DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0088
62 THE BUILDING OF THE PALACES
raised at a later date, but trial pits show that its area
was considerably extended.1 The Temple Repositories,
too, west of the Central Court, and a number of apart-
ments on its north-east side, were built in Middle Minoan
III., but were completely covered in the next period.2
None the less we should not be wrong in believing that,
although there was more magnificence in the later re-
modellings, the Palace of Middle Minoan III. was as
beautiful. Art is in the fascinating stage that im-
mediately precedes full maturity. The Little Boy Blue
who is gathering white crocuses in a field, and arranging
them in a vase—for his flesh strangely enough is blue,
and not the conventional reddish brown of all the Later
Minoan frescoes 3—is not an anatomically correct figure ;
but there is a naturalism in the drawing of the flowers
and a refinement in the idea that arrests attention.
The best vases have a delicate lily design, white on a
lilac or mauve ground; i polychrome decoration is
passing out of fashion.
As Dr. Mackenzie cleverly points out,6 this change
from polychrome to monochrome is itself due to the
naturalism of the period. The colour repertory of the
vase painter was limited by the conditions of his art.
Although the colours that were possible to him were
enough to produce beautiful polychrome effects if they
were used in the purely decorative designs of the Kamares
type, they failed when they tried in the same way to
reproduce natural objects, such as flowers. Green, for
instance, which was essential for a naturalistic rendering
of leaves and stems, was out of the range of the painter
1 B.S.A. x. fig. 7, p. 19. See p. 6 for a M.M. III. " house "
under the West Court.
2 Including the Light Well that at the time of its discovery
was called the North-East Hall, B.S.A. x. p. 13 ; Mackenzie in
ibid. xi. p. 210, and J.FJ.S. xxvi. p. 265. 3 B.S.A. vi. p. 45.
4 Ibid. viii. 1901-2, fig. 51, 7 and 10, p. 91 ; J.H.S. xxiii. fig. 8,
Nos. 7 and 10. p. 180: and also B.S.A. x. 1903-4, fig. 1, p. 7,
and fig. 2, p. 9. 0 J.H.S. xxvi. 1906, pp. 257, 258.
raised at a later date, but trial pits show that its area
was considerably extended.1 The Temple Repositories,
too, west of the Central Court, and a number of apart-
ments on its north-east side, were built in Middle Minoan
III., but were completely covered in the next period.2
None the less we should not be wrong in believing that,
although there was more magnificence in the later re-
modellings, the Palace of Middle Minoan III. was as
beautiful. Art is in the fascinating stage that im-
mediately precedes full maturity. The Little Boy Blue
who is gathering white crocuses in a field, and arranging
them in a vase—for his flesh strangely enough is blue,
and not the conventional reddish brown of all the Later
Minoan frescoes 3—is not an anatomically correct figure ;
but there is a naturalism in the drawing of the flowers
and a refinement in the idea that arrests attention.
The best vases have a delicate lily design, white on a
lilac or mauve ground; i polychrome decoration is
passing out of fashion.
As Dr. Mackenzie cleverly points out,6 this change
from polychrome to monochrome is itself due to the
naturalism of the period. The colour repertory of the
vase painter was limited by the conditions of his art.
Although the colours that were possible to him were
enough to produce beautiful polychrome effects if they
were used in the purely decorative designs of the Kamares
type, they failed when they tried in the same way to
reproduce natural objects, such as flowers. Green, for
instance, which was essential for a naturalistic rendering
of leaves and stems, was out of the range of the painter
1 B.S.A. x. fig. 7, p. 19. See p. 6 for a M.M. III. " house "
under the West Court.
2 Including the Light Well that at the time of its discovery
was called the North-East Hall, B.S.A. x. p. 13 ; Mackenzie in
ibid. xi. p. 210, and J.FJ.S. xxvi. p. 265. 3 B.S.A. vi. p. 45.
4 Ibid. viii. 1901-2, fig. 51, 7 and 10, p. 91 ; J.H.S. xxiii. fig. 8,
Nos. 7 and 10. p. 180: and also B.S.A. x. 1903-4, fig. 1, p. 7,
and fig. 2, p. 9. 0 J.H.S. xxvi. 1906, pp. 257, 258.