ARTISTIC EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE

Abstract

The article deals with the development of the main and most influential Art Schools of Ancient Greece in the period of time starting from the end of V century BCE till the end of IV century BCE. It describes the activities and peculiarities of functioning of three artistic schools, namely Siсyoniс Art School located in the Northern Part of Peloponnese peninsula and founded by the painter Eupompus, Theban Art School also known as Theban and Attic Art School or Younger Attic Art School firstly located in city Thebes and later moved to more prosperous and safe city of Athens and founded either by Aristides the Younger or by Nicomachus and, finally, Ephesus Art School located in city Ephesus and founded according to different versions either by painter Zeuxis or by sculptor and painter Euphranor. Initially those schools became famous because of their talented and widely respected founders but as a matter of a fact with a course of time some of the pupils educated there became even more famous and influential than their teachers and tutors and made a huge and considerable contribution both to the world cultural heritage and early pedagogical science providing some training courses for their own pupils and trainees and even writing their own methodological works dedicated to teaching drawing, painting and sculpture. Therefore, the article tells us about both artistic and pedagogical legacy of the main representatives of above-mentioned Greek Art Schools such as that of painters Pamphilus and Apelles, sculptor Polykleitos and many other artists. It provides the results of the analysis based on finding some common and different features of their teaching methodology and shows the prerequisites for creating those-days artistic and pedagogical traditions.

Unfortunately, most of the information gathered and analyzed becomes available for us not from its original sources written by its authors but from the works of some later historians. Prominent scholar Plinius Secundus, also known as Pliny the Elder, and his work “Naturalis Historia” turned out to be the best source for getting information on this particular topic.