Art Throughout the Ages: Greek and Hellenistic (850 - 31BC)

This period of Hellenistic Greek art was one focused on perfection building on idealistic visions. Such ideas are reflected especially through the era's architecture and sculptures. Mainly the art consisted of (of course) architecture, sculpture, painting, painted pottery, mosaics and (interestingly) music.
So obviously this is a massive period and has been so significant in many societies (but that may just be our perspective only because the curriculum is so white)??
People had been living in Greece for ages and there were two main parts which evolved during the Bronze Age- the Minoan culture on Crete and the Mycenaean culture on the mainland. Then like, everything got burnt down and people disappeared and weird new people settled in and there were little tribes and not much culture or a society so that was a bit awkward.
Then, it got all interesting and a "rebirth" happened!

The Geometric Period (850-700 BC)

Settlements grew into cities and sanctuaries were founded. Societies were once again developing and people started creating lots of art. Usually painted on top of pots. It was mainly based on geometric designs (duh) like triangles, dots and straight and angled lines. Realistic human body silhouettes with curves and funny round bits, rather than misshapen angular parts like previously, started to emerge around 700 BC. They decorated burial monuments. Exciting stuff.

 (omg centaur)

The Orientalizing Period (700 - 600 BC)

Greek art started to be influenced by the advanced civilizations of Egypt and Western Asia (known as the Orient) especially in the city of Corinth. The geometric style was replaced by more experimental and bolder pictures with brighter colours. More animals were put into the art too. I'm not sure why.

The Archaic Period (600 - 480 BC)

This was kind of a combination of the previous two styles. This was the period in which the distinct Greek style came about and there were increasingly more naturalistic styles shown because of Near East and Egyptian influences. Stay with me. This is a big one...

So after about 600BC, the Greeks began building temples to honour their gods. This saw to the creation of the three famous styles of pillars - Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.

Doric is the simplest design as you can see for yourself...

Below us is a picture of the Parthenon which uses the Doric order for its architecture. This is the famous temple dedicated to Athena and located in the city named after her, Athens, the capital of Greece. It is on the Acropolis which is a big hill that overlooks places. The temple was constructed from 447BC to 432BC (technically it's not a part of the Archaic period but more on that later) and is made of marble. It is very beautiful. Unfortunately, if you visit it today, you won't be able to get a complete view of the temple - there is so much building work going on because of course it is very old and rickety and also during the British colonial/bigoted times in the 19th century, some rich man basically stole loads of pieces off the Parthenon and used them to establish the first few bits shown in the British Museum which now refuses to give them back. Controversy...

These are some Ionic columns. As you can see, they are still pretty simple, but now they have the added luxury of some twirly pieces of embellishment at the top which looks pretty funky.

Here is a modern example of a place which was designed by an architect that was inspired by the Ionic order - the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C!

Now below is where things really got fancy. This is the Corinthian order. It is much more detailed and almost resembles nature with its petal-like shapes.

These columns are some of the few remaining columns of the Temple of Zeus in Athens.

 These columns are actually a part of the New York State Post Office. What a fancy post office, right?

Basically, people started to get better at sculpting and subsequently were able to make more natural-looking figures who were life-sized even and this new found talent was used mainly for sanctuaries and grave monuments. The statues were painted in many colours and the concept of an ideal body type was born.

This is a statuette of Herakles made of bronze with the purpose of being worshipped in a sanctuary.

Wall painting was popular but unfortunately few examples remain. However we have lots of painted vases! By this time, painters had really improved. There were two main techniques to paint: one with figures painted on the vases in liquid clay which you then baked for it to become black so you'd get cool black silhouettes which you could carve details into or paint stuff on and there was another technique which reversed this idea with having a black background with coloured figurines on top. 

The Classical Period (480-323 BC)

Parthenon (447 - 432 BC)

This was the temple dedicated to Athena by the citizens of Athens as they believed that she was responsible for the creation of their city. It stood on the Acropolis (the highest point of the city) in order to show her power and its columns were built in the Doric order. It is made of solid marble and was decorated with magnificent sculptures and reliefs of the greatest points in Athena's life e.g. her kicking Poseidon's ass. 

Then about 20 years later, the Erechtheion was built on the Acropolis with cool caryatids (these are sculptures used as columns). It was for worshipping the god/king of Athens Erectheus. 

The picture below shows the Porch of the Maidens on the temple.

Much of sculpture originals don't remain from this period but the Romans made plenty of copies. During this time, more people were beginning to create sculptures of the ideal body shape which was seen to be an athletic male figure. One of the most famous examples of this is 'The Discus Thrower' by Myron of Thebes created around 450BC.

