Daedalic Style of the 7th century BCE

In the early 600s BCE, new artistic ideas flowed into Greece as a result of increased contacts with the Near East. Because of Crete’s central location along maritime trade routes between these regions, artists on the island played a leading role in synthesizing native and Near Eastern elements.

An artist from Crete that became known as Daidalos (Daedalus) , produced a series of female figurines that combined both Greek and Near Eastern features including triangular faces and stylized wig-like hair forming two upward-facing triangles on either side of the face.  The top of the head is flattened to maintain triangularity, giving a “brainless look”, according to some scholars, and producing a low forehead with a straight hairline. The eyes are usually large and set rather high.The woman is portrayed in a frontal orientation and the female's clothing was often depicted as formless drapery or as a simple style, sometimes decorated with geometric patterns, tied with a wide belt at the waist.  A few male figures were also produced, nude except for a belt.  In addition to figurines, these sculptures appeared on clay plaques and in relief decorations on vases. The style had a marked influence on artistic productions in the Peloponnese, Dorian Crete, and Rhodes.

An artist named Daidalos is actually mentioned in Homer's Iliad (18.590.92), as the builder of a dancing floor on Crete.  Later authors state he was the grandson of the early Athenian king, Erechtheus.

Daidalos was also credited with the invention of agalmata, votive statues of the gods which had open eyes and moveable limbs.  These statues were so lifelike that Plato remarked upon their amazing and disconcerting mobility.

A figure of a woman with her arms folded across her belly forms the body of this aryballos, a container for holding scented oil. The modeled human head forms the vessel's spout and neck. A hole at the back of the head would have been used for suspension. The artist used black paint to further elaborate the figure, and traces of the original pigment remain on the eyes and hair, and in three bands on the body, Greek (Cretan), 675-650 BCE, terracotta, at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Yet another Middle Daedalic piece is this Protocorinthian aryballos (oil flask) from Thebes. The head was made with a mold. The decoration was by a known artist, the Boston Painter, and can be dated with some confidence to around 650 BCE. Datable vases such as this one are important, for they give us a means of dating other Daedalic pieces. Courtesy of art historian Emily Claire Kibbe

Representing the Late Daedalic (c. 630-600 BCE) is this torso of a seated woman from Eleutherna on Crete. The medium is limestone. The oval face points to a late date, c. 600. The coiffure is crimped tresses (Perlenlocken). Courtesy of art historian Emily Claire Kibbe

Representing the Early Daedalic (675-c. 655 BCE) is this ivory sphinx from the sanctuary of Hera Limenia in Perachora. In this phase the faces tend to be long triangles, with the chin rounded off. Courtesy of art historian Emily Claire Kibbe

Also representing the Middle Daedalic is this torso from a female figurine, mold-made out of terracotta, from Crete, one of a series produced there from c. 680-625 BCE. The detailed coiffure (Etagenperücke) and anatomy indicate a date toward the end of the series, c. 650-625 BCE. Courtesy of art historian Emily Claire Kibbe

A rare male example of the new style, a bronze statuette from Olympia dating to c. 700-675 BCE a warrior, naked but for his belt and crested helmet, stands with his right arm raised to hold a spear (missing). His hair is an early rendition of the Etagenperücke. Courtesy of art historian Emily Claire Kibbe

For more about Daedalic art: https://gjclarthistory.blogspot.com/2017/02/welcome-is-place-to-find-much-of.html

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The revolutionary Orientalizing Period in Mediterranean art

These gold plaques depicting a winged goddess flanked by lions were created on the island of Rhodes during the so-called "orientalizing period."  This reference in art history is used to describe a development in western art beginning in the latter part of the 8th century BCE when there was a heavy influence from the art of the eastern Mediterranean including Assyria, Phoenicia, and Egypt.  During this time Greek motifs began to shift from geometric designs to the depiction of deities, animals, and mythological creatures. 

Two schools of thought exist regarding the question of whether or not Geometric art itself was indebted to eastern models. In Attic pottery, the distinctive Orientalizing style known as "proto-Attic" was marked by floral and animal motifs. It was the first time discernibly Greek religious and mythological themes were represented in vase painting. The bodies of men and animals were depicted in silhouette, though their heads were drawn in outline. Women were drawn completely in outline. In Corinth, the orientalizing influence started earlier, though the tendency there was to produce smaller, highly detailed vases in the "proto-Corinthian" style that prefigured the black-figure technique.

These changes were triggered by population shifts brought about by both conquest and colonization.  During this period, the Assyrians advanced along the Mediterranean coast, accompanied by Greek and Carian mercenaries, who were also active in the armies of Psamtik I in Egypt.  Phoenicians settled in Cyprus and in western regions of Greece, Greeks established trading colonies at Al Mina, Syria, and in Ischia (Pithecusae) off the Tyrrhenian coast of Campania in southern Italy. The new groups started to compete with established Mediterranean merchants.

The period from roughly 750 to 580 BCE also saw a comparable Orientalizing phase of Etruscan art, as a rising economy encouraged Etruscan families to acquire foreign luxury products incorporating Eastern-derived motifs. Similarly, areas of Italy—such as Magna Grecia, Sicily, the Picenum, Latium vetus, Ager Faliscus, the Venetic region, the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, and the Iberian peninsula, in particular in the city-state of Tartessos, also experienced an Orientalizing phase at this time. 

Classicist Walter Burkert described the new movement in Greek art as a revolution: "With bronze reliefs, textiles, seals, and other products, a whole world of eastern images was opened up which the Greeks were only too eager to adopt and adapt in the course of an 'orientalizing revolution."

Image: Gold plaques with winged goddesses flanked by lions and dangling pomegranates, a fruit originating within a region from Iran to northern India, Greek from Kamiros, Rhodes, Orientalizing Period 700-600 BCE probably worn as a collar around the neck of clothing, that I photographed at the British Museum in 2016.

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