Vases, Urns

Thanks to its hardy nature, pottery bulks large in the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because we have so much of it (some 100,000 vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum) it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society. more...

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Little survives, for example, of ancient Greek painting except for what is found on the earthenware in everyday use, so we must trace the development of Greek art through its vestiges on a derivative art form. Nevertheless the shards of pots discarded or buried in the first millennium BC are still the best guide we have to the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks.

Development of Vase Painting

Protogeometric Style

See also: Protogeometric Style

Vases of protogeometrical period (c. 1050-900 BC.) represent the return of craft production after the collapse of the Mycenaean Palace culture and the ensuing Greek dark ages. Indeed, it is one of the few modes of artistic expression besides jewelry in this period since the sculpture, monumental architecture and mural painting of this era are unknown to us. Yet by 1050 BC life in the Greek peninsula seems to have become sufficiently settled to allow a marked improvement in the production of earthenware. The style is confined to the rendering of circles, triangle, wavy lines and arcs, but placed with evident consideration and notable dexterity, probably aided by compass and multiple brush. Attic production was the first to resume and influence the rest of Greece, especially Boeotia, Corinth, the Cyclades (in particular Naxos) and the Ionian colonies in the east Aegean. The site of Lefkandi is one of our most important sources of ceramics from this period where a cache of grave goods has been found giving evidence of a distinctive Euboian protogeometric which lasted into the early 8th century.

Geometric Style

See also: Geometric Art

Geometrical art flourished in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. It was characterized by new motifs, breaking with the iconography of the Minoan and Mycenaean periods: meanders, triangles and other geometrical decoration (from whence the name of the style) as distinct from the predominantly circular figures of the previous style. The best examples we have were grave goods, which often allows us to differentiate Attic, other mainland and island styles since we may assume they were produced in a batch for the sole purpose of burial. However our chronology comes from exported wares found in datable contexts overseas.

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