The artistic achievements of Greek mythology

The true European art begins with ancient Greece. The geographical scope of Greek art is centered on the Aegean Sea, so it is also regarded as the continuation of Aegean art.

Shelley once sang in a poem: "We are all Greeks." Greece is the birthplace and cradle of European civilization. Without Greece, it would be impossible to imagine European civilization.

What is it like? The traditions of Greek civilization are everywhere in the Western world today. However, except for the citizens living on the Greek peninsula who consider themselves Greeks, few people think of themselves as Greeks with philosophical imagination like Shelley. So who are the Greeks?

History shows that the Mycenaeans, the conquerors of Crete and the destroyers of Troy, were one of the earliest residents of Greece. Later

they became slaves of the northern barbarians, and gradually divided into Dorics and Ionians. They all had the same beliefs and language

So call them Greeks.

The word "Greece" means elegance and beauty. The Greeks who later created many masterpieces of sculptural art are worthy of this elegant and beautiful name.

Greece faces the sea on three sides and is connected to the European continent to the north. There are many natural harbors in the territory, which can lead to all parts of the world through the Mediterranean Sea, providing an extremely favorable natural environment for navigation and foreign trade. The inland is mountainous and the land is barren, but it is rich in marble, which is good for sculpture

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Art provides extremely convenient material materials.

In the 12th century BC, the Aegean civilization was seriously damaged by the invasion of northern barbarians. But the unyielding Greeks re-established the splendid Greek civilization on the ruins of a once rich civilization and became the true ancestors of European civilization.

The Greek peninsula, which entered the slave society, established more than 200 slave city-states. Each city-state was centered on the city and the suburbs and rural areas formed countries of varying sizes, each with their own affairs. . The most powerful of these were Athens and Sparta. Because the country is poor and the people are poor, in order to

survive and develop, wars continue to occur between the city-states. The weak eat the strong. In order to preserve themselves and plunder wealth, the city-states

The country implements the policy of strengthening the country and the army, implements democratic politics within the city-state, free people directly participate in the governance of the city-state, and attaches great importance to the training of the nation

So managing the country and exercising are the responsibility of every citizen Sacred duty.

Mainland Greece has a pleasant climate, abundant sunshine and moderate temperature. Under such natural conditions, it is suitable for outdoor naked exercise and competition

. Due to the nude movement, people's ideas have changed. They are no longer ashamed of exposing their bodies, but are proud of a healthy body. This has attracted the attention of aesthetes and the performance of artists. Aestheticians have discovered that the human body is beautiful. Artists create beautiful human bodies. The great statesman Pericles

Less said: "We are people who love beauty." The Greek nation is a nation that loves beauty and creates beauty.

In an environment of democracy, freedom and fierce competition, the Greeks not only discovered, nurtured and created beauty, but also created gods. In the eyes of the Greeks, they were the most perfect. Humans are gods, so the Greeks respect humans and elevate humans to the level of gods to affirm them. Gods and humans are of the same shape and gender. The Greeks regard a strong body as The origin of all goodness and beauty, and Greek mythology is regarded as the spiritual origin of art. As Marx pointed out: "Greek mythology is not only the arsenal of Greek art, but also its soil." Therefore

The main achievements of Greek art are manifested in sculptures and temple architecture where gods and humans are integrated. The main characteristics of Greek art are all-encompassing

Harmony and regularity, as well as solemnity and tranquility. Its main symbol is the beauty of the human body, and the Greeks contributed unattainable

art examples to mankind.

Mycenaean Craft Sculpture

The city of Mycenae is located in the eastern part of the Peloponnese Peninsula at the southern end of the Greek Peninsula. The culture that occurred in this area was named after the city of Mycenae. It was called "Mycenaean culture" in history and became another important culture after the Cretan culture.

In Homer’s epic records, Homer often used the word “golden” to describe Mycenae. In fact, it is not rich in gold, but

it is quite developed in gold and silver crafts. This is due to the direct trade between the Mycenaeans and gold-producing countries, especially the Egyptians.

< p>The most eye-catching ones are gold masks, gold wine vessels, etc. In addition to the decorative carvings found at the Lion Gate, today's archaeological discoveries also include sculpture art achievements

mainly reflected in gold and silver crafts.

Animal sculptures are widely used in wine vessel craftsmanship. "Lion Head Wine Glass" is made of gold foil, and the image is based on realism.

It focuses on decoration and sculpture, concisely summarizes, and presents the basic image characteristics of the lion. The most interesting thing is the tall "Dove Wine Cup" with double handles. The shape is unusual. This shape of wine cup was once described in the epic "Iliad": "There is a cup next to it.

