DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0074
72 ARTHUR EVANS
position of a Minoan picture of the Under-world executed some eleven centuries
earlier, and, from the elements at our disposal, may even form a general idea
of the colour scheme.
The evident dependence of the intaglio design on a pictorial model,
coupled with the singular correspondence shown in the fashion of the dress
as well as the pose and gestures of the figures with those of the contemporary
class of ' Miniature Frescoes,' so well illustrated at Knossos, suggested to me
the desirability of an attempt to translate back the composition before us
into its original form and colouring as a painted panel. Happily in Monsieur
E. Gillieron, fils, I had at hand not only a competent artist, but one whose
admirable studies of Minoan Art in all its branches had thoroughly imbued
him with its spirit. Monsieur Gillieron, to whom the enlarged copy of
the original subject given in Fig. 55 is also due, executed under my super-
intendence the coloured drawing reproduced in Plate V., to the scale and
quite in the style of the Miniature Fresco of Knossos that shows the assemblage
on the Grand Stand by the Pillar Temple of the Goddess and of the fellow-
composition depicting the ' Grove and Sacred Dance.'
To those steeped in the knowledge of the frescoes the colours to a great
extent impose themselves. The male and female figures are distinguished,
according to the unvarying convention, by Venetian red and white, and
saffron yellow continually recurs in their dress. For the background the
warm terra-cotta and the/ kyanos ' blue were both used on occasion for this
purpose in the early part of the Late Minoan Age. This blue, as employed in
the upper spaces, gives the best suggestion of the luminous ether that
surrounds the abode of the Blessed.
Chronological Place of ' Nestor's Ring.'
The princely rank of the original owner of the ring may be inferred from
the very character of the design. Its whole spirit is courtly and palatial.
At the same time not only the form of the signet, originally designed as a
pendant,89 but every detail that it-is possible to trace is of its essence purely
Minoan. "Whether the intaglio was imported from Crete or executed by a
Cretan artist working for a princely conqueror at Pylos itself, it must be
regarded as of pure Minoan workmanship. It belongs indeed to the same
category as the pottery and other relics found in the large tholos tomb itself and
in the other two that stood beside it, and must be referred to the same epoch.
The approximate place of the ring in the Minoan series is, in fact, indicated by
more than one detail as well as by the striking parallelism of the designs with
those of the Miniature Frescoes belonging to the earliest Late Minoan phase.
The short skirts of most of the female figures have already been noted as a
feature of the fashions of that time. The ' sacral ivy' spray, about the
identification of which there can be little doubt, is another characteristic of
L.M. I. decoration, and the couchant lion finds its nearest comparison on a
gem from the Vapheio tomb, the last ceramic element of which must be assigned
to the closing phase of that Period.
88 See above, pp. 47, 48.
position of a Minoan picture of the Under-world executed some eleven centuries
earlier, and, from the elements at our disposal, may even form a general idea
of the colour scheme.
The evident dependence of the intaglio design on a pictorial model,
coupled with the singular correspondence shown in the fashion of the dress
as well as the pose and gestures of the figures with those of the contemporary
class of ' Miniature Frescoes,' so well illustrated at Knossos, suggested to me
the desirability of an attempt to translate back the composition before us
into its original form and colouring as a painted panel. Happily in Monsieur
E. Gillieron, fils, I had at hand not only a competent artist, but one whose
admirable studies of Minoan Art in all its branches had thoroughly imbued
him with its spirit. Monsieur Gillieron, to whom the enlarged copy of
the original subject given in Fig. 55 is also due, executed under my super-
intendence the coloured drawing reproduced in Plate V., to the scale and
quite in the style of the Miniature Fresco of Knossos that shows the assemblage
on the Grand Stand by the Pillar Temple of the Goddess and of the fellow-
composition depicting the ' Grove and Sacred Dance.'
To those steeped in the knowledge of the frescoes the colours to a great
extent impose themselves. The male and female figures are distinguished,
according to the unvarying convention, by Venetian red and white, and
saffron yellow continually recurs in their dress. For the background the
warm terra-cotta and the/ kyanos ' blue were both used on occasion for this
purpose in the early part of the Late Minoan Age. This blue, as employed in
the upper spaces, gives the best suggestion of the luminous ether that
surrounds the abode of the Blessed.
Chronological Place of ' Nestor's Ring.'
The princely rank of the original owner of the ring may be inferred from
the very character of the design. Its whole spirit is courtly and palatial.
At the same time not only the form of the signet, originally designed as a
pendant,89 but every detail that it-is possible to trace is of its essence purely
Minoan. "Whether the intaglio was imported from Crete or executed by a
Cretan artist working for a princely conqueror at Pylos itself, it must be
regarded as of pure Minoan workmanship. It belongs indeed to the same
category as the pottery and other relics found in the large tholos tomb itself and
in the other two that stood beside it, and must be referred to the same epoch.
The approximate place of the ring in the Minoan series is, in fact, indicated by
more than one detail as well as by the striking parallelism of the designs with
those of the Miniature Frescoes belonging to the earliest Late Minoan phase.
The short skirts of most of the female figures have already been noted as a
feature of the fashions of that time. The ' sacral ivy' spray, about the
identification of which there can be little doubt, is another characteristic of
L.M. I. decoration, and the couchant lion finds its nearest comparison on a
gem from the Vapheio tomb, the last ceramic element of which must be assigned
to the closing phase of that Period.
88 See above, pp. 47, 48.