Aegean Art 1
PRE-HISTORIC AEGEAN ART
I.
Introduction:
A. Three civilizations: Cycladic, Minoan (Crete), Helladic (Mainland
Greece/Aegean Islands/Anatolia)
i. Cycladic 3000 – 2000 BCE
ii. Minoan 1700 – 1200 BCE
iii. Mycenaean 1700 – 1200 BCE
B. Minoan and Helladic (Mycenaean) influence shows up in culture of
ancient Greece (historical time)
C. Greek myths of the Battle of Troy (Homer’s Iliad and the Labyrinth)
were thought to have no historical basis
i. Between 1870 and 1890 German Heinrich Schliemann found
treasures in
a. Troy (modern Hissarlik, Turkey) – this was based on
idea by British archeologist Frank Calvert
b. Mycenae - Schliemann showed that Mycenae on Greek
mainland was mythical city of Agamemnon
ii. In 1900 English archeologist Arthur Evans discovered fabled
Minoan city of Knossos on Crete
a. Found other cities on Crete that were part of Minoan
civilization.
b. American Harriet Hawes: one of the first women to
direct an excavation in Gournia, Crete
D. Writing was discovered in Aegean documents: Linear A and Linear B
i. Linear B was early form of Greek
E. Cycladic, Minoan, Helladic all subdivided into early, middle, and late.
i. Late Helladic is called Mycenaean
II.
CYCLADIC ART
A. Location: A chain of islands off the coast of Greece including islands
such as Thera, Naxos, Melos, and Delos (Islands form a circle around
Delos)
B. Cycladic sculptures
a. Carved in marble
b. Size – from inches to almost life size
c. Form – the human form is very simplified and abstract
d. Female figures –
a. MOST OF THE CYCLADIC SCULPTURES
REPRESENT NUDE WOMEN (BREASTS
AND PUBIC TRIANGLE) WITH THEIR
ARMS FOLDED ACROSS THEIR
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ABDOMENS. Example: Woman from Syros:
Marble, 18” high, 2500 – 2300 BCE.
b. The statues feet are too fragile to support the
figurine. Archaeologists speculate that the
statues must have been placed on their backs in
graves, lying down on the deceased themselves.
c. Whether they represent those buried or fertility
figures or goddesses are still debated.
d. The figures were partly painted (eyes, mouths,
necklaces, and bracelets)
e. Male figures are less frequent and often take the form
of seated musicians. The male figures contain OPEN
FORMS (notice arms extended and open spaces) while
the females have CLOSED FORMS. Example: Male
Lyre Player, Keros, Greece, 2700 – 2500 BCE, Marble,
9” high
f. Cycladic statues at the MET – The Met has a
particularly good collection of the Cycladic sculpture
located in its Greek and Roman Galleries
g. History of Cycladic art may never be fully known.
Many sources of Cycladic art have been plundered by
smugglers. Without info about original context
(provenance = discovery info and documented chain of
evidence) of piece impossible to recreate what the
artifacts mean. Forgeries are common.
h. Male and female figures found in same grave. Maybe
the male musician will provide music in afterlife? Not
sure if figures represent the deceased.
III.
MINOAN ART: Crete
A. A Famous Legend
a. Zeus, Europa, and Minos
a. Europa – a beautiful princess from Palestine
b. Zeus fell in love with Europa. Zeus appeared to
her first in the shape of a bull and later as an
eagle
c. Europa bore Zeus several sons including one
named Minos
b. Minos
a. Established a fabulous and powerful kingdom on
Crete
b. Commanded a large navy and swept the sea of
pirates
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c. Exacted a heavy tribute from the conquered
cities along the coast of the Aegean Sea
i. Every year Athens was forced to send him
a ship with 7 young men and 7 young
women to sacrifice to the Minotaur
ii. Who was the Minotaur? The Minotaur
was a monster that was half human and
half bull.
