DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0095
A CHARGING BULL
79
But when we come to compare this with the head of the charging bull,
executed at about half the scale of the other, on the Elgin fragment, it is
impossible not to be struck with the similarity both in position and detail.
Here, too, we see the ear cocked forward in the same way and the same
Fig. 56. Charging Bull completed from Relief on Gypsum Slab found near
Entrance of ' Atreus ' Tomb, Mycenae.
protuding tongue, while the remains of the olive-tree in the background, such
as we know to have accompanied the Knossian reliefs, completes the resem-
blance. The relationship between the Mycenae example and that from the
N. Entrance Portico at Knossos is, in fact, greater than any afforded by
the Vapheio types. The whole figure of the charging bull as developed from
the Elgin fraement, drawn for me by Monsieur Gillieron, fils, in Fig-. 56
supplies, indeed, a good scheme of restoration for its Cretan prototype.
On the other hand, the stationary figure of a bull, of which we have
the remains on the other Elgin slab (Fig. 57), might well represent a version
of the scene on the Vapheio Cup where the bull is held in dalliance by the
decoy cow in preparation for the final scene of lassoing.
The near comparison with the Knossian painted frieze established in the
case of the former fragment fits in in a remarkable way with a recent discovery
regarding the material of the slabs themselves. They had always been
described as of limestone, but an observation made by Mr. E. J. I;orsdyke in
connexion with the new British Museum Sculpture Catalogue led to a chemical
examination proving that they were in each case of gypsum, indistinguishable
from that so much used in the Palace construction of Knossos, and of
79
But when we come to compare this with the head of the charging bull,
executed at about half the scale of the other, on the Elgin fragment, it is
impossible not to be struck with the similarity both in position and detail.
Here, too, we see the ear cocked forward in the same way and the same
Fig. 56. Charging Bull completed from Relief on Gypsum Slab found near
Entrance of ' Atreus ' Tomb, Mycenae.
protuding tongue, while the remains of the olive-tree in the background, such
as we know to have accompanied the Knossian reliefs, completes the resem-
blance. The relationship between the Mycenae example and that from the
N. Entrance Portico at Knossos is, in fact, greater than any afforded by
the Vapheio types. The whole figure of the charging bull as developed from
the Elgin fraement, drawn for me by Monsieur Gillieron, fils, in Fig-. 56
supplies, indeed, a good scheme of restoration for its Cretan prototype.
On the other hand, the stationary figure of a bull, of which we have
the remains on the other Elgin slab (Fig. 57), might well represent a version
of the scene on the Vapheio Cup where the bull is held in dalliance by the
decoy cow in preparation for the final scene of lassoing.
The near comparison with the Knossian painted frieze established in the
case of the former fragment fits in in a remarkable way with a recent discovery
regarding the material of the slabs themselves. They had always been
described as of limestone, but an observation made by Mr. E. J. I;orsdyke in
connexion with the new British Museum Sculpture Catalogue led to a chemical
examination proving that they were in each case of gypsum, indistinguishable
from that so much used in the Palace construction of Knossos, and of