DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0069
446 'HOUSE OF FRESCOES': RECONSTITUTED DESIGNS
Recon-
stitution
of the
designs.
Wild
natural
scenes.
ments, and the process of extraction and removal, mainly carried out by
four expert workmen specially trained in this work,1 took over five weeks.
For the grouping together and, where possible, actually joining the
related pieces of the original fresco panels as well as for the necessary
development of the designs, the services of Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, who
kindly came over from Athens to assist me, were, as on former occasions,
of inestimable value. The piecing together, indeed, which exercised our
united ingenuity for a great part of another Season, might in some respects
be compared with a 'jig-saw' puzzle on a large scale. That such a measure
of success should finally have been achieved as to restore the essential parts
of four panels, as well as to establish a series of minor reconstructions, was
no doubt due to the fact that the fresco fragments had belonged to the
decoration of one or two rooms of limited dimensions. The size of the largest
room (D) of the ground floor of the house was not more than 4-70 metres
by 2*80. The fragments formed part of a uniform system of dado bands,
friezes, and corresponding cornices originally executed at the same time, in
the same style, and by the same hands. No such results could be hoped
from the great fresco heaps of the North-West Palace borders taken from
a much larger area and representing various periods and styles as well as
different structural contexts. In the case of the 'Miniature Frescoes', on
the other hand, which were uniform in style, and found in the basements of
what seems to have been a sanctuary of very limited dimensions, something
similar was achieved.
The fragments from the ' House of the Frescoes', forming, as they do,
a related series from a single small dwelling, bear a more or less uniform
character, reflecting the individual taste of the owner in decorating his walls.
Their scope, for this reason, is limited, and many contemporary branches of
painted plaster decoration and various classes of subjects were not included
in his selection. There are no reliefs, no large designs, apparently, such as
would have covered the whole wall, and religious themes are avoided, nor
are there even traces of the bull-grappling or other feats so dear to the
Minoan artists. Scenes of the toilette are also wantine, and the choice
of borders is itself confined to plain horizontal bands and lines in various
colours.
The subject chosen for illustration may best be described as wild
nature. Man is excluded, but animal forms such as monkeys and blue
birds appear here and there, amidst a wilderness of grotesque rocks over-
1 Georgios Lasithiotis, the discoverer of the first fragment of the ' inscribed ' libation table
from the Psychro Cave.
Recon-
stitution
of the
designs.
Wild
natural
scenes.
ments, and the process of extraction and removal, mainly carried out by
four expert workmen specially trained in this work,1 took over five weeks.
For the grouping together and, where possible, actually joining the
related pieces of the original fresco panels as well as for the necessary
development of the designs, the services of Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, who
kindly came over from Athens to assist me, were, as on former occasions,
of inestimable value. The piecing together, indeed, which exercised our
united ingenuity for a great part of another Season, might in some respects
be compared with a 'jig-saw' puzzle on a large scale. That such a measure
of success should finally have been achieved as to restore the essential parts
of four panels, as well as to establish a series of minor reconstructions, was
no doubt due to the fact that the fresco fragments had belonged to the
decoration of one or two rooms of limited dimensions. The size of the largest
room (D) of the ground floor of the house was not more than 4-70 metres
by 2*80. The fragments formed part of a uniform system of dado bands,
friezes, and corresponding cornices originally executed at the same time, in
the same style, and by the same hands. No such results could be hoped
from the great fresco heaps of the North-West Palace borders taken from
a much larger area and representing various periods and styles as well as
different structural contexts. In the case of the 'Miniature Frescoes', on
the other hand, which were uniform in style, and found in the basements of
what seems to have been a sanctuary of very limited dimensions, something
similar was achieved.
The fragments from the ' House of the Frescoes', forming, as they do,
a related series from a single small dwelling, bear a more or less uniform
character, reflecting the individual taste of the owner in decorating his walls.
Their scope, for this reason, is limited, and many contemporary branches of
painted plaster decoration and various classes of subjects were not included
in his selection. There are no reliefs, no large designs, apparently, such as
would have covered the whole wall, and religious themes are avoided, nor
are there even traces of the bull-grappling or other feats so dear to the
Minoan artists. Scenes of the toilette are also wantine, and the choice
of borders is itself confined to plain horizontal bands and lines in various
colours.
The subject chosen for illustration may best be described as wild
nature. Man is excluded, but animal forms such as monkeys and blue
birds appear here and there, amidst a wilderness of grotesque rocks over-
1 Georgios Lasithiotis, the discoverer of the first fragment of the ' inscribed ' libation table
from the Psychro Cave.