12.classical Heroes Fall 2024

Gods and Heroes in Bronze and Marble
Key Monuments
1) Attic Black-Figure Amphora with Ajax and Achilles playing a game, by Exekias, Athens, ca. 540
BCE (Archaic)
https://smarthistory.org/exekias-attic-black-figure-amphora-with-ajax-and-achilles-playing-a-ga
me/
2) Euthymides, Three Revelers (Athenian red-figure amphora), c. 510 B.C.E.(Archaic)

https://smarthistory.org/euthymides-three-revelers/
3) Kritios Boy, from the Athenian Acropolis, ca. 480 BCE (Classical)
4) Artemisian Zeus or Poseidon, found off the coast of Cape Artemision, ca. 470 BCE (Classical)
https://smarthistory.org/artemision-zeus-or-poseidon
5) Bronze Warriors found of the coast of Riace (Italy), 460-450 BCE (Classical)
https://smarthistory.org/riace-warriors/
6) Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), by Polykleitos, Roman period marble after a lost bronze original of
ca. 450-440 BCE (Classical) https://smarthistory.org/polykleitos-doryphoros-spear-bearer/
Key Themes for Pottery
1) Know the difference between red-figure and black-figure vase painting. Be able to describe the different tools used and effects
achieved. Consider especially the rendering of forms, line, pattern, and detail, etc. Use the ”building blocks” to describe these
similarities and differences.
1. Visual narrative: what types of stories are selected for depiction on Greek vases? Which moments from the story cycle are
selected?
2. The relationship between vase shapes and storytelling: what are the challenges of painting a scene on a concave surface? How is
the surface plane organized (continuous frieze, panels, single scenes, multiple scenes)? Consider the relationship between the
narrative moment and the format of the field in which it is painted: for example, a long narrow frieze is better suited to
processions, while a hand-to-hand combat might work better in a square or rectangular panel.
Key Themes for Sculpture
1) Production techniques for Greek bronze statuary (indirect lost wax technique); view video for details.
2) Advantages of bronze: what types of formats and visual effects are made possible by the medium of bronze
3) The artistic contribution of Polykleitos and his canon of proportions. Consider the following statement. “The Doryphoros (Spear
Bearer) of Polykleitos is an artificial representation of the nude male, in which the different parts of the body are carefully
measured and related mathematically to one another. It is also the most bitingly realistic statue the ancient Greek viewer would
have seen at the time.” How do you reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements?
4) Greek Original/Roman Copy: utility and problems with this model. Consider that one of the advantages of bronze is the ability to
reuse the molds to make multiples.
Key Terms:
Contrapposto (see https://smarthistory.org/contrapposto/)
Indirect Lost Wax Technique
Patina
Gilding
Canon
HISTORICAL PERIODS OF ANCIENT GREECE
PROTO-GEOMETRIC ca. 1100-900 BCE
GEOMETRIC ca. 900-700 BCE
EARLY ARCHAIC ca. 700-600 BCE
ARCHAIC ca. 600-480 BCE
CLASSICAL 480-323 BCE
HELLENISTIC 323-31 BCE
Vase Shapes and Functions
Storage
Service (Mixing and Pouring)
Eating and Drinking
Ritual
Personal
Attic Black-figure amphora with Ajax and Achilles playing Attic Red-Figure amphora with Three Reveler, by
a game, by Exekias, Athens, ca. 540 BCE (Archaic) Euthymides, ca. 510 BCE (Archaic)
Formal and Technical Characteristics of the Black-Figure Technique
Formal and Technical Characteristics of the Red-Figure Technique
Compare and Contrast
Exekias, Dionysos Kylix, c. 530 B.C.E.
“Activating” the images
Kritios Boy, from the Athenian Acropolis, ca.
480 BCE
Red-figure amphora, painted by
Euthymides, ca. 510 BCE, Three revelers
(left) and Hektor arming (right)
Contrapposto
Artemisian Zeus or Poseidon, found off the
coast of Cape Artemision, ca. 470 BCE
Zeus or Poseidon?
MAKING BRONZE STATUES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPgEIM-NbhQ
Indirect Lost Wax Technique
Foundry cup, painted by the Foundry Painter, early 5 th century, with scenes of bronze statue
workshop
Fragment of a Roman sarcophagus, from Ephesus (Asia Minor), with sculptors at work
Bronze Warriors found of
the coast of Riace (Italy),
460-450 BCE
Riace A Riace B
Same mold – different details
Doryphoros, by
Polykleitos, after a “lost
bronze original” ca. 450-
440 ( Classical
Riace Warriors, from the

sea off Riace, Italy, ca.
460-450 BCE (Classical)
Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) by
Polykleitos, ca. 450-440 BCE
Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) by
Polykleitos
Contrapposto
“Canon” (Refers both to

system of proportions and
statue made by Polykleitos
illustrating this system)
What do these ancient artists tell us about the Doryphoros?
Ancient Authors on Polykleitos’s Canon of Proportions
“Beauty, he [Chrysippos] believes, lies not in the commensurability of the

constituent elements of the body, but in the commensurability [symmetria] of
the part, such as the finger to the finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and
the wrist, and of these to the forearm to the upper arm, and in fact of
everything to everything else, just as it is written in the Canon of Polykleitos.
For having taught us in that work all the proportions of the body, Polykleitos
supported his treatise with a work of art; that is, he made a statue according
to the tenets of treatise, and called the statue, like the work, the ‘Canon’.”
(Galen, de Placitis Hippocratis at Platonis 5)
“… thus the statement made by the sculptor Polykleitos may be suitably

repeated for the future. For ‘perfection,’ he says, ‘arises para mikron through
many numbers.’ Indeed, it happens in the same manner in that art [sculpture]
that, in finishing off works through many numbers [measurements], they
make a slight deviation in each part and in the end these add up to a large
error.” (Philo Mechanicus, Syntaxis 4.1)
Note: possible meanings of para mikron: 1) from a minute calculation; 2)

except for a little, almost; 3) from a small unit, a module; 4) little by little,
gradually.
“The Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) of Polykleitos is an artificial
representation of the nude male, in which the different parts
of the body are carefully measured and related
mathematically to one another. It is also the most bitingly
realistic statue the ancient Greek viewer would have seen at
the time.”
How do you reconcile these two seemingly contradictory

statements?

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Gods and Heroes in Bronze and Marble

2) Euthymides, Three Revelers (Athenian red-figure amphora), c. 510 B.C.E.(Archaic)

Key Themes for Sculpture

Riace Warriors, from the

“Canon” (Refers both to

Ancient Authors on Polykleitos’s Canon of Proportions

“Beauty, he [Chrysippos] believes, lies not in the commensurability of the

“… thus the statement made by the sculptor Polykleitos may be suitably

Note: possible meanings of para mikron: 1) from a minute calculation; 2)

How do you reconcile these two seemingly contradictory

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