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)

BRONZE BULL AND ACROBAT 221

where the legs of the acrobatic figure are slightly completed. That this
represents a youth and not a girl is clear from the absence alike of formal
curls or of any signs of pectoral development. The bull is splendidly

Fig. 155. Bronze Bull and Acrobatic Figure: Crete, M. M. III.

modelled and the whole group, cast solid in one piece, represents the acme Acme of
of Minoan metallurgic art. It is noteworthy, however, that to simplify his ^etal-"
task the craftsman has.stumped off the boy's arms at the elbows and that lurgic
his head is supported in its bent-back position by the attachment of his
thick flowing locks to the upper part of the bull's forehead. It was neces-
sary to resort to this expedient to give a second support to the figure of the
boy, supposed to be in the act of revolution and gaining a purchase from
the animal's back by means of his feet. The hands had already released
their hold of the horns and the arms could not therefore be legitimately
used for attachment.

At the same time the arms, with a backward direction after losing con-
tact with the bull's head, would have crossed the line of the connecting
stem formed by the youth's hair, and this complication of the design was