aspects of the sculpture and poetry of the period, which we will continue to call by its traditional name.
The Human Figure in Archaic Art
One of the most dramatic developments during the Archaic Period of Greek civilization is the sudden
appearance and rapid refinement of the ability of Greek artists to represent the human figure. It will be
remembered that after the end of the Mycenaean Period representation of human and animal figures in
Greek art disappeared almost entirely. It is only toward the end of the ninth century BC that figurative art
begins to reappear. In most instances, figures of animals are used by vase painters of the Geometric
Period sparingly and almost as just another geometric pattern that can be repeated indefinitely around the
circumference of the vessel. We can see this in the eighth-century amphora illustrated in figure 18, where
two of the bands on the neck of the vase are decorated with repeated figures, one with grazing deer and
one with recumbent goats. That same vase is decorated with another figured scene. This scene is much
more prominent both because of its size and its location, between the vessel’s handles and just above the
point of greatest circumference, and also because it is much less schematic than the animal-FRIEZES.
This scene shows a number of human mourners lamenting the death of the central figure, shown lying on a
funeral bier. The amphora itself stood as the marker of a grave, so that there is an intimate connection
between the decoration and the function of the vase. But the human figures are no less schematically
portrayed than the repeated deer and goats on the neck of the vase. They are in nearly identical poses,
with their hands to their heads in conventionalized attitudes of mourning, either beating their heads or
tearing their hair, and they are identically represented with triangular torsos and circular blobs for heads.
The artist has made no effort to differentiate the mourners in the interests of creating a more varied
composition; on the contrary, he seems to have gone out of his way to keep them uniform.
FRIEZE A horizontal band of decoration, usually either painted or sculpted in RELIEF (figures 50-
2 and 75–7).