Geometric art

{{Main|Ancient Greek funerary vases}}

Large funerary vases (often Dipylon kraters for men, and belly-handled amphorae for women){{Sfn|Langdon|2010|p=288}} not only depicted funerary scenes, but they also had practical purposes, either holding the ashes or being used as grave markers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dbag/hd_dbag.htm|title=Death, Burial, and the Afterlife in Ancient Greece {{!}} Essay {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art|author=Department of Greek and Roman Art|website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History|access-date=2017-12-01}} These vases often carried funerary imagery to commemorate the dead; the deceased person was depicted robed lying in state (prothesis), often surrounded by mourning family members, or lying in a bed and carried to the grave with an honorary chariot procession (ekphora). The depiction was accompanied by various heroic scenes and warfare imagery which are thought to be related to similar descriptions of the Homeric epics and were used to enhance the heroic ambience.{{Sfn|Langdon|2010|p=288}} To the Greeks, an omission of a proper burial was an insult to proper dignity. The mythological context of a proper burial relates to the Greeks' belief in a continued existence in the underworld that will disallow the dead to maintain peace in the absence of a proper burial ritual.

Aside from its funerary use, the Greeks also utilized various vessels during symposia. The Greek symposium was a social gathering that only aristocratic males were allowed to attend.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/symp/hd_symp.htm|title=The Symposium in Ancient Greece {{!}} Essay {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art|author=Department of Greek and Roman Art|website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History|access-date=2017-12-01}} Vessels, such as wine coolers, jugs, various drinking cups, and mixing vessels, were decorated with Greek, geometric scenes. Some of the scenes depicted drinking parties or Dionysus and his followers. The symposia were held in the andron, which was a men's-only room.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/01-02/ancient-greece-symposium-dinner-party/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122015542/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/01-02/ancient-greece-symposium-dinner-party/|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 22, 2017|title=Wine, Women, and Wisdom: The Symposia of Ancient Greece|date=2017-01-17|access-date=2017-12-01}} The only women allowed into this room were called "hetaera", or female sex-workers, who required payment from their regular, male companions.

The Protogeometric style (1025–900 BC)Van Damme, Trevor, and Lis Bartłomiej, (29 October 2024). [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/origin-of-the-protogeometric-style-in-northern-greece-and-its-relevance-for-the-absolute-chronology-of-the-early-iron-age/3D39D12E7D475D33E702BB98269F293C "The origin of the Protogeometric style in northern Greece and its relevance for the absolute chronology of the Early Iron Age"], in: Antiquity, 2024, Vol. 98, No. 401, pp. 1271-1289, Table 1: "Early Protogeometric in Central Greece and Attica, 1025 cal BC."{{cite journal |last1=Fantalkin |first1=Alexander |last2=Kleiman |first2=Assaf |last3=Mommsen |first3=Hans |last4=Finkelstein |first4=Israel |title=Aegean Pottery in Iron IIA Megiddo: Typological, Archaeometric and Chronological Aspects |journal=Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry |date=December 2020 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=135–148 |id={{Gale|A639890348}} |doi=10.5281/zenodo.3960190 }}{{Sfn|Knodell|2021|p=7}} inherits its decorative forms and motifs from Mycenaean tradition and is mostly visible in ceramic production. Technological developments of the era created a new relationship between ornament and structure, causing differing stylistic choices from its Mycenaean influences.{{Sfn|Langdon|2010|p=287}} The shapes of the vessels have eliminated the fluid nature of the Mycenaean creating a more strict and simple design. There are horizontal, decorative bands that feature geometric shapes, including concentric circles or semicircles.{{cite book |last=Mannack |first=Thomas |title=A Companion to Greek Art |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4051-8604-9 |editor-last1=Smith |editor-first1=Tyler Jo |editor-link=Tyler Jo Smith |page=40 |chapter=Greek Decorated Pottery I: Athenian Vase-painting |doi=10.1002/9781118273289 |editor-last2=Plantzos |editor-first2=Dimitris |chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118273289.ch3}} Other characteristics of the early Protogeometric style included monochrome pottery and wavy lines on the shoulders.{{Sfn|Gadolou|Handberg|2017|pp=44-45}} Common vase shapes of the period include amphorai with the handles on both the belly and the neck, hydriai (water jars), oinochoai (wine jugs), lekythoi, and skyphoi (stemless cups). Protegeometric pottery style is thought to have been led by Athens, while other regions also had their own local variations, most notably Thessaly, Euboea, Crete etc.{{Sfn|Langdon|2010|p=287}} The Protogeometric period did not yet feature human figures within its art, but horses were pictured during this time period.{{Sfn|Langdon|2010|pp=286-290}} The village of Lefkandi in Euboea is considered one of the most representative sites of the Early Protogeometric style. New shapes, like the kalathos and pyxis, are thought to have been introduced during the Late Protogeometric period.{{Sfn|Gadolou|Handberg|2017|pp=44-45}}

