Greece Art And Architecture

Remnants of centuries of legendary craftsmanship abound in Greece. The number and quality of carefully crafted works that have survived to the present day attest to the importance of art in the ancient and modern Greek worlds. Classical Greeks used diverse materials to represent the faces of the mighty gods, the deeds of mythical heroes, and the natural beauty they saw in the human body. Although modern audiences admire ancient Greek statues and pottery in museums, it is important to remember that the Greeks produced art not just to marvel at its beauty but also for use in everyday life. Pottery was the Tupperware® of the time, used as daily dishware and for storage and trade. Architecture developed through the functional construction of stadiums, commercial buildings, and religious temples. Today, Greece’s double legacy of form and function lives on: the styles developed by Greek painters and sculptors have continued to reverberate through centuries of art and architecture.

Cycladic and Minoan Period (3000-1500 Bc)

“Less is more” was the motto for the Bronze Age Cycladic civilizations that produced a minimalist style of sculpture, surviving mostly as small marble statuettes. These miniature pieces gracefully ...more

Mycenaean Period (1500-1100 Bc)

The Mycenaean palaces at Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns followed a more symmetrical design than earlier architecture had and centered on the megaron, a Near East-inspired reception room. Decorative ...more

It’S Hip To Be Square: Geometric Period (1100-700 Bc)

A new ceramics-based art form evolved out of the collapse of Mycenaean civilization and the Dark Age that followed. There to pick up the pieces were the Athenians, who stood at the center of the new ...more

Archaic Period (700-480 Bc)

During the Archaic Period, Greek art and architecture gradually traded stylized lines for the curving, human realism that would come to characterize the later Classical Period. It was in this period ...more

Classical Period (480-323 Bc)

The arts flourished during the Classical Period, as Athens reached the peak of its political and economic power under Pericles and his successors . Perfecting the Doric and Ionic orders, Classical temples ...more

Hellenistic Period (323-46 Bc)

The death of Alexander the Great marked the beginning of the Hellenistic Period, a prodigious era for art and architecture. During this time, two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were created ...more

See Ya, Zeus!: Byzantine And Ottoman Periods (Ad 324-1829)

The art and architecture in Greece under Byzantine and Ottoman rule was limited by the often-strict expectations of these imperial cultures. Though Byzantine artistry developed within a set of religious ...more

Modern Art (1829-Present)

Nationalist sentiment after Greek independence led the government to subsidize local art. King Otto encouraged young artists to study their craft in Munich, and the Polytechneion, Greece’s first modern ...more