The ancient period, which is characterized by the rise and flourishing of Hellas (as the ancient Greeks called their country), is the most interesting for most art historians. And not in vain! Indeed, at this time, the origin and formation of the principles and forms of almost all genres of contemporary art took place. In total, scientists divide the history of the development of this country into five periods. Let's look at the typology and talk about the formation of some types of art.
Aegean era This period is most clearly represented by two monuments - the Mycenaean and Knossos palaces. The latter is better known today as the Labyrinth from the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. After archaeological excavations, scientists have confirmed the veracity of this legend. Only the first floor has been preserved, but it has more than three hundred rooms! In addition to the palaces, the Cretan-Mycenaean period is known for the masks of the Achaean leaders and small Cretan sculptures. The figurines found in the secrets of the palace amaze with their filigree. Women with snakes look very realistic and graceful. Thus, the culture of Ancient Greece, a summary of which is presented in the article, originated from the symbiosis of the ancient island civilization of Crete and the arrived Achaean and Dorian tribes who settled on the Balkan Peninsula.
Homeric period This era is significantly different in material terms from the previous one. Many important events took place between the 11th and 9th centuries BC. First of all, the previous civilization perished. Scientists suggest that due to a volcanic eruption. Further from the statehood there was a return to the communal structure. In fact, society was being re-formed. An important point is that against the background of material decline, spiritual culture was fully preserved and continued to develop. We can see this in the works of Homer, which reflect precisely this critical era. The Trojan War belongs to the end of the Minoan period, and the writer himself lived at the beginning of the archaic era. That is, the Iliad and the Odyssey are the only evidence of this period, because apart from them and archaeological finds, nothing is known about it today.
archaic era. At this time, there is a rapid growth and formation of state-states. The coin begins to be minted, the formation of the alphabet and the formation of writing takes place. In an archaic era, the Olympic Games appear, a cult of a healthy and athletic body is formed. It was during this period that the culture of Ancient Greece was born.
classical period. Everything that captivates us today with the culture of Ancient Greece was created precisely in this era. Philosophy and science, painting and sculpture, oratory and poetry - all these genres are experiencing a rise and unique development. The apogee of creative self-expression was the Athens architectural ensemble, which still amazes the audience with its harmony and elegance of forms.
Hellenism. The last period of the development of Greek culture is interesting precisely because of its ambiguity. On the one hand, there is a unification of Greek and Eastern traditions as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great. On the other hand, Rome captures Greece, but the latter conquers it with its culture. Architecture The Parthenon is probably one of the most famous monuments of the ancient world. And Doric or Ionic elements, such as columns, are inherent in some later architectural styles. Basically, the development of this type of art, we can trace the temples. After all, it was in this type of buildings that the most efforts, means and skills were invested. Even palaces were valued less than places for sacrifices to the gods. The beauty of ancient Greek temples lies in the fact that they were not formidable temples of mysterious and cruel celestials. According to the internal structure, they resembled ordinary houses, only they were equipped more elegantly and were richer furnished. How could it be otherwise if the gods themselves were depicted as human-like, with the same problems, quarrels and joys? In the future, three orders of columns formed the basis of most styles of European architecture. It was with their help that the culture of Ancient Greece briefly, but very capaciously and durably entered the life of modern man.
vase painting. The works of this type of art are the most numerous and studied to date. The first monuments of this civilization are black-glazed ceramics - very beautiful and stylish dishes, copies of which served as souvenirs, decorations and collectibles in all subsequent eras. Vessel painting went through several stages of development. At first, these were simple geometric ornaments, known since the time of the Minoan culture. Next, spirals, meanders and other details are added to them. In the process of formation, vase painting acquires the features of painting. Scenes from the mythology and everyday life of the ancient Greeks, human figures, images of animals and everyday scenes appear on the vessels. It is noteworthy that the artists managed not only to convey movement in their paintings, but also to give personal features to the characters. Thanks to their attributes, individual gods and heroes are easily recognized.
Mythology. The peoples of the ancient world perceived the surrounding reality a little differently than we are used to understanding it. The deities were the main force that was responsible for what is happening in a person's life. The ancient Greek pantheon included a lot of gods, demigods and heroes, but the main ones were twelve Olympians. The names of some of them were already known during the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization. They are mentioned on clay tablets in linear writing. It is noteworthy that at this stage they had female and male counterparts of the same character. For example, there was Zeus-he and Zeus-she. Today we know about the gods of ancient Greece thanks to the monuments of fine art and literature that have remained for centuries. Sculptures, frescoes, figurines, plays and stories - in all this, the worldview of the Hellenes was reflected. Such views have outlived their time. The artistic culture of Ancient Greece, in short, had a primary influence on the formation of many European schools of various arts. The Renaissance artists resurrected and developed the ideas of style, harmony and form already known in classical Greece.
Architecture Ancient Greece developed in three stages. The period from about 600 to 480 BC. e. was marked by a repulse of the Persian invasion. After the liberation of their land, the Greeks began to create freely again. This period was called "archaic". The architecture of Ancient Greece experienced its heyday from 480 to 323 BC. e. During this period, Alexander the Great conquered vast territories that differed significantly in their cultures. This had a devastating effect on classical Greek art. The late period - Hellenism - ended in 30 BC. e. The Romans at that time conquered ancient Egypt, which was under the influence of Greece. The ruins of temples belong to the archaic period. These ancient structures were one of the greatest achievements of architecture. At that time, wood was replaced by white marble and limestone. Presumably, the prototype of the ancient temples was the dwelling of the Greeks. It looked like a rectangular building, in front of which two columns were installed. This fairly simple structure laid the foundation for more complex planning structures. As a rule, the temple was installed on a stepped base. There were no windows in the building; a statue of a deity was placed inside it. The building was surrounded by columns in two or one row. They served as a support for a gable roof and beams in the ceiling. Only priests were allowed to visit the interior. The rest of the people saw the temple from the outside. The construction of the temple was subject to certain laws, precisely established proportions, sizes, and the number of columns were used. The architecture of ancient Greece was characterized by three directions: Corinthian, Ionic, Doric. The latter was formed in the archaic era. Thus, the Doric style was the most ancient. It was a combination of power and simplicity. The name of the style comes from the Doric peoples who created it. The Ionic style was formed in Asia Minor, in its Ionian region. From there it was adopted by Ancient Greece. The architecture of this style was distinguished by the harmony and elegance of the columns. The middle part in the capital looked like a pillow with the corners twisted into a spiral. During the Hellenistic period, the architecture of Ancient Greece was characterized by a desire for pomp, a certain grandeur. At that time, Corinthian capitals (crowning parts of columns) were most often used. Their decoration is dominated by plant motifs, mainly with the image of acanthus leaves. In the 5th century BC e. Ancient Greek architecture flourished. The famous statesman Pericles had a great influence on the formation of art in this classical period. His reign was marked by the beginning of large-scale construction in Athens, the largest artistic and cultural center of Ancient Greece. The main work was carried out in the Acropolis - on an ancient hill. The Greeks were able in their architecture to bring to perfection the unity of the constructive and artistic content of buildings. It should be noted that in the 5th century BC. e. both architecture and sculpture of ancient Greece experienced their heyday. During this period, the greatest historical monuments were created. However, the early works of Greek sculptors have survived to this day. In the 7th-6th centuries BC. e. the statues are distinguished by amazing symmetry - one part of the body mirrors the other. The sculptures were in shackled positions - outstretched arms were pressed to the muscular body. Despite the absence of any sign of movement (turning the head or tilting), the lips of the statues were parted in a slight smile. The sculptural art of later periods is distinguished by a great variety of forms. In the 1st century BC e, as a result of the active expansion of the Roman Empire, ancient Greek architecture takes on more features of the conquerors, losing its own.
In ancient times, on the high hill of the Acropolis, the city of Kekropia was erected, which later received a new name - Athens. It is better to admire the Acropolis in Athens at sunrise or sunset, it is at this time that the ruins of the former great city come to life and seem to be rebuilt.
History of the Athenian Acropolis
Let's take a look at the history of the city. King Kekrops is considered the founder of Athens. This great man is credited with the foundation of 12 Greek cities, the introduction of a ban on human sacrifice, and, most importantly, the introduction of the cult of Zeus the Thunderer. The arrival of the greatness of the goddess Athena occurs during the reign of another king - Erechtonius, it was during his reign that the city was renamed Athens.
Approximately in the II millennium BC, the territory of the Acropolis completely contained Athens. It was surrounded by powerful walls. On the western sloping side, a particularly strong fortification of Enneapilon "Nine-Gate" was erected. Outside the walls was the palace of the Athenian kings. It was in it that the sanctuary of Athena was later placed, and as the city grew, the Acropolis became a religious center dedicated to the patroness of the city. Architecture of the Athenian Acropolis.
The construction of the ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis began after the great victories of the Greeks over the Persians. In 449, Pericles' plan to beautify this area was approved. The Athenian Acropolis was to become a great symbol of a great victory. No money or material was spared. Pericles could get whatever he wanted for this business.
Tons of material were brought to the main hill of the Greek capital. It was considered pride for everyone to work at this facility. Several excellent architects were involved here at once, but Phidias played the main role.
Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis
The architect Mnesicles created the buildings of the Propylaea, which are the entrance to the Acropolis, decorated with porticos and a colonnade. Such a structure introduced the visitor to a sacred place into a completely new world, not like everyday reality. At the other end of the Propylaea, a statue of the patroness of the city of Athena Promachos, executed personally by Phidias, was installed. Speaking of Phidias, one can say that it was from his hands that the famous statue of Zeus at Olympia came out, which became one of the seven wonders of the world of the ancient world. The helmet and spear of the warrior Athena were seen even by sailors sailing through Attica.
Parthenon - the first temple
The main temple of the Athenian Acropolis is the Parthenon. Previously, it contained another statue of Athena Parthenos, also made by Phidias. The statue was made in chrysoelephantine technique, like Olympian Zeus. But this miracle has not reached us, so it remains only to believe the rumors and images. The columns of the Parthenon, made of marble, have lost their original whiteness over the centuries. Now its brownish columns stand out beautifully against the evening sky. The Parthenon was the temple of Athena Polias the Guardian. Such a name, due to the position of the building, was usually shortened to the Great Temple or even just the Temple.
The construction of the Parthenon was carried out in 447-428 BC under the leadership of the architects Iktin and his assistant Kallikrat, of course, not without the participation of Phidias. The temple was supposed to be the epitome of democracy. Great calculations were made for its construction, which is why the building was completed in just 9 years. Other decoration continued until 432.
Erechtheion - the second temple
The second temple of the Acropolis is the old Erechtheion, also dedicated to Athena. There was a functional difference between the Erechtheion and the Pantheon. The Pantheon was intended for public needs, the Erechtheion, in fact, was the temple of the priests. The temple, according to legend, was built at the site of the dispute between Poseidon and Athena for the right to rule in Athens. The elders of the city were supposed to resolve the dispute, at their request, power was given to one of the gods, whose gift would be the most useful for the city. Poseidon made a stream of salt water from the hill of the Acropolis, while Athena grew an olive tree. The daughter of Zeus was declared the winner, and the olive tree was the symbol of the city.
The temple, according to legend, was built at the site of the dispute between Poseidon and Athena for the right to rule in Athens. The elders of the city were supposed to resolve the dispute, at their request, power was given to one of the gods, whose gift would be the most useful for the city. Poseidon made a stream of salt water from the hill of the Acropolis, while Athena grew an olive tree. The daughter of Zeus was declared the winner, and the olive tree was the symbol of the city.
In one of the rooms of the temple there was a trace of the impact of the trident of Poseidon on the rock. Near this place is the entrance to the cave, where, according to another legend, the snake of Athena lived, which is the personification of the glorious king-hero Erechthonius.
In the same complex there is the grave of Erechthonius himself, and in the western part of the temple there is a well with salt water, as if appeared at the behest of the same Poseidon.
Temple of Athena Nike
Athena in the Acropolis found its embodiment in another form - Athena Nike. The first temple dedicated to the goddess of victory was destroyed during the wars with the Persians, therefore, after the conclusion of the truce, it was decided to restore the sanctuary. The temple was built by Callicrates in 427-424 BC.
