Comparing archaic greek art to helenistic greek art.

Essay by babeebunsUniversity, Bachelor'sB, December 2002

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Archaic and Hellenistic art

During the late geometric period the Greeks had many great accomplishments and to add to them during the seventh and sixth century they achieved even greater talents in visual arts. The artist in the archaic period paid close detail to the shape of the human body but not so much detail to the face. As more time passed Greek artist especially in the Hellenistic period modeled the close detail to the body after many archaic artist but they also paid more attention to the characteristics of the face. In this essay there are going to be examples of art from two time periods, archaic (600-480 B.C.E.) and Hellenistic (323-150 B.C.E.). In the archaic period examples of pottery and sculptures will be shown and discussed. In the Hellenistic period the transitions of sculpture design from archaic to Hellenistic will be discussed.

"Under the leadership of the tyrant Cypselus (c.

657-627), Corinth emerged as the leading commercial center of Greece and dominated trade in finely painted pottery." (AG pg. 109) The Corinthians invented a technique for pottery art called "black figure". This allowed the artist to design their pottery with a little more detail and creativity than ever before. In order to make sure art the artist would have to paint a "black silhouette" onto a red clay, then with a sharp tool would carve out pictures and designs onto the pot. The bright red clay that was originally hidden underneath the black paint then brightly shines through giving the design a great look. This new technique became so popular during the archaic period that the black face pottery became mass produced and vases of lesser value we also produced. The Athenians later mastered the black figure technique of the Corinthians and eventually invented their own technique called...