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| Greek Bronze Age | |||
| Cycladic art - Minoan art | |||
| Art in ancient Greece | |||
| Archaic Greek art - Classical Greek art
see also: Greco-Buddhist art |
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| Medieval Greece | |||
| Byzantine art - Macedonian art | |||
| Post-Byzantine Greece | |||
| Art in Ottoman Greece - Cretan School | |||
| Modern Greece | |||
| Modern Greek art - Munich School | |||
Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterised largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, circa 900 BCE to 700 BCE. Its centre was in Athens, and it was diffused amongst the trading cities of the Aegean.[1]
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During the Protogeometric period (1050-900 BC) the shapes of the vessels have eliminated the fluid nature of the Mycenaean, the form has become strict and simple and they are divided into horizontal decorative bands with a few written geometric shapes within, usually concentric cycles or semicircles engraved with a caliper.
In the Early geometric period (900-850 BC) the height of the vessels has been increased, while the decoration is limited around the neck until the middle of the body of the vessel. The remaining surface is covered by a thin layer of clay, which during the cooking takes a dark, shiny, metallic color.[2] That was the period when the decorative theme of the meander added to the pottery design, the most characteristic element of geometric art.
At the Middle geometric period (850-760 BC), the decorative zones appear multiplied by creating a laced mesh, while the meander dominates and is placed in the most important area, in the metope which is arranged between the handles.
While the technique from the Middle Geometric period was still continued at the beginning of 8th century BC some laboratories enriched again the decorative organization of the vases, stabilized the forms of the animals in the areas of the neck and the base of the vase, and introduced at the main metope between the handles, the human form. This was the first phase of the Late Geometric period (760-700 BC), in which the great vessels of Dipylon placed on the graves as funeral monuments, and represent with their height (often at a height of 1.50 m) and the perfection of their execution, the highest expression of the Greek geometric art.
Their main subject was now the body lying in state (prothesis) and the wail of the dead (Amphora in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens), carrying out to the grave with an honorary chariot race (Krater in the Athens National Archaeological Museum), and various other subjects related to similar descriptions of the homeric epics.
People and animals depicted geometrically in a dark glossy color, while the remaining vessel is covered by strict zones of meanders, crooked lines, circles, swastikas, in the same graphical concept. Later, the main tragic theme of the wail declined, the compositions eased, the geometric shapes have become more freely, and areas with animals, birds, scenes of shipwrecks, hunting scenes, themes from mythology or the Homeric epics led geometric pottery into more naturalistic expressions.[3]
One of the characteristic examples of the Late geometric style, is an oldest surviving signed work of a Greek potter Aristonothos (or Aristonophos) (7th century BC). The vase was found at Cerveteri in Italy and illustrates the blinding of Polyphemus by Odysseus and his companions. From the mid of 8th century BC, the closer contact between Greece and the East enriched the ceramic art with new subjects such as lions, panthers, imaginary beings, rosettes, palmettes, lotus flowers etc. - that led to the Orientalizing Period style, in which the pottery style of Corinth distinguished.
Vases in the Geometric style are characterized by several horizontal bands about the circumference covering the entire vase. Between these lines the geometric artist used a number of other decorative motifs such as the zigzag, the triangle, the meander and the swastika. Besides abstract elements, painters of this era introduced stylized depictions of humans and animals which marks a significant departure from the earlier Protogeometric Art. Many of the surviving objects of this period are funerary objects, a particularly important class of which are the amphorae that acted as grave markers for aristocratic graves, principally the Dipylon Amphora by the Dipylon Master.[4]
Linear designs were the principal motif used in this period. The meander pattern was often placed in bands and used to frame the now larger panels of decoration. The areas most used for decoration by potters on shapes such as the amphorae and lekythoi were the neck and belly, which not only offered the greatest liberty for decoration but also emphasized the taller dimensions of the vessels.[5]
The first human figures appeared around 770 BCE on the handles of vases. The male was depicted with a triangular torso, an ovoid head with a blob for a nose and long cylindrical thighs and calves. Female figures were also abstract. Their long hair was depicted as a series of lines, as were their breasts, which appeared as strokes under the armpit.[6]