This dissertation examines the relationship between Minoan art and Art Nouveau. The Minoan civilization was rediscovered at the turn of the twentieth century when the Art Nouveau movement reached its peak. Due to this coincidental timing, their artistic resemblance has raised questions about whether Minoan art had inspired Art Nouveau and whether Art Nouveau played a role in the restoration of Minoan art. The possibility of a Minoan influence on Art Nouveau is considered through a number of aspects, which include news reports on the excavations, Minoan collections acquired by museums, reference to the Minoans in various fields, application of Minoan motifs, and the attractiveness of the Minoans to Art Nouveau artists. As for the reversed influence, the research analyzes how archaeologists came to see the Minoans as a “modern” civilization, investigates the background of the restorers of Minoan objects, and provides examples of fresco restorations that illustrate an Art Nouveau preference of the early archaeologists and restorers. With the evidence and the discussion, I argue that the existing connection between Minoan art and Art Nouveau is beyond doubt. / Art History

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The subject of this paper is the portrayal of funeral scenes in pictoral art of the Third Phase of Late Minoan and Late Helladic culture. The topic of this study is the iconography of pictoral vases and clay coffins (larnakes). However, in the attempt of their interpretation, the author also sometimes considers seals, frescoes and the like. Occasionally, he also uses data from other ancient cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. The goal of the Essay is to clarify some of the customs and worldview associated with death within the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.

Thesis (M. A.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Daniel J. Pullen, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance, Dept. of Art History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 18, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 125 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Feasting is one of the most ubiquitous communal activities in the history of humanity. Oftentimes, feasting is accompanied by a substantial amount of material culture that carries intimate details of the activities that took place at these events. In fact, the changes in the material culture of a feast can also inform us as to how society itself was transforming by becoming increasingly insular or shifting toward a more regional sense of identity. One of the established methods of analyzing a feast is through the examination of its ceramic assemblage. The Bronze Age site of Mochlos in East Crete has a well-stratified Early Minoan deposit which has provided me with an opportunity to interpret a number of social, political, and economic intricacies taking place in East Crete as Minoan society approached the palatial system that dominated the Middle and Late Minoan periods. In order to do this, I provide a background to my research, perform a ceramic study of the stratified deposit in question, interpret the results of the analysis, and include a cross-cultural investigation that serves to further enlighten the data from Mochlos. What is most important to take from this study is that Prepalatial society was not without complexity and structure, and, in reality, much of the complexity that we attribute to the palatial social system of the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE can be traced back to the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE.

This thesis explores the role of fresh water in Bronze Age Crete. It presents a catalogue of Minoan water management systems, and investigates the ways in which these systems were incorporated into broader social, political, economic, religious and cultural processes and practices. While the primary focus of this thesis revolves around the data collected on water management systems, it also explores the place of fresh water in Minoan art, iconography, and ritual action. While water is a fundamental resource, and the provision of fresh water on Crete is affected by special geological, geographic, and climatological issues, this has been a largely neglected area in the literature on Minoan archaeology. The thesis seeks to redress this neglect, and argues that the evidence reveals a culture that was deeply concerned with fresh water, developing technologically sophisticated solutions, and devoting considerable economic resources, and political and religious attention to it. One of the key claims of this thesis is that fresh water was a meaningful and valued commodity in Bronze Age Crete, and certain sources of water were particularly revered. This status was exploited by elite groups, who invested in often monumental and highly visible systems for collecting and storing fresh water, in order to assert and reaffirm their special status. Fresh water was also incorporated into ritual practice, and – through its innate capacity to act as a conduit for complex meanings and metaphors – participated in the construction of Minoan religious and cultural beliefs. This thesis also draws out the ways in which water’s religious meaningfulness was incorporated into elite strategies of social control and the construction of an ideology of difference.

