Art 381, Greek Art

Art 381, Greek Art

ART 381, GREEK ART

CaliforniaStateUniversity, Bakersfield Professor Shelley Stone

Office: DDH C103, 654-6029 email:

Office Hours: Office Hours: MW 4:30-5 PM, T 10-1 and by appt

The art and architecture of ancient Greece has served as an inspiration to later artists and architects up to the present day. This influence derives from the emphasis placed by the Greeks on purity of form within a limited range of media and expression, but the virtual perfection of the forms of art within those limitations. This course will examine the art produced in Greece and the Greek world from the Early Bronze Age (beginning ca. 3000 BCE) until the final conquest of the last of the Greek kingdoms by the Roman Empire in 31 BCE. The emphasis will be placed on Greek art and architecture after 900 BCE.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grading for the course will be based on four short tests (each worth 12.5% of the final grade, or 50 points each), a take-home essay (worth 15%, i.e. 60 points), a book review (worth 20%, or 80 points), and class attendance and participation (15%, or 60 points). This last component suggests that attendance at the scheduled classes would be prudent, and that assigned weekly readings should be done before the classes to allow informed discussion. I will give you 5 points extra credit if you turn in a piece of paper listing the book you plan to review on January

There are 400 possible points, and I will divide your total by four to arrive at your final grade. The assignment of final grades will be on the following scale:

100-91.5=A 77.5-79.4=C+

91.4-89.5=A- 71-77.4=C

87.5-89.4=B+ 69.5-71=C-

81.5-87.4= B 68.5-69.4=D+

79.5-81.4=B- 61-68.4=D

I hope there won’t be any grades below this. I suppose that I would give a D- if you achieved a 59.5-60.9% in the course. Below 59.4 is failing.

Missing a test will drop you over a letter grade, because the highest you can achieve in the course would be 90%; failing to turn in the book review or the essay will drop you more than a letter grade. Failing to attend class can hurt your final grade a lot too.

Tests

The tests will consist of 10 slides which you will identify and discuss as to their significance, and 2 short answers chosen from 4 possible topics. The slides will be chosen from the pertinent illustrations in the texts. The short answers will come from the class handouts.

The first test will deal the material covered in the course up top the time of the test, the second with the material covered since the first test, the third with material covered since the second test, etc.

Tests are not open book.If you are caught consulting printed materials during a test you will be failed on that test. More importantly, before each test each student will place his or her cell phone on the desk, after having turned it off. If a student must have the cell phone on, it is that student’s responsibility to explain to the instructor why his or her cell phone must remain active during tests. If a student is caught handling a cell phone during an exam (unless receiving an emergency call) he or she will be assumed to be accessing the “cheating app” and will be failed on that examination.

Essay

The topic for the take home essay will be handed out on February 25 and is due a week later Your answer will be written on a topic that deals with the portion of the course that has just been covered, and should be around three-four pages in length. There will be additional readings assigned for the paper. Failure to incorporate these into your response will reduce your grade.

Book Review

The book review will consist of a critical book review of around four pages in length on a book approved by the instructor. A list of books appropriate for the book review will be posted on my website. A one page listing of your chosen topic and the book to be read for the review should be turned in on Februar y4. If you turn this in on that date, you will receive five points of extra credit! The book review is due March 18 Late papers will be docked one letter grade per day late, unless a late submission is approved by the instructor (ahead of the due date).

Admission to the Getty Villa (

If you make a personal fieldtrip to the Getty Villa in Malibu and provide with your parking voucher, I will give you ten points extra credit.

Admission to the Getty Villa and to all exhibitions is FREE. An advance, timed ticket is required for each adult (available on-line). Each Villa general admission ticket allows you to bring up to three children ages 15 and under with you in one car. (This does not apply to tickets for events, such as lectures and performances). [The museum has a children’s room with activities for the tykes]. There are two floors, and a visit takes at least an hour. The Villa is open Thursday through Monday 10-5. Note: traffic on the 405 weekdays, i.e. M, Th-F gets brutal after 2:30 until around 7 PM.

If you want to go to the Getty Villa, you need to arrange your visit well in advance, especially if you go on a weekend. The easiest way to get there from Bake is to take the 5 south, then 405 south, and exit at Sunset. Turn right from the 405 onto Sunset and then go until you reach Pacific Coast Highway. Turn right, and the Getty Villa is on the right a mile down the road They have a nice (though not real cheap-about $10 a person if you eat moderately) café on site, or you can eat fast food at a strip mall just before you turn onto Pacific Coast Highway. Pacific Palisades has some nice and not too expensive lunch places also, and you go through there on Sunset. If you want to go into Santa Monica afterwards and eat good, there are many places-I recommend The Border Café (they have website-dinner for two is around $40-50-there’s a parking garage across the street). The beach is just west of the Villa and Santa Monica, as you probably know.

