DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0118
92 THE PALACE STYLE
country till it is brought to the table. If we can imagine
that there was a fashion for something like undecanted
vintage port for the royal table, it is possible the sug-
gestion explains the prevalence of the type of vase at a
particular period. It is a strainer that is carried by the
Cupbearer, though here, perhaps, it is not of pottery,
nor even of fluted marble, but of silver mounted with
gold.1
It should be noticed that though the decorative instinct
which dominates this period shuns naturalistic designs,
and can use even miniature fresco scenes in a bizarre,
fantastic way as elements in a scheme of wall painting,
the word " conventional " cannot be applied to the frescoes
as a whole. The painters of the landscape and marine
scenes found in the Queen's Megaron,2 or of the life-size
figure of the Cupbearer, did not allow their art to sink
to a level where it would merely be subsidiary to the
needs of wall decoration ; the objects they represent
have a value to them of their own, and their attempt
to express nature is sincere and vigorous. The same is
true of the sculptors who worked the magnificent series
of life-size reliefs in hard plaster that is illustrated by
the Bull's Head and the King with the. Peacock Crown.'
In this, its last great era, Minoan art was not decadent;
it contained in itself no inherent over-ripeness which,
apart from any disturbing influence from the outside,
must have meant speedy deterioration. The hoard of
clay tablets discovered in the first year of the excavations,
and dating from this period, shows that its linear writing,
called by Mr. Evans Class B, is more advanced than that
of the preceding epoch. It was a civilisation which was
still growing and developing that was given a sudden and
crushing blow by the sack of Knossos.
What then is the date of the sack of Knossos, and
1 B.S.A. vi. p. 16. One of exactly the same shape, but of
pottery, is figured from Palaikastro in ibid. ix. fig. g, p. 311.
3 Ibid. viii. pp. 58, 59. 3 See p. 19.
country till it is brought to the table. If we can imagine
that there was a fashion for something like undecanted
vintage port for the royal table, it is possible the sug-
gestion explains the prevalence of the type of vase at a
particular period. It is a strainer that is carried by the
Cupbearer, though here, perhaps, it is not of pottery,
nor even of fluted marble, but of silver mounted with
gold.1
It should be noticed that though the decorative instinct
which dominates this period shuns naturalistic designs,
and can use even miniature fresco scenes in a bizarre,
fantastic way as elements in a scheme of wall painting,
the word " conventional " cannot be applied to the frescoes
as a whole. The painters of the landscape and marine
scenes found in the Queen's Megaron,2 or of the life-size
figure of the Cupbearer, did not allow their art to sink
to a level where it would merely be subsidiary to the
needs of wall decoration ; the objects they represent
have a value to them of their own, and their attempt
to express nature is sincere and vigorous. The same is
true of the sculptors who worked the magnificent series
of life-size reliefs in hard plaster that is illustrated by
the Bull's Head and the King with the. Peacock Crown.'
In this, its last great era, Minoan art was not decadent;
it contained in itself no inherent over-ripeness which,
apart from any disturbing influence from the outside,
must have meant speedy deterioration. The hoard of
clay tablets discovered in the first year of the excavations,
and dating from this period, shows that its linear writing,
called by Mr. Evans Class B, is more advanced than that
of the preceding epoch. It was a civilisation which was
still growing and developing that was given a sudden and
crushing blow by the sack of Knossos.
What then is the date of the sack of Knossos, and
1 B.S.A. vi. p. 16. One of exactly the same shape, but of
pottery, is figured from Palaikastro in ibid. ix. fig. g, p. 311.
3 Ibid. viii. pp. 58, 59. 3 See p. 19.