The Prehistoric Aegean Overview Crete, Thera, and Mycenae. 1700-1400 BCE ● Minoans construct large administrative complexes with extensive fresco decorations during the second period on crete Early Cycladic 3000-2000 BCE ● Minoan potters manufacture Marine style vases, and sculptors care small scale images ● Sculptors create marble figurines for of gods and goddesses. placement in graves to accompany the dead ● Volcanic eruption destroys Thera 1628 BCE into the afterlife ● Mycenaeans buy their dead in deep shaft graves that also contained gold funerary Minoan Crete 2000-1700 BCE masks and cups and ornately inlaid daggers ● King Minos, King of Knossos Mycenaean 1400-1200 ● Minoan construct Major palaces on Crete during Old Palace Period ● Mycenaeans erect fortification walls around ● Cretan ceramists produce Kamares Ware their citadels painted pottery ● Oldest known large scale sculptures in Greece ● Mycenaean civilization comes to end with the destruction of their palace citadels 1200 BCE Aegean Map Minoan-Island of Crete Cycladic-Island chain of Cyclades Mycenaeans- city of Mycenae Island of Peloponnesus Cycladic Art Figurine of a woman, from Syros (Cyclades), Greece ca 2600-2300bce ● Marble was abundant in Naxos, an Island in the Cylades ● Collectors revere today for their modern geometric forms ● Women with arms folded are a motiff, and artists convention ● These sculptures were found in graves and vary to a few inches to life size. ● Many are forgeries, and grave looting led to the rarity of these sculptures. ● https://youtu.be/7C7do85sfXA ● No written record “prehistoric” Cycladic Art Male harp player, from Keros (Cyclades), Greece ca 2600-2300 bce ● Marble was abundant in Naxos, an Island in the Cylades ● Collectors revere today for their modern geometric forms ● Women with arms folded are a motiff, and artists convention ● These sculptures were found in graves and vary to a few inches to life size. ● Many are forgeries, and grave looting led to the rarity of these sculptures. ● https://youtu.be/7C7do85sfXA ● No written record “prehistoric” Minoan Art, Crete (architecture) Palace, Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca 1700-1370 bce. Minoan (King Minos), Knossos was the largest city of Minoan civilization. Island of Crete. ● Old palace period ended 1700 BCE with fires to most of the periods main architectural works. ● Late Period or New Palace period of Crete was a golden age and considered the first great western civilization. ● The prosperity of Minoan culture was due to maritime trading. Crete was a intermediate point between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Minoan Art, Crete (architecture) Palace, Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca 1700-1370 bce. Minoan (King Minos), Knossos was the largest city of Minoan civilization. Island of Crete. ● Knossos Was the legendary home and palace of King Minos ● Labyrinthine layout led to fables of the hero Theseus haunted the Minotaur in a labyrinth. The english word labyrinth derives from the intricate plan of the palace at Knossos Minoan Art, Crete (architecture) Palace, Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca 1700-1370 bce. Minoan (King Minos), Knossos was the largest city of Minoan civilization. Island of Crete. ● https://youtu.be/btGGTkext5k ● Complex in elevation, It had three tiers around a central court ● Around the south and east sides the grade sloped off sharply where the palace had 4 or 5 stories. ● Constructed of Ashlar Masonry. ● https://youtu.be/66x9VLwZaDQ ● Minoan Art, Crete (Painting) ● Bull-leaping, from the palace, Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1500 BCE. Fresco ● Wet Fresco Painting. ● https://youtu.be/Cej4Ggq5nQI ● Buon Fresco, wet fresco technique is what the Minoans Did ● Fresco Secco is what the Egyptians did. ● Bull Leaping depicts a Minoan ceremony of bull leaping in which young men grasp the horns of the bull. ● Thera (Cyclades) ● Landscape with swallow (Spring Fresco), Thera Greece. 1650-1625 BCE. ● Largest and most complete example of a prehistoric landscape painting ● This fresco is unchanged and completely intact, as opposed to other examples that have been badly repaired at later times. Minoan (Pottery) ● Left to right, Kamares Ware Jar. Marine style Octopus Flask. Harvesters Vase, 1500 BCE. ● These objects were a coveted trade item to distant civilizations, including the egyptians. ● Two pots display the Marine Style. Minoan pots displayed floral or radiating motifs ● The harvesters vase displays the earliest example of minoan relief sculpture. The artist had a keen understanding of the human body and facial expressions Minoan Sculpture Snake Goddess, from the palace, Knossos Crete, 1600 BCE. ● Minoan crete has yielded no examples of temples or statues of gods, kings, or monsters. Literary only. ● Snake Goddess is a faience, a low fire silicate(ceramic) ● The frontality of the figure is reminiscent of egyptian or mesopotamian sculpture, the clothing is distinctly Minoan. ● Don’t know if this a god, or a priest. again this is prehistoric. Mycenaean Art (Architecture) ● Citadel, Tiryns, Greece 1400-1200BCE ● Mycenaeans inhabited a more hostile world than the Minoans and had thick walls enclosing their palaces (Citadel). ● Citadel was constructed using Corbeled-Arch construction. ● This complex was designed with defensive measures in mind. Thick walls, spiraling access to gates, narrow gates and openings. ● Mycenaean Art (Architecture) ● Lion Gate Mycenae, Greece. 1300 BCE ● Post and lintel interior jambs ● Corbeled arch surrounding opening. ● Relieving Triangle is the lion relief. The lintel carries the weight of the relief while the surrounding corbel wall is not putting weight on the lintel. ● Lions are menacing like other cultures, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian Mycenaean Art (Architecture) ● Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece, 1300-1250bce ● A beehive shaped tomb. Tholos tomb. ● It’s known as a treasury by mistake, it was believed that it was the repository of a treasure of Atreus. ● Note Doorway with Relieving Triangle relieving weight on Lintel. Corbeled Dome. ● https://youtu.be/Cc9cLmgXp_A ● Metalwork, Sculpture, Painting. ● Funerary Mask, Grave Circle A Mycenae, Greece, 1600- 1500BCE ● Used the Repousse technique to fashion masks, goldsmiths would hammer the shape of each mask from a single sheet of metal and pushed the features from behind. Compare to King Tutankhamen’ s gold mummy mask. ● https://youtu.be/vaO6TJXli4A ● Metalwork, Sculpture, Painting. ● Inlaid dagger blade with lion hunt, from grave circle a, mycenae, greece 1600-1500 bce ● Made of gold silver and niello, a black metallic alloy. ● Attesting to the wealth of mycenaean kings as well as a warlike nature. ● minoan in style such as lions in full leap.. like the bull fresco. but is borrowing from Egyptian and Mesopotamian subject matter, no lions in Greece. ● Shows a intermingling of cultural artistic devices Metalwork, Sculpture, Painting. Hunter capturing a bull, drinking cup, Vapheio, Sparta, Greece, ca 1600 bce. ● Excavations from Mycenaean sites have produced examples of luxurious objects like these drinking cups. Repousse technique ● scene depicts 3 attempts of the hunter to capture the bull. ● Figures closely resemble the minoan harvesters vase Metalwork, Sculpture, Painting. Warrior vase, from Mycenae, Greece 1200 BCE. ● Pottery and vase painting was an artform that carried forward after the collapse of theMycenaean. ● Krater bowl a bowl for mixing wine and water ● at the left a woman bids farewell a troupe of heavily armed soldiers. Simplified, no real narrative, such as the aquatic/marine themed vases. .