DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0073
INFERRED PAINTED PLASTER FINISH
57
plaques from the Shaft Graves themselves. These decorative borders betray
once more the hand of a goldsmith or seal-engraver, whose services had
been enlisted for work on the larger material.
This stela, then, is from the hands of a Cretan-trained craftsman,
working at Mycenae. There are indeed clear indications that the sculptured
design was finished in a typically Minoan manner; by the application, that is,
of painted plaster, so that certain crudities in the stone-cutting would have
been toned down.1 We may further infer that, as in the case of the low
reliefs of painted stucco at Knossos, the flat background of the scenes
depicted on the stela was also varied with coloured details such as flowers
and foliage.
In view of the all-pervading Minoan taste for brilliant colouring, it
is difficult to withhold the conclusion that the reliefs on the stelae—like
the plaster reliefs of Knossos—showed a painted surface, in this case
effected by means of a comparatively thin stucco coating. Where, as in
the case of a series of stelae, there were no reliefs, painted decoration was
the more necessary.2 A very late example found in a Chamber Tomb at
Mycenae3 has a flat plaster surface with coloured panels, presenting
figured designs curiously suggestive of the later frescoes of Tiryns. This
was indeed a palimpsest on an earlier surface presenting incised wheels and
circles, but the evidence it affords in favour of the original polychromy of
the stela is still valid.
The panelled arrangement of the stelae and the division of the field
into registers is itself a characteristic of Minoan fresco painting. There
does not seem sufficient reason to invoke the influence of matt-painted
pottery, Cycladic or Helladic.4 Such scenes of warriors or huntsmen driving
1 W. Reichel (Die myketdschtn Grabsielen,
p. 31), who had no knowledge of the Cretan
comparisons, already remarked on this stela :
' Die Giite der Zeichnung bildet jetzt einen
auffallenden Contrast zu der VernachlSssigung
der Oberflache des Steines. Dieser Mangel
schwindet aber wenn wir uns den schlechten
Kalkstein mit einer feinen bemalten Stuck-
schichte iiberzogen denken, unter der seine
Unebenheiten verschwanden,' &c.
2 Dr. Karo (op. a'/., p. 128) objects to the
view that the flat-faced stelae were painted over
on the ground that their surface was left
rough (' nach der ungeglatteten Oberflache des
Steins'). But this would rather seem an
argument in favour of a plaster wash. The
absence of traces of stucco on the stelae,
which he also urges, is not in itself conclusive.
3 Tsuntas, 'Apx- E<£., 1896, p. 1 seqq., and
Plates 1 and 2.
4 Mr. W. A. Heurtley, B. S. A., xxv, pp.
140, 141, compares the panels of the stelae
with those seen on certain Middle Helladic
amphoras, such as one from the Fourth Shaft
Grave, with similar panels or registers. But
the panels of Minoan wall-paintings supply a
more obvious source. These scenes of war-
riors or huntsmen in chariots, repeated on
Minoan signet types, were doubtless also
executed in wall-paintings.
57
plaques from the Shaft Graves themselves. These decorative borders betray
once more the hand of a goldsmith or seal-engraver, whose services had
been enlisted for work on the larger material.
This stela, then, is from the hands of a Cretan-trained craftsman,
working at Mycenae. There are indeed clear indications that the sculptured
design was finished in a typically Minoan manner; by the application, that is,
of painted plaster, so that certain crudities in the stone-cutting would have
been toned down.1 We may further infer that, as in the case of the low
reliefs of painted stucco at Knossos, the flat background of the scenes
depicted on the stela was also varied with coloured details such as flowers
and foliage.
In view of the all-pervading Minoan taste for brilliant colouring, it
is difficult to withhold the conclusion that the reliefs on the stelae—like
the plaster reliefs of Knossos—showed a painted surface, in this case
effected by means of a comparatively thin stucco coating. Where, as in
the case of a series of stelae, there were no reliefs, painted decoration was
the more necessary.2 A very late example found in a Chamber Tomb at
Mycenae3 has a flat plaster surface with coloured panels, presenting
figured designs curiously suggestive of the later frescoes of Tiryns. This
was indeed a palimpsest on an earlier surface presenting incised wheels and
circles, but the evidence it affords in favour of the original polychromy of
the stela is still valid.
The panelled arrangement of the stelae and the division of the field
into registers is itself a characteristic of Minoan fresco painting. There
does not seem sufficient reason to invoke the influence of matt-painted
pottery, Cycladic or Helladic.4 Such scenes of warriors or huntsmen driving
1 W. Reichel (Die myketdschtn Grabsielen,
p. 31), who had no knowledge of the Cretan
comparisons, already remarked on this stela :
' Die Giite der Zeichnung bildet jetzt einen
auffallenden Contrast zu der VernachlSssigung
der Oberflache des Steines. Dieser Mangel
schwindet aber wenn wir uns den schlechten
Kalkstein mit einer feinen bemalten Stuck-
schichte iiberzogen denken, unter der seine
Unebenheiten verschwanden,' &c.
2 Dr. Karo (op. a'/., p. 128) objects to the
view that the flat-faced stelae were painted over
on the ground that their surface was left
rough (' nach der ungeglatteten Oberflache des
Steins'). But this would rather seem an
argument in favour of a plaster wash. The
absence of traces of stucco on the stelae,
which he also urges, is not in itself conclusive.
3 Tsuntas, 'Apx- E<£., 1896, p. 1 seqq., and
Plates 1 and 2.
4 Mr. W. A. Heurtley, B. S. A., xxv, pp.
140, 141, compares the panels of the stelae
with those seen on certain Middle Helladic
amphoras, such as one from the Fourth Shaft
Grave, with similar panels or registers. But
the panels of Minoan wall-paintings supply a
more obvious source. These scenes of war-
riors or huntsmen in chariots, repeated on
Minoan signet types, were doubtless also
executed in wall-paintings.