This style of ceramic vessel allows for a lot of music for little money. All you need is a country workshop and a potter, which is not complete, and a well-functional yet handsome product can be created. A gifted master with better equipment can play out style
According to the geometric style as a sign, one of the first periods of Greek antiquity is often singled out. After the “dark centuries” of Greece (11th and 10th BC), the “period of geometric style” begins in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. This is no longer limited to ceramics, but is also reflected in metal utility objects, even in sculptures, so far mostly smaller. These are artistic testimonies from the time from which we otherwise also have a poetic elaboration of older cultural motifs, namely Homer’s epics .
Then follows the Greek archaic period in the narrower sense of the word, approximately in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. nl, and at the beginning of it the so-called orientalizing (in the sense of the influence of the Greek East) or “beautiful” style.
Protogeometric and early geometric ceramics
Style is referred to as proto-geometric in the period of approximately 1050 to 900 BC At this time, pottery represents almost the only surviving evidence of Greek culture, apart from jewelry, rather ornaments. It is temporally connected to sub-Mycenaean ceramics, it can also overlap with it, so in some localities this interface may be debatable, see the article Sub-Mycenaean ceramics .
(Late) proto-geometric amphora with handles on the body of the vessel, with a checkerboard pattern in the upper field and wavy decoration on body. Athens, 950-900 BC British Museum, GR 1978.7-1.7 (Cat. Vases A1123). Credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons . Public domain. | Early geometric amphora with handles on the shoulders and simple decoration only in the upper field. Attic Workshop, 875 to 850 BC Institute for Classical Archeology, Charles University in Prague, ÚKA 60-5, not exhibited. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0. |
Funeral pithos with the image of the goddess. Fortetsa near Knossos, Greek early geometric period B, 850-800 BC Archaeological Museum of Heraklion (Heraklion). Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0.
Early The geometric style usually includes productions from 900 to 850 (or 800) BC, which remain with simple abstract motifs. Later, geometric motifs became more complex and gradually the painting of figures appeared. Alphabetic inscriptions have occasionally appeared on the vessels since the middle of the 8th century.
we see a distinctly geometrically stylized figure of a woman, probably a goddess of the Lady of the Animals type ( Potnia therón ), ie one of the old forms of the goddess Artemis. The arms are outstretched in an ecstatic or ruling gesture, the long skirt is belted with snakes.
Funeral amphorae from 8th century BC
Preserved monuments often come from graves. Sometimes they are gifts to the dead, sometimes vessels that serve as urns. Of course, their decoration corresponds to the situation. Depictions of combat and especially funeral scenes are common. For the time being, these reasons for depicting people (including armor) and animals overshadow our happier situations.
Many such vessels have been preserved. As a nice and at the same time quite typical example, I chose one of the amphorae exhibited by the Archaeological Museum of Paros. Probably from the local workshop. It depicts a fight on one side and a funeral on the other. So far, we will limit ourselves to fighting. At the center of the painting on the body of the vessel is a warrior on a horse-drawn chariot. Surprisingly, human figures are stylized more geometrically than animal figures. Soldiers carry shields of both known shapes: on the left the shape of “8” (or bass), on the right round. The elegant animal at the bottom left does not look like a horse, perhaps it is a contrast to the wild, a little anticipating the later orientalizing (aka beautiful) style. The other fields are covered with various geometric decor.
Geometric amphora depicting a war scene, 8th century BC Archaeological Museum of Para. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons. License CC 4.0. | Geometric amphora depicting a war scene, 8th century BC Archaeological Museum of Para . Credit: Olaf Tausch, ) |
Dipyl crater
We will enjoy the funeral at the famous A large burial vase called the Dipyl Crater, found at Dipylon in Athens. It is an Attic work from the years 750-735 BC The form is crater , but considerably enlarged, because it does not serve as a month for wine with water, but as a funeral. A Tuesday of the painting is now called Hirschfeld’s painter
Dipyl crater, late geometric. Hirschfeld’s Painter, 750 to 735 BC Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons. License CC 4.0. |
In the main strip of painting, the deceased is carried on a hearse in a horse-drawn carriage. There are a lot of people around. Some men are armed (the first figures to the right of the horses), while unarmed people break their arms over their heads, “lamenting”. Lamentation is clearly an inherited element from Mycenaean culture, see eg at the larnak in Thebes , possibly other attributes of the funeral. In the lower belt is a parade of warriors on war chariots. This funeral appears to be a predominantly male military affair. The remaining places are filled with geometric patterns: crossbeams, checkerboard decor, swastikas, rosettes. Waterfowl is a natural relief, but this may be a connection between larger waterfowl and the underworld and the cycle of forces of nature, as already understood by Mycenaean painting.
