Bulls Were Often Shown in the Art of the Minoans

The Minoans

The Protopalatial menses of Minoan civilization (1900 to 1700 BCE) and the Neopalatial Flow (1700 to 1450 BCE) saw the establishment of authoritative centers on Crete and the apex of Minoan civilization, respectively.

Learning Objectives

Summarize the key elements of the Minoan Propalatial and Neopalatial periods

Fundamental Takeaways

Key Points

• The Minoan civilisation was named afterwards the mythical Rex Minos, because the first excavator, Sir Arthur Evans , mistook the many rooms and corridors of the administrative palace of Knossos to exist the labyrinth in which Minos kept the Minotaur.
• The Protopalatial period (1900–1700 BCE) saw the establishment of administrative centers on the island of Crete. The identifying features of Minoan civilization—extensive sea merchandise and the building of communal civic centers—are first seen on the isle during this fourth dimension.
• The Protopalatial catamenia ended in 1700 BCE when the palaces of the isle were destroyed and life on the island was significantly disrupted. The unknown cataclysmic consequence is believed to exist either an earthquake or an invasion.
• During the Neopalatial period (1700–1450 BCE), the Minoans recovered from the calamity and reached the acme of their culture, somewhen controlling the major trade routes in the Mediterranean.

Key Terms

• labyrinth: A maze, especially hole-and-corner or covered.
• minotaur: A monster with the head of a bull and the trunk of a man.
• Linear A: A syllabary used to write the as-yet-undeciphered Minoan language, and an apparent predecessor to other scripts.

Discovery and Excavation

The ancient sites on the island of Crete were first excavated in the early 1900s by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans. Evans excavated the site of Knossos, where he discovered a palace. From this fact and related points, he decided to name the civilization after the mythical King Minos.

The many rooms of the palace at Knossos were then oddly shaped and disordered to Evans that they reminded him of the labyrinth of the Minotaur. Co-ordinate to myth, Minos' wife had an illicit union with a white balderdash, which lead to the birth of a half bull and half man, known equally the Minotaur. Male monarch Minos had his court artist and inventor, Daedalus, build an inescapable labyrinth for the Minotaur to live in.

Archaeological evidence dates the arrival of the earliest inhabitants of Crete in approximately 6000 BCE. Over the next four thousand years the inhabitants developed a civilization based on agriculture, trade, and production. The Minoan's civilization on Crete existed during the Bronze Historic period , from 3000 to 1100 BCE , although the Mycenaeans from Greece invaded the isle in the mid-1400s BCE and occupied it for the concluding centuries earlier the Greek Dark Age.

The Minoans were known as great seafarers. They traded extensively throughout the Mediterranean region.

Map of Minoan Crete: A map of Minoan Crete.

Protopalatial Menses

The Protopalatial Catamenia is considered the civilisation'south second stage of evolution, lasting from 1900 to 1700 BCE. During this fourth dimension the major sites on the island were developed, including the palatial sites of Knossos, Phaistos, and Kato Zakros, which were the first palaces or administrative centers built on Crete.

These civic centers appear to denote the emergence of a commonage community governing system, instead of organization in which a king ruled over each town. During this menses the Minoan merchandise network expanded into Egypt and the Virtually East; the first signs of writing, the still undeciphered language Linear A , appear. The period concluded with a cataclysmic event, peradventure an earthquake or an invasion, which destroyed the palace centers.

Neopalatial Menstruation

The Neopalatial menstruation occurred from 1700 to 1450 BCE, during which time the Minoans saw the height of their civilization. Following the destruction of the starting time palaces in approximately 1700 BCE, the Minoans rebuilt these centers into the palaces that were get-go excavated by Sir Arthur Evans.

During this menstruation, Minoan trade increased and the Minoans were considered to rule the Mediterranean trading routes betwixt Greece, Egypt, Anatolia , the Near E, and perchance fifty-fifty Spain. The Minoans began to settle in colonies away from Crete, including on the islands of the Cyclades, Rhodes, and in Egypt.

