No other culture has had such a fundamental influence k on Western art as that which flourished in Ancient JL i Greece. For a little over a thousand years (1100 BC -27 BC), ideas were assimilated and adapted, and new methods and styles were continually developed. This book chronicles the changes: the early Geometric vase painting, the Archaic period in the seventh century when the foundations were laid for all forms of Greek art, the new confidence of the Classical age, and the Hellenization of the Middle East by Alexander and later Greeks.
Professor Schuchhardt discusses the characteristics of the various styles and the work of individual artists in vase painting, sculpture and architecture. The evolution of the beautiful red-figure style in vase painting in the sixth century can be seen in context, as can the work of the sculptor Phidias, whose gold and ivory Athena Parthenos was executed at the climax of Classical art. Here too, are the famous Parthenon friezes, the Venus de Milo and Nike of Samothrace. The development of the architectural orders is explained, and illustrated with the glorious examples of the buildings on the Athenian acropolis, the theatre at Epidauros and the Hellenistic city of Pergamon. It was the transition from this Hellenistic art into Roman Imperial art in the first century BC which marked the beginning of the influence of Greek art on subsequent cultures.