DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0267
SUCCESSIVE MOVEMENTS OF PERFORMER
Diagram-
matic
sketch of
acrobat's
evolu-
tions.
clearly beyond the artificer's powers. He therefore solved the difficulty by
stumping off the arms at the elbows.
The idea of the performance as here conceived by the modeller of
this bronze group seems to have been essentially the same as that of the
fresco painter who executed the original of Fig. 144. This design, indeed,
fits on to the whole series of gem types such as those illustrated above and
involving three separate actions—the seizure of the horns, the landing over
the head, and the final somersault behind, where timely assistance is rendered
by an attendant figure.
The first part of this acrobatic cycle, as thus logically conceived, has
rightly been shown to transcend the power and skill of mortal man. It may
be yet worth while here to repeat a diagrammatic sketch showing the
successive evolutions of the acrobatic performer as they seem to have been
imaged by the Minoan artist1 (Fig. 156). The first position is supplied by
the female acrobat as shown on the fresco panel, Fig. 144, above.
(i) Shows the charging bull seized by the horns near their tips.
(2) The bull has raised his head in the endeavour to toss his assailant,
and at the same time gives an impetus to the turning figure.
(3) The acrobat has released his grip of the horns, and after complet-
ing a back-somersault has landed with his feet on the hinder part of the
bull's back. This is the moment in the performance of which a representa-
tion is attempted in the bronze group, but the upper part of the body is
there drawn much farther back and dangerously near the bull's head, owing
to the technical necessity of using the bunched locks of hair as a support.
In (4) he makes a final leap from the hind quarters of the bull—a
risky plunge.
Was he caught, as the youth on the fresco, by the girl performer so
conveniently posted ? Or did he execute another back-somersault and land
on his feet in the arena ? In my diagrammatic sketch as first published the
first alternative is suggested. But in the painted version the boy had begun
his revolution apparently as he left the animal's neck and offered an easier
catch for the standing figure beyond. On the whole, therefore, the sup-
position that the acrobat availed himself of the purchase gained by his
feet on the bull's back to make a second back-somersault seems to be the
more probable.
This stationing of an assistant in a coign of vantage within the arena
to catch the flying performer—as illustrated both by the wall-painting and
1 Executed for me by Mr. Theodore Fyfe. See, too, A. E., in/. H. S., xli (1921), pp. 252,
253, and Fig. 5.
Diagram-
matic
sketch of
acrobat's
evolu-
tions.
clearly beyond the artificer's powers. He therefore solved the difficulty by
stumping off the arms at the elbows.
The idea of the performance as here conceived by the modeller of
this bronze group seems to have been essentially the same as that of the
fresco painter who executed the original of Fig. 144. This design, indeed,
fits on to the whole series of gem types such as those illustrated above and
involving three separate actions—the seizure of the horns, the landing over
the head, and the final somersault behind, where timely assistance is rendered
by an attendant figure.
The first part of this acrobatic cycle, as thus logically conceived, has
rightly been shown to transcend the power and skill of mortal man. It may
be yet worth while here to repeat a diagrammatic sketch showing the
successive evolutions of the acrobatic performer as they seem to have been
imaged by the Minoan artist1 (Fig. 156). The first position is supplied by
the female acrobat as shown on the fresco panel, Fig. 144, above.
(i) Shows the charging bull seized by the horns near their tips.
(2) The bull has raised his head in the endeavour to toss his assailant,
and at the same time gives an impetus to the turning figure.
(3) The acrobat has released his grip of the horns, and after complet-
ing a back-somersault has landed with his feet on the hinder part of the
bull's back. This is the moment in the performance of which a representa-
tion is attempted in the bronze group, but the upper part of the body is
there drawn much farther back and dangerously near the bull's head, owing
to the technical necessity of using the bunched locks of hair as a support.
In (4) he makes a final leap from the hind quarters of the bull—a
risky plunge.
Was he caught, as the youth on the fresco, by the girl performer so
conveniently posted ? Or did he execute another back-somersault and land
on his feet in the arena ? In my diagrammatic sketch as first published the
first alternative is suggested. But in the painted version the boy had begun
his revolution apparently as he left the animal's neck and offered an easier
catch for the standing figure beyond. On the whole, therefore, the sup-
position that the acrobat availed himself of the purchase gained by his
feet on the bull's back to make a second back-somersault seems to be the
more probable.
This stationing of an assistant in a coign of vantage within the arena
to catch the flying performer—as illustrated both by the wall-painting and
1 Executed for me by Mr. Theodore Fyfe. See, too, A. E., in/. H. S., xli (1921), pp. 252,
253, and Fig. 5.