Gender and Greek Art: Gender

Gender and Greek Art: Gender Distinctions in the Archaic, Classical, And Hellenistic Periods

One of the most notable aspects of the role of women in ancient Greece is that while women were featured prominently in the mythology, literature, and art of most of the Greek city-states, women played a relatively marginal social and public role, with the possible exception of Sparta. According to the philosophy and writings of the period, when it came to chronicling the lives of 'real' women: "it seems clear…that Athenians saw women as beguiling creatures capable of causing considerable harm to themselves and others, and weaker in mind and body than men. Many believed that young girls were somewhat wild and difficult to control and that virgins were subject to hallucinations that could encourage them to be self-destructive. The solution was an early marriage, for only after a woman had delivered her first baby could she be a fully-operational female….[the great orator Demosthenes wrote] 'We keep hetaerae [prostitutes] for the sake of pleasure, females slaves for our daily care and wives to give us legitimate children and to be the guardians of our households.

'" the social purpose of a 'real' woman was primarily defined in relation to her usefulness to men, either as a concubine or as a keeper of the household and progenitor of offspring. Domesticity and sexuality defined the female role.

Greek art is roughly divided into three periods: the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Even during the earliest eras featuring relatively primitive images of the human form, differences between men and women were manifest in art, in a manner that mirrored conceptions of the correct role of women in society. Archaic sculpture representing all human figures are usually characterized as fairly stylized and static in nature, regardless of who or what is being represented. Yet, while male kouros statues depicting young men were unclothed, female kore sculptures depicting young women were always clothed, in deference to female modesty.

(See Figure 1). As Greek art grew more elaborate, the differences between the genders continued to be maintained and elaborated upon.

For example, on a traditional terracotta brown vase (Figure 2) depicting a wedding-scene of an unidentified couple, the women's complexions are painted entirely in white, the men's in black. This is not reflective of racial differences, but a way of showing the more 'browned' nature of the male skin, tanned by the sun. Women, in contrast, were confined largely to the home, and only exited the house fully covered. "A bearded man and fair-skinned woman hold the reins of the chariot…Another female figure turns to face the couple, while a young man with wavy hair walks behind the horses, playing music on the kithara.

Yet despite the gendered distinctions in representation, and the social divisions between men and women in everyday life, women during the Classical age of Greek art were still represented in a sensitive and expressive fashion, reflecting the symbolic importance of the feminine in artistic and religious life, even if actual women were marginalized. For example, in the relief sculpture depicted in Figure 3, showing a female votary of Dionysus, the "dancing maenad, clothed in a diaphanous chiton, carries an object characteristic of Dionysos' retinue, the thyrsos, which consists of a fennel stalk crowned with a pinecone and ivy berries. The voluminous garment swirls about her in fanciful, highly expressive folds that evoke her dance. Her introspective expression, so typical of art of the Classical period, contrasts most effectively with the exuberance of her drapery.

However, even this representation of a relatively exuberant, wild type of female celebrant is clothed. The distinctions between the young men and women of the archaic period are maintained in the classical era. Although some goddesses were shown naked (such as the famous Venus de Milo), more often it was typical to show ordinary women in the context of religious or familial settings, in a manner quite distinct from the heroic images of males in athletic pursuits (such as the famous Discus Thrower, show in Figure 5) and warriors. Even when showing a family in a collective manner, as in Figure 4, the male is shown in a seated and powerful position, while the women are clothed and shown to be seated behind the male. It is clear to the viewer that the male is the patriarchal leader of the family.

The next era of Greek art, the Hellenistic period, is characterized by more emotional renditions of both male and female figures. A greater diversity of types of people, including the grotesque and non-heroic, is featured in the art of this age. "Hellenistic art is richly diverse in subject matter and in stylistic development. It was created during an age characterized by a strong sense of history….One of the immediate results of the new international Hellenistic milieu was the widened range of subject matter that had little precedent in earlier Greek art. There are representations of unorthodox subjects, such as grotesques, and of more conventional inhabitants, such as children and elderly people. These images, as well as the portraits of ethnic people, especially those of Africans, describe a diverse Hellenistic populace.

In the interests of showing greater 'truth,' artists of the Hellenistic age also showed more diverse representations of women, beyond that of the goddesses, wives, and mothers. As seen in the sculpture of the dancer depicted in Figure 7, "one of the professional entertainers, a combination of mime and dancer, for which the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria was famous in antiquity" women were now shown in a more physically and socially active role

. The statute features the emotionalism characteristic of Hellenistic art. "The complex motion of this dancer is conveyed exclusively through the interaction of the body with several layers of dress. Over an undergarment that falls in deep folds and trails heavily, the figure wears a lightweight mantle, drawn tautly over her head and body by the pressure applied to it by her right arm, left hand, and right leg. Its substance is conveyed by the alternation of the tubular folds pushing through from below and the freely curling softness of the fringe. The woman's face is covered by the sheerest of veils, discernible at its edge below her hairline and at the cutouts for the eyes. Her extended right foot shows a laced slipper.