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Chapter 4Minos and the Heroes of

Homer:The Art of the Prehistoric

Aegean

Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 12e

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The Prehistoric Aegean

** Cyclades ** Knossos ** Thera ** Phaistos ** ** Hagia Triada ** Tiryns ** Mycenae**

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Goals

• Identify the geographic area known as the Aegean. • Discuss the visual aspects and possible context of the Cycladic

sculptures. • Discuss Minoan society and architecture. • Understand visual aspects of Minoan art. • Relate significant aspects of archeological excavations at

Mycenae. • Understand the link between culture and architecture of

Mycenae • Discuss the relationship between Minoan and Mycenaean art

and culture

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Important Names

Arthur Evans: British archaeologist who uncovered the palace at Knossos, Crete, in 1900. He named the people who built it the Minoans, after the mythological king Minos.

Homer: Composed the Iliad c. 750 BCE, one of the finest epic poems ever created. It describes the Trojan wars.

Heinrich Schliemann: German businessman-turned-archaeologist who uncovered Troy (Hissarlik, Turkey) between 1870-1890. He discovered that the site held a number of fortified cities built on top of the remains of each other.

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The Greece of Homer

• Originally thought the world described in Homer’s epic poem the Iliad was mythological.– But in the late 1800s. Heinrich

Schliemann proved that belief wrong with the discovery of Troy and a fire that dated to the time of Homer’s epic.

– Next to be moved from fiction to history was King Minos of Knossos, Crete – more recent Minoan remains found on Thera [now Santorini]

Example of Linear A

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The Early Cycladic FiguresMade of the abundant local

marble, found on Naxos & Paros.

• Most were statues of nude women with their arms folded, like many Stone Age examples.

• Traces of paint are found on several.

• Believed to be funerary offerings.

• Male figures include the lyre player from Keros. 2700-2500 BCE

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Cycladic Art– 2700-2500 BCE Stylistic characteristics

of the Bronze Age statuettes from the Cyclades:

a. strikingly abstractb. human body rendered in highly

schematized manner

c. originally painted in bright colors

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Cycladic Art …Resemblances with 20th cen. works

Wilhelm Lehmbruck

Henry Moore

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Minoan Culture and Art

Aerial view and plan of the palace at Knossos 1700-1400 BCE

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Figure 4-4 Plan of the palace at Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1700–1400 BCE.

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Minoan Culture and Art

• Middle Minoan palaces destroyed around 1700 BCE—earthquake?

• Knossos is a Late Minoan palace.• Famed for the Minotaur's labyrinth–

Theseus battled the bull-man with help from Ariadne

• Labrys = double-ax: found everywhere in Knossos as a sign of sacrifice.

• Palace made of rough fieldstones covered in clay.

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Minoan Culture and Art

Architectural characteristics of the Palace at Knossos:a. Grouped around large rectangular court.b. Two long corridors separate rooms of different

functions. c. Well-constructed with thick

walls of rough, unshaped fieldstones embedded in clay.

d. Terracotta pipes provided drains and light wells in staircases provided air and light.

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Minoan Culture and Art

The problem with Arthur Evans• We owe a lot to him, BUT• His reconstruction strays far from the original,

even when there were appropriate fragments.• Approached the reconstruction as a Victorian

gentleman – note the hairstyles!

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Minoan Culture and Art: Palace Frescos

• The Bull Leaping Fresco at Knossos.• Fair/Dark skin convention for female/male representation.• Elongation and pinched waists- show more movement

than previous paintings.

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Minoan Culture and Art: Thera [Cyclades]• Akrotiri: Miniature Ships Fresco. – survived because

buried by a volcano– thus not “mis-restored”• 17” high/at the top of 3 sides of a room.

– Provides information about sea-faring practices.– Figures represented according to their role.– Reminds us of Homer’s Iliad. ca. 1650 BCE

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Minoan Culture and Art: Thera [Cyclades]

Akrotiri: Spring Fresco– Nature is the sole subject• Intended to express joy.• 1st known example of a pure landscape painting.• Lacks humans and narrative element.• Frescos are now

“wet” or true frescos. Painted into wet plaster. Long lasting.

ca. 1650 BCE

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Minoan Culture and Art: Pottery Crete

Sea Life on Pottery – Kamares ware -- Phaistos• Used potters’ wheels [new] creamy white & reddish

brown. 1’ 8” hight• Inspired octopus vase from Palaikastro ca. 1500 BCE 11”

high

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Hagia Triada [southern coast of Crete]

• Overview of the site.