With the arrival of the Turks, the temple was dismantled for the construction of fortifications. The restoration of the temple was carried out in the 1830s, after the restoration of Greece as an independent state. The next reconstruction was carried out in 1935-1940, and since that time the temple appears in all its glory to the visitors of the complex.
The Acropolis is a majestic complex of beautiful buildings with a rich and interesting history. This is a piece of Greece, without which it is difficult to put together a holistic image of its former greatness.
Plan of the Athenian Acropolis.
Architecture of Ancient Rome. Architectural symbols of Roman grandeur. Roman Forum, the center of business and social life of the "eternal city". The Pantheon is the temple of all the gods. The Colosseum is a majestic spectacular building of Ancient Rome.
The composition of the characteristic Roman urban ensemble - the form bears traces of the influence of the compositions of the Greek agora and folk dwellings.
The predominant type of developed residential building was atrium-peristyle. Usually it was located on an elongated area, fenced off from the streets with blank outer walls. The front part of the house was occupied by an atrium - a closed room, on the sides of which there were living rooms and utility rooms. In the center of the atrium there was a pool, above which an open part was left in the roof for lighting and water flow into the pool. Behind the atrium, through the tablinum, was a peristyle with a garden inside. The whole composition developed in depth along the axis with a consistent disclosure of the main spaces.
AT Roman forums the same idea of a closed axial composition was reflected - an order peristyle, but enlarged to the size of a city square. In the initial period, the forums usually served as markets, and shops, and sometimes other public buildings, adjoined the galleries along their perimeter. Over time, they turned into parade squares for public meetings, solemn ceremonies, religious activities, etc.
The temple, located in the middle of the narrow side of a rectangular square on its main axis, became the ideological and compositional center. Rising on the podium, he dominated the composition. In plan, the temple had the shape of a rectangle, to which a portico was attached. Such a composition of the temple was traditional in Rome and had its origins in the most ancient types of temples of the Etruscan-Archaic period. In the composition of the forum, the frontal construction of the temple emphasized its deep-axial structure, and a rich portico (composite, Corinthian, less often Ionic order) accentuated the entrance to the temple. Since the republican period, several forums have been successively erected in Rome. Later emperors interpreted the forum as a monument to their own glory.
In its splendor, luxury, size and complexity of the composition stands out Forum of Emperor Trajan(architect Apollodorus of Damascus, 112-117). In addition to the main square and the temple, a five-bay elongated hall was erected on it - a basilica with an area of 55x159 m and two symmetrical library buildings, between which a memorial was erected on a small square. Trajan's column 38 m high. Its marble trunk is covered with a spiral ribbon of a bas-relief with 2500 figures depicting episodes of Trajan's victorious campaigns. The triumphal arch serves as the main entrance, the statue of the emperor is installed in the center of the square, the temple is in its depths. Colonnades and porticos made of marble, which had various and sometimes huge sizes, were the main motif of the ensemble.
Built in conjunction with the forums and on the main roads, triumphal arches are one of the most common types of memorial structures in Rome. Examples are arch of Titus(70s), arch of Constantine(IV century), where the monumental array is dressed in a rich decorative dress with a loosened order.
Arch of Constantine, placed near the Colosseum, surpasses others not only in its size (21.5 m high, 25 m wide), but also in the abundance of decorations. Some details (for example, round and rectangular reliefs, figures, etc.) are taken from architectural monuments of an earlier time, which was a common phenomenon in the architecture of late Rome. The plastic richness and large size of the structure are designed to convincingly express the ideas of the power of the emperor, who rules both in Rome itself and in the vast imperial colonies.
Arched and vaulted forms initially became widespread in utilitarian structures - bridges and aqueducts. City water pipes - aqueducts- occupied a special place in the improvement of cities, the growth of which required more and more water. The water supplied from the hilly environs to the city reservoirs flowed through stone channels (trays) plastered with hydraulic mortar, which in low places and at the intersections of rivers or ravines were supported by arched structures. Majestic arcades of bridges and aqueducts already in the Republican period determined the type of structures. Characteristic for these types of structures; Marcia aqueduct in Rome, 144 BC and etc.
some of them have risen to the level of the best examples of Roman architecture, not only technically, but also architecturally and artistically. They should include Trajan's bridge in Alcantra in Spain (98-106 AD) and an aqueduct in the city of Nimes in France (II century AD), crossing the river. Guard, etc.
Length Gardskogo aqueduct bridge 275 m. It consists of three tiers of arched abutments with a total height of 49 m. The span of the largest arch is a huge value for that time - 24.5 m. The abutments and arches are built dry of accurately hewn stones. The arcade is notable for its simplicity of forms and harmony of relationships, clarity of tectonics, large scale, and expressive texture. The monumental and refined beauty of the composition is achieved exclusively with the help of constructive forms.
Palace building was going on in Rome on a grand scale. Particularly stood out Imperial Palace on the Palatine, consisting of the actual palace for ceremonial receptions and the dwelling of the emperor. The front rooms were located around a vast peristyle courtyard. The main room - the throne room - was striking in its size. The hall was covered with a cylindrical arch with a span of 29.3 m, which rose 43-44 m above the floor level. The main premises of the residential part were also grouped around the peristyles on the terraces of the hills, using the methods of building villas. The construction of villas also acquired a large scale in Rome. In addition to large palace complexes, the principles of garden and park architecture, which were intensively developed from the 1st century BC, were implemented in them with the greatest breadth. ( Hadrian's villa in Tibur, first floor. 2nd century etc.).
The most grandiose public buildings of Rome, carried out in the imperial period, are associated with the development of arched-vaulted concrete structures.
Roman theaters were based on Greek traditions, but unlike Greek theaters, whose seats were located on the natural slopes of the mountains, they were free-standing buildings with a complex substructure that supported seats for spectators, with radial walls, pillars and stairs and passages inside the main semicircular in terms of volume ( Theater of Marcellus in Rome, II c. BC, which accommodated about 13 thousand spectators, etc.).
Colosseum (Colosseum)(75-80 AD) - the largest amphitheater in Rome, intended for gladiator fights and other competitions. Elliptical in plan (dimensions in the main axes are about 156x188 m) and grandiose in height (48.5 m), it could accommodate up to 50,000 spectators. In plan, the building is divided by transverse and annular passages. Between the three outer rows of pillars, a system of main distribution galleries was arranged. A system of stairs connected the galleries with exits evenly spaced in the funnel of the amphitheater and external entrances to the building arranged along the entire perimeter.
The structural basis is made up of 80 radially directed walls and pillars that carry the vaults of the ceilings. The outer wall is made of travertine squares; in the upper part it consists of two layers: the inner one is made of concrete and the outer one is made of travertine. Marble and knock were widely used for facing and other decorative works.
With a great understanding of the properties and work of the material, the architects combined various types of stone and concrete compositions. In elements experiencing the greatest stress (in pillars, longitudinal arches, etc.), the most durable material - travertine - is used; radial tuff walls lined with brick and partly relieved by brick arches; the sloping concrete vault has light pumice as a filler in order to lighten the weight. Brick arches of various designs penetrate the thickness of concrete both in vaults and in radial walls. The "frame" structure of the Colosseum was functionally expedient, provided lighting for the internal galleries, passages and stairs, and was economical in terms of the cost of materials.
The Colosseum also provides the first known example in history of the bold solution of awning structures in the form of a periodically arranged cover. On the wall of the fourth tier, brackets were preserved that served as supports for the rods, to which a giant silk awning was attached with the help of ropes, protecting the audience from the scorching rays of the sun.
The external appearance of the Colosseum is monumental due to the huge size and the unity of the plastic development of the wall in the form of a multi-tiered order arcade. The system of orders gives the composition a scale and, along with this, a special character of the relationship between the sculpture and the wall. At the same time, the facades are somewhat dry, the proportions are heavy. The use of the order arcade introduced tectonic duality into the composition: the multi-tiered order system, complete in itself, serves exclusively decorative and plastic purposes here, creating only an illusory impression of the building's order frame, visually lightening its array.
Roman baths- complex complexes of numerous rooms and courtyards intended for ablution and various activities related to recreation and entertainment (rooms and open areas for sports exercises, meeting rooms, rooms for games and conversations, etc.). The composition was based on ablution halls with a gradual transition from a cold room (frigidarium) to a warm one (tepidarium) and then to a room with the highest temperature (caldarium), containing a pool of hot water in the center. The halls located along the main axis reached enormous sizes, since the large baths were designed for the broad masses of the plebs.
All halls and rooms were heated by warm air, which came through special channels, which were arranged under the floor and in the walls of buildings.
In Rome, 11 large imperial baths and about 800 small private baths were built. Most famous Baths of Caracalla(206-216) and the baths of Diocletian(306). The main building of the term sometimes reached a huge size (the baths of Caracalla-216x120 m). Surrounded by gardens, areas for recreation and entertainment, it, together with the latter, occupied a significant area (the baths of Caracalla - 363x535 m).
The technical basis for the appearance of such grandiose structures was the accumulated experience in creating bold constructive forms - arches and domes made of concrete. In terms, these forms spatially interact with each other, forming a complex structure. Having reduced the “inert” mass of structures to a minimum, the architects distributed their efforts economically and expediently. Giving the structures different shapes, they made the most of the possibilities of mutual repayment of horizontal forces by the vaults themselves. So, the ceiling of the central hall usually consisted of three adjacent cross vaults with a span of up to 25 m, based on transverse abutments, between which cylindrical vaults were thrown.
Large and small halls, uniting in enfilades, created a complex interior, striking with brilliance and luxury of decoration, an abundance of light and air. Great importance in the interior was attached to decoratively treated order elements and articulations. With the help of the order and the plastic development of the surfaces of the vaults, a visual effect of the lightness of the structure was created, the idea of the spatiality of the interior was emphasized. ( Baths of Caracalla in Rome, 206-216. Interior reconstruction)
One of the central halls of the term was often made in a round shape with a domed cover. Its dimensions reached large sizes: the diameter of the caldarium of the terms of Caracalla was 34 m. The development of domed structures in the terms contributed to the emergence of a rotunda-type composition in which the domed form became dominant.
Pantheon in Rome(about 125) is the most perfect example of a grandiose rotunda temple, in which the diameter of the dome reached 43.2 m. In the Pantheon, the constructive and artistic tasks of creating the largest in Rome (unsurpassed until the 20th century) large-span domed space were brilliantly resolved.
The spherical vault is made with horizontal layers of concrete and rows of burnt bricks, representing a monolithic mass without a frame. To lighten the weight, the dome gradually decreases in thickness towards the top, and light aggregate - crushed pumice stone - is introduced into the concrete. The dome rests on a 6 m thick wall. The foundation is concrete with travertine filler. As the wall rises, travertine is replaced by lighter tuff, and in the upper part - brick rubble. Brick rubble also serves as a filler for the lower zone of the dome. Thus, in the design of the Pantheon, a system of lightening the weight of the concrete aggregate was consistently carried out.
The system of unloading brick arches in the thickness of the concrete evenly distributes the forces of the dome on the abutments and unloads the wall above the niches, reducing the load on the columns. A multi-tiered system of arches with a clearly defined subordination of the main and secondary parts made it possible to rationally distribute efforts in the structure, freeing it from inert mass. She contributed to the preservation of the building despite earthquakes.
The artistic structure of the building is determined by the constructive form: a powerful domed volume outside, a single and integral space inside. The centric volume of the rotunda is interpreted from the outside as an axial frontal composition. In front of the majestic eight-column portico of the Corinthian order (the height of the columns is 14 m), there used to be a rectangular courtyard with a solemn entrance and a triumphal arch like a forum. The developed space under the portico with four rows of intermediate columns, as it were, prepares the visitor for the perception of the vast space of the interior.
The dome, at the top of which there is a round light opening with a diameter of 9 m, dominates the interior. Five rows of caissons decreasing upwards create the impression of a domed "frame", visually lightening the array. At the same time, they give the dome plasticity and a scale commensurate with the divisions of the interior. The order of the lower tier, accentuating deep niches, effectively alternates with massive pillars lined with marble.