As one can tell, this is heavily stylised, mainly due to the fact that the figure's face is not at all contorted as it should be when having to be in a difficult physical position. He is very beautiful, however, and is made of pure marble. One can clearly see the tenderness with which Myron made this figure and his clear focus on carving his beauty. However, this exists today only as a Roman copy. 

Classical sculpture peaked after the mid 400s. Two really famous sculptors of this period are Phidias and Polykleitus. Phidias made colossal gold and ivory statues of Zeus and Athena but unfortunately we only know about this through writing. Polykleitus made athlete figures such as the Spearbearer. This firmly established the ideal measurements and proportions for a body and the position in which the figure is in (contraposto) has been a source of inspiration throughout the rest of art history.

Yet again, we do not have many remnants of painting from this period. Figure painting on vases even began to die out by the end of this period.

Mosaics started to gain popularity during this period though they had been around since 500BC. They were made of bits of marble, glass and stones to decorate walls and floors. They depicted mythological scenes and nature.

The Hellenistic Period (323 - 146 BC)

With the rise of great cities and the ever blossoming influence of Rome at hand, urban architecture flourished. This grew as the invention of stone came about.

Hellenistic sculptures did have a lot of influence from the Classical period and there were still many figures of men in peak physical form being made but now, children and even the elderly were being depicted including more dramatic facial expressions to reflect the influx of tragedy in the popular Greek theatre. Two of the most famous Greek sculptures date from this period - the Venus of Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. We don't know who created them. They are both in the Louvre Museum of Paris.  

The Venus de Milo is marble and is armless as I guess her arms broke off. This may have been during the time as they often buried damaged sculptures (the irony). Though, we call it 'Venus' after the goddess of love, it is possible that it was a sculpture of a prostitute as at that time while prostitutes waited for customers, they would thread a ball of wool (or something like that).

This depicts the Greek goddess Nike standing on the prow of a ship with her wings spread wide and her garment flowing in the wind.

Paintings actually survived from this time period and they are mainly found in the tombs of some people living in a Northern Region of Greece called Macedon. The complicated compositions and the use of different colours and perspectives show that there was a high standard among paintings. I don't have any examples unfortunately...

Mosaics became more intricate and people found better ways to make them during this period.

The below depicts the great emperor Alexander leading the Macedonians against the Persians and is found in Pompeii (a Roman city in Italy).

Okay, thanks for reading and I know this was quite a long and complicated one! The Greeks were so freaking cool as you can probably guess from this post. Obviously, this is a really really brief overview of this time period so make sure, if this interested you, to read up on this!

My Experience: Oxford's UNIQ Summer School

Hello!

So I came back from Oxford University's UNIQ Summer School last week. I was studying "History: Race and Protest" and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. It's almost like it finished too quickly but at the same time, while it was happening, it felt almost interminable. It was both the longest week of the year and yet it was also far too short.

There were 30 of us on the course but we all stayed in different colleges. I stayed in Brasenose (well more specifically Frewin Annexe which is 2nd year accommodation) with 9 other historians (all girls woo gal power yo) and other students reading Medicine, Geography and Materials Science (it's so cool how we were all studying really different subjects).

My pretty room in the Frewin Annexe!

Beautiful Brasenose

This wasn't even the fanciest food we ate in the week (but damn that steak was probably the best steak we've all ever eaten)

I don't know if you've spotted it yet but sorry I'm going to ruin it - the unicorn has a hugely erect penis! It was put there to scare the women away from applying to the college when it first opened to women (men are so stupid no offence - we just found this hilarious!)

Alumni Dinner at Balliol College (this was by far one of my favourite colleges it was stunning and huge and also left-wing!)

Above is the alumni dinner at Balliol and yes those chocolates do have the Balliol crest embedded on them and they were still really tasty

The beautiful Brasenose historians in our costumes before the Bop (which is a disco/party and it was lovely and held in a really nice club +10 points if you can guess the theme)

Brasenose College Crew! <3

Favourites:

Comedy Night with the Oxford "Imps", an improvisation group who were hilariously witty and talented. For the last twenty minutes, they even created a whole new musical from the word "whip" which was shouted out spontaneously from a member of the audience. Yes, a musical. It involved singing and therefore included improvised rhythms (people clicking musically in the background while also shouting out random words to the beat) and improvised rhyming and funny lyrics! My body was full to the brim with a raging sense of jealousy and an even stronger sense of admiration after the show. I wish I could sing well and I wish I could effortlessly throw out witty comments into conversation(sob).

