Plan of the Palace Complex Knossos Crete Art History

The Minoans

The Protopalatial period of Minoan culture (1900 to 1700 BCE) and the Neopalatial Menstruation (1700 to 1450 BCE) saw the establishment of administrative centers on Crete and the apex of Minoan civilization, respectively.

Learning Objectives

Summarize the key elements of the Minoan Propalatial and Neopalatial periods

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• The Minoan civilization was named later on the mythical King Minos, because the start excavator, Sir Arthur Evans , mistook the many rooms and corridors of the administrative palace of Knossos to be the labyrinth in which Minos kept the Minotaur.
• The Protopalatial flow (1900–1700 BCE) saw the establishment of administrative centers on the island of Crete. The identifying features of Minoan civilization—extensive sea trade and the edifice of communal civic centers—are first seen on the island during this time.
• The Protopalatial catamenia ended in 1700 BCE when the palaces of the island were destroyed and life on the island was significantly disrupted. The unknown cataclysmic upshot is believed to exist either an convulsion or an invasion.
• During the Neopalatial menstruation (1700–1450 BCE), the Minoans recovered from the cataclysm and reached the acme of their civilization, eventually controlling the major trade routes in the Mediterranean.

Fundamental Terms

• labyrinth: A maze, especially underground or covered.
• minotaur: A monster with the head of a balderdash and the body of a human being.
• Linear A: A syllabary used to write the as-yet-undeciphered Minoan language, and an apparent predecessor to other scripts.

Discovery and Digging

The ancient sites on the island of Crete were starting time 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 afterward 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 bull, which lead to the birth of a one-half bull and one-half human being, known as the Minotaur. King Minos had his court artist and inventor, Daedalus, build an inescapable labyrinth for the Minotaur to live in.

Archaeological evidence dates the inflow of the earliest inhabitants of Crete in approximately 6000 BCE. Over the next four thou years the inhabitants adult a civilization based on agriculture, trade, and production. The Minoan's culture on Crete existed during the Bronze Age , from 3000 to 1100 BCE , although the Mycenaeans from Greece invaded the island in the mid-1400s BCE and occupied it for the terminal centuries before the Greek Dark Age.

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

Map of Minoan Crete: A map of Minoan Crete.

Protopalatial Period

The Protopalatial Period is considered the civilization's second phase of evolution, lasting from 1900 to 1700 BCE. During this time the major sites on the isle were developed, including the deluxe sites of Knossos, Phaistos, and Kato Zakros, which were the first palaces or administrative centers built on Crete.

These civic centers appear to announce the emergence of a collective customs governing system, instead of system in which a male monarch ruled over each town. During this catamenia the Minoan trade network expanded into Arab republic of egypt and the Virtually East; the first signs of writing, the still undeciphered language Linear A , appear. The flow concluded with a cataclysmic result, perhaps an earthquake or an invasion, which destroyed the palace centers.

Neopalatial Period

The Neopalatial menstruation occurred from 1700 to 1450 BCE, during which time the Minoans saw the meridian 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 first excavated by Sir Arthur Evans.

During this menstruation, Minoan trade increased and the Minoans were considered to rule the Mediterranean trading routes between Hellenic republic, Egypt, Anatolia , the Near Eastward, and perchance even Spain. The Minoans began to settle in colonies abroad 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 also had a cardinal, ceremonial courtyard.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the architectural design of Minoan palaces

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• The palaces excavated on Crete functioned more as administrative centers with rooms for civic functions, storage, workshops, and shrines located effectually a central, ceremonial courtyard.
• The palaces have no fortification walls, suggesting a lack of enemies and conflict, although the natural surroundings provide a high level of protection, and the multitude of rooms creates a continuous, protective façade .
• Minoan columns were uniquely shaped, constructed from woods, and painted. They are tapered at the lesser, larger at the top, and fitted with a bulbous, pillow-like majuscule .
• 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 aftermath of damaging earthquakes.

Primal Terms

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

The most well known and excavated architectural buildings of the Minoans were the authoritative palace centers.

When Sir Arthur Evans start excavated at Knossos, not only did he mistakenly believe he was looking at the legendary labyrinth of Rex Minos, he also thought he was excavating a palace. However, the minor rooms and earthworks of large pithoi , storage vessels , and archives led researchers to believe that these palaces were actually administrative centers. Withal, the name became ingrained, and these big, communal buildings across Crete are known equally palaces.

