🎨 Ancient Greek Art
The Ancient Greeks were one of the most culturally sophisticated civilisations to emerge prior to modern times. They were very good painters, sculptors, potters and artists in general and developed a range of new artistic methods at the height of their culture between 600 BC and 300 BC.
We know from ancient writers such as the Roman philosopher Pliny that wall painting was the most common and celebrated type of artistic output in Ancient Greece, but other artistic achievements stand out more today. The Ancient Greeks were, for instance, fantastic sculptors and thousands of the statues which they made of the Greek gods and mythological heroes still survive today to attest to this, such as 'the Winged Victory of Samothrace' in the Louvre Museum in Paris or the Venus de Milo in the same gallery.
However, perhaps the most unique Ancient Greek art form was how they decorated the many large pots they used for storing wine, olive oil and other goods. In the sixth and fifth century BC the Greeks developed two methods to decorate these known as Black Figure Painting and Red Figure Painting. In these the background was painted either Black or Red and then the people or figures were painted the opposite colour. The pots often depict scenes from Greek mythology and thousands of these pots still survive today in museums all over the world.
