DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0226
RELIEFS ON VAPHEIO CUP B
The story here depicted is simple enough, though it seems to have Vapheio
been quite inadequately realized by its commentators. Here, too, it divides capture
itself into three succes- trough
decoy
sive scenes—answering cow.
in this case, as we may
well suppose, to the
triple division of the ter-
race of the East Portico
at Knossos ■— and its
theme is the capture of
a half-wild steer by
means of a decoy cow.
The successive stages
of the capture are really
three separate episodes,
but these have been
woven by the artist into
one continuous com-
position.
In the first scene
the bull is depicted nosing the cow's trail; in the second his treacherous
companion engages him in amorous converse, of which her raised tail shows
the sexual reaction.1 The extraordinarily human expressiveness of the two
heads as they turn to one another is very characteristic of the Minoan
artistic spirit, and quite foreign, as regards animals, to monumental Greek
Art. It is nearer to Sir Edwin Landseer.
In the third scene the herdsman takes advantage of this dalliance to
■~"i. • S*f
r ,
1
A.
%.' i/ M
■ . ;:
V
■ ■; ■ :
\
wfc p & «.jM
>
: •■■ ■ ;
-A. . Shtm^R* ,fi M
Fig. 126.
Vapheio Cup B : showing Bull and Cow in
Amorous Conversation.
1 The identification of the animal whose
sex is concealed with a decoy cow, and the
consequent explanation of the whole scene,
was made by me in 1906, when I procured two
of M. Gillieron's facsimiles of the cups for the
Ashmolean Museum. It was referred to by me
at that time in a public lecture in the Museum
and set forth in the printed label and MS.
catalogue. Ten years later an interesting
observation made by Geheimrat Rudolph
Lipschke of Bonn and published by Dr. A.
Korte {Jahreshefte d. Oesierr. Arch. Inst., ix
(rao6), pp. 294, 295) confirmed the central
fact on which this conclusion hinged. He
observed that the raising of the farther animal's
tail in the middle scene answers in fact to
a physical sign of sexual inclination regularly
shown by the cow in such cases. The sex of
the animal (otherwise clearly indicated by the
bull's action) is thus determined. Dr. Korte,
in view of this, proposed an explanation some-
what parallel to my own. Instead of recog-
nizing a continuous group, however, he saw
three separate bulls in a single scene, a view
that would destroy the whole dramatic
ensemble.
The story here depicted is simple enough, though it seems to have Vapheio
been quite inadequately realized by its commentators. Here, too, it divides capture
itself into three succes- trough
decoy
sive scenes—answering cow.
in this case, as we may
well suppose, to the
triple division of the ter-
race of the East Portico
at Knossos ■— and its
theme is the capture of
a half-wild steer by
means of a decoy cow.
The successive stages
of the capture are really
three separate episodes,
but these have been
woven by the artist into
one continuous com-
position.
In the first scene
the bull is depicted nosing the cow's trail; in the second his treacherous
companion engages him in amorous converse, of which her raised tail shows
the sexual reaction.1 The extraordinarily human expressiveness of the two
heads as they turn to one another is very characteristic of the Minoan
artistic spirit, and quite foreign, as regards animals, to monumental Greek
Art. It is nearer to Sir Edwin Landseer.
In the third scene the herdsman takes advantage of this dalliance to
■~"i. • S*f
r ,
1
A.
%.' i/ M
■ . ;:
V
■ ■; ■ :
\
wfc p & «.jM
>
: •■■ ■ ;
-A. . Shtm^R* ,fi M
Fig. 126.
Vapheio Cup B : showing Bull and Cow in
Amorous Conversation.
1 The identification of the animal whose
sex is concealed with a decoy cow, and the
consequent explanation of the whole scene,
was made by me in 1906, when I procured two
of M. Gillieron's facsimiles of the cups for the
Ashmolean Museum. It was referred to by me
at that time in a public lecture in the Museum
and set forth in the printed label and MS.
catalogue. Ten years later an interesting
observation made by Geheimrat Rudolph
Lipschke of Bonn and published by Dr. A.
Korte {Jahreshefte d. Oesierr. Arch. Inst., ix
(rao6), pp. 294, 295) confirmed the central
fact on which this conclusion hinged. He
observed that the raising of the farther animal's
tail in the middle scene answers in fact to
a physical sign of sexual inclination regularly
shown by the cow in such cases. The sex of
the animal (otherwise clearly indicated by the
bull's action) is thus determined. Dr. Korte,
in view of this, proposed an explanation some-
what parallel to my own. Instead of recog-
nizing a continuous group, however, he saw
three separate bulls in a single scene, a view
that would destroy the whole dramatic
ensemble.