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)

130 LILIES ON FRESCO BANDS AND METAL INLAYS

It is interesting also to compare with the inlaid design that on a cor-
nelian bead-seal of amygdaloid type,1 in the free style of the early part of
the New Era, on which a similar barbel-like appendage is visible (Fig. 84).

Lilies on

inlaid

blade

based on

fresco

band.

Lily

RED

BLUE

Inlaid Lilies on Mycenae Blade derived from Fresco Band.

We are led to another close parallel between these naturalistic designs
in metal-work and those of M. M. Ill wall-painting, including the Miniature
style. The inlaid bronze dagger with a
gold-plated hilt from a Mycenae Shaft
Grave shows on the flat midrib of the
blade a series of finely inlaid lilies, re-
peated in repousse work on the plates
of the hilt. This is here reproduced
opposite (Fig. 86) from the restoration
by Monsieur Gillieron, pere.2

But this inlaid design stands in the

M*M III Cl°sest relation to certain painted stucco

parallels, pieces of this time, on which lilies are
similarly repeated. A fresco fragment

from the Palace (Fig. 85), found in association with the embroidery designs
described above,3 shows a slightly curving series of white lilies—their red
stamens coalesced in the conventional manner—on a blue smalt ground,
with undulating white beads below. The dagger-blade itself, moreover, has
supplied the basis for the restoration of a dado band, showing white lily
flowers with yellow stamens on a crimson ground, naturally treated as on
the blade, from a room of the earlier Palace at Phylakopi (Fig. 87 4). This
room opened out of the Pillar Room, in which the ' Flying-fish' fresco

Fig. 85. Miniature Fresco Fragment
with Rows of Lilies." From N.W.
of Palace, Knossos.

1 Acquired by me at Athens in 1896 and
said to have been found at Klitara (Kleitor),
in Arcadia.

2 A coloured reproduction of the best pre-
served part of the blade and hilt is given
in Perrot et Chipiez, vi, PI. XIX, 5. The
technique is described by Karo, Arch. Anz.,
T903, p. 160.

3 P- 37 seqq. From the undulating bands
of this lily pattern we may infer that it was also
an embroidery design. It belongs, therefore,
to 'Miniature' fresco designs of that group.

4 From Mr. Theodore Fyfe's restored draw-
ing. Cf. Bosanquet, Phylakopi, pp. 75, 76, and
Fig. 64. The espaced distribution of these
designs of lilies recalls a fragment of a bronze
sword-blade from Thera, presenting a series of
inlaid gold axes. These are of fine gold, set
into a niello plate. In the Copenhagen Museum,
Worsaae, Aarbmger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed
og Historie, 1879, PI. VIII (Mimoires de la
Sociite'royale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1872-
7, p. 234 and PI. VIII) ; Perrot et Chipiez,
vi, p. 974, Fig. 550.