Summary
- Aegean art includes three different but inter-related cultures: Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean.
- Much of our understanding of Aegean art has been shaped by the work of nineteenth-century archeologists like Heinrich Schliemann and Sir Arthur Evans.
What is Aegean art?
Aegean art (2800–1100 BC) is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art. Because is it mostly found in the territory of modern Greece, it is sometimes called Greek Bronze Age art,...
What are some examples of Bronze Age art in Greece?
Along with the Minoan civilization of Crete and the Mycenaean of mainland Greece, the Cycladic civilization and art are the main Bronze Age civilizations of Greece. The most prominent type of artwork that has survived is the marble figurine, most commonly a single full-length female figure with arms folded across the front.
Where did the Aegean civilization begin?
Aegean civilizations. The area consists of Crete, the Cyclades and some other islands, and the Greek mainland, including the Peloponnese, central Greece, and Thessaly. The first high civilization on European soil, with stately palaces, fine craftsmanship, and writing, developed on the island of Crete.
When did art start in the Cyclades?
Figure from the Cyclades, popularized by its appearance at the Athens 2004 Olympic games opening ceremony. Early Cycladic II (2700 BC–2300 BC). Aegean art (2800–1100 BC) is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art.
What are the three civilizations of the Aegean?
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland.
What civilizations formed the Aegean cultures?
Several cultures flourished around the Aegean Sea during this period: the Minoan civilization on Crete, the Mycenaean civilization on mainland Greece, and the Cycladic culture on the Cyclades Islands.
What kind of art was produced during Aegean civilization?
Cycladic art is known for its simple figurines carved in white marble; Minoan art for its palace complexes with frescos, imagery of bulls and bull-leaping, and sophisticated pottery and jewellery; and Mycenaean art for its lavish metalwork in gold, imagery of combat and massively-constructed citadels and tombs.
What civilizations had strong influence on the Aegean cultures?
While Minoan art was the most influential on that of its Aegean neighbors during the Second Palace Period, Mycenaean society gradually gained wealth and power through interactions with other Aegean civilizations.
What was the first known Aegean civilization?
The civilization that arose on the mainland under Cretan influence in the 16th century bc is called Mycenaean after Mycenae, which appears to have been one of its most important centres.
What is the oldest Aegean civilization?
Minoan Civilization (2600-1250BC) Earliest civilization in the Aegean region.
What were the first two earliest Aegean civilizations?
Aegean Civilizations: An Overview 3300 BCE to c. 1200 BCE. The region was home to two crucial Bronze Age civilizations. First, the Minoans, followed by the Mycenaeans, created advanced civilizations that developed into the civilization of Classical Greece.
Which of the following civilizations surrounded the Aegean civilization?
During the Bronze Age, the lands surrounding the Aegean Sea were home to two great civilizations: the Minoans and the Mycenaean Greeks.
What influenced Aegean art?
Both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans were influenced by these earlier civilzations (their writing systems, for instance, are thought to be adaptations of Egyptian and Mesopotamian systems), and the Mycenaeans, who eventually colonized Minoan Crete, were the immediate forerunners of the ancient Greeks.
What was Greek art influenced by?
Ancient Greek art was influenced by the philosophy of the time and that shaped the way they produced art forms. The difficulty in understanding Ancient Greek art is that the philosophers held a theoretical view of colour and art while the artists were more pragmatic in their production of art.
What was the Mycenaean civilization known for?
Besides being bold traders, the Mycenaeans were fierce warriors and great engineers who designed and built remarkable bridges, fortification walls, and beehive-shaped tombs—all employing Cyclopean masonry—and elaborate drainage and irrigation systems.
What civilizations emerged in the Aegean world and what relationship did they have to the older civilizations to the East?
The Mycenaean civilization of Greece and the Minoan civilization on Crete's island are two civilizations that emerged in the Aegean world. Both of these civilizations had a relationship with the older eastern civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria through the strong influence that they received.
Which of the following civilizations surrounded the Aegean civilization?
During the Bronze Age, the lands surrounding the Aegean Sea were home to two great civilizations: the Minoans and the Mycenaean Greeks.
What were the first two earliest Aegean civilizations?
Aegean Civilizations: An Overview 3300 BCE to c. 1200 BCE. The region was home to two crucial Bronze Age civilizations. First, the Minoans, followed by the Mycenaeans, created advanced civilizations that developed into the civilization of Classical Greece.
What civilizations emerged in the Aegean world and what relationship did they have to the older civilizations to the East?
The Mycenaean civilization of Greece and the Minoan civilization on Crete's island are two civilizations that emerged in the Aegean world. Both of these civilizations had a relationship with the older eastern civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria through the strong influence that they received.
What kind of culture did the Mycenaeans had?
The Mycenaeans were autochthonous Greeks who were likely stimulated by their contact with Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own....Mycenaean Greece.Alternative namesMycenaean civilizationFollowed byGreek Dark Ages8 more rows
What is the difference between Cycladic and Minoan art?
