Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm INTRODUCTION Scope of the course – where, when, what Where: geography – the Aegean world – Aegean Sea, Black Sea, Hellespont - Crete, Ionia, Macedon, Thessaly, Peloponnese, Attica - Illyria, Thrace, Asia Minor / Anatolia (Hittites, Lydians, Persians) When: focus on which time periods? - Bronze Age (ca.3000 BC) - Archaic and Classical periods (ca.800-323 BC) What: various media – how much survives after 5000 years of deterioration? - painting (pottery and some wall painting / ) - sculpture (large statues, small figurines, relief versus round) o additive methods – clay and wax (for casting bronze – solid or hollow cast) o subtractive methods – carving wood and stone (marble) o chryselephantine – mixed media (gold and ivory) ▪ Athena Parthenos (late 5th BC Athenian acropolis) - Architecture o private – houses and tombs o public buildings – palaces, fortifications, the Greek temple - “minor arts” (jewelry and ornament) and other physical remains (bodies)

What is Art history? Is it real history? - literature and text versus image and object o the problem of “pre”history (before writing)? o How does a hoplite fight? no written description, so answer relies on objects and images - What do art historians do? o connoisseurs → beauty; critics → worth = quality (relevant to collectors) o academics → change over time as a reflection of culture o authenticity and intentionality of design - modern versus ancient – was the past technologically primitive and inferior? o (Hellenistic 2nd BC) = the first computer? o Malia bee pendant – MM III (ca.1700 BC) – granulation technique o Attic Black and Red Figure pottery – quality of glossy black colour on vases ▪ Black Figure , Red Figure psykter - modern biases and theories: we often assume (without sufficient proof) that o change in material culture = change in culture o cultural change = conquest (a historical narrative)

What is the big deal about Greek art? - realism (first time ever in art) - experimentation and change over time (rather than tradition) o Archaic abstraction, Classical idealism, Hellenistic realism o modern ultra-realism? dead bodies in art and computer animation o Greek innovation compared with Egyptian conservatism - technical mastery - afterlife and influence o begins with Roman plunder 146 BC on – hollow cast bronze statues from shipwrecks (survival but loss of context) o rebirth / rediscovery of Greek art in Renaissance Italy (15-16th AD) ▪ the Pope’s collection (Belvedere Palace, Vatican, Rome) 1

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm ▪ Belvedere Torso – found in Rome in 1430s, influenced Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in Sistine Chapel, possible Greek original (school of Pergamon, 2nd BC / Hellenistic period), Herakles or Dionysos ▪ Laocoön and his sons – found in Rome 1506, probably original (school of Pergamon, 2nd BC / Hellenistic period), mentioned by Pliny the Elder (sculptors from Rhodes), stylistic similarities to sculptures in the Great Altar of Pergamon (early 2nd BC) ▪ Apollo Belvedere – found in Rome 1489, marble copy of bronze original by Leochares (4th BC) ▪ Sack of Constantinople / Byzantium / Istanbul in 1453 (by Ottoman Turks) – Orthodox Christian refugees arrive in Europe bringing manuscripts of ancient Greek and Latin literature ▪ rediscovery of Greek and Roman heritage = the Renaissance o Enlightenment Europe (18th century) – Classical studies in education – new disciplines of: ▪ History – E. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1776 ▪ Archaeology – first scientific excavation at Pompeii 1748 • Foreign archaeological “schools” in Greece: French 1846, German 1874, American 1881, British 1884 ▪ Art History – begins with J.J. Winckelmann (1717-1768, “father of art history”) invited to Rome to examine the Pope’s sculpture collection and try to distinguish Greek from Roman sculptures and originals from copies. Examine: tool marks (bow drill, mallets and hammers; flat, pointed, rounded and claw chisels) and surface treatments (rough vs polished)

Art historical analysis - Social, cultural and historical context o provenience (original location), stratigraphy (to establish date), assemblage (other objects in same context) o artist and patron (“art for art’s sake”) – different cultural traditions about “art” - Physical properties o material / medium, form, structure, tools and technique of manufacture - Stylistic considerations o genre and style (requires comparative material to place something in sequence) o image, iconography and interpretation ▪ example = Annie Liebowitz’s 2006 Vanity Fair cover (Kiera Knightly, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Ford) and spoofs ▪ elements of an image = colour and light, composition, setting, pose, gesture, expression, and context - Interpretation and its problems o provenience and context ▪ accidental discovery, destruction, intentional plunder, illegal trade, museum collections o authentication – restorations, copies and fakes ▪ Copy: When the original is lost, how do we know how close the copy is? What is original and what is later variation? • Farnese Herakles – discovered in Rome in 1546; Roman marble copy by Glykon in 216 AD (for Baths of Caracalla, Rome); original = hollow-cast bronze statue by Lysippos ca.330 BC. Torso and pose are very different even among copies of the statue. ▪ Conservation and Restoration: How far should restoration go? The answer varies over time. Modern restoration is much more conservative than 100 years ago. 2

