Mycenaean Art: A Psychological Approach

The aim of this book is to demonstrate the value of psychology in the study of ancient art, enabling emphasis on the individual, in the sense of a human being or person in a general way, in addition to denoting a discrete human being possessing an individual identity. Not all aspects of psychology lend themselves to application to the set of data which has been preserved in the archaeological record in Late Bronze Age Greece. This book primarily explores the knowledge of visual perception acquired via psychological research, which has provided valuable information on the production of images by artists. In addition, the nature of aggression, that is, conflict between members of the same species, is discussed. The case studies focus on art from the periods described as 'Early Mycenaean' and 'Mycenaean', roughly the fifteenth to the thirteenth centuries BC. Contents: Introduction: The Mycenaean World; Chapter 1: How Humans See: an introduction to the visual system; Chapter 2: Methods of Representation of the Human Form; Chapter 3: The recognition of the individual; Chapter 4: Composition in Mycenaean Art; Chapter 5: Colour and Form in Mycenaean Art; Chapter 6: Warfare and Aggression: their effects on Mycenaean art.