Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

536

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

M.M. Ill

Frescoes
of S.E.
House.

we have constant evidence of a kind of ' artistic shorthand \l In the
smaller compositions such as these and the ' Taureador Frescoes' - the
process was assisted by the subdivision of the fields into comparatively
small panels—the remainder of the wall space being covered by a flat wash
of white, or more frequently red. In some cases, notably in the ' Flying

Fish fresco' from Melos,
—itself clearly the work
of a Knossian artist—the
edges of the plaster have
a smooth flat surface ' as
though the picture had
been enclosed in a wooden
frame '.3 Mere horizontal
bands, and borders of
mechanical design might be
executed by the ordinary
workmen, the more elabo-
rate panels being filled in
by artists of a higher grade
'working with a rapidity and
certainty born of constant
practice and long estab-
lished tradition'. Although,
as the modelling of the
stucco reliefs shows, they
were fully aware of the
value of such features, the artists limited themselves ' to outline and wash
in two dimensions '.4

Apart from the fragments with the architectural and other designs from
the Kaselles 5 and the Spiral Fresco and reliefs derived from the M.M. Ill
East Hall,0 the best stratigraphic evidence as to the wall-paintings of the
present Period is supplied by the South-East House, to the importance of
which in relation to the Central Palace cult attention has been already called.7

Fig. 389. Fresco from Basement by Stepped Portico,
showing Flowering Olive Spray (f c).

1 See my remarks, Knossos, Report, 1900,
p. 47.

" See Vol. II, and Knossian Atlas.

3 Professor R.C. Bosanquet,/'hylakopi^.*}\.

4 In the case of the Griffin Fresco, however,
found in the Room of the Throne and belong-

ing to the latest Palace epoch (L. M. II),
shading is shown by means of cross-hatching.

5 See above, p. 443 seqq.,and Figs. 319, 321 ;
and p. 527 seqq., Figs. 384, 385.

6 See above, p. 371 seqq.

7 See above, p. 425 seqq.