Minoan Architecture

Minoan palace centers were divided into numerous zones for civic, storage, and production purposes; they besides had a central, ceremonial courtyard.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the architectural design of Minoan palaces

Key Takeaways

Fundamental Points

• The palaces excavated on Crete functioned more as authoritative centers with rooms for civic functions, storage, workshops, and shrines located effectually a primal, ceremonial courtyard.
• The palaces take no fortification walls, suggesting a lack of enemies and disharmonize, although the natural surroundings provide a loftier level of protection, and the multitude of rooms creates a continuous, protective façade .
• Minoan columns were uniquely shaped, synthetic from forest, and painted. They are tapered at the bottom, larger at the top, and fitted with a bulbous, pillow-like uppercase .
• The complex at Phaistos bears many similarities with its counterpart at Knossos, although it is smaller.
• Minoan builders rebuilt new complexes atop older ones in the backwash of damaging earthquakes.

Key Terms

• pithoi: (Atypical: pithos) Big storage jars for liquids—oil, wine, and water—and grains.
• labyrinth: A maze, peculiarly hugger-mugger or covered.
• fresco: A water-based painting applied to wet or dry plaster.
• capital: The topmost part of a column.

The virtually well known and excavated architectural buildings of the Minoans were the administrative palace centers.

When Sir Arthur Evans first excavated at Knossos, not merely did he mistakenly believe he was looking at the legendary labyrinth of King Minos, he also thought he was excavating a palace. All the same, the small rooms and excavation of large pithoi , storage vessels , and athenaeum led researchers to believe that these palaces were really administrative centers. Even and so, the name became ingrained, and these large, communal buildings across Crete are known as palaces.

Although each i is unique, they share similar features and functions. The largest and oldest palace centers are at Knossos, Malia, Phaistos, and Kato Zakro.

The Complex at Knossos

The complex at Knossos  provides an example of the monumental architecture built by the Minoans. The most prominent feature on the plan is the palace's big, key courtyard. This courtyard may have been the location of large ritual events, including bull leaping, and a like courtyard is institute in every Minoan palace center.

Plan of the palace at Knossos: An overview map of the palace at Knossos, Crete, Greece, circa 1700–1400 BCE.

Several pocket-sized tripartite shrines surround the courtyard. The numerous corridors and rooms of the palace center create multiple areas for storage, meeting rooms, shrines, and workshops.

The absence of a central room and living chambers suggest the absence of a king and, instead, the presence and rule of a strong, centralized government.

The palaces also have multiple entrances that often take long paths to reach the central courtyard or a fix of rooms. There are no fortification walls, although the multitude of rooms creates a protective, continuous façade. While this provides some level of fortification, it besides provides structural stability for earthquakes. Fifty-fifty without a wall, the rocky and mountainous landscape of Crete and its location every bit an island creates a high level of natural protection.

Restored north portico: The rocky and mountainous landscape of Crete creates a high level of natural protection.

The palaces are organized not simply into zones along a horizontal plain, simply likewise have multiple stories. 1000 staircases, decorated with columns and frescos , connect to the upper levels of the palaces, merely some parts of which survive today.

Wells for light and air provide ventilation and light. The Minoans also created careful drainage systems and wells for collecting and storing water, every bit well as sanitation.

Their architectural columns are uniquely constructed and easily identified equally Minoan. They are constructed from wood, equally opposed to rock, and are tapered at the bottom. They stood on stone bases and had large, bulbous tops, now known equally cushion capitals. The Minoans painted their columns bright carmine and the capitals were often painted blackness.

Restored interior stairwell: Palace at Knossos, Crete, Hellenic republic. Circa 1700–1400 BCE.

Phaistos

Phaistos was inhabited from nigh 4000 BCE. A deluxe circuitous, dating from the Middle Statuary Age , was destroyed by an earthquake during the Tardily Bronze Historic period. Knossos, along with other Minoan sites, was destroyed at that fourth dimension. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Belatedly Statuary Age.

The showtime palace was built nigh 2000 BCE. This section is on a lower level than the west courtyard and has a dainty facade with a plastic outer shape, a cobbled courtyard, and a tower ledge with a ramp that leads up to a higher level.

The one-time palace was destroyed iii times in a time period of about iii centuries. After the beginning and 2nd disaster, reconstruction and repairs were made, so there are three, identifiable construction phases. Effectually 1400 BCE, the invading Achaeans destroyed Phaistos, also as Knossos. The palace appears to accept been unused thereafter.

The Quondam Palace was built in the Protopalatial menstruum. When the palace was destroyed by earthquakes, new structures were built atop the former. In one of the three hills of the expanse, remains from the Neolithic era and the Early Minoan period have been found.

Two additional palaces were built during the Middle and Belatedly Minoan periods. The older one looks similar the palace at Knossos, although the Phaistos complex is smaller. On its ruins (probably destroyed by an earthquake effectually 1600 BCE), the Late-Minoan builders constructed a larger palace had several rooms separated by columns.

