Orientalizing

The period in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, during which Scythian-Iranian Oriental objects with their animalistic motifs were spread and consequently imitated throughout the Mediterranean countries, especially in Greece and Italy. It is also the style of Greek art in that period, a decorative scheme found especially on pottery. The style was probably the result of renewed contact with Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. It is an art history term also used of various periods and cultures in antiquity when a 'western' production shows evidence for influence from the Near, Middle, or Far East. An example would be this borrowing by Greek Black-Figure painters of numerous abstract, vegetable and animal motifs from Syrian and Phoenician art. From about 650 BC on, the Greeks began to visit Egypt regularly, and their observation of the monumental stone buildings there was the genesis of the ultimate development of monumental architecture and sculpture in Greece. The Egyptians executed in hard stone instead of the limestone, clay, or wood to which the Greeks had been accustomed. The Greeks learned the techniques of handling the harder stone in Egypt, and at home they turned to the fine white marble of the Cyclades islands (Paros, Naxos) for their materials. It was at this time that the first truly monumental examples of Greek sculpture appeared. The period in Greece continued through the 7th century BC and saw the rise of narrative in Greek art.

Essentially an art history term, used of various periods and cultures in antiquity, when a ‘western’ production shows evidence for influence from the Near, Middle or Far East. An example would be the borrowing by Greek Black-figure painters, notably Corinthian and Athenian, of numerous abstract, vegetable and animal motifs from Syrian and Phoenician art, around 720550 bc.