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Interpreting Ancient Art
Lecture 1: Interpreting Ancient Art, 2/10/17
“We use places as words and images as letters” Cicero, De Oratore, 2
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353-5
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Examples include:
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Amphorae, storage pots for wine and olive oil
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Statues, physical characteristics of statues can indicate subject
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Buildings/sites, The Acropolis of Athens, meaning ‘site of the city’, Viewed as a sanctuary,
home of the Parthenon
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Actual events are often extrapolated into greater art and the significance reused
and reworked to create greater significance
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Issues with interpreting Ancient Art:

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Monuments can be complex, difficult to translate what we see and its meaning
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Multistability of images, we must question our own approach, Culture, gender, and time can all
produce different interpretations to the same image
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16th Century- art used to support
ancient manuscripts
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19th CenturyCollections of genres emerge- gemstones and statues studied within own collection
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Cultural and political context of artwork is vital
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Example: Prima Porta
Augustus- What can we learn about the politics from this representation
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Form and Style- The formal appearance of the artwork within an artistic period
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May
have to look at known dated examples to compare and date case study
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Key
clue as to what/who/when (Father gods discussion) May have to rely on other evidence to fully
grasp
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May have to look
at where the art was found and consider WHY
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Lecture 2: Describing Ancient Art 6/10/17
The Key to describing Greek art is observing (looking repeatedly and hard and concentrating on
features) and description
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Description steps:
1
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What is depicted? This is the core description
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3
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What is the interpretation? What does the object mean? Why make it? Why does it
look like how it looks? Who bought it? Why is it significant?
Example of the Kritios Boy
1
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2
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Behind that, hair straightened by a band
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3
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480 BC, found in an excavation, not on
the art market, so probably genuine, Athens, acropolis,
Votive sculpture, no information about the artist, ‘Kritian
boy’ due to comparison with a known sculpture made by
Kritios – just conjecture
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pleasing the gods, nudity, and beauty, ideal of well-trained body, model soldier and
citizen, social elitism, impress and instruct viewer: “this is how we imagine ideal man”

Lecture 3: Greek Art and the Polis 9/10/17
Important to note:
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The Dates of ‘Ages’ and ‘Periods’ which are vital
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Dates are argued about as different approaches to events
could see them dated differently
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Others are less so, such as the beginning of the classical
period which could be attributed to the reforms of
Kleisthenes in a move towards democracy or the change in visual arts up to 50 years earlier
with a more fluid approach to sculpture
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1100 BCE where there would be centres of activity designed for
administration, production, and management of agricultural production
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Strong urban centres adopted and adapted from Mesopotamia
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Mycenaean Kingdoms were found with the discovery of tombs (look more at Studying the
Greek World Lecture 1)
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The Emergence of the ‘Dark Ages’

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Geometric Potted is the main source of information from 1000-700 BCE
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Pottery is categorised into Early/Middle/Late Geometric period with Late pottery depicting
human forms and having less ‘black space’ used
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750) depicts the human form in the context of a funeral procession (most of
these pots are funerary)
They are an indication again of congregation amongst people as pots like this were used for
wine mixing
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Lecture 4: Dating Greek Art 13/10/17
The Chronology of Greek Art is a gradual process and
many dates are often disputed as some are relative
and some are absolute
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g
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Relative chronology is where we date an object by
looking at similar examples of Ancient Art e
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Red
figure vase painting was introduced in the 530s520s, so any early red figure vase painting must be
from this era
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We can compare type, technique, and style to try and date
ancient art
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E
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the
Panathenaic Amphorae, given out every year as prizes
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With Sculpture, we can use style for absolute and relative chronology
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g
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Lecture 5: Historical Topography- Athens 16/10/17
Topography is the spatial layout of a place including both natural and artificial landscapes
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Athens viewed itself as the centre of the civilised world and
the topography of Athens would present that
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The Centre of the city and home of the Acropolis
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Mainly farmland needed to sustain the population
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The Eschatia, the outer area of the farmland, essentially a green belt to stop conflict over land
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Within the Polis

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Sanctuary- to the gods
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The Acropolis in Athens
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The Greek equivalent of the Roman Forum
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Hub of activity, art would be displayed here
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Kerameikos cemetery is biggest in Athens, kept on outskirts of the polis to
protect from pollution (both in terms of disease and religious)
Mycenaean history of the city: An Early Mycenaean stronghold that was not thought to have collapsed
when most Mycenaean civilisation did in the 1200s BCE
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8th Century BCE, the Acropolis is no longer a centre for palace culture
and is instead an area of religious culture
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The Old Athena Temple (Athena Polias) built as a temple
for Athena to protect the city
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Is
torn down in 500 BCE and another temple of Athena built (Hekatompedon) showing a battle between
Herakles and a three-bodied triton on the Pediment
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The Classical Acropolis:

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The Parthenon (build 447-432), plan of refurbishment under Pericles
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Highly decorated and made to show the power of Greece and
Democracy
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Pediments on East and West showed birth
of Athena and her conflict with Poseidon respectively
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Erechtheion (437-406 BCE) A temple dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon
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One room contained a salt well from
Poseidon and another, an olive tree from Athena
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The Athena-Nike Temple (437-420s B
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) Athena of Victory temple, Built during the
Peloponnesian war
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We do know, however, that the Agora becomes a more political space in the Classical era and is
used for speeches, law, and education
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The Building was 18m in diameter
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The Stoa Poikile housed famous paintings and loot from wars of which none survives today
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This was a symbol of Athenian power as the building would be open to all
in the Agora
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The inside, the potters quarter of the city, and the outside, the Cemetery with
the Diplyon gate
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In the Archaic period, grave markers were used to show the power of an individual, often depicting
lions and sphinxes on the top of a pillar
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After 1100 BCE, it became more common to have the dead cremated and placed in a large urn, with
a dedication to the dead
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State monuments also became more
common with one monument dedicated to hundreds of men who had died in battle
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One
of the few times where there is an abundance of women shown
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Lecture 7: Sanctuaries in the Greek World 23/10/17
Greek religion is markedly different from modern day Christianity
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These gods would look and act like Humans who could be quick to anger
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Finally, Greek religion stressed the importance of ritual and not of belief in the gods
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If there was a temple, the alter would
usually be in a straight line in front of it to that the deity inside the temple could see and appreciate
worship
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Was
usually a wall but could have been boarder stones
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Not always on a hill, could be a spring or a wood
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The Temple would be an elongated rectangle and have relief on the
Pediments and as a frieze going around the top of the temple, above its columns
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Games at these sanctuaries would be held every 4 years
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Delphi:

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A Sanctuary of Apollo
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A Temple of Apollo had been at this site since the Archaic period but had been
destroyed in 548
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The Eastern Pediment has images of Apollo and Kouroi and Korai
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The images depicted on the pediment are sculpture in the round, something extremely uncommon
for temples
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Eyes on statue still intact
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Dedicated to Polyzalos of Gela
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3 snakes intertwined, the heads form the base
of a tripod
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Erected 480/79 after Victory at
Salamis
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Burned down in 356 BCE
but rebuilt to almost same design, including 127 columns, each decorated around the base
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Adult woman, fully clothed in decorated dress
with a crown representing the city walls
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Ancient Art Seminar: The Siphnian Treasury 26/10/17
Siphnian Treasury:
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Archaic, from 525 BCE, can date exactly, is considered a cornerstone for dating Greek Art
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The sculptures would have been painted
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Siphnians discovered gold and silver mines
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Delphi:

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An urban site since 1200BCE but a place of votive dedications since 800 BCE

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