DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0636
592
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Mono-
chrome
decora-
tion again
general.
Tortoise-
shell
Rippled
Ware.
Anticipa-
tion of
new Style.
Examples
of M. M.
II and III
Tortoise-
shell
Ware.
and impoverishment, clue to the widespread disaster that marks what may
well have been the end of an earlier Minoan Dynasty. We are struck
from the beginning with the prevalence of a much rougher class of ware,
the fabric of which is accompanied not only by the general disappearance
of polychromy but by the great diminution of the lustre of the old black
glaze medium, owing to the roughness of the surface, and its survival in the
form of a brownish lilac wash on which the decorative designs are
laid on in powdery white. Finally, towards the end of the Period, we note
an increasing tendency to return to the plain buff ground with brown decora-
tion, which itself represents a very old Minoan tradition that had never quite
died out.
The clay bath, Fig. 424, with its tufts of grasses, has already
supplied an example of this, and specimens depicting plants and dolphins
are given below. This dark on light method may itself be regarded as an
approach towards the almost universal Late Minoan practice, though the
surface of the vessels is still somewhat rough and dull-
One particular class, however, presents, so far as glaze and fabric are
concerned, a real anticipation of the later style. The class in question,
which already makes its appearance in the Second Middle Minoan Period,1
maybe described as 'tortoise-shell rippled ware' (Fig. 435). We already
see here the finely levigated surface with its pale buff slip, now often highly
polished, and accompanied, as on Late Minoan vases, by a lustrous glaze
decoration of deeper hue. This takes the form of upright striations
artistically varied by the greater or lesser pressure of the brush, so that
they shade off from dark brown through intermediate tones of bright orange
to the buff background. A curious effect of fine tortoise-shell is thus
produced.
Specimens of this ware are given in Fig. 435. The lower fragment
from a M. M. II deposit at Knossos, shows the decoration carried over
the bottom of a bowl, the striations radiating from the centre.2 The
cup above is to be referred to M. M. III.
The other colours are also generally accompanied by one or more
horizontal bands of imperfectly fixed and often evanescent white. WTe have
1 Specimens occurred at Knossos in a pure this ware from Palaikastro (B. S. A. x, 210-11).
M. M. II stratum in the Basement of the
Loom-Weights on the East slope.
2 The early occurrence of this variety of the
tortoise-shell ripple ornament is confirmed by
Mr. Dawkins's observations on specimens of
He describes a 'Vapheio Cup' with similar
1 radial' stripes on its base as having been
found in company with a bowl of ' egg-shell'
fabric. It would therefore go back at least to
the middle of M. M. II.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Mono-
chrome
decora-
tion again
general.
Tortoise-
shell
Rippled
Ware.
Anticipa-
tion of
new Style.
Examples
of M. M.
II and III
Tortoise-
shell
Ware.
and impoverishment, clue to the widespread disaster that marks what may
well have been the end of an earlier Minoan Dynasty. We are struck
from the beginning with the prevalence of a much rougher class of ware,
the fabric of which is accompanied not only by the general disappearance
of polychromy but by the great diminution of the lustre of the old black
glaze medium, owing to the roughness of the surface, and its survival in the
form of a brownish lilac wash on which the decorative designs are
laid on in powdery white. Finally, towards the end of the Period, we note
an increasing tendency to return to the plain buff ground with brown decora-
tion, which itself represents a very old Minoan tradition that had never quite
died out.
The clay bath, Fig. 424, with its tufts of grasses, has already
supplied an example of this, and specimens depicting plants and dolphins
are given below. This dark on light method may itself be regarded as an
approach towards the almost universal Late Minoan practice, though the
surface of the vessels is still somewhat rough and dull-
One particular class, however, presents, so far as glaze and fabric are
concerned, a real anticipation of the later style. The class in question,
which already makes its appearance in the Second Middle Minoan Period,1
maybe described as 'tortoise-shell rippled ware' (Fig. 435). We already
see here the finely levigated surface with its pale buff slip, now often highly
polished, and accompanied, as on Late Minoan vases, by a lustrous glaze
decoration of deeper hue. This takes the form of upright striations
artistically varied by the greater or lesser pressure of the brush, so that
they shade off from dark brown through intermediate tones of bright orange
to the buff background. A curious effect of fine tortoise-shell is thus
produced.
Specimens of this ware are given in Fig. 435. The lower fragment
from a M. M. II deposit at Knossos, shows the decoration carried over
the bottom of a bowl, the striations radiating from the centre.2 The
cup above is to be referred to M. M. III.
The other colours are also generally accompanied by one or more
horizontal bands of imperfectly fixed and often evanescent white. WTe have
1 Specimens occurred at Knossos in a pure this ware from Palaikastro (B. S. A. x, 210-11).
M. M. II stratum in the Basement of the
Loom-Weights on the East slope.
2 The early occurrence of this variety of the
tortoise-shell ripple ornament is confirmed by
Mr. Dawkins's observations on specimens of
He describes a 'Vapheio Cup' with similar
1 radial' stripes on its base as having been
found in company with a bowl of ' egg-shell'
fabric. It would therefore go back at least to
the middle of M. M. II.