DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0508
IDENTICAL STYLE AND KNOSSIAN SOURCE 455
by a great similarity in style. The modernness of treatment is shared by
both, and the mere fact that what we have before us in the latter case is
just the head of a young child
only confirms the impression.
Unfortunately the back of the
head and shoulders of the Boston
statuette have suffered a great
deal of abrasion, but enough re-
mains to show that the locks fell
down behind in wavy tresses com-
parable with those that contribute
such a graceful feature to the
boy's head1 (Fig. 316, a, 6).
Can it be doubted that both
works are by the same artist ?
Both figures were chrysele-
phantine, both are crowned by
tiaras, and, so far as the arms are
concerned, both are of the same
composite kind. To this may be
added the fact that the history
of both points to the neighbour-
hood of Candia as their source.
The conclusion seems more and more to impose itself that both the
' Boston Goddess' and the boy-God formed part of the same ivory treasure
—connected with a Palace Shrine of Knossos—as that to which the ' leaping
youths' and other associated remains belong. All are of approximately the
same date, the closing M. M. Ill phase, when Art was at its highest level.
But the connexion between the Goddess and the Divine Child seems to
be even more intimate. It is a highly suggestive circumstance that the
height 166 millimetres or exactly 6-J inches corresponds, within a small
fraction, to that of the ' Boston Goddess '.2 This remarkable agreement,
indeed, best explains itself if we regard them as having been contained in the
same frame and as forming part of the same group. They are thus repro-
duced in the sketch, Fig. 318, executed for me by Monsieur Gillieron, fils.
1 The more or less horizontal oniulation of art conceals art.
the hair of'proto-Libyan ' ivory figures (P. of 2 This, as restored, is given as i6r mm. or
M., ii, Pt. I, pp. 24, 25, and Fig. 9, c, d, /1, about 6J inches. More minute accuracy is
g) is more artificial. In the Minoan case possible in the case of the boy-God.
Fig. 317. Back View of Upper Part of ' Boston
Goddess ', showing Wavy Tresses, enlarged.
Modern
expres-
sion re-
sembles
' Boston
Goddess'.
By same
hand.
Knossian
source
indicated
in both
cases.
Corre-
spond-
ence of
height
of the two
figures.
by a great similarity in style. The modernness of treatment is shared by
both, and the mere fact that what we have before us in the latter case is
just the head of a young child
only confirms the impression.
Unfortunately the back of the
head and shoulders of the Boston
statuette have suffered a great
deal of abrasion, but enough re-
mains to show that the locks fell
down behind in wavy tresses com-
parable with those that contribute
such a graceful feature to the
boy's head1 (Fig. 316, a, 6).
Can it be doubted that both
works are by the same artist ?
Both figures were chrysele-
phantine, both are crowned by
tiaras, and, so far as the arms are
concerned, both are of the same
composite kind. To this may be
added the fact that the history
of both points to the neighbour-
hood of Candia as their source.
The conclusion seems more and more to impose itself that both the
' Boston Goddess' and the boy-God formed part of the same ivory treasure
—connected with a Palace Shrine of Knossos—as that to which the ' leaping
youths' and other associated remains belong. All are of approximately the
same date, the closing M. M. Ill phase, when Art was at its highest level.
But the connexion between the Goddess and the Divine Child seems to
be even more intimate. It is a highly suggestive circumstance that the
height 166 millimetres or exactly 6-J inches corresponds, within a small
fraction, to that of the ' Boston Goddess '.2 This remarkable agreement,
indeed, best explains itself if we regard them as having been contained in the
same frame and as forming part of the same group. They are thus repro-
duced in the sketch, Fig. 318, executed for me by Monsieur Gillieron, fils.
1 The more or less horizontal oniulation of art conceals art.
the hair of'proto-Libyan ' ivory figures (P. of 2 This, as restored, is given as i6r mm. or
M., ii, Pt. I, pp. 24, 25, and Fig. 9, c, d, /1, about 6J inches. More minute accuracy is
g) is more artificial. In the Minoan case possible in the case of the boy-God.
Fig. 317. Back View of Upper Part of ' Boston
Goddess ', showing Wavy Tresses, enlarged.
Modern
expres-
sion re-
sembles
' Boston
Goddess'.
By same
hand.
Knossian
source
indicated
in both
cases.
Corre-
spond-
ence of
height
of the two
figures.