Cycladic art is known for its simple figurines carved in white marble; Minoan art for its palace complexes with frescos, imagery of bulls and bull-leaping , and sophisticated pottery and jewellery; and Mycenaean art for its lavish metalwork in gold, imagery of combat and massively-constructed citadels and tombs. These are very different arts, reflecting very different cultures. For this reason, many art historians consider the term "Aegean art" inappropriate, as it reflects mere geographic proximity and not cultural or artistic unity. Others point to the many communalities, especially following the "process of Minoanization from c. 1700 upwards" over the other parts of the region, and the difficulty at several times and places in deciding whether excavated objects were imported or made locally.
What is the Aegean art?
Jump to navigation Jump to search. Figure from the Cyclades, popularized by its appearance at the Athens 2004 Olympic games opening ceremony. Early Cycladic II (2700 BC–2300 BC). Aegean art (2800–1100 BC) is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, ...
What is the most famous type of Cycladic art?
The most famous and distinctive type of Cycladic art is a large number of marble figures, almost all representing a standing female nude figure, with arms folded across chest, and a blank face apart from the nose. However, there are signs that they were originally painted.
What is Minoan pottery?
Between 2000 and 1700 BC Minoan pottery is defined by its technical perfection and dynamic swirling ornament and its art is characterized by its naturalistic and rhythmic movement. Many murals and reliefs were scenes from nature depicting animals, birds, and sea creatures in lush vegetation; marine life being favored.
How was the Minoan civilization disrupted?
Minoan civilization was disrupted at intervals by natural disasters and perhaps invasions, before eventually becoming controlled by the Mycenaens. Minoan art is very elegant, rhythmic and full of movement.
What do the female figures represent?
Some 1400 of these are known, most taken from unknown tombs to satisfy the art market. The female figures are thought to represent the mother and fertility goddess. Cycladic nude figurines are highly stylized and distinctive to the area.
Where were the Aegean Daidala figurines used?
The elegant art of the Aegean daidala figurines has recently been used at the 2004 Summer Olympics, held at Athens; specifically, during the opening ceremony and as the original idea behind the games mascots: Athina and Fivos. .
What is the Aegean art period?
The Aegean Art period encompasses works from the Grecian area (ancient Greece), most notably the Mycenaeans (Early Greeks or the first one who spoke Greek), the art of the Cyclades (an island in the Aegean Sea), and Minoan (Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands) art. Aegean art encompasses these local arts ...
What is the importance of art in the Aegean Sea?
The importance of art and its types of art included in this category are architecture, painted murals, sculptures, and other art forms.
What was the architecture of the Minoan civilization?
The architecture of the Minoan culture was decorative and very advanced, including indoor plumbing. Like the Egyptians, the Minoans celebrated their culture by painting frescoes and murals on their walls depicting courtly processions, acrobatics, and images of daily life.
What was the Minoan queen's art?
The Minoans were lovers of nature, beauty, sport, and luxury and all of these things are represented in their brightly painted frescoes, intricate gold jewelry, ivory carvings, sculptures influenced by nature, and beautifully rendered images on pottery. The architecture of the Minoan culture was decorative ...
What are the Minoans known for?
The Minoans were lovers of nature, beauty, sport, and luxury and all of these things are represented in their brightly painted frescoes, intricate gold jewelry, ivory carvings, sculptures influenced by nature, and beautifully rendered images on pottery.
What did the Mycenaeans focus on?
The Mycenaeans focused heavily on metalworking in their sculptures. Homer is said to be from this area which is why it plays prominently in his works. He spoke of some of the major artworks of these islands that would not be seen for many years until they were rediscovered in the late 19th century.
What is the first Greek sculpture?
From Cycladic artists, we have the first known Greek sculpture, characterized by nearly featureless faces on simplistic oval heads, and often Venus type figurines. The simplicity of Cycladic cultures is often compared to modern sculptors such as Henry Moore. Many of the sculptures feature only a nose, or sometimes the outlines of eyes.
What are the Minoan palaces in Crete?
Minoan Palaces, so far excavated in Crete are: 1 Knossos, the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete 2 Phaistos, the Minoan palace of Phaistos in Crete 3 Malia Palace, the Minoan Palace of Malia in eastern Crete 4 Zakros Palace, the Minoan Palace of Zakros in eastern Crete
How many Cycladic figurines are there?
Major museums around the world have dedicated Cycladic collections and exhibitions, however, out of approximately 1400 known figurines, only 40% are through systematic excavation. The New York Metropolitan Museum has an extensive collection of Cycladic Art, permanently displayed in Gallery 151.
When did the Cycladic civilization begin?
The ancient Cycladic culture flourished from c. 3300 to 1100 BC. Along with the Minoan civilization of Crete and the Mycenaean of mainland Greece, the Cycladic civilization and art are the main Bronze Age civilizations of Greece.
What was the Cyclades Islands?
The Cyclades Islands, source pinterest.com. The phenomenon of classical Greece spread in the known world, mostly by the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic period marked the expansion of Greek art, sciences, philosophy but also its eventual decline and sepsis.
How many people live on the island of Cyclades?
The island until today has maintained its sanctity and has only 14 inhabitants, the caretakers of the archaeological site. According to the Greek mythology, Poseidon, God of the sea, furious at the Cyclades nymphs turned them into islands, positioned to worship god Apollo.