The attic strip, intermediate between the order and the dome, emphasizes in contrast the forms of the dome and the main order with a small division scale. The expressive tectonics of the composition is combined with the effect of diffuse lighting pouring from above and subtle color nuances created by the marble facing. The rich, festively majestic interior contrasts with the exterior of the Pantheon, where the simplicity of the monumental volume dominates.
An important place in the construction was occupied by covered halls - basilicas, which served for various kinds of meetings and meetings of the tribunal. These are rectangular buildings elongated in plan, internally divided by rows of supports into elongated spaces - naves. The middle nave was made wider and higher than the side ones, and was illuminated through openings in the upper part of the walls.
Three-aisled basilica of Constantine(312) - one of the largest basilicas in Rome. The middle nave, 23.5 m wide, 80 m long and 35 m high, was covered with three cross vaults. The side naves were covered with transverse cylindrical vaults, which rested on powerful arched abutments, which also served as a support for the vaults of the middle nave. The thrust of the cross vaults was extinguished by the same supports, which were partially brought out over the side aisles. In the longitudinal walls of the middle nave, above the vaults of the side parts, arched lighting openings were arranged. As in other major buildings of Rome (the baths, the Pantheon, etc.), the main attention in the Basilica of Constantine is given to the creation of large interior spaces. The richly designed interior, which was similar in composition and decoration to the interiors of the thermae, was opposed by the simple and concise appearance of the building.
In the IV century. with the adoption of Christianity by Rome on the basis of the basilica, new types of religious buildings began to develop - basilica churches. The Christian basilica was especially widespread in the religious construction of the Western Middle Ages.
Like any culture, it is a manifestation of the national spirit, formed in a given area under the influence of a certain climate.
* Attica - the name of the territory around Athens.
Taking into account the features of the surrounding landscape and climate, as well as all the optical distortions inherent in vision, the architects gave the outlines of the temple a barely noticeable curvature. 11.5 cm). The cylinders of the columns create the illusion of a façade open to the sides; for this reason, each column along the perimeter of the temple was narrowed upwards and tilted 7 cm from the axis to the cella. An absolutely even column looks dry and as if crushed in the middle, therefore, in order to give the contour of juiciness and elasticity, it was endowed with a slight thickening by about a third of its height. So that the corner columns do not seem excessively thin due to bright lighting, they were made more massive and the neighboring ones were brought closer to them.
But even under the dazzling rays of the sun, the white marble columns did not merge with the cella, because it was painted purple with thin horizontal lines of gilding. The shadow from the reliefs and sculptures, which could distort the image, was "extinguished" by the red background of the pediment and metopes and the blue stripes of triglyphs. Thanks to this, in conditions of exceptional transparency of the air and the brightness of sunlight, the smallest details of the painted sculpture and bas-reliefs could be distinguished from afar.
The encaustic technique provided the same external effect of plasticity as the shiny surface of marble, giving the majestic and austere appearance of the marble Parthenon an elegant, festive look. Some details - horse reins, necks of vessels, wreaths made of gilded bronze, reminiscent of a light cobweb, introduced an element of transparency into its sophisticated appearance.
The temple has become a model of size, rationalism, precise calculation, but at the same time, the harmony of simple forms and clear lines gives it aspiration upwards and an almost bodily trembling of a living orgoanism, characteristic of sculpture.
Questions and tasks
1. What are the main features of architectural orders that arose in Greece during the archaic period. What gods were Greek temples dedicated to?
2. What characteristic features of the classics did the architectural ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis have?
3. Why is the Parthenon considered the most perfect temple of the Doric order?
Emokhonova L. G., World art culture: a textbook for grade 10: secondary (complete) general education (basic level) - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 2008.
Download textbooks in all subjects, lesson plan development for teachers, Art for grade 10 online
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Group Study Topic
"The Name of the Gods"
Problem question (research question)
What gods were Greek temples dedicated to?
Research objectives
1. Find out which gods are ancient Greek temples?
2. Explain why the Parthenon is considered the most perfect temple of the Doric order?
3. List what characteristic features of the classics the architectural ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis had?
The results of the study
1. The ancient Greek religion, as well as the Egyptian and many other religions of the world, had a local character of development. Those. in various places in Greece, their deities were honored, often associated with local relief features or personifying them, on which the lives of believers depended: so in Psophida they worshiped the local river Erymanth, to which the temple was dedicated; in Orchomenus - sacred stones, as if once fallen from the sky, on Mount Anhesme, Zeus Anhesmius was revered, Zeus Laphistius - the personification of Mount Lafistion. Each locality or city had its own patron-patron. This cult had a state character. Moreover, this cult was very strict: in general, one could be skeptical of the gods, the Greek religion did not know the universally binding dogmas, but it was impossible to avoid performing the duties of rituals in honor of the patron god, it was impossible to disrespect him. Severe penalties were imposed for violating this law.
Of the many local gods, over time, some images merged into single common Greek deities, for example, Zeus Laphistius, Zeus Crokeat, the cult of Zeus in Crete and Thessaly, grew into the cult of Zeus - as a riding god, "the father of gods and people." The very name Zeus means a shining sky and goes back to a common Indo-European root (Dyaus among the Indians, Tiu among the Germans). The name of Zeus had about 50 epithets indicating his functions: underground, i.e. provides fertility, rain-bearing, all-begetting, ruler of destinies, etc.
The image of Hera, the main of the goddesses, the wife of Zeus, grew out of the image of the cow goddess, the patroness of Mycenae. Poseidon was an ancient sea deity of the Pelaponnese. The cult of Poseidon, having absorbed a number of local cults, became the god of the sea and the patron of horses. Athena is an ancient deity - the patroness of cities and city fortifications. Her other name - Pallas - is also an epithet, meaning "Spear Shaker". According to classical mythology, Athena acts as a warrior goddess, she was depicted in full armor. The goddess Artemis is one of the most revered deities of the Greeks. It is usually believed that the cult of Artemis originated in Asia Minor, where she was considered the patroness of fertility. In classical mythology, Artemis appears as a virgin goddess-hunter, usually with her companion - a doe. An extremely complex and obscure image is Apollo, who occupied a very prominent place in Greek mythology and religion. In the Pelaponess, Apollo was considered a shepherd deity. Around Thebes, Apollo Ismenius was revered: this epithet is the name of a local river, which was once deified by the inhabitants. Apollo later became one of the most popular gods of Greece. He is considered the embodiment of the national spirit. The main functions of Apollo: divination of the future, patronage of the sciences and arts, healing, cleansing from all filth, the deity of light, the correct, orderly world order. God-healer Akslepiy developed on purely Greek soil. Arcadian in origin was the god of the shepherds Pan. The goddess of fertility in Asia Minor, Aphrodite, became the Greek goddess of beauty, love, the idealized personification of femininity. Ares, borrowed from the Franks, became the boisterous gods of war. Further: Demeter - the goddess of fertility, Hephaestus - the personification of earthly fire and blacksmithing, Hestia - also the personification of fire, only domestic, the deity of the family hearth, Hermes - the patron of roads and travelers, the god of trade. Some of the Greek gods are more or less abstract images - the personification of individual abstract concepts: Plutos is the direct personification of wealth, Nemesis is the goddess of retribution, Themis is the goddess of justice, Moira is the goddess of fate, Nike is the goddess of victory and this is not all the deities of the Greeks.
Cosmogonic themes in folk beliefs did not occupy a prominent place. The idea of a creator god was absent in this religion. According to Hesiod, Earth, Darkness, Night, and then Light, Ether, Day, Sky, Sea and other great forces of nature were born from Chaos. From Heaven and Earth, the older generation of gods was born, and from them already Zeus and other Olympic gods.
There was no central cult in Greece, but on the basis of cultural commonality, some cult centers received a wide, all-Greek significance. The sanctuaries of Apollo at Delphi, Zeus at Olympia, Demeter at Epidaurus, and others were widely known and revered throughout Greece. In general, the religion of Greece was divided, although more or less stable.
2. The temple is a peripter of the Doric order of 46 columns (8 on the main facade and 17 on the side). The Parthenon is an example of the Doric order! Ideally measured proportions Doric order, which appeared at the beginning of the 6th century. BC, can be considered the main in the development of Greek architecture. Strict and solemnly monumental Doric order, which appeared at the beginning of the 6th century. BC e., consists of the following parts:
three-stage base - stereobat;
carrier column. Vertically, the column trunk was divided by flutes (vertical grooves) with sharp edges. The column ends with a capital, consisting of an echina (flattened pillow) and an abacus (tetrahedral plate.)
the bearing part - the entablature, which includes an architrave (a horizontal beam lying on columns), a frieze with alternating triglyphs (a slab with vertical grooves) and metopes (a slab made of stone or ceramics decorated with relief or painting) and a cornice.
3. In contrast to the archaic, with its predilection for rigid symmetry, the picturesque panorama of the classics set a sublimely solemn mood. To the left of the central axis of the Propylaea, on a flat plateau of a hill, rose the seventeen-meter colossus of Athena Promachos (Warrior) made of gilded bronze. To the right, the architects Iktin and Kallikrat erected the Parthenon (447-438 BC) as a symbol of the victory of Greek democracy over the eastern despotism, dedicating it to Athena Parthenos (Virgin). At the same time, the temple symbolized the triumph of the organizing, light principles of religion over its chthonic, unbridled sources. This was evidenced by the relief on the Doric metopes and the Ionic frieze that followed the colonnade along the top of the cella. The eastern pediment was decorated with sculptural compositions on the theme of the birth of Athena 6; western - her dispute with Poseidon7 for power over Attica *. The roof at the corners was crowned with stylized lotus petals. The snow-white array of the temple of Pentellian marble, which has the property of acquiring a golden patina of extraordinary beauty over time, looms against the blue sky. Transparent air, bright sunlight wash the outer colonnades in a radiant stream, flow into the open space of the cella, dissolving the marble volumes in themselves.
Conclusion
The peoples of ancient Greece made many discoveries, created many magnificent works of art, architecture, literature, which are still interesting to us, attracting, enticing, teaching, giving the best examples of art and morality.
Ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis
Acropolis- (Greek akropolis, from akros - upper and polis - city), an elevated and fortified part of the ancient Greek city, a fortress, a refuge in case of war.
His buildings are exquisite in proportion and harmoniously connected with the landscape. This ensemble, created under the general direction of Phidias, consists of the main entrance of the Propylaea (437–432 BC, architect Mnesicles), the temple of Athena Nike (449–420 BC, architect Callicrates), the main temple of the Acropolis and Athens the Parthenon (447–438 BC, architects Iktin and Kallikrates), the Erechtheion Temple (421–406 BC).
The Acropolis of Athens, which is a 156-meter rocky hill with a gentle top (approx. 300 m long and 170 m wide), the site of the oldest settlement in Attica. In the Mycenaean period (15-13 centuries BC) it was a fortified royal residence. In the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. There was a lot of construction going on on the Acropolis. Under the tyrant Pisistratus (560-527), a temple of the goddess Athena Hekatompedon was built on the site of the royal palace (i.e., a temple a hundred steps long; fragments of sculptures of pediments have been preserved, the foundation has been revealed). In 480, during the Greco-Persian wars, the temples of the Acropolis were destroyed by the Persians. The inhabitants of Athens took an oath to restore the shrines only after the expulsion of enemies from Hellas.
In 447, on the initiative of Pericles, new construction began on the Acropolis; the management of all the works was entrusted to the famous sculptor Phidias, who, apparently, was the author of the artistic program that formed the basis of the entire complex, its architectural and sculptural appearance.
Even before the 5th c. The Acropolis was not a desert rock. Life has been going on here since the end of the 3rd century. BC. Even then, the elevation was a refuge for the inhabitants of the surrounding plains during the attack of enemies. In the 6th century BC on the Acropolis stood the temple of Athena, called Hekatompedon. It was located directly opposite the Propylaea and struck with its beauty the person who entered the Acropolis. In the placement of buildings of the 6th c. BC. symmetry dominated, which archaic masters often adhered to. The architectural forms of archaic temples are heavy and severe. The columns seem to swell under the weight of the roof pressing on them. The severity was softened only by sculptural decorations.
