DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0089
ROSETTE BANDS AT KNOSSOS AND MYCENAE 73
Sawn, finish
on back
Rubbed finish,
on front
and lop
*7
the great seismic overthrow towards the close of M. M. 111 b. Finally, a well-
preserved band of half-rosettes, consisting of
the same close-grained greenish grey lime-
stone, reproduced in Fig. 51, was found in
relation to what we knew to have been another
entrance to the Palace near its North-West
corner.1 It is not quite certain whether
this represents a surviving feature of the
Middle Palace or a part of the building, as
restored, still within the lower limits of the
M. M. Ill Period, after the great catastrophe,
but in either case its relatively early date is
unquestionable. It preserves the older style
of decoration, practically unchanged, down to
its minutest details.
Can it be doubted that the decorative
bands from the ' Treasury of Atreus ', alike in
style as well as in details of the designs, and
practically of the same material, are the work
of Minoan sculptors of the same great age ?
To take a crucial example, the fragment
of a frieze from the facade of this tomb given
in Fig. 50 2 not only shows the same elongated
half-rosettes with twelve double petals, but ' tongues ' from which these spring
present the similar cross-bars as those of Fig. 51 from Knossos. The ' Elgin '
fragment, Fig. 52, supplies another good comparative example. The
decoration of the central space
consists in the same way of
linked spirals.
The preservation of these
fragments is by no means so fresh
as that from the Knossian Palace,
but an examination of the whole
series shows that the style of the
originals must have been very
much on a par with that of the Cretan examples. The ' Atreus' facade, in
short, is a M. M. Ill work and may well, like the decorative bands of the
South Propylaeum at Knossos, and, in all probability, of the South-West
1 lb., Pt. II, pp. 590-4, and Figs. 3G8, 370. 2 Perrot, Hist, de PArt, &c, vi, p. 628, Fig. 277.
Fig. 40. Section of Rosette.
* ■ 73 x 93 V
Fig. 50. Part of Frieze from 'Atrkus' Tomh.
Sawn, finish
on back
Rubbed finish,
on front
and lop
*7
the great seismic overthrow towards the close of M. M. 111 b. Finally, a well-
preserved band of half-rosettes, consisting of
the same close-grained greenish grey lime-
stone, reproduced in Fig. 51, was found in
relation to what we knew to have been another
entrance to the Palace near its North-West
corner.1 It is not quite certain whether
this represents a surviving feature of the
Middle Palace or a part of the building, as
restored, still within the lower limits of the
M. M. Ill Period, after the great catastrophe,
but in either case its relatively early date is
unquestionable. It preserves the older style
of decoration, practically unchanged, down to
its minutest details.
Can it be doubted that the decorative
bands from the ' Treasury of Atreus ', alike in
style as well as in details of the designs, and
practically of the same material, are the work
of Minoan sculptors of the same great age ?
To take a crucial example, the fragment
of a frieze from the facade of this tomb given
in Fig. 50 2 not only shows the same elongated
half-rosettes with twelve double petals, but ' tongues ' from which these spring
present the similar cross-bars as those of Fig. 51 from Knossos. The ' Elgin '
fragment, Fig. 52, supplies another good comparative example. The
decoration of the central space
consists in the same way of
linked spirals.
The preservation of these
fragments is by no means so fresh
as that from the Knossian Palace,
but an examination of the whole
series shows that the style of the
originals must have been very
much on a par with that of the Cretan examples. The ' Atreus' facade, in
short, is a M. M. Ill work and may well, like the decorative bands of the
South Propylaeum at Knossos, and, in all probability, of the South-West
1 lb., Pt. II, pp. 590-4, and Figs. 3G8, 370. 2 Perrot, Hist, de PArt, &c, vi, p. 628, Fig. 277.
Fig. 40. Section of Rosette.
* ■ 73 x 93 V
Fig. 50. Part of Frieze from 'Atrkus' Tomh.