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Art of Ancient Greece
(from 1100 B.C. - 31 B.C.)
Hellenic Greece is the ancient civilization of Hellas in what is encircled mainland Greece with nearby islands in the Aegean Sea, the western coast of Turkey (known as Ionia), southern Italy and Sicily (known as Magna Graecia), and by the late 300s B.C., Egypt, Syria, and other Near Eastern lands.
Greek art and architecture has lasting influence with its simplicity and reasonableness on the history of Western civilization and art. Greeks stated many of permanent themes, attitudes, and forms of Western culture. Greek artists first established mimesis (imitation of nature) as a main principle for art. The nude human figure in Greek art reflects a belief that "Man is the measure of all things". Another Greek legacy that the West has inherited is architecture. Many of the structural elements, decorative motifs, and building types that were established in Ancient Greece are still used in architecture today.
The roots of Greek culture lie in Mycenaean culture. Mycenaeans built simple houses of a type that the Greeks continued to build long after. And Mycenaean workshops established a tradition of painted pottery that continued without interruption, though with great changes, into later periods. In short, much of Mycenaean culture carried over into later Greek society.After the collapse of Mycenae around 1100 BC, the Greek cities fell into decline and this was followed by a period of wars and invasions, known as the Dark Ages.
The Dark Ages
(1100 - 750 B.C.)
This is known as the period between the fall of the Mycenean civilization and the readoption of writing in the eighth or seventh century B.C. After the Trojan Wars the Mycenaeans went through a period of civil war and invasions. Greece entered a period of relative impoverishment, depopulation, and cultural isolation. The art of writing was lost for most of that period. The country was weak and a tribe called the Dorians invaded from the north and spread down the west coast.
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