Academic Integrity

This is defined on page 57 of the 2003-5 catalog. Here are some pertinent sections:

There are certain forms of conduct that violate the university’s policy of academic integrity. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (CHEATING) is a broad category of actions that use fraud and deception to improve a grade or obtain course credit. Academic dishonesty (cheating) is not limited to examination situations alone, but arises whenever students attempt to gain an unearned academic advantage. PLAGIARISM is a specific form of academic dishonesty (cheating) which consists of the misuse of published or unpublished works of another by claiming them as one’s own. Plagiarism may consist of handing in someone else’s work, copying or purchasing a composition, using ideas, paragraphs, sentences, phrases or words written by another, or using data and/or statistics compiled by another without giving appropriate citation. Another example of academic dishonesty (cheating) is the SUBMISSION OF THE SAME, or essentially the same, PAPER or other assignment for credit in two different courses without receiving prior approval.

When a faculty member discovers a violation of the university’s policy of academic integrity, the faculty member is required to notify the university’s Coordinator of Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs of the alleged violation, including the name(s) of the student(s) suspected, the class in which the alleged violation occurred, the circumstances of the alleged violation, and the evidence (including witnesses) supporting the allegation. The faculty member shall also formally notify the student(s) suspected of violating the university’s policy of academic integrity, the department chair, and the school dean. The Coordinator for Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs shall conduct an investigation, confer with the faculty member, student(s), and any witnesses identified, and review all evidence submitted by the faculty member and student(s). Normally, the Coordinator for Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs shall make a settlement agreement with the student for his/her first violation of academic integrity with the following sanctions:

• final course grade of “F”

• one-year “academic probation” requiring a meeting with the Coordinator of Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs prior to registration for each subsequent academic term of the probationary year.

A second offense leads to suspension from the university for at least a year.

Attendance

As mentioned above, 15% of a student’s grade is based on attendance at scheduled classes. This does not count test dates; it is assumed that you will show up for the tests. Since there are three of these (not counting the last one, which is at the time when the final is scheduled), there are 17 remaining class meetings during the quarter. I don’t take attendance the first day of class. I will allow each student to miss two classes un-penalized, leaving 15 classes. You will receive four (4) points for each of these classes you attend, or a total possible of 60 points. In other words, each time you miss a class after the two allowed, you lose a point off your final grade.

At the beginning of class an attendance sheet will be passed out for each student in attendance to sign. This will be collected by the instructor. If you show up late, it is your responsibility to approach the instructor apologetically at the break, and ask to sign the daily roster.

Please note that exceptions will be allowed in exceptional cases (i.e. severe illness, maneuvers, etc.). It is assumed that life’s occasional eccentricities (like “car trouble,” the flu) are covered by the two absences allowed.

Reading

The required text for this course is R. T. Neer Greek Art and Archaeology ( Thames and Hudson, 2012). Students should purchase their own copies of these books, since they are responsible for the content (tested in various ways) and for the illustrations in the text (from which the slide identifications on the tests will ultimately be chosen).

Additional required readings are posted on the Web reserve of the Library’s web site ( ). These are listed in the schedule below at the appropriate date. These supplement the text. They come from the following books:

J. G. Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology, 4th ed. (Pearson 2007)

A.F. Stewart, Classical Greece and the Birth of Western Art (Cambridge 2008).

Handouts and Course Materials

These are available at or the web address at the top of page 1. There is a handout and a review image file for the quiz and for each test. A copy of the syllabus is posted there also. Click on the Art 381 link.

Class Comportment

It is assumed by the instructor that students who attend the scheduled classes are there to learn the material. This means that the student will remain attentive and quiet (unless called upon to speak)). The student should stay in his or her seat, unless under severe duress, until the daily break (at about the halfway point in the class) or the end of class. If you must leave class early for an important appointment, you should leave at the break, or not come at all. Not disturbing the class is a common courtesy to your fellow students. Students who fail to meet these standards will incur the wrath of the instructor.

Cell phones should turned off during class, or, if receiving a call is vital, set to vibrate. When receiving a phone call, students must leave the classroom.

Course Objectives

1.To learn how to analyze an artistic composition in terms of its “language” of visual symbolism, and to understand that, when this language is understood, one can interpret these symbols (or “motifs”) in terms of universal human values and/or individual cultural needs. The basic analytic methods learned in this course can be applied to any work of art, because they can be used to “read” a work of art and sort its composition into meaningful categories. These skills should be exhibited in the slide identifications.

