Greek art originated in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization and had a huge influence on Western classical art during the Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Period. It was influenced by Eastern civilizations, Roman art, and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine era. It immersed Italian and European ideas during the period of Romanticism up to the Modernist and Postmodernist times. Greek art is defined into five forms namely architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery, and making of jewellery.

 

Greek Bronze Age

The Greek Bronze Age lasted approximately three thousand years, and saw major developments in social, economic, and technological advances that made Greece the hub of activity in the Mediterranean. Three civilizations are identified during this time which overlap in time and with the major geographic regions of the Greece.

The Cycladic civilization developed in the islands of the Aegean, around the Cyclades, while the Minoans inhabited the large island of Crete. The civilization of the Greek mainland is classified as Helladic, and the Mycenaean era describes Helladic civilization towards the end of the 11^th century BC.

All three civilizations had many characteristics in common but were different in their culture and disposition. The Minoans are the first progressive civilization of Europe, while the Mycenaean culture played a role with its legends and Greek language. The Mycenaeans survived both the people of Cyclades and the Minoans, and by the end of the 10^th century BC their influence stretched over the mainland, the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas, Crete, and the coast of Asia Minor.

The period of the Mycenaean civilisation is called the Dark Ages as the people of Greece fell into a period of simply existing with no evidence of cultural development. After the Greek Bronze Age civilizations collapsed, the early part of the Greek Dark Ages saw minimal artistic production until the Protogeometric style in pottery emerged about 1050 BC, which is taken as the first phase of Ancient Greek art.

Aegean art, from 2800 – 1100 BC, was created during the Bronze Age. Because is it mostly found in the territory of modern Greece, it is also sometimes called Greek Bronze Age art. It includes the art of the Mycenaean Greeks as well as the non-Greek Cycladic and Minoan cultures.

Cycladic art is mainly known for its Venus figurines carved in white marble, whereas Minoan art is known for its palace complexes with frescos, imagery of bulls and bull-leaping, and sophisticated pottery. The Mycenaean art, on the other hand is known for its lavish metalwork in gold, imagery of combat and massive citadels and tombs.

 

 

Cycladic Art

Cycladic art was created by the Cycladic culture between 3000 BC and 1100 BC. This covered part of the Neolithic and the whole of the Bronze Age in the Greek islands.

Early Cycladic art is divided into two key periods: the Early Cycladic I period between 3200 – 2700 century BC, and the Early Cycladic II, between 2700 – 2200 century BC. These periods are also referred to as the Grotta-Pelos and the Keros-Syros. The art of the first period is represented on the islands of Paros, Antiparos, and Amorgos, while the second is found on Syros and Melos.

Much of the evidence for the culture comes from collections of objects, which is mostly marble vessels and figurines, that the islanders buried with their dead. It is clear from the qualities and quantities of items found in the graves that there was some form of ranking already evident in the Cyclades at this time.

 

Early Cycladic I (3200–2700 BC)

The earliest groups of the Grotta–Pelos figurines are Pelos, Plastiras and Louros. Pelos figurines are of schematic type while the Plastiras are males and females, in standing position with a head and face. The Louros figures is seen as transitional, merging both schematic and naturalistic elements.

The schematic figures are flat in profile, with simple forms and do not have a clearly defined head. Naturalistic figures are small and tend to have strange or overstated proportions, with long necks, angular upper bodies, and muscular legs. Many of these figures, especially those of the Pelos type, display a remarkable consistency in form and proportion that suggests they were planned with a compass. Scientific analysis has shown that the surface of the marble was painted with mineral-based pigments, azurite for blue and iron ores, or cinnabar for red.

Most of the marble figures are highly stylized representations of the female human form, having a flat, geometric quality which gives them a striking resemblance to today’s modern art. It was usually of a standing nude female figure with folded arms across the stomach, with the right arm held below the left. They have been interpreted as idols of the gods, images of death, children’s dolls, among others.

They are characterized by flat, wedge shaped bodies, columnar necks, and oval featureless faces and well-defined noses. They have subtle curves and markings of knees and abdomen. These figures represent the mother and fertility goddess and are highly stylized and distinctive to this area.

Cycladic pottery was elegantly shaped and painted and concentrated mostly on pouring vessels like jugs with raised spouts. There are also kernoi stands for offerings or lamps. A few animal figurines or animal-shaped rhyta and vessels that included small boxes were found as well as decorated round discs. These were probably used as mirrors.