{{Multiple image

| image1 = Protogeometric indoors goddess, 850-800 BC, AMH, Giamalakis col, 145356.jpg

| image2 = Protogeometric indoors goddess, 850-800 BC, AMH, Giamalakis col, 145359.jpg

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| footer = Circular shrine containing the figure of a goddess with upraised arms. Two prone figures, perhaps worshipers, observe the goddess through the opening in the roof, while an animal lies beside them. {{circa|850-800}} BC, Archaeological Museum of Heraklion

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In the early Geometric period (900–850 BC), the height of the vessels had been increased, while the decoration was limited around the neck down to the middle of the body of the vessel. The remaining surface is covered by a thin layer of clay, which during the firing takes a dark, shiny, metallic color.Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 35th and 36th Books This was the period when the decorative theme of the meander was added to the pottery design, the most characteristic element of Geometric art.

During this period, a broader repertoire of vessel shapes was initiated. Specifically, amphorae were used to hold cremation ashes. The amphorae featured handles on the neck or shoulder for males, while featuring handles on the "belly" of the vase for women.{{Sfn|Langdon|2010|pp=286-290}}

By the middle Geometric period (850–760 BC), the decorative zones appear multiplied due to the creation of a laced mesh, while the meander dominates and is placed in the most important area, in the metope, which is arranged between the handles.

Based on excavations at Sindos, mentioned by Gimatzidis and Weninger (2020), Alagich et al. (2024) consider the possibility that Middle Geometric period began 140 years earlier, lasting (c. 990-870 BC).{{cite journal |last1=Alagich |first1=Rudolf |last2=Becerra-Valdivia |first2=Lorena |last3=Miller |first3=Margaret C. |last4=Trantalidou |first4=Katerina |last5=Smith |first5=Colin|date=26 February 2024 |title=Mediterranean Early Iron Age chronology: assessing radiocarbon dates from a stratified Geometric period deposit at Zagora (Andros), Greece |journal=Antiquity|volume=98 |issue=398|pages=454–469 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2024.16 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BED7491DD5F61A742B5B95F6C2254B92/S0003598X24000164a.pdf/mediterranean-early-iron-age-chronology-assessing-radiocarbon-dates-from-a-stratified-geometric-period-deposit-at-zagora-andros-greece.pdf |doi-access=free}}

File:Centaur Chiron of Lefkandi, Archaeological museum of Eretria, Greece.jpg|Centar Chiron of Lefkandi, {{Circa|1050-900}} BC, Archaeological Museum of Eretria

File:Amfora, Attic workshop, Early Geometric Period, 875 - 850 BC, Prague Kinsky, UKA 60-5, 140721.jpg|Shoulder handled amfora, Attic workshop, {{Circa|875-850}} BC

File:Clay amphora, Middle Geometric II Period, 800-760 BC (27931792873).jpg|Clay amphora, {{Circa|800-760}} BC, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens

File:Clay skyphos, Middle Geometric II - Late Geometric IA Period, 775-750 BC (28469156951).jpg|Clay skyphos, {{Circa|775-750}} BC, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens

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| image1 = Prothesis Scene 1200x500 from Hirschfeld Workshop Terracotta Krater ca 750-735 bce by alkalisoaps on flickr.png

| image2 = Hirschfeld Workshop Terracotta Krater ca 750-735 bce by alkalisoaps on flickr - detail2.png

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| footer = Detail from the Hirschfeld Krater ({{circa|750-730}} BC); prothesis scene (above), ekphora scene (below)

