terms refer to changes in the coloration of pots. During the
black fi gure period the background of the pot was red, and
the fi gures depicted on it were black. In the red fi gure period
the reverse was the case: Th e background was black, and the
fi gures were red.
During these two later periods potters moved away from
abst r ac t geomet r ic a l de sig ns; a s t hei r sk i l l s de veloped , t he y be-
gan to include pictures of human fi gures on their pots. Many
of these fi gures were gods and goddesses, but other pictures
were of battles, hunting forays, heroic and legendary people,
and horses. Much of the pottery also depicts erotic themes.
Some of the pottery is signed, but art historians tend to identi-
fy particular artists by their themes (for example, “the Achilles
painter,” referring to the Trojan War hero) or by where their
works are currently located (such as “the Berlin Painter”).
While a good deal of pottery survives from the Archaic
Period, pots are more fragile than statues, so art historians
have far more statuary to study than pottery. Even so, only
a small percentage of Greek sculpture survives. Like pottery,
little sculpture was produced for purely decorative purposes.
Most was commissioned by the state or by wealthy individu-
als, and most was used for off erings in temples or as memori-
als or grave markers.
Th e dominant form of sculpture was the kouros, a fi gure
of a standing male nude. Less important, though still com-
mon, were kore, or representations of standing female nudes.
Th e prevalence of these statues refl ects the Greek belief that
the human form provided an elevated subject for art, and
most showed young men and women in their physical prime
(even when they were used as grave markers for the elderly).
Since Greek gods and goddesses had human forms, sculpture
could capture an ideal of beauty, nobility, and other virtues,
and a particular sculpture could represent either a god or
an athletic champion. Th is concern with secular, or nonre-
ligious, themes and the beauty of the individual human form
laid the foundation for much of Western thought and art over
the following millennia.
Th e kouroi and korai were carved according to a kind of
formula. Th e body is rigid, and the fi gure’s hands and arms
are held to the sides. Most have a mysterious smile. Th e pose
is from the front, with the left foot slightly forward. Part of
the reason for this stylized form was the chiseling techniques
the artists used. Th ey carved the statues from marble using
point chisels, which made artistic innovation and subtlety of
design diffi cult. It also concentrated the force of the sculptor’s
hammer blows, crushing the stone’s crystals and giving the
sculptures an opaque, or cloudy, appearance.
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
Art historians cite the Persian Wars as the beginning of the
Classical Period of Greek art, which extended to the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 b.c.e. Th is period is known pri-
marily for its exquisite statuary, both in stone and bronze.
Statuary from this time had a wider range of uses than it did
during the Archaic Period. In particular, it decorated the
interior of public buildings, such as the Parthenon in Ath-
ens. Many of these buildings had pediments, or triangular
spaces at the gable ends of pitched roofs. Statues were of-
ten placed in those pediments to fi ll them in and give them
visual appeal.
Th e Elgin Marbles, named aft er the Englishman Th omas
Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, who transported them to his
homeland, are a major artistic treasure from this time. Also
called the Parthenon Marbles, they include statues from the
Parthenon’s pediments and marble panels called metopes on
which battle scenes were carved. (A metope is a fl at panel that
is part of a tryglyph; a tryglyph is a raised ornamental struc-
ture that consists of three raised vertical bands with metopes
between them.) Also included are parts of a frieze—a horizon-
tal band of carved stone, typically depicting a progression of
events and fi gures and running along the top of a wall—fromHermes with the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles (Alison Frantz Photo-
graphic Collection, American School of Classical Studies at Athens)art: Greece 111