An overview of ancient Greek and Roman art and culture

Ancient Greek art and Roman art can be roughly divided into the following periods:

Ancient Greece: A Period of Aegean Culture

Homeric period and classical period

Three heydays

Four Hellenistic Periods

Compared with pre-Greece, Rome is basically nothing else, mainly in sculpture, architecture and painting.

Judging from the history of human culture, Greek civilization is the birthplace of European culture. Shelley once said in a poem, "We are all Greeks." Greece is the birthplace and cradle of European civilization. Without Greece, it is impossible to imagine what European civilization would be like. Today, the western world has the tradition of Greek civilization everywhere. However, few people think of themselves as Greeks with philosophical imagination like Shelley, except citizens living in the Greek peninsula. So who is the Greek?

History shows that Mycenae, the conqueror of Crete and the destroyer of Troy, was one of the earliest inhabitants of Greece. Later, he became a slave of the northern barbarians and gradually split into Dorian and Ionian. They all have the same belief and language, so they are called Greeks.

Before Dorian and Ionian, the main nationalities who created classical Greek civilization, arrived in Greece, there was a fairly developed Aegean culture in the Aegean region in the northeast of the Mediterranean.

Greek culture mainly comes from Aegean civilization centered on Aegean sea. Therefore, in order to understand Greek art, we must first start with Aegean art, which is the gestation period of Greek art, centering on Crete Island in the Aegean Sea, including Mycenae culture in the south of Bakan Peninsula, so Aegean culture is also called "Crete-Mycenae culture".

Aegean civilization was formed in the middle kingdom of Egypt, which is different from the valley culture to which Egyptian civilization or Mesopotamian civilization belongs. This civilization belongs to island culture. The first two civilizations controlled and maintained a vast territory, while the Aegean civilization was very small, with Crete only 240 kilometers long and its widest point only 56 kilometers. However, the island's mild climate and developed agriculture, especially surrounded by the sea, have ensured the local safety for 500 years. Therefore, as early as the 25th century BC, the residents of Crete had already created a culture of bronze and stone, and in 2000 BC, they entered a prosperous period with foreign trade and established a powerful commercial kingdom with Knossos as its capital.

According to legend, there was an outstanding king named Minos in Crete, so archaeologists called the civilization displayed when the kingdom he ruled existed Minos civilization.

Although the geographical location of Crete is close to Egypt, Crete civilization is very different from Egyptian civilization. The former takes the palace as the center, while the latter features the mausoleum. Archaeologists excavated a large palace site in Knossos at the end of 19, and called it Knossos Palace. This palace, together with the surrounding towns and their public facilities, is the predecessor of the Greek city-state.

There are many decorative murals left in the ruins of Knossos Palace. The main themes of these murals come from nature, such as waves, seaweed, octopus and dolphins. It fully shows the rhythm and joyful temperament in Minos's art.

In terms of sculpture, the most important thing is the snake god. This painted pottery portrait is not as formal as that of Egypt. Her hands can stretch freely, and she wears a gorgeous long skirt, revealing her breasts in the front chest.

Minoan civilization did not develop coherently. Their appearance and disappearance are expected. Perhaps it was because of the earthquake and volcanic eruption that Minos Wang Guocai fell to the ground. Although it was finally conquered by the powerful and militant Mycenae, it was because of the inheritance and popularization of Mycenae art that Crete civilization was spread to other regions.

From BC 1600 to BC 1 100, Mycenae lived in groups on the southeast coast of the Peloponnesian Peninsula in Greece, which was very similar to Minoan culture. However, because the German archaeologist Heinrich Shliemann discovered a huge palace fortress in Mycenae in 1870, which confirmed the story recorded in Homer's Iliad, Mycenae was determined to be the descendant of the earliest Greek tribe.

After this excavation, the magnificent ruins of Mycenae civilization appeared to the world, including Mycenae Acropolis and Telhan Castle, which were estimated to have been built around 1400 BC. Because the buildings in Minos are too free and open, and lack of order, the defensive ability of the city wall facilities is reduced. Therefore, the Mycenaean civilization's main function in the building part is to strengthen the city wall and also serve as the fortress of the palace.

In terms of sculpture, the gold funeral mask unearthed in Mycenae is said to have been used by King Agamemnon. This mask is not only vivid in appearance, but also exquisite in craftsmanship.

Aegean culture was free and unrestrained in painting at first, and then gradually transformed into abstract patterns, resulting in simplified schemas based on people or animals. This culture was later invaded by the Dorians in the north, and it ended.

Crete culture is the birthplace of Aegean culture. Crete is located in the traffic arteries of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is a good port, with fertile land and rich products. The people live a rich and healthy life, and entered the period of civilization development earlier than the European continent.

The art of Crete period was obviously influenced by the art of North Africa, Egypt and West Asia, which entered the civilized era earlier.

