Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,
12e
Chapter 4
Minos and the Heroes of Homer:
The Art of the Prehistoric Aegean
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The Prehistoric Aegean
** Cyclades ** Knossos ** Thera ** Phaistos **
** Hagia Triada ** Tiryns ** Mycenae**
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Goals
• Identify the geographic area known as the Aegean.
• Discuss the visual aspects and possible context of the Cycladic
sculptures.
• Discuss Minoan society and architecture.
• Understand visual aspects of Minoan art.
• Relate significant aspects of archeological excavations at
Mycenae.
• Understand the link between culture and architecture of
Mycenae
• Discuss the relationship between Minoan and Mycenaean art
and culture
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Important Names
Arthur Evans: British archaeologist who uncovered
the palace at Knossos, Crete, in 1900. He named
the people who built it the Minoans, after the
mythological king Minos.
Homer: Composed the Iliad c. 750 BCE, one of the
finest epic poems ever created. It describes the
Trojan wars.
Heinrich Schliemann: German businessman-turnedarchaeologist who uncovered Troy (Hissarlik,
Turkey) between 1870-1890. He discovered that
the site held a number of fortified cities built on
top of the remains of each other.
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The Greece of Homer
• Originally thought the world described in Homer’s epic
poem the Iliad was mythological.
– But in the late 1800s. Heinrich
Schliemann proved that belief
wrong with the discovery of
Troy and a fire that dated to
the time of Homer’s epic. Example of
Linear A
– Next to be moved from fiction to history was King
Minos of Knossos, Crete – more recent Minoan
remains found on Thera [now Santorini]
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The Early Cycladic Figures
Made of the abundant local
marble, found on Naxos
& Paros.
• Most were statues of
nude women with their
arms folded, like many
Stone Age examples.
• Traces of paint are found
on several.
• Believed to be funerary
offerings.
• Male figures include the
lyre player from Keros.
2700-2500 BCE 
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Cycladic Art– 2700-2500 BCE
Stylistic characteristics
of the Bronze Age
statuettes from the
Cyclades:
a. strikingly abstract
b. human body rendered in
highly
schematized
manner
c. originally
painted in
bright
colors
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Cycladic Art …
Resemblances with 20th cen. works
Wilhelm
Lehmbruck 
 Henry Moore
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Minoan Culture and Art
Aerial view and plan of the palace at Knossos 1700-1400 BCE
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Figure 4-4 Plan of the palace at Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1700–1400 BCE.
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Minoan Culture and Art
• Middle Minoan palaces destroyed
around 1700 BCE—earthquake?
• Knossos is a Late Minoan palace.
• Famed for the Minotaur's labyrinth–
Theseus battled the bull-man with
help from Ariadne
• Labrys = double-ax: found
everywhere in Knossos as a sign of
sacrifice.
• Palace made of rough fieldstones
covered in clay.
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Minoan Culture and Art
Architectural characteristics of the Palace at Knossos:
a. Grouped around large rectangular court.
b. Two long corridors separate rooms of different
functions.
c. Well-constructed with thick
walls of rough, unshaped
fieldstones embedded in
clay.
d. Terracotta pipes provided
drains and light wells in
staircases provided air and
light.
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Minoan Culture and Art
The problem with Arthur Evans
• We owe a lot to him, BUT
• His reconstruction strays far from the original,
even when there were appropriate fragments.
• Approached the reconstruction as a Victorian
gentleman – note the hairstyles!
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Minoan Culture and Art: Palace Frescos
• The Bull Leaping Fresco at Knossos.
• Fair/Dark skin convention for female/male representation.
• Elongation and pinched waists- show more movement
than previous paintings.
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Minoan Culture and Art: Thera [Cyclades]
• Akrotiri: Miniature Ships Fresco. – survived because
buried by a volcano– thus not “mis-restored”
• 17” high/at the top of 3 sides of a room.
– Provides information about sea-faring practices.
– Figures represented according to their role.
– Reminds us of Homer’s Iliad.
ca. 1650 BCE
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Minoan Culture and Art: Thera [Cyclades]
Akrotiri: Spring Fresco– Nature is the sole subject
• Intended to express joy.
• 1st known example of a pure landscape painting.
• Lacks humans and narrative element.
• Frescos are now
“wet” or true
frescos. Painted
into wet plaster.
