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)

135

Pictorial Religious Subjects on Signet-rings.

In particular there exists a whole class of gold signet-rings, derived
mainly from sepulchral deposits, presenting scenes of a religious nature
and executed in the same picturesque style. It is a fair conjecture that the
subjects of these were in many cases excerpted from paintings on the walls

Fig.

Painted Plaster Tablet from Mycenae.

of shrines, analogous to the Miniature Frescoes described above. It has, Depend-

ence on

indeed, been already pointed out that the fresco of the present series frescoes,
depicting the ' Sacred Grove and Dance' finds its best supplementary
illustration in the intaglio design of a gold ring found in the first discovered
of the built tombs at Isopata.1

The religious connexion of this group of Miniature paintings is itself Frescoes
well brought out by the Columnar Shrine of the Goddess which forms the
central feature of the panel displaying the Grand Stands, the spectators on
which are looking on at some festival in her honour. Elsewhere, and
identical in scale with the true Miniature Frescoes of Knossos, an example
of a religious subject is supplied by the painted plaster tablet found by

See above, p. 68, Fig. 38.

ligious
nature.