 

• Pelos type

With the Pelos type figurines the gender is undetermined and the most famous of these type figurines are the violin-shaped figurines. These figurines have an elongated head, no legs, and a violin-shaped body. One particular “violin” figurine found, has breasts, arms under the breasts, and a pubic triangle. It possibly represented a fertility goddess but since not all the figurines share these characteristics, no accurate conclusion can be made.

 

• Plastiras type

The Plastiras figurines were found in the cemetery of Paros to which it derives its name. The figures retain the violin-like shape, stance, and folded arm arrangement of their predecessors but differ in other ways. This type is the most naturalistic type of Cycladic figurine, marked by exaggerated proportions. An egg-shaped head with carved features that include ears, sits on an elongated neck. This makes up about two thirds of the figurine.

The legs were carved separately for their entire length, often resulting in breakages. On female figures the pubic area is defined by an incision and the breasts are modelled. Male figurines differ in structure, possessing narrower hips and carved representations of the male sexual organs. The figures are usually no larger than thirty centimetres, and the feet are pointed so that the figurine are not able to stand on their own feet.

 

• Louros type

Combining the naturalistic and schematic approaches of the previous figure styles, the Louros type have featureless faces, a long neck, and a simple body with weak shoulders that tend to extend past the hips in width. The legs are carved to no further than the knees or mid-calves. The figurines of this type still are suggestive of the female form and have some indications of breasts and a carved pubic triangle.

 

Early Cycladic II (2700 – 2200 century BC)

Four varieties are identified during this period, namely Kapsala-, Spedos-, Dokathismata- and Chalandriani.

• Kapsala variety

This variety of the Cycladic figure is thought to precede or overlap in period with that of the canonical Spedos variety of figures. Kapsala figures differ from the Spedos type in that the arms are held much lower in the right-below-left folded structure and the faces lack sculpted features besides the nose and sometimes ears.

Kapsala figures are often slender, especially in the legs, which are much longer and lack the powerful musculature suggested in earlier forms of the sculptures. The shoulders and hips are also much narrower, and the figures are small. They are rarely larger than 30 cm in length.

There is also evidence that paint is now used to define features such as the eyes and pubic triangle, rather than carving them directly. One characteristic that stands out with the Kapsala variety is that some figures seem to suggest pregnancy, with bulging stomachs ad lines drawn across the abdomen.

 

• Spedos variety

The Spedos type is the most common of Cycladic figurine types and named after a cemetery on Naxos. This group includes figurines ranging in height from miniature examples of 8 cm to monumental sculptures of 1.5 metres. Al known works of the Spedos figurines are slender female forms with folded arms, characterized by U-shaped heads and a deeply incised cleft between the legs. There is an exception of a male figure, that is part of the Museum of Cycladic Art Collection.

 

• Dokathismata variety

With characteristics that are developed from the earlier Spedos variety, the Dokathismata figures feature broad, angular shoulders and a straight profile. These figurines are considered the most stylized of the folded-arm figures, with a long, elegant shape that displays a strong sense of geometry that is especially evident in the head, which features an almost triangular shape. These figures were more conservatively built compared to earlier varieties, with a shallow leg cleft and connected feet. The figures were quite fragile and prone to break easily. The return of an engraved pubic triangle is also noted in the figures.

 

• Chalandriani variety

Named for the cemetery on the island of Syros on which they were found, these figures are somewhat similar in style and mannerism to the Dokathismata variety. The figures, does however, feature a more abbreviated shape in which the arms are very close to the pubic triangle and the leg cleft is only indicated by a shallow groove.

One feature of note with the Chalandriani variety is that some sculptures have reversed arms or even abandonment of the folded position for one or both arms. The feet are not always inclined, and the legs are somewhat rigid. The shoulders were expanded even further that those from the Dokathismata variety.

They were quite vulnerable as the upper arms and shoulders are also the thinnest point of the sculpture. The head is triangular with few facial features other than a prominent nose, connected to the body by a pyramidal-shaped neck. Some Chalandriani figures also appeared to be pregnant.

There is still great mystery surrounding these statues and perhaps this is part of their appeal.

 

 

Minoan Art

The Minoan civilization was mainly found on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands and thrived between 3000 – 1450 century BC. It was the first developed civilization in Europe, leaving behind huge building complexes, artwork, tools, writing systems, and a network of trade.

