| The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which | | | | Hellenistic period that started after the fall of |
| have been hidden by the answers. | | | | Alexander's empire. These divisions are in no way |
| - James Arthur Baldwin | | | | conclusive; they are primarily aimed at creating a |
| Art is a representation of the way humans view | | | | genre to which different art forms can be referred. |
| beauty. Some even believe that people know of | | | | Painting demanded the greatest respect in ancient |
| beauty only because the artist shows it to them. | | | | Greece. Unfortunately, nothing tangible of Greek |
| Greece is the seat of modern human civilization. It is | | | | painting survived in the modern ages. Paintings on the |
| the place where cherished concepts like democracy | | | | walls of tombs found in Italy and Macedonia and |
| came in to being. Greece has influenced human | | | | hand-painted pots are all that remain of this great |
| culture in a way few others have and its legacy lives | | | | Greek art form. A few forms of art that did survive |
| on in the form or great works of writing, architecture | | | | are sculptures, coin and gem engravings and of |
| and of course art. | | | | course Greek architecture. However, even for these, |
| Ancient Greek art developed very early and by the | | | | only a minute fraction has made it to the hands of |
| time Greece came to interact with other civilizations, | | | | present generations. Most statues of marble were |
| schools of Greek art were very well established. Art | | | | burnt or destroyed when Christians sought to cleanse |
| in ancient Greece was usually centered on humanistic | | | | Greece of paganism whereas those made in bronze |
| influences and usually depicted human figures or | | | | were lost when cargo ships sank or melted when the |
| representations of the Greek Gods and Goddesses. | | | | bronze was needed. The architecture of the Greeks |
| Scholars divide ancient Greek art into three different | | | | would inspire the greatest monuments of the world, |
| groups whose names are the same as the periods of | | | | but much of the source of this inspiration is lost |
| history to which they belong. First among them is the | | | | forever. Four of the seven ancient wonders of the |
| Archaic, which ends around 450 B.C.E. with the | | | | world the Statue of Zeus, the Temple of Artemis, |
| Persian invasion. Next in line is the Classical Greek art | | | | the Colossus of Rhodes, and Alexandria's Lighthouse |
| period, which lasted until the demise of Alexander the | | | | were Greek monuments. The earth today, bears little |
| Great in about 323 B.C.E. The last of these is the | | | | sign of them or their greatness. |