DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0071
'HOUSE OF FRESCOES': PANELS WITH MONKEYS 447
grown with flowers and creepers. An obvious parallelism can be observed, Rocks,
indeed, with the contemporary wall-paintings from the Little Palace at a°ders'
Haeia Triada, in which a cat is seen stalking a pheasant in a similar land- animal
o . . forms.
scape, and with what appears to have been a similar design from the Palace
at Knossos, of which we have only
a fragmentary record.1
Unfortunately, at Hagia Triada
the surface of the wall-paintings had
been much injured by fire, and the
original bright colouring was much
obscured in consequence. In the
' House of the Frescoes ', on the other
hand, it has been preserved in all
its pristine brilliance. The number
of flowering plants here depicted is
also much greater, and it is not too
much to say that we have before us the
remains of the most vivid composi-
tions that have come down to us from
Minoan days.
Panels with Blue Monkeys.
On parts of two panels the fore-
parts of monkeys of a prevailing blue
colour appear on a deep Venetian red
ground, and it has been possible to restore a section of one of these panels
in the Coloured Plate X. Most of the head of the monkey, together with
a raised forepaw, is here visible, and the head of another from a similar panel
is reproduced in Fig. 262. The animal is seen in a typical wild setting, where
glorified papyrus sprays of many colours are mixed with native crocus tufts
and dwarf iris, while the 'sacral ivy', to be described below, climbs up
between the brilliantly veined and variegated crags.
On another panel of a paler complexion, showing an ochreous white
field, the outline of the whole animal—here, of a lighter blue than the other—
's to a great extent preserved (Fig. 264). He is seen prying among the
papyrus stalks, which he divides with his paws, evidently on the hunt for
something eatable, perhaps a waterfowl's egg. The papyrus here has not
the floral character that it presents in the other panel.
1 See P. of M., i, p. 540, Fig. 392, a, b.
Fig. 262. Head of Monkey from Fresco
Panel.
Monkeys
copied
from the
West
African
' green
monkeys'.
grown with flowers and creepers. An obvious parallelism can be observed, Rocks,
indeed, with the contemporary wall-paintings from the Little Palace at a°ders'
Haeia Triada, in which a cat is seen stalking a pheasant in a similar land- animal
o . . forms.
scape, and with what appears to have been a similar design from the Palace
at Knossos, of which we have only
a fragmentary record.1
Unfortunately, at Hagia Triada
the surface of the wall-paintings had
been much injured by fire, and the
original bright colouring was much
obscured in consequence. In the
' House of the Frescoes ', on the other
hand, it has been preserved in all
its pristine brilliance. The number
of flowering plants here depicted is
also much greater, and it is not too
much to say that we have before us the
remains of the most vivid composi-
tions that have come down to us from
Minoan days.
Panels with Blue Monkeys.
On parts of two panels the fore-
parts of monkeys of a prevailing blue
colour appear on a deep Venetian red
ground, and it has been possible to restore a section of one of these panels
in the Coloured Plate X. Most of the head of the monkey, together with
a raised forepaw, is here visible, and the head of another from a similar panel
is reproduced in Fig. 262. The animal is seen in a typical wild setting, where
glorified papyrus sprays of many colours are mixed with native crocus tufts
and dwarf iris, while the 'sacral ivy', to be described below, climbs up
between the brilliantly veined and variegated crags.
On another panel of a paler complexion, showing an ochreous white
field, the outline of the whole animal—here, of a lighter blue than the other—
's to a great extent preserved (Fig. 264). He is seen prying among the
papyrus stalks, which he divides with his paws, evidently on the hunt for
something eatable, perhaps a waterfowl's egg. The papyrus here has not
the floral character that it presents in the other panel.
1 See P. of M., i, p. 540, Fig. 392, a, b.
Fig. 262. Head of Monkey from Fresco
Panel.
Monkeys
copied
from the
West
African
' green
monkeys'.