The name Minoan originates from the mythical King Minos of the site at Knossos with the labyrinth and the Minotaur. It has been described as the earliest of its kind in Europe, and the first link in the European chain.

The Minoan civilization’s art displays a love of animals, sea, and plant life. It was widely used to decorate pottery and frescoes and inspired forms in sculpture, jewellery, and stone vessels. These artists loved naturalistic shapes and designs and aside from its aesthetic qualities is also give insight into the religious, communal, and funeral practices of one of the earliest cultures of the ancient Mediterranean.

As a seafaring culture, the Minoans were in contact with foreign peoples throughout the Aegean, not just evident in their art but also in their trade. They traded extensively with Crete, Aegean, and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East. Through their traders and artists, the Minoans’ cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast and Anatolia. They exchanged pottery and food items such as oil and wine. In return they received precious objects and materials such as copper from Cyprus and ivory from Egypt.

Minoan art also has a political purpose, as seen in the wall paintings of palaces where rulers were portrayed in their religious function. Art objects were largely reserved for the ruling elite, hence costly art works became a means to emphasise differences in social and political status for those fortunate enough to own them.

Minoan artists greatly influenced the art of other Mediterranean islands and were employed in Egypt and the Levant to beautify the palaces of rulers there. They also influenced the art of the subsequent Mycenaean civilization based on mainland Greece. Mycenaean potters, jewellers, and fresco painters, in particular, copied Minoan techniques, forms, and designs, although they did make their marine life, for example, much more abstract, and their art, in general, included many more martial and hunting themes.

Since wood and textiles have decomposed, the best-preserved surviving examples of Minoan art are its palace architecture (with frescoes which include landscapes) paintings, pottery, reliefs, jewellery, metal vessels, sculptures, stone carvings and carved seal stones.

 

• Architecture and Frescoes

The Minoans is notable for its large and elaborate palaces up to four storeys high, decorated with frescoes. The palace at Knossos and Phaistos is probable the most known. The palace of Knossos is the most elaborate and ambitious and has a vast number of rooms over a large amount of land. Unfortunately, it is partly destroyed.

Minoan architecture is distinguished by its many porticoes, staircases, storerooms, workshops, and air shafts. Interior rooms are typically small with low ceilings but have richly decorated walls. Although none have survived, it is known that columns in the Minoan palaces were constructed of wood. Minoan architecture is thought to be a place of not only royal residence but the administrative centre and commercial activity.

The Minoans decorated their palaces with fresco painting which is, the painting of colour pigments on wet lime plaster without a binding agent. When the paint is absorbed by the plaster it is fixed and protected from fading. Fresco secco, which is the application of paint, for details, onto a dry plaster was also used throughout the palaces as well as the use of low relief in the plaster to give a shallow three-dimensional effect.

Colours used were black, red, white, yellow, blue, and green. Frescoes decorated the walls, ceilings, wooden beams, and sometimes floors of the palaces. At first, they portrayed abstract shapes and geometric designs, and later, all kind of subjects ranging in scale from miniature to larger-than-life size.

The most popular were scenes of rituals, processions, festivals, ceremonies, and bull sports. Scenes from nature were also common, particularly those of lilies, irises, crocuses, roses, and plants such as ivy and reeds. The Minoans were one of the earliest cultures to paint natural landscapes without any humans present in the scene.

Most of the time, Minoan frescoes were framed with decorative borders of geometric designs. On occasion, it went beyond conventional boundaries such as corners and covered several walls, surrounding the viewer.

One examples of Minoan frescoes can be seen at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, and in situ (reproductions) at Knossos, Crete. It includes two young boxers with young men carrying rhytons in a procession, a group of male and female figures leaping over a bull, a large-scale seated griffin against a bold red background, and dolphins swimming above a sea floor of urchins.

 

• Paintings, pottery, and reliefs

The first stage of Minoan pottery was the pre-palatial style known as Vasiliki. The surface was decorated in mottled red and black, and Barbotine wares had decorative excrescences added to the surface. Then came the polychrome Kamares ware that probably originate from Phaistos and its introduction was contemporary with the arrival of the pottery wheel in Crete.

The elements of Kamares pottery are bright red and white designs on a black background. It is made up from geometric forms, impressionistic fish and polyps, abstract human figure, shells, and flowers. Common forms are beaked jugs, cups, small boxes, chalices, and pithoi, which is large handmade vases used for food storage.

