DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0197
MASTERPIECE REPRESENTING AFTER-WORLD 157
The evident dependence of the intaglio design on a pictorial model, Transia-
coupled with the singular correspondence shown in the fashion of the dress design
as well as the pose and gestures of the figures with those of the con- miniature
temporary class of ' Miniature Frescoes', so well illustrated at Knossos, Fresco,
suggested to me the desirability of an attempt to translate back the com-
position before us into its original form and colouring as a painted panel.
Happily, in Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, I had at hand not only a competent
artist, but one whose admirable studies of Minoan Art in all its branches
had thoroughly imbued him with its spirit. He executed under my superin-
tendence a coloured drawing, of which a reproduction is given in Coloured
Plate XX a,1 to the scale and quite in the style of the Miniature Fresco of
Knossos that shows the assemblage on the Grand Stand by the Pillar
Temple of the Goddess and of the fellow composition depicting the ' Grove
and Sacred Dance '.2
To those steeped in the knowledge of the frescoes the colours to
a great extent impose themselves. The male and female figures are dis-
tinguished, according to the unvarying convention, by Venetian red and
white, and saffron yellow continually recurs in their dress. For the back-
ground the warm terra-cotta and the ' kyanos' blue were both used on
occasion for this purpose in the early part of the Late Minoan Age. This
blue, as employed in the upper spaces, gives the best suggestion of the
luminous ether that surrounds the abode of the Blessed.
The brown wood-colour of the trunk and the blue band of sky, for what
seems to have been regarded as an abode rather of light than darkness,
also follow pictorial precedents.
It does not seem indeed to be outside the range of legitimate con- Reflec-
jecture if we venture to recognize in the truly microscopic composition 0'°jgmaian
supplied by the ring from the beehive tomb of Nestor's Pylos a real master-
reminiscence of an original masterpiece of Miniature fresco painting worthy repre-
of having adorned a Palace wall. theAfter-
We have here, in fact, a hint of some much more ancient conception of World,
the After-World—the theme, it well may be, of Epic treatment long preceding
the Homeric Nekyia.
1 Dr. Martin Nilsson remarks (op. cit., Arthur Evans adds by a happy thought, we
p. 55) with regard to this coloured repro- feel immediately that this is the true source of
duction that ' the similarity between the de- this type of design '.
sign on the ring and the Minoan wall-paintings " For another coloured copy of M. Gil-
ofthe Miniature style is so great that when we Heron's drawing, see Ring of Nestor, cWv,
look at the translation of the design on the PL V.
ring into Miniature fresco style, which Sir
The evident dependence of the intaglio design on a pictorial model, Transia-
coupled with the singular correspondence shown in the fashion of the dress design
as well as the pose and gestures of the figures with those of the con- miniature
temporary class of ' Miniature Frescoes', so well illustrated at Knossos, Fresco,
suggested to me the desirability of an attempt to translate back the com-
position before us into its original form and colouring as a painted panel.
Happily, in Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, I had at hand not only a competent
artist, but one whose admirable studies of Minoan Art in all its branches
had thoroughly imbued him with its spirit. He executed under my superin-
tendence a coloured drawing, of which a reproduction is given in Coloured
Plate XX a,1 to the scale and quite in the style of the Miniature Fresco of
Knossos that shows the assemblage on the Grand Stand by the Pillar
Temple of the Goddess and of the fellow composition depicting the ' Grove
and Sacred Dance '.2
To those steeped in the knowledge of the frescoes the colours to
a great extent impose themselves. The male and female figures are dis-
tinguished, according to the unvarying convention, by Venetian red and
white, and saffron yellow continually recurs in their dress. For the back-
ground the warm terra-cotta and the ' kyanos' blue were both used on
occasion for this purpose in the early part of the Late Minoan Age. This
blue, as employed in the upper spaces, gives the best suggestion of the
luminous ether that surrounds the abode of the Blessed.
The brown wood-colour of the trunk and the blue band of sky, for what
seems to have been regarded as an abode rather of light than darkness,
also follow pictorial precedents.
It does not seem indeed to be outside the range of legitimate con- Reflec-
jecture if we venture to recognize in the truly microscopic composition 0'°jgmaian
supplied by the ring from the beehive tomb of Nestor's Pylos a real master-
reminiscence of an original masterpiece of Miniature fresco painting worthy repre-
of having adorned a Palace wall. theAfter-
We have here, in fact, a hint of some much more ancient conception of World,
the After-World—the theme, it well may be, of Epic treatment long preceding
the Homeric Nekyia.
1 Dr. Martin Nilsson remarks (op. cit., Arthur Evans adds by a happy thought, we
p. 55) with regard to this coloured repro- feel immediately that this is the true source of
duction that ' the similarity between the de- this type of design '.
sign on the ring and the Minoan wall-paintings " For another coloured copy of M. Gil-
ofthe Miniature style is so great that when we Heron's drawing, see Ring of Nestor, cWv,
look at the translation of the design on the PL V.
ring into Miniature fresco style, which Sir