From the buildings of that period, only the foundations remained, and even that is far from all. This is due to the fact that the buildings were destroyed during the Greco-Persian wars.
The entire second half of Vn. BC e. construction was going on on the Acropolis. In 447, work began on the Parthenon. It was completed in draft form in 438 BC. e., and the decoration went on until 434 BC. e. In 437 BC. e. laid the Propylaea and completed them only in 432 BC. e., and about 425 BC. e. created the temple of Nika the Wingless. Before the Peloponnesian War, the colossus of Athena the Warrior was erected in front of the Propylaea on the Acropolis. In 421 BC. h. began to build the Erechtheion and completed it in 407 BC. e. For almost half a century, construction was in full swing here, architects, sculptors, artists worked, creating works that humanity is proud of after millennia.
His buildings are exquisite in proportion and harmoniously connected with the landscape. This ensemble, created under the general direction of Phidias, consists of the front entrance of the Propylaea (437–432 BC, architect Mnesicles), the Temple of Athena Nike Apteros (“Wingless Victory”) (449–420 BC, architect Kallikrates ), the main temple of the Acropolis and Athens Parthenon (447–438 BC, architects Iktin and Kallikrat), the temple of the Erechtheion (421–406 BC). (see appendix 1)
In the location of the temples of the Acropolis of the time of Pericles, architects dig out of the symmetry that was typical of the archaic era. Buildings now gradually come into view of a person walking on the Acropolis. The Athenian, passing the Propylaea, saw first of all not the facade of the temple, but the huge statue of Athena the Warrior. Coming closer to her, he ceased to perceive this colossus. All his attention was directed to the Parthenon, which, as it were, grew gradually to the right. The temple of Erechtheion, located on the left, became especially clearly visible from the Parthenon.
Thus, it was possible to consider either the details of the nearby work, or
a completely different, distant monument. The attention of the person standing at the Propylaea at the entrance to the Acropolis could be occupied by the decoration of the architectural details of the solemn gates of the Acropolis. But he could also contemplate the huge statue of Athena that stood in front of the Propylaea. Erechtheion and Parthenon have not yet opened in all their beauty. Approaching the colossus of Athena and being at the pedestal of the statue, the Athenian could be carried away by examining its relief decorations, but from here he already saw from an advantageous point of view the temple of Athena - the Parthenon. The Erechtheion was still obscured for him by the pedestal of the colossus of Athena and opened only in full sea from the Parthenon, where in a similar way it was possible to view either the details of the Parthenon or the entire Erechtheion.
The change of artistic impressions and their gradual incorporation into human consciousness, the use of various forms and contrasts, when looking at details alternates with the perception of the whole structure - this principle was new compared to the simple comparison of monuments in archaic ensembles.
Propylaea
At the foot of the cliff, on the western side, the path to the Acropolis of Athens begins.
The first structure that is encountered on the way is the propylaea or entrance gate (440 - 432 BC). It is assumed that in the original plan, the left and right sides of the Propylaea should have been the same and the whole building was symmetrical. But around 425 B.C. to the right of the gate, the temple of the goddess Nike grew, and this part of the propylaea was made somewhat smaller than the left, as they strove for a general balance of architectural volumes.
Propylaea- the first structure where two different warrants were applied. The Propylaea of the Acropolis had five openings (gates) with small six-columned halls and side structures on both sides. The middle opening was wider than the others.
The western portico, located on the side of the main approach to the Acropolis, is much more elaborately decorated than the others.
In the Propylaea, as in the Parthenon, Doric and Ionic orders are combined. The solemnity and impressiveness of the outer Doric columns was revealed to the eyes of a person approaching the Propylaea. But, having entered under the roof of the gate, he found himself among the graceful and light Ionic ones. To smooth the transition from one order to another, the architect made square ledges resembling bases at the base of the Doric columns. By introducing the Ionic order, Mnesicles complicated and enriched the impression of the architectural image of the Propylaea. The different sizes of the Doric columns - large in the center of the Propylaea and small in the lateral parts - also help the diversity.
On both sides of the western portico of the propylaea were unequal-sized buildings with porticos: on the left, the larger one was an art gallery, and on the right, the smaller one was the library.
Temple of Nike Apteros
In front of the short side of the propylea of the library rises a small graceful temple, the smallest building of the Acropolis (architect Callicrates, 449-421 BC). Made in the Ionic style, this temple is dedicated to Nike Apteros- "Wingless Victory". In Greece, the goddess of Victory was depicted with large wings: she is fickle, flies from one opponent to another. But the Athenians believed that they had become invincible, and so that Nike would never leave them, they depicted her as wingless.
Rising above the powerful fortress wall, the temple crowns it with its light proportions. Built in the Ionic order, it carries four columns on the end sides and has blank side walls without colonnades. Placed at an angle to the Propylaea, it seems to turn slightly towards the gate, as if directing a person approaching the sacred hill towards them. Next to the Doric colonnade of the Propylaea, Nike's Ionic temple may seem too light. Therefore, some features of Dorica are included in the temple order. The ancient Greek masters were not afraid to deviate from the rules of the order, and, if it seemed necessary to them, they boldly introduced elements of another into one order. The interior of the temple is small. The walls inside may have been covered with paintings: the surface of the marble walls is not polished, rough. This temple was destroyed during
domination of the Turks in Greece, and only later it was restored again.
Outside, the temple is decorated with a low frieze of Pentelli marble, on the short parts of which the gods of Olympus are shown, and on the long parts - scenes of battles with the Persians. On the eastern part of the frieze, solemn and calm gods are depicted. Mostly standing figures are placed above the columns, and between them the gods are sitting or slightly leaning; the composition of the frieze is connected with the architecture of the building, as in other buildings of the Acropolis.
Parthenon
A little to the right of the statue, at a short distance, in honor of the goddess Athena, the patroness of the city, the architects Iktin and Kallikrat built a majestic marble temple - the Parthenon. The temple was built for 9 years. The Parthenon occupied the uppermost part of the Acropolis, being the central structure of the entire ensemble. From the distant points of the city, the inhabitants saw the silhouette of the temple, which towered over the city. The Parthenon crowns the Acropolis. The logically clear architectural forms of the temple are not only opposed to the wild slopes of the rocks, but are also connected with them in an artistic unity.
Researchers of ancient Greek architecture often drew attention to the fact that the principle or rule of the “golden section” is often used in the works of Hellenic architects. It was considered harmonious and beautiful to give buildings the proportions of the “golden section”.
The proportions of the Parthenon and the Acropolis hill are not accidental. The size of the temple is determined by the size of the rock. The ancient architects, in addition, placed the Parthenon on the Acropolis in the most artistically advantageous place, so that the dimensions of the temple and the rock are perceived when viewed from a distance consistent.
The Parthenon is the largest temple in the ensemble of the Acropolis and the entire Greek metropolis. Inside it has two large halls - rectangular and square, the entrances to which were located on opposite sides. The eastern rectangular hall with a statue of Athena in the depth was divided into three parts by two-tiered colonnades of the Doric order. The square hall served as a treasury and was called the Parthenon.
The Doric order in the Parthenon is not as severe as in the temples of the archaic. It is softened by the introduction of some elements of the elegant Ionic order into the architecture. Behind the outer colonnade, on the upper part of the temple wall, one can see a continuous relief strip depicting the solemn procession of the Athenians. The continuous figured frieze - zophor - belongs to the Ionic order, and, nevertheless, it was introduced into the architecture of the Doric Parthenon, where it should have been: there would be a frieze with triglyphs and metopes.
It organically includes elements of the Ionic order: columns elongated in proportion, a lightweight entablature, a continuous frieze encircling the building, made of squares of Pentelic marble.
Ancient Greek architects skillfully combined their buildings with the landscape, harmoniously “fitting” them into the surrounding nature.
The connection of the Parthenon with nature was expressed not only in the proportional ratio of the temple and the hill. Greek architects and sculptors saw that distant objects or their parts seem smaller, and were able to correct optical distortions.
The columns of the Parthenon are not strictly vertical, but are slightly inclined towards the inside of the building. The axes of the corner columns, when they are mentally continued, Must intersect with each other at a high altitude. This eliminated the effect of that optical illusion, in which a series of vertical lines seem to be somewhat expanding upwards.
Deviations from horizontals and verticals are almost imperceptible. However, they are Marble - a material that helps this impression. By the time the Parthenon was built, the Greeks had long known and appreciated this wonderful stone, understanding how well marble captures light and, absorbing it, glows on the surface, becoming like a human body in tenderness.
Before the Parthenon, temples were erected mainly from rough porous stone - limestone, which, after construction was completed, was covered with a layer of marble plaster. The Parthenon is all marble. Naturally, some of its details were wooden, metal was also used to fasten marble blocks, but the main material was
Not far from Athens, in the mountains of Pentelikon, deposits of good white marble were found. The smallest glandular particles contained in it turned out to be on the surface after processing. When in contact with air moisture, they gradually oxidized and formed a uniform layer, and sometimes spots of a beautiful, golden patina. The snow-white coldish stone became warm, saturated with the sun, as if absorbing the moisture of the air. This ability of the processed marble to react to light, to the surrounding air, strengthened the connection of the building with nature.
Temple Erechtheion
The lightness of forms, the special sophistication of decorative finishes and the complexity of the composition of the small Erechtheion contrasts with the strict and majestic, emphatically monumental Parthenon, which is a Doric peripter.
The place where the Erechtheion was built was not chosen by chance. It was predetermined. It was believed that it was here that Poseidon struck with a trident and carved a stream, and Athena planted an olive. The architect faced the difficult task of constructing a building on a site with a strong slope. It was not possible to carry out large-scale planning work and level the site for the Erechtheion, since at that time the burdensome Peloponnesian War was going on. The rooms of the Erechtheion therefore have different levels.
The location of the Erechtheion is nevertheless fortunate in the ensemble of the Acropolis. Indeed, if in the western part of the Acropolis the heavier part of the Propylaea is located on the left, and the light temple of Nike is on the right, then in the eastern part of the hill the gravity is transferred to the right side, protruding in the volume of the Parthenon, and the elegant and lighter Ionic Erechtheion turns out to be on the left. The harmonic distribution of masses, the balance of architectural volumes with a general asymmetry is not perceived immediately, but gradually, when moving along the Acropolis.
The layout of the Erechtheion takes into account the unevenness of the soil. The temple consists of two rooms located at different levels. On three sides it has porticos of various shapes, including the famous cor (caryatid) portico on the south wall (see Appendix 1).
The Erechtheion is very different from the Parthenon. Next to the Doric order of the temple of Athena the Virgin, the Ionic order of the Erechtheion is perceived as small, although it is a rather large temple in terms of absolute dimensions. Near the strict columns of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion with its rich ornamental decoration seems especially elegant.
Looking at the Parthenon from one point, from an angle, gives an idea of the entire temple. In contrast, the complex and asymmetrical Erechtheion must be walked around from all sides in order to perceive the richness of its architectural forms. That is why it was obviously impossible to get to the northern entrance to the Erechtheion directly from the Propylaea. The architect, as it were, forced the person to go around the temple.
The architecture of the Erechtheion is dominated by the principle of contrast. The smooth walls are matched by shaded porticos. The white marble of the temple is contrasted with the purple marble of the frieze. Massive bases are combined with light columns. The large surfaces of the steps are perceived next to the complex pattern on the bases of the columns.
The Erechtheion overlooks the Acropolis Square with its south side with a portico, the roof of which is held by six caryatids, three caryatids rest on the left leg, three on the right. It would seem that the symmetry is sustained here clearly and infallibly. But, looking at the marble sculptures of girls, you see how different they are. The folds of their clothes not only outline strong, beautiful figures, but reveal the degree of tension of each girl. The Caryatids calmly, with excessive effort, carry the heavy roof of the portico. Their burden is neither heavy nor too light for them. The load is perceived by them extremely naturally. Classical harmony lives in each of these statues, in their beautiful clothes, elegant hairstyles. The bands, tightly braided at the head, gradually unravel and flow freely down the backs. The master does not try to deceive the viewer, making him believe that in front of him is not a stone, but hair. It retains the texture of marble. But the ratios of hair density - tightly braided:, loosely braided and loose - exactly
are rendered to the pits by the differences of the marble surfaces, and this evokes the feeling of almost real hair.