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Late Geometric period lasted from 750 to 700/650 BC.{{Sfn|Knodell|2021|p=7}} Some potters 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 the human form between the handles. The late Geometric period was marked by a {{convert|1.62|m}} amphora that was made by the Dipylon painter in around 760–750 BC.{{cite book|last=Mannack|first=Thomas|chapter=Greek Decorated Pottery I: Athenian Vase-painting |doi=10.1002/9781118273289 |title=A Companion to Greek Art |year=2013|pages=42–43|chapter-url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118273289.ch3 |isbn=978-1-4051-8604-9 |editor-last1=Smith |editor-last2=Plantzos |editor-first1=Tyler Jo |editor-first2=Dimitris}} The vase was a grave marker to an aristocratic woman in the Dipylon cemetery. This was the first phase of the late Geometric period (760–700 BC), in which the great vessels of Dipylon ware placed on the graves as funeral monumentsWoodford, Susan. (1982) The Art of Greece and Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 40. {{ISBN|0521298733}} and represented their height (often at a height of {{convert|1.5|m}}). The funerary imagery on the vases included the deceased person lying in state (prothesis) surrounded by mourning figures, or lying in a bed and carried to the grave with an honorary chariot procession (ekphora). It was accompanied by heroic scenes and warfare imagery, thought to be related to similar descriptions of the Homeric epics.{{Sfn|Langdon|2010|p=288}}

File:Geometric_krater_Met_14.130.15_n02.jpg from a late Geometric krater attributed to the Trachones workshop on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art|177x177px]]

People and animals are 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 became more free, and areas with animals, birds, scenes of shipwrecks, hunting scenes, themes from mythology or the Homeric epics led Geometric pottery into more naturalistic expressions.[http://www.greek-thesaurus.gr/geometric-period-art.html Geometric periods of pottery] at Greek-thesaurus.gr

One of the characteristic examples of the late Geometric style is the 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.{{cite book |last=Izzet |first=Vedia |chapter=Purloined Letters: The Aristonothos Inscription and Krater|title= Greek Identity in the Western Mediterranean|year=2004|pages=191–210 |doi=10.1163/9789047402664_010|chapter-url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789047402664/B9789047402664-s010.xml |isbn=9789047402664 |publisher=Brill }} From the mid-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.

Based on excavations, and radiocarbon dating, at the site Zagora on the island of Andros, and previous datings at Sindos, Alagich et al. (2024) suggest Late Geometric I Period began around 120 years earlier than the traditional chronology, and lasted (c. 870-730 BC).

File:Boeotia - transition MG II - LG I - spouted oinochoe - Athens NAM 12455.jpg|Boetian oinochoe, {{Circa|750}} BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens

File:Kalathos. Geometric period - KAMA.jpg|Kalathos from child burial, {{Circa|750-700}} BC, Kerameikos Museum, Athens

File:Figurine of a horse carrying four amphoras on its back. Geometric period - KAMA.jpg|Horse figure carrying four amphoras from a child burial, {{circa|750-700}} BC, Kerameikos Museum, Athens

File:Bird figurines. Geometric period - KAMA.jpg|Bird figures from child burial, {{Circa|750-700}} BC, Kerameikos Museum, Athens

File:Pyxis with four horses, Greece, Attica, Geometric Period, 8th century BC, terracotta - Wadsworth Atheneum - Hartford, CT - DSC05138.jpg|Attic pyxis with four hourse figurines on top, {{Circa|735}} BC, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

File:Bronze horse Greek, 8th century BCE Geometric period.jpg|Bronze horse, 8th century BC

File:Attic Late Geometric krater (8th cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens on 16 May 2018.jpg

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 style. 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{{cite book |last1=Coldstream |first1=John Nicolas |title=Geometric Greece: 900-700 BC |date=2003 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-29899-5 }}{{pn|date=February 2023}} who has been credited with a number of kraters and amphorae from the late Geometric period.{{cite book |last1=Coldstream |first1=J. N. |chapter=The Geometric style: birth of the picture |pages=37–57 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOsHLwaRUZIC&pg=PA37 |editor1-last=Rasmussen |editor1-first=Tom |editor2-last=Spivey |editor2-first=Nigel |title=Looking at Greek Vases |date=1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-37679-2 }}

