ART 198 - HISTORY OF WORLD CERAMICS

Mycenaean ceramics are the earliest Greek pottery to depict the human form. Here, helmeted warriors, bearing heavy shields and spears march off to war. The Mycenaean military forces were well organized and justly feared, as they ruled the Aegean for over 250 years. Riches from the conquered lands flowed into Mycenae making it a city of great wealth and power. The soldiers are painted so similarly that we get no indication of individual portraiture, but rather that these men constitute interchangeable parts in a well-oiled military machine. The only trace of emotion is the figure of a woman, at the very far left, with her arm raised to her head in farewell. Note that the figures are confined to a banded frieze, like so much Mycenaean pottery. The krater form is a bowl with two side handles. This shape will become one of the classic forms used in later Greek pottery.

Warriors, Earthenware Krater, Mycenaean 1200 BCE