FABULOUS CLASSIC GREEK SCULPTURE!

"Caryatid" (Acropolis Museum)	"Zeus or Poseidon" (National archaeological Museum  of Athens)
"Aphrodite" (National Archeological Museum of Athens)	Bronze statue of a youth. From Antikythera shipwreck.  about 340-330 B.C.. (National Archeological Museum of Athens)

The extreme beauty of the paintings on the ancient Greek vases!

	Erotostasia: A young woman weighs Eros against Anteros, while her companion looks on and gesticulates. By the Erotostasia painter. 340-330 BC.
	Judgement of Paris: Paris wearing Frygian dress sits lost in thought on the rocks of Mount Ida, between Athena and Hera and at the right and Aphrodite and Hermes at the left. Nike and Eros in the backround. 340-330 BC.
A preparation for a bull sacrifice after a victory in   a dithyrambic contest. Late 5th century BC.
"Sphinx abducting a youth". From Athens. By Polion.    About 420 BC.	Poseidon and Amymone with Eros between them. From Atalanti. By the Hippolytos painter. 375-350 B.C..
Plouto with cornucopia and Demeter with a sceptre   and plough. Probably from Attica. By the Orestes   painter. 440-430 B.C..
Ancient Greek wedding.	Ancient Greek wedding.

THE MYTH OF MINOS IN EUROPEAN ART

 

The important position of the bull in various manifestations of the civilization of prehistoric Crete led the ancient Greek and then the Roman writers to the written words of the mythical circle of Crete, in which the figures of Europe, bull, Pasiphae, Minotaur, Theseus, Ariadne, Daedalus, Icarus, Labyrinth and Dionysus dominated.

Until the beginning of the 20th century the figures of mythic Crete inspired various important artists, who produced interesting works with subjects that derived from their adventures. However, in the beginning of the 20th century the excavation of the palace of Knossos by Arthur Evans and various other reasons contributed in the overwhelming influence of the myths of Crete in modern thought and in the significant increase of their appearance in the artistic creation. This phenomenon fited in and was connected closely with the birth of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung leading its specialists to the effort of the access of the unconscious symbolism of the presence of the Minoan figures in the works of the avant – garde artists.

The first modern artist who presented many works inspired by the cretan myths was Giorgio de Chirico, whose most important relative series of works was the “Italian Squares”. However, the Minoan myths brought very significant influence to the works of the surrealist artists, with most important example this of André Masson and to the work of the unique Pablo Picasso. Of course for the surrealists the Minoan figures in full symbolized a utopian social vision and especially the Minotaur symbolized a supernatural force, directed against the laws of nature and insulting the gods. On the contrary, for Picasso the Minotaur, with whom he often identified himself, symbolized human’s coexisting two conflicting sides: that of animal instincts and the second of the desire for conquest of harmony and balance. The most characteristic work of Masson was the "Labyrinth" (1938) while “Vollard Suite” (1930 – 1937), “Minotauromachia” (1935) and the famous “Guernica” (1937) belonged to the most remarkable relative works of Picasso.

The psychological interpretation of the emergence of mythical Crete in modern art, which preoccupied the fathers of psychoanalysis, still employs today relevant researchers, who sometimes attach to the stories a male chauvinist character, sometimes relate them to the psychoanalytic process itself, with which man seeks out and meets the Minotaur, who lurks in the dark labyrinth of the inner world and sometimes associate it with the same labyrinthine life of every man.

Triantafyllia Pineli, October 2012.