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relaxation playing dice(FIG.5 22).This is an episode not included in any literary source,but for Greeks familiar with the story ,this anecdotal portrayal of friendly play would have been a poignant reminder that before the end of the wart,he heroes would be parted by death,Achilles in battle and Ajax by suicideK. nowing thestorywascriticaltoengagingwithsuchpaintings,andartists oftenincludedidentifyinglabelsbesidethecharacterstoguide viewers to the narrative source so they could delight in the painters rich renderings of familiar narrative situations S(EEALSOFIG .5 1). RED-FIGURE VESSELS. In the last third of the sixth century BCE, whilemanypainterswerestillcreatinghandsomeblack-figure waress,ome turned away from this meticulous process to a new , morefluidtechniquecalled red-figure (see Black-Figureand Red-Figure, page120)I.nthismodeofdecorationr,edfigures stand out against a black background,the opposite of black-figure painting.Thegreaterfreedomandflexibilitythatresultedfrom painting rather than engraving details led ceramic painters to adop thered-figuretechniquewidelyinarelativelyshorttime. Itallowedthemtocreatelivelierhumanfigureswithamore developed sense of bodily form qualities that were increasingly demanded of Greek artists in several media. EUPHRONIOS . Oneofthebest-knownred-figureartistswas Euphronios.His rendering of the Death of Sarpedon,about 515 BCE (see ACloserLook, opposite),ispaintedonakrater knownas a calyx krater because its handles curve up like a flower s calyx. Thisvesselwasusedasapunchbowlduringa symposiuma, social gathering of rich and powerful men.According to Homer s Iliad,Sarpedon,a son of Zeus and a mortal woman,was killed by theGreekwarriorPatrocluswhilefightingfortheTrojans. Euphronioscapturesthesceneinwhichthewarriorisbeing carried off to the underworld,the land of the dead. Euphronioshascreatedabalancedcompositionofverticals andhorizontalsthattaketheshapeofthevesselintoaccount.The bandsofdecorationaboveandbelowthesceneechothelong horizontal of the dead fighters body,which seems to levitate in the gentle grasp of its bearersa,nd the inward-curving lines of the handles mirror the arching backs and extended wings of Hypnos and Thanatos.The upright figures of the lance-bearers on each side andHermesinthecentercounterbalancethehorizontaland diagonal elements of the composition.While conveying a sense of the mass and energy of human subjects,Euphronios also portrayed theelaboratedetailsoftheirclothingm, usculaturea,ndfacial features with the fine tip of a brush.And he created the impression ofrealspacearoundthefiguresbygentlyforeshortening Sarpedon s left leg that appears to be coming toward the viewer ownspaceS.uchformalfeaturesa,swellasapalpablesenseof pathos in the face of Sarpedon s fate,seem to connect Euphronios workwiththedyingwarriorsofthepedimentsatAeginaSE(EFIGS . 5 14,5 15),which would be sculpted a little over a decade later. THE EARLY CLASSICAL PERIOD, C. 480 450 BCE s Over the brief span of 160 years between c.480 and 323 Greeks established an ideal of beauty that has endured in the W est- ern world to this day .Scholars have associated Greek Classical art with three general concepts:humanism,rationalisma, nd idealism (see Classic and Classical, page 124).The ancient Greeks believed the words of their philosophers and followed these injunctions in their art: Man is the measure of all things, that is,seek an ideal basedonthehumanform; Knowthyself, seektheinnersignifi- cance of forms;and Nothing in excess, reproduce only essential forms.Intheirembraceofhumanism,theGreeksevenimagined their gods as perfect human beings.But the Greeks valued human reason over human emotion.They saw all aspects of life,including theartsa,shavingmeaningandpatternN. othinghappens byaccidentI.tisnotsurprisingthatgreatGreekartistsand architects were not only practitioners but theoreticians as well.In the fifth century BCE,the sculptor Polykleitos (see The Canon of Polykleitos, page 134) and the architect Iktinos both wrote books on the theory underlying their practice. Art historians usually divide the Classical into three phases, based on the formal qualities of the art:the Early Classical period (c.480 450 BCE);the High Classical period (c.450 400 BCE);and theLateClassicalperiod(c4.00 323 BCE)T. heEarlyClassical period begins with the defeat of the Persians in 480 BCE by an allianceofcity-statesledby AthensandSpartaT. heexpanding Persian Empire had posed a formidable threat to the independence o f t h e c i t y - s t a t e s ,a n d t h e t w o s i d e s h a d b e e n l o c k e d i n b a t t l e f o r decades until the Greek alliance was able to repulse a Persian inva- sionandscoreadecisivevictory.Somescholarshavearguedthattheir success against the Persians gave the Greeks a self-confidence that acceleratedartisticdevelopmenti,nspiringartiststoseeknewand more effective ways to express their cities accomplishmentsI.n any caset,heperiodthatfollowedthePersian Warse,xtendingtoabout 450 BCE,saw the emergence of a new stylistic direction,away from elegant stylizations and toward a sense of greater faithfulness to the natural appearance of human beings and their world. MARBLE SCULPTURE IntheremarkablyshorttimeofonlyafewgenerationsG, reek sculptors had moved far from the stiff frontality of the Archkoauicroi t o m o r e r e l a x e d ,l i f e l i k e f i g u r e s s u c h a s t h e s o - c a l l eKdR I T I O S B O Y o f about 480 BCE (FIG.5 23).The softly rounded body forms,broad facialfeatures,andcalmexpression thereisnotevenatraceofan Archaic smile give the figure an air of self-confident seriousness. He strikes an easy pose quite unlike the rigid bearing of Archaic kouroiH. isweightrestsonhislefte,ngagedlegw, hilehisright, relaxed leg bends slightly at the knee,and a noticeable curve in his spine counters the slight shifting of his hips and a subtle drop of one of his shoulders.W e see here the beginnings of contrapposto,the convention of presenting standing figures with opposing alternations of tension and relaxation around a central axis that will dominate Classical art.The slight turn of the head invites the spectator to followhisgazeandmovearoundthefigurea,dmiringthesmall marble statue from every angle. BRONZE SCULPTURE Thedevelopmentofthetechniqueofmodelingandhollow- casting bronze in the lost-wax process gave Greek sculptors the potential to create more complex action poses with outstretched arms and legs.These were very difficult to create in marble,since unbalancedfiguresmighttoppleoverandextendedappendages mightbreakoffduetotheirpendulousweightB.ronzefigures were easier to balance,and the metals greater tensile strength made complicated poses and gestures technically possible. ThepaintedundersideofanAthenian kylix (broadf,lat drinking cup) illustrates work in a late Archaic foundry for casting life-sizefigures (FIG5. 24)p,rovidingclearevidencethatthe Greekswerecreatinglargebronzestatuesinactiveposesas early as the first decades of the fifth century BCE.The walls of theworkshoparefilledwithhangingtoolsandotherfoundry paraphernaliaincludingseveralsketches ahorseh,umanheads, and human figures in different poses.One worker,wearing what looks like a modern-day construction helmets,quats to tend the