Ancient Greece Pottery

Getting the general idea

If Gina Salapatas could travel through time, she visits the ancient Greece.Reporter Lee Matthews discovers why Dr. Salapatas won a 2011 Massey Vice Chancellor for Teaching Excellence.

Take a pair of double bed sheets in your luggage if you're planning to travel through time to ancient Greece.

The leaves are the easiest things in our modern culture to use to create a garment Greek woman in the antique style. They draped in long rectangles of fabric around them in a complex manner, supporting lengths with belts and shoulder pin, to create versatile clothing.

Gina Salapatas, classical lecturer at Massey University School of History, Philosophy and Classics "program of classical studies, it is walking, talking proof that is one of the largest conventional scope, large, versatile subjects in the study of the university.

An interview with her is a romp through the Greek and Roman culture, and its relationship with what we do today - why veterans of the Vietnam War, for example, would find comfort and support in reading The Odyssey, to understand that the house has changed and damaged after a war is not unusual.

Topics skip from faking antiquities to Asterix books to modern-day consumerism, and, of course, Ancient Greek fashions. Dr Salapata takes sheets to the lecture she gives on Greek dress and customs, and gets the students to swathe themselves in draped fabric. Three-dimensional Greek art, off the page and into real life.

"Classics is a general education that uses a variety of skills. It's interdisciplinary. It has everything, language to literature to history, philosophy, art, religion, sciences, medicine, theatre ..."

The enthusiasm bubbles, and this is in part why she was one of three lecturers who recently won a Massey University Vice-Chancellor Award for Teaching Excellence. With colleagues Mark Henrickson and Nigel Parsons, Dr Salapata will be considered for this year's National Tertiary Teaching Awards, winners of which will be announced soon.

"The award, well, it's a nice thing, but I have no idea why I was given it," she says. This attitude is typical of Dr Salapata, typical of her Greek nationality and heritage, both ancient and modern. The Ancient Greeks were particularly hot on doing their very best, but not bragging. The gods took a dim view of people setting themselves up above other people, and punished them rather inventively.

The Art of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece was one of the most sophisticated cultures in early civilization. It was able to produce great painters, sculptures and architects during its time. The art of Ancient Greece was said to be one of the most elegant art in history. Its profound influence can be seen in many structures and architecture that were made throughout the ages and still can be viewed and appreciated today.

The art of Ancient Greece includes architecture, sculpture, painting and pottery. It is often stylistically divided into four periods: the Geometric Period, the Archaic Period, the Classical Period and the Hellenistic Period. There was no sharp transition among these periods but each was represented with innovations and advancements in art that marked its time.

Geometric Period commenced in 1000 B.C. and lasted for 200 years. Traditionally, it was referred to as the Dark Ages. The art during this period was characterized by geometric shapes and linear designs which were often seen in ceramic and metal urns or vases as layers of horizontal bands and decorative motifs of the zigzag, the triangle, the meander and the swastika. The meander, a decorative border of continuous labyrinthine line, was said to be the most characteristic element of geometric art. Abstract designs also flourished during the Geometric Period.

The Archaic Period stretched from 750 to 450 B.C. Pottery in the form of vases and urns continued to appear but sculpture was the revered primary medium of art during this period. In pottery, emphasis was placed on black-figure technique of vase painting. Euthymides and Euphronius were some of the most popular Archaic vase painters. In sculpture, the human form was the increasing inspiration in stone carvings. The Kouros and Kore statues were widely made, which were standing nude youth and draped girl sculptures, respectively.

The Classical Period began by the Persian invasion and ended with the reign of Alexander the Great in 336 to 323 B.C. Pottery saw a transition from black-figure to red-figure style of vase painting. The sculptures became more naturalistic like one of its surviving example the Charioteer which is housed in the Delphi Museum. Classical Greek architecture also rose to great heights with the construction of the Parthenon of Athens and the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. Phidias, a sculptor, supervised the construction of the Parthenon and produced the greatest Classical works of the Statue of Zeus and the Statue of Athena, both of which were lost and destroyed in fire.

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

Greece

How People Lived in Ancient Greece

The archaeology of ancient Greece