and the idea, revived during the Renaissance, remained
influential until well into the twentieth century.
Greek art, too, served public purposes. Though a
fine aesthetic sense extended to everyday objects such
as jewelry, armor, and decorated pottery, the greatest
artistic achievement of ancient Greece was its monu-
mental sculpture and architecture. The Greeks built
temples to the gods who protected the polis or to
house the oracles who were consulted on all important
occasions. These structures, whose function was as
much civic as religious, were subtle adaptations of ear-
lier Egyptian or Minoan ideas.
Construction was basic post-and-lintel; the ge-
nius lay in the proportions and the details. The
heart of the temple was an inner sanctuary that
housed the statue of the deity. It was surrounded by
a colonnade supporting a sloped roof with triangular
pediments at each end. The columns, which might
or might not have decorated capitals (see illustration
3.1), were wider at the middle and tapered gently
toward the top to counteract the optical illusion
known as parallax and make them appear straight.
The frieze, the entablature, and the pediments were
decorated with sculptured reliefs of gods, goddesses,
and heroes.
Greek sculpture was concerned almost exclusively
with the lifelike portrayal of the human figure (see il-
lustration 3.2). Early statues had a formal, abstract
quality, with power and dignity that reflected their
subjects: gods, goddesses, heroes, and athletes. Male
figures were almost invariably nude, a preference that
reflected the Greek willingness to appear naked in
games and on the battlefield and that non-Greeks
found shocking. Female figures were invariably
clothed. Gradually, during the sixth century B.C.,
sculptors began to work toward a more lifelike image.
By the fifth century B.C. sculptors such as Phidias had
achieved a level of skill that has never been surpassed,
but realism was not their goal. Faces and figures re-
flect an idealized vision of human beauty rarely seen
in nature. Female nudes, reflecting a sensuality hith-
erto seen only in the portrayal of men, became com-
mon. The aesthetic conventions developed by Phidias
and the fourth-century B.C. master Praxiteles became
the basis of later Hellenistic and Roman tastes. Like
the conventions of Greek architecture, they have been
restored to temporary dominance by classic revivals in
more modern times and remain an underlying part of
the Western visual tradition.
Unfortunately, that vision may be historically mis-
leading. Most of Greek art was destroyed by the early
Christians, who saw it as idolatrous if not obscene, and
modern taste has been formed largely by Roman
copies. Painting, which to many ancient Greeks was
more important than sculpture, has been lost entirely.
The Greeks loved color, and statues preserved only in44 Chapter 3
Illustration 3.1
Architectural Orders.The architec-
tural orders were an important part of
Greek temple architecture and were used
by the Romans as well as by European
architects from the Renaissance to the
present day. The Corinthian order was
similar to the Ionic but featured a leaf
motif in its capitals.