Long lasting.
ca. 1650 BCE
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Minoan Culture and Art: Pottery Crete
Sea Life on Pottery – Kamares ware -- Phaistos
• Used potters’ wheels [new] creamy white & reddish
brown. 1’ 8” hight
• Inspired octopus vase from Palaikastro ca. 1500 BCE 11”
high
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Hagia Triada [southern coast of Crete]
• Overview of the
site.
• Hagia Triada was
just to the west of
Phaistos
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Hagia Triada
•
•
•
•
Late Minoan sarcophagus: 1450-1400 BCE
Illustrate Minoan funerary rites.
Reminiscent of the early Cycladic lyre player.
Also Hu-nefer's Last Judgment. Egypt ca. 1290-1280 BCE
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The Development of Minoan Pottery
The Harvester Vase: finest
surviving example of Minoan
relief sculpture. ca. 1500 BCE
• Only have the upper half and
neck of the vase
• Mostly profile/frontal with
the exception of the man
beating time.
• Obvious study of human
anatomy.
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The Development of Minoan Sculpture
• Goddess or Priestess? “Snake
Goddess” Knossos 1600 BCE
– No large temples found in
Minoan Crete.
• Made of faience [glazed
earthenware]
• Bare breasts suggest fertility
function– leopard on head
suggests power over nature.
So evidence is ambiguous.
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The Development of Minoan Sculpture
Sculpture in gold and ivory – probably imported from Egypt.
• Another serpent woman
• Young “god” from Palaikastro
1500-1475 BCE
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Decline of Minoan Civilization
• Mycenaeans may have moved into Knossos, Crete
at end of the new palace period around 1400 BCE
• Knossos destroyed around 1200 BCE
• Focus moved to the mainland: Distinctive
Mycenaean culture existed by 1300 BCE
• Giant citadels were built—Mycenae was only one.
– Best preserved are Tiryns & Mycenae, started
around 1400 BCE [Homer knew of Tiryns]
– The heavy walls contrasted with the open
Cretan palaces.
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Mycenaean Art
Architecture
Plan of the palace and
southern part of the citadel,
Tiryns, Greece, ca. 1400–
1200 BCE.
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Mycenean Art and Architecture
• Architectural innovations included the corbelled arch.
• Composed of lintels, no mortar is used
• Compare with barrel vault at Ctesiphon, p.51.
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Mycenean Art and Architecture
• Kinds of arches
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Mycenaean Culture and Art: Mycenae
View of the citadel
remains in the
surrounding
landscape
• 1300-1250 BCE
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Mycenaean Culture and Art
King Agamemnon
– House of Atreus
ca. 1300-1259 BCE
A few generations
before the Trojan War.
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Mycenean Art and Architecture
• The Lion Gate: forced
attackers into a narrow
channel.
• Formed of 2 monoliths and a
lintel with the triangular
relief of lions and columns
with a corbelled arch above
• This kind of guardianship
goes back to Egypt &
Assyria.
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Mycenean Art and Architecture
Treasury of Atreus:
A “beehive” or tholos
tomb. 1300-1250 BCE
Misnamed.
Made of a series of
stone corbelled
courses, ending in a
lofty dome, 43 ft
high.
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Mycenean Art and Architecture
“Treasury of Atreus”
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Gold Mask from Mycenae
Funerary mask from
Grave Circle A
– 1600-1500 BCE
•A beaten gold mask.
•An attempt to render
the human face at
life size.
• Different ages and
features were found
on other masks.
•NOT Agamemnon
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Inlaid dagger blade with lion hunt
-- from Grave Circle A [made of bronze]
ca. 1600-1500 BCE
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Female Head from Mycenae ca. 1300-1250.
•Flesh tone indicates a
female.
• Facial paint or tattoo
• 6 ½ inches high
•May be from goddess
cult.
The watchful eye of Argos?
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Last, but not least!
Warriors’ Vase – Mycenae ca. 1200 BCE
• Form is a ”krater”, a bowl for mixing wine and water.
• No indication of
settings and a
return to the
repetitive forms
of earlier eras.
• Harbinger of a
more abstracted
style to come.
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Discussion Questions
 What do you think are possible functions for the Cycladic
sculptures?
 Compare the Egyptian Old Kingdom and New Kingdom
[Armana period] styles of wall painting with Minoan wall
paintings.
 What was the focus of Minoan art? Did they emphasize the
afterlife?
 Why do you think the Minoan civilization declined? Give
reasons for your ideas.
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