#both based on thera frescoes

[kurj]

here's a part of a comic I'm working on + a shitpost because I couldn't help myself The minoan girls are named Asara and Malia!

#minoan #tagamemnon #bronze age aegean #ancient greece #watercolors #art #kurjdraws #its rainy and dark and colors are ducked up but i wanted to post this and let it go #so basically asara is this cool priestess and malia is a nerd whos in love with her so bad #:3 #both based on thera frescoes #my minoan art

[crosseyedcricketart]

Ancient Aegean - Art History Notes

Original post link / Original post date: October 2 2023

Timeline:  3000-2000 BCE – [Aegean] – Early Cycladic Art  2000-1700 BCE – [Aegean] – Old Palace Period (Crete)  1700-1400 BCE – [Aegean] – New Palace Period (Crete)  1400-1200 BCE – [Aegean] – Mycenaean occupation of Crete 900-600 BCE – [Greece] – Geometric & Orientalizing  600-480 BCE – [Greece] – Archaic  480-400 BCE – [Greece] – Early & High Classical  400-323 BCE – [Greece] – Late Classical  323-30 BCE – [Greece] – Hellenistic 

Vocabulary:  Cycladic – of the islands of the Aegean Sea, including Syros, Paros, Delos, Naxos, Keros, Melos, and Thera. This excludes Crete.  Minoan – art of the island of Crete.  Helladic – of the mainland of Greek. 

Early Cycladic Art – 2600-2300 BCE

Cycladic Art is titled as such for the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, which includes Syros, Paros, Delos, Naxos, Keros, Melos, and Thera, among other islands. They are named the Cyclades as the other islands seem to circle around Delos. This excludes Crete. Marble was found in the Aegean islands, which gave way to the beginnings of marble statues in Ancient Greece. The Cycladic art that we still have now consists of marble statuettes, which have a distinctive abstract style to them. Two of these art pieces are the Syros Woman and Keros Musician, both of which follow a similar style of great abstraction of the human form. 

Minoan Art – Crete – 1700-1500 BCE

In this period, Cretan art is referred to as Minoan Art. There are two periods of Minoan art: Old Palace and New Palace. The “Palace” in question were large structures, of multiple rooms, on the island of Crete. These were most likely centers for religion, administration, and commercial works as opposed to residents for royalty- though, we are not sure. In cases like this, we have more evidence for one idea than another, so the one with more evidence is used more. The Old Palace period ended abruptly at 1700 BCE, most likely from an earthquake, which lead into the New Palace period as reconstruction immediately began. The largest palace complexes were at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Kato Zakro, and Khania. These were where Minoan life took place. The largest of these palaces was at Knossos, where it was named to be the home of King Minos, labeling this palace as the home of the labyrinth of the Minotaur. It should be noted that this was given to the palace as a story as opposed to this myth happening. The English word labyrinth, however, comes from this type of floor plan used in this palace, with the intricate planning and scores of rooms. This layout, a “double ax” labrys, is reoccurring in Minoan architecture and art, representing a sacrificial slaughter. Many Greek myths were taken down generations orally and many of these stories pointed to the glory days of the times evermore ancient to the ancient Greeks; this myth is probably connected to the Minoans and their palaces while remaining a myth.  These palaces were constructed very well, made of sturdy stones embedded in clay, while sporting multiple stories. As true with most Mediterranean areas surrounded by water, Crete is mountainous and rocky, so these palaces accommodated building on top of this with multiple stories that made up for the depth of the slope. Meaning, there were parts of these palaces that were four-to-five stories tall. These palaces hosted drain systems for rain water, ventilation areas to fresh air, columns to hold the weight of the structure, and light wells to bring in natural light. Their columns were notably different than Greek or Egyptian columns of the time as they tapered from top to bottom, wide to narrower. The top was wide while the base was narrower. 

Frescos were used to decorate these palaces, featuring nature paintings and aspects of Minoan life. These were achieved differently than Egyptian frescos, which was fresco secco, as the Minoan frescos were the first true buon fresco. To achieve this, they covered the rougher walls in white, fine lime plaster and painted onto the plaster as it was still wet. This means that the painting became a part of the wall, but the painters had a shorter amount of time to achieve the paintings. These paintings do not follow a strict canon, as the Egyptians did, but instead featured a very lively depiction of Minoan life with a freshness in the artworks. 

Cycladic Art – 1600 BCE

Other frescos have been discovered, notably on the island of Thera, in Akrotiri, in the Cyclades. These were preserved by a volcanic eruption, with the area being buried in volcanic ash and pumice, similarly to how Pompeii was preserved. These frescos, as opposed to a palace/complex, decorated the walls of shrines and houses, making their number greater. These give us a better insight to how they once could have looked and their full compositions. 

