1. Chapter 4: AEGEAN ART

2. CH4 Vocabulary Aegean Crete Peloponnesian Helladic Hellenistic
Cyclades (Cycladic)
Minoan
Sir Arthur Evans
Dressed stone
Coursed ashlar
Rhyton
Casemate
Buon fresco
Fresco secco—
Repoussé
Terracotta
Citadel
Capstone
Relieving arch
Tholos
Heinrich Schliemann
Agamemnon
Megaron
Mycenaean great hall

3. Aegean Map
Ithaca!

4. Aegean Art Cycladic: c. 2800-1550 BCE Minoan: c. 2000-1400 BCE
Mycenaean: c BCE

5. Marble Cycladic Figure. 2500 BCE
Buried their dead with marble idols.
Mother goddess of fertility
Recalls the angular, abstract qualities of Paleolithic and Neolithic.
Stiff, flat, angular, and wedge-shaped

6. Minoan Art aspects c. 2000-1400 BCE Island of Crete Playful
Rhythmic motion
Nature plays major role
Color

7. Palace of Minos. Knossos, Crete. 1500 BCE

8. COLUMN Great Court Palace of King Minos.
COLUMN AND RELIEF
Great Court Palace of King Minos, Knossos c B.C. One typical column is painted red on the shaft and black on the capital. In other columns the shaft is painted black and the capital red. On the wall behind is the fresco relief of the priest-king. Originally this was part of a pillared hall on the south side of the great court.

9. Columns – Tapered, Wood

10. STAIRWELL Palace of King Minos.
Wooden columns with base and capital
STAIRWELL
Palace of King Minos, Knossos c BC The ground level of the stairwell which adjoins the royal apartments

11. Megaron: Central audience hall
DOLPHIN FRIEZE IN THE QUEEN'S MEGARON Palace of King Minos. Knossos, Crete. c BCE
DOLPHIN FRIEZE IN THE QUEEN'S APARTMENT
Palace of King Minos, Knossos c B.C. The queen's apartment or megaron consisted of a fairly spacious suite of rooms. This is the famous dolphin frieze in the main room. Decorative rosette panels surround the door openings and run across the walls. The importance of both the sea and of animals as decorative images is clearly illustrated here.
Megaron: Central audience hall

12. Queen’s Megaron

13. BATHROOM IN THE QUEEN'S APARTMENT Palace of King Minos.
Palace of King Minos, Knossos c B.C. The queen's bathroom and bathtub, adjacent to the room above. There also was a room with a toilet that flushed. Note the elegant symbolic waves as a decorative frieze.
Note: stylized water becomes motif that decorates walls

14. Drains and Channels for Running Water

15. STORAGE JARS
Stored in basement for trade and to meet needs of royalty in palace
STORAGE JARS
Palace of King Minos, Knossos c B.C. Large jars of pithoi, which stored many of the palace's needs, are kept in magazines in the basement of the palace.

16. -FAIENCE: Type of glazed earthenware
SNAKE GODDESS c BCE
-FAIENCE: Type of glazed earthenware
-Compare with Inanna-Ishtar (Lilith figure)
FAIENCE SNAKE GODDESS
From beneath the shrine in the court Palace of King Minos, Knossos B.C. The mother goddess, also known as the snake goddess, is the source of all life and the central figure in Minoan religion. Here she is represented in elaborate court dress, exposing her breasts. She holds two snakes which symbolize the mysterious life. On her hat sits a lion.

17. SNAKE GODDESS c. 1650 BCE FAIENCE

18. RHYTON BULL 1550-1500 BCE Superbly naturalistic
Steatite, rock crystal, and gilt wood.
RHYTON BULL
From the Little Palace, Knossos B.C. A rhyton (libation vase) in the shape of a massive bull's head. It is made of steatite, with eyes of rock crystal and horns of gilded wood. The natural quality of the bull is outstanding.
What is a Rhyton????

19. The palace at Knossos (about bc) on the island of Crete was the home of this mural, known as the Toreador Fresco. Remarkable for its energetic and graceful line quality, the mural depicts the moment in which a young man has just grasped the bull's horns and leaped over its back. The Minoans worked in wet fresco technique, in which the artist had to be able to create the picture in the short time before the plaster dried.
BULL-JUMPING FRESCO From the east wing Palace of King Minos. Knossos, Crete. c BCE

21. Landscape. Thera (Akrotiri). 1600-1500 BCE Fresco: Paint on wet plaster
Landscape: From Akrotiri, Thera. One of the first pure landscape paintings we know of. Fresco: Paint on plaster

22. What’s left is buon fresco… why?

23. “Flotilla” Fresco
Akrotiri
1650 BCE

24. “Flotilla” Fresco
Akrotiri
1650 BCE

25. Modern cretan saffron
U.S. dollars per LBS.
Young girls gathering Saffron Crocus flowers
Akrotiri
BCE

26. Saffron Picker
detail

27. SNAKE GODDESS c. 1650 BCE FAIENCE
Note similarities in dress and open top
Symbols of power and wealth = snakes, lion, saffron
Ceremonial?

