and schematism of this small bronze sculpture, intended for dedications to the gods. The statuette of the so-called "Apollo" from Boeotia (8th century BC) with its elongated proportions and general construction of the figure resembles the images of a person in Crete-Mycenaean art, but differs sharply from them in frontal stiffness and schematic conventionality of the transfer of the 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 representing, apparently, a roughly processed tree trunk or block of stone, completed with a barely outlined image of the head and facial features. Some idea about this sculpture can be given by geometrically simplified bronze images of gods found during excavations of a temple in Dreros on Crete, built in the 8th century. BC. Dorians, who had settled on this island long before.
Only a few terracotta figurines from Boeotia dating back to the 8th century have traits of a more lively attitude to the real world, such as, for example, a statuette depicting a peasant with a rogue (ill. 113 6); despite the naivety of the solution, this group is comparatively more truthful in terms of movement and 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 look very far behind literature.
By the 8th century, and possibly also by the 9th century. BC, the oldest remains of monuments of early Greek architecture (the temple of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, the temple in Thermos in Aetolia, the mentioned temple in Dreros in Crete) also belong. They used some of the traditions of Mycenaean architecture, mainly a general plan like a megaron; hearth-altar was placed inside the temple; on the facade, as in the megaron, two columns were placed. The most ancient of these structures had walls made of mud brick and a wooden frame, placed on a stone plinth. The remains of the ceramic facing 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.
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 profound ideas that affirmed the beauty and significance of man. Greek tribes and tribal unions inhabited valleys separated by steep mountain ranges and islands 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 connected with philosophy, because the basis of ᴇᴦο was the idea of the strength and beauty of a person who was in close unity and harmonious balance with the surrounding natural and social environment, and since social life was greatly developed in ancient Greece, art was also brightly pronounced social character.
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A huge conquest was the assertion of the secular social and educational role of art, which only in form bore a cult character.
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Compared with 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 the inviolability 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 did there exist a few priestly organizations.
The heritage of ancient Greek architecture underlies the entire subsequent development of world architecture and the monumental art associated with it. The reasons for such a steady 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 of architecture and sculpture, in the close unity of architectural-aesthetic and constructive-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. called Homeric , because the main written sources for the study of ᴇᴦο are the ʼʼIliad and ʼʼOdysseyʼʼ. The economic and social history of Homeric Greece is a transitional stage from the clan system to the slave system. The political form of this transitional order was military demography.
12th - 8th centuries BC. were the era of the formation of Greek mythology. The mythological character of the consciousness of the ancient Greeks received during this period its most complete and consistent expression in epic poetry. Later, already in the archaic period, these oral songs were combined into large artistically complete poems.
Of the architectural structures of this period, only ruins have survived, on the basis of which it can be established that the construction developed on the basis of the traditions of the Mycenaean culture.
The first steps of Greek art are most clearly visible on 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 "Theme 11. General characteristics of the culture and art of Ancient Greece. Homeric period. Archaic." 2015, 2017-2018.
Periodization of the culture of Ancient Greece: 1. Crete-Mycenaean period: III - II millennium BC. e. 2. Homeric period: XI - VIII centuries BC. e. 3. Archaic: VII - VI centuries BC. e. 4. Classic: 5th century BC e. - to the last third of the IV century BC. e. 5. Hellenism: the last third of the 4th century BC e. - 1st century A.D. e.
XIII-XII centuries BC e. - The Homeric period, vividly and colorfully described by Homer's poems; 7th-6th centuries BC e. - the archaic period (the struggle of slave-owning democracies against the clan nobility, the formation of city-policies);
HOMERIC PERIOD 12 - 8 centuries. BC e.
Covered crater Mid-8th century BC e. Attic amphora. 2nd quarter of the 8th c. BC e.
Homeric period Vase painting - Dipylon vases: Geometric style; schematic plant and animal ornament; Human size; They had a funerary or cult significance.
Homeric Period Epic Literature - Homer: The Iliad, The Odyssey. Hesiod: "Theogony"
Hydria. "Achilles and the slain Hector", 510s BC e. Bowl (kylix) "Dionysus in the boat", Exekius, Late 6th century BC e. Amphora. "Hercules and the Nemean Lion", 5th c. BC e.
Archaic period Vase painting - Black-figure style - red background, black figures; Black lacquer and ocher were used; Vases have become more strict and elegant; Conditionality of the image; Profile pictures; Hyperbola; Plots are mythological;
Apollo of Tenea, c. 560-550 BC e, "Moschophoros (Taurus)", about 570 BC. e. "Chios bark", sculptor Archermos, c. 520 -510 BC e. "Cora in Peplos", c. 530 BC e.
Sculpture - Statues to gods and heroes. Two types of statues: koros (female figures) and kouros (male figures). Features: Conventional (never was a portrait of a specific person) Decorative Frontality Integrity "Archaic" smile Statues were painted Archaic period
Architecture - Greek order system: (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) Types of Greek temples are formed Temple of Artemis Archaic period
The order system is a combination of load-bearing (column with a capital, base) and carried parts (architrave, frieze, cornice, entablature) of a post-beam structure. Order - order (Greek)
Ionic order The uppermost part of the capital is an abacus in the form of a square slab. spiral curls - volutes - are twisted on both sides. More decor In the Corinthian order, the capital is made in the form of acanthus leaves. Corinthian order
Types of Greek temples 1 - a temple in ants; 2 - prostyle; 3 - amphiprostyle; 4 - peripter; 5 - dipter; 6 - pseudodipter; 7 - tholos
4. Peripter - a type of temple with a colonnade around the entire perimeter, facade - 6 columns, side facade - 2 p + 1, p - the number of columns on the front facade was most widely used in Greek architecture, since it best suited the idea of a circular view of the structure. Parthenon (447 BC)
The temple is the main building of the city, located in the center on a hill, the entrance is always from the east side. Not for mass gatherings. This is just a "home of the gods". The temple kept gifts to God and the treasures of the city. The interior was divided by columns into three naves. In the depths of the middle nave, opposite the entrance, stood a statue of the god to whom the temple is dedicated. The altar-altar was located in front of the temple. The most common type of temple is the peripter (surrounded by a colonnade around the perimeter).
The structure of the temple: The stepped foundation of the temple made of stone - a stereobat; its upper platform was called the stylobate. Vertical supports rising on the stylobate are columns with flutes. The column is divided into three parts: base, stem and capital. The upper part of the column - the capital The upper part of the building, based on the columns - the entablature: architrave - beams that lie on the columns, frieze, cornice Triangular completion of the gable roof - pediment