Like the complex at Knossos, the complex at Phaistos is arranged around a central courtyard and held grand staircases that led to areas believed to exist a theater, ceremonial spaces , and official apartments. Materials such as gypsum and alabaster added to the luxurious appearance of the interior.

View of the complex at Phaistos from the south: A view of the ruins of the complex at Phaistos.

Minoan Painting

Minoan painting is distinguished by its brilliant colors and curvilinear shapes that bring a liveliness and vitality to scenes.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate betwixt Kamares ware and Marine-mode vase painting, and describe Minoan wall paintings

Key Takeaways

Central Points

• The fresco known as Bull Leaping, found in the palace of Knossos, is one of the seminal Minoan paintings. It depicts the Minoan civilisation 's fascination with the balderdash and the unique event of bull leaping—all painted in the distinctive Minoan style .
• The Minoan city of Akrotiri on the island of Thera was destroyed by a volcanic eruption that preserved the wall paintings in the town's homes. One fresco, known every bit Flotilla, depicts a highly developed society.
• Kamares ware is pottery fabricated from a fine clay. These vessels are painted with marine scenes and abstract flowers, shapes, and geometric lines .
• Marine-style vase painting depicts marine life and scenes with organic shapes that make full the unabridged surface of the pot, using a technique known as horror vacui . Unlike Kamares ware, Marine-style scenes are painted in dark colors on a light surface.

Key Terms

• horror vacui: Latin, meaning fear of empty infinite; this is besides the proper noun for a style of painting when the unabridged surface of a space is filled with patterns and figures.
• fresco:In painting, the technique of applying h2o-based pigment to plaster.
• buon fresco:A more durable mural painting technique in which alkaline resistant pigments, basis in water, are applied to plaster when it is still wet, every bit opposed to fresco-secco when the plaster has been allowed to dry and is remoistened.

Wall Painting

The Minoans decorated their palace complexes and homes with fresco wall paintings. Buon fresco is a form of painting where the pigment is painted onto a wet limestone plaster. When the plaster dries the painting too dries, condign an integral function of the wall.

In the Minoan variation, the stone walls are first covered with a mixture of mud and straw, then thinly coated with lime plaster, and lastly with layers of fine plaster. The Minoans had a distinct painting style with shapes formed by curvilinear lines that add together a feeling of liveliness to the paintings. The Minoan color palette is based in earth tones of white, brown, red, and yellow. Blackness and vivid blueish are also used. These color combinations create vivid and rich decoration.

Because the Minoan alphabet, known equally Linear A , has notwithstanding to be deciphered, scholars must rely on the culture's visual art to provide insights into Minoan life. The frescoes discovered in locations such every bit Knossos and Akrotiri inform us of the found and animal life of the islands of Crete and Thera (Santorini), the mutual styles of clothing, and the activities the people practiced. For example, men wore kilts and loincloths. Women wore short-sleeve dresses with flounced skirts whose bodices were open to the omphalos, allowing their breasts to be exposed.

Fresco depicting three women: This fresco from the complex at Knossos depicts a popular mode for Minoan women.

Knossos

Fragments of frescoes constitute at Knossos provide the states with glimpses into Minoan culture and rituals . A fresco found on an upper story of the palace has come to be known equally Bull Leaping. The paradigm depicts a bull in flying gallop with one person at his horns, another at his feet, and a third, whose peel color is brown instead of white, inverted in a handstand leaping over the bull.

While the different skin color of the figures may differentiate male (nighttime) and female (low-cal) figures, the similarity of their clothing and body shapes (lean with few curves) suggest that the figures may all be male. The figures participate in an activeness known every bit balderdash-leaping.

The human figures are stylized with narrow waists, broad shoulders, long, slender, muscular legs, and cylindrical artillery. Unlike the twisted perspective seen in Egyptian or Ancient Almost Eastern works of fine art, these figures are shown in full profile, an element the adds to the air of liveliness.

Bull Leaping: A fresco found on an upper story of the palace at Knossos, Crete, Greece. Circa 1450–1400 BCE.

Although the specifics of bull leaping remain a matter of debate, information technology is ordinarily interpreted as a ritualistic action performed in connection with bull worship. In nearly cases, the leaper would literally take hold of a bull by his horns, which caused the bull to jerk his cervix upwardly. This jerking motion gave the leaper the momentum necessary to perform somersaults and other acrobatic tricks or stunts.