To the right of the portico of caryatids, rich in black and white contrasts, on the dark surface of which the illuminated figures of girls appear, the calm expanse of a large wall protrudes. It only at first glance seems massive and monotonous. In fact, this wall, built of large beautiful blocks of marble, has a peculiar small pedestal below, decorated with a relief ornament, and at the top there is a belt with a pattern carved in damask. The decorative completions of the wall at the top and bottom are respectively at the level of the capitals and bases of the columns of the eastern portico. The wall is thus subordinated to the order system of the entire temple.
The interior layout of the Erechtheion is complex. In the eastern part, behind the threshold of the sanctuary of Athena, there was a room with an ancient wooden statue of the goddess, in front of which stood a golden lamp with unquenchable fire. Next were the sanctuaries of Erechtheus and Poseidon. Their walls are supposed to have been decorated with picturesque images.
In contrast to the flat eastern portico, the northern portico is made deep so that a dense shadow is created under its roof, on which light marble columns would appear. Otherwise, they would not have been noticeable from the distance below from the city. The north portico is especially well decorated. Its ceiling is divided into beautiful square recesses that lighten the weight.
Ionic columns stand on bases richly decorated with ornaments and carry elegant capitals. The door leading to the temple is especially beautiful with decorative patterns. The elegance of the decoration of the Erechtheion emphasizes the restrained grandeur of the Parthenon. Much attention was paid to the decoration of the Erechtheion. Orders for the production of decorative patterns were given to various artists so that there were no repetitions.
The change of artistic impressions and their gradual incorporation into human consciousness, the use of various forms and contrasts, when looking at details alternates with the perception of the whole structure - this principle was new compared to the simple comparison of monuments in archaic ensembles.
High Classical Art (450 - 410 BC)
Second half of the 5th c. BC. was a time of particularly significant flowering of the arts. This period is called the high classics.
The leading role in the flourishing of the art of high classics belonged to Athens - the most developed political, economic and cultural policy.
The art of Athens of this time served as a model for the art of other policies, especially those that were in the orbit of the political influence of Athens. Many local and visiting artists worked in Athens - architects, painters, sculptors, draftsmen of red-figure vases.
Architecture of the third quarter of the 5th c. BC. acted as evidence of the victory of rational human will over nature. Not only in cities, but also among the wild nature or on the deserted shores of the sea, clear and strict architectural structures dominated the surrounding space, introducing into it an ordered harmonious structure. So, on the steep Cape Sunius, 40 km from Athens, on the easternmost point of Attica, far advanced into the sea, around 430, a temple of the god of the seas, Poseidon, was built, as if the first city of Hellas proudly asserted its maritime power.
Advanced architectural thought was expressed not only in the construction of individual buildings, outstanding for their artistic qualities, but also in the field of urban planning. For the first time in the era of Pericles, the correct (regular) planning of cities was widely implemented according to a single thoughtful plan. So, for example, the military and commercial harbor of Athens - Piraeus was planned.
Unlike most of the older Greek cities in Piraeus, cobbled streets of the same width ran strictly parallel to each other; at right angles they were crossed by transverse, shorter and narrower streets. The planning of the city was (not earlier than 446 BC) carried out by the architect Hippodamus from Miletus, a native of Asia Minor Greece. The restoration of the cities of Ionia, destroyed during the war by the Persians, set the task of building architecture according to a single plan. It was here that the first experiments in general planning in the history of architecture arose, on which Hippodames relied in his activities. Basically, the layout was reduced, as was the case in Piraeus, to a general breakdown of quarters, and when planning the streets, the nature of the terrain was taken into account, as well as the direction of the winds. The locations of the main public buildings were also determined in advance. The houses of Piraeus were low buildings that faced the street with blank walls, and inside they had a courtyard with a portico on its northern side in front of the entrance to the living quarters. These residential buildings were relatively uniform: in the 5th century polis populated by free citizens. BC. there was not that striking inequality that was characteristic of the later cities of the Hellenistic and Roman times.
In Athens and under Pericles, the old, irregular layout was preserved. But the city was adorned with numerous new buildings: covered porticos (stands), which provided shade and protection from rain, gymnasiums - schools where rich young men studied philosophy and literature, palestras - rooms for teaching boys gymnastics, etc. The walls of these public institutions were often covered monumental painting. So, for example, the walls of the Poikile stand, that is, the "Motley" stand, were decorated with frescoes by the famous painter of the middle of the 5th century. BC. Polygnot, devoted to the themes of the Trojan War and other mythical and historical episodes. All these buildings were built according to the decision of the people to meet their needs. The citizens of Athens made extensive use of their public architecture.
But the most important building of the era of Pericles was the new ensemble of the Athenian Acropolis, which dominated the city and its environs. The Acropolis was destroyed during the Persian invasion; the remains of old buildings and broken statues were now used to level the surface of the Acropolis hill. During the third quarter of the 5th c. BC. new buildings were erected - the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the temple of the Wingless Victory. The building of the Erechtheion, which completes the ensemble, was built later, during the Peloponnesian Wars.
Thus, on the hill of the Acropolis, the main sanctuaries of the Athenians were located and, first of all, the Parthenon - the temple of Athena the Virgin, the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of Athens. The treasury of Athens was also placed there; in the building of the Propylaea, which served as the entrance to the Acropolis, there were a library and an art gallery (pinakothek). On the slope of the Acropolis, people gathered for dramatic performances associated with the cult of the god of earthly fertility Dionysus. Steep and steep, with a flat top, the hill of the Acropolis formed a kind of natural pedestal for the buildings crowning it.
A sense of the connection between architecture and the landscape, with the surrounding nature, is a characteristic feature of Greek art. It received its consistent development during the heyday of the classics. Greek architects were excellent at choosing sites for their buildings. Temples were built on rocky capes, on hilltops, at the vanishing point of two mountain ridges, on terraces of mountain slopes.
The temple arose where it was as if a place had been prepared for it by nature itself, and at the same time, its calm, strict forms, harmonious proportions, light iramor of columns, bright coloring opposed it to nature, affirmed the superiority of a structure reasonably created by man over the surrounding world. Masterfully arranging individual buildings of an architectural ensemble around the area, Greek architects were able to find such an arrangement that combined them into an organically natural and at the same time deeply thought-out unity, free from strict symmetry. The latter was dictated by the entire warehouse of the artistic consciousness of the era of the classics.
This principle was revealed with particular clarity in the planning of the Acropolis ensemble.
The planning and construction of the Acropolis under Pericles were carried out according to a single well-thought-out plan and in a relatively short time under the general guidance of the great sculptor of Greece - Phidias. With the exception of the Erechtheion completed in 406 BC, all the main structures of the Acropolis were erected between 449 and 421. BC. The newly built Acropolis had to not only embody the idea of the power and greatness of the Athenian sea power and approve the advanced ideas of the Greek slave-owning democracy at the highest stage of its development, but also express - for the first time in the history of Greece - the idea of \u200b\u200bgeneral Hellenic unity. The entire structure of the ensemble of the Acropolis of the time of Pericles is permeated with noble beauty, calmly solemn grandeur, a clear sense of proportion and harmony. In it one can see a visual realization of the words of Pericles, full of pride in the culture of the "heart of Hellas - Athens": "We love wisdom without effeminacy and beauty without whimsicality."
The full meaning of the layout of the Acropolis can only be understood by considering the movement of solemn processions during the days of public festivities.
On the feast of the Great Panathenaic - the day when, on behalf of the entire city-state, the Athenian girls brought as a gift to the goddess Athena the peplos woven by them - the procession entered the Acropolis from the west. The road led up to the solemn entrance to the Acropolis - the Propylaea, built by the architect Mnesicles in 437-432. BC. . The Doric colonnade of the Propylaea facing the city was framed by two unequal but mutually balanced wings of the building. One of them - the left one - was larger, but the ledge of the rock of the Acropolis - Pyrgos, crowned with a small temple of Nike Apteros, that is, the Wingless Victory ("wingless" - so that it never flew away from Athens) adjoined the smaller one.
This small, crystal clear temple was built by the architect Callicrates between 449 and 421. BC. Located below the other buildings of the Acropolis and as if separated from the general massif of the hill, he was the first to meet the procession at the entrance to the Acropolis. The temple stood out distinctly against the sky; four slender Ionic columns on each of the two short sides of the temple, built on the principle of amphiprostyle, gave the building a clear, calm grace.
In the layout of the Propylaea, as well as the temple of Nike Apteros, the unevenness of the hill of the Acropolis was skillfully used. The second, facing the Acropolis and also the Doric portico of the Propylaea, was located higher than the outer one, so that, passing through the Propylaea, the procession rose higher and higher until it reached a wide square. The interior space of the Propylaea passage was decorated with Ionic columns. Thus, during the construction of the Acropolis, a combination of both orders was consistently carried out all the time.
The principle of free planning and balance is generally characteristic of Greek art, including the architectural ensembles of the classical period.
On the square of the Acropolis, between the Propylaea, the Parthenon and the Erechtheion, stood a colossal (7 m high) bronze statue of Athena Promachos (“Warriors”), created by Phidias before the construction of a new ensemble of the Acropolis in the middle of the 5th century. BC.
The Parthenon was not located directly opposite the entrance to the Acropolis, as the archaic temple of Hekatompedon once stood, but to the side, so that it was visible from the Propylaea from the corner. This made it possible to simultaneously cover the western facade and the long (northern) side of the peripter. The festive procession moved along the northern colonnade of the Parthenon to its main, eastern facade. The large building of the Parthenon was balanced by the graceful and relatively small building of the Erechtheion standing on the other side of the square, shading the monumental severity of the Parthenon with its free asymmetry.
The creators of the Parthenon were Iktin and Kallikrat, who began construction in 447 BC. and completed it in 438. The sculptural work on the Parthenon - Phidias and his assistants - continued until 432. The Parthenon has 8 columns on the short sides and 17 on the long sides: the total dimensions of the building are 31 X 70 m, the height of the columns is 10.5 m.
The Parthenon was the most perfect creation of Greek classical architecture and one of the highest achievements in the history of architecture in general. This monumental, majestic building rises above the Acropolis, just as the Acropolis itself rises above the city and its environs. Although Athens had rather large funds, it was not at all gigantic size, but the harmonious perfection of proportions, the excellent proportion of parts, the correctly found scale of the building in relation to the Acropolis hill and in relation to a person determined the impression of the monumentality and high significance of the Parthenon. The glorification and exaltation, and not the belittling of man, formed the basis of the figurative impact of the Parthenon. Proportionate to a person, easily grasped at first sight, the structure fully corresponded to the aesthetic ideals of the classics.
The Parthenon is built of squares of Pentelic marble, laid dry.
The columns of the Parthenon are set more often than in the early Doric temples, the entablature is lightened. Therefore, it seems that the columns easily hold the ceiling. Curvature imperceptible to the eye, that is, a very slight convex curvature of the horizontal lines of the stylobate and entablature, as well as imperceptible inclinations of the columns inward and towards the center of the building, exclude any element of geometric dryness, giving the architectural appearance of the building amazing vitality and organicity. These slight deviations from geometrical accuracy were the result of careful calculation. The central part of the façade, crowned with a pediment, visually presses on the columns and stylobate with greater force than the lateral sides of the façade, the perfectly straight horizontal line of the temple's base would seem to the viewer to be slightly bent. To compensate for this optical effect, the surface of the stylobate and other horizontals of the temple were made by the architects of the classical time not exactly horizontally, but curved upwards. The feeling of the barely perceptible convexity of the Parthenon's stylobate enhances the impression of elastic tension that permeates its entire appearance. Other optical corrections introduced by the architect into the clear and orderly structure of the peripter serve the same purpose.
The nobility of the material from which the Parthenon was built made it possible to use the usual coloring in Greek architecture only to emphasize the structural details of the building and to form a colored background against which the sculptures of the pediments and metopes stood out. So, red was used for the horizontals of the entablature and the background of the metopes and pediments, and blue for the triglyphs and other verticals in the entablature; the festive solemnity of the structure was emphasized by narrow stripes of restrainedly introduced gilding.
