DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0045
THE BULL-RING
21
More perfect than all in design and technique is a relief
of a goat suckling her young,1 characterised, as it is, not
only by naturalism, but also, as Mr. Evans claims, " by
a certain ideal dignity and balance." The surface colour
is here a pale green with dark sepia markings. Among
porcelain vases one may specially note a two-handled
bowl with cockle-shell reliefs, and a pale green vase with
fern spray decoration, and rose leaves springing in relief
from the top of the handle and spreading over part of
the inner margin of the cup.'
The technique of the Minoan craftsman in ivory was
no less perfect than in porcelain, though less widely
represented in the excavations. In one case it has been
possible to reconstitute the whole figure of a boy, about
nj inches high. He is in the act of jumping, with
head gracefully thrown back, and arms and legs out-
stretched. Not only are the muscles faithfully rendered,
but even the veins on the back of the hand and the
linger-nails ; 3 while the hair is represented by curling
bronze wire plated with gold. Such figures formed part
of some ivory model of the Bull Ring, and are meant to
suggest the toreadors who loom so large in the art and the
traditions of Knossos. We can imagine the associations
wliich such young toreadors would suggest, hung in the
air by fine gold chains above the back of an ivory bull,
when we look at a scene painted on one of the frescoes
of the palace walls. A girl in " cowboy " costume seems
just about to be tossed by a charging bull. Mr. Evans
thinks that this time it has got her, and we may be sure
that there were tragedies in the Bull Ring ; but here
there seems a chance, if she is clever, that she may balk
it after all, and grip its horns and vault safely over its
back. That is what the boy has done who is turning
a somersault over it in front of her ; while another girl
1 B.S.A. ix. Plate III.
3 Ibid. figs. 51, 53a, 53b, pp. 73, 74.
3 Ibid. viii. fig. 39, p. 74, and Plates II. and III.
21
More perfect than all in design and technique is a relief
of a goat suckling her young,1 characterised, as it is, not
only by naturalism, but also, as Mr. Evans claims, " by
a certain ideal dignity and balance." The surface colour
is here a pale green with dark sepia markings. Among
porcelain vases one may specially note a two-handled
bowl with cockle-shell reliefs, and a pale green vase with
fern spray decoration, and rose leaves springing in relief
from the top of the handle and spreading over part of
the inner margin of the cup.'
The technique of the Minoan craftsman in ivory was
no less perfect than in porcelain, though less widely
represented in the excavations. In one case it has been
possible to reconstitute the whole figure of a boy, about
nj inches high. He is in the act of jumping, with
head gracefully thrown back, and arms and legs out-
stretched. Not only are the muscles faithfully rendered,
but even the veins on the back of the hand and the
linger-nails ; 3 while the hair is represented by curling
bronze wire plated with gold. Such figures formed part
of some ivory model of the Bull Ring, and are meant to
suggest the toreadors who loom so large in the art and the
traditions of Knossos. We can imagine the associations
wliich such young toreadors would suggest, hung in the
air by fine gold chains above the back of an ivory bull,
when we look at a scene painted on one of the frescoes
of the palace walls. A girl in " cowboy " costume seems
just about to be tossed by a charging bull. Mr. Evans
thinks that this time it has got her, and we may be sure
that there were tragedies in the Bull Ring ; but here
there seems a chance, if she is clever, that she may balk
it after all, and grip its horns and vault safely over its
back. That is what the boy has done who is turning
a somersault over it in front of her ; while another girl
1 B.S.A. ix. Plate III.
3 Ibid. figs. 51, 53a, 53b, pp. 73, 74.
3 Ibid. viii. fig. 39, p. 74, and Plates II. and III.