Bull Leaping appears to separate these steps between 2 participants, with a tertiary extending his arms, possibly to catch the leaper.

Thera

The Minoans settled on other islands besides Crete, including the volcanic, Cycladic island of Thera (present-twenty-four hour period Santorini). The volcano on Thera erupted in mid-second millennium BCE and destroyed the Minoan city of Akrotiri. Akrotiri was entombed by pumice and ash and since its rediscovery has been referred to as the Minoan Pompeii. The frescoes on Akrotiri were preserved by the blanketing volcanic ash.

The wall paintings found on Thera provide significant information about Minoan life and culture, depicting a highly developed gild. A fresco commonly called Flotilla or Akrotiri Transport Procession represents a civilisation adept at a variety of seafaring occupations.

Differences in clothing styles could refer to unlike ranks and roles in gild. Deer, dolphins, and large felines indicate to a sense of biodiversity among the islands of the Minoan civilization .

Flotilla or Akrotiri Transport Procession: This panoramic fresco depicts the Minoans every bit a highly developed civilization.

In one room is a wall painting known every bit the Mural with Swallows, or as the Spring Fresco. It depicts a whimsical, hilly mural with lilies sprouting from the ground . Sparrows, painted in blue, white, and reddish, dive around the landscape. The lilies sway gracefully and the hills create an undulating rhythm around the room. The fresco does non depict a naturalistic mural, simply instead depicts an essence of the land and nature, whose liveliness is enhanced through the colors and curvilinear lines.

Landscape with Sparrows, or Spring Fresco: Akrotiri, Thera, Greece. c. 1650 BCE.

Vase Painting

Minoan ceramics and vase painting are uniquely stylized and are similar in artistic mode to Minoan wall painting. As with Minoan frescoes, themes from nature and marine life are often depicted on their pottery. Similar earth-tone colors are used, including black, white, brown, red, and blueish.

Kamares ware, a distinctive type of pottery painted in white, red, and blue over a black backdrop, is created from a fine clay. The paintings depict marine scenes, besides as abstract floral shapes, and they often include abstract lines and shapes, including spirals and waves.

These stylized, floral shapes include lilies, palms, papyrus , and leaves that make full the entire surface of the pot with bold designs. The pottery is named for the location where information technology was first found in the late nineteenth century—a cavern sanctuary at Kamares, on Mount Ida. This style of pottery is found throughout the isle of Crete as well in a diversity of locations on the Mediterranean.

Kamares ware vessel: This is a Kamares ware vessel with an abstract floral blueprint. Minoan, circa 2100–1700 BCE.

The Marine style emerged during the late Minoan period. Every bit the name suggests, the decorations on these vessels take their cue from the sea. The vessels are virtually entirely covered with sea creatures such as dolphins, fish, and octopi, along with seaweed, stone, and sponges.

Unlike their Kamares ware predecessors, the light and dark color scheme is inverted: the figures are dark on a light background. Similar the landscape frescoes at Thera, these paintings demonstrate a bang-up understanding and intimate knowledge of the marine environment.

In the Marine-style Octopus Vase from the metropolis of Palaikastro, the octopus wraps around the jug, mimicking and accentuating its round shape. The octopus is painted in great detail, from each of its distinct stylized suckers to its bulbous head and the extension of its long tentacles. The surface of this vessel is covered past the primary epitome; bits of seaweed fill up the negative space .

This filling of the empty space with boosted images or designs is another feature of Minoan Marine-style pottery. The style is known equally horror vacui, which is Latin for fright of empty space. The aforementioned aesthetic is seen later, in Greek Geometric pottery.

Octopus vase: Octopus vase from Palaikastro, Crete, Hellenic republic. Circa 1500 BCE.

Minoan Sculpture

Minoan sculpture consists of figurines that reflect the culture's creative style and of import aspects of daily life.

Learning Objectives

Requite examples of Minoan sculpture

Key Takeaways

Central Points

• Most known Minoan sculptures are small scale. They range from unmarried figures, often frontal, to figure groups that include both people and animals. The wide variety of materials used for these figurines stand for the extent of the Minoan merchandise network throughout the Mediterranean.
• The Snake Goddess statue from Knossos represents an of import female effigy in Minoan culture . Due to her connexion with snakes and felines, every bit well as her bare breasts, she is peradventure an globe goddess or a Minoan priestess.
• The Balderdash Leaper demonstrates the Minoan use of bronze in art besides equally highlighting the importance of the bull in Minoan sculpture and artistic manner .
• An ivory bull leaper from Knossos demonstrates another position the acrobat's body assumed during the deed.
• The Palaikastro Kouros is a rare example of a big-scale Minoan sculpture. Its size and rare materials lead experts to believe that information technology was used as a cult image.