Lecture about "The Struggle for Equality in Britain in a Global Context" by Imaobong Umoren who read History at King's College in London and has since began doctoral research at Oxford University on the international travels of Caribbean and African American women in the 20th century. This was my favourite academic lecture because it gave us a chance to finally appreciate the people who drove the movement, the people who weren't lucky enough to become major figureheads, the people who struggled and fought, arguably, the most for equality. She started the lecture by showing us a picture of the "Empire Windrush", a boat that's famous for transporting loads of people of colour from the Caribbean to Britain. The people who came were largely respectable middle-class men (being able to afford the transport to Britain is proof of that) in the hope of finding a good job after being subject to a lot of British propaganda in their own countries which portrayed England as the kind-of "Motherland" holding many fantastic opportunities for them. Unfortunately, however, there was a kind of "Colour Bar" that existed which meant that people could pick and choose who worked for them and thus this meant that many skilled people of colour (blacks, indians, others from the empire etc.) were degraded into working unskilled jobs for little pay. There was also a horrifying amount of prejudice in daily public life like in schools, finding housing and even politics. For instance, as a part of Peter Griffiths' winning Tory parliamentary seat campaign, he used the slogan "If You Want a N*gger for Your Neighbour Vote Labour".
We learnt about how in 1963 Paul Stephenson led the Bristol Bus Boycott which successfully allowed black and other ethnic minorities to work on buses and the fact that Dr Harold Moody founded the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 which was the first black pressure group in the UK and also had a journal called "The Keys" that was about race issues which often transgressed borders for instance by reporting about the Scotsboro Trials and the maltreatment of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. What was particularly interesting for me was the fact that the 1935 invasion of Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia) by Mussolini particularly sparked anger in people therefore galvanising activism for racial equality as Abyssinia was one of two of the only independent African countries (the other being Liberia) at the time.
Also, the fact that there were so many women who also worked really hard to create racial equality was great to learn about - here are just a few of the names Anna Julia Cooper (an author, educator and orator), Paulette Nadal (co-founder of great newspapers that highlighted racial struggles and was also a key activist who later worked for the UN), Una Marson (poet, playwright and journalist who contributed to Moody's "The Keys") and Eslanda Robeson (an anthropologist, author, actor and civil rights activist). What particularly stuck out for me was how class really affected whether these activists were taken seriously - without the money for a good education and respectable clothes, would they have still achieved such great things? That's the sad part. It was so difficult to do anything if you were born, not only into the "wrong" race and/or gender, but if you were born into the wrong class. The question remains... Is it still difficult? And if so (which it pretty much is), how can we change this without the need of "social mobility" (being working class is not actually a bad thing on a personal level!)?

The generosity of the University astounded me - they gave us so much good food and 4 amazing free books! When I say "good food", I mean good food... Like I think I experienced about three formals in that one week (formals are like three course fancy meals and everyone sits down in the Hall which is usually really pretty and gothic and Hogwarts-esque) and we had the option of waiters bringing us a cooked breakfast every day and we got vouchers to spend at the local "Taylors" deli for lunch which had such good-quality food. Also, the books we received were "We Ain't What We Ought To Be" by Stephen Tuck (worth over 20 pounds) from whom we were lucky enough to receive advice about topics from admissions to studying history in a global context (it's a really fabulous book btw), "Black Experience and the Empire" edited by Philip D. Morgan and Sean Hawkins (on the Oxford website this is over £80! also possibly my favourite as this is about Britain and thus relatable/applicable to me), "The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation" by Jim Cullen (costs a hard-to-swallow 19.99 in USD) and finally "A Very Short Introduction to American History" by Paul S. Boyer (which I'm currently reading and it's quite a good brief easy read and shockingly though it's only like 100 pages it costs 7.99) = over 100 quid in books and likely even more on food! Thanks Oxford jheez!

Finally, I really enjoyed discussing things and having the opportunity to reflect on the things we'd just learned with people who were really very clever and had a lot of great things to contribute to the conversation and especially with the tutors (we had postgrad students so not crazy daunting but they were still pretty damn knowledgable and thus still significantly intimidating) who were capable of asking the most deep questions. I felt like it was a great way to really get into more depth about such new ideas and thus solidify your understanding of them and help you create your own ideas, arguments and general points of views on particular issues/subjects. It's a teaching style I thoroughly recommend.

I hold the regret of wasting a lot of my research time in the library which meant my essay was not up to scratch at all and was not finished and probably didn't make sense which led to my tutor being pretty sceptical of my ideas during my tutorial and him and the other student in the tutorial winning with their side of the debate but I feel like when I do go to university, I would particularly enjoy that kind of independent learning because it's just the best (you can literally learn anything you want) and it's just a kind of means of getting into the routine for me, or so I hope (!).

Anyway, I hope this has been helpful for you if you're thinking about applying to UNIQ (literally just go for it)/will be attending UNIQ or just generally interesting for you!

