The Classicist's picture gallery

The overriding impression of the classical arts is of opulence, solid performance, and the application of practical skills.

Enjoy the splendours of classical art and architecture! By registering for our course Greek and Roman Art and Architecture [CLS827D - Stream C (Option 2)] you will be introduced in fuller detail to architecture, vase-painting, sculpture, painting as well as mosaic. You will also learn in more general terms about other artistic achievements of the era.

greek vases

The best survival of any art form, is Greek vases of which the earliest finds have been identified as being representative of the tenth century BC. For at least five centuries there were several major periods, important developments, and many famous potters and painters - until it gently faded in the late fifth century. Greek vases are probably more important now, artistically and commercially, than they ever were in antiquity, owing to the high level of their technical execution.

All of the following illustrations are from the book by P.E Arias. 1962. A History of Greek Vase Painting. Thames and Hudson. London.The photographs were taken by Max Hirmer.

Attic geometric amphora. Mid-8th century BC. Munich.(Plate I)	Protocorinthian olpe by Macmillan Painter - also called the Chigi vase. Detail: upper frieze. Hoplites being played into battle. Rome, Villa Giulia. (Plate IV)	Early-Corinthian column-krater. Herakles in the house of Eurytos; cavalcade. End of the 7th century BC. Paris, Louvre.(Plate IX)
Sophilos. Fragment of a dinos. Funeral games of Patroclus. Circa 580-570 BC. Athens, National Museum.(Illustration 39)	Amassis painter. Neck-amphora. Dionysius and menads. Circa 540 BC. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale.(Plate XV)	Internal medallion of Lip-cup. Herakles and Triton; dance of Nereids. Tarquinia.(Plate XIV)
Lip cup. Mid 6th century BC. The foot does not belong to the cup. Tarquinia.(Illustration 49)	Exekias. Internal view of cup. Dionysius crossing the sea. Circa 535 BC. Munich.(Plate XVI)	Exekias. Neck-amphora. Achilles killing Penthesilea. Circa 530 BC. London.(Plate XVIII)
Exekias. Detail of neck-amphora. Achilles and Ajax playing a game. Vatican. (Plate XVII)	Hydria near the Nixokenes painter. Women at the fountain. Circa 510 BC. Rome, Villa Giulia.(Plate XXIII)	Panathenaic amphora. Kuban group. Athena with shield device of Tyrant Slayers. End of 5th century BC. (Plate XXVIII)
Andokides Painter. Amphora. Detail: Herakles and cerberus. Circa 510 BC. Paris, Louvre. (Plate XXIX)	Berlin Painter. Bell-krater. Europa and the bull. Circa 490 BC. Tarquinia.(Plate XXXV)	Achilles Painter. White-ground lekythos. Muse on Mount Helicon. Circa 445 BC. Munich, Antikersammlung.(Plate XXXVIII)
Phiale Painter. White-ground lekythos.Women departing to the Underworld. Tomb in the background. Munich.(Plate XLII)	Meidias Painter. Hydria. Detail: Phaon playing the lyre, winged Himeros in front of him. Florence.(Plate XLVI)	Marsyas Painter. Pelike. Peleus taming Thetis. Early third quarter of the 4th century. London.(PlateXLVII)
Etruscan volute-krater by Aurora Painter. Peleus taming Thetis whilst bathing at a fountain. Circa 340 BC. Rome, Villa Giulia. (Plate XLVIII)	Apulian volute-krater with macaroons. The sending of Triptolemos from Eleusis. Third quarter of 4th century BC. Vatican.(Plate L)

painting

"The fact that not one picture by any of the great masters of Greek painting has come down to us and that all the beauty of which the ancient writers spoke with such fervent admiration is lost beyond recall, lends a unique importance to the paintings made in Rome and in Campania during the First Century BC. Apart from their intrinsic merits as works of art, these paintings are all we have to tell us about the glorious, but sadly persihable, pictorial art of classical antiquity."
(Maiuri A. Roman Painting.p 7).

All of the following illustrations are from the book The Great Centuries of Painting. ROMAN PAINTING. [Collection planned and directed by Albert Skira. Text by Amedeo Maiuri, curator of the Naples Museum].

Venus on her seashell. New excavations. Region 11, ins. 6, no 3. Pompeii.(p 7)	Bridal toilet. Detail from Aldobrandini Wedding. Vatican Library, Vatican City.(p 24)	Girl decanting perfumes. Farnesina House, Rome, Museo Nazionale delle Terme, Rome.(p 29)
First-Style Decoration. Samnite House, Herculaneum. (p 39)	Second-Style Decoration. Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii. (p 40)	Third-Style Decoration with monochrome landscape. Pompeii, Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 41)
Fourth-Style Scenographic Decoration, from Herculaneum. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 48)	Funeral Dance. From a tomb at Ruvo. Museo Nazionale, Naples.(p 15)	Great frieze of the Dionysiac Mysteries. Villa of the Mysteries. Pompeii.(p 51)
Detail: portrait of the Domina. Villa of the Mysteries.(p 52)	Detail: the Initiate. Villa of the Mysteries.(p 53)	Detail: Terror-stricken Woman. Villa of the Mysteries.(p 56)
Detail: Girl undergoing the ordeal. Villa of the Mysteries. (p 59)	The Philosopher. From the Villa Boscoreale, Museo Nazionale, Naples.(p 64)	Courtship of Venus and Mars, House of Marcus Lucretius Fronto, Pompeii.(p 78)
Primavera. From Stabiae. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 83)	Player King. From Herculaneum. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 92)	Portrait of a young girl. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 100)
Portrait of baker and his wife. From Pompeii. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p102)	Knuckle-bones players. Monochrome on marble. Herculaneum. Museo Nazionale, Naples.(p104)	Tree with snake. New excavations. Region I, Ins. 9, no. 5, Pompeii. (p124)
Heron in a garden. Region II, Ins. 6, no 5, Pompeii.(p125)	Peaches and glass jar, from Herculaneum. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p136)

mosaic

Mosaics are amongst the most durable forms of decorative art to have survived from antiquity.In no other branch of the pictorial arts is it possible to follow through hundreds of examples the development from the late Classical period to the late Antique. Most mosaics are found in domestic contexts and they reflect the private and quotidian rather than that of official-state-commissioned art.  

Alexander mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 69)	Street musicians by Dioskourides of Samos. From the Villa of Cicero, Pompeii. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 96)
Portrait of a lady. Pompeii. Museo Nazionale, Naples. (p 98)	‘Cave Canem’. Pompeii. Museo Nazionale, Naples.(p 112)