Minoan art

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Bull jumpers from Knossos

The Minoan art is the artistic expression of the Minoan civilization of the Bronze Age , as from the island of Crete to the neighboring islands of the South Aegean radiated, mainland Greece and to Egypt. In addition to the architecture, the main works of Minoan art are primarily the numerous wall paintings and paintings on vases. The glyptics are also particularly noteworthy . The plastic only played a subordinate role and is usually small.

Basic forms of Minoan art are logical, geometric structures that were soon combined with spirals and simple plant motifs. Wavy tendrils and palmettes also appear here for the first time (see ornament ).

Vase painting

Already from 2500 BC BC vases and vessels are painted with simple geometric patterns. With the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age around 2000 BC BC and thus with the beginning of the Minoan high culture in the narrower sense, vase painting experienced its first heyday. Clay vessels are now often particularly fine and painted on a dark background with numerous floral motifs ( Kamaresware ). The sea ​​style begins around 1650 . Pictures of marine life are particularly popular. The colors of the painting are somewhat restricted. From 1450 BC A certain decline can be observed. The vessels are becoming coarser and depictions of the plants are becoming more and more stylized.

  • Kamaresware

  • Jug with sea style decoration around 1500 BC Chr.

  • Swing jugs, around 1390 to 1070 BC. Chr.

  • Phaistos Disc , side B

Wall painting

Wall painting fragment from Knossos, so-called "Little Parisian"

Already since around 2500 BC Important rooms were stuccoed and then painted red throughout. Evidence of simple geometric patterns in Malia and Phaistos has existed since Middle Minosh I (around 2000 BC) .

Figurative wall paintings were found mainly in the palace of Knossos , but also in other places . The oldest examples are around 1700 to 1600 BC. BC. Right from the start, wall painting shows a particular preference for natural scenes, flowers and stylized landscapes. Particularly noteworthy are the depictions of movements that clearly distinguish Minoan art from the contemporary Egyptian or Mesopotamian art. The so-called flying gallop (see the picture of the bull jumpers) should be mentioned here, which was then also adopted by the Egyptians. The paintings also stand out due to their splendor of colors. There are more or less life-size representations, but also pictures that are referred to as miniature frescoes, especially here one can find broad-based sequences of scenes.

A special feature are the flat reliefs in stucco, which were found mainly in Knossos. There are figurative representations, but also endlessly repeating patterns. These stucco reliefs were usually painted.

plastic

The Minoan sculpture is usually relatively small. Terracottas are designed rather undemanding. Smaller bronze figures that are no larger than 25 cm, on the other hand, are very close to nature. Most likely they represent prayers with arms raised in prayer. Animal figures such as bulls or goats are just as realistic. Some faience and ivory figures show a comparable naturalistic style .

The Cretan palaces are unpaved around large courtyards dedicated to the cult.

The Cretan religion turned out to be fundamentally different from the Neolithic through depictions on vases and walls: it worships the gods not in a tangible idol, but as all-pervading natural forces, whose shape only appears in visions and whose secret is in ancient legends of birth and love and the battles of the gods is hinted at.

  • Minoan bronze figures

  • Faience figures from Knossos

Jewellery

The most important find of jewelry of the Minoan culture was made on the island of Aegina . The find is therefore called the Aegina hoard and is exhibited in the British Museum in London.

Problem of the authenticity of the archaeological finds

Emile Gilliéron and his son Emile (1885–1939) participated in the reconstruction of the palace of Knossos and the processing of the finds . The results of their work are often "artistically very free" or are viewed by some specialists as art forgeries. Their processing was not based on the archaeological standard, even at that time. Some things, like the Phaistos disc or the snake goddess of Knossos, are suspected to be pure fakes .

Thus, Luigi Pernier that the Phaistos Disc is said to have discovered on July 3, 1908 suspected the Swiss artist and restorer to have commissioned Emile Gilliéron to falsify the discos.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin was able to use the results of a 14 C dating ( radiocarbon method ) for the snake goddess in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and others to prove a modern production from medieval ivory: Kenneth DS Lapatin: Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History. Houghton Mifflin, Boston 2002, ISBN 0-618-14475-7 ; Judith Weingarden: Review of Kenneth DS Lapatin: "Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History." In: American Journal of Archeology. Volume 108, No. 3, 2004, pp. 459-460 ( online ); see also Kenneth DS Lapatin: Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses. How Forgers on Crete Met the Demand for Minoan Antiquities. In: Archeology. Volume 54, No. 1, 2001, pp. 333-336 ( abstract ); for the Minoan Potnia theron and snake goddess see also: Kristin Schuhmann: The Beauty and the Beasts. The mistress of the animals in Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Greece. Master thesis. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg March 2009 ( PDF ).
  2. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin: Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses. How forgers on Crete met the demand for Minoan antiquities. Archeology (A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America) Volume 54 Number 1, January / February 2001
  3. ↑ Tim Heilbronner , Heinz Scheiffele : The "Diskos of Phaistos" and the plaster bowl in the historical goods archive of WMF. A new reference to the artist-restorers father son Emile Gilliéron. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. News bulletin of the State Monument Preservation, 2 (2017), pp. 147–150.
  4. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin: Mysteries Of The Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, And The Forging Of History Paperback. on-line
  5. ↑ The authenticity of the Minoan snake goddess of Knossos ( Minoan religion ) is seriously questioned based on the results of the radiocarbon method ( 14 C dating).
  6. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin: Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses. How forgers on Crete met the demand for Minoan antiquities. Archeology (A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America) Volume 54 Number 1, January / February 2001
  7. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin: Mysteries Of The Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, And The Forging Of History Paperback. Da Capo Press, 2003, ISBN 0-30681-328-9
  8. ↑ Jerome M. Eisenberg : The Phaistos Disk: A one hundred-year-old hoax? In: Minerva July / August 2008, pp. 9–24. Also: Addendum . In: Minerva September / October 2008, pp. 15-18