Art Painting

Aegean culture played a great role in the life of people living near Mediterranean Sea. It was developing at the seashores and islands of Aegean Sea, in the west part of Mediterranean for about 2000 years, from 3000 B.C. till 1200 B.C. – at the same time with original fine art of Egypt. The centre of Aegean culture was island Crete. The beginning of culture development at Crete dates back to late Stone Age. In 1871 Schliemann found (archeological digs) ancient cities. In this time many art works were made – in architecture, painting, ceramics, plastics. Crete’s art is very close to the art of Ancient Orient, but it lacks its monumentality, calm rhythm and symmetry. Archeological digs brought many architectural finds. Wonderful frescos with acrobats – girls and boys, jumping over a bull were found in Knoss. They all have same clothes – waist band, and metallic belt. Their moves were light and deft. The width of the chest, thinness of the waist, flexibility and muscularity of hands were underlined. Apparently it was the sign of beauty.
Hard way of development passed Cretan ceramics. The earliest pottery was covered with simple geometrical pattern, typical for art of late Stone Age – abstract painting. In XVII century B.C, ceramics reached its blossoming. Vases of round shape, covered with black varnish and white-and-black patterns date back to this period. With time the patterns became more realistic, turned into floral painting – images of tulips, lilies, ivies painted with dark on the light background appeared. The coloring became more refined. In the XVI century B.C. predominated seascape painting, also fish, nautilus shells, starfish etc. On of the famous art work of Cretan ceramics is the vase with octopus from Gurnia. Famous gold cups with bulls depiction date back to the same period of Cretan art blossoming. This period also was famous for plastics development. The statuette of goddess with snakes made of faience or ivory; fiancé tablets with images of flying fish, shells, nanny-goat with kid etc were also found there.