DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0413
NATURE-PRINTED SPONGES ON WALLS 361
beneath it.1 Here again, moreover, we find the pavement in connexion with
a type of column-bases of the tall M. M. II class, composed in the case of
the preserved example of a grey limestone with light and dark striations,
and about 55 centimetres in height.
Of the decorative system with which this ' mosaiko ' stage was asso-
ciated as regards painted plaster, it may be worth while calling attention to
some evidence recently acquired in another quarter of the building. Con-
sidered in relation to the ' Marine style ', which left its most splendid record on
the walls of the ' Queen's Megaron ' as rebuilt during the succeeding M. M. 111
Period, this evidence has, indeed, a very direct bearing on its artistic history.
' Mosaiko' Floor associated with ' Nature-printed' Fresco showing-
Sponges : Beginnings of ' Marine Style '.
Supplementary explorations undertaken in 1929 in the area of the North- ' Nature-
West Portico led to the acquisition of some very interesting evidence as to fr"fCo
the class of decorative wall-painting that had existed in the structures with with
sponsfcs;
which this pavement and its adjoining portico were associated. It appears that, asso-
about the time when the neighbouring ' Lustral Area' was built, the Western Mosaiko'
border of the entrance on this side was rearranged, its new West wall, system.
indeed, containing fragments of the iron-stone slabs taken from a part of
the M. M. II b pavement2 here broken away. Here, below the M. M. Ill a
threshold and partly extending under the later wall, were found considerable
remains, largely indeed fragmentary, of painted "stucco wall-decoration—the
first example of fresco painting not of a purely geometrical class which can
be definitely dated to M. M. II a, always remembering that wall fresco may
somewhat antedate the actual remains of flooring. The ceramic compari-
sons point to M. M. Ill a.
On a very dark, almost black, ground had been painted, in bright
orange at more or less regular intervals and similarly disposed, rows of
identical designs of objects showing a cellular texture within a somewhat
irregular outline. It became at once evident that the objects thus repro-
duced were small sponges, and at the same time the absolute conformity of
one design with another made it clear that there were here repetitions of
the same model. In other words, this decorative scheme had been laid on
the dark lime plaster surface when still damp, according to the regular
fresco process of the Minoan decorators, by the repeated use of a single small
sponge dipped from time to time in ochreous paint. What we have in this
! Excavations of 1929. a mature stage of M. M. II, a few earlier, but
2 Tests made in 1929 beneath its slabs nothing later,
produced a number of sherds belonging to
beneath it.1 Here again, moreover, we find the pavement in connexion with
a type of column-bases of the tall M. M. II class, composed in the case of
the preserved example of a grey limestone with light and dark striations,
and about 55 centimetres in height.
Of the decorative system with which this ' mosaiko ' stage was asso-
ciated as regards painted plaster, it may be worth while calling attention to
some evidence recently acquired in another quarter of the building. Con-
sidered in relation to the ' Marine style ', which left its most splendid record on
the walls of the ' Queen's Megaron ' as rebuilt during the succeeding M. M. 111
Period, this evidence has, indeed, a very direct bearing on its artistic history.
' Mosaiko' Floor associated with ' Nature-printed' Fresco showing-
Sponges : Beginnings of ' Marine Style '.
Supplementary explorations undertaken in 1929 in the area of the North- ' Nature-
West Portico led to the acquisition of some very interesting evidence as to fr"fCo
the class of decorative wall-painting that had existed in the structures with with
sponsfcs;
which this pavement and its adjoining portico were associated. It appears that, asso-
about the time when the neighbouring ' Lustral Area' was built, the Western Mosaiko'
border of the entrance on this side was rearranged, its new West wall, system.
indeed, containing fragments of the iron-stone slabs taken from a part of
the M. M. II b pavement2 here broken away. Here, below the M. M. Ill a
threshold and partly extending under the later wall, were found considerable
remains, largely indeed fragmentary, of painted "stucco wall-decoration—the
first example of fresco painting not of a purely geometrical class which can
be definitely dated to M. M. II a, always remembering that wall fresco may
somewhat antedate the actual remains of flooring. The ceramic compari-
sons point to M. M. Ill a.
On a very dark, almost black, ground had been painted, in bright
orange at more or less regular intervals and similarly disposed, rows of
identical designs of objects showing a cellular texture within a somewhat
irregular outline. It became at once evident that the objects thus repro-
duced were small sponges, and at the same time the absolute conformity of
one design with another made it clear that there were here repetitions of
the same model. In other words, this decorative scheme had been laid on
the dark lime plaster surface when still damp, according to the regular
fresco process of the Minoan decorators, by the repeated use of a single small
sponge dipped from time to time in ochreous paint. What we have in this
! Excavations of 1929. a mature stage of M. M. II, a few earlier, but
2 Tests made in 1929 beneath its slabs nothing later,
produced a number of sherds belonging to