Key Terms

• lost-wax casting:The nearly mutual method of using molten metal to make hollow, one-of-a-kind sculptures. When oestrus is practical to the clay mold, the wax layer within melts and forms channels, which the artist so fills with molten metal.
• faience:A depression-fired, opaque, quartz ceramic that creates a glass-similar material in bright shades of bluish, green, white, and brown that originates from Ancient Egypt.
• chthonic:Dwelling within or nether the world.
• curvilinear:Having bends; curved; formed by curved lines.

As with their painting, Minoan sculpture demonstrates stylistic conventions including curvilinear forms; active, energized scenes; and long-limbed humans with wide shoulders and narrow waists. Women are ofttimes depicted in large, long, layered skirts that accentuate their hips. So far, the majority of sculptures and figurines found during Minoan excavations accept been small scale.

Minoan Adult female, c. 1600-1500 BCE.: Bronze. Crete.

Materials

The small-scale sculptures of the Minoans were produced in many different materials including ivory, gold, faience , and bronze. The variety of materials acknowledges the extensive trade network established by the Minoans. For instance, faience, an quartz ceramic , is an Egyptian material. Its presence in sculpture found on Crete demonstrates that the fabric was shipped raw from Egypt to Crete, where it was then formed to create Minoan sculpture.

Bronze was an important fabric in Minoan culture and many figurines were produced in this medium , generally created using the lost-wax casting technique.

Snake Goddess

One figurine, known every bit the Snake Goddess , depicts a woman with open artillery who  holds a ophidian in each paw, with a feline sitting on her caput. The purpose or part of the statue is unknown, although it is believed that she may have been an world goddess or priestess.

The snakes are considered chthonic animals—related to the globe and the ground—and are often symbols of earth deities . Furthermore, the Snake Goddess is dressed in a layered skirt with a tight bodice, covered shoulders, and exposed breasts. The prominence of her breasts may suggest that she is fertility figure. Although her function remains unknown, the figure's significance to the civilization is unquestionable.

Snake Goddess, circa 1600 BCE.: Palace at Knossos, Knossos, Crete.

Other figures in similar poses and outfits take likewise been found among Minoan ruins.

Bull Leaper

The Balderdash Leaper statuary, depicting a bull and an acrobat, was created equally a unmarried group. The figures are similar in style and position, as seen in several bull-leaping frescoes , including ane from the palatial complex at Knossos.

Balderdash Leaper, circa 1550–1450 BCE.: Bronze. Southwest Crete.

The bull stands frozen in a flight gallop, while a leaper appears to exist flipping over his back. The acrobat'southward feet are planted firmly on the bull'south rump, and the figure bends backwards with its arms planted on the bull'due south head, mayhap preparing to launch off of the bull. The 2 figures, bull and man, mirror each other, as the bull'south back sways in the gallop and the man'south back is biconvex in a deep dorsum bend.

In some other sculpture of a bull leaper (c. 1500 BCE), the acrobat is frozen in a forward-facing mid-somersault position. This ivory sculpture from Knossos is the only consummate surviving figure from a larger system and is the earliest three-dimensional representation of the bull spring. Experts believe that thin gilded wires were used to suspend the figure over a bull.

Bull Leaper, circa 1500 BCE.: Sculpted from ivory. Knossos, Greece.

The figures are fabricated with curvilinear lines and the positioning of both figures adds a high degree of movement and action that was commonly found in Minoan art.

Palaikastro Kouros

While about known Minoan sculpture is small scale, at least i sculpture serves every bit an exception to this rule. The then-called Palaikastro Kouros (non to be confused with the stylized male sculptures of ancient Greece), which dates to the Late Minoan period (late fifteenth century BCE), stands at most 20 inches (l cm) alpine.

It is an example of a Chryselephantine sculpture: it consists of  a wooden frame, with sparse carved slabs of ivory fastened to represent the flesh. Sheets of gilt leaf probable represent details such equally hair and clothing. Its head consists of a semiprecious green stone called serpentine with rock crystal optics. Because of its calibration and the rareness of its media, experts believe the sculpture was a cult image.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/minoan-art/

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