During the New Palace Style period, between 1600 – 1450 BC an evolution in technique and, developments in form and design, including the production of terracotta sarcophagi took place. Slender vases tapered at the base, three-handled amphorae, squat alabastron vessels, goblets and ritual vessels with figure-of-eight handles became common. New designs appeared with plants and marine life taking centre stage and the Floral Style became popular.

The Minoans took advantage of the grace of sea creatures to fill and surround the surfaces of their pottery and it was characterised by detailed, naturalistic depictions of octopuses, argonauts, starfish, triton shells, sponges, coral, rocks, and seaweed. Bull’s heads, double axes, and sacral knots also regularly appeared on pottery, too.

Many murals and reliefs were scenes from nature portraying animals, birds, and sea creatures. Human figures are painted as slim-waisted and athletic in body type for both male and female with the only difference that in skin tone.

 

• Jewellery

Minoan jewellers had the full repertoire of metalworking techniques which changed precious raw material into an assortment of objects and designs. Most pieces were made by hand, but items such as rings were often made using three-piece moulds and the lost-wax technique.

Gold was the most prized material and was beaten, engraved, embossed, moulded, and sometimes punched with stamps. Other techniques used were dot repoussé, filigree, inlaying, gold leaf covering, and granulation. Granulation was where tiny spheres of gold were attached to the main piece using a mixture of glue and copper salt that was heated to transformed into pure copper, soldering the two pieces together.

Smelting allowed for the refining of precious metals such as gold, silver, bronze, and gold-plated bronze. Semi-precious stones were used such as rock crystal, carnelian, garnet, lapis lazuli, obsidian, and red, green, and yellow jasper. Amethyst was also popular and was imported from Egypt. Faience, enamel, steatite (soapstone), ivory, shell, glass-paste, and blue frit or Egyptian blue were also used by Minoan jewellers.

Jewellery produced were necklaces, bracelets, diadems, armlets, beads, pendants, headbands, chains, clothes ornaments, hair pins and hair ornaments, pectorals, earrings, and rings. Rings were not only decorative but also used as seals. Ring bezels were engraved with miniature scenes representing fighting, hunting, bull-leaping, mythological creatures, goddesses, and flora and fauna. Jewellers and engravers also decorated weapons such as sword blades, hilts and pommels engraved with figures.

Two of the finest Minoan jewellery pieces are pendants. One is of a pair of bees and the other showing a figure holding birds. The first was found at Malia and is in the form of two bees clutching a drop of honey between them which they are about to drop into a circular, granulated honeycomb. Above them is a spherical filigree cage enclosing a solid sphere, and below the pendant hang three cut-out circular disks decorated with filigree and granulation.

The second pendant, known as the Master of the Animals pendant, is from Aegina. The pendant consists of a nature god or priest holding the neck of a water bird or goose in each hand and dressed in typical Minoan costume, that include a belt, loincloth, and frontal sheath. Five disks hang from the base of the pendant.

 

• Metal vessels

Metal vessels were produced in Crete from as early as 2500 BC in the Prepalatial period through to 1450 BC in the Postpalatial period. The earliest were made from precious metals, but from the Protopalatial period they were also produced in arsenical bronze and, later, in tin bronze. Mostly cup-type forms were created in precious metals, but most of bronze vessels was diverse. This include cauldrons, cups, pans, bowls, hydrias, pitchers, basins, lamps, and ladles.

Besides terracotta, the Minoans also made vessels from various stone types, carving the material out using chisels, hammers, saws, drills, and blades. The vessels were finished by grinding with an abrasive such as sand or emery imported from Naxos in the Cyclades.

Popular shapes in stone include the bird’s nest lidded bowl which tapered considerably at the base and was possibly used to store thick oils and ointments. Larger vessels were also made such as ritual vases or rhyta which could take many forms, and which were usually covered in gold leaf.

The most famous example is the serpentine bull’s head from the Little Palace at Knossos which is now in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. With gilded wooden horns, rock crystal eyes and a white tridacna shell muzzle the animal is superbly rendered, capturing a life-like pose that would not be equalled in art until Classical Greek sculpture a millennium later.

 

• Minoan Sculpture

Although there are not many figure sculptures that survived in Crete, there is enough small figurines to illustrate that Minoan artists were as capable of capturing movement and grace in three dimensions as they were in other art forms. Early figurines were produced in clay and there are also bronze figurines, typically of worshippers but also of animals, particularly oxen.