Executed mainly in the Doric order, the Parthenon included individual elements of the Ionic order. This was in line with the general desire of the classics and, in particular, the creators of the Acropolis ensemble to combine Doric and Ionic traditions. Such is the zophorus, Ionic in character, that is, the frieze that runs along the top of the outer wall of the naos behind the Doric colonnade of the peripter, or the four columns of the Ionic order that adorned the inside of the Parthenon proper - the hall located behind the naos.
The Parthenon was decorated with exceptional sculpture. These statues and reliefs, which have partially come down to us, were made under the direction and, probably, with the direct participation of Phidias, the greatest among the great masters of high classics. Phidias also owned a 12-meter statue of Athena, which stood in the naos. In addition to the works performed for the Acropolis, which Phidias had already begun as a mature master, he created a number of monumental tal statues of a cult purpose, such as, for example, a giant statue of a seated Zeus that stood in the temple of Zeus at Olympia, striking contemporaries with an expression of humanity. Unfortunately, none of the famous statues of Phidias have come down to us. Only a few little reliable Roman copies have survived, or rather, it would be true to say - options dating back to the Phidiean statues of Athena and to his other works ("Amazon", "Apollo").
For the Acropolis, Phidias created three statues of Athena. The earliest of them, apparently created under Cimon in the second quarter of the 5th c. BC. and ordered with funds from the marathon booty, was the Athena Promachos mentioned above, standing on the Acropolis Square. The second was the smaller Athena Lemnia (that is, Lemnos). The third, Athena Parthenos (that is, Athena the Virgin), was created in the 40s of the 5th century. BC, since in 438 it was already placed in the temple.
As far as can be judged from the replicas and from the descriptions, the cult statues of Phidias embodied the image of human perfection, which is quite real in its basis. The greatness of the gods of Phidias was revealed in their high humanity, and not divinity.
So, Athena Promachos (“Warrior”), depicted in full armor, calmly and authoritatively looked around the city stretched out at her feet and vigilantly guarded it from threatening dangers. The connection with the surrounding life, the specificity of the plot motif were obviously characteristic of this statue. The excellent Roman copy of the head of Athena Lemnia, stored in the Museum of Bologna, gives an idea of what great vital content the images of high classics could have been saturated with, although some scholars expressed doubts whether this was really a copy from the Phidiean statue. A special vitality is given to the image by the combination of sublime beauty with a well-defined expression on the face, conveying attention, energy and self-confidence full of intense alertness.
The torso of Athena Lemnia, which has come down to us in a Roman marble copy (Dresden), gives an idea of the perfection with which Phidias created a calmly and solemnly standing monumental statue. Beautiful clear and simple silhouette, easy to read at a great distance; internal tension and restrained energy of movement are expressively conveyed. This statue is an example of the perfect resolution of those tasks that were set by the early classics, trying to create an image that combines monumental grandeur with concrete vitality.
Athena Parthenos was somewhat different from the earlier Athens of Phidias. The cult character of the statue standing in the temple required a greater solemnity of the image. Hence, the inclusion of symbolic details in the image of Athena: a snake at the feet of Athena, the figure of Victory on her outstretched right hand, a magnificent helmet crowning her head, etc. The sublime impassivity of the image is also determined by the same, according to rather distant replicas of Roman times.
On the round shield of Athena, the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons was represented, full of stormy movement and a direct sense of life. Among the actors, Phidias placed the image of Pericles marked by a portrait resemblance and his self-portrait, which was a manifestation of new quests that were not characteristic of the realism of early and high classics and foreshadowed the approach of the next stage in the development of classical art. For this daring undertaking, Phidias was accused of godlessness. “He was especially accused of the fact that, depicting a battle with the Amazons on a shield, he minted his own image in the form of a bald old man lifting a stone with both hands, as well as a beautiful portrait of Pericles fighting an Amazon. He very skillfully positioned his hand, raising the spear in the face of Pericles, as if he wanted to hide the resemblance, but it is still visible from both sides ”(Plutarch, biography of Pericles).
One of the notable features of the statues of Athena Parthenos and Olympian Zeus was the chrysoelephantine technique, which, however, existed even before Phidias. The wooden base of the statues was covered with thin sheets of Gold (hair and clothes) and ivory plates (face, hands, feet).
An idea of the impression that the chrysoelephantine technique could produce can be given by a small figured lekythos of an Attic work of the late 5th century. BC, found in the Northern Black Sea region on the Taman Peninsula, the so-called "Taman Sphinx", one of the pearls of the antique collection of the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. This vase is a wonderful example of Greek figurative ceramics of the classical period, remarkable for its subtle sense of joyful brilliance, the combination of elegance with monumental clarity of the image. Golden braids, a diadem and a necklace, a white, lightly tinted pink face and chest are clearly inspired by samples of the chryso-elephant technique.
If we imagine that the shining gold statue of Athena was in a room relatively dark compared to the brightly lit Acropolis area, that the stripes of gilding on the outer parts of the Parthenon, as it were, prepared the viewer for the expected spectacle, that inside the naos was painted in red and blue and a number of details was highlighted with gilding, then we have to admit that the golden radiance of the statue of Athena was in harmony with the general character of the colorful range of the architectural decoration of the building.
The most complete picture of the work of Phidias and, in general, of the sculpture of the heyday of the classics can be given by the sculptural groups and reliefs that adorned the Parthenon preserved in the originals, although badly damaged ( Significant destruction of the sculptures of the Parthenon was not caused by time. Turned either into a Christian temple or into a mosque, the Parthenon stood intact until the end of the 17th century. The explosion caused significant damage. What the bomb did not do, then at the beginning of the 19th century. in relation to the sculptures, the English envoy to Turkey, Lord Elgin, completed it. Taking advantage of the permission to take out several plates with inscriptions, he stole almost all the sculptures and at night, fearing popular indignation, took them to London. When the statues were removed from the already damaged western pediment, it collapsed and broke.).
These sculptures, as mentioned above, were created by a group of the best sculptors, led by Phidias. It is very likely that Phidias was directly involved in the execution of the sculptures themselves. It can be argued that, in any case, the compositional solution, the interpretation of the plots and, possibly, the sketches of the figures belong to Phidias. Up to the present day, the sculptural ensemble of the Parthenon is an unsurpassed artistic monument.
All 92 metopes of the temple were decorated with marble high reliefs. On the metopes of the western facade, the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons was depicted, on the main, eastern facade - the battle of the gods with the giants, on the north side of the temple - the fall of Troy, on the south, better preserved - the struggle of the Lapiths with the centaurs. These topics had a deep meaning for the ancient Hellenes. The battle of gods and giants asserted, in the image of the struggle of cosmic forces, the idea of the victory of the human principle over the primordial elemental forces of nature, personified by monstrous giants, the product of earth and sky. Close in meaning to the first theme is the theme of the struggle of the Greek Lapiths with the centaurs. The Trojan stories had a more immediate historical significance. The historical myth about the struggle of the Greeks with the Trojans, personifying the East of Asia Minor, was associated in the representation of the Hellenes with a recently won victory over the Persians.
A large multi-figured group, placed in the tympanum of the eastern pediment, was dedicated to the myth of the miraculous birth of the goddess of wisdom, Athena, from the head of Zeus. The western group depicted the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of the Attic land. According to the myth, the dispute was resolved by comparing the miracles that Poseidon and Athena were supposed to produce. Poseidon, striking a rock with a trident, spewed out salty healing water from it. Athena also created the olive tree - this is the basis of the agricultural well-being of Attica. The gods recognized the wonderful gift of Athena to more useful people, and dominion over Attica was transferred to Athena. Thus, the western pediment, which was the first to meet the solemn festive procession heading for the Parthenon, reminded the Athenians of why it was Athena who became the patroness of the country, and the main, eastern pediment, at which the procession ended, was dedicated to the theme of the miraculous birth of the goddess - the patroness of Athens and the solemn picture of Olympus.
Along the wall of the naos behind the columns, as already mentioned, there was a zophorus depicting the festive procession of the Athenian people in the days of the Great Panathenas, which directly connected the clearly thought-out ensemble of sculptures of the Parthenon with real life by its very theme.
The sculptures of the Parthenon give a clear idea of the enormous path that was passed by Greek art in some 40-50 years, separating the time of the creation of the Acropolis complex from the sculptures of the Aegina temple.
The surviving metopes, devoted mainly to the struggle between the Lapiths and the centaurs, are two-figure compositions that sequentially unfold the vicissitudes of this struggle before the viewer. The variety of movements and the inexhaustible wealth of motives for the struggle in each new pair of combatants are striking. Either the centaur, raising a heavy bowl above his head, attacks the fallen and shielded lapif, then the lapith and the centaur intertwined in a fierce battle, clinging to each other's throat, then, spreading his arms wide, prancing over the lifeless body of the fallen Greek, the victorious centaur, then a slender young man, grabbing the centaur's hair with his left hand, stops his swift run, and with his right hand raises his sword for a mortal blow.
These metopes were clearly made by different masters. Some of them still have that sharp angularity of movement and the emphasized rendering of individual details, which was, for example, in the western pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, dedicated to the same subject. In others, moreover, the best, one can see all the mastery of high classics in the natural and free reproduction of any real action and that deep sense of proportion that invariably preserves the harmonious beauty of the image of a perfect person. The movements of the lapiths and centaurs in these metopes are naturally free, they are conditioned only by the nature of the struggle they are waging - there are no echoes of too obvious and strict submission to the architectural form in them, which was still in the metopes of the temple of Zeus at Olympia. So in the excellent relief of the Parthenon, where the lapith, half-turned back, grabbing the centaur’s hair with an imperious hand, stops his swift run and bends his body, like bending a tight bow, the composition is subject to the logic of the movement of the figures and the scene as a whole, and at the same time naturally corresponds to the limits the space allocated by the architecture.
This principle, as it were, of an involuntary, freely emerging harmony of architecture with sculpture, which fully fulfills its figurative tasks and does not destroy the architectural whole, is one of the most important features of the monumental sculpture of high classics.
The compositions of both pediments are built on the same principle. When considering any of the figures of the pediments separately, it is difficult to assume that they are included in a composition strictly defined by the architectural design. Thus, the posture of the reclining young man Cephalus from the eastern pediment is completely determined by the very motive of the movement of the figure, and at the same time it easily and clearly "fits" into the sharp corner of the pediment in which this statue was located. Even on the western pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, the movements of the figures, for all their realistic truthfulness, were generally strictly deployed along the plane of the pediment. In such statues of the Parthenon as Cephalus (according to another interpretation - Theseus), complete freedom and naturalness of movement has been achieved.
The composition of the eastern pediment and, above all, its unpreserved central part can be judged from the relief on the so-called Madrid Puteal, where, however, the principle of the triangular arrangement of figures is violated. Phidias refused to single out the axis of symmetry of the composition by a vertically standing central figure. The direct connection that the composition of the pediment with the rhythm of the colonnade received with this solution was replaced by a much more complex relationship. Free in their movements, full of life, the figures created a group naturally placed within the triangle of the pediment and forming a clearly finished and self-contained artistic whole. In the center of the pediment, a half-naked Zeus was depicted sitting on a throne, and to the right of him, Athena, half-turned towards him and quickly moving towards the right edge of the pediment, in a long tunic and weapons. Between him and at the top of the triangle was Nika (Victory) floating in the air, crowning Athena. Behind Zeus, to the left, was Prometheus (or Hephaestus), staggering back with an ax in his hand; to the right of Athena is the seated figure of Demeter, who was present here, probably in her role as a birth attendant. Thus, the balance of the composition was achieved here by a complex cross-correspondence of calmly seated and rapidly moving figures. Further, on both sides of the central group, there were other gods of Olympus. Of all these figures, only the badly damaged extreme left - Irida, the messenger of the gods, has survived. She is full of violent movement: the folds of her long clothes flutter in the wind, the play of light and shadow further enhances the dynamics of this statue. On the left, in the very corner of the pediment, Helios was placed - the god of the sun, rising from the waters of the Ocean on a quadriga; on the right - descending downwards, just like Helios, cut off by the lower line of the froton, the goddess of the night Nyx (or Selena) with her horse. These figures, which marked the change for and night, thus showed that the birth of Athena matters for the entire universe from the east to the extreme west.