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm • Blue Ladies fresco from Knossos – E. Gillieron ▪ Fakes / pastiches: Forgers often use ancient materials slightly altered to create a more desirable (ie. expensive) item for the illegal trade in antiquities. • The Ring of Minos, Heraklion Museum, Crete • “Our lady of sports” chryselephantine female bull-leaper, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Problems with archaeological evidence - proceeds blindly, destroys evidence - revision and new finds - physical properties versus significance and use of object o eg. amphora 750 BC – storage vessel used as grave marker - bias towards elite evidence → “diagnostic” features o eg. pottery – luxury ware versus every-day ware: the rhyton (everyday kitchen funnel or libation vessel for religious offerings?) ▪ Marine Style ovoid rhyton with narrow neck to form vacuum (magical properties) – imitates even more luxurious vessels on stone and metal Written evidence → the only thing that can tell us the thoughts and beliefs of people - primary sources = ancient written sources o technical manuals (Vitruvius), and treatises (Pliny the Elder), travel writing (Pausanias), incidental descriptions (in most authors – history, philosophy, poetry and drama) o inscriptions – building accounts (eg. for the Erechtheion), inventories (eg. for the Parthenon) and votive inscriptions Problems with written evidence - illiteracy (lack of writing), elitism (dead white men), silence, speculation (by ancient authors or modern…), authorial voice (honesty?)

PERIODS IN GREEK ART HISTORY Stone ages: 400 000 BP to 3000 BC Paleolithic (400 000 BP to ca.8300 BC) Mesolithic (ca.8300-6500 BC) – begins with end of ice-age Neolithic (ca.6500-3000 BC) – begins with the agricultural revolution Bronze Age ca.3000-1150 BC Early, Middle, and Late periods Cycladic, Minoan, and Helladic civilizations Iron Age / Dark Age / Geometric Period Iron Age (ca.1150 BC to present?) – tool making technology (archaeological label) Dark Age (ca.1150-800 BC) – culture and writing (historian’s label) Geometric Period (ca.1100-700 BC) – pottery style (art historian’s label) Archaic / Orientalizing Period Archaic (ca.800-480 BC) – written records / history Orientalizing (ca. 700-600 BC) – pottery style Attic Black Figure (ca.600-510 BC) – pottery style Attic Red Figure (ca.520-320 BC) – pottery style Classical Period 480-323 BC – defined by the Persians, then Macedonians Transition (ca.480-450 BC) High Classical (450-400 BC) = sculpture periods mostly Fourth Century (399-323 BC) Hellenistic Period 323-31 BC – defined by the Romans 3

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm

EARLIEST INHABITATION OF GREECE Middle Paleolithic – 200 000 BP to 120 000 BP - homo erectus, homo sapiens and Neanderthals - nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle - cave shelters (Petralona 200,000 BP, Alepotrypa 120,000) - islands settled ca.130 000 BP – stone tools on Crete (Preveli gorge) - The Franchthi Cave – 18,000 years of seasonal habitation (ca.20,000 to 3000 BC) o cave 170m deep, roof collapses, fresh water at back o nomadic hunter-gatherers o stone (obsidian from Melos and flint) and bone tools – mortals and pestles, hand axes, weights, fish-hooks and points; pottery – collared jar o primary and secondary burials ▪ tool set from female primary burial (craftswoman?) – obsidian blades and scrapers, bone points and awls) o Late Neolithic seated “steatopygous” female figurine ca.4500 BC – painted terracotta

Neolithic Period ca.6500-3000 BC - agricultural revolution: o domesticated herds and flocks (sheep and goats) and farming of crops (grapes, olives, grain) o new farming tools (hoe, plough, yoke, sickle) – stone still - large permanent settlements – domestic and public architecture - economic, social and political structure o craft specialization, private property, women, chieftain and megaron - Dimini, Thessaly o megaron at top of hill with courtyard in front o pottery decorated like basket weaving, steatopygous figurines – female fertility goddess? (c/w the Venus of Willendorf from Austria ca.24,000-22,000 BP)

