1. Mycenaean & Archaic Greek Art
Mainland Greece’s First Flowering
Introduction To Art History I
Professor Will Adams
Valencia College

2. The Mycenaean Culture: Early Helladic Period: c. 2750 - 2000 BCE
 Somewhere between 3000 BCE and 2000 BCE, the lands of
Greece were settled by a metal-using agricultural people who
spoke a language that was not Indo-European.
 Some of the names they gave their villages were preserved by
the Greeks, names, for instance, ending in "-ssos."
 We know next to nothing of these people, their religion, their
cultural memory, their language, or their everyday experiences.
 The period when they dominated Greece, called the "Early
Helladic" period, seemed to be one of comparative quiet and
peace.
 All that ended around 2000 BCE; the early Helladic sites and
villages were destroyed in fire or abandoned outright.

3. The Mycenaean Culture: Middle Helladic Period: c. 2000 - 1550 BCE
 This period of conquest and
settlement by the Greeks makes
up the Middle Helladic period.
 These new invaders settled all the
parts of Greece, in some instances
settling peacefully with the
previous inhabitants, and began
to dominate Greek culture.
 They spoke an Indo-European
language; in fact, they spoke
Greek.
 Their society was primarily based
on warfare; their leaders were
essentially war-chiefs.

4. The Mycenaean Culture: Middle Helladic Period: c. 2000 - 1550 BCE
 They had settled a difficult land: the Greek mainland is
hot, dry and rocky.
 Agriculture is difficult, but some crops grow extremely
well, such as grapes and olives.
 The coastal settlers relied heavily on fishing for their diet.
 In spite of the ruggedness of their life and the harshness of
their social organization, these early Greeks traded with a
civilization to the south, the Minoans.
 Their contact with the Minoans was instantly fruitful; they
began to urbanize somewhere in the Middle Helladic
period and translated their culture into a civilization.

5. The Mycenaean Culture: Late Helladic Period: c. 1550 - 1 50 BCE
 Around 1600 BCE, urban centers began to thrive and the Greek
settlers entered their first major period of cultural creativity.
 Their cities grew larger, their graves more opulent, their art
more common, their agriculture more efficient, and the power
of these new warlord cities began to be felt around the
Aegean.
 This period of Greek development and prosperity is called the
Late Helladic Period or simply The Mycenaean Period.
 The Greeks of this age are the Mycenaeans proper; for four
centuries their culture thrived.

6. The Mycenaean Culture: Late Helladic Period: c. 1550 - 1 50 BCE
 What we can tell from their
ruined cities, their art, and their
records, is that the Mycenaeans
derived much of their culture
from the Minoans, but with
some dramatic differences.
 Mycenaean society was
monarchical.
 The monarch, called a wanax,
ruled over a large
administration as a kind of head
bureaucrat.

7. The Mycenaean Culture: Late Helladic Period: c. 1550 - 1 50 BCE
 Unlike the Minoans, though,
the Mycenaean kings
accumulated vast wealth in
concentrated form.
 The rest of society did not
share in the prosperity as did
the Minoans.
 The king was also primarily a
warlord, and Mycenaean
society was constantly geared
for battle and invasion.

8. The Mycenaean Culture: The Mycenaeans & Perseus
 According to the tradition, the
city of Mycenae, the main
representative of this
civilization, was founded by
Perseus (1400 - 1350 BCE), the
son of Zeus and Danae, the
daughter of King Akrisos of
Argos.
 Mycenae was built by the
mythical Cyclops, the same one
who constructed the enormous
walls of the nearby city of
Tiryns, which was governed by
his brother Proteos.

9. The Mycenaean Culture: The Mycenaeans & Perseus
 Perseus was succeeded by
his son Sthenelos, the father
of Eurystheus, who captured
Argos and according to the
myth, he assigned Herakles
to perform the twelve labors.
 After the death of
Eurystheus, the city was
governed by Atreus of Elis
(1250 BCE), the brother of
Eurystheus’ wife and son of
Pelops and Hippodameia.

10. The Mycenaean Culture: The Citadel at Mycenae: c. 1400 BCE

11. The Mycenaean Culture: The Citadel at Mycenae: c. 1400 BCE
 The ancient city of Mycenae was
once thought to exist only in
ancient Greek legend and the epic
poetry of Homer.
 It wasn't until 1870 CE that an
amateur archaeologist named
Heinrich Schliemann found the
fabled city.
 Many people doubted that he
would find such a city, but using
only landmarks from the text of
Homers Iliad, Schliemann
uncovered the remains of a once
thriving civilization.

