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osprey_archerMidterm today in Ancient Greek Art History, my favorite, favorite class this term. (Independent study doesn't count as a class.) I love sitting in class and looking at temples and sculptures and vases, picking the myths out of the pictures and learning myths I'd never heard before. I love the names of the vases: krater, kylix, amphora, aryballos, words to conjure with. I even love our textbook (which is Jeffrey Hurwit's The Art and Culture of Early Greece, 1100-480 BC, in case anyone is filled with a sudden yearning to study the Archaic Greeks. Which you should be.)
The Archaic Greek aesthetic is very different from the Classical Greek, and often alien to the modern eye. The statues stand impassive, looking through you - one is struck with the uncomfortable feeling that they are more real than are we. Figures on pots smile even as they die, enigmatic and untouched by mortal pain. The compositions aim toward symmetry, everything patterned into stacks of triangles.
Sometimes, it's breathtaking.
A Black Figure amphora painted by Exekias circa 530 BC, featuring Ajax and Achilles playing dice. The scene is not one from the Iliad, but it's kin to the Iliad nonetheless: the hand of fate presses on the players. Although their faces are inscrutably Archaic, the picture is heavy with tension. It's a game of dice; maybe it's just a game of dice; but it feels like it means means much more.
I love this vase.
I'm thinking I might minor in Art History.
The Archaic Greek aesthetic is very different from the Classical Greek, and often alien to the modern eye. The statues stand impassive, looking through you - one is struck with the uncomfortable feeling that they are more real than are we. Figures on pots smile even as they die, enigmatic and untouched by mortal pain. The compositions aim toward symmetry, everything patterned into stacks of triangles.
Sometimes, it's breathtaking.
A Black Figure amphora painted by Exekias circa 530 BC, featuring Ajax and Achilles playing dice. The scene is not one from the Iliad, but it's kin to the Iliad nonetheless: the hand of fate presses on the players. Although their faces are inscrutably Archaic, the picture is heavy with tension. It's a game of dice; maybe it's just a game of dice; but it feels like it means means much more.
I love this vase.
I'm thinking I might minor in Art History.
