Imagine you have a time machine that took you back 2,500 years to ancient Greece in the 5th Century. This was a world where amazing new things were happening — Greek athletes were competing in the early Olympic Games. People shared ideas about politics, law, science and philosophy, styles of painting and sculpture were evolving and beautiful buildings and temples were coming up. You realise that you have re-entered the Classical Age.
Arty Greeks
Many of the paintings from Classical Greece are lost to us today because they were painted on wood or on walls that rotted away. But painted vases from the time have been found. Writings from the time also tell us about the art. The Greeks looked at the world around them carefully to copy from their art work. Their statues have people with perfect bodies and calm faces. They were never fat or wrinkled – they showed man created perfectly by the gods. Sculptors made statues so that people could walk around and look at them from all sides. A lot of the art is about Greek heroes, gods and goddesses.
Phidias, creator of ancient wonders
One of the most famous sculptors who lived in Greece during the Classical period was Phidias. Greek writings tell us that Phidias was a friend of the great leader Pericles. Phidias and Pericles worked on the Parthenon, which was the famous temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The temple is built on a hill top called the Acropolis in the middle of Athens, capital of Greece. You can still see the ruins of the Parthenon today if you visit Athens. Phidias designed and created many sculptures in the Parthenon. The best among them was a 38-feet-tall statue of Athena. He also created a statue of Zeus, king of the gods, for another temple in Olympia. The statue was as tall as seven men! It is counted as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Both statues were grand and made of ivory and gold.
What happened to Zeus and Athena?
Years later, the statues of Athena and Zeus were stolen and then burned in a fire but we can tell what they looked like from ancient coins and from smaller copies made by Roman sculptors. Luckily for us, the Romans liked and copied Greek sculptures so we can see what they looked like. Many of them are intact even today because they were made of stone or bronze.
Want to learn more?
If you want to know more about life and art in ancient Greece log on to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/.
You can even go on an adventure by playing the Greek Hero game on the website.