One of the later more sophisticated works is a figurine in ivory of a man leaping in the air over a bull, that is a separate figure. Dating to 1600 – 1500 BC, it is probably the earliest known attempt in sculpture to capture free movement in space. Another piece is the figure of a goddess brandishing a snake in each of her raised hands. The figurine dates to around 1600 BC. Both figures are in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete.

 

 

Mycenaean Art

The Mycenaean civilization was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece between 1600 – 1100 BC. It was the first uniquely Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in the Argolid, and other centres included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus, and Italy.

Mycenaean Greece was controlled by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace-centred states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social, and economic systems. The king was at the head of this society. They introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture, and military infrastructure, and trading over vast areas of the Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. The Linear B, their syllabic script, offers the first written records of the Indo-European Greek language.

Mycenaean art is dated between 1600 and 1100 BC during the Late Helladic period of Greece and is named after the inhabitants of Mycenae descending from early Greek tries. Mycenaean pottery is much the most common type of art to survive and was often exported to Italy. Other artforms of this period include architecture, metalwork and jewellery, vessels, sculptures, frescoes, goldsmithing and gem engraving.

 

• Architecture

Mycenaean palaces were placed on hilltops surrounded by defensive walls constructed of large stone blocks. One of the few remaining structures of Mycenaean architecture inspiring later Greek cultures is The Lion Gate. It functioned as a guardian of the gates to the palace.

At the centre of the palaces were royal audience halls called the Megaron defined by a round hearth in the centre and four columns supporting its roof. Structures always featured roofs of fired tiles.

The construction of defensive structures was also closely linked to the establishment of the palaces. The principal Mycenaean centres were well-fortified and situated on an elevated terrain, like on the acropolis of Athens, Tiryns, and Mycenae or on coastal plains. Mycenaean Greeks in general appreciated the symbolism of war as expressed in defensive architecture, reflected by the visual impressiveness of their fortification.

 

• Metalwork and jewellery

Several important pieces in gold and other metals come from the gold graves at Mycenae, including the Mask of Agamemnon, Silver Siege Rhyton, Bulls-head rhyton, and gold Nestor’s Cup. The Theseus Ring, found in Athens, is one of the finest of several gold signet rings with tiny multi-figure scenes of high quality.

However, it is where the sculpture meets the art of jewellery that the Mycenaeans and their neighbours of the Peloponnese were supreme. Items found were gold buckles and pins, dress accessories with geometric ornamentation, decorative crowns and diadems, necklaces, and gold and silver cups. Even the vessels and utensils were worked in sheet copper or bronze.

The most beautiful Mycenaean metalwork were the swords and daggers, bronze blades inlaid with more precious metals and enamelling, in designs ranging from reticent abstract patterning to crowded pictorial schemes. These weapons revealed a high standard of ancient craftsmanship. On the shaped blade, and the hilt, outlines of the design were scratched. The gold and silver inlays were pressed in and hammered, and the whole item was polished.

The golden crowns and diadems tend to be florid and heavy-handed, but many of the buckles, buttons, and minor dress ornaments have a delicacy to them. The engraved designs are geometrical with flower and insect forms. Animals were etched in the more freely designed individual buckles and pendants. They mark the Mycenaean craftsmen as master sculptors in miniature metalworking.

 

• Vessels

During the Late Mycenaean period, between 1400 – 1200 BC, vessels or pottery exhibited similarities spanning a significant area of the Eastern Mediterranean and possibly reflecting a form of economic and political union centred at Mycenae. Still, the pottery of Crete remained distinct indicating a degree of independence on the island. They produced large quantities of a variety of diversely styled vessels such as stirrup jars, large bowls, alabastron, krater and stemmed kylikes resembling champagne glasses.

Stirrup jars were invented on the island of Crete during the 16^th century BC and used by the Mycenaeans for transporting and storing wine and oil. The jars were usually pear-shaped or globular. Stemmed cups developed from Ephyraean goblets and a large amount was discovered at a site called the Potter’s Shop in Zygouries.

Most Mycenaean drinking vessels contained a single decorative motif such as a shell, an octopus or a flower painted on the side facing away from the drinker. They also painted entire scenes on their vessels portraying warriors, chariots, horses, and deities like events described in Homer’s Iliad. Other items developed by the Mycenaeans include clay lamps, ad metallic vessels such as bronze tripod cauldrons (or basins). A few examples of vessels in faience and ivory are also known.

