MADONNA
a study on religion in art
HELLENIC PAGANISM
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but
what is woven into the lives of others." -Pericles
While Renaissance art is distinctive in its own right, there was a specific culture and artistic style which inspired them above all others. Renaissance artists - and Roman culture in general - were heavily influenced by the Ancient Greeks, who they learned about through countless written accounts of their society and their empire. In this page we will be focusing especially on Athens; widely regarded as the cultural and intellectual head of the Greek Empire. While Athens was not the be all and end all of Greek culture - the isle of Lesbos, for instance, was home to Sappho; certainly one of the most famous poets in history - it was a hub of political, artistic and philosophical advancement. It may not surprise you, considering its distinctly Greek name, that the very concept of democracy originated in Athens in around 500 B.C.E. Even theatre itself, now an integral part of life and culture, was derived from festivals held in celebration and worship of Dionysus - again, this began in Athens. You may have noticed that the quote at the top of this page is from a person named Pericles. Perhaps you noted how distinctly Greek that sounds; you'd be right. Pericles himself was an Athenian general. One thing that these things have in common (aside from being Athenian) is the period in which they happened: Classical Antiquity. Fittingly, this was the exact period studied by those who looked back to the Greek "masters" during the Renaissance, so this is where we'll start.
The era of Classical Antiquity, in particular early Classical Greek art, is the epitome of religious art (in my opinion, at least). Pretty much all of the remaining art from this era was made to honour, worship or otherwise celebrate the Gods. Many pieces were displayed in temples, either as part of the architecture or as decorations for the interior. Speaking of, Ancient Greek (particularly classical) architecture has made an enormous impact on the rest of the world and its buildings. Roman architecture, famously, was heavily influenced by the Greeks. This is especially apparent in their temples.
The Maison-Carrée, 12 B.C.E., a famously well-preserved Roman temple in France.
The Athenian Parthenon, 500-400 B.C.E., dominating structure of the Acropolis.
But the architecture isn't even the most beautiful thing. Surrounding and filling their stunning temples were sculptures, as I mentioned earlier, elegantly carved for their Gods. Few - if any - of these statues are still intact, but we have a pretty good idea of what some of them looked like. Perhaps the most famous figures from the Parthenon are those which were displayed in the pediments. These are in pieces now, and are displayed in the British Museum, the Louvre and in the Acropolis Museum. I'd love to see them reunited, but this seems unlikely.
Above: figures from the East pediment (I think), displayed in the British Museum.
Left: remains from the pediments on display in the Acropolis Museum.
Extra: a proposed reconstruction of the West pediment can be found here (possible nsfw; nudity)
Some other examples of Classical Greek art can be found in this article by the MET, which was actually the first article I read during my research for this page. I'm not sure if you recognise the year 323 B.C.E., but it's actually the year in which Alexander the Great died. This year also marks the end of the era of Classical Antiquity, though I'm
not sure if these are connected.
The article mentions both red and black figure techniques, which were styles of painting pottery in Greece. The Classical period marked great advancements in these techniques, notably the development of red-figure over black-figure painting. There's actually another article by the MET which is entirely about Greek pottery, how the pots themselves were made and then how the red and black figure techniques differed (hint: it's to do with the colour of the figures). General-use pottery was typically left blank, while more important pieces were decorated, often with depictions of Greek deities.
Athenian vase, 440 B.C.E., depicting the musician Orpheus.
This illustrative style didn't start in the Classical era, however. Archaic pots, while more primitive, are a fantastic lens through which we can see the Egyptian influence on Greek art. These pots are the subject of my piece for this culture.
The Story
I found myself interested in both black and red figure techniques - while red-figure is much more detailed and I love dark backgrounds, but it's impossible to deny the striking silhouettes of black-figure. I wanted to try both, but first I needed a pot. Now, I'm not a potter. I don't have a wheel on which to throw things, I have no clay, no kiln, nothing. I needed to buy a pot. My first instinct was an amphora, since the shape works fantastically with such decorations. Unfortunately, the cheapest plain amphora (which was maybe 6 inches big, max) was around £70 and I simply don't have that much money right now. While trying to find out if I could make such things without a wheel, I stumbled upon a DIY tutorial for a papier-mâché amphora. I haven't done papier-mâché in so many years that I honestly have no clue when I last used the technique. It took me ages but I did two balloons, which I planned to fashion into amphoras. I knew it wouldn't look good, but it was the best idea I had - until I thought of literally the most obvious thing. Plant pots. Greek ceramics were terracotta, as are basically any plant pots I can pick up at the garden centre near me. Rather than spending £70, I spent 55p. I was pretty happy with myself.
