Who can classify and introduce ancient Greek art (including sculpture and painting)?

The ancient Greeks are a people who love art, and ancient Greek art has made brilliant achievements in all aspects, which has always attracted the attention of future generations and amazed them. Art originated from the life practice of ancient human beings, and developed from a practical bud to an aesthetic object. Any artistic work is composed of form and content, and the organic combination of form and content constitutes the ideological connotation of artistic work. Although ancient Greek art has a history of two or three thousand years, its great artistic charm is enduring, and its mystery lies in the combination and unity of its beautiful artistic form and unique humanistic spirit.

Among the various artistic types in ancient Greece, the creation of literary myths bears the brunt and has achieved fruitful results. Myth originated in ancient times, which is the product of the ancient Greeks' understanding and understanding of nature and surrounding society with the help of imagination during the period of low level of productivity development. The ancient Greeks believed in polytheism, and they understood all kinds of powerful natural forces or other puzzling phenomena and things that were not transferred by human will as manifestations of divine power, which is where divine power lies. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, God is also a kind of existence similar to human beings, a tangible thing that gives God a human form. God and man exist in the same cosmic world, and the earth, space and even underground, including the limited range of human existence, are all God's activities. Between God and man are heroes, who often have the blood of God, have the ability to surpass ordinary people, or are all people with extraordinary abilities and are loved and cared for by God. The ancient Greeks conceived many touching stories for these gods and heroes with their extraordinary thinking ability in images, telling the birth of the universe, the appearance of human beings, the life of gods, the achievements of heroes and the relationship between gods and people. The content is very rich, forming a systematic and complete ode to the evolution of the universe and human existence. The story of God reflects the rich imagination of ancient people in visualizing various external powerful forces, while the legend of heroes mainly reflects the tenacious struggle and victory of ancient people for their own survival, showing their worship and idealization of legendary ancestors.

Another obvious feature of ancient Greek myths and legends is to endow God with divinity similar to human nature. Because the ancient Greeks understood God as a kind of existence similar to human beings, the divinity of ancient Greek gods includes two aspects, one is its unique attributes of God, and the other is its attributes similar to human beings. The unique divinity of ancient Greek gods is mainly manifested in two aspects: God is stronger than man and immortal, which is the embodiment of powerful external forces and the inherent essence of things. The peaks of Mount Olympus in northern Greece are looming in the mist and full of mystery, which has become an ideal residence for gods in the eyes of ancient Greeks. The familiar Greek protoss headed by Zeus lived there, lived a happy and satisfied life, and patronized mankind from there. In addition to these, the ancient Greeks made God completely like himself. As the ancient Greek philosopher Xeno Finney (the second half of 6th century BC-the first half of 5th century BC) pointed out a long time ago, people fantasize about God according to their own image. It is for this reason that most gods in ancient Greek mythology, especially the main gods, not only have the same form as human beings, but also have similar emotional personality and psychological characteristics. Their gods also think and live like mortals, and are as happy and unhappy as mortals, as well as contradictory, hostile, jealous, fraudulent, fighting and loving each other. Because God and human beings live under the same blue sky, they often associate with human beings. People worship God. God loves and helps those who worship them, and punishes those who don't respect them. Cicero (BC 105-43), a famous orator in ancient Rome, once criticized the ancient Greeks for "transferring people's habits to gods" from another angle, which just acknowledged the unique attitude of the ancient Greeks in creating gods. In short, no matter how the ancient Greeks shaped the gods, they were actually expressing themselves, trying to show their beautiful side and ideals, as well as their shortcomings and deficiencies, so that the gods in ancient Greek mythology became so humanized and made people feel so approachable and ridiculous.

Ancient Greek mythology, with its rich content and unique humanistic spirit, has profoundly influenced the development of other art types, including various literary genres and various forms of plastic arts. Homer's epic is directly related to myth in content. Based on the real history confirmed by archaeological excavations, the epic combines many myths and legends, forming a very interesting world where people and gods are mixed. There, God fights with people and is often even defeated. Ancient Greek myths and legends also have a great influence on other literary forms, especially tragedies. Ancient Greek tragedies are dominated by myths and legends, and playwrights express their thoughts and ideals through the god of human nature in such tragedies. Ancient Greek myths and legends have also become an inexhaustible source of various plastic arts, especially paintings and sculptures, which more intuitively reflect the humanistic spirit of myths.