Minoan Art – 1800-1500 BCE

Minoan art also featured pottery which depicted nature, particularly the sea and its creatures. These pottery pieces were the first breaths of the style that the Greeks would adopt, morphing into red-figure and black-figure pottery. The Minoans did not have life-size statues or depictions of people or pieces of mythos, having a few smaller pieces remaining. We do not know of any mythos before the Ancient Greeks. A notable art piece is the Harvesters Vase, featuring relief sculptures, while being one of the first evidences of this area of the Mediterranean having an interest in the human body and further anatomy. It’s not well known when the full decline happened of the Minoan society, but we do know that the palaces were destroyed around 1200 BCE, with the Mycenaeans occupying the area before then. The cultural significance of these palaces faded around 1400 BCE. 

Mycenaeans – 1600-1200 BCE

The Mycenaeans came to the Greek mainland at about 2000 BCE, being known as warriors who might have brought their wealth from the spoils of their victories. After Cretan palaces were destroyed, the Mycenaeans were left being the surviving Greek civilization. Mycenaean is the label placed on these people, but their fortifications were found at Mycenae, Tiryns, Orchomenos, Pylos, and other areas of Greece. These people became the silent subject of Greek mythos, as their fortifications were explained by later Greeks as being made by giants. The elite in this society were buried in bee-hive shaped tombs. The burial chamber, known as a tholos, consisted of a serious of stone, corbeled courses, laid on a circular base to form a dome. They created masks and daggers for their burials. They also produced one of the only life-size sculptures of this time on the Greek mainland. They had a distinctive illustration style on their pottery, separated from the Minoans. 

———

This was a way to force me to write down notes about the greater ancient Greek world. So hopefully this was a nice little overview of the world before the Greeks. 

I hope you enjoyed this little overview; make sure to make time for yourself today and drink some water- 

Happy travels – Annie, the crosseyed cricket.

#art #art history #greek art #aegean art #ancient greece #ancient greek art #ancient aegean art #art education #art academia #academia #dark academia #greek

[sciencespies]

Painted Bronze Age Monkeys Hint at the Interconnectedness of the Ancient World

https://sciencespies.com/news/painted-bronze-age-monkeys-hint-at-the-interconnectedness-of-the-ancient-world/

Painted Bronze Age Monkeys Hint at the Interconnectedness of the Ancient World

As far as archaeologists know, Asian monkeys weren’t trotting the globe during the Bronze Age. That’s why a millennia-old Greek painting of a gray langur—a primate native to the Indian subcontinent—was surprising enough to stop researchers dead in their tracks.

Archaeologists and primatologists re-analyzing wall paintings found in Akrotiri, a Minoan settlement on Thera (modern-day Santorini) buried by volcanic ash around 1600 B.C., have uncovered evidence that Bronze Age Greek artists knew of—and may have even seen—monkeys whose native habitat was thousands of miles away. Their findings, newly published in the journal Primates, hint that ancient cultures were more intertwined than previously thought. Eager to exchange ideas, artists or merchants may have journeyed far from home; eventually, the fruits of these wanderers’ travels were immortalized in paint.

Previous researchers have already noted that some of the Bronze Age artworks unearthed on the Greek islands of Crete and Thera depict monkeys of all shapes and sizes. Based on the animals’ features, as well as close trade relations between the Minoans and the Egyptians, some have been pinpointed as olive baboons, which are native to the forests and savannas of the African continent.

Other painted primates, however, were more mysterious. For instance, sprawled across one of the Akrotiri building’s walls is a fresco populated by blue, rock-climbing monkeys with buoyant, S-shaped tails. The primates remained unidentified until recently, when Marie Nicole Pareja, an archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, recruited a group of primatologists to re-examine the painting.

“It felt really silly to examine an image of these animals as an archaeologist and art historian without asking for the input of people who look at them every day,” she tells Tom Whipple at the Times.

After snapping photos of the fresco and several other Aegean artworks, Pareja sent them to colleagues around the world. Several confirmed the Egyptian nature of the majority of the monkeys but reported that the Akrotiri painting “unambiguously” contained gray langurs, says Pareja to New Scientist’s Michael Marshall.

A gray langur monkey flaunts its signature upward-curving tail.

(Pixabay)

According to Whipple, the langurs’ tails gave them away. Flexing skyward, they bore no resemblance to the appendages of African monkeys, which droop downward. Instead, they acted as calling cards for gray langurs, a species most likely hailing from the Indus Valley—then home to its own bustling civilization.