For some more pictures check out this link http://uniq15wk1.tumblr.com/ and for more information about UNIQ click here!

Thoughts on a Film: Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Okay, so recently (like last thursday to be exact) I got a Netflix subscription. Yep, that explains my disappearance from the world of blogging and also real life. So to make the most of this free month (honey you think I'm gon pay good money to sit on my butt?) I've been watching a plethora of different shows and movies (finally getting round to starting "Orange is the New Black" and "That 70s Show" which are both fab fab fab but more of that later) and one of which being "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" because it's something I've been wanting to watch for ageees!

I love the styles and the cast and crew for this film. It's basically like my dream teen movie. So cute!
I can't really reveal anything other than yes you need to be over 12 and preferably over 14 to watch this film cos there's some nudity and female objectification (which sucks but ya know we do live in a patriarchy so we might as well try and appreciate what we can).

The teenagers talk a lot about sex and relationships and, you know, wanting to be cool. It's great because it's like a "billdungsroman" kind of genre (that word may only apply to novels but whatever) and so we kind of grow with the main character as she explores what is actually important to her. It pretty much encompasses the basic teen desire of lust and the confusion between being in love and being in love with the idea of love. I find it sweet and also, sort of, relatable (cringe).

Here are some stills:

It's a fun teen flick with the perfect mixture of teen angst, lust, mushy cuteness and humour. I recommend it! Especially if you're into 80s' movies (they are my jam).

Art Throughout the Ages: Egyptian (3100 BC - 30 BC)

There's so much to talk about with this one. When we talk of "Egyptian Art", we're basically talking about the whole culture! There's a lot of arty things that Egyptians did - from amazing architecture to beautiful busts and statues. Here's my attempt at a summary...

The character and style of Egyptian work was to maintain a homeometric sense of regularity and accurate representation of actual life and nature. Many great works of the time period depicted gods, goddesses and the ostensibly "divine" Pharaohs. And they usually focused on them by painting them on tomb walls dedicated to protecting the dead and giving them the best kind of afterlife. Often, sculptures included in the tombs of the dead would include slaves, buildings, boats and animals to ensure the best possible afterlife for the person whose tomb it was. Funny, how they were so pragmatic and prepared about and for death. Love em. Cuties.

Famous Egyptian art:

Statues of Ramesses II at the Abu Simbel temples
Construction probably started in 1264 lasting 20 years till 1244 BC (funny it's like moving backwards in time). It's generally considered the greatest temple of its time. Ramesses is sure one VIP pharaoh. Dude, each statue is like over 18 metres!

Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramses the Great

Annoying how she's labelled as a man's product but unfortunately that is just another thing that helps with the context of the time period. But yes she was really fricking rich. The below painting which was found in her tomb, can be viewed at the Museum of Metropolitan Art in the small city of New York. Sometimes, she has black skin. Because interestingly black skin symbolised "new life" to the Egyptians.

The Funerary Mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamen
This was made out of semiprecious stones and blue glass and... wait for it... Over 10 kilograms of solid gold. Yes, that's right. Solid. Fricking. Gold. Who knows how the mask didn't freaking crush the guys head when it was put on him? Anyway, the pharaoh himself was pretty av. Y'know he'd started his rule for the New Kingdom when he was only 9, lasted for 10 years, managed to marry his half-sister, yadda yadda yadda. same old same old for a pharaoh in those times!

The Great Sphinx of Giza

This I really want to see. Look how bloody awesome it is! A sphinx is some weird-ass guard-protector that the Egyptians made up to protect their tombs and temples etc. They usually had the face of a Pharaoh presumably to symbolise lots of money and therefore power to kick ur sorry ass if u got in the way and this head was on top of some hench/buff body of a lion. This particular sculpture is over 73 metres long!! A portion of this can be found in the British Museum (gosh so many reasons to visit that place it's making me nervous). Also, this thing is so old. As in it was probably made in 2500 BC!

(NB: I had a longer version of this blog post but unfortunately that didn't save though I pressed the stupid button at least fifty six times... this one isn't as good because I am an impatient and easily irritable person soz)

The Egyptians were awesome people. They had great style and fabulous eyeliner techniques (of which they used cos they thought it would protect their eyes from the sun sorry guys u shouldve put kohl on that cool glass u used to make masks). And their structures were fantastically pragmatic and fantastically impossible and immeasurably clever containing booby traps and amazing artworks. Their pyramids were much more than just brick and clay on top of each other. Comparing them to the South American pyramids is like comparing Prada to Primark. Okay maybe that's a bit too harsh. But you get my drift, no?

Respect your ancestors, yo. Just kidding... all the real Egyptians have died out by now!