The Aegean World - Weeblycoachcb.weebly.com/.../2/9/1/9/2919323/aegean_art_notes.pdfThe Aegean World This period is the time described by the ancient Greek poet Homer in his epic poem

The Aegean World This period is the time described by the ancient Greek

poet Homer in his epic poem the Iliad. Composed around 750 BC, it was unquestionably the first great work of Greek literature.

The sea dominated geography of the Aegean contrasts sharply with that of the Near East. Crete and the Aegean Islands at the commercial crossroads of the ancient Mediterranean had a major effect on their prosperity. The sea also provided a natural defense against the frequent and disruptive invasions that checker the histories of land bound civilizations such as those of Mesopotamia

Trading partners with the Ancient Egyptians and the Near Eastern cultures.

The Aegean World

Time: 3000BCE-1100BCE

Primarily Farmers and Herders and Seafarers

BRONZE! (used for making weapons and tools) popular from 3000-1000 BCE

Period was named Aegean Bronze Age

Early Bronze Age and Neolithic Cultures

The Aegean consisted of tombs, fortresses, grave sites, ruined architectual complexes

Used local stone to bild and fortify their towns

The Aegean World

Cycladic Islands

The Aegean World Historians, art historians, and archaeologists alike divide the prehistoric Aegean

into three geographical areas, each with a distinctive artistic identity.

Cycladic Islands (so called because the circle around Delos) Cycladic art

Early Middle Late

Crete Minoan art

Early Middle Late

The Greek Mainland Helladic art

Early Middle Late (Mycenaean)

Cycladic Group of islands in southern Aegean sea

Accomplished sailors, fisherman, and traders

No writing system—very prehistoric

Earliest surviving artistic evidence includes metalwork, pottery, and marble sculpture

Bronze, copper, and tin

Cycladic Agriculture, herding, crafts, and trade

White marble was popular on the Cyclades, Naxos and Paros islands, was used by sculptors

Chisels and Scrappers were used in sculpting

Most of the artwork was of women

Votive Figures: Cycladic statues used for worship in the home

Simplified and geometric figurines, reduced to basic geometric shapes.

Cycladic Female Cycladic Idol

2700-2300 BCE

Made of marble

5 ft tall

Objects of worship

Most found lying in graves

Mainly female figures, but some male

Exhibit “divine female power”

Cycladic Seated Harp Player Marble

2800 -2700 BC

11 ½” tall

Fully developed sculpture in the round

Basic geometric essentials

Careful attention to the characteristics of harpist. High back chair, tilted head,

knees and feet apart for stability, arms raised bracing instrument

The Island of Crete (largest of Aegean and Mediterranean islands)

The name Minoan comes from the legend of Minos, a king who ruled from Knossos, the ancient capital of Crete.

Minoans believed in Demeter, Artemis, Athena (THREE GREEK GODS)

Island was economically self sufficient because it produced its own grain, olives, other fruits, cattle and sheep.

Due to lack of “ores” to produce bronze… became a wealthy sea power, trading with mainland Greece, Egypt, and the Near East.

Myceaneans, conquering people from mainland Greece, arrived in Crete

Minoans wrote in an early form of Greek known as Linear B.

Minoan buildings were made of rubble and mud brick faced with cut and finished stone also known as dressed stone.

Columns and interior structures were made of wood.

The Minoans great architectural complexes were known as palaces.

Palaces were generally multistoried, flat-roofed, and featured many columns, designed to maximize light and air.

Interior walls were coated with plaster and painted with murals.

Minoan palaces contain sophisticated plumbing systems with terra cotta pipes that were laid beneath the surface of the ground.

Palace of Knossos Traditional residence of King

Minos Largest known palace on Crete Considered a labyrinth because of

its winding hallways and rooms. Commercial and religious center

Had an advanced shipping and receiving system for receiving imported goods

The palace complexes had a squarish planand a large central courtyard

Because double-ax motifs were used in its architectural decoration, the Knossos palace was referred to as the Labyrinth. The layout of the complex seemed so complicated that the word labyrinth came to mean maze.

Reconstruction of the Palace complex, Knossos

Ruins of the

Palace complex, Knossos

Palace of Knossos

The Old Palace and Second Palace Periods (1900-1450 BCE)

Rhyton: Vessels used for pouring liquids during sacred ceremonies

Gold Leaf: sheets of hammered gold. Used to cover artwork.

