DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0731
M. M. Ill: SEAL TYPES AND GREATER ART 685
Amongst various sealings from the Repository presenting plant and Homed
animal designs in a simple natural style shown in Fig. 518, a depicts another sheep-
figure of the same horned sheep in a standing position, without accessories.
The clay impression from which this was copied is somewhat blurred, but it
leads us to a fuller contemporary portrayal of the same animal on a cornelian
bead-seal of the 'flattened cylinder' shape obtained by me on the site of
Lyktos, Fig. 503, a, and to the similar type (6), on a chalcedony lentoid of the
early flat-edged form 1 from Lasithi, in which, however, the animal stands on
a stepped base as if forming part of an architectural frieze, and with a cornice
and panelling above. The hatched decoration of this panelling corresponds
in fact with those of the class of conventional facades referred to above,
fragmentary impressions of which, moreover, occurred among the clay
sealings of the Repository Hoard.2 To the importance of these architectonic
features we shall have occasion to return.
On the red cornelian amygdaloid gem, Fig. 503, c, which also seems to
be of relatively early fabric, the animal is seen in its wild state, lassoed by the
hunter while engaged in suckling its young. The beast is here magnified,
as is usual in such representations, and the Minoan artist had no more
difficulty in depicting the ewe with long horns than he had with regard to
the she-coat of the faience relief illustrated above. The animal itself is also
of constant recurrence on Late Minoan intaglios, often shown in groups.
The wild sheep depicted on these intaglios may be either the Armenian
breed or the Cypriote variety. As a further illustration of its characteristic
appearance the Late Minoan lentoid, d, is here inserted.
The manner in which this animal is shown on the early lentoid, Architec-
Fig. 503, b, as forming part of the frieze of an architectural facade with
a stepped base below, is of special interest. It stands in connexion with
other similar phenomena illustrating the extent to which the Minoan gem-
engraver's repertory was drawn from larger works of art, often, no doubt,
through intermediary models supplied by the reliefs on vases of steatite or
faience or from 1 pyxides' of ivory. This figure is clearly taken from
a frieze in which other animals are included, whether or not of the same
species. A later parallel is indeed supplied by the ivory casket or ' pyxis '
from the beehive tomb of Menidi, the circumference of which is divided into
two processional rows of horned sheep.y
1 The shape of the stone (once in my posses- in the hoard, including those shown in Fig. 411,
sion) resembles that shown in Fig. 493, a, above, a, b, above.
presenting a conventional facade. This type of 3 Lolling, Das Kuppelgrab von Menidiy
lentoid goes back, as we have seen, to M. M. II. PI. VIII ; Perrot Nis/oirc, vi, La Greceprimi-
2 Several fragments of such types were found tive, p. 827, Fig. 406.
tonic set-
ting;.
Amongst various sealings from the Repository presenting plant and Homed
animal designs in a simple natural style shown in Fig. 518, a depicts another sheep-
figure of the same horned sheep in a standing position, without accessories.
The clay impression from which this was copied is somewhat blurred, but it
leads us to a fuller contemporary portrayal of the same animal on a cornelian
bead-seal of the 'flattened cylinder' shape obtained by me on the site of
Lyktos, Fig. 503, a, and to the similar type (6), on a chalcedony lentoid of the
early flat-edged form 1 from Lasithi, in which, however, the animal stands on
a stepped base as if forming part of an architectural frieze, and with a cornice
and panelling above. The hatched decoration of this panelling corresponds
in fact with those of the class of conventional facades referred to above,
fragmentary impressions of which, moreover, occurred among the clay
sealings of the Repository Hoard.2 To the importance of these architectonic
features we shall have occasion to return.
On the red cornelian amygdaloid gem, Fig. 503, c, which also seems to
be of relatively early fabric, the animal is seen in its wild state, lassoed by the
hunter while engaged in suckling its young. The beast is here magnified,
as is usual in such representations, and the Minoan artist had no more
difficulty in depicting the ewe with long horns than he had with regard to
the she-coat of the faience relief illustrated above. The animal itself is also
of constant recurrence on Late Minoan intaglios, often shown in groups.
The wild sheep depicted on these intaglios may be either the Armenian
breed or the Cypriote variety. As a further illustration of its characteristic
appearance the Late Minoan lentoid, d, is here inserted.
The manner in which this animal is shown on the early lentoid, Architec-
Fig. 503, b, as forming part of the frieze of an architectural facade with
a stepped base below, is of special interest. It stands in connexion with
other similar phenomena illustrating the extent to which the Minoan gem-
engraver's repertory was drawn from larger works of art, often, no doubt,
through intermediary models supplied by the reliefs on vases of steatite or
faience or from 1 pyxides' of ivory. This figure is clearly taken from
a frieze in which other animals are included, whether or not of the same
species. A later parallel is indeed supplied by the ivory casket or ' pyxis '
from the beehive tomb of Menidi, the circumference of which is divided into
two processional rows of horned sheep.y
1 The shape of the stone (once in my posses- in the hoard, including those shown in Fig. 411,
sion) resembles that shown in Fig. 493, a, above, a, b, above.
presenting a conventional facade. This type of 3 Lolling, Das Kuppelgrab von Menidiy
lentoid goes back, as we have seen, to M. M. II. PI. VIII ; Perrot Nis/oirc, vi, La Greceprimi-
2 Several fragments of such types were found tive, p. 827, Fig. 406.
tonic set-
ting;.