Linear Motifs Used During the Geometric Period of Ancient Greek Art a

Pottery in the Greek Geometric Period

The Geometric menstruation in Greek art is distinguished past a reliance on geometric shapes to create man and animal figures also as abstract décor.

Learning Objectives

Identify the cardinal characteristics of the pottery produced during the Geometric period

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• The Geometric menstruum marked the cease of Greece'due south Dark Age and lasted from 900 to 700 BCE.
• The Geometric menses derives its proper name from the potency of geometric motifs in vase painting. Monumental kraters and amphorae were made and decorated equally grave markers. These vessels are characteristic of Geometric vase painting during this menstruation.
• The well-nigh famous vessels from this period uses a technique called horror vacui , in which every infinite of the surface is filled with imagery .

Key Terms

• horror vacui: From the Latin, fear of empty space, it is a fashion of painting where the entire surface of a infinite is filled with patterns and figures.
• amphora: A two-handled jar with a narrow neck that was used in ancient times to store or bear vino or oils.
• krater: An ancient Greek vessel for mixing water and wine.

Geometric Pottery

In the eleventh century BCE, the citadel centers of the Mycenaeans were abandoned and Hellenic republic vicious into a menses with little cultural or social progression. Signs of civilisation including literacy, writing, and trade were lost and the population on mainland Greece plummeted.

During the Proto-Geometric menstruum (1050–900 BCE), painting on ceramics began to re-emerge. These vessels were but busy with abstract geometric shapes adopted from Mycenaean pottery. Ceramicists began using the fast cycle to create vessels, which allowed for new monumental heights.

Proto-Geometric amphora: Proto-Geometric amphora, c. 975–950 BCE.

In the Geometric period that followed, figures once more became present on the vessel. The menstruation lasted from 900 to 700 BCE and marked the finish of the Greek Dark Ages. A new Greek culture emerged during this time. The population grew, merchandise began once more, and the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet for writing.

Unlike the Mycenaeans, this civilisation was more focused on the people of the polis , which is reflected in the art of this menses. The period gets its name from the reliance on geometric shapes and patterns in its art, and fifty-fifty their utilize in depicting both homo and animal figures.

Athens

The metropolis of Athens became the middle for pottery production. A potter's quarter in the section of the city known equally the Kerameikos was located on either side of the Dipylon Gate, one of the city's west gates. The potters lived and piece of work inside the gate in the metropolis, while outside the gate, along the road, was a large cemetery.

In the Geometric period, monumental-sized kraters and amphorae upward to six feet tall were used as grave markers for the burials just outside the gate. Kraters marked male graves, while amphorae marked female graves.

The Dipylon Master, an unknown painter whose mitt is recognized on many different vessels, displays the dandy expertise required for decorating these funerary markers. The vessels were first thrown a wheel, an important technological development at the fourth dimension, earlier painting began. Both the Diplyon Krater and Dipylon Amphora demonstrate the main characteristics of painting during this time.

For ane, the entire vessel is busy in a style known equally horror vacui, a fashion in which the entire surface of the medium is filled with imagery. A decorative meander is on the lip of the krater and on many registers of the amphora. This geometric motif is synthetic from a single, continuous line in a repeated shape or motif.

The principal scene is depicted on the widest part of the pot's body. These scenes relate to the funerary aspect of the pot and may depict mourners, a prothesis (a ritual of laying the trunk out and mourning), or even funerary games and processions.

On the Dipylon Krater, two registers depict a processional scene, an ekphora, (the transportation of the body to the cemetery) and the prothesis. The expressionless man of the prothesis scene is seen on the upper register. He is laid out on a bier and mourners, distinguished past their hands tearing at their hair, environment the body. Above the trunk is a shroud, which the artist depicts above and non over the body in society to permit the viewer to encounter the entirety of the scene.

On the register below, chariots and soldiers form a funerary procession. The soldiers are identified by their uniquely shaped shields. The Dipylon Amphora depicts just a prothesis in a wide a annals around the pot.

In both vessels, men and women are distinguished past protruding triangles on their breast or waist to represent breasts or a penis. Every empty space in these scenes is filled with geometric shapes—G'due south, diamonds, starbursts—demonstrating the Geometric painter's horror vacui.

Geometric amphora: Geometric amphora, from the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens, Greece, c. 740 BCE.

Geometric krater: Geometric krater. From the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens, Greece, c. 740 BCE.

Sculpture in the Greek Geometric Period

Although derived from geometric shapes, the Ancient Greek sculptures of the Geometric period bear witness some creative observation of nature.

Learning Objectives

Place the key characteristics of the sculptures produced during the Geometric period

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• Geometric sculptures are primarily minor scale and made of bronze , terracotta , or ivory . The bronze figures were produced using the lost-wax method of casting .
• The human and animal figures produced during this period have geometric features, although the legs on humans appear relatively naturalistic.
• Geometric bronzes were typically left as votive offerings at shrines and sanctuaries , such as those at Delphi and Olympia.
• Horses came to symbolize wealth due to the high costs of their upkeep.

Key Terms

• votive: An type of offering deposited within a religious site without the purpose of display or retrieval.

The ancient Greek sculptures of the Geometric period , although derived from geometric shapes, deport testify of an artistic ascertainment of nature in some circumstances. Small-scale sculptures, unremarkably made of statuary, terra cotta, or ivory, were commonly produced during this time. Bronzes were made using the lost-wax technique, probably introduced from Syrian arab republic, and were oft left equally votive offerings at sanctuaries such as Delphi and Olympia.

Homo Figures

The human figures are fabricated of a triangle as a trunk that supports a bulbous head with a triangular chin and nose. Their artillery are cylindrical, and only their legs accept a slightly more than naturalistic shape. These attributes can be seen in a small sculpture of a seated human being drinking from a cup that displays the typical modeling figures equally simple, linear forms that enclose open space . Especially noteworthy are his elongated arms that mirror the dimensions of his legs.

Seated Male Effigy: This is made of statuary and created around 750–700 BCE. Note how the statue's elongated arms mirror the dimensions of his legs.

A relatively naturalistic rendering of human legs is also evident in Man and Centaur, also known equally Heracles and Nessos (c. 750–730 BCE). Without the equine back and hind legs, the centaur portion of the sculpture is a shorter man with man legs.

Similar the seated man in a higher place, the two figures feature elongated arms, with the right arm of the centaur forming one continuous line with the left arm of the man. While the seated man appears to exist make clean shaven, the figures in Human and Centaur wear beards, which usually symbolized maturity. The hollow eye sockets of the effigy of the man probably once held inlay for a more realistic appearance.

Man and Centaur (Heracles and Nessos): This bronze statue was fabricated around 750–730 BCE.

Animal Figures

Animals, including bulls, deer, horses, and birds, were besides based in geometry. Equus caballus figurines were commonly used as offerings to the gods. The animals themselves became symbols of wealth and status due to the high price of keeping them. Equine bodies may be described as rectangles pinched in the middle with rectangular legs and tail and are like in shape to deer or bulls.

The heads of these mammals are more than distinctive, as the equus caballus's cervix arches , while the bull and deer accept cylindrical faces distinguished past horns or ears. While the animals and people are based in basic geometric shapes, the artists clearly observed their subjects in order to highlight these distinguishing characters.

Geometric Horse statuette: This bronze statue from Olympia, Hellenic republic, circa 700 BCE.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/the-geometric-period/

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