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Art Zero Pertore here, but you can call me Art.

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This is Explorations in Art History, starring me.

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And a hand.

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Well, what about the rest of me?

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People watching from around the world,

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and I'm stuck waiting on some five-fingered prima donna.

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Okay, that's better.

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Woo, that Mediterranean wind feels pretty breezy.

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It looks like we'll be talking about the Greek and Roman period.

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Leave it to the Greeks to turn geometry into art.

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1,000 to 700 BC marked a period in Greek art called the Geometric Period

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because of the decorations on the pottery of the day.

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Simple geometric designs were combined into a repeating pattern that circled the pot.

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Later, abstract figures of animals and people appeared.

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They used pots for storing wine and oil, for eating and drinking.

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as prizes at athletic games, and even as burial markers.

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Start as a tot, end as a pot.

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Um, hey, uh, it was a joke. Let me out.

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You guys?

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Here.

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Guys?

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In the Archaic Period, their art began to move toward more realistic portrayals of the figure.

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From the Egyptians, Greeks learned the trick of adding hair down the back of their marble statues

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to give strength to the neck area and spreading the stance of the legs to give a statue stability

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Wow too much stability male statues were called Kuros and the females Kure Greek pottery styles

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changed as well they created the popular black figure wear style which showed black figures on

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red pots and then they reversed the formula into another popular style called red figure wear

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showing red figures against a black background red figure or black which one makes me look thinner

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greece however wasn't one big happy country at the time instead they had several greek city states

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the two top dogs athens and sparta were often at odds jockeying for position and power until

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the persons attacked in 480 bc then athens and sparta dropped their differences for the moment

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And together, they repulsed the invaders.

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But not before Persia had done some serious damage to the city of Athens.

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It was time for the Athenians to rebuild.

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Surging with confidence after their triumph over the Persian Empire,

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the Greeks launched into a golden age called the Classical Period.

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Pericles, the leader of Athens, ordered the rebuilding of the temples on the Acropolis,

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where the famous sculptor Phidias decorated the Parthenon,

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A temple dedicated to Athena, the founding goddess of Athens.

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Classic sculptures became more realistic and at the same time idealistic.

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Sculptors like Polykleitos searched for the mathematically perfect proportions of human beauty.

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Poses became more natural by using principles like Contrapposto,

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a pose that gave an elegant balance to the figure by shifting the angles of the shoulders to the pelvis.

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Using the ratio of the size of the head to the body,

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Greek artists discovered that the average male or female

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has a proportional height of 6 1⁄2 to 7 heads.

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By increasing the size of the body to the head,

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they discovered a more visually appealing proportion.

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Even today, comic book artists use these idealized proportions

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to draw superheroes.

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Art will smash! Yeah!

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In 336 BC, Alexander the Great took power

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and spread the Greek Empire from Egypt to the borders of India.

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His death ended the classical period.

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In the Hellenistic period,

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Greek sculptors still popped out amazingly lifelike sculptures,

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but now they added more emotion and action,

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like poor Laocoon and his two sons being strangled by two giant snakes

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sent by the gods as punishment.

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The sculptor, Praxiteles, broke the long Greek tradition

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of portraying male subjects in the nude

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and the females clothed with his Aphrodite of Nidos,

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which became the first nude woman.

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More Roman copies were made of this Greek sculpture

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than any other.