CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Minoan Art
Bronze Age art of Crete, c. 2000–1450 BC: palace frescoes, Kamares and Marine Style pottery, faience figures and fine goldwork.
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No open-access works for Minoan Art are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
The Minoans, named by the archaeologist Arthur Evans after the legendary King Minos, built a Bronze Age civilisation on Crete whose great palaces flourished from about 1900 to 1450 BC. Knossos, Phaistos and Malia were sprawling complexes of courtyards, storerooms, light wells and staircases, with wooden columns that taper downward. Much of what visitors see at Knossos, including many frescoes, is modern reconstruction, so bright colour there deserves caution.
What survives shows a delight in movement and nature. Painters showed youths vaulting over charging bulls, and on nearby Thera, where volcanic ash buried the Minoan-influenced town of Akrotiri around 1600 BC, walls keep swallows darting among red lilies. Potters made thin-walled Kamares ware painted in white, red and orange on dark grounds, and later Marine Style vessels wrapped in octopus tentacles. Smaller treasures include faience figures of women holding snakes, and a gold pendant of two bees from Malia. The Minoan script, Linear A, remains undeciphered.
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