Greek Art

7 Pages 1865 Words

of the wonderful feeling for form and line that made the Greeks supreme in the field of sculpture.

The earliest vases--produced from about the 12th century to the 8th century BC--were decorated with brown paint in the so-called geometric style. Sticklike figures of men and animals were fitted into the over-all pattern.

In the next period the figures of men and gods began to be more realistic and were painted in black on the red clay.

In the 6th century BC the figures were left in red and a black background was painted in.

By the 8th century BC the Greeks had become a seafaring people and began to visit other lands.

In Egypt they saw many beautiful examples of both painting and sculpture. In Asia Minor they were impressed by the enormous Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures that showed narrative scenes.

The early Greek statues were stiff and flat, but in about the 6th century BC the sculptors began to study the human body and work out its proportions. For models they had the finest of young athletes. The Greeks wore no clothing when they practiced sports, and the sculptor could observe their beautiful, strong bodies in every pose.

Greek religion, Greek love of beauty, and a growing spirit of nationalism found fuller and fuller expression.

But it took the crisis of the Persian invasion (490- 479 BC) to arouse the young, virile race to great achievements. After driving out the invader...