The Procession Fresco at Knossos is a large-scale mural found partially adhering to the walls of the ceremonial entrance to the largest palace in Minoan Crete. Although it was first published over a century ago, scholars rarely engage in critical discussion regarding its imagery, function, and meaning. The fragmentary state, extensive damage by fire, and insufficient publication likely account for the lack of academic attention the painting receives. This study seeks to engage the field in a critical discourse surrounding this painting by contextualizing it using both iconographic and phenomenological methodologies with the aid of digital tools. The first part of this approach reconsiders the imagery of the Procession Fresco in the context of the processional theme in Crete and the wider Aegean as well as the implications of the production date, here suggested as LM II. The second part of the approach explores how the broader architectural setting of the West Entrance System influences the way ancient processional participants interacted with and understood the mural, further investigating Mark Cameron’s theory that the painted figures acted as signposts to ancient processions. Using a new reconstruction of the mural placed within a digital model, this project includes a video walk-through of the ancient processional area included here as attached media. The study results in the finding that the mural moves beyond a synchronistic relationship with the architecture and the ancient processional participants, and instead it both includes and excludes the viewer using its imagery and scale. Alternatively, this mural may depict multiple processions that once took place at the palace. The mode of representation of the mural likely draws upon concepts of collective memory and myth in an attempt by the LM II administration to express authority over the island. / Art History

This dissertation looks at the iconography of the natural world as depicted on seals, seal rings, and sealings from Bronze Age Crete, specifically the period from Early Minoan II–Late Minoan IB. Although the landscape of Crete was incredibly diverse during the Bronze Age, the elements included in glyptic iconography, as well as iconography in other media, are exceptionally limited. The goal of this study is to provide a comprehensive and systematic reference for the terminology and iconography of landscape elements depicted in glyptic, and then to provide interpretation for individual elements as well as landscape scenes and settings within the broader scope of glyptic and Cretan iconography. It is concluded that landscapes, both real and imagined, and always heavily translated through the artist and viewer alike, acted as important indicators of status and control, particularly during the height of their depictions in the Middle Minoan II–Late Minoan IB period, a trend seen also in wall paintings and pottery which act as significant parallels for the present study.This study is generally organized into three parts. The first briefly presents the evidence and current understanding of how the landscape of Bronze Age Crete looked and assesses the use of “landscape” in an archaeological study. The second part discusses the identification of various flora, groundlines, and other abiotic elements found in landscape scenes and settings in glyptic with interpretation for their significance and consideration for parallel developments in other media. This section concludes with a catalog and discussion of the different types of landscape scenes/settings. Finally, the concluding chapters consider how landscapes were translated from the natural world to glyptic iconography, how the iconography was then viewed, and what the iconography signified relative to status and power. As a result, this dissertation is both a much-needed reference text and a deeper consideration of the symbiotic relationship between the various functions of seals and their iconography. / Art History

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The goal of this dissertation is to provide a comprehensive study of scenes of fresh water in Minoan art from the Middle Minoan II (MM II) through the Late Minoan I (LM I) periods. This dissertation addresses and fills the gap in the scholarship regarding the depiction of riparian environments and the special place of these depictions in Aegean art. It also attempts to clarify the use and function of riverscapes across chronological periods. Rivers, marshes, streams, and springs, appear on a variety of media and fulfil multiple functions from MM II onward. Images of fresh water were used as topographical markers, ornamentation and decoration, and for religious purposes. Moreover, several images suggest that the Minoans may have believed that the realm for the goddess (or one of the goddesses) was a lush, riverscape. A second goal of this dissertation is to clarify and dispose of the term “Nilotic” as a label for images of fresh water in the Aegean. Since its introduction into the literature of Aegean studies in the beginning of the 20th century, the term “Nilotic” has been used inconsistently to describe Aegean scenes of fresh water that may or may not contain Egyptian elements. This assumption has led some scholars to state that Aegean riverscapes are ultimately derived from Egyptian scenes of fishing and fowling because they share similar iconographic elements. Unfortunately, the process of synthesis is important to the understanding of Aegean riverscapes, and iconographic similarities are somewhat superficial. Furthermore, the term has been used without regard for a long-standing tradition of the depiction of riparian environments in Bronze Age Aegean art. To fully address both goals of this project, the origin of individual iconographic elements has been traced through various media, including glyptic art, pottery, and wall painting. Wall paintings from the Cyclades and some Late Helladic IA scenes have been included when appropriate. Whenever possible, categories of riverscapes have been grouped together, but each wall painting, has been examined and interpreted individually. Some unique, highly pictorial, and detailed images in other media have also been addressed separately. Parallels in Egyptian and, in some cases, Near Eastern art have been sought to determine the validity of the term “Nilotic,” and a special study of Egyptian scenes of hunting in the marshes has been conducted in comparison to Aegean scenes. Iconography, synthesis, and context have all been taken into consideration. / Art History