THE BRONZE AGE (ca.3000-1150 BC) Cycladic Civilization (3000-1400 BC) - peak = 3000-2000 BC (Early Bronze Age = EBA) - Cyclades, kyklos, Aegean Sea - natural resources o minerals (iron, gold, silver, lead, some copper) o stone (obsidian from Melos, marble from Paros, emery from Naxos, pumice from Thera) - typical settlement – Ayia Irini, Keos; typical graves = cist graves

Cycladic Art (EC period – 3000-2000 BC) - marble vessels “piriform jar” – oil lamp often found in graves = luxury material (worked stone) - marble working tools – bow drill, splitting wedges, hammers and mallets, bronze saws and chisels, obsidian blades, abrasives (emery and pumice) - Cycladic figurines – marble o schematic type → anthropomorphic form? Seated goddess? o folded-arm figurines (FAFs) ▪ regional styles, geometric proportions, feet pointed down = proper display lying down? ▪ large heads, sculpted and painted detail (eyes, ears, mouth, red striations on cheeks) ▪ the Keros hoard (2800-2300 BC) o male “action” figurines – feasting activities (musicians – lyre and flute, drinking) 4

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm o afterlife → influence on early 20th century sculpture and painting (C. Brancusi and A. Modigliani) - Cycladic frying pans (Early Bronze Age EBA / Early Cycladic period EC) o purpose unknown (but not for cooking) o incised decoration – narrative (boat on sea, sea voyages) Cycladic painted Pottery - MC period (ca.2000-1650 BC) o love of nature – landscapes and seascapes with animals (bull, dolphins etc) o narrative scenes on large vases (larnax) – hunter appears and sets birds and goats in motion across flowery field - LC period (1650 BC-on) o smaller scale scenes (“still life”) on pottery → plants (barley) and animals (especially birds) o narrative scenes move to wall painting instead of pottery

Wall painting / fresco - wall construction – stone socle, courses of rough stone masonry as base, smoothed ashlar blocks at corners, wooden framework, mudbrick upper courses, lime plaster - buon fresco “true fresco” and fresco secco “dry fresco” – plaster wall, transfer design (cartoon or incision), apply pigment to wet plaster

Akrotiri, Thera eruption ca.1625 BC – buildings and walls preserved to 3 storeys - Complex Delta → the Spring Fresco o lilies bloom, swallows feed their young, colours of volcanic Thera (red, black, yellow, white) - The West House o upstairs room 5 – entire decorative program = theme of water and seafaring (fishermen carry catch towards tripod offering table) ▪ Nilotic landscape (caracal / cheetah, lotus, griffin) ▪ daily life / cosmography (boar’s tusk helmet on warriors) ▪ Miniature Fleet (departure town, Nilotic landscape, seascape, flotilla, flagship, merchant vessel, rowers, paddlers, sailing, arrival town with colourful terrain) o Upstairs room 4 – ikria → ship’s captain? Also private flush toilet - Xeste 3 – finely cut stone masonry, co-ordination of wall painting themes between upper and lower floors → rite of passage for girls? o Upstairs – saffron gatherers, goddess on dias (crocuses, ducks and dragonflies, snake, griffin and monkey), older women o Downstairs – pier and door partition system before adyton – girl with necklace, wounded girl, veiled girl, horns of consecration above painted ashlar wall with doorway

Minoan Civilization on Crete (3000-1150 BC) – peak from ca.2000-1500 BC - Palaces: Chania, Phaistos, Knossos, Malia, Zakros and more - Minoan thalassocracy “naval empire” in Cycladic islands, mainland Greece and Asia Minor? o sites of Kythera, Rhodes, Akrotiri, Miletus - Sir Arthur Evans o seal stones, excavated Knossos starting in 1900 o named culture “Minoan” after mythical King Minos ▪ ancient name of Crete = Kaphtor, people = Keftiu? o three-part chronology based on pottery styles ▪ Early / Middle / Late = EM, MM, LM – applied to all Bronze Age civilizations ▪ alternate chronology → based on architectural phases: 5

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm • Prepalatial = EM • Protopalatial = MM • Neopalatial = early LM • Postpalatial = late LM