Although each one 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 compages built past the Minoans. The nearly prominent feature on the programme is the palace'south large, cardinal courtyard. This courtyard may accept been the location of large ritual events, including bull leaping, and a similar courtyard is found in every Minoan palace center.

Programme of the palace at Knossos: An overview map of the palace at Knossos, Crete, Hellenic republic, circa 1700–1400 BCE.

Several modest tripartite shrines surroundings the courtyard. The numerous corridors and rooms of the palace center create multiple areas for storage, coming together rooms, shrines, and workshops.

The absence of a fundamental room and living chambers suggest the absenteeism of a king and, instead, the presence and dominion of a strong, centralized government.

The palaces likewise take multiple entrances that often accept long paths to reach the primal courtyard or a set of rooms. In that location are no fortification walls, although the multitude of rooms creates a protective, continuous façade. While this provides some level of fortification, it also provides structural stability for earthquakes. Fifty-fifty without a wall, the rocky and mountainous mural of Crete and its location as an isle 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 non merely into zones along a horizontal apparently, but besides have multiple stories. One thousand staircases, decorated with columns and frescos , connect to the upper levels of the palaces, simply 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, also every bit sanitation.

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

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

Phaistos

Phaistos was inhabited from nigh 4000 BCE. A palatial complex, dating from the Middle Statuary Age , was destroyed past an earthquake during the Late Statuary Age. Knossos, along with other Minoan sites, was destroyed at that time. The palace was rebuilt toward the end of the Late Bronze Age.

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

The former palace was destroyed three times in a time period of about three centuries. After the outset and 2d disaster, reconstruction and repairs were made, then there are three, identifiable structure phases. Around 1400 BCE, the invading Achaeans destroyed Phaistos, equally well as Knossos. The palace appears to take been unused thereafter.

The Old Palace was congenital in the Protopalatial menses. When the palace was destroyed past earthquakes, new structures were built atop the erstwhile. In one of the iii hills of the surface area, remains from the Neolithic era and the Early Minoan menstruum have been found.

Two additional palaces were built during the Centre and Late 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 around 1600 BCE), the Late-Minoan builders constructed a larger palace had several rooms separated by columns.

Similar the complex at Knossos, the complex at Phaistos is arranged around a central courtyard and held chiliad staircases that led to areas believed to be 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 past its brilliant colors and curvilinear shapes that bring a liveliness and vitality to scenes.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate between Kamares ware and Marine-style vase painting, and describe Minoan wall paintings

Central Takeaways

Key Points

• The fresco known as Bull Leaping, found in the palace of Knossos, is 1 of the seminal Minoan paintings. It depicts the Minoan culture 'southward fascination with the bull and the unique effect of balderdash leaping—all painted in the distinctive Minoan fashion .
• The Minoan metropolis of Akrotiri on the isle of Thera was destroyed by a volcanic eruption that preserved the wall paintings in the boondocks's homes. I fresco, known as Flotilla, depicts a highly developed society.
• Kamares ware is pottery fabricated from a fine clay. These vessels are painted with marine scenes and abstruse flowers, shapes, and geometric lines .
• Marine-way vase painting depicts marine life and scenes with organic shapes that make full the entire surface of the pot, using a technique known as horror vacui . Unlike Kamares ware, Marine-style scenes are painted in dark colors on a lite surface.

Key Terms

• horror vacui: Latin, meaning fear of empty space; this is also the name for a fashion of painting when the entire surface of a space is filled with patterns and figures.
• fresco:In painting, the technique of applying water-based pigment to plaster.
• buon fresco:A more than durable mural painting technique in which alkali metal resistant pigments, footing in water, are applied to plaster when it is still wet, as opposed to fresco-secco when the plaster has been immune to dry and is remoistened.

Wall Painting

The Minoans decorated their palace complexes and homes with fresco wall paintings. Buon fresco is a course of painting where the pigment is painted onto a moisture limestone plaster. When the plaster dries the painting also dries, becoming an integral part of the wall.

