Olive in Art: A Symbol Across Centuries
Few symbols have endured across civilizations like the olive branch. Rooted in the Mediterranean landscape, the olive has served as both nourishment and emblem — of peace, endurance, and prosperity. Artists, from ancient muralists to modern painters, have returned to this simple branch again and again, capturing its quiet strength in art that has lasted millennia.
Cretan Heritage
Crete, the largest island of Greece, has been bound to the olive tree for more than four millennia. Ancient Minoan civilization (c. 3100–1100 BC) cultivated olives not only for food but as a cornerstone of their economy and ritual life. Archaeologists have found olive oil storage jars in palaces like Knossos, and frescoes in Heraklion Archaeological Museum depict the tree’s branches with reverence — proof of its central role in both survival and symbolism.
Fragment of a wall painting depicting olive branches, 1600 BC, Heraklion Archaeological Museum. ©Avery Home
Rituals of Greek Daily Life
In ancient Greece, the olive shaped both diet and ritual. A black-figured amphora from 520 BC, today in the British Museum, shows the harvest in action:
From the Brisih Museum: "Olive-gathering: Three olive-trees; in the branches of the centre one is a youth seated to left with a stick in his hands, with which he shakes down the olives. Two bearded figures, one on each side are beating the trees with long sticks. At the foot of the tree is a youth kneeling to right, picking up the olives, as they fall, into a basket."
©The Trustees of the British Museum
Botanical Drawings and Scientific Study
By the 18th and 19th centuries, the olive entered another tradition: botanical illustration. Artists and naturalists created precise studies of olive branches, documenting their leaves, flowers, and fruit in exquisite detail. These works were both scientific and artistic, bridging Enlightenment curiosity with timeless beauty. Today, these prints — once catalogued for study — have found new life in interiors, bringing a note of heritage and refinement to contemporary spaces.
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Original 19th century vintage illustration before restoration |
Restored and refined vintage print for modern interiors, available here. |
Van Gogh Inspired by the Harvest
The annual olive harvest is more than an agricultural task—it’s a celebration. In villages across the Mediterranean, families gather to pick the fruit by hand, a ritual that has changed little over centuries. Van Gogh, while living in Saint-Rémy, found in these ancient groves a deeper resonance. Among the weathered olive trees, Van Gogh discovered what he believed to be nature’s spirit — alive, restless, eternal. His brush turned soil and sky into companions of the trees, alive with the shimmer of Mediterranean air. The rhythm of his strokes doesn’t just depict the grove; it makes us feel its energy, as if the landscape itself were breathing.
Women Picking Olives, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889. Available as print here.
Picasso and Anti-War Activism
In the 20th century, the olive branch found new life in the hands of Pablo Picasso. After the devastation of World War II, Picasso’s dove drawings became the emblem of peace for the 1949 World Peace Congress in Paris. What began as a simple lithograph of a white dove soon evolved into a series of studies where the bird carries an olive branch — uniting two of the most enduring symbols in Western art.
©Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
A Mediterranean Moment
Whether as a thoughtful gift or a focal point in your own home, our Olives Collection pieces are more than the artwork itself—it’s a reflection of a life well-lived, steeped in tradition, inspired by nature’s quiet elegance.