Funerary Mask

Grave Circle A, Mycenae, Greece

royal shaft grave

1600-1500BCE   1' high

beaten gold sheet

repousse-single sheet of metal

funerary mask  portrait?  king?

mature man w/beard

life-size sculpture-1 of 1st in Greece

Corbel-vaulted gallery

Tirnys, Greece circuit wall-citadel
corbel-vaulted gallery
1400-1200BCE  stone blocks
no mortar  pointed arch
fortified wall   held by its weight
blocks placed horizontal
cantilevering inward
crude/effective/unsophisticated
small stones as wedges
clay filled in empty spaces

Harvesters Vase & Warrior Vase

4-14: Hagia Triade (Crete), Greece

1500BCE  stealite(stone) gold leaf

up to 5" diameter  relief sculptor

singing harvesters vase

*animation of human face *has setting

*represented underlying muscular & skeletal structure

4-27: Mycenae, Greece

1200BCE  1'4" high

krater (mixing bowl)

warrior vase Mycenaen warriors

farewell to soldiers

*sillhouette *outline *frontal

*profile views *no setting/landscape

* indicated differences

Snake goddess

Palace Knossos (Crete), Greece

1600BCE  1' 1 1/2" high

faience-low fired opaque glass-like silicate

example of culture fashioning gods 

the image of people

prehistoric fertility image

snake goddess  represent priestess?

bare-breasted

power over animal world

Kamares Ware Jar & Marine-style Flask

4-11: Phaistos (Crate),Greece

1800-1700BCE  1'8" high

Kamares Ware Jar

creamy white/reddish-brown fish (net)?

black background

4-12: Palaikastro (Crete), Greece

1500BCE  11" high

Marine-style octopus flask

dark figures on a light background

both: abstract patterns

complement shape of jar

subject covers surface to fill space

emphasizing volume

La Parisienne & Bull Leeping

4-7: palace Knossos (Crete), Greece

1500BCE  10" high  fragment

wet fresco:color added to wet walls

chemically bonded when dry work quickly

decorated palace walls depicted Minoan life

La Parisienne  Minoan woman/goddess

similar to Mesopotamian/Egyptian art

profile head  large frontal eye

4-8: palace Knossos (Crete), Greece

1500BCE  2'8" high w/border

wet fresco  ceremonial scene acrobatic

bull-leaping  no setting  stylized shapes

suggest moving beings

both: women always-light skin

men always-dark skin  common in Minoan

Male Harp Player

Keros (Cyclades), Greece

2600-2300BCE  9" high  marble

seated musician male harp player

simple geometric shapes flat planes

shape of harp-detailed prized possession?

meaning? playing for deceased?

commemorate;rites honoring dead?

some found in graves