A wine glass was brought by the old man from his hometown.

It is inlaid with gold nails. There are four handles on each handle of the cup, and a pair of golden doves stand on each handle, as if they are pecking at the drink. There are two long handles under the handles. support. "This is a true record, and the "epic" is indeed based on historical facts.

Golden masks are funerary objects, made to imitate the face of the deceased, and are usually worn over the noble deceased. On the face, these masks are actually the portraits of clan and tribe leaders, so each mask has its own characteristics: some have thick eyebrows and big eyes, and some have light eyebrows.

< p>, some have their lips tightly closed. The Mycenaean custom of covering the dead with masks has long been followed by the ancient Egyptians, and it has an obvious religious meaning: leaving an immortal face for the dead. , so that the souls of the deceased can find their destination after wandering around. There is no historical evidence to prove whether the masks made by the Sini people also have this religious meaning.

From a geographical perspective, art seems to be preceded by Egyptian art and followed by Greek art, but it is by no means an intermediate medium between Egyptian art

and Greek art. The sculpture art in the Aegean region is national and local. Characteristics, this kind of personality is not only expressed in the composition of art form, but also in aesthetic consciousness. The visual experience of Aegean art images is not as positive as that of Egypt. The worship of gods and pharaohs is more about ignoring gods and kings. Their art is directly related to human beings and real life. The art form is more relaxed and natural than that of ancient Egypt. Harmonious rhythm and wave rhythm

Crete experienced ups and downs, the Trojan War destroyed Troy, the decline of Mycenae, and a group of barbaric nomadic Atticans

Under the iron heel, an ancient civilization was transformed into ruins. However, the ancient Greek civilization grew out of the ruins of this civilization.

Greek sculpture art

As the northern barbarians moved southward. After destroying the civilizations of Crete and Mycenae, the Greeks were forced to recreate their own civilization. Greek civilization was mainly reflected in Greek mythology, architecture and sculpture. Greek sculpture can be divided into four periods, namely the Homeric period (12th century BC - 8th century BC), so named because Homer's epic poems are the only written historical materials of this period; the Archaic period (BC 750 to the end of the 6th century), named after the ancient and naive style of sculpture art during this period; the classical period (the second half of the 5th century BC to 334 BC) refers to the end of the Greco-Persian War to the end of Rome

Cedonian Alexander the Great began to invade eastward; the Hellenistic period (334-30 BC) refers to the historical period of the fall of Rome and the Lemaic dynasty of Egypt.

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Homeric Period·Greek Mythology

The beginning of the Homeric Period was marked by the Dorians moving south from the northern half of the Greek Peninsula, approximately from the end of the 12th century to the 11th century BC

Century. This period was a clan-tribal society that had entered the Iron Age, which changed the social landscape of the Homeric period: private property and class differentiation were produced, and slave society was entered. Primitive democracy prevails in politics. By the end of the Homeric period, the transition from tribal management agencies to national governance agencies had begun.

As the Dorians moved south, the Cretan and Mycenaean cultures were destroyed, and Greek culture had to start from scratch.

In the nearly four hundred years from the 12th century BC to the 8th century BC, there are very few art historical materials remaining. Because Homer's epic poems were assembled at this stage and reflected the spiritual outlook of this era, it is called the "Homeric Era" in history. Homer's epic poems refer to "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", which are said to have been written by Homer, the famous blind poet in ancient Greece. These two epics are encyclopedias of early Greek civilization. As Plato said, "Homer cultivated the entire Greece." In other words, one cannot understand Greek civilization without understanding Homer's epic poems. This must involve Greek mythology, so it can be said that if you don’t understand Greek mythology, you can’t appreciate Greek sculpture art. Marx once said that Greek mythology is "not only the arsenal of Greek art, but also its soil." The Homeric era was the period of formation of Greek mythology. A little knowledge of Greek mythology is of great significance for exploring and appreciating Greek, Roman and even later Renaissance art.

The Greek gods formed their own pantheon, called the "Olympus pantheon", with two generations before and after. Before there was a universe, there was only Chaos, the God of Chaos.

Chaos gave birth to Gaia, the goddess of the earth, Tartarus, the god of the depths of the earth, Eros, the god of love, Erebus, the god of the night, and Nyx, the goddess of the night. The two night gods gave birth to the space god Aether, the day goddess Hemera, the death god Thanatos, and the sleep god

Hypnos. The earth goddess Gaia gave birth to the heavenly father Uranus, who in turn married his mother and gave birth to six boys and six girls: the daughters were called Titans, and the boys were called Titans. The Heavenly Father was worried that his children would seize power, so he imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus.

