Minoan art is the art produced by the Bronze Age Aegean Minoan civilization from about 3000 to 1100 BC, though the most extensive and finest survivals come from approximately 2300 to 1400 BC. It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art, and in later periods came for a time to have a dominant influence over Cycladic art. Since wood and textiles have decomposed, the best-preserved surviving examples of Minoan art are its pottery, palace architecture, small sculptures in various materials, jewellery, metal vessels, and intricately-carved seals.
The "Battle of the Glen" gold ring shows the Minoan landscape convention, with rocks above and below. Buried at Mycenae.
Marine Style vase from Palaikastro, AMH.
Octopus on an anchor or weight in porphyry, LM, AMH
Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic development between about 750 and 300 BC was remarkable by ancient standards, and in surviving works is best seen in sculpture. There were important innovations in painting, which have to be essentially reconstructed due to the lack of original survivals of quality, other than the distinct field of painted pottery.
Heracles and Athena, black-figure side of a belly amphora by the Andokides Painter, c. 520/510 BC
The Hellenistic Pergamon Altar: l to r Nereus, Doris, a Giant, Oceanus
Hades abducting Persephone, 4th-century BC wall painting in the small Macedonian royal tomb at Vergina
Detail of a black-figure vase, c. 540. White, which has not worn well, and a different red-purple are also used.