12. The Mycenaean Culture: The Citadel at Mycenae: c. 1400 BCE
 The city of Mycenae was the center of a large and powerful
Mycenaean Greek civilization, which existed from circa
1900 BCE to 1125 BCE.
 It is located in the south central part of what is present day
Greece.
 The Mycenaean civilization was at its height between 1400
and 1200 BCE.
 It is believed that the entire civilization consisted of a few
loosely joined city-states.
 Possible members of the city-states were Tiryns, Pylos,
Thebes, Orchomenos, and of course Mycenae, which was
the strongest.

13. The Mycenaean Culture: The Citadel at Mycenae: c. 1400 BCE

14. The Mycenaean Culture: The Citadel at Mycenae: c. 1400 BCE
 The cyclopean citadel walls
of Mycenae protected the
palace, administration
buildings and some
habitations.
 It is a roughly triangular
fortress situated around a
low hill with 1 main gate, a
postern gate and 1 or 2 sally
ports.
 A paved ramp-road winds
from the main gate, past
Grave Circle A, past buildings
of the lower citadel, and up
to the palace at the top of
the hill.

15. The Mycenaean Culture: The Citadel at Mycenae: c. 1400 BCE
 There were 3 stages of
construction:
1. ca. 1350 BCE: walls enclosed
highest portion of hill
2. ca. 1250 BCE: area enlarged to
S and W, enclosing Grave
Circle A. Lion Gate and
postern gate added
3. ca. 1200 BCE: NE Extension
encloses access to water
reservoir.
 The southeast section of citadel
lost to later natural erosion.

16. The Mycenaean Culture: The Lion Gate at Mycenae: c. 1250 BCE
 The twin lions shown here
flanking a pillar were
positioned above the main
entrance to the citadel of
Mycenae.
 The gate was about 10 feet
wide and 10 feet high; the
carved stone with the lions is
about three feet high.
 It forms what is called a
"relieving triangle", because
the carved slab weighs much
less than the stones to the
right and left; this reduced
pressure on the lintel block
below it.

17. The Mycenaean Culture: The Lion Gate at Mycenae: c. 1250 BCE
 That block weighs two tons or
so.
 The door was made up of two
wooden leaves opening
inward.
 The lions originally had heads
made of metal, but they have
long since disappeared.
 The column the two lions
stand beside perhaps
represented the god of the
royal house; the lions served
to guard the entrance.

18. The Mycenaean Culture: The Treasury of Atreus: c. 1350 BCE

19. The Mycenaean Culture: The Treasury of Atreus: c. 1350 BCE
 The Treasury of Atreus, also
known as the Tomb of
Agamemnon, the legendary
king of Mycenae, lies in a
walking distance from the
ancient site and is one of the
most famous buildings of
Mycenae.
 The Treasury of Atreus is
actually a tomb: a vaulted
tomb built of stone called a
tholos (“beehive”) tomb,
made of corbelled concentric
rings of stone.

20. The Mycenaean Culture: The Treasury of Atreus: c. 1350 BCE

21. The Mycenaean Culture: The Treasury of Atreus: c. 1350 BCE
 The enormous monolithic
lintel of the doorway weighs
120 tons and is 29.5 feet long,
16.5 feet deep, and 3 feet
high. It is surmounted by a
relieving triangle that was
decorated with relief plaques.
 The façade is approached by
a dromos, or ceremonial
passageway, that is revetted
with cyclopean blocks of
masonry and open to the sky.

22. The Mycenaean Culture: Death Mask of Agamemnon: c. 1550 BCE

23. The Mycenaean Culture: Death Mask of Agamemnon: c. 1550 BCE
 Created between 1600 and
1500 BCE, this gold mask
from Mycenae measures
12 inches high and was
found in one of the burial
shafts of the grave circle
inside the walls.
 It was originally
discovered by Heinrich
Schliemann who,
enthralled by ancient
Greek myths, name it the
"Mask of Agamemnon."

24. The Mycenaean Culture: Death Mask of Agamemnon: c. 1550 BCE
 This gold mask was probably for
a king - such masks were
commonly put on the faces of
deceased royalty - but even if
Agamemnon did exist, the mask
is older than him - by about 300
years or so.
 Of all the gold masks discovered
at Mycenae, this is the best and
there is a good chance that it
was created by Minoan
craftsmen who fled whatever
disaster had befallen Crete and
caused the destruction of many
palaces there.

