The art of Ancient Greece developed over a very long time period, which is why it is so interesting, unusual and multifaceted. All ancient Greek culture is divided into five periods: Early Greece, Homer period, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. The period of Early Greece dates back to the third millennium BC, and the Hellenistic period ends in the first century BC.
Ancient Greek art is worthy of study in all its manifestations, but painting and music are especially interesting.
The painting of Ancient Greece is studied, as a rule, using ceramic vases that have survived to this day. After all, it was on them that most artisans practiced painting, painting beautiful and very believable paintings.
Initially, the vases were painted with the simplest shapes - geometric (rhombuses, squares, triangles, circles). Of these, various ornaments were made. Over time, the art of Ancient Greece improved, artists behaved more boldly, experimented more and more and began to depict not only abstract figures on vases, but also people, animals, landscapes. And if at first real figures were depicted only together with geometric ones, then later the first ones finally replaced the latter.
Even later, people and animals began to be portrayed not just like that, but in action. The most common theme for the painting was myths, fragments of which the Greeks tried to capture on their vases.
Separately, it is worth mentioning two color styles of painting: black-figured and red-figured. The black-figure style implied the image of black figures on a red background and was the first. But the red-figured, implying the image of red figures on a black background, came a little later.
In the Classical period, the art of Ancient Greece included another type of painting - monumental (murals and mosaics).
By the way, Greek artists were the first in the world to discover two innovations in painting: the play of chiaroscuro in drawing (this discovery belongs to the great artist Appolodor of Athens) and the signature on his drawing (it was put by the best artists under their best works).
No less interesting is the musical art of Ancient Greece. The word "music" comes from the Greek "muse" (patroness of the arts) and literally translates as "the art of muses." It should be noted that in the understanding of the Greeks, music was not an independent art, but a combination of three others: directly music, poetry and dance. And, in turn, an indispensable component of other arts.
So, the art of the theater was unimaginable without a choir, and the tragedy generally came from a laudatory song to Dionysus (praises). The very word "tragedy" is translated as "the song of a goat" - people who sing praises dressed in goat skins to imitate the mystical companions of their god. Thus, the musical art of antiquity is one of the most significant.
But let’s go back directly to the music. Ancient Greek music itself was, as a rule, one-voiced vocals. This is explained quite simply: it was determined by poetry, we can say that the singer simply sang his poems, accompanying himself on any musical instrument (flute, lyre, Pan's flute, avlodia, kypharody).
There were a sufficient number of genres in music. These are hymns (songs to gods and goddesses), and folk songs. Among the latter stood out peasant, wedding and crying songs.
There were choral songs in ancient Greek culture, albeit in lesser quantities than solo ones. Among them are elegy (initially - mournful songs performed under the flute, after - any sad or inspiring musical works) and odes (laudatory songs).
