DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0111
LATE MINOAN I 85
Palaikastro.1 There is a blending of the two styles in a
still more beautiful vase from the Lakkos or pit at Zakro,!
on which a delicate design of waving water-lilies is painted
in white upon a red-brown slip.3 The curious point about
this white design is that it was painted after the rest
of the vase, with its red-brown ornament upon a pinkish
clay, had already been fired and glazed ; itself it was
never fired, glazed, or varnished, but, as its discoverer,
Mr. Hogarth, tells us, can be removed with the
lightest touch of the fingers.4 Another simple design
of the period is that of reeds or grasses, such as are found
on the graceful " flower-pots " from Phylakopi in Melos,6
in which the small hole pierced through the base suggests
that this is not only a convenient name for describing a
shape, but that they were really used as pots for plants.0
Phylakopi indeed shows other close connections with the
art of this period, as it did with that of its predecessor,'
and the latest elements in the second city are contem-
porary. The Shaft graves at Mycenas, too, begin in this
period, and stretch on into the next. It is the first
time that the word " Mycenaean " can be legitimately
introduced into our story.
With Late Minoan II. we reach the great architectural
period of Minoan art—the period of the Throne Room and
the Basilica Hall of the Royal Villa, the period of the
great scheme of fresco wall decoration which survives
to us in the Cupbearer and the groups of spectators
watching the Palace sports. Whole areas were covered
with stone carvings or painted plaster. The plaster-
1 B.S.A. ix. fig. 10, p. 311. Dawkins, ad loc, p. 310, n. 1,
points out that Hogarth was mistaken in saying (J.H.S. xxii.
p. 333) that the base of the Zakro vase is not pierced. For a
description of these strainers, see p. 91.
2 See p. 26. 3 J.H.S. xxii. Plate XII. No. 2.
* J.H.S. xxii. p. 336.
« Phylakopi, Plate XIX. Nos. 9 and 10.
• But see ibid. p. 118. 7 See pp. 14, 63, 149, 179.
Palaikastro.1 There is a blending of the two styles in a
still more beautiful vase from the Lakkos or pit at Zakro,!
on which a delicate design of waving water-lilies is painted
in white upon a red-brown slip.3 The curious point about
this white design is that it was painted after the rest
of the vase, with its red-brown ornament upon a pinkish
clay, had already been fired and glazed ; itself it was
never fired, glazed, or varnished, but, as its discoverer,
Mr. Hogarth, tells us, can be removed with the
lightest touch of the fingers.4 Another simple design
of the period is that of reeds or grasses, such as are found
on the graceful " flower-pots " from Phylakopi in Melos,6
in which the small hole pierced through the base suggests
that this is not only a convenient name for describing a
shape, but that they were really used as pots for plants.0
Phylakopi indeed shows other close connections with the
art of this period, as it did with that of its predecessor,'
and the latest elements in the second city are contem-
porary. The Shaft graves at Mycenas, too, begin in this
period, and stretch on into the next. It is the first
time that the word " Mycenaean " can be legitimately
introduced into our story.
With Late Minoan II. we reach the great architectural
period of Minoan art—the period of the Throne Room and
the Basilica Hall of the Royal Villa, the period of the
great scheme of fresco wall decoration which survives
to us in the Cupbearer and the groups of spectators
watching the Palace sports. Whole areas were covered
with stone carvings or painted plaster. The plaster-
1 B.S.A. ix. fig. 10, p. 311. Dawkins, ad loc, p. 310, n. 1,
points out that Hogarth was mistaken in saying (J.H.S. xxii.
p. 333) that the base of the Zakro vase is not pierced. For a
description of these strainers, see p. 91.
2 See p. 26. 3 J.H.S. xxii. Plate XII. No. 2.
* J.H.S. xxii. p. 336.
« Phylakopi, Plate XIX. Nos. 9 and 10.
• But see ibid. p. 118. 7 See pp. 14, 63, 149, 179.