Pyxis from the geometric period with a sculpture of three horses on the lid. Athens, 750-700 BC Museum of the Ancient Agora in Athens. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0.
Introduced style funeral scenes, whether for men, women or children, is called prothesis (πρόθεσις), ie showing the dead with appropriate lamentation; or also ekfora (ἐκφορά), transport to the cemetery.
Smaller ceramics of geometric style
A typical luxury object in the second half of the 8th century BC are pyxides (cans) with a sculpture of a group of horses on the lid, in the role of a handle.
We said that the power of geometric style is in a wide range from top pieces to good series production. It is therefore appropriate to show smaller and simpler top work and then also more common containers. In most cases, this can be done without violent scenes and morbidity. Both presented are originally from Attica. The jug from the Prague collection is limited to geometric decoration, but tightens it to a complex subtlety. Amphora from Berlin, except for the depiction of the driving scene (funeral ) ekfory ), which almost anticipates the later black-figure decor, is also decorated with plastically made rippling snakes. This is not unusual, snakes, both painted and plastic, appear on Greek vases at all times, often as a sign of underworld forces.
Larger container with lid, geometrically decorated. Attica, around 730 BC Institute for Classical Archeology, Charles University in Prague, ÚKA 60-3, not exhibited. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons. License CC 4.0. | Late geometric amphora, with an perforation on the body of the vessel and plastic snakes. Attica, 730 to 720 BC Altes Museum Berlin. Credit: Marcus Cyron, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 2.5. |
Simpler ceramics of geometric style
It will be a little more common pottery, which is the most common in the findings. For example, a jug from the Athenian shrine of Artemis in Brauron and a goblet (goblet ), a bit reminiscent of a jug.
Late geometric jug, 8th century BC Archaeological Museum in Braron (Vraone). Credit: Here , Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0. | Goblet, late geometric. Distinctive motif of interconnected spirals. Attic workshop, 750 to 725 BC National Museum in Prague, NM-H10 4603, not exhibited. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0. |
The swastika does not need to be scared in this case. Together with crosses and sometimes stars of all kinds, they have been standard on ceramics since the Neolithic, similar to rosettes, spirals and wavy lines. There is no reason to disgust them by the fact that many of these traits were later used and misused for healing. Some people can twist anything to protect themselves
Two kanthars are similarly decorated, ie vessels that also belonged to the characters of Dionysus. .
Kantharos with swastika and rosettes. Attic late geometric ceramics, around 760 BC National Museum in Prague, NM-H10 1849, not exhibited. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0. |
I still need to show some skyfos , ie another type of drinking container, and also kalathos , ie a basket that comes directly from Kerameik, ie from the Athenian pottery district. Such baskets were mostly made of wicker, but ceramic versions will also be encountered.
The presented skyfos from Par is unusually sober and elegant at the same time. It is not clear whether it is local or imported Corinthian.
Reverberations of geometric style
Geometric style is still common in the 7th century BC, about halfway through, at that time already in parallel with the production in the orientalizing style. Then it lives only as a marginal, but there are significant local exceptions. For example, in Boiótia (around Thebes) it remains very popular and continues in parallel with black-figure ceramics.
Bird on a late geometric amphora. Cycladic work, 700 to 680 BC Archaeological Museum of Thera (Santorini). Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 3.0. |
Kantharos, waterfowl painted in frieze. Boeot workshop, 550 BC National Museum in Prague, NM-H10 972, not exhibited. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons . License CC 4.0. |
A fragment of a relief from a geometric vase, 680 to 650 BC l, from the acropolis of Koukounaries (Naoussa) to Paru. Archaeological Museum of Paroikia, Paros. Archaeological Museum of Thebes. Credit: Here, Wikimedia Commons. License CC 4.0.
At the end of the geometric period, the first paintings of mythological scenes may be beginning to appear. However, it is not yet clear when it is really a scene from a certain myth or epic, and when a later time understands a more general depiction. We’d better wait with that. Unambiguously identifiable scenes belong more to the orientalizing and then black-figure style.
Snippets from the edge of the genre
Style interfaces are not always sharp. For example, it is not clear whether an interesting fragment of pottery with a relief does not belong to the Meles-type relief vessels (a subset of the orientalizing style, such as the famous Vase from Mykonos, see the article The looting of Troy according to the vase from Mykonos Some in this relief see Apollo talking to Muse as a somewhat analogous fragment exhibited na Délu, see photo.
Place of literature
Ancient Greek Geometric pottery – photo category on Wikimedia Commons.
Ancient Greek pottery by style – Wikimedia Commons.
Attic Geometric pottery in Kinský Palace, Prague – Photo gallery of a part of the canceled exposition of antiquity from Czech collections, sporadically exhibited for a few years in the Kinský Palace in Prague under the heading of the National Gallery. In my Wikimedia Commons user space.
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