The first unidentified piece of artwork, of the fisherman, in my opinion would fall under the Minoan category. I chose the Minoans as the producers of this fisherman for several reasons. One very important reason being that the body style is much more naturalistic than we generally see in Cycladic and Mycenean artwork. The Cycladic people produced very stylized human depictions and the Mycenaens seemed to have more cartoon like depictions. However, this man’s waist is only slightly pinched, which is a main characterization of Minoan artwork. Yet, we are seeing him in profile view similar to what we saw from the Egyptians without the frontward facing shoulders. The Minoans were influenced by the Egyptians and were known to trade with them. That leads me to believe that this is in face a Minoan piece due to its Egyptian like stance. Another point that leads me to believe that this piece of art is Minoan is because the depiction of fish. The Minoans were very in touch with nature specifically marine life. The “Flottlla” fresco seen in this weeks lecture depicts many boats, which shows us the Minoan people were in fact fishers. In the same fresco we also see dolphins, which show us their interest in marine life. One thing however that gives me a slight hesitation in identifying this artwork as a Minoan piece is that the human is in fact painted. As touched on in the lecture Minoans were known for carving their depictions of humans rather than painting as the Mycenaens did.
The second unidentified piece of artwork of the vase appears to be from the Mycenean people. One major thing that leads me to believe this artwork is Mycenean is because the paintings on it appear to be quite cartoon like. It is hard to identify whether or not these figures are humans or animals. Their proportions are far from naturalistic and they do not have a pinched waist, which was often seen in the Minoan culture. The Cycladic people had very stylized work with the a very long almost sharp nose and elegant body. Therefore, I am led to believe that this vase does in face come from the Mycenean people. The Mycenean people were also very war oriented people. That fact helps me to categorize this as Mycenean because it looks as if the figures are riding in a chariot or some type of horse drawn carriage that could have possibly been used in warfare. The figures that are shown on the vase seem to all have a nose that is quite pointed. In this weeks lecture we saw a warrior vase that had warriors with a somewhat similar nose structure. In the same warrior vase we see that none of the figures are overlapping. That is common in the Mycenean artwork. In this unidentified vase we see no figures overlapping each other. I feel that this couldn’t be Minoan artwork because it has no sense of nature and the figures are far from naturalistic. The figures also don’t remind of the Cycladic stylized figures. Thus, I come to the conclusion that this may have come from the Mycenean people.
I also chose to do this topic as my blog post and came up with the same conclusions. I like how you describe the stylization on the vase of how the figures have a cartoon like quality, because that is how i felt when i saw it too. I felt that was a big give away along with that the Mycenean culture was linked to war and the vase seemed to have a chaotic feeling to it as if they were riding the chariot into battle. I feel that you did a good job with your process in determining which cultures each artwork belonged to.
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