Dr. Schiller: AP History of Art GARDNER 11th: Art through the Ages

1. Dr. Schiller: AP History of ArtGARDNER 11th:Art through the Ages Chapter 4: Aegean Art: Minos and the Heroes of Homer

2. Aegean Art:3000 – 1200 BCE

3. Aegean Art is divided into 3 major periods:1. Cycladic Period: 3000 – 2000 BCE2. Minoan Period: 3000 – 1400 BCE3. Mycenaean Period: 1500 - 1200 BCE

4. THE ART OF THE PREHISTORIC AEGEANBetween 3000 and 1200 BCE three important civilizations flourished on the islands in the Aegean Sea and on the mainland of Greece:

5. THE ART OF THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN1. the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Cyclades,

6. THE ART OF THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN1. the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Cyclades, 2. the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, and

7. THE ART OF THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN1. the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Cyclades, 2. the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, and 3. the Mycenaean civilization on the Greek mainland.

8. King Minos and Crete:•Legendary figure, King Minos of • Knossos was said to have lived on • the island of Crete • He was said to have exacted from • Athens a tribute of youth and maidens • to be fed to the Minotaur, a creature • half bull and half man housed in a vast • labyrinth.

9. King Minos and Crete:•In 1900, an Englishman, Arthur Evans, began work at Knossos and uncovered a palace that resembled a maze.

10. Schliemann, Troy, and Mycenae:•Homer describes in The Iliad the might and splendor of the Greek armies poised before the walls of Troy. • Through sometimes controversial methods, • German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann • uncovered many invaluable items as well as • some of the very cities Homer named.

11. Thera and Atlantis • island of Thera north of Crete

12. Thera and Atlantis • Egyptians found 8 mile wide hole: they thought the island had sunk because they didn’t have idea that so much could be blown into the air and cause the beautiful sunsets

13. Thera and Atlantis • Plato: story from Egypt—Solon met an Egyptian priest who said his secret books contained a factual story about an island that vanished overnight. Called it Atlantis. Very high civilization, they said • Said to have built a magnificent city. But legend says they became corrupt and so violent earthquakes and floods and in single night disappeared into the sea • More likely: island of Thera. Now it’s just a rim of volcanic rock jutting out of sea.

14. Aegean archeology today:Less glamorous than the palaces and works of art, but arguably more important for the understanding of Aegean society, are the many documents archeologists have discovered written in scripts dubbed Linear A and Linear B. More on these scripts later…

15. Aegean geography:The sea-dominated geography of the Aegean contrasts sharply with that of the Near East, as does its temperate climate. 

16. Cycladic Period: 3000 – 2000 BCE • this art is found on the islands called the Cyclades

17. Cycladic Period: 3000 – 2000 BCE • Among the earliest examples of sculpture from the Aegean are those from the Cyclades in the form of schematic idols recalling the contours of violins

18. Cycladic "Fiddle" amulet, from island of Kimolos, marble, c. 5" h, late 3rd millennium BCE Cycladic "Fiddle" amulet, from island of Amorgos, marble, c. 5" h, late 3rd millennium BCE

19. Neolithic/Early Cycladic idol, origin: Cycladic Islands, found: Malta, stone, c. 3,000-2,000 BCE

20. Cycladic Period: 3000 – 2000 BCE • during this period (~3000-2000 BCE), the people there buried their dead with impressive marble idols (the Cyclades had lots of white marble), usually: • standing nude female figures • arms folded across the chest Two figures of women, from the Cyclades, c. 2500-2200 BCE. Marble, 13” high and 25” high. Stokstad plate 4-3

21. Cycladic Period: 3000 – 2000 BCE • occasionally one finds a male • usually in the form of a figure playing • a harp; hence they are referred • to as “harpers” Seated harp player, from the Cyclades, c. 2800-2700 BCE. Marble, 11 1/2” high Stokstad plate 4-4

22. Cycladic Period, continued: • They females all have a distinctive shape: • angular and abstract • flat with a wedge-shaped body • a strong, columnar neck • tiled oval shield of a face • a long ridge-like nose

23. Cycladic Period, continued: • Traces of paint found on some of the Cycladic figurines indicate that at least parts of these sculptures were colored • Faces would have had painted eyes and mouth, red and blue necklaces and bracelets, and painted dots on the cheeks • We think the other features would have been painted in

24. Marble Cycladic idol from Amorgos, Greece, c. 2500 BC. In the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

25. Cycladic Period, continued: • there is a wide variation in scale: from tiny to life size (the oldest life-size figure found was male) • the best of these figures, whatever the size, have a disciplined refinement about them that is “utterly beyond” (as one art historian puts it) the range of the Paleolithic artists

26. Cycladic Period, continued: • There is an elegance and sophistication in these figures • a feeling for the organic structure of the body in • √the delicate curve of the outline • √the hints of convexity marking the knees and abdomen • these figures also have much more of a lithe and girlish figure than the Paleolithic “venus” figures

27. Cycladic Period, continued: • There is an elegance and sophistication in these figures • a feeling for the organic structure of the body in • √the delicate curve of the outline • √the hints of convexity marking the knees and abdomen • these figures also have much more of a lithe and girlish figure than the Paleolithic “venus” figures

28. Cycladic Period, continued: • What were they used for? • Some think that the statues were not specifically for the dead but instead were set up for communal worship, a kind of votive figure • Perhaps some little ones were used in the home and then buried with the owner • But we don’t really know what they meant!

