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Chapter 21 - Aegean Wall Painting

from Part IV - Aegean Art in the Second Palace Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2022

Jean-Claude Poursat
Translated by
Carl Knappett
Jean-Claude Poursat
Affiliation:
University of Clermont-Ferrand
Carl Knappett
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Around 1700 bc the reconstruction of the Knossos palace includes a fresco programme as never seen before. This new decorative fashion spreads rapidly to the grand urban residences and villas across numerous Cretan sites. The main buildings of the Cycladic towns, influenced by Minoan art, also adopt these wall paintings. In the Minoan colony of Kythera, but also in the southeast Aegean at Trianda on Rhodes (another probable colony) and at Miletus, fresco fragments have been found. This new art form even appears at sites beyond the Aegean world, like Avaris in Egypt, Tel Kabri in Galilee, and Alalakh in Syria.

The use of figurative painting in architectural adornment is new for the Aegean world in many respects. To begin with, it is the first time that Minoan artists conceive of their artworks at a scale other than the miniature, even though there do also exist miniature frescoes.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age
A History
 , pp. 169 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Becker, 2018: Bwecker, J., Jungfleisch, J., and von Rüden, C. eds., Tracing Technoscapes: The Production of Bronze Age Wall Paintings in the Eastern Mediterranean, Leiden.Google Scholar
Bietak, 2007: Bietak, M., Marinatos, N., and Palivou, C., Taureador Scenes in Tell el-Dab’a (Avaris) and Knossos, Vienna.Google Scholar
Chapin, 2004: Chapin, A. ed., Charis. Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, Hesperia Suppl. 33, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Doumas, 1992: Doumas, C., The Wall-Paintings of Thera, Athens.Google Scholar
Evely, 1999: Evely, D. ed., Fresco: A Passport into the Past. Minoan Crete through the Eyes of Mark Cameron, Athens.Google Scholar
Immerwahr, 1990: Immerwahr, S., Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age, University Park, PA.Google Scholar
Marinatos, 1984: Marinatos, N., Art and Religion in Thera: Reconstructing a Bronze Age Society, Athens.Google Scholar
Militello, 1998: Militello, P., Haghia Triada, I. Gli affreschi, Padova.Google Scholar
Morgan, 2005: Morgan, L. ed., Aegean Wall Painting: A Tribute to Mark Cameron, London.Google Scholar
Morgan, 2020: Morgan, L., Keos XI. Wall Paintings and Social Context: The Northeast Bastion at Ayia Irini. Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Sherratt, 2000a: Sherratt, S. ed., The Wall Paintings of Thera, Athens.Google Scholar
Vlachopoulos, 2018: Vlachopoulos, A. G. ed., Χρωστήρες. Paintbrushes. Wall-Painting and Vase-Painting of the Second Millennium BC in Dialogue, Athens.Google Scholar

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