Aegean Painting In The Bronze Age

Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age is intended as a handbook for the art historian and archaeologist, with a full catalogue of examples (arranged according to site), critical discussion of the problems of chronology, a comprehensive bibliography, maps, drawings of details, and more than 100 photographic plates, 23 in color. This is the only book to give a synthesis of painting and pictorial art from its beginnings in Prepalatial Crete to the collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the Aegean. Immerwahr traces the development of Aegean painting from its origins in Crete through its spread to the Cycladic islands and to the Greek mainland, where it gave rise to the specific Mycenaean style. She studies primarily wall painting but refers also to painting on pottery and the pictorial art of seal engraving. The question of foreign influence from Egypt and Mesopotamia is discussed in connection with the origins of Minoan painting, and the new frescoes from Akrotiri on Thera are used to supplement the much more fragmentary paintings from Sir Arthur Evan's excavations at Knossos. Immerwahr also explores the interrelationship of the Minoan Cretans, the Cycladic islanders with their Minoanized enclaves on Thera and Melos, and the early Greek Mycenean mainlanders.

The papers published here are dedicated to the memory of Ellen N. Davis, one of the most valued and beloved Aegean scholars of her generation. All of the articles are in some way inspired or influenced by Davis' own contributions to the field. In the area of metalwork, several papers investigate interconnections within and around the Aegean during the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Ages (Betancourt, Ferrence, and Muhly, Weingarten, Kopcke), while others examine metal ware in its social context (Wiener). Papers on wall painting range from studies of pigments and optical illusions (Vlachopoulos), to representations of water (Shank). Anthropomorphic representations, or their absence, of goddesses or priestesses (Jones), rulers (Palaima), or initiates (Koehl) are also studied here with new eyes and fresh insights.

Offers an innovative theory for ancient art and its creativity, demonstrated through the rich material and visual culture of the protohistoric Aegean.

What is the social role of images and architecture in a pre-modern society? How were they used to create adequate environments for specific profane and ritual activities? In which ways did they interact with each other? These and other crucial issues on the social significance of imagery and built structures in Neopalatial Crete were the subject of a workshop which took place on November 16th, 2009 at the University of Heidelberg. The papers presented in the workshop are collected in the present volume. They provide different approaches to this complex topic and are aimed at a better understanding of the formation, role, and perception of images and architecture in a very dynamic social landscape. The Cretan Neopalatial period saw a rapid increase in the number of palaces and 'villas', characterized by elaborate designs and idiosyncratic architectural patterns which were themselves in turn generated by a pressing desire for a distinctive social and performative environment.

This textbook is a compilation of the author's more than 35 years of teaching and excavation experience in the field of Aegean Bronze Age art history and archaeology. It is geared toward an audience of undergraduate and graduate students as an introduction to the Bronze Age art objects and architecture that have been uncovered on Crete, the Greek peninsula, and the Cycladic Islands.

Are we to believe that Late Minoan Crete was over-run with dancers and bull leapers? As Senta German shows, dancing and bull-leaping were the most prevalent themes of Late Bronze Age glyptic art although, aside from their demonstration of a social and perhaps symbolic activity, they also had a much deeper function in Late Minoan society.

This book is a comprehensive up-to-date survey of the Aegean Bronze Age, from its beginnings to the period following the collapse of the Mycenaean palace system. In essays by leading authorities commissioned especially for this volume, it covers the history and the material culture of Crete, Greece, and the Aegean Islands from c.3000–1100 BCE, as well as topics such as trade, religions, and economic administration. Intended as a reliable, readable introduction for university students, it will also be useful to scholars in related fields within and outside classics. The contents of this book are arranged chronologically and geographically, facilitating comparison between the different cultures. Within this framework, the cultures of the Aegean Bronze Age are assessed thematically and combine both material culture and social history.