In the Minoan variation, the rock walls are outset covered with a mixture of mud and harbinger, and so thinly coated with lime plaster, and lastly with layers of fine plaster. The Minoans had a distinct painting manner with shapes formed by curvilinear lines that add a feeling of liveliness to the paintings. The Minoan color palette is based in earth tones of white, brown, carmine, and yellow. Black and vivid bluish are also used. These color combinations create vivid and rich decoration.

Because the Minoan alphabet, known as Linear A , has however to be deciphered, scholars must rely on the civilisation's visual art to provide insights into Minoan life. The frescoes discovered in locations such as Knossos and Akrotiri inform us of the plant and animal life of the islands of Crete and Thera (Santorini), the mutual styles of vesture, 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 up to the navel, allowing their breasts to be exposed.

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

Knossos

Fragments of frescoes establish at Knossos provide us with glimpses into Minoan culture and rituals . A fresco establish on an upper story of the palace has come to be known as Balderdash Leaping. The image depicts a bull in flying gallop with one person at his horns, some other at his feet, and a third, whose skin color is dark-brown instead of white, inverted in a handstand leaping over the balderdash.

While the dissimilar pare color of the figures may differentiate male (dark) and female (light) figures, the similarity of their clothing and trunk shapes (lean with few curves) propose that the figures may all exist male. The figures participate in an activity known as bull-leaping.

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

Balderdash 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, it is commonly interpreted equally a ritualistic activity performed in connexion with balderdash worship. In most cases, the leaper would literally grab a bull by his horns, which acquired the bull to jerk his neck upwardly. This jerking motion gave the leaper the momentum necessary to perform somersaults and other acrobatic tricks or stunts.

Bull Leaping appears to divide these steps between two participants, with a tertiary extending his arms, possibly to grab the leaper.

Thera

The Minoans settled on other islands besides Crete, including the volcanic, Cycladic isle of Thera (nowadays-mean solar day Santorini). The volcano on Thera erupted in mid-2d millennium BCE and destroyed the Minoan city of Akrotiri. Akrotiri was entombed past 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 plant on Thera provide pregnant data almost Minoan life and civilization, depicting a highly adult society. A fresco ordinarily called Flotilla or Akrotiri Ship Procession represents a civilisation good at a multifariousness of seafaring occupations.

Differences in clothing styles could refer to different ranks and roles in order. Deer, dolphins, and large felines point to a sense of biodiversity among the islands of the Minoan culture .

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

In one room is a wall painting known equally the Landscape with Swallows, or equally the Spring Fresco. It depicts a whimsical, hilly landscape with lilies sprouting from the basis . Sparrows, painted in blueish, white, and red, swoop effectually the mural. The lilies sway gracefully and the hills create an undulating rhythm around the room. The fresco does not depict a naturalistic landscape, but 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 style to Minoan wall painting. As with Minoan frescoes, themes from nature and marine life are often depicted on their pottery. Similar globe-tone colors are used, including black, white, brown, red, and blue.

Kamares ware, a distinctive type of pottery painted in white, crimson, and blue over a black backdrop, is created from a fine clay. The paintings depict marine scenes, every bit well every bit 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 it was first establish in the late nineteenth century—a cavern sanctuary at Kamares, on Mountain Ida. This fashion of pottery is found throughout the island of Crete every bit well in a variety of locations on the Mediterranean.

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

The Marine style emerged during the late Minoan menstruation. Equally the proper noun suggests, the decorations on these vessels have their cue from the sea. The vessels are almost entirely covered with body of water creatures such equally dolphins, fish, and octopi, along with seaweed, rock, and sponges.

Unlike their Kamares ware predecessors, the light and dark color scheme is inverted: the figures are dark on a calorie-free background. Like the landscape frescoes at Thera, these paintings demonstrate a smashing agreement and intimate knowledge of the marine environment.

In the Marine-style Octopus Vase from the city of Palaikastro, the octopus wraps around the jug, mimicking and accentuating its round shape. The octopus is painted in groovy detail, from each of its singled-out stylized suckers to its bulbous head and the extension of its long tentacles. The surface of this vessel is covered by the main image; $.25 of seaweed fill the negative space .

This filling of the empty infinite with boosted images or designs is another characteristic of Minoan Marine-fashion pottery. The style is known every bit horror vacui, which is Latin for fear of empty space. The aforementioned aesthetic is seen later on, in Greek Geometric pottery.

