Protogeometric art

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of the series on: History of Greek art
Prehistoric Greece
Cycladic art - Minoan art - Mycenean art - Protogeometric Art - Geometric art
Art in Ancient Greece
Archaic Greek art - Classical Greek Art - Hellenistic Art - Greco-Buddhist art - Greek Art in Roman times
Medieval Greece
Byzantine art - Macedonian art
Post-Byzantine Greece
Art in Ottoman Greece - Cretan School - Heptanese School
Modern Greece
Art in modern Greece - Munich School Contemporary Greek Art

The Protogeometric style is a pottery type associated with the Greek Dark Ages. After the collapse of the Mycenaen-Minoan Palace culture and the ensuing Greek Dark Ages, the Protogeometric style emerged around the mid 11th century BCE as the first expression of a reviving civilisation. Following on from the development of a faster potter's wheel, vases of this period are markedly more technically accomplished than earlier Dark Age examples. The decoration of these pots is restricted to purely abstract elements and is best characterized by broad horizontal bands about the neck and belly and concentric circles applied with compass and multiple brush.

Some of the innovations included some new Mycenean influenced shapes, such as the belly-handled amphora, the neck handled amphora, the krater, and the lekythos. Attic artists redesigned these vessels using the fast wheel to increase the height and therefore the area available for decoration.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Murray, R. L. The Protogeometric Style: the first Greek style (1975).
Eiteljorg, H., "The fast wheel, the multiple brush compass and Athens as home of the Protogeometric style" AJA 84 (1980) pp. 445-452.