One issue I faced, however, is that Greek illustrative designs were based in a wealth of lore from their belief system. I decided that the best remedy for this was to simply come up with some myself! Let me explain.
My initial idea for this Kalon was for her to be a regular Kalon who believed that she was an oracle, and perhaps that may still apply in some senses. Based on what I've seen, though, it seems that it's acceptable to have alternate-universe stories which aren't strictly canon or accurate to Kalon "lore". Based on this, I wrote a little bit of story for Madonna. The more general backstory I wrote is here, but I did make something specifically regarding Greece. I'm not a writer so please bear with me; here is my tiny tale of Madonna!
Countless wandering souls roam the banks of the River Styx. Charon is a good ferryman, but he is firm with those he serves. No money, no ferry. Hundreds, thousands of souls who have nothing with which to pay the fare line the shores of the Styx, awaiting a time when Charon would give into their wails and, after a hundred-year delay, take them across the river into Hades. These wandering beings eventually became so common that they swamped the banks of the river. Upon the sight of this, Charon demanded a servant from Styx who would organise and subdue the crowds. Styx, the titanic daughter of Tethys and Oceanus, presented him with a mindless force of energy which was powered by life, its strength kept limited by the lack of living things near the Styx. It would gather up the souls in return for sustenance, until its powers began weakening even more. It became unable to carry out its duties, so Charon agreed to a compromise. The entity would be sent to the overworld, provided it would continue to serve Charon on the Earth. The being would roam the planet, searching for those destined to perish in the near future, and seek to warn them and their loved ones of what was to come. The families would then plan accordingly, ideally remembering to send the deceased off with their fares ready.
Based around this idea, I designed my pot. I started off - as always - on paper, making a design based around simple shapes which I felt adequately portrayed Madonna's design. The halo and tail symbol had to be left out, simply due to the lack of detail and other limitations of the medium (such as only being able to use black). I think the best way to explain this would be to do another pictorial timeline.
This sketch is the second I did for this piece. The first was a little more stylised and had hair which fanned out like sun rays, which was meant to make reference to the worship of Helios, but it just didn't work in my opinion. My second pass was a lot more successful, with hair meant to resemble that shown in a lot of Archaic pots. One huge influence for this design was depictions of monsters, especially Cerberus. I tried to figure out having two sets of wings in the first sketch, but it simply didn't work with the overall design.
My "workstation" while trying to make some amphoras. This is easily the least enjoyable part of this project so far. I hate crafts for exactly the reasons these failed so badly; I spend absolutely forever doing something which takes no skill at all, and it ends up looking like something I would've made for school when I was seven. It's not surprising at all that I scrapped these as soon as I figured out that I could just buy a plant pot.
The plant pot and initial sketches, inspired by the geometric friezes often used in Greek art - in particular, the Archaic period.
After using acrylics (which I absolutely hate working with, oh my goodness) to paint the frieze, I moved onto mapping out the main image. I kept things simple with only three figures, as I'd never done this before. Madonna was the only figure for whom I did preparatory sketches; the two hunters were drawn in a very simplified version of the styles I've seen used in Athenian vases. I tried to put them in fairly energetic poses and, of course, omitted certain details which would break cs rules.
After suffering with the acrylic paint for a few hours, I managed to find a black brush pen which worked great for details (I have a few liners but all of them have dried up, fantastic). I ended up going over most of my paint-work with the pen, which took a while but I'm pretty happy with the result. The Styx was a late addition as I had left the lower part of the pot blank up until that point. I don't think it looks bad, but I reckon it could be improved. It's not as clear as I'd like it to be that the figures in the floor are faces.
Honestly, my favourite part of the pot is my little dude on the left-hand side. He was the first of the two people in the piece, and I quite like the way he turned out despite my lack of experience with the style. I don't like this one quite as much as my Renaissance piece, but I really enjoyed working in a new way with a new material!
Congratulations! You're over halfway through the cultures I'm studying for this project. We already covered the biggest influences in Druidry and Renaissance, so we should be able to barrel through these last two! Let's take a trip across the world from Greece to Mexico where we'll cover two cultures in one page: the Mayans and the Aztecs.