Prior to circa 1600 BCE, when emerging Mycenaean elites in mainland Greece wanted to show off their status by purchasing prestigious objects, they turned to the artistic traditions of the Minoans, who lived on Crete. Although the Mycenaeans did not simply copy everything the Minoans did and sometimes creatively combined different motifs and themes, the art of the Mycenaean Palatial Period (cc. 1400-1200 BCE) is marked by a great deal of conservatism and homogeneity.For more information on Minoan influence on Mycenaean art, see Hurwit 1979, ‘The Dendra Octopus Cup and the Problem of Style in the Fifteenth Century Aegean’, 415-416; Crowley 2008, ‘Mycenaean Art and Architecture’, 260-261/273; Blakolmer 2016, ‘Mycenaean Iconography’, 27-31. For the conservatism and homogeneity in the Mycenaean art style, see Immerwahr 1990, Aegean painting in the Bronze Age, University Park (PA),159-168; Castleden 2005, The Mycenaeans, London, 134-135; Crowley 2008, ‘Mycenaean Art and Architecture’, 266/271/278-281; Blakolmer 2016, ‘Mycenaean Iconography’, 27-38].
This started to change towards the end of the Palatial Period in the thirteenth century BCE and most significantly in the Post-Palatial Period. See Crowley 2008, ‘Mycenaean Art and Architecture’, 273; Gauss & Ruppenstein 2020, ‘Pottery’, 441. Now that the Palatial clientele was gone, artists had to look for other venues to ply their trade. During the search for new inspiration and motivation, the production of pictorial pottery blossomed. Among other things, this resulted in the formation of the octopus style, of which this vase forms a splendid example.
The octopus style emerged on Crete, and then spread to other Greek islands as well as sites on the mainland. In each of these regions, potters started to produce their own octopus stirrup jars and developed their own unique traditions For more information about the octopus style, see [Immerwahr 1990, Aegean painting in the Bronze Age, University Park (PA), 148-154/158; Rutter 1992, ‘Cultural Novelties in the Post-Palatial Aegean World: Indices of Vitality or Decline?’, 61-67; Blakolmer 2016, ‘Mycenaean Iconography’ 38-42. And for more information about the different traditions of octopus stirrup jars, see Mountjoy 1986, Mycenaean Decorated Pottery: A Guide to Identification, 155-158; Rutter 1992, ‘Cultural Novelties in the Post-Palatial Aegean World: Indices of Vitality or Decline?’, 64; Doi 2006, The octopus style: A study of octopus-painted Aegean pottery of 12th-11th centuries BCE, its regional styles, development and social significance (Doctoral thesis, University College London), 231-245; Gauss & Ruppenstein 2020, ‘Pottery’, 443-445. After thorough comparison, our jar seems to be a relatively late specimen from East-Attica Doi 2006, The octopus style: A study of octopus-painted Aegean pottery of 12th-11th centuries BCE, its regional styles, development and social significance (Doctoral thesis, University College London), 170/411-412. To reach this conclusion, the eyes, the head, and the amount of octopuses were taken into consideration.