Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 3): The great transitional age in the northern and eastern sections of the Palace (London, 1930)

THE TEMPLE AND GRAND STANDS

47

The artist, or rather artists, who painted the original panels were them-
selves guided in their general arrangement by incised lines set out in the
plaster. A remarkable feature of these lines is that they were produced by
means of fine strings or twisted threads strung in parallel lines, the twisted

Its tech-
nique.

Fig. 28. Restored View of Grand Stand and Spectators to left of Shrine.

texture of which is clearly impressed on the plaster surface. The border,
the outlines of the shrine, and the divisions of the theatre are clearly marked
in this way. The broad colouring of the shrine, with its alternating areas
of red, black, blue, and yellow, was then rapidly filled in, and also the broad
washes of red background to indicate the crowds of men. The details were
finally added, evidently with a fine brush.1

The whole composition clearly centres round the little Temple, which,
though here seen in fuller detail,belongs to the typical Minoan and Mycenaean
class. On either side are the terraces and tiers with curiously constructed an<i Spec-
supporting pillars of a kind of Grand Stand or Theatre, crowded with
spectators of both sexes.

The
'Grand
Stand'

1 These technical details are from a note kindly supplied by Mr. Noel Heaton.