DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0079
48
GREAT CROWDS OF SPECTATORS
Artistic
short-
hand in
delinea-
tion of
figures.
Great
numbers.
The men.
In front again of the central shrine and adjoining wings of the Grand
Stand is a rectangular Court enclosed by low walls that divide it from
similar enclosures on either side. These spaces, like the tiers behind, are
entirely filled with a dense crowd of men and women. Very remarkable is
the artistic shorthand here brought into play for the rapid delineation of
these multitudinous figures. The original ivory-white background and the
broad zones of Venetian red washed on it supplied the conventional colour
for the two sexes, alternating in groups ; the individual details being then
summarily sketched in. It has already been computed that, in the parts of
the frieze that it has been possible to restore above and in front of the central
shrine and in the first section only of the stands on either side, the number of
persons amounted to about six hundred. But parts evidently belong to further
panels, perhaps centring round other architectural features, and we can have
the actual evidence of only a fraction of the concourse of people gathered from
all parts of ' broad Knossos ' to look on at the great religious spectacles. In
the ' Dance ' fresco, when complete, there would have been some 1,400 figures.
What an earnest this of the Homeric tradition of the great ' City'!'
What a still living witness to the ' countless' population of Minoan Crete,
here chiefly concentrated!
From the fact that the proportions of these vary in the groups in
different parts of the scenes and contain variations in style, we may even
infer that, owing to the rapid execution necessary in the fresco process and the
complexity of detail, more than one artist had collaborated on a single panel.
The men, of whom only the busts are shown with white collars round
their necks, have curly hair, the locks of which fall down from their temples
in front of the ears—like those of the women, and at times, like the latter,
they wear a kind of band or diadem.2 The male heads of the upper row,
however—as is shown by the regularly smaller scale on which they are drawn
—are probably, like the smaller figures on the companion fresco, intended to
represent those of young boys, and these display the peculiar feature of
top-knots with a curl in both directions. They are pointing excitedly at
some performance which is evidently being enacted in the arena below.
What was the character of the spectacle that thus thrilled the lookers-
on ? Unfortunately the whole of the lower field of the design on which this
was certainly set forth, like the ritual dance on the companion fresco, is in
1 Od. xix. 173-4, 178. Cf. P. of M., ii, artists have at times inserted the outlines
Pt. II, pp. 564, 566. of female heads and coiffure on the red
2 It would appear, however, that in the patches,
rapid execution of this work the artist or
GREAT CROWDS OF SPECTATORS
Artistic
short-
hand in
delinea-
tion of
figures.
Great
numbers.
The men.
In front again of the central shrine and adjoining wings of the Grand
Stand is a rectangular Court enclosed by low walls that divide it from
similar enclosures on either side. These spaces, like the tiers behind, are
entirely filled with a dense crowd of men and women. Very remarkable is
the artistic shorthand here brought into play for the rapid delineation of
these multitudinous figures. The original ivory-white background and the
broad zones of Venetian red washed on it supplied the conventional colour
for the two sexes, alternating in groups ; the individual details being then
summarily sketched in. It has already been computed that, in the parts of
the frieze that it has been possible to restore above and in front of the central
shrine and in the first section only of the stands on either side, the number of
persons amounted to about six hundred. But parts evidently belong to further
panels, perhaps centring round other architectural features, and we can have
the actual evidence of only a fraction of the concourse of people gathered from
all parts of ' broad Knossos ' to look on at the great religious spectacles. In
the ' Dance ' fresco, when complete, there would have been some 1,400 figures.
What an earnest this of the Homeric tradition of the great ' City'!'
What a still living witness to the ' countless' population of Minoan Crete,
here chiefly concentrated!
From the fact that the proportions of these vary in the groups in
different parts of the scenes and contain variations in style, we may even
infer that, owing to the rapid execution necessary in the fresco process and the
complexity of detail, more than one artist had collaborated on a single panel.
The men, of whom only the busts are shown with white collars round
their necks, have curly hair, the locks of which fall down from their temples
in front of the ears—like those of the women, and at times, like the latter,
they wear a kind of band or diadem.2 The male heads of the upper row,
however—as is shown by the regularly smaller scale on which they are drawn
—are probably, like the smaller figures on the companion fresco, intended to
represent those of young boys, and these display the peculiar feature of
top-knots with a curl in both directions. They are pointing excitedly at
some performance which is evidently being enacted in the arena below.
What was the character of the spectacle that thus thrilled the lookers-
on ? Unfortunately the whole of the lower field of the design on which this
was certainly set forth, like the ritual dance on the companion fresco, is in
1 Od. xix. 173-4, 178. Cf. P. of M., ii, artists have at times inserted the outlines
Pt. II, pp. 564, 566. of female heads and coiffure on the red
2 It would appear, however, that in the patches,
rapid execution of this work the artist or