2. Birth of Greek Art: Arch & Sculpt

Standing Cycladic Figurine (2800-2200 BC)

• made in marble

• abstract form (easy to forge)

• found in tombs

Minoan “Snake Goddess” frmo Palace at KNossos (1600-1580): Minoan Minor Arts

• exaggerated proportions of the body: fertility

• Minoan skill with faience glazing

Minoan bull’s head rhyton: pouring vessel (1550-1550): minoan minor arts

• used for libations

• naturalistic, showing Minoan sculptural techniques

Mycenaean “Vapheio Cups”: from Vapheio in the Peloponnese (1500 BC): mycenaean minor arts

• ceremonial drinking cups

• two cups depict bulls in dynamic motion: one shows peaceful herding, and the other violent capture

• either made by minoans or mycenaeans with minoan influence

Mycenaean gold funerary mask “mask of Agamemnon (1600 BC) from Mycenae: Mycenaean minor arts

• funerary mask, to cover face of the dead

Mycenaean lion’s head rhyton from Mycenae (1600 BC): Mycenaean minor arts

• ritual pouring vessel (libation)

Mycenaean painted limestone head of a female from Mycenae (1300 BC)

• votive figure, found in sanctuary (maybe a sphinx)

• one of only examples of large-scale sculpture to have survived

Mycenaean “Lion Gate” (main gateway to citadel of Mycenae 1250 BC)

• largest surviving Mycenaean monumental sculpture

• two heraldic lions, flanking a minoan style column

• relieving triangle reduces weight on dorrway and leaves space for sculpture

• column in the middle is minoan style, religious significance

Ivory Votive Statuette of a Goddess (750 BC)

• Similar to xoanon (“carved image”: refers to wooden cult statues) but not nude

• early greek/ geometric period aesthetic

Pyxis with horse handle from Athens, 800 BC

• Pyxis = cosmetic box

• made in terracotta

• swastika design: movement and energy

Bronze Tripod Cauldron Ring handles from Olympia (800 BC)

• geometric period

• votive or prize cauldrons

• votive offering: gift to a god in keeping a vow

bronze geometric horse in Metropolitan museum of art in N.Y (800 BC)

• votive offering

• abstracted: long body and leg

• horse = status and nobility

• looks very similar to horse seen on geometric krate

bronze figurine of a warrior from Thessaly (800 BC): northern greece

• votive offering

• big genitals symbolize heroic masculanity

• shield resemble mycenaean shield

• same than the warriors seen on geometric krater

bronze spearman from Olympia (750 BC), sanctuary of zeus

• sharply trianguar shape of silhouetted figures, same as vase painting

• one hand holding spear and one hand holding shield

• votive offering to zeus

• arete = nobility of character
  

Warrior/centaur group (750 BC)

• either zeus battling Chronos, or Herakles fighting Nessos

• optimum view = angle which offers the observer the best view for understanding a piece

Minoan faience plaque representing Minoan houses (1700-1600 BC)

• Faience: glazed type of terra-cotta

• votive or achitectural mode

“Great Palace” of Knossos, Crete (1700-1400 BC)

• open air courtyard (originally public square?

• impression of labyrinth, linked to the legend of Minotau

Palace-city of Mycenae (1400-1200) in the Peloponnese

• lion gate

• central megaron

• some minoan elements (megaro, column shapes, but more militaristic)

Palace of Tiryns in the Peloponnese (1400 - 1200 BC)

• Cyclopean walls = walls built of huge bloack without use of mortar

• corbeled arch = arch formed by two walls of stone or brick on which each course projects beyond the one beneath it, until the two walls meet at the top

• megaron = chief room/ “throne room”, of a mycenaean palace, usually preceded by a double columnar porch. had central hearth, rectangular hall, and 4 collumns. had 3 main areas: main chamber, vestibule and two columns in porch

Treasury of Atreus, Mycenaean “beehive tombs” at Mycenea

• dromos  = long passageway to tomb

• tholos = any ciscular structure

Basic plan of an early geometric greek temple

• on left, base for a cult image

• naos = (lit: “living space”) may be a temple as a whole, or the main cult room of a temple and is equivalent to the latin term cella

temple of Hera at Tiryns (800 BC): renovated megaron

• dedicated to Hera, goddess of marriage and family

• transition from megaron to greek temple

terracotta votive model of a naos from the sanctuary of Hera at Argos in the Peloponnese (800 BC)

• Votive offering for hera

• rectangular or apsidal = in the form of a curved recess, or aps

plan of thermon sanctuary building

• temple of appolo

• Megaron A (900 BC) earlt geometric period

  • rectangular hall with central focus on cult statue

• Megaron B (800 BC): late geometric period/early archaic

  • larger, apsidal

• Megaron C (late 700 BC): early archaic period

  • much bigger, rectangular

• temenos= boundary of sanctuary

Temple of Hera (Heraion) at Samos (800 BC)

• Phase I (800 BC): simple rectangular plan

• Phase II (700 BC): addition of pteron, making the temple peripteral (columns around)

• hekatompedon: 100 foot long temple