The Cyclades and Greek Art

Term Paper # 100215

Archaeology > Greek
Art > History
Art > Sculpture

This paper examines the archaeological evidence of the Cyclades, as well as later Greek works.

2,671 words () | 13 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes the artifacts found from the Cyclades sites and pottery from the same region. The paper describes how the style of the Cyclades statuettes fits with other works from different parts of the near east and shows how it influenced later classical Greek and Roman sculpture. The paper discusses the many shifts in aesthetic viewpoint in this century, when art was redefined in terms of the existing social relations and prevalent aesthetic ideas. The paper also looks at the geometric style in Greece and the relationship of art, mathematics and computer technology today.

Outline:
Introduction
Findings
Pottery
Developments

From the Paper:

"The Cyclades are a group of islands in the Aegean Sea where neolithic burial sites have been found. The figurines found tend to be stylized and abstract in form (Fiero 8). The clay figurines in this culture are in place of the neolithic idols made of clay from other regions. The marble quarried on these islands made it possible for the workshops of the culture to flourish. Products made by artisans on the Cyclades made their way to Crete and also to the mainland. Most of the statuettes are naked female figurines with their arms crossed over the abdomen, and they are generally not designed to stand erect."

Sample of Sources Used:

Bossert, H. Th. The Art of Ancient Crete: From the Earliest Times to the Iron Age. London: Zwemmer, 1937.
Casson, Stanley. The Technique of Early Greek Sculpture. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933.
De La Croix, Horst, Richard G. Tansey, and Diane Kirkpatrick. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991.
Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition: Book 1. Madison, Wisconsin: Brown & Benchmark, 1995.
Carpenter, Rhys. Greek Art: A Study of the Formal Evolution of Style. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962.