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Terracotta amphora (jar)ca. 530 BCE Material: terracotta; red-figure/bilingual Dimensions: H. 22 5/8 in. (57.5 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Greek art contains vases, sculpture and architecture that were huge innovations. Artists forever afterward owed an enormous debt to the ancient Greeks.
There were many phases from the 16th century BC until the Greeks suffered defeat at the hands of the Romans at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The phases are roughly as follows.

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Mask of Agamemnon, from shaft grave V, Grave Circle A, Mycenae c.1550–1500 B.C.E., Material: gold, Height: 12″ / 35 cm (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

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Mycenaean Art occurred from roughly 1550-1200 BC on the Greek mainland. Although the Mycenaean and Greek cultures were two separate entities, they occupied the same lands successively. Right out of the Bronze Age Mycenaeans were so wealthy many works were made out of gold.

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Proto-Geometric Amphora c.975–950 BCE. Athens, now British Museum. Diameter: 15.50 cm Diameter: 26.90 cm  Height: 42 Weight: 5 kg Materials: pottery

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From c. 1025-900 BC, the Proto-Geometric phase saw pottery beginning to be decorated with simple shapes, black bands, and wavy lines. Additionally, technique in the shaping of pots was being refined as well.

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Terracotta kraterca. 750–735 BCE Height : 42 5/8 in. (108.3 cm) Diameter : 28 1/2 in. (72.4 cm) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) Athens

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Geometric Art has been assigned the years of 900-700 BC. Its name is utterly descriptive of the art created during this phase. Pottery decoration moved beyond simple shapes to also include animals and humans. Everything, however, was rendered with the use of simple geometric shapes.

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Marble statue of a kouros (youth)ca. 590–580 BCE Dimensions: 76 5/8 × 20 5/16 × 24 7/8 in. Material: Marble, Naxian (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) Greece

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The Archaic phase is best known for the beginnings of realistic depictions of humans and monumental stone sculptures. It was during the Archaic period that the kouros (male) and kore (female) statues were created, always depicting young, nude, persons.

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Marble statue of a youthful Hercules 69–96 CE  Material:Marble Dimensions: H. 97 3/16 in. (246.9 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Classical Art (480-323 BC) was created during a "golden age", from the time Athens rose to prominence to Greek expansion and right up until the death of Alexander the Great. It was during this period that human statues became so heroically proportioned. Of course, they were reflective of Greek Humanistic belief in the nobility of man and, perhaps, a desire to look a bit like gods. They were also the result of the invention of metal chisels finally capable of working marble.

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Bronze statue of Eros sleeping  2-3 BCE Material:  Bronze Dimensions: 16 1/2 × 14 × 33 275 lb.Height (w/ base): 18 in. (45.7 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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By the time Alexander had died and things got chaotic in Greece as his empire broke apart, Greek sculptors had mastered carving marble. They were so technically perfect that they began to sculpt impossibly heroic humans. People simply do not look as flawlessly symmetrical or beautiful in real life as those sculptures portray, which may explain why the sculptures remain so popular after all these years.