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The Art of Ancient Greece: Music and Painting

The art of Ancient Greece developed onover a very long time interval, which is why it is so interesting, unusual and multifaceted. The entire ancient Greek culture is divided into five periods: Early Greece, Homeric 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.

Paintings of Ancient Greece are studied, as a rule, bypreserved to this day ceramic vases. After all, it was on them that most artisans practiced painting, drawing beautiful and very believable pictures.

Initially, the vases were painted with the simplestfigures - geometric (rhombuses, squares, triangles, circles). Of these, various ornaments were made. Over time, the art of ancient Greece improved, the artists behaved more boldly, experimented more and began to depict vases not only abstract figures, but also people, animals, landscapes. And if at first real figures were represented only together with geometric figures, then subsequently the former were finally superseded by the latter.

Even later, people and animals began to be depicted not just in the way, but in action. The most frequent topic for the picture were myths, fragments from which the Greeks tried to capture on their vases.

Separately it is necessary to tell about two color stylesmural: black-figure and red-figure. Black-figure style meant the image of black figures on a red background and was the first. A red-figure, 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 (frescoes and mosaics).

By the way, Greek artists are the first in the worldhave opened two innovations in painting: the play of chiaroscuro in the drawing (this discovery belongs to the magnificent artist Appolpodor of Athens) and the signature under his drawing (it was put by the best artists under their best works).

No less interesting and musical artAncient Greece. The word "music" comes from the Greek "muse" (patroness of the arts) and is literally translated as "the art of the muses". It should be noted that in the understanding of the Greeks, music was not an independent art, but an aggregate of three others: music, poetry and dance itself. And, in turn, - an indispensable component of other arts.

Thus, the art of the theater was inconceivable without a chorus,and the tragedy in general came from the laudatory song of Dionysus (praises). The very word "tragedy" translates as "the song of a goat" - people who sang praises, dressed in goats' 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 to music, after all. In itself, the ancient Greek music was, as a rule, odnogolosy vocal. This is explained quite simply: it was defined by poetry, we can say that the singer simply sang his poems, accompanying himself on some musical instrument (flute, lyre, Pan's flute, avlodia, kifarodia).

There was a sufficient number of genres in music. These are hymns (songs to gods and goddesses), and folk songs. Among the latter were peasant, wedding and song-lamentations.

There were in ancient Greek culture and choralsongs - although in a smaller than solo, quantity. Among them - elegy (initially - plaintive songs, performed under the flute, after - any sad or wistful music) and ode (laudatory songs).

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