Acient greek visual arts

Ancient Greek Visual arts


The ancient cultures of Greece, the Minoan and the Mycenaean, produced wonderful works of art, but we are indebted to archeology forthe finds that we have from these cultures. Information regarding classical art comes more from literary resources that have been maintained over the centuries. Comparison of the early archaic art ofthe 10th century BCE reveals a remarkable difference between the art of mainland Greece and the art of the previous cultures. For this reason the history of the art of classical Greece usually startswith the early archaic art and the art of Minoan and Mycenean cultures is dealt with separately.

The period after the Trojan war is usually referred to as the Greek dark age because there is solittle material from that period. We do not know what was going on, but whatever it was, it was very revolutionary. Art changed a great deal and began the development of Greek art that was to flower inthe classical period. This period is referred to as the geometric period because of one of the striking characteristics of this art. Most of the decoration consists of various geometric patterns. Thereare figurative elements too which appear to be illustrations of myths. This is a trend that will continue in Greek art, but few of the myths in the early pieces can be identified because of theschematic nature of the figures. Some of the mythical characters, such as centaurs, are easily identified even in schematic form.

The main periods in Greek art are:
Neolithic in Greece: 6500 - 5500 BCE(The beginning of art in Greece)
Bronze Age in Greece: 3500 - 1000 BCE
Early Minoan: 2800 - 2200 BCE
Mycenean: 1800 - 1100 BCE
Middle Minoan: 2200 - 2700 BCE
Late Minoan: 1700 - 1200 BCEHomeric Age: 1100 - 750 BCE
Archaic: 750 - 470 BCE
Golden Age: 470 - 378 BCE (Classical Greece)
Hellenistic: 338 - 146 BCE

There is a definitely a connection between nudity in art and nudity in...