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large Minoan octopus stirrup jar
£150.00
This stirrup jar (so-called because of the inverted stirrup-shape of the handles) with its fluid octopus design is typical of the Late Minoan period. Marine motifs, like the octopus, work well on a variety of vase shapes, because their shapes are simple, irregular and sinuous and translate well to two-dimensional representation. This 'marine style' is also characterised by 'horror vacui' (a need to fill every available space with some ornamentation). Here, as in many other similar vessels, the octopus swims diagonally, with rockwork, coral, seaweed and shells filling the space between the tentacles. The original of this piece, found in the palace at Knossos, is in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Heraklion on Crete and dates to ca 1500 BC. There is a similar one in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Height: 20cm
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about the Minoans
Flourishing on Bronze Age Crete ca 3000–1100 BCE, the Minoans were a vibrant, colourful and innovative civilization that celebrated the beauty of life, nature's rhythms, and the boundless sea.
Their extraordinary artistic output reflects their love of the natural world all around them. Their sprawling palaces were adorned with breathtaking frescoes characterized by fluid lines and vivid colors. Instead of grim battle scenes, these murals depicted graceful leaping bulls, blue monkeys, and delicate saffron crocuses. Their creativity extended to their exquisite pottery, which featured dynamic motifs of octopus and coral wrapping around clay vessels, reflecting a sophisticated society deeply in tune with its environment.
This intimate connection with nature was inextricably linked to their mastery of the sea. Developing a formidable thalassocracy, the Minoans dominated the Aegean as unparalleled seafarers. Their advanced sailing vessels, elegantly depicted in frescoes at Akrotiri on Santorini/Thera, carried olive oil and fine ceramics across lucrative trade networks across the Mediterranean world, returning with exotic ivory and gold.
about this pottery collection
This pottery collection is produced in Greece in the workshop of the Lioulias family, with whom It's All Greek is proud to have been working since 2004.
about the octopus
This flexible and intelligent creature relates to the psyche, to emotion and to intuition.
They depicted the octopus on their pottery and in their jewellery, clearly intrigued by this silent, graceful creature, unfurling its tentacles, moving slowly through an element that is itself constantly in motion. It makes camouflage to protect itself against predators and, if necessary, can detach a limb, which in turn will regenerate. Its ejection of black ink is designed to confuse, delude and deter.