This document provides an overview of Mycenaean and Archaic Greek art from around 2750 BCE to 480 BCE. It summarizes the rise and fall of the Mycenaean civilization between 3000 BCE and 1150 BCE, including their citadels, art, and influence from Minoan Crete. It also describes the Archaic period after 1200 BCE, featuring the development of kouros sculptures, black-figure and red-figure pottery styles, and pre-Socratic philosophers questioning reality.

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 - 1150 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 - 1150 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 - 1150 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 Peplos Kore 530 BCE
The Kroisos Kouros
530 BCE
The Calf Bearer 560 BCE
The New York Kouros
c. 600 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…