• Hagia Triada was just to the west of Phaistos

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Hagia Triada• Late Minoan sarcophagus: 1450-1400 BCE• Illustrate Minoan funerary rites.• Reminiscent of the early Cycladic lyre player.• Also Hu-nefer's Last Judgment. Egypt ca. 1290-1280 BCE

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The Development of Minoan Pottery

The Harvester Vase: finest surviving example of Minoan relief sculpture. ca. 1500 BCE

• Only have the upper half and neck of the vase

• Mostly profile/frontal with the exception of the man beating time.

• Obvious study of human anatomy.

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The Development of Minoan Sculpture• Goddess or Priestess? “Snake

Goddess” Knossos 1600 BCE– No large temples found in

Minoan Crete.• Made of faience [glazed

earthenware]• Bare breasts suggest fertility

function– leopard on head suggests power over nature. So evidence is ambiguous.

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The Development of Minoan Sculpture

Sculpture in gold and ivory – probably imported from Egypt.

• Another serpent woman• Young “god” from Palaikastro

1500-1475 BCE

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Decline of Minoan Civilization

• Mycenaeans may have moved into Knossos, Crete at end of the new palace period around 1400 BCE

• Knossos destroyed around 1200 BCE• Focus moved to the mainland: Distinctive

Mycenaean culture existed by 1300 BCE• Giant citadels were built—Mycenae was only one.

– Best preserved are Tiryns & Mycenae, started around 1400 BCE [Homer knew of Tiryns]

– The heavy walls contrasted with the open Cretan palaces.

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Plan of the palace and southern part of the citadel, Tiryns, Greece, ca. 1400–1200 BCE.

Mycenaean ArtArchitecture

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Mycenean Art and Architecture

• Architectural innovations included the corbelled arch. • Composed of lintels, no mortar is used• Compare with barrel vault at Ctesiphon, p.51.

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Mycenean Art and Architecture

• Kinds of arches

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Mycenaean Culture and Art: Mycenae

View of the citadel remains in the surrounding landscape

• 1300-1250 BCE

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Mycenaean Culture and Art

King Agamemnon – House of Atreusca. 1300-1259 BCEA few generations before the Trojan War.

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Mycenean Art and Architecture

• The Lion Gate: forced attackers into a narrow channel.

• Formed of 2 monoliths and a lintel with the triangular relief of lions and columns with a corbelled arch above

• This kind of guardianship goes back to Egypt & Assyria.

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Mycenean Art and Architecture

Treasury of Atreus:A “beehive” or tholos

tomb. 1300-1250 BCEMisnamed.

Made of a series of stone corbelled courses, ending in a lofty dome, 43 ft high.

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Mycenean Art and Architecture

“Treasury of Atreus”

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Gold Mask from Mycenae

Funerary mask from Grave Circle A – 1600-1500 BCE•A beaten gold mask.•An attempt to render

the human face at life size.• Different ages and features were found on other masks.•NOT Agamemnon

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Inlaid dagger blade with lion hunt -- from Grave Circle A [made of bronze]

ca. 1600-1500 BCE

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Female Head from Mycenae ca. 1300-1250.

The watchful eye of Argos?

•Flesh tone indicates a female.• Facial paint or tattoo• 6 ½ inches high•May be from goddess cult.

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Last, but not least!

Warriors’ Vase – Mycenae ca. 1200 BCE• Form is a ”krater”, a bowl for mixing wine and water.• No indication of settings and a return to the repetitive forms of earlier eras.• Harbinger of a more abstracted style to come.

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Discussion Questions

What do you think are possible functions for the Cycladic sculptures?

Compare the Egyptian Old Kingdom and New Kingdom [Armana period] styles of wall painting with Minoan wall paintings.

What was the focus of Minoan art? Did they emphasize the afterlife?

Why do you think the Minoan civilization declined? Give reasons for your ideas.