The Protogeometric style (or "Proto-Geometric") is a style of
Ancient Greek pottery
Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...
led by
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
produced between roughly 1030 and 900 BCE, in the first period of the
Greek Dark Ages
The term Greek Dark Ages refers to the period of History of Greece, Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean civilization, Mycenaean palatial civilization, around 1100 BC, to the beginning of the Archaic Greece, Archaic age, around 750 ...
. After the collapse of the
Mycenaean-
Minoan Palace culture and the ensuing Greek Dark Ages, the Protogeometric style emerged around the mid 11th century BCE as the first expression of a reviving civilization. Following on from the development of a faster potter's wheel, vases of this period are markedly more technically accomplished than earlier Dark Age examples. The decoration of these pots is restricted to purely abstract elements and very often includes broad horizontal bands about the neck and belly and concentric circles applied with compass and multiple brush. Many other simple motifs can be found, but unlike many pieces in the following
Geometric style, typically much of the surface is left plain.
Like many pieces, the example illustrated includes a colour change in the main band, arising from a firing fault. Both the red and black colour use the same clay, differently
levigated and fired. As the Greeks learnt to control this variation, the path to their distinctive
three-phase firing
Three-phase firing (or three-step firing) or iron reduction technique is a firing technique used in ancient Greek pottery production, specifically for painted vases. Already vessels from the Bronze Age feature the colouring typical of the tec ...
technique opened.
Some of the innovations included some new
Mycenean influenced shapes, such as the belly-handled
amphora
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
, the neck handled amphora, the
krater, and the
lekythos.
Attic
An attic (sometimes referred to as a ''loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...
artists redesigned these vessels using the fast wheel to increase the height and therefore the area available for decoration.
From Athens the style spread to several other centres.
Chronology
Alex Knodell, in his (2021) book, classifies Protogeometric period in three sub-periods:
[Knodell, Alex, (2021)]
Societies in Transition in Early Greece: An Archaeological History
University of California Press, Oakland, Table 1, p. 7.
See also
*
Mycenaean pottery
*
Archaic period
References
*
Cook, R.M., ''Greek Art'', Penguin, 1986 (reprint of 1972),
*Murray, R. L. The Protogeometric Style: the first Greek style (1975).
*Eiteljorg, H., "The fast wheel, the multiple brush compass and Athens as home of the Protogeometric style" ''
American Journal of Archaeology
The ''American Journal of Archaeology'' (AJA), the peer-reviewed journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, has been published since 1897 (continuing the ''American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts'' founded by ...
'' (AJA) 84 (1980) pp. 445–452.
Further reading
*Betancourt, Philip P. 2007. ''Introduction to Aegean Art.'' Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
*Preziosi, Donald, and Louise A. Hitchcock. 1999. ''Aegean Art and Architecture.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
External links
''Greek Art & Archaeology'' (Japanese and English)
University of Texas at Austin
11th century BC in Greece
10th century BC in Greece
11th-century BC works
10th-century BC works
Ancient Greek vase-painting styles
Mycenaean Greece
Iron Age Greek art
Greek Dark Ages
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