DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0722
676
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
steatite
rhyton
also gold
plated
metal hoop of which has worn a deep groove in the inner side of its
Relief of axial perforation. The coating- of the black steatite intaglio with precious
metal had at the time when I obtained it, in 1894, suggested the idea
that the black steatite vessels with reliefs had been originally embellished
in a like manner, and that this practice in fact supplied the antecedent
stage to the later technique illustrated by the Vapheio Cups.1 A discovery
made on the same site during the excavations of the British School has
since afforded a remarkable confirmation of this view. A fraement
of a black steatite ' rhyton ' was
—" ') there found presenting in relief
part of the figure of a charging
boar in the finest naturalistic style
of the present Period (Fig. 496)2,
and with a piece of the original
gold plating attached to it. It
will be shown that, from the
Second Middle Minoan Period
onwards, boars and boar-hunts
were a familiar theme of Minoan
Art. The more detailed repre-
sentation of the sport on the
Tirynthian fresco 3 doubtless had
its forerunners on Cretan soil.
These ' flattened cylinders '
seem to have been specially in
vogue during the present Period,
though they were still in use in
the earlier part of the Late
Minoan Acre. The o-old beads
Fig. 496. Fragment of Steatite Rhyton
found with Gold Plate attaching to it.
of this form from the Third Shaft Grave at Mycenae 4 with the episodes
of single combat, and of the lion-hunt in a highly advanced sensational style,
may be referred like other elements of that tomb to L. M. I. Towards the
close of that Period, however, this type of intaglio shows a tendency to die
out-' and survives later rather in the form of decorative beads.
1 See Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, pp. 3,4:
the intaglio was found at Palaikastro.
2 I owe the drawing from which this figure
was reproduced to the kindness of Prof.
Bosanquet and of the Committee of the
British School at Athens.
:i See Rodenwaldt, Tiryns,-\\, p. i25seqq.,
Fig. 55, PL XIII, and p. 126, n. 2.
4 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 174, Figs. 253- 5.
5 A single example was found in the
Cemetery of Phaestos (L. Savignoni, Mon.
Ant., xiv, p. 625, Fig. 97 a, b. But none
were found in the tombs of Knossos of L. M.
II or early L. M. Ill date.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
steatite
rhyton
also gold
plated
metal hoop of which has worn a deep groove in the inner side of its
Relief of axial perforation. The coating- of the black steatite intaglio with precious
metal had at the time when I obtained it, in 1894, suggested the idea
that the black steatite vessels with reliefs had been originally embellished
in a like manner, and that this practice in fact supplied the antecedent
stage to the later technique illustrated by the Vapheio Cups.1 A discovery
made on the same site during the excavations of the British School has
since afforded a remarkable confirmation of this view. A fraement
of a black steatite ' rhyton ' was
—" ') there found presenting in relief
part of the figure of a charging
boar in the finest naturalistic style
of the present Period (Fig. 496)2,
and with a piece of the original
gold plating attached to it. It
will be shown that, from the
Second Middle Minoan Period
onwards, boars and boar-hunts
were a familiar theme of Minoan
Art. The more detailed repre-
sentation of the sport on the
Tirynthian fresco 3 doubtless had
its forerunners on Cretan soil.
These ' flattened cylinders '
seem to have been specially in
vogue during the present Period,
though they were still in use in
the earlier part of the Late
Minoan Acre. The o-old beads
Fig. 496. Fragment of Steatite Rhyton
found with Gold Plate attaching to it.
of this form from the Third Shaft Grave at Mycenae 4 with the episodes
of single combat, and of the lion-hunt in a highly advanced sensational style,
may be referred like other elements of that tomb to L. M. I. Towards the
close of that Period, however, this type of intaglio shows a tendency to die
out-' and survives later rather in the form of decorative beads.
1 See Myc. Tree and Pillar Cult, pp. 3,4:
the intaglio was found at Palaikastro.
2 I owe the drawing from which this figure
was reproduced to the kindness of Prof.
Bosanquet and of the Committee of the
British School at Athens.
:i See Rodenwaldt, Tiryns,-\\, p. i25seqq.,
Fig. 55, PL XIII, and p. 126, n. 2.
4 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 174, Figs. 253- 5.
5 A single example was found in the
Cemetery of Phaestos (L. Savignoni, Mon.
Ant., xiv, p. 625, Fig. 97 a, b. But none
were found in the tombs of Knossos of L. M.
II or early L. M. Ill date.