How exactly the artists came across their source material remains unclear. As Whipple reports, the exquisite detail seen in the fresco makes Pareja suspect it’s unlikely the works’ creators simply copied the monkeys secondhand. That means someone, whether human, monkey or both, undertook an arduous crossing of the many thousands of miles that separated the civilizations, or perhaps met somewhere in the middle.

“When you consider the distance of the Aegean to the Indus, compared to Egypt, it is incredible,” says Pareja.

Such cosmopolitan behavior probably wasn’t easy, but “our ancestors were interested in rare and exotic things, just as we are,” Peter Frankopan, a global history expert at Oxford University who wasn’t involved in the study, tells Whipple. “Long-distance trade, and connections between the Mediterranean, Asia and the Indian Ocean are well attested, even in this period, for high value, expensive objects.”

A live langur from a far-flung locale would certainly fit that bill. There’s even evidence from other archaeological finds supporting the idea that foreign monkeys might have made it to Greece: a fossilized skull on Thera, for instance, and an ivory figurine on Crete.

Wherever the primates ended up, they were significant enough for the locals to painstakingly craft into art. Known to archaeologists since the 1960s, the Akrotiri wall paintings feature scenes of daily Greek life in the Bronze Age, illuminating the manners and customs of the time, according to the Thera Foundation. If gray langurs made the cut, it’s unlikely the primates were a one-off thought for the ancient Minoans.

The monkey’s presence also signifies another cultural value that remains a keystone of the human experience: intellectual exchange.

“This is showing us that what people later consider the Silk Roads are working even then, at least indirectly,” Pareja tells Whipple. “We talk about the Minoans, about the Egyptians, about the Indus peoples, all as if they are separate. But they are interconnected.”

#News

#News

[melaniegossman-blog]

Ancient Egypt and the Aegean

In reading about Ancient Egyptian art and that of the Aegean, I find it fascinating that two civilizations can develop such different styles of artwork and maintain that same style for so long. To me this is most clear when considering how each civilization represented humans. For example, in Boxing Children from Akrotiri, Thera, the subject’s eyes are frontal, yet their feet remain profile. This combination of frontal and profile is most recognized as Egyptian art, yet this work has a major component to it which distinguishes it from Egyptian art; the bodies of the individuals are curvilinear which is seen in Egyptian art only during the Amarna period under the reign of King Akhenaten. Egyptian art was mostly created for the wealthy and powerful who were represented in sculptures and drawings with sharp angles, rectangular shapes, and rigidity which they believed showed power. However, in order to show their social hierarchy, queens and those of lower status than the king were depicted in a more naturalistic way that shows some curvilinear detailing. A prime example of this would be the statue of Menkaure an Queen Khamerernebty from Giza. Menkaure’s features are shown to be in tension with straight arms and clenched fists, yet she has her arms bent to wrap around him. Ancient Egyptian art was not meant to simply look beautiful; it was created to show the strength and power of the king in both life and death. Their consistent style of art became so widely used that today people recognize the frontal/profile combination as being Egyptian.

While reading about art in the Aegean, I could not help but think about how much of an influence the location individuals are impacts the art they create. Not only does the religion of the individuals come into play, but their geographic location affects what they make and how they make it. Ship Fresco found in Thera really emphasizes the people’s dependence on the sea. No matter what the image is meant to depict, the fact that the artist chose to paint the sea as a main aspect of the work carries a lot of importance. Being located on an island, this people depended on water travel to get by. This fresco shows that ancient people create works of art based on what they know and are exposed to. Similarly, the Leaping Bull Fresco highlights this same thought. Minoan civilization is backed in Greek mythology; during this time bulls were considered sacred and the myth of the minotaur was still widely talked about. This fresco again shows that people create art about what they know and experience. While in today’s time we could look at pictures of places from around the world and then paint them, people living 2000 years ago did not have that opportunity. They had to use what they personally saw to create masterpieces. 

Throughout both chapters five and six, I was constantly thinking about what these works of art would have been like in their prime. Many of the frescos and statues discussed in the book had to be reassembled in order to become recognizable as something other than a pile of rock or colorful pieces of plaster. This reminded me of the Greenpeace article we first read and our discussion over what our responsibility is over the preservation of art. There are numerous variables which impacted the preservation of ancient art and made many irreparable, yet this idea that we should do our best to preserve what we have now for future generations is only strengthened because of that. If wars would not have happened and civilizations would have been left intact our world today would have no doubt been very different, but the artifacts and architecture we would have today would be phenomenal. If grave robbers had not taken or destroyed what they found in the Valley of the Kings, we would know way more about ancient Egypt than we already do.