Gaia encouraged her youngest son

Cronus rose up against his father, and the injured father's blood dropped on the ground and gave birth to the goddess of vengeance Erinyes and the giant god Gygas,

This is the senior god clan.

Cronus seized the power of his father and married his sister Rhea and gave birth to six boys and six girls, the youngest named Zeus. Zeus later replaced his father to dominate the world, and formed a new divine family with his brothers, sisters and children, living on Mount Olympus, the sacred mountain worshiped by the Greeks. The gods that people often see in

artworks are mainly from this pantheon and their descendants. Zeus, the father of the gods, whose Roman name is Jupiter,

rules heaven and earth, is in charge of thunder and lightning, and is also called the god of heaven; Queen Hera, also called Juno, is in charge of dark clouds, storms, lightning and thunder,

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Called the God of the Sky. Zeus's sister Demetrius, also called Cyrus, is the god of agricultural harvest. One of Zeus's brothers is called Hades, who rules the underworld.

The other brother is Poseidon, who rules the ocean and is also called Poseidon. Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, is the sun god

his daughter Artemis, also called Diana, is the goddess of hunting and the moon; the two sons of Zeus and Juno, the queen of heaven,

One is called Ares, also called Mars, who is in charge of war and is called the God of War; the other is called Hephaestus, also called Vargon, who is the god of fire

and the god of craftsmen. Hermes, the son of Zeus and the mountain goddess Maia, also called Mercury, is the messenger of the gods and the messenger of Zeus. The daughter of Zeus and the sea goddess Dione is called Aphrodite, also called Venus. Some people say that Venus was born from the waves of the sea. She is love and beauty. goddess. Judging from the genealogy of the divine family, Greek mythology is obviously the product of group marriage in primitive society. Various clergy are caused by people who do not understand natural phenomena, and use imagination and the help of imagination to try to conquer and control natural forces, so as to visualize them. This is just as Engels said: "Because natural forces were personified, the original gods came into being."

Sculptures in the Archaic Period

From the 8th to the 6th century BC, Greek society underwent changes Huge changes, the power of tribal leaders completely disappeared, the primitive communes disintegrated, the slavery system was formed in Greece, and the city-states of slavery began to be established. Due to the barrenness of the land, conflicts between city-states became increasingly acute, leading to maritime expansion and colonial rule. These two aspects influenced and promoted each other, making Greece quickly become a powerful force in the Mediterranean world politically and economically.

In the Homeric period, the art of sculpture consisted only of small statues. The first page of the true history of ancient Greek sculpture should begin with the Archaic period. Because

The most prominent human sculptures in ancient Greek sculptures laid the foundation during this period.

French art historian Danner once said: The Greeks also had a national art to express the human body, which was more suitable for customs and national spirit.

It may also be more universal and more popular. Perfect art, this is sculpture. The art of human sculpture is the crown of ancient Greek sculpture art.

From the preserved carvings of men and women from the ancient period, people can get a glimpse of the civilizational achievements of human beings in their childhood.

The sculptures of men's portraits in the Archaic period were mainly naked standing statues of young men, which the Greeks called "Kuros" (meaning "young man")

These statues are close to real human bodies in terms of human proportions and muscle texture, and facial expressions come to life and smiles appear. No matter what status or occupation, people used this kind of smile to express themselves, which became a unified style of the era. Later generations called it the "archaic smile."

Greek Transitional Sculpture

In the development process of Greek art, there was a transitional period from the ancient style to the classical period, which refers to the first half of the 5th century BC

Expect. During this period, Greece experienced the famous Greco-Persian War against the Persian invasion. The famous Battle of Marathon took place during this period.

The Greco-Persian War had a profound impact on ancient Greece. The harsh battles cultivated the Greeks' strong patriotism and hard work spirit

and produced great tragic art. In the art of sculpture, themes of battle and praise of heroic deeds appear. Whether they represent myths or realistic themes, they are different from the works of the ancient times and are in sharp contrast to the "archaic smile". A rigorous style with the spirit of the times was produced: from static postures to striving to express movement and even intense actions; from the past only showing the front face of characters to showing the characters' faces. In many ways. The carving skills became more proficient, and a "mass" system with well-proportioned, accurate structure and clear shape was gradually formed. Representative works of this period include "The Driver", "Poseidon", "Ludovich's Throne

Relief" and "Licea Bronze Statue", etc.