Octopus vase: Octopus vase from Palaikastro, Crete, Greece. Circa 1500 BCE.

Minoan Sculpture

Minoan sculpture consists of figurines that reverberate the culture'south creative style and important aspects of daily life.

Learning Objectives

Give examples of Minoan sculpture

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Most known Minoan sculptures are small calibration. They range from single figures, often frontal, to effigy 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 important female effigy in Minoan civilisation . Due to her connectedness with snakes and felines, besides as her bare breasts, she is perchance an earth goddess or a Minoan priestess.
• The Balderdash Leaper demonstrates the Minoan use of bronze in art as well every bit highlighting the importance of the bull in Minoan sculpture and artistic style .
• An ivory bull leaper from Knossos demonstrates some other position the acrobat's body causeless during the act.
• The Palaikastro Kouros is a rare example of a large-scale Minoan sculpture. Its size and rare materials pb experts to believe that it was used as a cult paradigm.

Cardinal Terms

• lost-wax casting:The well-nigh mutual method of using molten metal to make hollow, one-of-a-kind sculptures. When oestrus is applied to the clay mold, the wax layer within melts and forms channels, which the artist then fills with molten metal.
• faience:A low-fired, opaque, quartz ceramic that creates a glass-like material in brilliant shades of bluish, light-green, white, and brown that originates from Ancient Arab republic of egypt.
• chthonic:Dwelling within or under the earth.
• curvilinear:Having bends; curved; formed by curved lines.

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

Minoan Woman, c. 1600-1500 BCE.: Bronze. Crete.

Materials

The pocket-sized-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 past the Minoans. For instance, faience, an quartz ceramic , is an Egyptian material. Its presence in sculpture found on Crete demonstrates that the material was shipped raw from Arab republic of egypt to Crete, where it was then formed to create Minoan sculpture.

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

Ophidian Goddess

1 figurine, known as the Snake Goddess , depicts a woman with open up arms who  holds a snake in each hand, with a feline sitting on her caput. The purpose or part of the statue is unknown, although information technology is believed that she may accept been an world goddess or priestess.

The snakes are considered chthonic animals—related to the earth and the footing—and are often symbols of globe 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 propose that she is fertility effigy. Although her part remains unknown, the figure'due south significance to the culture is unquestionable.

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

Other figures in similar poses and outfits have also been found among Minoan ruins.

Balderdash Leaper

The Bull Leaper bronze, depicting a bull and an acrobat, was created as a single group. The figures are similar in way and position, equally seen in several bull-leaping frescoes , including one from the deluxe complex at Knossos.

Bull Leaper, circa 1550–1450 BCE.: Statuary. Southwest Crete.

The balderdash stands frozen in a flying gallop, while a leaper appears to be flipping over his back. The acrobat's feet are planted firmly on the balderdash's rump, and the figure bends backwards with its arms planted on the balderdash'southward head, perhaps preparing to launch off of the balderdash. The 2 figures, bull and man, mirror each other, as the bull's back sways in the gallop and the man's back is arched 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 complete surviving figure from a larger arrangement and is the earliest iii-dimensional representation of the balderdash bound. Experts believe that thin gold wires were used to suspend the figure over a bull.

Balderdash Leaper, circa 1500 BCE.: Sculpted from ivory. Knossos, Hellenic republic.

The figures are made with curvilinear lines and the positioning of both figures adds a high degree of movement and action that was usually institute in Minoan art.

Palaikastro Kouros

While nearly known Minoan sculpture is pocket-sized scale, at least one sculpture serves equally an exception to this rule. The and then-called Palaikastro Kouros (non to be dislocated with the stylized male sculptures of ancient Greece), which dates to the Late Minoan catamenia (late fifteenth century BCE), stands at almost twenty inches (fifty cm) alpine.

It is an example of a Chryselephantine sculpture: it consists of  a wooden frame, with thin carved slabs of ivory attached to represent the flesh. Sheets of gold leaf likely stand for details such equally hair and clothing. Its head consists of a semiprecious dark-green stone called serpentine with rock crystal optics. Considering of its scale and the rareness of its media, experts believe the sculpture was a cult paradigm.

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

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