Examples of ancient art. Chronology of the oldest works of art

The art of asking questions and the art of hearing answers Asking questions is good, but it is not good to ask too many of them, otherwise you can become dependent on constant instructions from the outside. You need to be able to ask questions and find answers yourself - one or

Art (Art) A set of techniques and works that bear the imprint of the personality of a particular person, evidence of his special skill or talent. By these three characteristics, art can be easily distinguished from craft (which requires less personal

In ancient Greece, people valued beauty extremely. The Greeks especially preferred sculpture. However, many masterpieces of great sculptors perished and did not survive to our time. For example, Discobolus by the sculptor Myron, Doryphoros of Polykleitos, “Aphrodite of Cnidus” by Praxiteles, Laocoon by the sculptor Agesander. All these sculptures perished, and yet... we know them very well. How could the disappeared sculptures be preserved? Only thanks to the numerous copies that were in the homes of wealthy ancient collectors and decorated the courtyards, galleries and halls of the Greeks and Romans.

Doryfor - “Spear-bearer” became a model of male beauty for many centuries. And “Aphrodite of Knidos” - one of the most famous nude female sculptures of Ancient Greece - became an example of female beauty. To admire Aphrodite, the ancient Greeks came from other cities and, seeing how beautiful she was, ordered unknown sculptors to make exactly the same copy to place Aphrodite in the city square or in the courtyard of their rich home.

Disco thrower - lost bronze statue of an athlete about to throw a discus, created by Myron around the 5th century BC. e. - this is the first attempt in Greek art to sculpt a person in motion, and the attempt is more than successful. The young athlete freezes for a split second, and the next moment he begins to spin up to throw the discus with all his might.

Laocoon is a sculptural group of suffering people, which is shown in a painful struggle. Laocoon was a priest who warned the inhabitants of the city of Troy - the Trojans - that the city could be defeated thanks to a wooden horse. For this, the god of the seas, Poseidon, sent two snakes from the sea, and they strangled Laocoon and his sons. The statue was found relatively recently, in the 17th century. And the great Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo said that Laocoon is the best statue in the world. If in ancient times there were no lovers and collectors of examples of beautiful sculpture, modern humanity would not have known this masterpiece.

Numerous Roman and Greek herms have also reached us - heads and busts of people on stands. The art of creating hermas originates in the creation of ritual pillars of the worship of Hermes, on the top stand of which there was a molded head of the deity of trade, science and travel. After the name of Hermes, the pillars began to be called herms. Such pillars were located at crossroads, at the entrance to a city or town, or at the entrance to a house. It was believed that such an image scared away evil forces and unkind spirits.

From about the 4th century BC, all portrait images of people began to be called herms; they became part of the interior furnishings of the house, and the rich and noble Greeks and Romans acquired entire portrait galleries, creating a kind of exhibition of family herms. Thanks to this fashion and tradition, we know what many ancient philosophers, generals, and emperors who lived thousands of years ago looked like.

Ancient Greek painting has practically not reached us, however, surviving examples prove that Hellenic art reached the heights of both realistic and symbolic painting. The tragedy of the city of Pompeii, buried in the ashes of Vesuvius, has preserved to this day brilliant paintings that covered all the walls of public and residential premises, including houses in poor neighborhoods. Wall frescoes were dedicated to a variety of subjects; the artists of antiquity achieved perfection in painting, and only centuries later this path was repeated by the masters of the Renaissance.

Historians testify that in Ancient Greece there was an extension to the Athenian temple, which was called the Pinakothek, and ancient Greek paintings were kept there. An ancient legend tells how the first painting appeared. One Greek girl really did not want to part with her lover, who had to go to war. During their nightly date, the moon was full. The shadow of a young man appeared on the white wall. The girl took a piece of coal and traced its shadow. This meeting turned out to be the last. The young man died. But his shadow remained on the wall, and this shadow picture was kept for a long time in one of the temples of the city of Corinth.

Many paintings of the ancient Greeks were created according to the principle of filling the silhouette - first, the outline of the figure was drawn in the picture, almost the same as stated in the legend, and only then the outline began to be painted. At first, the ancient Greeks had only four colors - white, black, red and yellow. They were based on colored minerals and mixed with egg yolk or melted wax and diluted with water. The distant figures in the picture could be larger than the front ones; the ancient Greeks used both direct and reverse perspective. Paintings were painted on boards or on damp plaster.

