NOTES: Art of the Ancient Aegean 4

A map of the Ancient Aegean World

FRESCO

IMAGERY : We paint and make what we know and what we imagine. (JEP)

“Young Girl Gathering Saffron Crocus Flowers” (pre-1630 BCE) is a detail of a larger wall painting from a residence in Akrotiri, a port city on the Cycladic Island of Thera. Found in a room dedicated to the initiation rites of young women, this painting is remarkable not only for its beautiful subject matter but for what it communicates about this ancient civilization. 

In the painting we see a young girl in the traditional Minoan flounced dress picking saffron crocus flowers. The flowers were used for paint and seasoning, but also to alleviate menstrual cramps, indicating a possible use in women’s initiation rites. The girl is clearly on the verge of womanhood, as the regrowth of her shorn hair, a vestige of Cycladic childhood, indicates.  

Besides what we learn of the rituals and day-to-day Cycladic life, we also sense a freedom and freshness to these representations that is absent from neighboring cultures of the same time period, most notably the artwork of the Egyptians. While the Egyptians practiced a strict regime of organization that filtered down even to their smallest portraits, Minoan and Cycladic artwork of this time embodies a free-flowing style infused with life and vigor. In conjunction with their labyrinthine palaces, the culture seems devoted not to overly-regimented discipline, but to a liberating celebration of life and all the wonder it has to offer.  
RE: http://jennyprince.livejournal.com/1315.html

The Cycladic Islands
p. 82

How the Eruption of Thera Changed the World

Thera erupts 3,600 years ago... and reshaped the world
Archaeological of 1967 remains underway

Before 3000 BCE - 1100 BCE Bronze Age cultures flourished of Aegean - a cluster of small islands on CRETE and other islands in the eastern Mediterranean and mainland of Greece. The Cyladic island of Thera is one of them. 

Tree rings show evidence of this widespread disaster from Ireland to California and Greenland show traces of volcanic ash put the eruption about 1650 - 1625 BCE.

Archaeology continues to uncover and interpret material of this culture from its original context, since its one of the three written languages that researchers, art historians and archaeologists understand.  

Not a landlocked area, similar to Egypt and the Near East. The people of Aegean area welcomed trade from various European, Middle East, African, Anatolia areas.  This included a great deal of metal. Thus bronze objects (weapons, other) flourished.

The Aegean culture was a Late Neolithic culture who flourished in the Bronze Age

Their area had great amounts of marble and sculptors used the sleek material to create a great deal of forms.  

Carved with obsidian and smoothed and polished with emory -- all stones found in abundance on the islands.  

Female figures were found almost exclusively in graves.  

There are a few male figures found. 

Cycladic figures followed strict representational styles.

Stylization of form

Strict symmetry

Basic geometric forms found

Sculptors carefully designed the figures with a compass - see drawing - each area equally spaced out

Influenced 20th century masters, Brancusi and Picasso

Kamares wares are a distinctive type of ceramic produced in Crete during the Minoan period, dating to MM IA (ca. 2100 BCE). 

Minoan Civilization on Crete
p. 84
Neolithic period c. 1900 - 1375 BCE the culture flourished on the island of Crete.

Minoan culture named after the myth of Minos, a king who ruled from the capital, Knossos.  The myth = 1/2 man + 1/2 bull monster called a Minotaurs - the son for the wife of King Minos and a bull belonging to the sea god Poseidon. They lived at Knossos in a maze called a Labyrinth.  To satisfy the Minotaur's appetite for human flesh, King Minos ordered 14 young men and women to come annually from the mainland of Athens.  This practice ended when the Athenian hero Thesuse killed the beast. 

Minoan culture is divided up into two main periods.
Old Palace period 1900 - 1700 BCE
New Palace period 1700 - 1450 BCE

The Palaces were not ruled by kings drawn from a royal family, but by a consideration of aristocrats who remained in a flourishing and revolving powerful hierarchy.

Ceramic Arts
p. 85
New types of ceramics (fired clay with slip glazes) advanced rapidly due to the invention of the potter's wheel early in the second millennium BCE. Slips created by earth pigments created painted designs taken from natural (flora and fauna) life.  Red / Browns / Blacks and white were the decorative slips for a great deal of the ceramic arts. Jugs, kraters, plates, bowls, covered jars.  Remember the people of Aegean culture relished life in all its forms - including consumption of food and drink!

FAIENCE = colorfully glazed fine ceramics used for jewelry

RHYTONS = Containers made of metal, stone, ceramics used for pouring liquids to be used in ritual. Metal works of Aegean culture rivaled Egyptian.

KRATERS = large bowls for mixing water and wine for feasts and used as grave makers. Many of these kraters were decorated with cultural stories and mythology.

The Labyrinth at Knossos, Crete
p. 86
During the New Palace Period c. 1700 - 1450 BCE - this was the period considered of the Minoan civilization. The Knossos covered 6 acres - a complex created for the living. Included, storerooms, conference rooms, ritual areas, apartments, courtyards, etc.  In one storeroom, there were covered ceramic jars to hold almost 20,000 gallons of olive oil.  Wall were coated with plaster and some painted with murals - frescos of their cultured life. Murals were painted on still wet plaster (buon fresco) or on dry plastered walls (fresco secco). The wet technique requires the painter to work extremely quickly. Minoans used both techniques. Turning natural observation into stylized patterns. 

Bull Leaping at Knossos p. 87

The Mycenaen (Helladic) Culture
p. 92 > 99
Extends from about 3000 - 1000 BCE and brought advanced techniques in metal work, ceramics, painting and architectural design.  Mycenaean built fortified strongholds called 'citadels' to protect their rulers. The Mycenaeans also buried their dead in large, vaulted tombs, round in floor plan with cut stone. 

THOLOS TOMBS 1600 BCE, members of the elite class on the mainland had begun building above ground burial places called THOLOS (beehive tombs). The most significant and largest is the TREASURY OF ATREUS which dates to 1300 - 1200 BCE. Illustrated below.