Pottery was widely used in the daily life of ancient Greeks, which made the ancient Greek pottery industry have a long history. The purpose of pottery production was practical at first, but with the development of the production industry, it has developed into a part of aesthetic art. Painting on pottery is a major feature of ancient Greek pottery art, and pottery painting has also become an important part of ancient Greek painting art. The inscriptions on pottery handed down from ancient times left us with many names of pottery painters. These painters' social status is low, and their lives can't be verified, but their works make their names immortal. The artistic aesthetic value of ancient Greek pottery lies in its perfect shape and exquisite pottery painting, which is reflected in the harmonious combination of shape and pattern. The theme of ceramic painting mainly comes from two aspects. First, it is based on people's daily life, including all kinds of daily work and activities, which directly reflects people's life reality and is full of freedom and joy. The second is based on ancient myths and legends, and if the themes of early ancient Greek pottery painting mostly came from real life, then by the peak of the 5th century BC, the themes of myths and legends occupied a major position.

Dionysian spirit is Dionysian spirit, which, like Apollo spirit, constitutes an important aspect of the ancient Greek ideal civilization spirit. Dionysian spirit embodies the vitality and vigor of all things, and embodies people's emotions, fun of life and creative spirit. Therefore, the story about Dionysus has naturally become one of the favorite themes of painters. Dionysus worship became a national religious festival in Athens in the middle of the 6th century BC. Right after the famous Solon policy. The formation period of Athens is also a period of great changes in ideological and cultural consciousness. The formal affirmation of Dionysian worship marks the victory of ordinary people in their struggle against the traditional concepts of clan nobility. Bacchanalia is associated with grape harvesting and wine making. Therefore, the scene of bacchanalia depicted by pottery usually reflects people's joyful scene after harvest. In bacchanalia, there is a pottery scene in which Dionysus holds a grape branch in his left hand and a big glass in his right. People look at Dionysus from two aspects of the picture. The inscription on the picture is like Apollo reminding people to know themselves. The topic is: "Have fun drinking!"

The famous Trojan War and the victory of the Greek army in that war are a glorious page in ancient Greek history, which naturally becomes an important aspect of the theme of pottery painting. The referee in Paris, the battle of the Greeks, the wandering of Odysseus, the death of Hecktor, the fall of Troy and other scenes are all favorite themes of the painter. Some of these stories are directly based on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, while others are obviously based on other later lost epics about the Trojan War. Achilles was one of the main generals in the Greek army who made an expedition to Troy. He fought bravely and valued friendship, but he had a bad temper. Many stories in the Trojan War are related to him. Pottery painting inherits the epic tradition, shows his brave character and noble heart, and reflects the diversity and richness of his inner spiritual world.

Images of conflicts between rapids and centaurs are also common in pottery painting. Lapita people live in northern Greece and are part of the Greeks. When the leader of the Rapids held a wedding, he invited the first centaur to attend. The centaur was rude after eating and drinking, and the two sides clashed and were defeated by the Rapids. This story is mentioned in Homer's epic Iliad, but it is only a cursory mention, but it has become an important theme of plastic arts such as pottery painting, and is often used for temple decoration, such as the battle scenes decorated by the south column wall of the Parthenon in the Acropolis and the western wall of temple of olympian zeus. Here, Centaur represents a savage natural force, violent and unconstrained, and civilized Greeks have won in the conflict. The legend of Hercules is one of the most famous the legend of heroes in ancient Greece. Hercules braved difficulties and completed an unimaginable task. The story itself is rich in content, imaginative and dramatic, so it can easily become the subject of plastic arts. In pottery painting, we can see the scene of Hercules fighting with mad cows in Crete, the story of Nemea forest fighting with lions, the scene of fighting with three dogs in the underworld, and the scene of fighting with Heracles Antai. These pictures show the image of Hercules, which is often seen in pottery paintings. With the help of Princess Ariadne of Crete, he killed the tauren monster, showing theseus's heroism and strength. In addition, theseus, the hero of Athens, is often seen in pottery paintings. With the help of Princess Ariadne of Crete, he killed the monster of the tauren, which showed the strength and wisdom of theseus.

From the common and traditional themes of the above-mentioned handed down pottery paintings, it is not difficult to see that the paintings directly drawn from real daily life naturally take the Greeks as the main body and reflect the fun of people's lives. At the same time, even those paintings based on ancient myths and legends are not simply to express the abstract worship of gods or heroes, but to express the national spirit of people themselves and Greeks.

Ancient Greek sculpture art, especially figure sculpture, is an important aspect of ancient Greek plastic arts. It reached its greatest prosperity and achieved great success in the middle of the 5th century BC, and became the dominant form of the whole plastic arts in Greece. Although until the beginning of the 6th century BC, the Greek sculpture art was obviously influenced by the Egyptian artistic style which was restricted by certain social ideology, and the characters were dull and lifeless, it is undeniable that even at that time, the ancient Greek sculpture had paid attention to expressing people themselves. The victory of the Persian War, the economic development, the consolidation of the democratic system of urban slave owners and the enhancement of national consciousness promoted the prosperity of art, and at the same time, the artistic style of Greek sculpture also changed obviously. We try to get rid of the shackles of foreign styles, overcome the limitations of rigid, rigid and stylized modeling, and strive to find new forms of artistic expression and form our own unique style. While inheriting the inherent humanistic pursuit, we try to shape the ideal image of people as soldiers, victors and free citizens. The artistic creation of new style sculpture reached its maturity and peak in the middle of 5th century BC, and the most outstanding representatives were famous sculptors Miron and Pheidias.