Fine art has also penetrated into applied fields. Painted Greek vessels, amphorae and vases are kept in many museums around the world and bring to us the beauty of everyday life characteristic of ancient civilizations.

A special ancient art that has brought to us all the beauty of ancient painting is mosaic- colossal paintings, laid out from pieces of colored stones and, in later periods, glass, were created according to pictorial sketches and turned out to be a kind of eternal art. Mosaics were used to decorate floors, walls, and facades of houses; they played both an aesthetic and practical role in creating a harmonious and beautiful living environment.

The era of antiquity became the heyday of the art of creating beauty and harmony in any manifestation. The decline and forgetting of ancient culture led to the return of humanity to the philosophies of negativism and the triumph of absurd prejudices. The loss of the aesthetics of admiring beauty, the denial of the natural beauty of the human body, the destruction of ancient temples and works of art became the most noticeable consequence of the collapse of the ancient world. It took centuries for the ideals of antiquity to return and begin to be creatively rethought by Renaissance artists, and then by modern masters.

Ancient art is the art of Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt and other countries and peoples, whose culture developed under the influence of the cultural traditions of these countries.

For the first time, people started talking about “ancient art” during the Renaissance, when the creations of the masters of Ancient Greece and Rome were considered the standard of beauty and became classics for all creators in Europe.

The ancient art of different countries had a lot in common due to the fact that it was based on a single aesthetic ideal. In sculpture, applied art and painting, the image of a beautiful in appearance, harmoniously developed person, a good warrior, a patriot, a citizen with a rich inner world was actively used.

The masters of Ancient Greece spent a very long time studying the structure of the human body, the plasticity of movements and the proportionality of proportions. The main candidates to become the image for the next painting or statue were participants in the Olympic Games.

The main task of the artists was to realistically depict a true image of a person in sculpture and vase painting.

Myron "Discobolus"

Acropolis of Athens (Phidias statues)

It is impossible to appreciate the contribution that the architects of Ancient Greece made to world art. They were able to create majestic rectangular structures with logically based systems of relationships between the load-bearing parts of the building and those that are not supported.

All monuments of ancient art evoke aesthetic pleasure in people and a vivid image of the unity of architecture and sculpture of Ancient Greece.

At the end of the 4th century. BC e. Classicism in ancient art is being replaced by an interest in the inner world of man, the truthfulness of the transmission of dynamics. Thus, in the art of this period there is a fascination with huge sizes and multi-figure compositions.

The last 300 years of Greek civilization are traditionally called the Hellenistic era.

Art of Ancient Rome

The heir to the culture of Ancient Greece was Ancient Rome. In a short period of time, Rome went from a small city to the majestic capital of the most powerful empire of that time. The inhabitants of Rome highly valued art in its various manifestations (literature, architecture, sculpture, theater and science).

Their architects built beautiful bridges and water pipelines, roads and public buildings. In construction, they created a special system of arched construction, which made it possible to significantly increase the width of the floors. In the 2nd century the dome was used for the first time. By the beginning of the fourth century, a whole direction in the construction of domed ceilings had emerged in the art of Ancient Rome. Two types of dome construction were used - central dome and basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

A sculptural portrait from this period deserves special attention. This art is characterized by the verisimilitude of its images. A huge number of monuments, ensembles, and baths were erected in honor of the Roman emperors. Speaking about the architecture of Rome, one cannot fail to mention, of course, the Colosseum, Trojan's Column and the Pantheon.

Ancient art had a huge influence on the development of all world art of subsequent eras.

The art of primitive society in the late period of its development approached the development of composition, the creation of monumental architecture and sculpture. In the ancient world, art for the first time achieved integrity, unity, completeness and synthesis of all forms, serving as an expression of large, comprehensive ideas: all works of art that had a social character bear the imprint of epicness, special significance and solemnity. These qualities attracted attention after generations. Even when deep contradictions led to the destruction of the ancient world.

The slave system, which replaced the communal-tribal one, was historically natural and had, in comparison with the previous era, a progressive meaning. It became the basis for the further growth of productive forces and culture. The exploitation of slaves gave rise to the division of physical and mental labor, which created the basis for the development of various forms of spiritual creativity, including art. From the nameless circle of artisans, great architects, sculptors, carvers, foundries, painters, etc. emerge.

