8. clay sculptures and relief carvings

Greek Art: Clay Sculptures/Relief Carvings

Greek Sculpture Overview

• 1. During the Geometric Period of Greek Art, the art of storytelling began to re-emerge

• 2. During the Archaic Period, the form of ceramic vessels indicated their intended use

• 3. Different orders of columns were utilized more during specific periods of Greek Art History (Doric is the oldest order, followed by Ionic, and then by Corinthian)

Assignment Option 1

• Option 1: Use clay to tell a story of your choosing (in honor of the re-emergence of story-telling in the Geometric Period)– Consider how to tell your story using imagery

rather than words– Consider whether your sculpture itself will tell the

story, or if you will paint the story in images on the finished ceramic piece

Red-Figure and Black-Figure Pottery(on the same Amphora!)

Ajax and Achilles playing a dice game, by the Andokides painter, found in Orvieto, Italy, 525-520 BCE1’9” tall

Andokides painter: his workwas unsigned, it was namedafter the potter for whom he worked. He is believed to be the inventor of the red-style of vase painting

Orestes Slaying Aegisthus; Classical; Vase Painting on Black Terra Cotta

Exekias: Athenian master of black-figure vase painting; thought to be the teacher of the Andokides painter

Achilles and AjaxPlaying a dice game,from Vulci, Italy, 540-530 BCE2 feet tall

Achilles Killing the Amazon Queen; Exekias; 530 BCE; Archaic Period; Vase Painting on a Terra Cotta Amphora

The Wedding Chariot; Exekias; Archaic Period; Vase Painting on a Terra Cotta Amphora

Example: Story is painted on

My Example: Story is painted on (Good Wolf, Bad Wolf: Which do you Feed?), Glazed but not fired yet

My Example: Story is painted on (Good Wolf, Bad Wolf: Which do you Feed?), Glazed AND Fired

Example: Story is sculpted

My Example: Bird’s Eye ViewThe Butterfly Effect (Wet Clay)

My Example: View from the LeftThe Butterfly Effect (Wet Clay)

My Example: View From the RightThe Butterfly Effect (Wet Clay)

My Example: Alternate ViewThe Butterfly Effect (Wet Clay)

My Example: Glazed

My Example: Glazed, Alternate View

Assignment Option 2• Option 2: In honor of the different functional vessels that were

created during the Archaic Period, design a vessel that has a form that reflects its function– Whatever the vessel is intended to do (hold water, hold your

toothbrush, hold your cereal…), the design of the actual vessel should be relevant to its function

– This can also be metaphorical…just because you design a bowl to hold your cereal doesn’t mean it actually has to be able to hold it (i.e., if you build a bowl for your cheerios out of cheerio-shaped rings, the milk would fall through the holes, but you would be communicating that your bowl is meant for your cheerios, whether in reality or in honor of)

– Not all vessels are actually intended to be used…pottery is historically known as both a functional AND metaphorical offering of food or drink

Amphora: storing and transporting wine and food

Hydria: pouring water

Kantharos or kylix: drinking wine or water

Lekythos: pouring libations in rituals/ceremonies

Loutrophoros: carrying water for bridal bath

Example

Example: Painting is more suggestive than form here

Example: Form is suggestive of function more than the painting

Example

Assignment Option 3• Option 3: Design a new order of column and be able to

justify your design:– What purpose does this new aesthetic serve?– Is it more functional than aesthetic? More aesthetic than

functional? – You can decide whether this should have debuted in Ancient

Greece (and if so, when exactly?), or in present times!– You can choose to:

• Actually construct a miniature model of a structure that uses your new order of column

• Create a relief carving of a detail of the column capital• Create a relief carving of part of the façade of your structure

Parts of a Column

Doric Order: Heavy SimplicityThe oldest, simplest, most massive order (appears sturdy)

Beginning in the 7th Century BCE

Columns placed close together and often without bases

Shafts are sculpted with concave curves called “Flutes”

Capitals are plain with a rounded section at the bottom,called the “Echinus” and a square at the top called the“Abacus”

Entablature has distinctive frieze decorated with verticalchannels or “Triglyphs”

In between the Triglyphs are spaces called “Metopes”which are commonly sculpted with figures and decoration

“Regula” = small band that separates the frieze from the columncapitals

Doric: Parthenon (Temple of Athena Parthenos) 447-438 BCE

Ionic Order: The Ionic Sea Scrolls?Developed on the Ionian islands in the 6th Century BCE

Used for smaller buildings and interiors

More elegant than sturdy in appearance

2 scrolls, called “Volutes” on its capital, which may have been based on nautilus shells or animal horns

Frieze has a continuous band of sculpture

Temple of Athena Nike (on the Acropolis) 420-410 BCE

Corinthian Order: Leafy but not as popular

Wasn’t used much by the Greeks

Named after the city of Corinth, where sculptor Kallimachossupposedly invented it at the end of the 5th century BCE after hespotted a goblet surrounded by leaves

Similar to Ionic in its base, column, and entablature, but thecapital is far more ornate, carved with 2 tiers of curly acanthus leaves

Acanthus is said to be one of the oldest flowers in the Mediterranean,and represents long/enduring life/immortality

What it looks like now: Temple of Olympian Zeus

New order ofColumns:Corinthian capitalsmade to look likeAcanthus leaves

This style wasinvented by Kallimachos in the 2nd half of the 5th

century BCE(These were morecommon during the Late ClassicalPeriod)

Corinthian Capitals

Corinthian capital detail:

Illustration of Acanthus leaves:

Inside the Temple of Ramses

32-foot tall figures of the kingin the guise of Osiris (Egyptiangod of the dead)

These pillars are not weight-bearing

Nefertari

• Ramses II’s principal wife• Ramses ordered construction of a grand

temple for her

Caryatids at the Erechtheion

Caryatids at the Ionic Siphnian Treasury at Delphi vs. the Classical Caryatids of the Erechtheion

Classical

Archaic

Modern Example

Michael Hansmeyer: Computational Architecture

• Uses algorithms and sub-division process to manipulate input from a simple Doric column into a much more complex column

Michael Hansmeyer: Computational Architecture

8. clay sculptures and relief carvings

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