29. Cycladic Pottery: • Cycladic pottery seems to have been made out of a coarse, poor-quality local clay, or occasionally out of terra-cotta. Unknown Cycladic, Cyclades, 2800 - 2700 BCEMarble and pigment 2 9/16 x 3 5/8 in. Getty Clay zoomorphic vase from Naxos. 2700-2300 BCE

30. Minoan Period: 3000 – 1400 BCEa. Early Minoan (Pre-Palace Period): 3000 – 2000 BCE b. Middle Minoan (Old Palace Period): 2000 – 1600 BCE c. Late Minoan (Late Palace Period): 1600 – 1400 BCE[Notice how these periods seem to coincide with the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms in Egyptian Art?]

31. Minoan Period: • The naturalistic pictorial style often associated with Aegean Art originated in Minoan Crete • The movement and variety of Minoan art, even in its earlier abstract phases, suggest living things, especially related to marine life • From Crete, this style spread to the other Aegean islands and the Greek mainland, where it was modified by geometric tendencies (we’ll study this in the next unit). • The rhythmic pulse that characterizes Aegean art suggests a deep reverence for the divinities of nature, particularly the ocean (not surprising, since Crete is an island!) • Crete was a wealthy sea power and traded with Greece, Egypt, the Near East and maybe further

32. Minoan Period, continued: • During the Minoan Period there was at least one major disaster. • On the island of Thera, more commonly known as Santorini, there was a great volcanic eruption about 1625 BCE • Archeologists believe that it was even more destructive than Krakatoa • This disaster may have been the basis for Plato’s writings on the lost continent of Atlantis

33. The organic quality of Minoan style is seen most clearly in the palaces of Crete. • During the third millennium BCE, both on the Aegean Islands and on the Greek mainland, most settlements were small and consisted only of simple buildings • By contrast, the beginning of the Middle Minoan period on Crete is marked by the construction of large palaces. • The four major palaces known—at Knossos (this is the one I want you to remember), Phaestos, Mallia, and Zakros—followed the same basic plan. • Following their destruction, probably in an earthquake around 1700 BCE, the palaces were rebuilt as, multi-functional complexes with many rooms serving a variety of functions, grouped around a large, rectangular courtyard.

34. Reconstruction of the palace complex, Knossos, Crete, ca. 1700-1450 BCE Stokstad plate 4-5

36. Minoan Palaces: • Rooms, on several levels, were functionally organized around a large central court • These courts must have accommodated crowds of worshipers, who gathered in front of the cult rooms to the west. • The palaces also had extensive basement storage areas (perhaps these many little rooms helped feed the myth of King Minos’ minotaur?) • Also had artists’ workshops, dining halls, and sumptuous living quarters (including bathrooms) for the noble ruling families. • the structures were light and flexible, rather than monumental, and entirely unfortified • A very notable architectural element form this period is the distinctive Minoan column, with its doughnut-shaped capital and downward (rather than upward) taper, suggesting movement rather than stability.

38. Minoan Palaces: • The Palace of Knossos is somewhat controversial • In 1900 the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans discovered a Knossos, Crete, a huge palace complex that he associated with King Minos and the labyrinth

39. Minoan Palaces: • he decided to reconstruct the palace rather than just uncover it, so that people visiting it would get a feel for what it looked like during the Minoan period • That is why, for example, those Minoan columns are so whole and colorful

40. Stokstad plate 4-8 Stairwell in the residential quarter of the palace at Knossos

41. Linear A and B: • Evans also found baked clay tablets with two types of writing, dating from the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE: • 1. Linear A • 2. Linear B

42. Linear A and B: • Linear A: • √haven’t been deciphered yet!

43. Linear A and B: • Linear B: • √Linear B tablets from about 1200 BCE have been found at Pylos and other Mycenaean sites • √Michael Ventris (British cryptologist) and John Chadwick (classical scholar) proved that Linear B is an early form of Greek

44. Linear A and B: • The discovery of Linear B on Crete supported the conclusion that the mainland people, the Mycenaeans, gained ascendancy over the Minoans!

45. Minoan Painting: • Minoan painting is found in two forms: • --the vivid frescoes on the palace walls • --the graceful designs that decorate Minoan pottery

46. Minoan Painting: vivid frescoes on the palace walls • In Crete the palaces and houses were often decorated with bright murals in the form of frescoes (murals painted on wet plaster applied to a wall)

47. Minoan Painting: • The Minoans made a major contribution to the art of landscape painting: • √of the ancient civilizations we have looked at, only in the Aegean were landscapes generally depicted for their own sake, without human figures vivid frescoes on the palace walls “Flotilla” Fresco from Akrotiri, Thera, c. 1650 B.C.E. Stokstad plate 4-1

48. Minoan Painting: vivid frescoes on the palace walls √Minoan artists represented the terrain with undulating contours and swirling striations of color to emphasize the life of the earth

49. Stokstad plate 4-14 Landscape with swallows (Spring Fresco), from Room Delta 2, Akrotiri, Thera (Cyclades), Greece, ca. 1650 BCE, approx. 7’ 6” high

50. Minoan Painting: vivid frescoes on the palace walls • In Crete the palaces and houses were often decorated with bright murals in the form of frescoes (murals painted on wet plaster applied to a wall) • The Minoans made a major contribution to the art of landscape painting: • √of the ancient civilizations we have looked at, only in the Aegean were landscapes generally depicted for their own sake, without human figures • √Minoan artists represented the terrain with undulating contours and swirling striations of color to emphasize the life of the earth • √The scenes were enlivened with animals,. such as monkeys and birds, in sprightly movement amid swaying foliage