Miron's artistic creation period was mainly in 70-50 BC, and he was the older generation of Diaz. His artistic practice has played a great role in the formation and establishment of a new artistic style. Miron created a series of beautiful, energetic and dynamic images of athletes or mythical figures. His bronze statue "discus thrower" stands out among similar works. It shows the image of an athlete who is about to throw a discus in the competition, and combines the naturalness and sportiness of human movements to reflect the enterprising spirit of ancient Greek athletes. Athena in his famous group sculpture "Athena and Malthus" is dressed in a simple robe with a wide belt around her waist, just like an ordinary mortal woman, with a beautiful figure and quiet appearance, but the helmet on her head and the spear in her hand show her identity and martial character. The theme of group sculpture originated from a story similar to the scene of daily life. The Statue of Goddess is an ordinary mortal woman. Out of curiosity, she tried to play the flute, but she felt that it didn't look good. She was so angry that she threw the flute on the ground. An invisible horse, Marsuas, peeping from the side, picked up a flute to compete with Apollo, and the result was another tragic story. There are also some other sculpture artists' works that show the famous warrior goddess Athena as a simple image similar to ordinary people.

Pheidias inherited and developed the spirit of the new style. While expressing the external beauty of the characters, he pays attention to depicting their personality characteristics, further revealing their inner world and expressing their inner feelings and feelings. The marble statue of Apollo created by Pheidias around 460 BC looks young, strong and powerful, just like an athlete. His rigorous and calm manner shows his inner self-reliance and self-confidence, and all parts of his face show ideal beauty. The image of standing quietly is full of vitality. When Diaz presided over the reconstruction of the Acropolis, which was severely damaged in the Persian War, at the invitation of Pericles, the statue of Athena made of gold and ivory for the Parthenon on the Acropolis was dignified, calm, kind and beautiful, with a slight smile full of dignity. The whole image gives people a sense of strength and loftiness, which embodies the strength, solidity and unshakable of Athens. He also made a tall statue of Zeus for the temple of Zeus in Olympia with gold and ivory. The statue itself is lost, but from the description of ancient writers, it can be seen that the statue is tall and majestic, which embodies the power that should be possessed as a god who rules the whole world. Pheidias's artistic achievements in human body creation made him play a leading role in the sculpture art in this period, and his creative style had a great influence on the development of other plastic arts at that time. Pheidias thinks that nothing is more perfect than the human body, so he always tries his best to endow his statues, including statues, with human beauty. Cicero once praised the statue of Pheidias as an ideal beauty. In his view, when Filias carved a statue of Zeus or Athena, of course, Pheidias did not pay close attention to the object he imitated, but had an image of a peerless beauty in his mind, observed and focused on that image, and instructed his own hands to shape similar statues artistically.

Ancient Greek sculptors completed many statues of female characters, most of which were the images of Aphrodite, the god of love and beauty. Although many statues of Aphrodite handed down from generation to generation vary in size and shape, they all clearly show that the artist's intention in creation is to embody the female beauty of human beings by shaping the image of the God Aphrodite. They use superb skills to embody themselves.

Ancient Greek murals and other painting forms are also very popular, and they have achieved great success. However, due to various materials and historical reasons, it has not been handed down, so that future generations can only understand it mainly according to the accounts of ancient writers. Judging from their descriptions by ancient writers, they have the same value orientation as pottery paintings and have made great achievements.

According to ancient Greek myths and legends, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and a mortal girl. It was because of her that the war between ancient Greeks and Trojans lasted for ten years. It is said that the famous painter zeuxis (the second half of the 5th century BC) wanted to draw a portrait of Helen, and asked someone to model the most beautiful local girl for him, in order to transfer the real beauty from the living model to his idol. He also believes that one can't have all kinds of beauty without flaws, so he chose five local girls as models, so that the portrait can not only have one kind of beauty, but also integrate all kinds of beauty.

These situations clearly show the creative principles and ideals of various plastic arts in ancient Greece. Plastic artists, like their ancestors, have created colorful myths with profound humanistic spirit. They use superb skills to shape gods according to people's own characteristics, and at the same time express people themselves.

In this way, ancient Greek art runs through the humanistic spirit from beginning to end.