434
MINIATURE HEAD OF FAIENCE BULL
Faience
head of
bull
found
with
ivories.
The coursing bulls, too, seem to have been represented in concrete
form, though in a more composite manner. With the ivories, and corre-
sponding with the prevalent scale of the figures, there was found the head
of a bull of whitish faience with gold tubes for the insertion of the horns and
blue glass eyes set, apparently, in shell (Fig. 302). The somewhat abraded
V^
Fig. 302. Bull's Head of White Faience with Gold Tubes for Insertion
of Horns and Blue Glass Eyes. Ivory Deposit.
Gold condition of the head made it uncertain whether, as is probable, it had
horns and markings on it as in the case of the faience cow from the Temple Reposi-
giass tories,1 but the preference given to this material, in place of ivory, for the
animal figures is best explained by the convenience it afforded for rendering
the characteristic markings. In any case, this figure presents a remarkable
example of the composite use of materials that played so large a part in
Minoan craftmanship and which attained such extraordinary perfection in
the case of the bull's head ' rhyton ' from the ' Little Palace'2 with its shell
and jasper inlays and the crystal eyes with their scarlet pupil and black iris.
The various concomitants, including not only the suspended acrobats
1 P.ofM., i, p. 511, Fig. 367.
Ibid., ii, Pt. II, p. 527 seqq., and Figs. 330-2.
MINIATURE HEAD OF FAIENCE BULL
Faience
head of
bull
found
with
ivories.
The coursing bulls, too, seem to have been represented in concrete
form, though in a more composite manner. With the ivories, and corre-
sponding with the prevalent scale of the figures, there was found the head
of a bull of whitish faience with gold tubes for the insertion of the horns and
blue glass eyes set, apparently, in shell (Fig. 302). The somewhat abraded
V^
Fig. 302. Bull's Head of White Faience with Gold Tubes for Insertion
of Horns and Blue Glass Eyes. Ivory Deposit.
Gold condition of the head made it uncertain whether, as is probable, it had
horns and markings on it as in the case of the faience cow from the Temple Reposi-
giass tories,1 but the preference given to this material, in place of ivory, for the
animal figures is best explained by the convenience it afforded for rendering
the characteristic markings. In any case, this figure presents a remarkable
example of the composite use of materials that played so large a part in
Minoan craftmanship and which attained such extraordinary perfection in
the case of the bull's head ' rhyton ' from the ' Little Palace'2 with its shell
and jasper inlays and the crystal eyes with their scarlet pupil and black iris.
The various concomitants, including not only the suspended acrobats
1 P.ofM., i, p. 511, Fig. 367.
Ibid., ii, Pt. II, p. 527 seqq., and Figs. 330-2.