2. To understand the fundamental importance of visual imagery in a largely non-literate society, and how visual imagery may serve to instruct its audience as to cultural values and norms. Throughout the period covered by Art 384, the visual arts were far more important for the instruction of cultural values than they are today. As a result of this cultural importance, its “language” was far more fixed than in our primarily aesthetic and /or metaphoric art of today. Students will become familiar with basic art terminology, such as form and content. The resulting knowledge should be demonstrated in the tests, and in the papers.

3. To understand changes in artistic styles, both in terms of continuing human development and as expressions of the artistic requirements of diverse cultures. Each student should learn the meaning and application of basic stylistic categories used in classifying art such as Realistic, Naturalistic, Abstract, and Expressionistic, as well as how each affects the content (meaning) of works of art. The resulting knowledge should be demonstrated in the tests, and in the papers.

4. To understand the major social and historical forces which conditioned the art of each period and/or culture studied. The resulting knowledge should be demonstrated in certain short answers on the tests, and in the papers.

5. To recognize masterpieces of art which exemplify the visual culture of the period covered by the course. This will allow the student to create a historical framework of artistic monuments with which to evaluate and classify works of art of the same cultures and periods that are encountered after he or she has completed the course. In addition, the student should learn the names of major artists (i.e.Lysippus), architects (i.e.Iktinos), rulers (i.e.Perikles), and cultural figures (i.e.Homer) whose achievements effected the directions taken by the visual arts during their period. The resulting knowledge should be demonstrated in the tests.

6. To understand the interrelationship of the visual arts and other areas in the humanities. This is vital to the understanding of Greek art, which illustrates contemporary societal values. The resulting knowledge should be apparent in your papers.

SCHEDULE

Readings are designated by their author. See above on

January 7: Introduction to the course. Course requirements. The land and economy of ancient Greece. The history of research on Greek art.

Reading: Neer 9-15.

January 9: The Early and Middle Helladic and the Minoan Culture.

Reading: Neer 19-41.

January 14: The Aegean in the Late Bronze Age: Mycenaean.

Reading: Neer 43-65.

January 16: The collapse of Mycenean Civilization and the Dark Ages. The Ionian Migration. The Dorian "Invasion." Dialectic groups in historical Greece and their significance for early Greek art. City-States and their governmental institutions.Geometric Greece and its pottery (ca. 900-700 BCE).

Reading: Neer 67-81

January 21: Martin Luther King Day. No class.

January 23: Geometric Greece and its architecture (ca. 900-700 BCE). Geometric sculpture. Colonization. The Homeric Poems and the beginnings of Greek literature. Narrative (stories) in Geometric art. Review.

Reading: Neer 81-91.

January 28: First Test (one hour).The "Orientalizing" Age: Greek art and architecture in the 7th Century BCE.

Reading: Neer 93-109.

January 30:Orientalizing sculpture and architecture (“Daidalic style”). The Archaic Age (ca. 600-480 BC). The evolution of Greek architecture to 500 BCE: the Doric and Ionic Orders. Architectural sculpture.

Reading: Neer 110-134.

February 4: Earlycoinage and metalwares. Archaic vasepainting. Archaic freestanding Greek sculpture: the Kouros and Kore. Book Review prospectus due.

Reading: Neer 134-159.

February 6: Archaic gravestones and other sculpture. Bronze sculpture. Greek Panhellenic sanctuaries: Olympia and Delphi.

Reading: Neer160-193.

February 11: Late Archaic art. Red figure painting. The Persian Wars I: the Battle of Marathon. Review.

Reading: Neer 205-214.

February 13: Test 2 (one hour). The Persian Wars II (480-479 BC). The Early Classical Age (ca. 480-450 BC): sculpture, city planning and coinage.

Reading:Neer 195-205, 214-217

February 18: Early Classical painting, sculpture and architecture .

Reading: Neer 219-241.

February 18: Cyrene and Paestum: cities on the periphery of the Greek world.

Reading: Neer 243-265.

February 20: The Athenian acropolis in the 5th century BCE. The PerikleanBuilding Program on the Athenian Acropolis. The Parthenon. The Propylaea. The “Erechtheion” and Athena Nike.

Reading: Neer 267-291.

February 25: High Classical. The Peloponessian War (431-404 BC). Greek art and architecture in the last third of the 5th Century BC. The "Rich" Style in sculpture and painting (ca. 425-375 BC). Classical painting in the late 5th century BC. Review. Essay topic handed out.

Reading: Neer 297-317.