Minoan Architecture: the Minoan palace →Knossos - palace lifespan = ca.1900 to 1200 BC = over 700 years; focus on Neopalatial period - public gathering place (for entire community) o large open courtyards (central court, west court, theatral areas with steps), paved courts and raised causeways for processions o palace entered from all sides - economic and administrative functions o storage (magazines, pithoi and stone cists), workshops (manufacture of luxury goods) o bureaucracy and administration (writing = Linear A accounting of goods) - palace and royal court – residence and political centre of government o aristocratic houses nearby (the Minoan Villa or Mansion) o residential quarters in east wing of palace? ▪ controlled access, reception rooms, domestic quarters ▪ pier-and-door partition system, light wells, shaded colonnades, bathrooms with indoor plumbing ▪ Grand Staircase, Hall of the Double Axes, “Queen’s Megaron” - sacred spaces → mostly in west wing of palace (but disused adyton in “residential quarters”) o control access to storage magazines o adyta approached by pier-and-door partition system o Throne Room – pier-and-door partition system, Blue Ladies and griffin and palm trees fresco, adyton, throne cut from “living” rock o Tripartite Shrine, Temple Repositories (with Snake Goddesses – “Mistress of Animals”), Pillar Crypts (incised with double axes) - Sacred symbols – double axes (labrys), horns of consecration, bulls (bull leaping, bull sacrifice, bull’s head rhyton for libations) - labrys and labyrinth = “place of the double axe”

Minoan Art iconography - view – bird’s eye / aerial, profile or frontal, mixed “perspective” - perspective / depth – linear perspective? (no – a Renaissance thing) o light and shadow, relative size, overlapping, vary ground line - horror vacui “fear of emptiness” Pottery - personal and private, functional purpose, abundant (hence used to create chronology) - characteristics of Late Minoan (LM) pottery o typical shapes of vases (and uses) ▪ pithos / pithoi = storage of large amounts of produce; coarseware = rope like molded decoration; fineware painted in Alternating Style ▪ rhyton / rhyta = funnel for liquids = transport and controlled pouring of liquids (for everyday use OR in ritual context; smashed after ritual use) ▪ ewer – pouring of liquids, imitation of metal vessels? ▪ conical cups = drinking • MM luxury cups = Kamares Ware cups and Straight-sided cup with spirals 6

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm ▪ three handled jars – serving and storage of small quantities of goods o LM decorative luxury styles (ca.1650-1500 BC) ▪ Floral Style – motifs from plant life (crocuses, lilies, grasses and grains) ▪ Marine Style – seascapes and sea life (nautilus, octopus, shells, starfish, coral, seaweed) o decoration highly naturalistic (instead of schematic) but not realistic o axis of design does not match axis of the vase o shape of decoration suits shape of vase

Late Minoan Wall Painting / fresco (Piet de Jong reconstruction of Queen’s Megaron) The Grandstand Fresco – miniature scene; Knossos west facade of Central Court with Tripartite Shrine? Skin colour conventions: 1. red = male, white = female 2. different social status (white = high status?) 3. stages of an action 4. different function of figures The Priest King / Prince of the Lilies fresco – or Young God approached by procession? 3 parts don’t join, relief fresco, gesture of command (seen in sealings = Master Impression and Mother of the Mountain sealing; and in figurines = terracotta and chryselephantine) The Bull Leaper fresco One of a series of miniature panels all depicting bull leaping 1 bull leaper, 1 bull grappler, and 1 bull distractor / rodeo clown? Male rites of passage? Types of scenes: ceremonial scenes – religious and political? The Procession Fresco – tribute bearers? (carry vases and conical rhyton, wear woven or embroidered kilts), a common theme in Egyptian tomb painting too (Keftiu bring tribute to pharaoh) Conventions of Minoan wall painting: influence of , skin colour (?) genre scenes – not specific or historical (religious, political, ceremonial) love of nature and movement (but often fantastic backgrounds) varied colour palette (no shading) no optical depth or perspective → overlapping, vary groundline, “plastic” (relief fresco) influence on other media (pottery, carving)

Minoan sculpture / stone carving The Sanctuary Rhyton, from Zakros 1500-1450 BC low relief carving, gilded steatite, peak sanctuary depicted? intaglio carving – seal stones, rock crystal lens (from Troy – 10-15x magnification) metal signet rings – created in steatite moulds carved intaglio The Isopata Ring (near Knossos, 1600-1450 BC) Ring from Archanes, 1600-1500 BC – tree shaking and baetyl hugging Carving in the round – multiple materials combined Bull’s Head rhyton, Knossos 1600-1500 BC = serpentine, rock crystal, jasper, shell, gilded wood Figurines – terracotta, solid cast bronze, faience MM = Protopalatial period 1900-1700 BC terracotta deity, solid cast bronze worshipper (both from peak sanctuaries) MM to LM = Neopalatial faience snake goddesses (Knossos, ca.1600 BC) 7

