GREEK AND HELLENISTIC ART

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Marble statue group of the three graces

The Hellenistic Period of Greek art lasted from the fourth century b.c.e. to approximately the time of Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth, a period of more than 300 years.  Unlike earlier Greek art, which consisted predominantly of art of Greece itself, Hellenistic art was more diverse culturally and geographically. Because Hellenistic art arose after the conquests of Alexander the Great, it also included art from the Greek-influenced regions of Alexander’s empire. 

Hellenistic Art

Alexander’s empire broke apart on his death, with several Hellenistic (Greek-like) kingdoms appearing. The great art centers of the mainland gave way to cities on islands such as Rhodes or in the eastern Mediterranean (Alexandria, Antioch, and Pergamum).

Sculpture had tendencies toward classicism, rococo, and baroque in other words, no clear direction or restriction. Art glorified the gods and great athletes, but it also served to decorate the homes of the newly rich.

Heroic portraits and massive groups were popular, but so were humble themes and portrayals of human beings in all walks and stages of life even caricature became popular. From architecture came an awareness of space that added landscapes and interiors to sculpture and painting.


Whereas Hellenic art was restrained and attempted to show the perfect and the universal, Hellenistic art was preoccupied with the particular rather than the universal. Patrons and artists alike preferred individuality, novelty (including ethnicity and ugliness), and artistic inventiveness. Hellenistic art built on the classical concepts, but became more dramatic, with sweeping lines and strong contrasts of light, shadow, and emotion.

GREEK ART

Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods (with further developments during the Hellenistic Period). It absorbed influences of Eastern civilizations, of Roman art and its patrons, and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine era and absorbed Italian and European ideas during the period of Romanticism (with the invigoration of the Greek Revolution), until the Modernist and Postmodernist. Greek art is mainly five forms: architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery and jewelry making.

CHARACTERISTIC GREEK AND HELLENISTIC ART

  • Greek idealism
  • Balance
  • Perfect proportions
  • Architectural orders

















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