No other culture has had such a fundamental influence on Western art as that which flourished in ancient Greece. For a little over a 1000 years (1100BC-27BC), ideas were assimilated and adapted, and new methods and styles were continually developed. This book chronicles the changes: the early geometric vase painting, the Archaic period in the seventh century when the foundations were laid for all forms of Greek art, the new confidence of the Middle East by Alexander and later Greeks. Professor Schuchhardt discusses the characteristics of the various styles and the work of individual artists in vase painting, sculpture and architecture. Included are the famous Parthenon friezes and the Venus de Milo and Nike of Samothrace. The development of the architectural orders is explained, and illustrated with examples of the buildings on the Athenian acropolis. It was the transition from this Hellenistic art into Roman Imperial art which marked the beginning of the influence of Greek art in subsequent cultures.