 

• Sculptures

There is little large or monumental sculpture from Mycenaean Greece and what there is comes mainly from palaces, or reliefs on grave stelae. These show similar subjects to the metalwork from the graves, but with cruder workmanship. There are small sculpted scenes, reliefs, or intaglios, of high quality like the Pylos Combat Agate seal, found in an elite grave on the mainland, that was perhaps made in Crete.

The Lion Gate at Mycenae is almost the sole surviving example of monumental Aegean sculpture, in or out of buildings. A triangular stone over a lintel is carved with two confronted lions flanking an engaged pillar, the whole forming a sort of heraldic shield celebrating the pillar-emblem which had religious significance in Crete as well.

The Mycenaean period has neither produced figurines of great size. It consisted mostly of small terracotta figurines found at almost every Mycenaean site in mainland Greece. Most of these figurines are female and anthropomorphic or zoomorphic. The figurines can be divided into three groups which were popular at different periods, namely Psi-, Phi- and the Tau-type.

The Phi-type figurine looks like the Greek letter phi and their arms give the upper body a rounded shape. The Psi-type looks like the Greek letter psi and have outstretched upraised arms. The Tau-type was typical of the late 12^th century BC) and these figurines look like the Greek letter tau with folded arms at right angles to the body.

Most figurines wore a large polos hat and were painted with stripes or zigzags in the same manner as the contemporary pottery and probably made by the same potters. It is not clear wat the purpose of the figurines was. They could have served as votive objects as well as toys. Many was found at children’s graves, but most fragments are from rubbish dumps.

Larger male, female or bovine terracotta wheel made figures were also made but were much rarer. Some was found in the Temple at Mycenae together with coiled clay snakes, while others have been found at Tiryns and in the East and West Shrines at Phylakopi on the island of Melos.

 

• Frescoes

The painting of frescoes of the Mycenaean age was much influenced by the Minoan age. Fragments of wall paintings have been found in or around the palaces at Pylos, Mycenae, and Tiryns. The largest complete wall painting portrayed three female figures or goddesses was found in the cult centre at Mycenae.

It represents themes such as hunting, bull leaping, battle scenes, processions, and many more. Some scenes might be part of mythological narratives. Other frescoes include geometric or stylised motifs, also used on painted pottery.

 

• Goldsmithing

The Golden Cups found at Mycenae are extraordinarily beautiful in proportioning and in workmanship. So are the Vaphio Cups, which belong to the same mainland phase of Aegean art. These cups were figured, with elaborate story-scenes of bull-hunting and sacrifice. There is a superior quality of art in the simpler, reticently ornamented vessels, both those which are mug-shaped and flat-bottomed and the elegantly curved forms.

The Vaphio Cups represent the spirit of Aegean art. They are lavishly ornamental, and there is an exactness in their pictured stories. The virtue of the cups lies in the perfect technique of the artist on the small golden surface. One can only stare in wonder in the vigour and true-to-life appearance of the bulls and men, and the sharp detail of rope and foliage. Here indeed is the work of a pre-Homeric Cellini, with its sixteenth-century cleverness, realism, and extravagance.

 

• Gem-Engraving (Seals)

One other art form nourished in Mycenae, and perhaps throughout the Aegean world was gem-engraving, as illustrated in seals. There are gold seal rings with picture designs, and countless of emblems cut on precious or semi-precious stones. A seal of this sort appears on the wrist of a cupbearer shown on a Knossian mural. This signet was more often worn on a necklace.

The subjects were sometimes pictographic or hieroglyphic, or heraldic, or freely pictorial. Animal motifs were favourites, and hunting scenes as well as combats of warriors were common. The human figure is used both decoratively and for realistic purposes. Agricultural and nautical symbols and regular natural forms were also often used.

Sometimes one branch of art was more advanced at one city than in the others, but in general the arts as described were typical of the scattered communities, whether in Argolis, Laconia, the Cyclades, or Crete. Only Troy and Cyprus, demand separate notations.

Not long after the Mycenaeans conquered Troy, between 1260 – 1240 BC, were they in turn attacked by invading Dorians. Around 1100 BCE the city of Mycenae, along with much of its art, was destroyed. It managed to survive as a small city state until 470 BCE when it was sacked and burned by its neighbour Argos.