Mycenae culture is the successor of Crete culture. Compared with Crete culture, Mycenae's art is grand and rough, while Crete's art is exquisite and meticulous. It was not until around 1200 BC that the Dorians unified the Greek peninsula and Mycenae culture ended.

The birthplace of Greek European culture, the creativity and brilliant achievements of ancient Greeks in science, philosophy, literature and art have had a far-reaching impact on the development of European culture. It formed the first peak of western art.

Although the art of ancient Egypt and the two river basins came into being earlier, it was the ancient Greek art that had the greatest influence on the art of Europe and the world. It was mature three thousand years ago when other art forms in the world were still in a very primitive state. However, at that time, Greece was not much more advanced than some countries with a long history. Why is the development of art at the forefront of the world, becoming the foundation of modern European civilization and the starting point of the central axis of the world art development trend? These factors are many and complicated.

The formation and development of ancient Greek art is closely related to its social history, national characteristics and natural conditions.

First, the geographical position of Greece is very superior. It is located on the northern shore of the Aegean Sea at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and at the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. Here, with beautiful natural scenery, pleasant climate and convenient transportation, all kinds of material and spiritual products can be exchanged smoothly from countries on land and sea. This kind of communication will bring many new things to a nation. In addition, as an ancient civilization in Egypt and the two river basins, Greece is the first to benefit from the decline, differentiation and spillover of art. Crete, in particular, can be regarded as an island in the southern part of the Greek Peninsula, an island in the northern part of the Nile Delta in Egypt and an island in the western part of the Asia Minor Peninsula. Just a little closer to Greece, Crete art can clearly see the shadow of ancient Egypt and the scenery of the two river basins. Crete is only an intermediary and springboard for Egypt and the two river basins to influence Greece. The afterglow of two ancient civilizations passed through Crete and reached the Greek Peninsula.

Second, Greece is a city-state. Greece is different from the slave society in Egypt, the two river basins, India and China. When there was no unified monarchy in Greece, the history of its slave society was centered on the city-state, and the slave owner democracy of the city-state provided favorable conditions for the development of culture. The city-state requires citizens to have a strong body and perfect mind, which has also become an ideal image of artistic creation. In this state power, although slaves are excluded from politics, freemen account for a large proportion, have a certain status and have full freedom. Ancient Greek art was essentially created by slave owners and freemen.

Third, the Greek nation. Citizens of Greek city-states seldom work by themselves. They have servants and conquered people to feed them, and there are always slaves to serve them Greeks are "sons of the sea" who live by the sea, and have the characteristics of the sea: wit, intelligence, courage and imagination. The development of trade and navigation has created the strong will of the Greeks and the positive character of bravely pursuing their ideals. This is also an opportunity for Greece to get in touch with the cultures of the two river basins, Egypt and other regions.

The citizens of the Greek city-states are not as religious as the Egyptians. They have no king or priest to serve. They are completely free people in the polis. They think that a free man should devote all his mind to public affairs and wars, because life at that time was not as stable as we are now, and society was not as stable as it is now. Most city-states are scattered along the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by barbarians eager to invade.

Fourth, Greek mythology.

Greek mythology is the soil of Greek art, which contains people's rational thinking about the mysteries of nature and breeds the germination of historical and philosophical concepts. The earliest rise of Greek art has a lot to do with myth. Greek mythology has played a nourishing and treasure-house role in the process of pushing Greek art to the peak.

The characteristics of "God is similar to man" in Greek mythology make God have human face and emotion, which has become a favorable factor to promote the close connection between art and life. Although Greek mythology is a legend with many descriptions of God's life, it is a reflection of the fantasy formed by people in the process of conquering nature at that time, and is endowed with the concepts of history and philosophy. This myth

Therefore, it has great aesthetic significance, because it also reflects the new Greek ethics and aesthetics. So Marx said that it is the soil of Greek art.

The stages of Greek art

The history of ancient Greek art is usually divided into Homeric period, Antique period, Classical period and Hellenistic period.

Homeric era (BC12nd century-8th century BC)

Homer period was named after the author of Homer's epic, that is, the end of clan society. Homer's period is the formation period of Greek mythology and the embryonic period of plastic arts.

The earliest plastic arts works in Homer's era are geometric pottery bottles with simple shapes and different sizes, which are mostly used for sacrifice and burial. Even sculpture works are mostly geometric figures without detailed description. Therefore, this period is also called "geometric style period".

Homer, a blind man who lived in the 9th-8th century BC, compiled Greek folk myths and legends from the 2nd century BC to the 8th century BC into two works: Heriat and Odyssey.

