Ancient Greek art had a tremendous influence not only in the culture of Greece but also in various other cultures. As a matter of fact, the ancient Roman art of the west was heavily influenced by the Greek models.

In the east, Alexander the Great also initiated an exchange of between the Greek, Indian and the Central Asian cultures. Such was the kind of impact of ancient Greek art.

Ancient Greek Art And Architecture

Pottery was one such art of the ancient Greek people though they did not make pottery for daily use. Pieces of evidence of pottery are in the form of drinking vessels like amphorae; craters which were bowls used for mixing wine and water; hydria which was water jars, jugs, and cups.

The colors which were mainly used were black, white, red and yellow. Battle scenes along with scenes of hunting were popular designs used in pottery. The ancient Greek pottery can be categorized into different periods like:

1. The Protogeometric which commenced approximately from 1050BC;
2. The Geometric from 900BC;
3. The Late Geometric or Archaic from 750BC;
4. The Black Figure from early 7th century BC and;
5. Lastly, the Red Figure from about 530BC.

Production of Metal Vessels

Production of metal vessels was also one of the major art forms prevalent in ancient Greek. Such metal vessels were produced especially during the Geometric as well as the Archaic periods. Olympia boasts of hundreds of such vessels.

The production of such metal vessels became somewhat less important during the Classical and the Archaic through its production did not completely cease.

Figurines which include both metals, as well as terracotta, also found a place in the ancient Greek art. In case of terracotta figurines, clay was a frequently used material which was used to make idols and votive statuettes.

Subsequently, however, these figurines depicted everyday life which was somewhat of a change as previously only religious figurines were made. Olympia has enormous evidence of metal figurines made out of bronze specifically. Such metal figurines depicted animals while human figures were rarely to be found.

Sculpture

The sculpture also figured on the list of ancient Greek art. Sculptures were either made of stone particularly of marble or such other high-quality limestone and were then carved by hand using metal tools or even bronze was used though in limited numbers as bronze could not be reused.

The kind of sculptures so made differed depending upon the different time periods as in the Archaic period was deeply influenced by the monumental stone of Egypt and Mesopotamia and hence free-standing figures were commonly found in this period.