Final Post

...for this trip at least.  What follows are the short essays of the different periods of Grecian art I wrote about at the end of our trip in Greece  They are a bit rough, but that's okay.  Enjoy! And thank you for reading. This has been the experience of a lifetime :)

Bronze Age
The discovery of how to create bronze (iron mixed with copper) kicks off the Bronze Age, which spanned 3200 - 1100 BCE.  Bronze Age encompasses both Minoan and Mycenean cultures, as well as various Palatial periods.  The remains of palaces and grave sites leave the best indicators of culture and daily lives.  The Minoan Palace Knossos was the largest palace discovered, ~ five acres, four to five stories high and partially reconstructed by Sir Waltar Evans, an issue of debate among archeologists.

Recovered wall paintings of humans in the profile protrait and marine life dominate architectural art.  The bull and snake were also sacred animals to the Minoan culture, as exemplified by the many bull figurines and decorative/ritualistic sculpture and jewelry found.  Based on these findings, the Minoan culture was widely considered to be peaceful, earth-worshipping, nature-revering, but a more accurate definition might be that the Minoan culture was a very important trading post within the Mediterranean which would explain the explosion of art compared to the other parts of Greece at that time and the discovery of both Linear A (Minoan) and Linear B (Mycenean) tablets, possibly borrowed from the Phoenicians as a result of healthy trade relations.  The Disc of Phaestos, recovered from the Palace of Phaestos, has yet to be deciphered (as it is Linear A), but the craftsmanship of the gold and the detail of symbols (probably a divining tool of some sort) exemplify the vast superiority of the Minoan art culture at that time.

Major earthquake(s) in 1450BCE and the Dorian invasion around 1100BCE ended the Bronze Age and began the Geometric Era (Dark Ages), with the sophisticated architecture and elaborate art and metalwork practically disappearing, with nothing compared to the work at the height of the Palatial Period between 1700-1450BCE.


Archaic Period


The Archaic period begins ~790BCE and ends with the invasion of the Persians in 490BCE.  The Archaic era is marked with a flourishing of art, increased trade both among themselves and neighboring cultures/empires, and sets the framework for the unification that occurred later in the Classical era.  Larger establishments begin to reappear as well as the rudimentary beginnings of city-states.  Indications of greater collective culture among individual geographic settlements include the success of Pan-Hellenic sites/events such as the establishment and celebration of the Olympic games (started in 773BCE) and the popularity of the Oracle at Delphi and the Temple of Apollo.

Increased communications with neighboring cultures is indicated by the emergence of the kouris/kore statues, which borrow from Near East and Egyptian art/sculpture.  Characteristic features include squarish proportions, one foot forward, hands down, with the "archaic smile."  The Temple of Hera at the Olympic Games site indicates a greater unification of religion and the importance of the ritual of the "Sacred Truce"* (a time when all warfare among city-states must cease) in order to partake in the Olympic games suggests a greater desire to cooperate for the glory of the city-state one represents, than previously indicated.

The only archaic temple recovered in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.  That temple, combined with the Pan-Hellenic nature of the Oracle of Delphi (albeit hierarchal depending on how much you were willing to spend on your gifts) indicate a more cohesive religious following.  The fact the Oracle was also visited by non-Greeks is also an indicator that ther cultures were beginning to pay attention to Greece's contributions to the culture of the Mediterranean, in particular the Persians, who attempted to invade Greece in 489-490BCE.

*The idea behind the Sacred Truce was that the superiority of one city-state over another could be known through athletic ability, not just warfare.


Classical Period


Marked by the Battle of Salamis, where Greeks successfully worked together to fend off Persian invasion by Xerxes in ~490BCE, culture, art, and society exploded out of Greece.  Working against a common enemy rather than amongst themselves created newfound pride and unity that prompted new styles of art, solidified the political body, the city-state, and the immersion/invention of democracy.

Greek art branched off and marked itself apart from Egyptian and Oriental art, deciding instead to create marble statues of realistic, idealized proportions, later to become the detailed, hyper-realistic Hellenistic styles.  Natural, less-rigid posing of figures, particularly the placement of the hips in statues exemplified the desire to retain human proportion, ideal as they may be.  The Parthenon and the Acropolis sites were rebuilt after Persian destructions, with the pediments and friezes of the Parthenon celebrating the founding of Athens and it's militaristic superiority in reliefs of Amazonmachy and Centaurmachy.  The rebuilding of this Parthenon characterized both the glorification of the city-state geopolitical body and it's divine right as a city blessed by the gods.  Indeed the East and West pediments reconstruct mythical scenes of how Athens got it's name.

Religion became highly institutionalized by this point and continues to be, which is probably one of the reasons Christian imperialism took such great care in erasing Greek "Pagan" temples and sites.  The Classical period end ~330BCE with the naval Battle of Atrium, moving into the Hellenistic era, which was characterized by the hyper realistic sculptures and greater and greater pressure on Greek society by Roman culture and Alexander the Great.