Greek Art

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plates of bronze or had gold and ivory coverings laid over wooden cores. Heads and outstretched arms were sometimes made separately and then attached to the torso. Stone and clay sculpture was brightly painted, entirely or partly. Greek painters used water-based colors to paint large murals or decoration on vases. Potters formed vases freehand on the potter’s wheel; when the vase was dry, it was polished, painted, and fired.
Greek art and architecture are customarily divided into periods reflecting changes in style. Chronological divisions in this article are as follows: (1) Geometric and Orientalizing periods (circa 1100-650 BC); (2) Archaic period (c. 660-475 BC); (3) Classical period (c. 475-323 BC); (4) Hellenistic period (c. 323-31 BC).
II GEOMETRIC AND ORIENTALIZING PERIODS
The most important remains from the earliest periods of Greek art are pottery. Vases of the Geometric period have bands of meanders and other angular geometric ornament, which give the period its name. In early examples rectilinear motifs are combined with curvilinear elements derived from the Mycenaean style. Beginning about 750 BC, animals and humans were introduced, represented by slim, abstracted figures, such as a dead warrior lying in state or a chariot with horses. The finest example of Geometric pottery is the Dipylon Vase (Metropolitan Museum, New York City), a large grave marker intended to hold offerings, which was found in a cemetery near the Dipylon Gate in Athens.

About the 7th century BC the style of vase painting changed, reflecting increasing Greek colonization of the eastern Mediterranean and trade with the Phoenicians and other Eastern peoples. On vases of this period, known as the Orientalizing phase of vase painting, the abstract geometric designs were replaced by the more rounded, realistic forms of Eastern motifs, such as the lotus, palmette, lion, and sphinx. Ornament increased in amount and intricacy.
Only small pieces of G...