25. The End of Mycenae
 By 1200 BCE, the power of Mycenae was declining; during
the 12th century, Mycenaean dominance collapsed.
 Within a short time, around 1250 BC, all the palaces of
southern Greece were burned, including the one at
Mycenae.
 This is traditionally attributed to a Dorian invasion of
Greeks from the north, although some historians now
doubt that such an invasion took place.
 However, no outsiders speaking Doric Greek entered
Greece.
 Another theory postulates that some of the Mycenaean
populace, who later came to speak the Doric dialect,
turned on the weakened Mycenaean superstructure and
razed it, settling in many regions formerly controlled by it.

26. Revival & Extinction
 During the early Classical period, Mycenae was once again
inhabited, though it never regained its earlier importance.
 Mycenaeans fought at Thermopylae and Plataea during
the Persian Wars.
 In 462 BCE, however, troops from Argos captured Mycenae
and expelled its inhabitants.
 In Hellenistic and Roman times, the ruins at Mycenae were
a tourist attraction (just as they are now).
 A small town grew up to serve the tourist trade.
 By late Roman times, however, the site had been
abandoned.

27. The Archaic Period: 600 – 480 BCE

28. Historical Events
 600 - 480 BCE
 Persian Wars 490 - 479 BCE
 Poets and Playwrights
 Sappho 600 BCE, Aeschylus
525 BCE
 Herodotus 485 BCE
 Democratic reforms
 Draco, Solon, Kleisthenes
 Tyrants patronize arts
 Pre-Socratic Philosophers
search for the basis of reality
 Thales of Miletus (water)
 Parmenides (logos)
 Heraclites (change)

29. Human Figure Sculpture: Kouroi
New York Kouros
c. 600 BCE
Marble
6’ 1/2” high
 Kouros “youth”
 Grave marker
 Based on Egyptain
prototypes
 Offerings to gods
 Generic quality made it
useful for in several
contexts
 Increasingly lifelike

30. New York Kouros

31. Compare &
Contrast
COMPARE
 Left leg stride
 Arms at side
 Frontal posture
 Muscles linear
 Expressionless face
 Votive offerings
CONTRAST
 NY Kouros
freestanding
 NY Kouros nude
 NY Kouros marble

32. Notice The Progression
The New York The Kroisos The Peplos
The Calf Bearer
Kouros Kouros Kore
560 BCE
c. 600 BCE 530 BCE 530 BCE

33. Ancient Greek Pottery

34. Geometric Ware: The Dipylon Krater
Artist Unknown
Dipylon Krater
Athenian Black-figure Footed Krater
C. 800-700 BCE
42 ½” Tall
 This is probably the most famous
example of Greek geometric ware.
 It was found just outside Athens in
a cemetery, whose entrance was
flanked by two large pylons, thus
its name.
 This large, footed vessel was wheel
thrown in sections and assembled.
 At the top is a register with a
decoration called a stepped
meander.

35. Geometric Ware: The Dipylon Krater
 Below that is the burial
procession.
 Below the burial scene is a
procession of chariots, horses
and warriors.
 Individual warriors are reduced
to highly stylized and
geometric figures.
 An attempt is made to indicate
perspective, by drawing three
horses pulling each chariot.
 The three horses are painted
one behind the next, but oddly,
all 12 legs appear in one plane.

36. Archaic Black Figure Vases
KLEITIAS & ERGOTIMOS
François Vase
Athenian black-figure volute krater
ca. 570 BCE.
General view (top) and detail of
centauromachy on other side of
vase (bottom)
2’ 2” high

37. Exekias: Black-Figure Master
EXEKIAS,
Achilles and
Ajax Playing
Dice
Athenian
black-figure
amphora
c. 540–530
BCE.

38. Black Figure Method
Exekias
Achilles Killing Penthesilea
Athenian black-figure amphora
c. 540–530 BCE
1’ 4 3/8” high
 Throw vessel on potter’s wheel
 Handles applied separately
 Paint with “slip”
 Fire 3 times
 Oxidizing: All turn red
 Reducing: All turn black
 Reoxidizing: Basic baking
clay becomes red again

39. A Bilingual Vase: Black & Red Figure Pottery

40. Euphronios: Red-Figure Master
EUPHRONIOS
Herakles Wrestling
Antaios
Athenian red-figure
calyx krater
c. 510 BCE
Whole vessel 1’ 7”
high; detail 7 3/4”
high

41. Euthymides: “As Never Euphronios!”
Euthymides
Three Revelers
Athenian Red-figure
Amphora
C. 510 BCE
2’ High

42. Na Synechistoún…