What is a marble figure?
The most prominent type of artwork that has survived is the marble figurine, most commonly a single full-length female figure with arms folded across the front. Archaeologists refer to these figurines as a “FAF” for “folded-arm figure”.
How many islands are there in the Aegean?
The Aegean Civilizations. In the Aegean Archipelago, southeast of mainland Greece, a group of 220 islands forms the Cyclades. The name “Cyclades” would translate as circle of islands, forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos.
What were the Mycenaeans known for?
Like the Minoans, the Mycenaeans were also great engineers. They created massive, domed burial chambers ( tholos or beehive tombs), such as the so-called “ Tomb of Agamemnon ,” that were spectacular for their time. The technique they used was the corbeled vault: the practice of laying stones on top of one another horizontally, with each layer positioned slightly further inward than the previous one, and balanced by other stones or, in this case, earth laid next to and on top of them. This is a good moment to discuss the difference between an arch and a vault. You can also take this opportunity to introduce the vocabulary of post and lintel construction, seen in the doorway of the tomb.
What is the background reading for the Metropolitan Museum of Art?
Background reading could include excerpts from your course textbook, the thematic essays on Minoan and Mycenaean art from the Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Teacher Guide, which covers the history of these cultures in detail. A good article titled “ The Greek Age of Heroes: Myth Becomes History” by Carol G. Thomas is available through the Bulletin of The Historical Society (Boston)—this is a nice discussion of key German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann’s conflation of Homeric myths with archaeological research.
What was the Minoan civilization?
3500–1050 BCE: named for the legendary King Minos, keeper of the Minotaur, by twentieth-century archaeologist Arthur Evans, who thought the ruins were similar to the mythical labyrinth) on the island of Crete was an agrarian society whose livelihood depended on farming, fishing, and sea trade. Returning to the Octopus Flask from your first activity, you might ask your class to ruminate on how these aspects of their society are reflected in their art. How can we tell, without written documents, that the sea was important to them? What can the intended use of this object (as a flask for holding olive oil or wine) tell us about how the society functioned economically?
What are the two major pre-Greek civilizations?
First Things First... Aegean art covers two major pre-Greek civilizations: the Minoans and the Mycenaeans. This unit provides a nice segue between ancient Near Eastern (Mesopotamian and Egyptian) art and Greek art. Both the Minoans and the Mycenaeans were influenced by these earlier civilzations (their writing systems, for instance, ...
What was the Queen's Megaron?
The “ Queen’s Megaron ” (home to the dolphin frescoes) is a good example of the kinds of spaces that the palace contained: open to the air through a colonnade on one side , it would’ve been comfortable year-round in the hot climate of the Mediterranean. Again, we don’t (and can’t) know for sure that this was actually the “Queen’s Megaron” (“Megaron” means “main room”)—this was the interpretation given to it by Evans.
What is the Minoan culture?
The Minoan culture is an especially good place to get students to question their assumptions about what art means. You might begin the class by showing a simple Minoan object such as the Octopus Flask, and ask students to do a quick free write about what they think it symbolizes or represents.
What type of communication did the Minoans use?
As a commercial society, the Minoans relied on written communication, first using a pictographic system probably adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphs, and then a linear one (which archeologists have dubbed “Linear A”), which is possibly an offshoot or version of Mesopotamian cuneiform.
How big is the Minoan sculpture?
The so-called Palaikastro Kouros (not to be confused with the stylized male sculptures of ancient Greece), which dates to the Late Minoan period (late fifteenth century BCE), stands at almost 20 inches (50 cm) tall.
Why did the Mycenaeans use corbels?
Therefore, a corbeled (or corbel) arch is employed over doorways to relieve the weight on the lintel.
What are some examples of Cycladic sculptures?
Examples include the terra cotta figurines of bovine animals (possibly oxen or bulls) that date to 2200–2000 BCE, and small, flat sculptures that resemble female figures shaped like violins; these date to the Grotta–Pelos culture, also known as Early Cycladic I (c. 3300–2700 BCE). Like other Cycladic sculptures discovered to date, the purposes of these figurines remain unknown.
How many times was the old palace destroyed?
The old palace was destroyed three times in a time period of about three centuries. After the first and second disaster, reconstruction and repairs were made, so there are three, identifiable construction phases. Around 1400 BCE, the invading Achaeans destroyed Phaistos, as well as Knossos.
What is the head of a woman's head?
The bodies are roughly triangular and the feet are kept together. The head of the women is an inverted triangle with a rounded chin and the nose of the figurine protrudes from the center. Each figure has modeled breasts, and incised lines draw attention to the pubic region with a triangle.
How are the palaces organized?
The palaces are organized not only into zones along a horizontal plain, but also have multiple stories. Grand staircases, decorated with columns and frescos, connect to the upper levels of the palaces, only some parts of which survive today.
What was the Cyclades' high point?
Their geographical location placed them, like the island of Crete, in the center of trade between Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Near East. The indigenous civilization on the Cyclades reached its high point during the Bronze Age. The islands were later occupied by the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and later the Greeks.