Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
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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

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0350
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LOGGIA OF 'SHIELD FRESCO'

ruined, and in this way a mass of debris had found its way into a small
enclosed nook beyond it. From the discovery within it of some clay seal-
impressions presenting Minoan Genii—derived no doubt from the neigh-
bouring Upper Treasury—this narrow space was known, at the time of
excavation, as the 'Area of the Demon Seals'. Its most important
contents, however, were fragments of what were at once recognized to be
a large architectonic fresco, including a band of spirals and rosettes.
Although its full significance was not immediately realized, it was from the
first evident that the only accessible place from which it could have been
derived was the stately hall or Loggia above the East section of the ' Hall
of the Colonnades '.l

Unfortunately, not only had none of the painted stucco been left on
the walls, but the sparse and jumbled fragments that had found their way
in replica, into the small area below supplied no clue to the relative positions that they
originally occupied. Many of the pieces, moreover, were extremely minute,
and though the superposition of what were evidently parts of the centres
of great 8-shaped shields on fragmentary sections of spiraliform bands
supplied a key to the composition, its full restoration—of which Fig. 196 and
the Coloured Plate XXIII will give the best idea—proved to be a long
and difficult task.2- -• .:

On the basis of this, Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, completed the design on
stucco of four shields, of which there was evidence, linked together by the
spiral and rosette band, to be replaced in their original position on the back
wall of the Loggia. Part of the left border, which would have corresponded
with the angle of the wall at its Northern end, had been preserved, and
provided a secure starting-point. It was found that the restored composition
fitted the wallsection, to which exhypothesi it had belonged, to an extraordinary
degree of exactitude. The width of four shields—there was evidence of the
existence of that number—together with a margin at the South end of the
spiral band equal to that preserved at the North end, was 6-215 metres. On

1 A. E., Knossos, Report, 1901 (U.S.A., vii), tracings were then made of all the pieces, and
p. 108.

2 Professor J. P. Droop, who kindly under-
took for me the preliminary arrangement of
the fragments, devoted a large part of a
season's work to the task and achieved con-
siderable results. A reconstitution made,
however, in the Candia Museum in a plaster
bed proved to be abortive, it being found
that the larger size of the lower lobes of the
shields had not been allowed for. Coloured

these, mounted so that they could be separately
placed, formed the basis of further long ex-
amination on behalf of Mr. E. J. Lambert
the artist, Dr. Mackenzie, and myself. The
restored drawing, executed by Mr. Lambert
and embodying the results of these supple-
mentary studies (see Coloured Plate XXIII),
has been followed by Monsieur Gillieron, fils,
in his restoration of the fresco on the back
wall of the Loggia.
 
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