DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0431
378 THE 'DOLPHIN FRESCO'
by parts of two dolphins swimming in opposite directions, which happily
completed one another, since the head part in one case, and the tail part of
the other were principally preserved. The idea underlying the arrangement,
as carried out by Mr. Fyfe for the panel placed in the Candia Museum (see
Fig. 251), was of the smaller fry partly following in the dolphin's wake, partly
scared by them, and darting off at various tangents from their fins and tails.
One highly natural feature already referred to in Volume I,1 in considering
the place of this fresco among M. M. Ill wall-paintings, is the portrayal of
the wreaths of spray that give such a vivid idea of motion, and fnay be
compared with the similar use of flowing tresses by the Minoan artist in the
portraying of leaping figures or of descended divinities.
A border fragment reproduced in Fig. 242, above, shows a dark marine
growth that may well be a spiky sponge. Both the wreaths of spray and
the sponges recur in the ' Flying-Fish Fresco' of Phylakopi,2 which has
been recognized as a contemporary work of the Knossian School. These
features, indeed, are all that we have to indicate the sea itself, the field in
both cases being painted white. At the same time this light background
admirably serves to bring, out the varied colouring of the fish themselves,
their darker and lighter blue, yellow and ruddy orange. The dolphins, how-
ever, with their ultramarine flanks and waving yellow bands, show white
bellies which are only separated from the field by their black outlines.
To restore in part the original effect, a spirited amplification of the
existing remains of the ' Dolphin Fresco' has been executed for me by
Monsieur Gillieron, fils, along the upper part of the North Wall of the inner
section of the ' Megaroh'.
As remains both of the ' Dolphin Fresco' and of a later spiralform
frieze of the same scale as that of the ' Hall of the Double Axes', were
found above the L. M. I slabbing in this interior section of the ' Megaron',
it seems clear that they must to a certain extent have coexisted. It is hard
to see, however, how the M. M. Ill and L. M. la styles could have been
adapted to one another on the same wall, and perhaps the best explanation
is that the spiral band, with its white, field, was painted on a comparatively
thin layer of plaster set above the older fresco, and that when the wall
became dilapidated, the layers flaked off separately. This idea has been
adopted in the partial restoration by Monsieur Gillieron, fils (see Fig. 252).
On the balustrade of the Bath-room, seen to the left in the Figure, is
1 P. of M.,\, pp. 542-4, and see Fig. 394. by Miss Hogarth, not by Monsieur Gillieron,
2 Ibid., i, pp. 541-3, and Fig. 393, and pere, as erroneously stated in Vol. i, p. 542,
Phylakopi, PI. Ill in colours (from a drawing note 1).
by parts of two dolphins swimming in opposite directions, which happily
completed one another, since the head part in one case, and the tail part of
the other were principally preserved. The idea underlying the arrangement,
as carried out by Mr. Fyfe for the panel placed in the Candia Museum (see
Fig. 251), was of the smaller fry partly following in the dolphin's wake, partly
scared by them, and darting off at various tangents from their fins and tails.
One highly natural feature already referred to in Volume I,1 in considering
the place of this fresco among M. M. Ill wall-paintings, is the portrayal of
the wreaths of spray that give such a vivid idea of motion, and fnay be
compared with the similar use of flowing tresses by the Minoan artist in the
portraying of leaping figures or of descended divinities.
A border fragment reproduced in Fig. 242, above, shows a dark marine
growth that may well be a spiky sponge. Both the wreaths of spray and
the sponges recur in the ' Flying-Fish Fresco' of Phylakopi,2 which has
been recognized as a contemporary work of the Knossian School. These
features, indeed, are all that we have to indicate the sea itself, the field in
both cases being painted white. At the same time this light background
admirably serves to bring, out the varied colouring of the fish themselves,
their darker and lighter blue, yellow and ruddy orange. The dolphins, how-
ever, with their ultramarine flanks and waving yellow bands, show white
bellies which are only separated from the field by their black outlines.
To restore in part the original effect, a spirited amplification of the
existing remains of the ' Dolphin Fresco' has been executed for me by
Monsieur Gillieron, fils, along the upper part of the North Wall of the inner
section of the ' Megaroh'.
As remains both of the ' Dolphin Fresco' and of a later spiralform
frieze of the same scale as that of the ' Hall of the Double Axes', were
found above the L. M. I slabbing in this interior section of the ' Megaron',
it seems clear that they must to a certain extent have coexisted. It is hard
to see, however, how the M. M. Ill and L. M. la styles could have been
adapted to one another on the same wall, and perhaps the best explanation
is that the spiral band, with its white, field, was painted on a comparatively
thin layer of plaster set above the older fresco, and that when the wall
became dilapidated, the layers flaked off separately. This idea has been
adopted in the partial restoration by Monsieur Gillieron, fils (see Fig. 252).
On the balustrade of the Bath-room, seen to the left in the Figure, is
1 P. of M.,\, pp. 542-4, and see Fig. 394. by Miss Hogarth, not by Monsieur Gillieron,
2 Ibid., i, pp. 541-3, and Fig. 393, and pere, as erroneously stated in Vol. i, p. 542,
Phylakopi, PI. Ill in colours (from a drawing note 1).