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm Bull Leaper (Knossos, 1600-1500 BC) – chryselephantine (gold & ivory) and more (stone) ivory = flesh of the gods? (extreme detail) LM decline = Postpalatial period 1300-1150 BC = end of the Minoans terracotta figurines (1300-1150 BC) – “goddess with upraised arms” Snake, Poppy and Dove goddesses wheel-made by potters, not professional sculptors destruction of all rich Minoan sites ca.1470 BC – new Mycenaean culture on Crete afterwards (Palace Style pottery, Linear B writing = Greek)

THE MYCENAEANS (ca.1650-1150 BC) Helladic civilization ca.2800-1150 BC citadels and palaces, the Trojan War (Homer) Heinrich Schliemann – Troy 1868-1890, 1876 (Grave Circle A)

Mycenaean architecture: citadel at Mycenae: chronological development ca.1650-1550 BC Grave Circle B – excavated in 1950s, 26 cist graves, shaft graves and chamber tombs ca.1600-1500 BC Grave Circle A – excavated by H. Schliemann 1876 by 1400 BC = palace (megaron – courtyard, porch with 2 columns, anteroom, throne / hearth room; axial design), architecture of control fortification walls = Cyclopean masonry; 3 phases 1340 BC – upper hill surrounded 1250 BC – Grave Circle A enclosed Lion(ess) Gate entrance (post and lintel construction, relieving Triangle, Minoan iconography) – might have been lions, griffins or sphinxes but female 1200 BC – enclose secure water supply; citadel destroyed soon after Tholos tombs (1500-1200 BC at Mycenae) dromos, stomion, burial chamber, corbel vault (with capstone, not a true arch with keystone) Treasury of Atreus (ca.1250 BC) – largest with dromos 36m long, corbel vault 13.5m high

Mycenaean Art Grave Circle A – 6 wealthy shaft graves (1600-1500 BC) - gold: plaque and foil ornaments, child body coverings, jewelry and pyxis, drinking cups, death masks (1 electrum, Type A and Type B, – real, fake or doctored?), signet rings and seals (Goddess Seated under Tree), rhyta (lion’s head and bull’s head – silver also) - weaponry: bronze swords, niello daggers (Syrian technique, Minoan and Cycladic iconography) - exotics: Baltic amber and African ostrich egg rhyta - Style and provenience: wide geographical range in materials and techniques; style is inconsistent (but mostly Cycladic and Minoan) Mycenaean Pottery MH = Middle Helladic styles = Minyan ware and Matt Painted Ware painted pottery is rare until conquest of Crete (ca.1470 BC) LH = Late Helleadic Palace Style – Knossos, Crete 1450 BC (naturalistic Minoan forms schematized and simplified) “Octopus Style” based on LM Marine Style on Crete Koine Style, ca.1370-1190 BC – minimalist, patterns not narrative scenes Typical shapes: Stirrup jar (liquid storage and pouring), Sympotic pottery = kylix, krater for the symposion “drinking party” 8

Greek Art and Archaeology – Terms to Midterm larnax = sarcophagus and bathtub with themes reminiscent of Greek myth (Agamemnon killed in his bathtub and the Sphinx in Thebes) Pictorial Style – narrative scenes return to pottery after destruction of palaces the Warrior Vase, Mycenae ca.1150 BC – woman farewells the troops; soldiers enter battle

Mycenaean Wall painting / fresco – ca.1300-1200 BC (only while palace walls stand) type scenes (common to many palaces) Minoan influence (but worse anatomy) Bull leaping scenes, life-sized processions (women – same at Thebes, Tiryns and Pylos) warfare and hunting scenes megaron at Pylos – griffins and lions flank throne, huge bull, seated men feasting, lyre player with bird

The End of the Mycenaeans: Greece enters the Dark Age / Iron Age destruction of all citadels from 1280-1200 BC economic collapse – foreign trade lost (Iron Age) cultural collapse (Dark Age) – writing is lost, art and architecture decline population falls by 75% cultural continuity – nostalgia for a “golden age” = Greek mythology

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