The reclining figure of a young man - Theseus or, perhaps, the awakening Cephalus, a mythical hunter who rises to hunt at dawn - meets Helios. Beside him were two seated female figures generally considered to be Orami. Looking after the passing night (judging by the sketch of the pediment made in the 17th century), one of the three beautiful girls, the daughters of the night - the goddesses of fate Moir. These three female figures dressed in long clothes, forming a group at the right end of the pediment and which have come down to us, although without heads, but in a relatively better condition, belong, like the figure of Cephis from the western pediment, among the greatest treasures of Greek art.
Of the surviving statues of the badly destroyed western pediment, the most perfect is Cephis, whose smooth, flowing lines of the body, indeed, seem to personify the Attica River, the group of Kekrops, the legendary founder of the Athenian state, with his young daughter Pandrosa and the figure of Irida.
The beauty and majesty of the pediment sculptures of the Parthenon are achieved by the selection of those subtly felt natural movements that, with their free expediency, most fully convey the plastic beauty and ethical perfection of man.
The frieze (zophoros) of the Parthenon gives a clear idea of the features of the construction of the classical relief. All planes, into which the relief is divided, run parallel to each other, forming, as it were, a series of layers closed between two planes. The preservation of the plane of the wall is facilitated by a single movement of numerous figures directed strictly parallel to the plane of the wall. The clear change of plans and the clear rhythmic structure of the frieze give rise to the impression of an extraordinary integrity of the image.
The creators of the zophora faced a difficult compositional task. It was necessary to encircle the walls for about two hundred meters with a relief depicting one event - a people's procession - avoiding both monotony and variegation, and to convey on the plane of the wall with a low relief all the richness and diversity of the parade procession and its solemn harmony. The masters of the zofor brilliantly coped with their task. Not a single motif of movement on the frieze is ever exactly repeated, and although the frieze is filled with many diverse figures of people walking, riding horses or chariots, carrying baskets with gifts or leading sacrificial animals, the entire frieze as a whole has a rhythmic and plastic unity.
The frieze begins with scenes of young horsemen preparing for the procession. The calm movements of young men tying straps on sandals or cleaning horses are set off from time to time by a sharp movement of a rearing horse intruding here or by some swift gesture of a young man. Further, the motive of the movement develops more and more rapidly. The preparations are over, the procession itself begins. The movement either speeds up or slows down, the figures either approach, almost merging with each other, or the space between them expands. The undulating rhythm of the movement permeates the entire frieze. Particularly remarkable is the string of galloping horsemen, in which a movement, powerful in its unity, is made up of an infinite variety of similar, but not repetitive movements of individual figures, different in appearance. No less beautiful is the strict procession of Athenian girls, whose long clothes form measured folds, reminiscent of the flutes of the columns of the Parthenon. The rhythm of the movement of the girls is especially set off by the male figures turned towards them (the stewards of the festival). Above the entrance, on the eastern facade, there are gods looking at the procession. People and gods are depicted equally beautiful. The spirit of citizenship made it possible for the Athenians to proudly affirm the aesthetic equality of the image of man with the images of the deities of Olympus.
The direction represented in the art of sculpture in the second half of the 5th century. BC. Phidias and the entire Attic school, headed by him, occupied a leading place in the art of high classics. It most fully and consistently expressed the advanced artistic ideas of the era.
Phidias and the Attic school created an art that synthesized everything progressive that the works of the Ionic, Doric and Attic masters of the early classics carried in themselves, up to and including Myron and Paeonius.
However, it does not follow from this that artistic life was concentrated only in Athens by the beginning of the second half of the century. Thus, information about the works of the masters of Asia Minor Greece has been preserved, the art of the Greek cities of Sicily and southern Italy continued to flourish. The sculpture of the Peloponnese, in particular the old center for the development of Dorian sculpture, Argos, was of the greatest importance.
It was from Argos that a contemporary of Phidias Poliklet, one of the great masters of the Greek classics, who worked in the middle and in the third quarter of the 5th century BC, came out. BC.
The art of Polykleitos is associated with the traditions of the Argos-Sicyon school with its predominant interest in depicting a calmly standing figure. The transmission of complex movement and active action or the creation of group compositions were not in the circle of Polykleitos' interests. Unlike Phidias, Polikleitos was to a certain extent connected with the more conservative circles of the slave-owning policy, which were much stronger in Argos than in Athens. The images of the statues of Polykleitos echo the ancient ideal of the hoplite (heavily armed warrior), stern and courageous. In his statue "Dorifor" ("Spearman"), made around the middle of the 5th century. BC, Polykleitos created the image of a young warrior who embodied the ideal of a valiant citizen.
This bronze statue, as well as all the works of Polikleitos, did not reach us in the original; it is known only from marble Roman copies. The statue depicts a strongly built young man with strongly developed and sharply emphasized muscles, carrying a spear on his left shoulder. The entire weight of his body rests on his right leg, while the left is set back, touching the ground only with his fingers. The balance of the figure is achieved by the fact that the raised right hip corresponds to the lowered right shoulder and, conversely, the lowered left hip corresponds to the raised left shoulder. Such a system of building a human figure (the so-called "chiasmus") gives the statue a measured, rhythmic structure.
The calm figure of Doryphoros is combined with internal tension, which gives his seemingly impassive image great heroic power. Precisely calculated and thought-out architectonics of building a human figure is expressed here in a comparison of the elastic vertical lines of the legs and hips and the heavy horizontal lines of the shoulders and muscles of the chest and abdomen; this creates an equilibrium permeated by opposing forces, similar to the balance that gives the ratio of the column and entablature in the Doric order. This system of artistic means, developed by Polykleitos, was an important step forward in the realistic depiction of the human body in sculpture. The laws he found for the sculptural image of a person really corresponded to the spirit of heroic masculinity, which was characteristic of the image of a person in the classical period of Greece.
In an effort to theoretically substantiate the generalized typical image of a perfect person, born in real life, Polikleitos came to the composition of the "Canon". So he called his theoretical treatise and the statue made according to the rules of theory; they developed a system of ideal proportions and laws of symmetry, according to which the image of a person should be built. Such a normative tendency was fraught with the danger of the emergence of abstract schemes. It can be assumed that Roman copies strengthened those features of abstraction that were characteristic of the works of Polikleitos. Among the authentic Greek bronze figurines of the 5th c. BC. some are undoubtedly closer in spirit to the art of Polykleitos. Such is the statuette of a naked youth kept in the Louvre. The somewhat heavy proportions, as well as the motif of restrained movement, are reminiscent of the work of Polikleitos. The Greek original makes it possible to appreciate the features of the artistic language of Polykleitos, lost in the transcription of the Roman copyists. The Louvre young athlete, with all the analytical accuracy and accuracy of construction, is distinguished by the naturalness of his gesture, the lifelike persuasiveness of the image.
Towards the end of his life, Policlet moved away from strict adherence to his "Canon", becoming close to the masters of Attica. His "Diadumen" - a young man crowning himself with a victorious bandage - a statue created around 420 BC, clearly differs from the "Dorifor" in more graceful and slender proportions, easy movement and greater spirituality of the image.
A Roman copy of the “Wounded Amazon” by Polikleitos and a Roman statue of the “Amazon Mattei”, dating back to the original by Phidias, have survived to our time. To a certain extent, they provide an opportunity to visually compare the features of the Phidiean and Polycletian contributions to the art of the classics.
The Phidian Amazon is depicted at the moment when she, looking back at the approaching enemy, leans on a spear, ready to jump on a horse. Her beautiful proportions better convey the structure of the girl's strong body than the almost masculine proportions of the Amazon Polykleitos built according to the "Canon". The desire for active action, the unconstrained and expressive beauty of movement are characteristic of the art of Phidias, an artist more multifaceted than Poliklet, who more fully combines the perfect beauty of the image with its concrete vitality into a single whole.
Polykleitos depicted a wounded Amazon. Her strong body weakened, she leaned her left hand on a support, her right hand was thrown behind her head. But Polykleitos limited himself to this alone; in the face of the statue there is no expression of pain and suffering, there is no realistic gesture that conveys the movement of a person suffering from a wound. These elements of abstraction make it possible to convey only the most general state of a person. But the ideal of a man's courageous restraint, the dissolution of his experiences in the general spirit of dominating himself - these characteristic features of the art of Polykleitos carried high concepts of the dignity of a perfect person - a hero.
If Poliklet was able to give, next to the high and beautiful art of Phidias and his associates in the decoration of the Acropolis, his important and significant version of the art of high classics, then the fate of his creative heritage was different. At the end of the 5th c. BC, during the years of the Peloponnesian Wars, the successors of Polykleitos entered into a direct struggle with the realistic tradition of the Phidiean school. Such Peloponnesian sculptors of the late 5th c. BC, like Callimachus, they were looking for only an abstract normative perfection, far from any living sense of reality.
But even in the Attic school, among the students and followers of Phidias, realistic searches began in the last quarter of the 5th century. BC. some new features.
Among the direct students of Phidias, who remained completely faithful to the teacher, Kresilaus, the author of the heroized portrait of Pericles, stands out. In this portrait, the calm grandeur of spirit and the restrained dignity of a wise statesman are deeply and strongly expressed. Full of life, beautiful human images can also be seen in other works of Kresilay (for example, the head of the ephebe statue, the winner in the competition).
On the other hand, in the same circle of Phidias, works began to appear that sought to enhance the dramatic action, exacerbating the themes of struggle, which are so widely represented in the reliefs of the Parthenon. Reliefs of this kind, saturated with stormy contrasts and tense dynamics, with a rough sharpness of realistic details, were made by sculptors who were invited by Iktin to decorate the temple of Apollo he built in Bass (in Phigalia). This frieze depicting the battle of the Greeks with centaurs and Amazons, contrary to the usual rules, was in a semi-dark naos and was made in high relief with energetic use of contrasts of light and shadow. In these reliefs (although, "far from first-class in quality), elements of a more subjective and emotionally sharpened perception were introduced for the first time than was usually accepted. The transfer of violent and roughly expressive movements of the fighters, given in different angles, strengthened this impression.
Among the masters of the Fidiian school by the end of the 5th c. BC. there was also a tendency to express lyrical feelings, a desire to convey the grace and elegance of movements with particular softness. At the same time, the image of a person remained typically generalized, without losing its realistic truthfulness, although it often lost the heroic strength and monumental rigor so characteristic of works created several decades earlier.
The largest master of this direction in Attica was a student of Phidias - Alkamen. He was the successor of Phidias, but his art is characterized by the features of refined lyricism and a more intimate interpretation of the image. Alkamen also owned some statues of a purely Phidiean character (for example, the colossal statue of Dionysus). However, new searches were most clearly seen in his works of a different order, as, for example, in the famous statue of Aphrodite, which stood in a garden on the banks of the Ilissus River, - “Aphrodite in the Gardens”. It has come down to us in copies and replicas of the Roman time.
Aphrodite was depicted by Alkamen standing calmly, slightly bowing her head and gracefully throwing back the veil from her face with a graceful movement of her hand; in her other hand she held an apple, possibly a gift from Paris, who recognized Aphrodite as the most beautiful among the goddesses. With great skill, Alkamen conveyed the folds of Aphrodite's thin long robe running down, enveloping her slender forms. The perfect beauty of man was colored here by an admiring and tender feeling.
