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)

I 73. Miniature Painting on Crystal : ' Painting' in Metal-work—
Engrailed Designs on the Blades of Weapons.

Similar Subjects of Wall-paintings and small reliefs; Other examples
of painting on the back of Crystal—lens of bull's eye and pommel of dagger ;
Painted Crystal plaque from Room of the Throne, presenting bull-catching
scene—Microscopic work ; Driven bull barred by rope ; Locks visible of leaping
Cow-boy; Perfection of Miniaturists' Art; 'Painting in Metals'—Minoan
intarsia work; M. M. II dagger from Lasithi; The Mycenae daggers—
Egyptian adaptations ; ' Nile pieces' on dagger-blade—description of technique;
Hunting-leopards or Chitas; Egyptian Caffre cats—trained to catch ducks;
Indigenous Cretan versions—pheasants for water-fowl; Influence of Nile
scenes on Minoan and Mycenaean Ceramic Art; Also frequent on intaglios;
Duality of scenes on dagger-blade—other examples; Also division into three,
as on Vapheio Cups ; Dividing up of designs reflects separate panels of fresco
technique; Lion-hunt on Mycenae dagger; Successive stages in execution;
Restoration of dagger—duality of designs, again marked; An Epic totich; .
Original design drawn by eyewitness of lion-hunts ; Lions in Classical Greece ;
Comparison with African scenes of lion-hunting in modern film (Simba) / Lion
bringing dovon Gazelle; Fragment of painted relief of lion from S.E. Palace
Angle; Intaglio types derived from painted reliefs; Type of hero stabbing
lion on Mycenae bead-seal; Copied by Third-Century Greek engraver—Canea
find; Minoanspersonally acquainted with lions in every aspect; Lion sacred
to Minoan Goddess; Vapheio dagger-blade with inlaid designs of swimmers;
Flying-fish on Vapheio blade compared with fresco ; Lilies on inlaid blade based
on fresco band—M. M. Ill parallels; Masterpieces of inlaid metal-work
recorded in Greek Epic—implied knowledge of Minoan originals; Yet the
Art itself extinct long before Achaean invasions.

It has been already noted1 that the pugilists seen in the Miniature similar
fresco from Tylissos find their counterparts in small reliefs on steatite vases of mlnia-
both from Knossos and Phaestos of the same approximate date. The frag;- tare

. ' -r , 11 ' i- • • , • paintings

mentary remains 01 bull-grappling scenes in painted stucco are in turn and small
reflected in such miniature representations on vases of soft stone, and these rellefs-
again find their parallels in repousse metal-work design, as seen, for instance,
on the Vapheio Cups. For our fuller knowledge of the siege scenes, of
which there exist only imperfect records in frescoes of this class, we have
had to turn to the silver ' rhyton' from the Mycenae shaft-grave.

1 See above, p. 35.