28. Minoan Vase Thera 1500 BCE. Jumping Dolphin = common motif in Crete
This vase, from the island of Thíra (formerly Santoríni) near Crete, was made during the Late Minoan period (circa bc). The ceramic piece, which may have been used for water, is decorated with a stylized image of a dolphin, an image that was used repeatedly in pottery and frescoes of the Minoan civilization.

29. Beaked Jug 1800 BCE Crete
Natural shell like motif

30. Octopus Vase 1500 BCE Crete

31. HARVESTER VASE. 1500 BCE. Crete
From Hagia Triada B.C. Museum of Herakleion, Crete A masterpiece of stone carving, the Harvester Vase shows a priest leading a group of men on their way home from harvesting. The warmth and high spirits captured on the steatite case is uniquely Minoan. The black color of the vase becomes one of the common colors for Greek pottery.
HARVESTER VASE BCE. Crete

33. Detail, HARVESTER VASE
From Hagia Triada B.C. Museum of Herakleion, Crete This detail shows the men singing and laughing.

34. Mycenaean Art Also known as Late Helladic Period
Height of culture lasted from 1400 to 1100 BCE
Often associated w/ Homerian legend
Mycenaean art similar to Minoan
More war-like  heavily fortified citadels

35. Palace of Minos. Knossos, Crete. 1500 BCE

37. 9/16/10 Warm-Up
You are a highly trained archeologist, historian/art historian!!!
After examining the ruins of these two structures you concluded the following
The structure on the right was constructed almost purely for defense and with the intention of frightening enemies
The structure on the left was its opposite. An extravagant palace with beautiful landscaping and no apparent need for defense.
In 4-5 sentences defend these 2 statements with historical knowledge and evidence from the images.
Archeology: scientific study of the human past through the things left behind by humans.

38. Linear B on Clay tablets

39. Tiryns Citadel. c. 1400-1200 BCE. Mycenae
20-ft thick walls

40. LION GATE 1250 BCE Citadel of Mycenae
Citadel of Mycenae 13th century B.C. The massive stone blocks at the Lion Gate have been worked to fit nicely. The door jambs smoothly against four blocks on each side and the great lintel which holds then in place. The triangular area above relieves weight from the lintel. Nine and a half feet high, the lion sculpture is made of limestone. It was probably the emblem of the royal house. The path behind the gate swings to the left to go to the palace.

44. Corbeling: Technique for constructing the relieving triangle

46. Tomb of Atreus. c. 1300 BCE. Mycenae Beehive Tomb
Facade, THOLOS TOMB OF ATREUS
Mycenae End of 14th century B.C. The entrance to the tholos tomb of Atreus, the so- called Treasury of Atreus. Symbolically the tholos is associated with the earth mother, goddess of fertility and life. The walls of the dromos or entrance are twenty feet apart and more than 120 feet long. They are made of regular ashlar blocks. Over the door are two lintel blocks, one on the outside, the second on the inside. The inside block weighs about one hundred tons. The height of the entrance to above the relieving triangle is more than thirty-five feet; the doorway is eighteen feet high. Originally the facade was dressed with half columns and relief slabs.

47. Interior of Tomb of Atreus
After about 1600 bc the Mycenaeans, ancient inhabitants of the southeastern Greek mainland, buried their dead in tholos tombs, stone chambers with beehive-shaped domes. From about 1300 to 1250 bc they built this tholos tomb, mistakenly called the Treasury of Atreus by its discoverer. It was constructed with measured stone blocks placed in ascending concentric circles. The vault of this dome reaches a height of about 12 m (40 ft).
Interior of Tomb of Atreus

48. Funerary Mask. c BCE
Repoussé: method of beating metal into shape

49. The Vaphio Cups (15th century bc) were found in a tomb at Vaphio, near Sparta. Their origins, which are not certain, are either Minoan or Mycenaean. They are made of two sheets of gold fastened together. One sheet is left smooth for the inside; the other is done in repoussé relief for the outside. The scenes on the cups depict a ritual involving bull catching.
The Vaphio Cups, 1500 BCE

50. Lion's Head Rhyton 1550 BCE Mycenae
Lion's head rhyton from Grave Circle A at Mycenae

51. Mycenaean
Minoan
Persian