To an even greater extent, such a search for a lyrical image found its implementation in the works created around 409 BC. marble reliefs of the balustrade of the temple of Nike Apteros on the Acropolis. These reliefs depicted girls making sacrifices. The remarkable relief "Nike untying a sandal" is one of the masterpieces of high classic sculpture. The lyricism of this work is born both from the perfection of proportions, and from the deep shimmering chiaroscuro, and from the gentle softness of the movement, emphasized by the flowing lines of the folds of clothing, an unusually elegant, lively and natural movement. A very important role in the formation of this lyrical direction in the high classics was played by numerous reliefs on tomb steles, excellent examples of which were created at the end of the 5th century. BC. Such, for example, is the “Tombstone of Gegeso”, which carries in its purely everyday truth of life a high poetic feeling. Among the many tomb reliefs that have come down to us from the late 5th - early 4th c. the stele of Mnesarete and the tombstone in the form of a lekythos from the Leningrad Hermitage also stand out. The ancient Greeks had a very wise and calm attitude towards death: neither fear of death nor any mystical moods can be found in the tombstones of the classical period. They depict living people, their theme is farewell, imbued with thoughtful reflection. The tombstones of the classical era, with their bright elegiac mood, were called upon to console and support a person in his suffering.
Changes in artistic consciousness that emerged in the last decades of the 5th century. BC, found their expression in architecture.
Already Iktin boldly expanded the creative search for the architectural thought of the classics. In the temple of Apollo in Bassae, he first introduced into the building, along with Doric and Ionic elements, also the third order - Corinthian, although only one column inside the temple carried such a capital. In the Telesterion, which was built by Iktin in Eleusis, he created a building of an unusual plan, with a vast hall of columns.
Equally new was the whimsically asymmetrical construction of the Erechtheion building on the Athenian Acropolis, made by an unknown architect in 421-406. BC.
The location of the building in the general ensemble of the Acropolis and its size were completely determined by the nature of the architecture of the heyday of the classics and the design of Pericles. But the artistic development of this temple, dedicated to Athena and Poseidon, introduced new features into the architecture of the classical time: a picturesque interpretation of the architectural whole - an interest in comparing contrasting architectural and sculptural forms, a plurality of points of view that reveal new, diverse and complex impressions. The Erechtheion was built on the uneven northern slope of the Acropolis, and its layout cleverly incorporated these irregularities in the ground: the temple consists of two rooms at different levels, it has variously shaped porticoes on three sides - including the famous cor (caryatid) portico on the south. wall - and four columns with gaps covered with gratings (replaced later by masonry) on the fourth wall. The feeling of festive lightness and graceful harmony is caused by the use of a more elegant Ionic order in the exterior design and the beautifully used contrasts of light porticos and smooth walls.
The Erechtheion did not have external painting, it was replaced by a combination of white marble with a purple frieze ribbon and gilding of individual details. This unity of color solution to a large extent served to unite diverse, albeit equally elegant architectural forms.
The bold innovation of the unknown author of the Erechtheion developed a living creative tradition of high classics. However, in this building, beautiful and proportionate, but far from the strict and clear harmony of the Parthenon, the paths to the art of the late classics were already paved - art more directly human and agitated, but less heroic than the high classics of the 5th century. BC.
Vase painting in the era of high classics developed in close cooperation with monumental painting and sculpture.
Relying on the realistic achievements of the first third of the century, the vase painters of the high classics, however, sought to moderate that sharpness in the transfer of details of nature or motives of movement that had previously been encountered. Great clarity and harmony of composition, majestic freedom of movement and, most importantly, great spiritual expressiveness became characteristic features of vase painting of this time. At the same time, vase painting somewhat departed from the specific genre of plots that was observed in the first third of the century. More heroic depictions on mythological themes appeared in it, retaining all the humanity of the early classics, but clearly seeking the monumental significance of the image.
Vase painters of the middle of the 5th c. BC. the image began to attract not only the action, but also the state of mind of the characters - the skill of gesture, the integrity of the composition, deepened, although at the expense of some loss of that immediacy and freshness that distinguished the creations of Duris or Brig. As in the sculpture of the high classics, the most general states of the human spirit were conveyed in the images of the vase painting of this time, even without attention to the specific and individual feelings of a person, to their contradictions and conflicts, to the change and struggle of moods. All this has not yet entered the sphere of attention of artists. But at the cost of some generalization of feeling, it was achieved that the human images created by the vase painters of the middle of the 5th century. BC, have such a typicality and such a clear purity of their mental structure.
Monumental severity and clarity are characteristic of the painting of the famous "Crater of Orvieto" - a vase stored in the Louvre with the scene of the death of the Niobids on one side and the image of Hercules, Athena and the Argonauts on the other. The figures are freely and naturally located on the surface of the vase, although in order to preserve the integrity of this surface, the artist avoids perspective reductions, figures that are placed in the background by meaning. Mastery of angles, lively, natural poses of figures are subject to a strict, calm rhythm that combines the image with the equally harmonious shape of the vase. In The Crater of Orvieto, red-figure vase painting reaches one of its peaks.
Examples of high classic vase painting are such drawings made in the second half of the century as “A Satyr Rocking a Girl on a Swing During a Spring Festival”, as “Polyneices Holding a Necklace to Erifile” (the so-called “Vase from Lecce”) and many others.
Around the middle of the century, lekythos with a painting on a white background, which served for cult purposes (associated with the burial of the dead), became widespread. In them, the drawing often reached a special unconstrained lightness (sometimes turning into negligence); it was applied with black lacquer, outlining the main lines of the figure, and after firing it was painted (why sometimes the figures look naked because of the worn paint). An example of masterful drawing on a white background is the image of a girl bringing gifts to the deceased, on an Attic lekythos of the Boston Museum.
By the end of the 5th c. BC. vase painting began to decline. Already Media and his imitators began to overload the drawings on the vases with decorative details; in this elegant patterned ornamentation, the figures of people, depicted in intricate foreshortened constructions, have lost their primary significance - they have become impersonal and the same, lost in the midst of fluttering draperies. The crisis of free labor at the end of the 5th century. had a particularly detrimental effect on the work of ceramists and draftsmen. Vase painting began to lose its artistic quality, gradually turning into a mechanical and faceless craft.
The painting of the classical period that has not come down to us, as far as one can judge from the statements of ancient authors, had, like sculpture, a monumental character and acted inextricably linked with architecture. It was carried out, apparently, most often, in fresco; the possibility is not ruled out that in the 5th c. BC, at least in the second half of it, glue paints were used, as well as wax paints (the so-called encaustic). Adhesive paints could be applied both directly on a specially prepared wall, and on primed boards, which were fixed directly on the walls intended for painting.
Painting in the 5th century BC. had a strictly generalized monumental character and was created for a specific place in the architectural ensemble. No reliable information about the existence of easel works has been preserved. Just as monumental sculpture was complemented by small plastics made of terracotta or bronze, closely associated with artistic crafts and applied arts, so monumental painting, bypassing its actual easel forms, was supplemented by vase painting, inextricably linked with the art of ceramics. Monumental painting occupied an important place in the artistic life of that time. The best works enjoyed great fame. The largest masters of painting were widely known and surrounded by public honor along with outstanding sculptors, poets, playwrights of their time.
Painting 5th c. BC. according to its aesthetic principles, it was very close to sculpture, being in close relationship with it. Essentially pictorial The tasks of painting were mainly reduced to the illusory reproduction of the volume of the human body. The task of depicting the environment surrounding a person, his interaction with it in painting of the 5th century. was not set. Actually picturesque means of representation - chiaroscuro, color, transmission of the atmosphere, spatial environment - were just emerging, and then mainly at the end of the 5th century. BC. But the main goal at the end of the century remained the desire to find artistic means that convey plastic three-dimensionality.
Only later, already in the period of the late classics, in connection with a general change in the nature of artistic ideas, these achievements began to be used consciously to depict a person in his natural and domestic environment, for a richer pictorial and emotional characterization.
Thus, the 5th c. BC. - This is the time of adding up the prerequisites for revealing the visual possibilities of painting. At the same time, a realistic depiction of a person or a group of people in a variety of actions, operating with correct anatomical proportions, truthfully conveying the corporality and volume of human forms, the emergence of a consistently realistic understanding of the plot meant a big progressive step in the history of painting compared to earlier conditional or purely decorative compositions.
The largest master of the second quarter and the middle of the 5th century. BC) Myron's contemporary was Polygnotus, a native of the island of Thasos, who received the honorary title of an Athenian citizen for his work he did for Athens.
The range of topics of Polygnotus was close to the topics addressed by the masters of pediment compositions and reliefs. These were epic themes (from the Iliad, poems of the Theban cycle) and mythological (the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons, the battle with the centaurs, etc.). An important feature of Polygnot's inscription was the appeal to themes of a historical nature. So, in the Pinakothek in Athens, which was supervised by Polygnot, among other frescoes, the image of the “Battle of Marathon” was made.
In all likelihood, however, these paintings on historical themes were of the same generalized heroic character as the compositions glorifying the high deeds of mythical heroes. Just as Aeschylus's "Persians", dedicated to the naval victory of the Hellenes over the hordes of Xerxes, were built according to the same artistic principles as his "Oresteia" or "Seven against Thebes", so these historical compositions of Polygnotus were apparently decided in the same plan. , as mythological paintings, and were included with them in the same general ensemble.
One of the most famous works of Polygnotus was the painting of the “Leskha (meeting house) of the Cnidians” in Delphi, the description of which was preserved for us by Pausanias, where Polygnotus depicted the “Death of Troy” and the “Odyssey in Hades”.
It is known that Polygnotus used only four colors (white, yellow, red and black); apparently, his palette did not differ too sharply from that used by the masters of vase painting. According to the descriptions, color in Polygnotus had the character of coloring and color modeling of the figure was almost never used by him. But his drawing was of high perfection. In anatomical terms, he accurately conveyed the body in any angles and movements. The ancients admired the fact that Polygnotus achieved perfection in the depiction of the face, that he first began to convey a state of mind, in particular, with the help of a parted mouth, trying to give the face features of emotional expressiveness. Similar experiments in sculpture were carried out by the masters of the western Olympic pediment just in the heyday of Polygnotus' activity.
The descriptions of Polygnot's paintings give reason to believe that the master did not set himself the task of giving a complete image of the environment in which the action takes place. Ancient authors mention individual objects of nature and environment that are plotted with the actions of heroes, for example, pebbles on the seashore, but they are not depicted in the whole picture, but only to determine the location of the hero. “The seashore continues to the horse, and pebbles are visible on it, then there is no sea in the picture,” says Pausanias, describing the painting “The Death of Troy” by Polygnotus. Apparently, Polygnotus and other painters of the 5th c. BC. they were not yet fully aware of all the possibilities of painting and did not feel the fundamental difference between the depiction of the pebbles of the seashore on the relief (as in the scene of the birth of Aphrodite on the “Throne of Ludo-visi”) and the task of depicting the seashore in the picture. Ancient authors have no information about the solution of problems of perspective or chiaroscuro by Polygnot. The composition, apparently, was more or less frieze-like in nature.
Polygnotus' contemporaries highly valued his painting for the same qualities that they valued in sculpture: the greatness of the spirit, the high moral strength (ethos) of the characters, the truthfulness in the depiction of a beautiful person.
Polygnot did a lot for a realistic, clear and concrete depiction of a person in painting. The subsequent development of Greek art, the constant growth of interest in the inner world of a person, in the direct sensory perception of his image, the emergence of a greater interest in everyday life and the environment gradually expanded the range of pictorial tasks facing painting.
In the second half and at the end of the 5th c. BC, a number of painters appeared who were closely associated with the general trends in the development of the Attic sculptural school at the end of the 5th century. BC. The most famous master of this time was Apollodorus of Athens. His painting, which treated traditional subjects in a more intimate and genre manner than his predecessors, is characterized by greater freedom of color and an interest in shaping the forms of the body through chiaroscuro. Pliny says of Apollodorus that "he was the first to transmit shadows." Of great importance are the indications of ancient authors, giving reason to assume that Apollodorus and other painters of the late 5th century. BC. (Zeuxis, Parrhasius) began to develop not only the tasks of depicting the human body in motion, but also perspective, both linear and aerial. The constant goal of these painters was the creation of realistic, beautiful and lively human images.
Starting with Apollodorus, Greek painting ceased to be a reproduction of sculpturally interpreted figures on the plane of the wall, but became painting in the proper sense of the word. Apollodorus, one of the first painters, also switched to painting pictures that were not organically connected with an architectural structure. In this regard, he not only developed further the high traditions of the classics of the 5th century. BC, but also outlined new paths of realistic art, leading to the late classics.
