DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0760
7*4
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
The evidence now before us, supported, as we shall see, by other
recent discoveries, that figures like the flying Griffin of the dagger-blade,
Fig. 534, were already known in the Second Middle Minoan Period, con-
temporary with Twelfth Dynasty Egypt, is of capital importance in
demonstrating the indebtedness of Egypt to Crete in this matter. It shows
that this free representation of the gallop was already known to the Minoan
artists at a time when, as a glance at the reliefs of the Beni-Hasan Tombs
would alone be sufficient to demonstrate, their Egyptian contemporaries
proved themselves wholly unable to depict any rapid form of animal
Intro- movement. The beasts there depicted walk or amble and, even in the
Egypt10 attitude of cantering, their legs are never lifted from the ground. Very
from different is the action seen on the Eighteenth Dynasty Theban wall-
Crete. . . ...
paintings where the spirit of free movement, including the ' flying gallop ', has
fully taken hold of Egyptian art. In Minoan Crete, as we now know, the
liberating process had declared itself at least two centuries earlier.
The artistic device, by which the galloping animal is gracefully
elongated, was doubtless clue to the recurring need of adapting designs to
On somewhat narrow bands. Thus it was well suited to the blades or median
Aah-H ribs of swords and daggers, and is nowhere so finely represented as on those
hotep's Qf tne Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae, which must be looked on as imported
Dagsrer-
blade. Minoan works belonging to this epoch. A good example of this has been
already given in Fig. 534, showing a galloping Griffin executed in relief on
a contemporary Mycenae blade. So too, when later transported to Egypt,
1900-1901). M. Reinach suggests that the and of his followers in the hunting scene on
later vogue of the 'galop volant' in Persia and the bas-reliefs of his Palace. It would seem
China may eventually be linked up with its probable therefore that it was from an Assyrian
earlier Aegean home through Greco-Persian art, source that the motive was taken over by
on which it is already found in the fifth century Greco-Persian Art, and that its survival in
B. c. He admits the difficulty, however, of its Cyprus may supply the missing link,
non-appearance in Ionian Art. But a very late M. Reinach is of opinion that the appearance
Minoan example may be cited in the carved of this peculiar motive in Minoan Crete and
ivory draught-box from Enkomi (J5. M. Excava- certain parallel phenomena in Denmark and
tions from Cyprus, PI. I), where this motive is Central Europe may be ultimately connected
copiously illustrated, which serves as a link with its much earlier existence in Magdalenian
with the mainland Hittite Art, and is itself of art. But there is no hint of any such flowing
Syrian ivory. A lion springing on a gazelle, designs in the stiff, linear representations of
that appears on a Cypriote bronze bowl from animals in the earlier Aegean phases. I have
Nineveh (Layard, Monuments, S. 11, PI. 60; here suggested that it may have had an inde-
P. and C. 11, p. 743, Fig. 407) with his hind- pendent birth in Crete due to the effort to fit
legs extended, also reproduces the Minoan animal figures in rapid motion into narrow
motive. So do the horses of Assurbanipal bands such as the ribs of weapons.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
The evidence now before us, supported, as we shall see, by other
recent discoveries, that figures like the flying Griffin of the dagger-blade,
Fig. 534, were already known in the Second Middle Minoan Period, con-
temporary with Twelfth Dynasty Egypt, is of capital importance in
demonstrating the indebtedness of Egypt to Crete in this matter. It shows
that this free representation of the gallop was already known to the Minoan
artists at a time when, as a glance at the reliefs of the Beni-Hasan Tombs
would alone be sufficient to demonstrate, their Egyptian contemporaries
proved themselves wholly unable to depict any rapid form of animal
Intro- movement. The beasts there depicted walk or amble and, even in the
Egypt10 attitude of cantering, their legs are never lifted from the ground. Very
from different is the action seen on the Eighteenth Dynasty Theban wall-
Crete. . . ...
paintings where the spirit of free movement, including the ' flying gallop ', has
fully taken hold of Egyptian art. In Minoan Crete, as we now know, the
liberating process had declared itself at least two centuries earlier.
The artistic device, by which the galloping animal is gracefully
elongated, was doubtless clue to the recurring need of adapting designs to
On somewhat narrow bands. Thus it was well suited to the blades or median
Aah-H ribs of swords and daggers, and is nowhere so finely represented as on those
hotep's Qf tne Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae, which must be looked on as imported
Dagsrer-
blade. Minoan works belonging to this epoch. A good example of this has been
already given in Fig. 534, showing a galloping Griffin executed in relief on
a contemporary Mycenae blade. So too, when later transported to Egypt,
1900-1901). M. Reinach suggests that the and of his followers in the hunting scene on
later vogue of the 'galop volant' in Persia and the bas-reliefs of his Palace. It would seem
China may eventually be linked up with its probable therefore that it was from an Assyrian
earlier Aegean home through Greco-Persian art, source that the motive was taken over by
on which it is already found in the fifth century Greco-Persian Art, and that its survival in
B. c. He admits the difficulty, however, of its Cyprus may supply the missing link,
non-appearance in Ionian Art. But a very late M. Reinach is of opinion that the appearance
Minoan example may be cited in the carved of this peculiar motive in Minoan Crete and
ivory draught-box from Enkomi (J5. M. Excava- certain parallel phenomena in Denmark and
tions from Cyprus, PI. I), where this motive is Central Europe may be ultimately connected
copiously illustrated, which serves as a link with its much earlier existence in Magdalenian
with the mainland Hittite Art, and is itself of art. But there is no hint of any such flowing
Syrian ivory. A lion springing on a gazelle, designs in the stiff, linear representations of
that appears on a Cypriote bronze bowl from animals in the earlier Aegean phases. I have
Nineveh (Layard, Monuments, S. 11, PI. 60; here suggested that it may have had an inde-
P. and C. 11, p. 743, Fig. 407) with his hind- pendent birth in Crete due to the effort to fit
legs extended, also reproduces the Minoan animal figures in rapid motion into narrow
motive. So do the horses of Assurbanipal bands such as the ribs of weapons.