If in pre-class society art was part of a person’s material and labor activity, then with the emergence of the class state it became a unique form of consciousness and acquired importance in social life and class struggle. Artistic creativity at its core retained a folk character, being formed in the sphere of mythological thinking. The increasing complexity of social life contributed to the expansion of the figurative and cognitive range of art. Magical rites and funeral rituals of primitive man were transformed into solemn ceremonies. Funeral mounds were replaced by tombs, arks by temples, tents by palaces, magical rock paintings by pictorial cycles that decorated temples and tombs; they told fascinating stories about the lives of people of the ancient world, and kept folk legends, tales and myths frozen in stone. Instead of naive ritual figurines, monumental, sometimes gigantic statues and reliefs appeared, immortalizing the images of earthly rulers and heroes. Various types of art: architecture, sculpture, painting, applied art entered into a commonwealth with each other. The synthesis of arts is the most important achievement of the artistic culture of the ancient world.

In the execution of the work, the difference between craft and art begins to show itself. Perfection of form, sophistication in ornament, grace in the processing of wood, stone, metal, precious stones, etc. are achieved. The artist’s keen observation is now combined with the ability to think in generalized concepts, which is reflected in the emergence of constant types, in strengthening the sense of artistic order, strict laws of rhythm. Artistic creativity in this period, in comparison with pre-class society, becomes more holistic, it is united by common principles and ideas of the era. Large monumental styles emerge.
In religion, complex processes of transition from the worship of the beast to ideas about gods similar to man are carried out. At the same time, in art the image of man is increasingly established, his active power, his ability to perform heroic deeds are glorified.
With all the diversity in the historical development of slave-holding societies of the ancient world, they were characterized by two forms.
The first is the eastern one, where the communal system with its patriarchal foundations was preserved for a long time. Here slavery developed at a slow pace; The burden of exploitation fell on both the slaves and the majority of the free population. Slave-owning despotic states arise between 5 and 4 thousand BC. e. in the valleys and deltas of large rivers - the Nile (Egypt), Tigris and Euphrates (the most ancient states of Mesopotamia), etc. The ideological content of the art of ancient despotism was determined mainly by the requirement to glorify the power of gods, legendary heroes, kings, and perpetuate the social hierarchy. The artists also drew themes from modern life, paying special attention to scenes of collective labor, hunting, and festivals; (Egypt), military historical events (Forward Asia), reproduced in a monumental-epic way. The long-term preservation of communal relations hampered the development of interest in the individual and his personal qualities. The art of Western Asia emphasized common generic principles in the image of a person, sometimes sharpening ethnic features. In Egypt, where a person’s personality acquired great importance, the portrait for the first time in history received a perfect artistic embodiment, largely determining the path of further development of this genre. In the art of ancient Eastern despotism, live observation of nature is combined with folk artistic fantasy or convention, emphasizing the social significance of the depicted character. This convention was slowly overcome in the history of the development of ancient Eastern culture. Art was still not completely separated from craft; creativity remained mostly nameless. However, in the art of ancient Eastern states, the aspiration for the significant and perfect is already clearly expressed.

The second form of slave society - ancient - is characterized by the rapid replacement of primitive exploitation by developed, the displacement of despotism by Greek city-states, and the social activity of the free population engaged in labor. The relatively democratic character of ancient states, the flourishing of personality, and the trends of harmonious development determined the citizenship and humanity of ancient art. Developing on the basis of mythology, closely connected with all aspects of social life, Greek art was the most striking manifestation of realism in ancient history. The universe ceased to be for Greek thinkers something unknown, subject to irresistible forces. The horror of formidable deities was replaced by the desire to comprehend nature and use it for the benefit of man. The art of Ancient Greece embodied the ideal of beauty of a harmoniously developed personality, which affirmed the ethical and aesthetic superiority of man over the elemental forces of nature. Ancient art during its heyday in Greece and Rome addressed the masses of free citizens, expressing the basic civic, aesthetic and ethical ideas of society.

In the Hellenistic era - the next stage in the development of ancient artistic culture - art was enriched with new and diverse aspects of the perception of life. It became emotionally intense, imbued with drama and dynamics, but lost its harmonic clarity. At the last stage of its development, during the era of the Roman Republic and Empire, ancient art came to affirm the importance of an individually unique personality. The art of the era of the late empire - the era of the decline of ancient culture - contained in the embryo what would bear fruit later. Thinkers and artists turned to the inner world of man, charting the path for the development of European art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The historically determined limitations of ancient art lay in the fact that it ignored social life and social contradictions. Ancient art addressed itself mainly to free citizens.