Greek Painting
The earliest real paintings we have from the Greek world are from the Minoan culture on the island of Crete. They were painted on the walls of palaces where the rulers of Crete lived, around 1700-1400 BC, and when the Myceneans destroyed the palaces around 1400 BC, some of the pictures survived buried under the ruins of the palaces.
(Notice that these pictures were
not hung on the walls but painted directly on the walls:
they were fresco
paintings).
Another set of pictures, about the same time, comes from the island of Thera (also called Santorini), in the middle of the Aegean between Crete and Greece. The main city on Thera, Akrotiri, was buried by a volcanic eruption around 1600 BC (Click here for a discussion of the exact date; archaeologists disagree). This is from a house in Akrotiri.
Do you see, again, the interest in landscape and plant forms which was so important on Crete? Maybe the people of Akrotiri admired the powerful Cretans and wanted their art to look like the art on Crete.
We also have some Bronze Age paintings from the palaces of the Mycenean kings in mainland Greece.
To find out more about Greek painting, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Ancient Greek Art, by Susie Hodge (1998)- for kids ages 9-12.
Greek Art and Archaeology (3rd Edition), by John G. Pedley (2002) This is NOT a children's book, but it has a lot of good information and is pretty readable. Plus, the author is really an expert in this field.
Ancient Greek Painting and its Echoes in Later Art, by Massimiliano David (2004) - also not for kids. Interesting analysis of the influence of Greek art on later European painters.
Bronze Age Painting
Later Painting
Main Greek Art page
Main Greeks page
Main art page
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