Neither the Minoans nor the Mycenaeans made anything as large as the life-sized figurines from the Cyclades. It is possible that either the Minoans or Mycenaeans wrought life-sized images in wood, but if so, no such statue has survived. However, both did make three-dimensional images out of a number of elegant materials, including stone, ivory, gold, and faience (a glass-like paste from Egypt). Two fine examples of faience sculpture come from the 9.12 Cycladic Figurine (Courtesy of palace of Knossos and date to the Middle Minoan period.
These are the so-called Snake goddesses, two figurines composed of painted, mould-made faience, one measuring 34.5 cm high and the other measuring 29.5 cm high (see Image 8.2). They portray females in typical Minoan garb, each holding, or being enwrapped by, snakes, a long-standing slithering motif in Minoan iconography (see chapter 8).
One of the finest examples of Minoan sculpture is a chryselephantine (gold and ivory) figurine from Palaikastro, called the Palaikastro Kouros. This 50-cm-tall striding male has a torso, arms, legs, and feet of hippopotamus ivory; gold sandals and other gold accents; and a head of gray serpentine (stone) and
9.13 Lion Gate at Mycenae (Roger Wood/Corbis)
Rock crystal. The posture of the arms beside the chest is typical of the Minoan male prayer stance, but the striding legs show strong influence from Egypt, an influence that would later return in the Greek Archaic Age. The pegs under the feet indicate that the statue was placed in a socle and was intended to be viewed standing upright. The artist clearly lavished extraordinary attention onto the details of this image, so that, even though the statue is only 50 cm high, the veins on the legs are clearly visible.
Some of the earliest examples of fine sculpture from the Mycenaeans are the stelai from the shaft graves at Mycenae (see Image 4.2). These limestone slabs measuring up to 1.86 meters high are decorated with relief (two-dimensional) scenes of hunting, racing, and warfare. Around these scenes are running spiral motifs, similar to the relief work on the walls of the Treasury of Atreus (see below).
The best Bronze Age example of Mycenaean sculpture is the Lion Gate from Mycenae, dating to c. 1250 b. c.e. and standing 3.3 meters high (see Image 9.13). Here, above the main entrance to the citadel, we see two heraldic (turned to
9.14 Ivory Trio from Mycenae (Courtesy of Paul Butler)
Each other in mirror image) lionesses, resting their forepaws on the base of a column that rises between them. The heads are no longer preserved, but socles in the necks show that the heads were attached separately, possibly facing outward to snarl at visitors. The lionesses' bodies do not have realistic anatomies, instead being compilations of geometric forms. Nevertheless, from the height at which they were placed, they would have given a sense of monumentality that certainly would have impressed the viewer below.
On a much smaller scale is a final excellent example of Minoan-Mycenaean sculpture, this time in ivory. This Ivory Trio (see Image 9.14) comes from Mycenae and dates to the Late Helladic IIIA/B. Standing only 7 cm tall, the image portrays two women in full Minoan garb seated next to one another and sharing a shawl. On their laps is a little boy with shaven head, typical of Minoan iconography. In spite of its tiny size, it is generally supposed that this figurine depicts deities, possibly Demeter and Persephone with the child Ploutos ("Wealth") between them.
Dark Age
9.15 Nude Goddess from Kato Symi (Courtesy of Paul Butler)
Large-scale sculpture like the lions at Mycenae disappeared for a while after the Bronze Age. During the Dark Age up until the seventh century b. c.e.,
Greek artists produced only small-scale sculpture, usually depicting women/goddesses, men/gods, or animals. Some of these styles were inspired by styles from the Near East.
The most blatantly Near Eastern of the Dark Age and early Archaic figurines were the so-called Nude Goddesses, which first appeared in Greece in the tenth century and became extremely popular in the seventh and sixth centuries. These images, seldom larger than 20 cm high, depict fully frontal views of nude or partially nude females. The females are sometimes wearing round hats and sometimes standing on lions; their arms are shown to the sides, holding the breasts, pointing to their breasts and genitalia, or pulling away a skirt to reveal the pubic triangle. Such figurines were made of ivory, bronze, or clay, with mould-pressed clay models becoming the most popular version during the Archaic period.
The earliest Nude Goddess figurines came to light in those regions of Greece that had the closest contacts with the Near East during the Dark Age—Attica and Crete (see chapter 4). Early on, they were placed in graves, like four famous ivory examples from the Athenian Kerameikos cemetery. Later, as the Greeks began transferring more of their wealth from graves to sanctuaries, Nude Goddess figures began to show up more frequently in sanctuaries as votives. By the seventh century, they appeared all over the Greek world, from Egypt in the south to Asia Minor in the north to Italy in the west (see Image 9.15). Various interpretations have been offered for these rather erotic-looking images, ranging from their use as washabti figurines (substitute wives buried with dead men) to prayers for pregnancy to depictions of Aphrodite. It appears more likely these images were seen as oriental exotica, used by the Greeks to flaunt their far-reaching connections outside the Greek world.
In contrast to these exotic images, the Greeks also produced, mostly out of bronze, more "human" figurines, in which females were portrayed clothed and males were usually nude or wearing armor. Males were also sometimes accom-
Panied by horses, probably as a display of wealth and/or military service. Such figurines usually come to light in sanctuaries, possibly having served as votives. This is especially evident in one of the most famous early bronze figurines, the Mantiklos Bronze from Thebes, dated to 700-675 b. c.e. (see Image 9.16). This rather elongated nude male (20 cm high), broken off at the knees, has a dedicatory inscription running along both thighs reading: "Mantiklos dedicated me to the Far-Shooter with the Silver Bow from his tithe; grant, Apollo, something good in return" (Pedley 1998, 139).
World History