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.{{cite book |last1=Snodgrass |first1=Anthony M. |title=The Dark Age of Greece: An Archaeological Survey of the Eleventh to the Eighth Centuries BC |date=2001 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-93636-1 }}{{pn|date=February 2023}}

The first human figures appeared around 770 BC on the handles of vases. The human forms are easily distinguished because they do not overlap with one another, making the painted black forms discernible from one another against the color of the clay body. The males were depicted with triangular torsos, ovoid heads with blobs for noses and long cylindrical thighs and calves. Female figures were also abstracted. Their long hair was depicted as a series of lines, as were their breasts, which appeared as strokes under the armpits.{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Ian |title=Archaeology as Cultural History: Words and Things in Iron Age Greece |date=1991 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-631-19602-0 }}{{pn|date=February 2023}}

Two techniques of this time period include red-figure pottery and black-figure pottery. The black figure pottery started around 700 BC, and it remained the dominant style until its successor, red figure pottery, was invented around 530 BC.{{Citation|title=Ancient Greek vase production and the black-figure technique|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/greek-art/greek-pottery/v/ancient-greek-vase-black-figure-technique|language=en|access-date=2017-11-30}} The switch from black figure pottery to red figure pottery was made due to the enhanced detail that red figured pottery allowed its artists.

The notion of narrative during this time period exists between the artist and the audience. The artist communicates with the viewer, but the viewer's interpretation can sometime be an inaccurate interpretation. Furthermore, multiple interpretations of a singular artwork can be created by the viewer. A combination of historical, mythological, and societal context is needed to interpret the stories told within Greek Geometric art. The artwork during the Geometric period can be seen as "supplementary sources and illustrative materials for Greek mythology and Greek literature".{{cite journal |last1=Hanfmann |first1=George M. A. |title=Narration in Greek Art |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=1957 |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=71–78 |doi=10.2307/501083 |jstor=501083 |s2cid=193094348 }} The scenes that are depicted within Greek Geometric art contain various interpretations through analysis of the depicted scenes. Art historians must decide if the stylistic choices that were made during this time period were for a specific reason or simply coincidental.

{{external media|width=210px|float=right|headerimage=|video1=[http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/geometric-greek.html Geometric Greek Krater], Smarthistory.}}

{{Commons category|Ancient Greek Geometric pottery}}

• List of Greek vase painters § Geometric period
• Mycenaean pottery
• Apulian pottery
• Orientalizing period
• Kerameikos Archaeological Museum

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last1=Gadolou |first1=Anastasia |last2=Handberg |first2=Soren |title=Material Koinai in the Greek Early Iron Age and Archaic Period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9oKEAAAQBAJ |year=2017 |publisher=Aarhus Universitetsforlag |isbn=978-87-7184-569-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Knodell|first=Alex R.|title=Societies in Transition in Early Greece: An Archaeological History|url=https://www.academia.edu/49319878|publisher=University of California Press|year=2021|location=Oakland|isbn=978-0-5203-8053-0}}
• {{cite book |first1=Susan |last1=Langdon |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-517072-6 |chapter=Geometric and Protogeometric Art |pages=286–290 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNV6-HsUppsC&pg=RA2-PA286 }}

{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Geometric art |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}

• Boardman, John. 2001. The History of Greek Vases: Potters, Painters, Pictures. New York: Thames & Hudson.
• Cook, Robert Manuel, and Pierre Dupont. 1998. East Greek Pottery. London: Routledge.
• {{cite journal |last1=Farnsworth |first1=Marie |title=Greek Pottery: A Mineralogical Study |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=1964 |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=221–228 |doi=10.2307/502385 |jstor=502385 |s2cid=192590582 }}
• Gjerstad, Einar, and Yves Calvet. 1977. Greek Geometric and Archaic Pottery Found In Cyprus. Stockholm: Svenska institutet i Athen.
• Luke, Joanna. 2003. Ports of Trade, Al Mina and Geometric Greek Pottery In the Levant. Oxford: Archaeopress.

{{Greek vase painting}}

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Category:9th century BC in Greece

Category:8th century BC in Greece

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Category:8th-century BC works

Category:Ancient Greek vase-painting styles

Category:Iron Age Greek art

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