DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0587
544
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Repre-
sentations
of Sea-
spray.
M.M. Ill
Con-
nexions
of Fish
Frescoes.
Beneath the rock border were remains of a Venetian red band, presumably
belonging to a dado. A suggestion of the original place on the walls of this
marine painting will be seen in the restored view of the Queen's Megaron, to
be included in the Second Volume of this work.
As noted above, this work, though of finer technique and more
careful execution, presents singular points
of comparison with the instantaneous
sketches preserved to us in the Flying
Fish panel. The resemblance extends
to minute details such as the sea-spray and
bubbles, which here fly off from the fins and
tails of the fishes in azure wreaths and
coils dotted on the white ground, and
impart a marvellous sense of motion to the
whole design. Both paintings are works
of the same Knossian school, and the
marine, like the floral style of these
frescoes, was reflected in M.M. Ill ceramic
designs.1
The connexion between these marine
designs and those of the faience reliefs of
marine subjects is so clear that it seems
safe to refer them to the same approximate
date. The Phylakopi wall-painting was
found on the floor of the Pillar Crypt of
the early Palace in association with sherds
of a Melian class, parallel with the
M.M. Ill phase in Crete and belonging to the last epoch of the Second
City of Phylakopi.2
With the flying-fish fresco at Phylakopi, and, like it, presumably fallen
from a columnar hall above,3 were found remains, evidently executed on the
spot by a Knossian artist, of larger pictures showing parts of two female
Fig. 396. Fresco Design of Part
of a Woman. Phylakopi (^).
1 See especially the sepulchral urns from
Pachyammos, pp. 608, 6io below.
2 My information as to the pottery is due
to Dr. Mackenzie, who excavated the room.
Pottery parallel with L. M. I was found on
a higher and later floor level.
3 A column base {Phylakopi, p. 6r, Fig. 56)
belonging to this was actually found in the
same area as the fresco fragments. It shows
a square footing from which rises a circular
base for the shaft and thus answers to a type of
ledged column-base that seems to have been
in vogue by the beginning of M. M. Ill (see
above, p. 213).
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Repre-
sentations
of Sea-
spray.
M.M. Ill
Con-
nexions
of Fish
Frescoes.
Beneath the rock border were remains of a Venetian red band, presumably
belonging to a dado. A suggestion of the original place on the walls of this
marine painting will be seen in the restored view of the Queen's Megaron, to
be included in the Second Volume of this work.
As noted above, this work, though of finer technique and more
careful execution, presents singular points
of comparison with the instantaneous
sketches preserved to us in the Flying
Fish panel. The resemblance extends
to minute details such as the sea-spray and
bubbles, which here fly off from the fins and
tails of the fishes in azure wreaths and
coils dotted on the white ground, and
impart a marvellous sense of motion to the
whole design. Both paintings are works
of the same Knossian school, and the
marine, like the floral style of these
frescoes, was reflected in M.M. Ill ceramic
designs.1
The connexion between these marine
designs and those of the faience reliefs of
marine subjects is so clear that it seems
safe to refer them to the same approximate
date. The Phylakopi wall-painting was
found on the floor of the Pillar Crypt of
the early Palace in association with sherds
of a Melian class, parallel with the
M.M. Ill phase in Crete and belonging to the last epoch of the Second
City of Phylakopi.2
With the flying-fish fresco at Phylakopi, and, like it, presumably fallen
from a columnar hall above,3 were found remains, evidently executed on the
spot by a Knossian artist, of larger pictures showing parts of two female
Fig. 396. Fresco Design of Part
of a Woman. Phylakopi (^).
1 See especially the sepulchral urns from
Pachyammos, pp. 608, 6io below.
2 My information as to the pottery is due
to Dr. Mackenzie, who excavated the room.
Pottery parallel with L. M. I was found on
a higher and later floor level.
3 A column base {Phylakopi, p. 6r, Fig. 56)
belonging to this was actually found in the
same area as the fresco fragments. It shows
a square footing from which rises a circular
base for the shaft and thus answers to a type of
ledged column-base that seems to have been
in vogue by the beginning of M. M. Ill (see
above, p. 213).