Page 238 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

art—ancient greece and rome 123

A ancient
mural found
in Esquiline,
Rome, depicting
a scene from
The Odyssey.

Temple of Artemis at Corfu (c. 580 BCE), a colony and Egyptian Influences
dependency of Corinth. The transformative nature of The nature of monumental Greek art and architecture
Greek monumental architecture is enhanced by the inno- was profoundly affected by the opening of the trading
vation of the sculpted pediment, an invention attributed colony Naukratis in Egypt in the later seventh century
to the Corinthians by the fifth-century poet Pindar and BCE. From this new and intense contact with Egypt came
seemingly confirmed by its earliest appearance on Corfu, the inspiration for the peristyle (the continuous colon-
a Corinthian colony and dependency. More than any nade) in Greek temple architecture. The peristyle gave
other feature the early sculpted pediments with their great architectural expression to one of the most basic rituals
frontal monsters condition the spirit of approach to the of Ionian cult activity, religious procession: Like pedi-
temple: If the approach to the temple was intended to mental sculpture, religious procession serves as a trans-
reflect the approach to divinity, the purpose of the mon- forming ritual that prepares the worshipper for the
sters was to transform any pilgrims who dared approach, approach to divinity. Emulating the processional function
to transport them beyond the protective boundaries of of Egyptian colonnades, the colossal peristyles of Ionia
everyday life and into the contemplation of the terrifying led through their formal arrangement to the front of the
nature of divinity and their relationship to it.The purpose temple, then to the axis, then to the interior. Peristyles
of the great emblematic sculptural groups in the pedi- were also adopted on the Doric mainland, but in that
ments was—like religious ritual—the spiritual transfor- context their nature was not processional. Instead, a
mation of the worshipper. Over the course of the sixth sense of hieratic direction and procession was lent to
century BCE the pedimental instruments of engagement early Doric architecture by its pedimental sculpture,
and confrontation become diluted, metamorphose from which followed and further established the early Greek
monsters to more familiar, less intimidating, human- hierarchy of narrative and emblem in religious art: Sto-
shaped figures, indicating a change in the conception of rytelling is associated with a secondary position, the more
temple divinity, from abstract, nonanthropomorphic, and human realm, at the back of the temple, while the more
chthonic to anthropomorphic Olympian sky gods. This abstract convention, the emblem, is appropriate for the
gradual humanization of divinity and consequent suggestion of divinity at the front of the temple.
divinization of humanity is a theme that unites much of It was also through Naukratis that the Egyptian concep-
Greek art. tion and technique of monumental freestanding sculpture