DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0416
364
EVOLUTION OF 'MARINE' STYLE
Period, and on one bowl, amongst swimming fish, we see red-coloured objects
with white dots which, though of elongated shape, must very probably be
recognized as sponges.1 So, too, though in the instance given sponges were
actually printed on vases
as on the walls, we also
see them more individu-
ally delineated by artistic
methods. Sketchy delinea-
tions of what appear to
be sponges above a yellow
rock with red serpentine
veins are seen on part of
a'Marine' representation
from the ' House of the
Frescoes'(Fig. 241). The
sea-water is here indicated
by a deep blue.
In any case the fact
that the structural phase
illustrated by the fine
' mosaiko' floor of the earlier hall that had occupied the site of the ' Queen's
Megaron' was associated in the case above cited with a 'marine style' of
this simple mechanically reproduced kind has a special interest in relation to
its subsequent history. For, as we shall see, this style in some respects
attained its highest development in the ' Dolphin Fresco' that adorned its
later walls.
That the facilities of ' nature-printing' offered by sponges gave a
special prominence to these sea products in fresco work of this class—
including their reflections in gem types and small reliefs—is only what might
have been expected. Often we see a combination of a porous spongiose
texture accompanied with small ramifications that recall certain corallines
or algae. Or again, as below, in the ' Dolphin Fresco' itself2 there appear
irregular globular excrescences with small spiky projections like those of
sponges (Fig. 242).
An early evidence of the existence of the marine class of decoration in
this part of the' Domestic Quarter' is afforded by a remarkable section of
Fig. 240. Egg-shell Cup with Sponge Decoration
(M. M. II a) : ' Royal Pottery Stores '.
1 P. ofM., i, p. 182, Fig. 131, b.
2 See ibid,, i, p. 543, Fig. 395. The ex-
crescences are there compared with coralline,
but the spiky outlines point rather to those
of sponges.
EVOLUTION OF 'MARINE' STYLE
Period, and on one bowl, amongst swimming fish, we see red-coloured objects
with white dots which, though of elongated shape, must very probably be
recognized as sponges.1 So, too, though in the instance given sponges were
actually printed on vases
as on the walls, we also
see them more individu-
ally delineated by artistic
methods. Sketchy delinea-
tions of what appear to
be sponges above a yellow
rock with red serpentine
veins are seen on part of
a'Marine' representation
from the ' House of the
Frescoes'(Fig. 241). The
sea-water is here indicated
by a deep blue.
In any case the fact
that the structural phase
illustrated by the fine
' mosaiko' floor of the earlier hall that had occupied the site of the ' Queen's
Megaron' was associated in the case above cited with a 'marine style' of
this simple mechanically reproduced kind has a special interest in relation to
its subsequent history. For, as we shall see, this style in some respects
attained its highest development in the ' Dolphin Fresco' that adorned its
later walls.
That the facilities of ' nature-printing' offered by sponges gave a
special prominence to these sea products in fresco work of this class—
including their reflections in gem types and small reliefs—is only what might
have been expected. Often we see a combination of a porous spongiose
texture accompanied with small ramifications that recall certain corallines
or algae. Or again, as below, in the ' Dolphin Fresco' itself2 there appear
irregular globular excrescences with small spiky projections like those of
sponges (Fig. 242).
An early evidence of the existence of the marine class of decoration in
this part of the' Domestic Quarter' is afforded by a remarkable section of
Fig. 240. Egg-shell Cup with Sponge Decoration
(M. M. II a) : ' Royal Pottery Stores '.
1 P. ofM., i, p. 182, Fig. 131, b.
2 See ibid,, i, p. 543, Fig. 395. The ex-
crescences are there compared with coralline,
but the spiky outlines point rather to those
of sponges.