At this time, the people of the Greek Peninsula inherited and developed the customs accumulated by primitive people and their imagination of the world, and their culture was far less mature than the Aegean culture on the island, which was deeply influenced by ancient Egypt and the two river basins. Homer, a blind poet, sorted out two immortal literary works from folklore, ballads and myths about the origin of heaven and earth, historical future and yearning for life that have been widely circulated for hundreds or even thousands of years. That is to say, these two works laid the development direction of Greek art later and became inexhaustible materials and sources of Greek art.

Antique period (7th century BC to 6th century BC)

This period is the fundamental transformation period of Greek society. As a class, freemen stepped onto the historical stage. Greece has produced * * * countries with different political systems, frequent contacts with hundreds of independent city-states, the annual Olympic Games, the sacrificial activities of the Temple of Tiros and the Temple of Apollo on Delphi, and the birth of Homer's epic ... finally, the system of gods on Mount Olympia with Zeus as the main brain was formed, which became the golden age of Greek art with Greek mythology as the main theme-prosperity.

Antique period is the formative period of plastic arts. During this period, oriental culture influenced Greek art through trade exchanges, and Greek art gradually got rid of the influence of oriental culture by absorbing its advantages.

The artistic achievements in this period are mainly bottle painting, architecture and sculpture.

Bottle painting: Pottery bottles are the main daily utensils and export commodities of the Greeks, and Athens and Corinth are the important production centers of pottery bottles. In ancient times, the types of plot bottle painting have been established, and there have been three styles: oriental style, black style and red style.

The oriental style, which mainly appeared in the 7th century BC, was influenced by ancient Egypt and the two river basins. Geometrical patterns are still used in early pottery of oriental style. Later, due to the commercial contact between Greece and the Near East, the oriental style described stories, and people and animals became the theme of decoration. The outline is clear, the brushwork is positive, the shape is vivid, and the size of the work is correspondingly increased.

The black painting style appeared in the 6th century BC. The main characters were painted black, and the ochre color of the soil was retained in the background, which made the outline of the image stand out like a silhouette, and the details were slightly shown with a hook line.

The red painting style appeared at the end of the 6th century BC, which is just the opposite of the black painting style. It is to paint the background black, leaving the main ochre color, and the details of the characters are depicted by lines. This style is mainly popular in the classical period, and the fluent content is mostly plot scenes, mainly myths and daily life themes.

Architecture: Greek architecture is mainly temples. In ancient times, Greek temple architecture formed its typical style-column, that is, there were colonnades around the building. At this time, two basic building columns have been formed, namely Dorian and Ionia.

The Doric column is simple and strong, and there is no column base. The column gradually shrinks from bottom to top, with a slight bulge in the middle. The column is provided with a groove, and the column head is connected with a square column crown.

Ionian column is exquisite and slender, with a column base, a long and symmetrical column, a dense and deep groove and a scroll-shaped stigma.

Later, in Asia Minor in the classical period, a Corinthian style prevailed, which developed into a more gorgeous decoration on the basis of Ionian columns, with dense flower baskets on the stigma.

Sculpture: Ancient sculptures were influenced by Egypt, and the figures were all stiff and upright. Men and women have the same smile on their faces, which is commonly called "antique smile"

Classical period (5th century BC to 4th century BC)

This period is a prosperous period of Greek art, and all kinds of arts have made great achievements, among which architecture and sculpture have the most far-reaching influence on later generations.

Architecture: The architectural achievements in this period are considerable, the most prominent of which is the Acropolis complex. Its main building is the Parthenon dedicated to the goddess Athena; The architectural structure and decorative factors, commemorative and decorative, content and form have reached a high degree of unity, and it is one of the most perfect architectural models in the history of world art.

Sculpture: Sculpture in the classical period completely got rid of the bondage and decoration of the antique period, produced a realistic and ideal human body, reached the peak of Greek sculpture, and appeared a number of excellent sculptors.

Miron (date of birth and death unknown) was a sculptor in the early classicism. The representative works are accurate in modeling and have a deep understanding and expression of the internal bones and muscle movements of the characters. His masterpiece "The Discus Thrower" is a program that shows the continuity of action with fixed movements, which solves the problem that the weight of human body falls on one foot and changes the upright posture in sculpture.

The greatest sculptor in the heyday of classicism was phidias. He designed the Acropolis architecture and created a large number of sculptures and decorative reliefs in the Acropolis. His works have created an elegant and quiet image, making classical sculpture a model of ideal beauty. The statue of Athena he created for the Parthenon is12m high. His high relief for the east and west triangular lintels of the Parthenon is considered to be the most perfect specimen of classical sculpture. Among them, the three fates have graceful postures and vivid clothing patterns, which not only show the plump figure of the city goddess, but also have a graceful and feminine sense of movement.

The contemporary sculptor in Pheidias is Poliklitos, who is both a sculptor and a famous ancient art theorist. He wrote the Law, which systematically expounded the proportion of all parts of the human body, and put forward that the ratio of head to human body was 1∶7. There are more formal explorations in his works, emphasizing the standardization of art, which somewhat bound his works and prevented him from creating so many touching works by Pheidias. His masterpiece is The Lancer.