Depictions of bulls appear quite often in Minoan art.

Murals could be painted on either buon fresco(still-wet plaster) or fresco a secco(dry one)

The Old Palace and Second Palace Periods (1900-1450 BCE)

Kamares Ware:

During the Middle

Minoan period

Created pottery of

sophisticated shapes

using the newly

introduced potter’s

wheels. The vessels

are named for the

cave on the slope of

Mount Ida where they

were first discovered,

and have been found

in quantity at other

sites. Kamares ware

has a distinctive and

polychromatic style.

Creamy white and

reddish brown

decoration is set

against a rich black

background.

This example shows leaping

fish and perhaps a fish net

surrounded by a host of

curvilinear abstract patterns

including wave and spirals,

evoking the life of the sea and

compliment the form of the vessel.

Pendant of gold

bees: Artists

created gold

jewelry and

pendants. Gold

was brought in

through trade and

commerce. Artists

utilized

sophisticated

design and quality

to create pieces like

the example to the

right. As with most

art work of the

period, focused on

simplified geometric

shapes and

patterns that signify

the insects actual

appearance.

The Old Palace and Second Palace Periods

Snake Goddess

In contrast to Mesopotamia and

Egypt, no temples or

monumental statues of gods,

kings, or monsters have been

found

•faience (glazed earthenware)

statuette from the palace at

Knossos.

•One of several similar figures

are believed to represent mortal

attendants rather than deity.

•Exposed breasts suggest a

fertility image, which is often

seen as divine.

•Holding the snakes and a

leopard sitting on her head

implied power over the animal

world also seems appropriate

for a deity.

Bull’s Head

rhyton:

Rhyton:

basically a fancy

pitcher used

during sacred

ceremonies.

Bull was used

quite often in

Minoan art.

This particular

rhyton creates a

portrait type

detail of the

animal.

Liquid was

poured out from

the mouth.

Frescoes Painters worked on large

scale.

Covered walls of rooms palaces and homes with views of nature, geometric borders, human activity. Tell stories & For decoration

Buon fresco – wet surface

Fresco a secco – dry surface

Elegant drawing, linear contours, bright colors.

Generally used profile of face.

Mainland Greece and the Mycenaean Civilization

Focused on architecture, sculpture, metalwork, and ceramics

Dominated the Aegean after the volcanic eruption at Thera Conquered Crete and took over Palace of Knossos

Palace was built on a hilltop and called megaron


Mycenaean power developed on the mainland in the days of the new palaces on Crete.

The destruction of the Cretan palaces left the mainland culture supreme.

Mycenae was but one of several large citadels. The best preserved of these citadels are the fortified palaces at

Mycenae and at Tiryns. Tiryns is marveled for the towering fortifications and some

considered the walls of Tiryns as spectacular as the pyramids of Egypt.

Greeks of the historical age believed mere humans could not have constructed it and instead attributed the construction of the great Mycenaean citadels to the mythical Cyclops, a race of one-eyed giants.

Historians still refer to the huge roughly cut stone blocks forming the massive fortification walls a Cyclopean Masonry.


Tiryns is marveled for the towering fortifications and some considered the walls of Tiryns as spectacular as the pyramids of Egypt.

Greeks of the historical age believed mere humans could not have constructed it and instead attributed the construction of the great Mycenaean citadels to the mythical Cyclops, a race of one-eyed giants.

Historians still refer to the huge roughly cut stone blocks forming the massive fortification walls a Cyclopean Masonry.


Citadel at Mycenae Home of Homer and the epic poems

the Iliad and the Odyssey. Mycenae was constructed on a hilltop

on the slopes of Euboea Mountain. The walls stretched the entire

perimeter of the citadel except on the Southeastern edge, where a ravine forms a natural barrier. Another example of Cyclopean Masonry.

The triangular rock with the two lions above the main gate represents the ruling family of Mycenae .

The city of Mycenae was the center of a large and powerful Mycenaean Greek civilization

Another great structure found in Mycenae is the Treasury of Atreus

Terra Cotta Incized Sculpture in-the-round Dressed stone Repousse’ Rhytons Gold-leaf Buon fresco Fresco a secco Citadel Cyclonean construction

Chevrons Corbel vault Casemates Megaron

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