page_title: Aegean art
hierarchical_section_title: Aegean art
caption_attribution_description: English: Head from the figure of a woman, Spedos type, Early Cycladic II (2700 BC–2300 BC), Keros culture. Français&#160;: Tête d'une figurine féminine, type de Spédos, Cycladique Ancien II (2700–2300 av. J.-C.), culture de Kéros.
context_page_description: Aegean art is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art. Because is it mostly found in the territory of modern Greece, it is sometimes called Greek Bronze Age art, though it includes not just the art of the Mycenaean Greeks, but also that of the non-Greek Cycladic and Minoan cultures, which converged over time.
  Cycladic art is known for its simple "Venus" figurines carved in white marble; Minoan art for its palace complexes with frescos, imagery of bulls and bull-leaping, and sophisticated pottery; and Mycenaean art for its lavish metalwork in gold, imagery of combat and massively-constructed citadels and tombs. These are very different arts, reflecting very different cultures. For this reason, many art historians consider the term "Aegean art" inappropriate, as it reflects mere geographic proximity and not cultural or artistic unity.
  In the Bronze Age, about 2800–1100 BC, despite cultural interchange by way of trade with the contemporaneous civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Aegean cultures developed their own highly distinctive styles.
context_section_description: Aegean art (2800–1100 BC) is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art. Because is it mostly found in the territory of modern Greece, it is sometimes called Greek Bronze Age art, though it includes not just the art of the Mycenaean Greeks, but also that of the non-Greek Cycladic and Minoan cultures, which converged over time.
  Cycladic art is known for its simple "Venus" figurines carved in white marble; Minoan art for its palace complexes with frescos, imagery of bulls and bull-leaping, and sophisticated pottery; and Mycenaean art for its lavish metalwork in gold, imagery of combat and massively-constructed citadels and tombs.  These are very different arts, reflecting very different cultures.  For this reason, many art historians consider the term "Aegean art" inappropriate, as it reflects mere geographic proximity and not cultural or artistic unity.
  In the Bronze Age, about 2800–1100 BC, despite cultural interchange by way of trade with the contemporaneous civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Aegean cultures developed their own highly distinctive styles.  After the Greek Bronze Age civilizations collapsed, the early part of the Greek Dark Ages saw minimal artistic production until the Protogeometric style in pottery emerged about 1050 BC, which is taken as the first phase of "Ancient Greek art".  This traditional disjunction was to some extent a result of the uncertainty as to whether the Mycenaean Linear B script recorded a form of Greek or not. This was settled when the script was decoded in the 1950s, confirming it was Greek.  The Minoan Linear A is clearly not Greek, however.
  The elegant art of the Aegean daidala figurines has recently been used at the 2004 Summer Olympics, held at Athens; specifically, during the opening ceremony and as the original idea behind the games mascots: Athina and Fivos.
  .  This type of figurines are furthermore particularly intriguing, because of the high resemblance they have with modern sculptures (e.g. Henry Moore's works).
caption: Figure from the Cyclades, popularized by its appearance at the Athens 2004 Olympic games opening ceremony. Early Cycladic II (2700 BC–2300 BC).
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