Proto-Geometric style

Proto-Geometric style
Visual art style of ancient Greece that signaled the reawakening of technical proficiency and conscious creative spirit after the collapse of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, around the 12th century BC.

The vocabulary of the style was limited to circles, arcs, triangles, and wavy lines, all derived from Minoan-Mycenaean representations of aquatic and plant life. On pottery, these design elements were carefully placed in horizontal bands, mainly at a vase's shoulder or belly. Its lower portion was usually either left plain or painted in a solid glossy black pigment inherited from Bronze Age artists.

Proto-Geometric amphora from Athens, early 10th century BC; in the Kerameikos Museum, Athens.

Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munich

* * *

▪ Greek art
      visual art style of ancient Greece that signaled the reawakening of technical proficiency and conscious creative spirit, especially in pottery making. With the collapse of the Minoan-Mycenaean civilization about the 12th century BC, the arts sustained by the palace bureaucracies disappeared, together with literacy. Invasions and wars kept a once-flourishing civilization practically in caves, the only creative production being some rough, shoddily executed pottery. About 1050 BC, judging from the improvement in pottery, life seems to have become more settled, enabling pottery makers to become artists again.

      The vocabulary of the Proto-Geometric style is limited to circles, arcs, triangles, and wavy lines, all derived from Minoan-Mycenaean representations of aquatic and plant life. The design elements are conscientiously rendered, with compasses and multiple brushes, and are carefully placed in horizontal bands on significant parts of the vase, mainly at the shoulder or belly. The lower portion of the vase, which was now better made and well proportioned, was usually either left plain or painted in a solid glossy black pigment inherited from Bronze Age artists. Other than vases, surviving artworks include only some simple, bronze, safety-pin-like clasps called fibulae and some primitive clay figures showing clear Minoan influence; but the evidence of the vases shows a new art developing out of a ruined civilization, a new ability to discipline hand and eye that evolved into the Geometric style.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Geometric style — Style of vase painting that flourished in Athens с 1000–700 BC. Vases decorated in this style feature horizontal bands filled with geometric patterns such as zigzags, triangles, and swastikas in dark paint on a light ground. The rhythmic effect… …   Universalium

  • style — styleless, adj. stylelessness, n. stylelike, adj. /stuyl/, n., v. styled, styling. n. 1. a particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character: the baroque style; The style of the house was too austere for their… …   Universalium

  • painting, Western — ▪ art Introduction       history of Western painting from its beginnings in prehistoric times to the present.       Painting, the execution of forms and shapes on a surface by means of pigment (but see also drawing for discussion of depictions in …   Universalium

  • pottery — /pot euh ree/, n., pl. potteries. 1. ceramic ware, esp. earthenware and stoneware. 2. the art or business of a potter; ceramics. 3. a place where earthen pots or vessels are made. [1475 85; POTTER1 + Y3] * * * I One of the oldest and most… …   Universalium

  • Banshan ware — Wade Giles romanization  Pan shan        type of Chinese Neolithic (Neolithic Period) painted pottery. Its name is derived from the grave site in the Gansu province of north China at which the pottery was found in 1924.       According to… …   Universalium

  • Pottery of ancient Greece — Bilingual amphora by the Andokides Painter, ca. 520 BC (Munich) As the result of its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because there is so much of it (some 100,000 vases are recorded… …   Wikipedia

  • Western architecture — Introduction       history of Western architecture from prehistoric Mediterranean cultures to the present.       The history of Western architecture is marked by a series of new solutions to structural problems. During the period from the… …   Universalium

  • Western sculpture — ▪ art Introduction       three dimensional artistic forms produced in what is now Europe and later in non European areas dominated by European culture (such as North America) from the Metal Ages (Europe, history of) to the present.       Like… …   Universalium

  • Dacian bracelets — Dacian gold bracelet, dated to 1st century BC – 1st century AD, from Sarmizegetusa Romania [1][2] …   Wikipedia

  • Latin American art — Introduction       artistic traditions that developed in Mesoamerica, Central America, and South America after contact with the Spanish and Portuguese beginning in 1492 and 1500, respectively, and continuing to the present.       This article… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”