In the late classical period, sculpture began to pay attention to the characterization of personality, showing people's personality and feelings, and the characters were full of interest in life and inner passion. This description of personality marks the further maturity of Greek sculpture.

Praxiteles is characterized by femininity and lyricism, and his masterpiece is Hermes.

Contrary to Pracletus' serenity and lyricism, Scopas's sculptures convey an inner confusion and tragic conflict. Through the ups and downs of the face, it creates a strong contrast between light and dark, showing strong emotions of anxiety, excitement, pain and longing.

Studying in Sipos inherited and developed Polykleitos's theory.

Hellenistic period (end of 4th century BC-A.D. 1 century)

During the Hellenistic period, King Alexander of Macedonia led troops to conquer the Greek city-states and established the Alexander Empire. With the continuous expansion of the empire, there appeared the spread of Greek culture to the East and the communication with the East, also known as the "Pan-Greek period".

The main achievement of fine arts in this period was sculpture, which formed various styles centered on different regions.

The representative works of this period are Flotti de Milo of Milo and laocoon.

The calendar * * * and the imperial period * *10 century are important components of European classical art. Roman fine arts absorbed the achievements of Greek fine arts, inherited the fine arts tradition of Seruscan, pushed fine arts to pragmatism, paid attention to depicting the worldly life of pleasure in content, pursued gorgeous style in form, and emphasized individuality in character expression. Its outstanding achievements are mainly reflected in architecture, portrait sculpture and murals.

Roman architecture is developed on the basis of inheriting Etruscan arch structure and absorbing Greek beam-column structure and artistic modeling. With the help of mortar and concrete made of volcanic ash, the Romans built a large number of cities, squares, bridges, theaters, baths, palaces, houses, the Arc de Triomphe and so on. These buildings have greatly surpassed their predecessors in scale, technology and spatial combination, and become a symbol of the prosperity of the Roman Empire with their huge size and magnificent style. The Colosseum is a typical representative of the Colosseum in the middle of the Roman Empire. The Pantheon is an outstanding representative of vault architecture. Inside is a magnificent circular hall with a hemispherical dome at the top and a circular lighting window with a diameter of 9 meters in the middle. All structures are concreted. The facade of the temple is rigorous, the interior space is grand, and the architectural decoration is gorgeous, which represents the design and technical level of Roman architecture at that time.

The important memorial buildings in the Roman Empire include the Arc de Triomphe and memorial columns, which were built to flaunt martial arts. The Arc de Triomphe is divided into two types: single-hole type and triple-hole type. The former is represented by the Arc de Triomphe of Titus and the latter by the Arc de Triomphe of Constantine. Both of them are decorated with mixed columns and reliefs, and their shapes are steady and solemn. Trajan Memorial Column is the most famous, with a total height of 43 meters. At the top of the column, there is a bronze statue of Emperor Trajan. There are 23 circles and more than 200 meters long relief belts on the column, which record the history of Roman army conquering Dacia in detail.

On the one hand, Roman portrait sculpture follows the legacy of ancestor worship, and at the same time, it is constantly impacted by the Greek sculpture tradition, thus making it gradually move towards diversification of forms, popularization of art and vividness of expression. A large number of Augustus statues mostly borrowed from the expressions of the statues in the classical Greek period, or were shaped into the image of the god of war, or into the image of heroes and American teenagers, but their looks and appearances are still unique to Rome. With the popularity of realistic style in portrait carving, a large number of portraits mainly depicting strong personality characteristics and complex inner world also appear. For example, the portrait of caracalla, through the depiction of his eyes, truly shows the cruel and cruel character and nervous mood of the tyrant. The Ride of Kyle Horizo mainly depicts the introspection and meditation of the monarch with Stoga's philosophical thoughts, revealing melancholy and sadness. In the portrait carving of nobles and ordinary people, it is also full of vitality and the technique is more free. For example, the high-incidence portrait of a lady is an example.

Paintings in Roman period mainly included murals and mosaics. Murals are represented by Pompeii murals excavated in18th century, and their themes include figures, flowers, trees and scenery. Vivid and diverse styles, colorful, sense of space and movement. Mosaic paintings are mostly used to decorate houses and palaces, and the main themes are sports, hunting, farming, feasting and other scenes. These white and colored marble blocks cut into squares are cleverly embedded in cement matrix, forming exquisite lines and different color levels. His representative works include The Battle of Isus and so on. The highest achievements of Roman arts and crafts are mainly embodied in silverware, glass and bronze crafts. On the basis of inheriting the Greek tradition, they tend to be more diversified in modeling and decoration techniques, and their characters are more realistic, which has had a certain impact on the Renaissance and Rococo art in the18th century.