RICE UNIVERSITY
Department of Art and Art History
Fall Semester 1998

HART 205. Introduction to the History of Art

Lecture 8 (September 21, 1998).Aegean Art
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Aegean Chronology

Neolithic

6000-3000 B.C.

Early Bronze Age

3000-2000 B.C.

Early Cycladic, Early Minoan, Early Helladic

Middle Bronze Age

2000-1550 B.C.

Middle Cycladic, Minoan, and Helladic

Late Bronze Age

1550-1200 B.C.

Late Cycladic, Minoan, and Helladic*

Subminoan/mycenaean

1200-1000 B.C.

*Late Helladic = Mycenaean

CYCLADIC ART
Female Figurine, from Syros, c. 2500-2300 B.C.
Male Lyre Player from Keros, c. 2700-2500 B.C.

 

MINOAN ART
Late Minoan Palace Architecture and Wall Painting at Knossos
Palace of Minos at Knossos, c. 1700-1400 B.C.
Minoan palace components:

West Court and West Facade
Procession Fresco, Knossos, c. 1500 B.C.
detail: The CupBearer, Knossos, c. 1500 B.C.

Central Court
The Toreador Fresco, c. 1500 B.C. (Late Minoan I)

Cult rooms and throne room on west side of Central Court
Snake Goddess, faience figurine, c. 1600 B.C.

Magazines

Residential Quarters
Dolphin fresco, Queen's Megaron", Knossos, c. 1500 B.C.

Terms
Cyclades, Crete, Odyssey, Minos--Minoan, First Palaces (Phaistos, Knossos, Mallia), polychrome, curvilinear, torsion, spirals, Second Palaces (Phaistos, Knossos, Mallia, Kato Zakro), labyrinth, gypsum, tapered columns, cushion- shaped capitals, bull-leaping, pithos (pl. pithoi), pier and door partitions, lightwells, portico.

Pottery
The Octopus Jar, Palaikastro, c. 1500 B.C.

Sculpture
Snake Goddess, Knossos, faience, c. 1600 B.C.
Young God, Palaikastro, gold, ivory, and serpentine, c. 1600 B.C.

 

CYCLADIC WALL PAINTING
Young Fisherman Fresco, Akrotiri, Thera/Santorini, c. 1500 B.C.
The Springtime Fresco, Akrotiri, Thera/Santorini, c. 1500 B.C.
The Flotilla Fresco, Akrotiri, Thera/Santorini, c. 1500 B.C.

  

MYCENAEAN 

Architecture
Palace-Citadel at Tiryns, c. 1400-1200 B.C.
Palace-Citadel at Mycenae, c. 1400-1200 B.C.
detail, Lion Gate, c. 1300 B.C.
detail, Grave Circle (Shaft Graves)
"Treasury of Atreus" (tholos Tomb), Mycenae, c. 1400 B.C.

Metalwork
Inlaid daggerr blades from Shaft Graves (royal tombs), Mycenae, c. 1600-1500 B.C.
"Mask of Agamemnon" (funeral mask), from Shaft Graves (royal tombs), Mycenae, c. 1500 B.C.
The Vaphio Cups, from tholos tomb in Laconia, c. 1500 B.C. 

Terms 

axial alignment, megaron, propylon, ashlar masonry, Cyclopean masonry (megalithic) corbelled galleries (at Tiryns) and passages (Secred Cistern at Mycenae), Lion Gate, relieving triangle, heraldic symmetry, tholos/tholos tomb (pl. tholoi), dromos, repousée Nilotic, tower sheild, Linear B

 


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