Aegean Art
• Eastern Mediterranean (Aegean Sea)
• Bronze Age 3000 BC - 1000 BCE
• Three civilizations:
– Cycladic (islands such as Thera)
– Minoan (islands of Crete)
– Mycenae (Greek mainland)
• Seafaring: trade, fishing (wrecks)
• Bronze Art & Metal working
• Homer’s Iliad & The Odyssey
Mycennas
Cycladic Islands
Crete/Minoan
Map of Ancient Aegean Civilizations
Cycladic Art
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Islands between Europe & Asia Minor
3000-1600 BCE (Bronze Age)
Agriculture/trade, no writing
Supply of hard white marble for simple
figure sculptures, mostly female
• Later became part of Minoan and Mycenean
cultures
Two Figures of Women
Cyclades, 2500 BCE
White Marble, 13” & 25” high
Vioin shaped, simplified figures
Mostly female
Found on graves in large numbers
Originally painted, with hair
Hedgehog of Syros
Cyclades, 2700 BCE
Simple carved figure with surface
decoration
Not in book!
Minoan Civilization on Crete
1900-1450 BCE
• Large island in Mediterranean; stable agricultural
society in Bronze age but no metal
• 1st Seaborne Empire (active traders!)
• Written language, not translated
• Named by archaeologist Arthur Evans in 1900
after legend of the Minotaur and King Minos
• Two major periods: Old Palace & New Palace
MINOAN: Old Palace Period, 1900-1700 BCE
Reconstructed drawing of Palace at Knossos, excavated by Sir Arthur
Evans (jknow & discuss) .. Maybe not a king/palace? We don’t know.
Ruins of Knossos today. Sir Evans found the labyrinth!!
•First use of dressed stone in
Aegean (finished local stone)
•Walls coated with plasters, some
murals
•Commercial centers w/workshops
•Huge storerooms for olive oil, grain,
wine.
•Running water/sewer system.
•Rebuilt after fires & earthquakes in
New Palace period
Reconstructed interior Knossos
Minoan Art - Old Palace Period
Sophisticated pottery and
metalwork.
Traded these with Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
Peaceful people? Art
celebrated nature, not war..
Few fortifications in palace….
Kanaures Ware (right)
2000 BCE (old palace)
Invented potters wheel; fine
thin walls, color, painted
decorations.. Highly prized
for trade
Minoan New Palace Period
1700-1450 BCE
• Suites in Palace for archives, business, residences.. Not
much religious functions seen.
• Wet & dry frescoes in palaces and buildings
• Filled in outlines with pure color (like Egyptians), elegant
line drawings
• Ceramic arts in Marine style
• Repousse relief designs in metal developed
• Only small sculptures have been found
• CONQUERED by Mycenaens in 1450…
Flashcard Image - Bull Leaping, 1550 BCE, from Palace of Knossos, New
Palace Period,
Note female & male figures leaping over Bull, active flying gallop position
Flashcard Image - Bull Leaping, 1550 BCE, from Palace of Knossos, New
Palace Period,
Note female & male figures leaping over Bull, active flying gallop position
Landscape,
(Spring Fresco)
Akrotiri
Wall Painting
from Thera
Cyclades, before
1630 BCE
1ST
LANDSCAPE
PAINTING
Sophisticated
colors & surface
detail
Bright colors & earth tones, rhythmic movements; color of wetrocks in
Thera in sun; art more nature than war/kings.
Woman with Snakes or Snake
Goddess,
New Palace Period Minoa,
Faience, 12” high
Flashcard image
Different theories.. Ritual object
Discovered by Sir Arthur Evans
Goddess or attendant?
Dressed in Minoan costume
Possible links with Egyptian culture
(Homework: research assignment,
read & write 2 paragraphs with your
opinion)
Harvester Vase,
Crete, New Palace Period
Carved soapstone, 4”
diameter
Rowdy parade of men
singing, jostling each other
Shows emotion, freedom
Rhyton = carved stone
vase, also made lin shape
of bulls
Octopus Vase
(Flashcard Image)
Crete, New Palace
Height 11”
1500 BCE
Kamares ware jug
Octopus surface
decoration
“MARINE STYLE”
Natural forms
harmonizing with the
vessel’s shape
Vapheio Cup, Gold, 1650-1450 BCE, found near Sparta but Minoan origin.
Repousse technique- hammering from back of sheet. Men capturing bulls.
Mycenaean Helladic Architecture
1450-1100 BCE
• Warlike culture, took over Crete/Minoan society and
mainland Greece
• Destroyed Palace at Knossos, built over it
• Built citadels; strongholds w/megaron (great room)
• Citadel at Mycenae identified as home of King
Agamemnon, leader of Greeks that conquered Troy.. Story
recorded by Homer
• Many artworks uncovered by Heinrich Schlimann; also
found remains of city of Troy in modern day Turkey
•Walls 25’ thick 30’ high
•Home of King
Agamemnon
•Guardian figures at
Lion’s Gate
•Grave circle at bottom
•Megaron = great room
with central hearth and
throne
Citadel at Mycenae, 1600-1200 BCE, including Lion’s Gate
Citadel Mycenae, reconstruction
Lion’s Gate, Mycenae
Is it a temple?City gate?
Reconstruction drawing of Megaron in Palace at Pylos, 1300-1200
BCE, destroyed in military upheavals. Painted plaster murals,
Minoan type columns, elegant furnishings
Mycenaean Tombs
• Much more important tombs than in Minoa or
Cycladian civilizations
• Started with shaft tombs 20-25’ deep; royalty
buried with ceremonial weapons and status objects
• Began building BEEHIVE or Tholos tombs, such
as Treasury of Atreus
• Corbel vault-arched ceiling made of projecting
layers of stone until meet in middle
Tholos/Treasurey of Atreus, 1300 BCE, Mycenae
Mask of
Agamemnon,
1600 BCE
Gold funerary
mask
Mycenae, Greece
Repousse
Discovered by
Heinrich
Schlieman
Dagger blade
found in tomb also
resembles artwork
described by
Homer
flashcard
image
Minoan-Mycenaen artistic
exchanges such as this
sculpture
Carved, detailed ivory
miniature
Two Women with a Child
1400-1200 BCE
2.5” high, ivory
Found in Palace at Mycenae
Krater used
for mixing
water and
wine.
Stylized,
formal, rigid
soliders
marching off
to war.
Frontal eye
like
Egyptians.
Technically
more
advanced
ceramics.
Warrior Vase, Mycenae, Ceramic, 16” high, 1300-1100 BCE
Flash card image!