d. Minos and the Minotaur
i. Minos broke an oath to Poseidon, god of
the sea, who had guaranteed his kingship
ii. In revenge, Poseidon caused Minos’ wife
to fall in love with a bull. The offspring of
their unnatural union was the Minotaur
iii. Labyrinth – Minos had Daedelus build a
Labyrinth, a complex maze, to hold the
Minotaur. It was so diabolically intricate
in construction that no one could find a
way out again. Hence the word
labyrinthine, which means very complex
and convoluted
iv. The Minotaur would make horrible
roaring sounds, and could only be
appeased by these young sacrifices
c. Theseus and Aegeus
a. Aegeus – king of Athens
b. Theseus – his intrepid son. Handsome, brave,
and daring
c. An audacious plan
d. An important signal upon returning
i. Black sails if unsuccessful
ii. White sails if successful
d. Theseus and Ariadne
a. Beautiful daughter of King Minos
b. Fell in love with Theseus
c. Gave Theseus a ball of thread so he could find
his way out of the twisting passages of the
labyrinth
e. Theseus and the Minotaur
a. Kills the Minotaur
b. Escapes with Ariadne
c. Abandons her on the island of Naxos
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d. Returns to Athens but forgets to changed the
sails on his ship
e. Despondent King Aegeus jumps off a cliff into
the sea. Aegean Sea is named for him
B. Arthur Evans and the Legends
1. Arthur Evans
a. A British scholar
b. Enchanted by the legends
c. Could there be a forgotten civilization?
2. Knossos
a. A seemingly insignificant Cretan village
b. With a suspicious big tell (mound of earth)
3. Discoveries
a. Strange marks of a long dead and long forgotten civilization
b. A huge and complex palace
1. Three-stories tall
2. Columns similar to the Doric order but a little
different
3. Major courtyard
4. Imagery of bulls – frescoes and altar with horns
(Minotaur?)
5. A large hall with many walls and columns
(Labyrinth?)
c. Walls covered with long buried FRESCOES (paintings on
wet plaster)
C. Architecture
a. Size and Geography
a. No large river valleys
b. Jumbled hills, ragged limestone peaks
c. Abundant sunlight, adequate rain, and fertile if
rocky soil
d. Wine and olive oil
e. As an island, fishing and trade were important
f. During 3rd millennium BCE only small
settlements on mainland Greece and Aegean
Islands. Dead buried without costly offerings.
g. Construction of large palaces in 2nd millennium
marks beginning of Middle Minoan period on
Crete.
b. Palace at Knossos
a. Old Palace destroyed around 1700 BCE due to
earthquake.
b. Rebuilt quickly
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c. New Palace marks beginning of Late Minoan
period.
d. Palace in Knossos and other cities on Crete. Had
similar layouts.
i. Comfortable
ii. Residence for king and his family
iii. Courtyards for pageants, ceremonies,
games
iv. Storerooms, offices, and shrines
v. Functioned as commercial, religious, and
administrative centers of city.
e. Palace at Knossos
i. Home of legendary King Minos
ii. See story of Minos, Theseus, Ariadne
iii. Symbol of Minos’ Palace was doubleheaded axe = labrys = reference to
sacrificial slaughter. Labrys symbol all
over palace rooms.
iv. Palace was complex, rambling structure
(thus labyrinth = maze in English).Built
on hill and slopes. As many as 3 levels.
v. Elite lived in mansions around palace.
vi. New palace was carefully planned to
provide light and air; drainage pipes
under building.
vii. Thick walls of fieldstones embedded in
clay. Rubble walls covered on the inside
with plaster.
viii. Painted wooden columns: distinctive.
Bulbous, cushion-like capitals; Columns
like inverted tree trunks – taper wide top
to narrow base – opposite of Egyptian
and Greek.
D. Minoan Frescoes: True (wet) frescos – pigment mixed into wet
plaster. Had to work quickly before plaster set. VS Egyptian fresco –
fresco secco (dry) – is not part of wall, on top of surface, not as
permanent.
1. Refined images of ladies
a. Minoan woman or goddess (La Parisienne)
1. Elaborate hair style
2. Elegant dress
3. Pronounced red lips – significant life-like qualities
4. Conventional – frontal eye and profile
b. Handsome and athletic men
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2. Nature
a. Dolphins
b. Monkeys
c. Antelopes
3. Seascapes and fishing scenes
a. Flotilla from Miniature Ships Fresco (Thera)
5. Boxing
6. Bull-leaping from the palace at Knossos
a. Vivacity and a sense of life
b. Young women with fair skin participate (note their long
curly hair)
c. Athletic young man doing a flip over the bull while in motion
d. Similar to Egyptian and Mesopotamian art but has a greater
sense of animation
e. Elongated bodies have sense of living and moving (think
animation characters with squash and stretch).
7. Thera (Santorini) Frescos
a. Possibly in Minoan orbit
b. Better preserved due to being buried by volcanic ash.
c. Landscape with swallows (from Thera) Spring Fresco
1. First known LANDSCAPE – no humans, no narrative
elements
2. Plants and land are not realistic – flow gracefully with a
rhythm
E. Minoan pottery and sculpture
1. Sea life on pottery - Kamares War jar, ca. 1800 – 1700
BCEPhaistos, white on dark
a. A leaping fish (maybe a forerunner to dolphin
frescoes
b. Maybe a net being thrown near it
c. Curvilinear, abstract patterns give a flow and rhythm
to the painting
2. Marine Style, Octopus Jar, Palaikastro, ca. 1500 BCE, Reverse
doark on white. Remained dominant style until 500 BCE.
a. Notice the flowing organic lines of the octopus and its
tentacles (similar to bull-leaping and Spring Fresco)
3. Harvester Vase, from Hagia Triada, ca. 1500 BCE, Steatite, 5”
diameter
a. Figures are shown dancing and playing musical instruments
b. Main figure is very prominent – First instance of an artist
showing major interest in the muscles and underlying
structures of HUMAN ANATOMY
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4. Snake Goddess, Knossos, ca. 1600 BCE, Gaience, 13.5” high
a. Most likely is a goddess figure
b. Frontality like Egyptian and Near Eastern art
c. Open bodice and animated figure – Minoan features
5. Sarcophagus, 1800 – 1700 BCE, 54” long, Painted Limestone,
a. Similar to Minoan frescos but subject is funerary practices.
Gives info on religious beliefs.
IV. Mycenae – Treasures and Wonders
1. Mycenae flourished from 1600 – 1200 BCE, after the
eruption of Thera, an island in the Cyclades
a. Mycenae was a citadel, a walled city, situated in
the mountains and had massive fortifications
b. How does this compare to the Minoan palaces?
2. Lion’s Gate
a. Famous, main entrance to Mycenae
b. Two 9’ lions positioned in the RELIEVING
TRIANGLE guard the entrance (they may have
had bronze heads which are now missing)
c. Huge stones that weigh 20 tons
d. Greeks thought that no human could have lifted
the stones attributed the building of Mycenae’s
walls to the Cyclops. To this day, art historians
refer to the walls of Mycenae as CYCLOPEAN
MASONRY.
e. The entrance is supported by POST AND
LINTEL CONSTRUCTION
f. The relieving triangle was created through a
technique developed by Mycenaean civilization
called the CORBELLED ARCH.
3. THOLOI (tombs)
a. A THOLOS is a Mycenaean tomb that has a beehive dome shape
b. Under ground, the tomb is supported through
corbelled stones and buried underground. The
earth on top of the tomb reinforces its support
c. Mycenaean royal families and nobles were
buried in tholoi
d. Larger than it looks – 43’ high
4. Megaron – royal audience hall
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a. Probably covered with frescoes
b. Entered through a porch supported by two
columns, passed the antechamber to the throne
room which had a huge hearth surrounded by
columns
5. Mycenaean painting – most famous surviving fresco is
“Goddess”
a. Also on pottery – Famous Warrior Vase
b. Painted sculpture – Female head from Mycenae
(painted plaster)
i. May be the head of a goddess or a sphinx
ii. Paint marks on her face may be tattoos
iii. Intense gaze would be appropriate for a
guardian figure similar to small
terracotta images of goddesses found in
Mycenaean shrines
iv. Rare example of monumental sculpture
from this period
7. Golden treasures
c. Golden crown
d. Signet rings
e. Golden jewelry
f. Gold-handled sword
g. Inlaid dagger blade showing a lion hunt
h. Golden burial masks
i. An ecstatic Heinrich Schliemann upon
discovering this mask telegraphed the
following message to the King of Greece:
“I have gazed on the face of
Agamemnon!”
ii. Masks are sculpted repousse