DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0045
REPLICAS SET UP OF IMPORTANT FRESCOES
Replicas Happily, in attaining this desirable result, I had at hand the invaluable
portant services of the artist, Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, of whose practised skill in
replaced rePr°ducing the masterpieces of Minoan Art the preceding Volumes of this
in situ work bear sufficient evidence.
In this way, as by no other means, it has been possible to preserve
something of the inner life of the old Palace Sanctuary, to a degree, it may
be fairly said, more considerable than in the case of any other great monu-
ment of Antiquity.
Already, at the head of the 'Great South Road', beneath the site, the
little refectory of the ' Caravanserai'—there built for the weary traveller__
has gained much in actuality from the replacement in facsimile of the
' Partridge frieze'—as appetizing a provision for the guests as the still-life
pictures of game in an old Dutch dining-room. So, too, to those entering
the Palace on the South-West, the restoration of the fresco of the ' Cup-
bearer' and some of his associates on the wall where it had originally
stood in the 'South Propylaeum' may help to carry with it a vision of the
whole long series of stately processional figures that originally rose in tiers
along the winding Corridors that led from the ceremonial Western Porch
to the entrance hall of the piano nobile.
Following out in the same way the entrance system from the South—
which may itself have stood in relation with a ' Pilgrims' Way ' to the Sacred
Mountain of Knossos—the painted bas-relief restored in the Corridor above,
brings with it as it were the visible presence of a Priest-king, who wears his
lily crown and collar and walks in an Elysian field, leading, it would seem,
his guardian Griffin.
In the Residential Quarter, again, on the Eastern side, as shown in
detail in the last Volume, the imposing fresco of the Minoan shields suspended
against the spiral band, that has been restored in the lower loggia of the
Grand Staircase, suggests an impression of military parade that fits in with
what seems to have been the more aggressive character of the later dynasty.
In the spacious Reception Hall below, to which they lead, where the spirali-
form bands alone are depicted, it has been thought legitimate to fill the void
with facsimiles of the shields themselves. On the other hand the dancing
figure, replaced in replica on a pillar of the adjoining ' Queen's Megaron .
marks it as a scene of more peaceful diversions, while the ' Dolphin Fresco
of somewhat earlier date, here also restored in the inner section of the
Chamber, gives an example of the naturalistic style of Ait that reached
such a high stage of development in the Middle period of the Palace.
It would indeed have been a splendid achievement to restore some
Replicas Happily, in attaining this desirable result, I had at hand the invaluable
portant services of the artist, Monsieur E. Gillieron, fils, of whose practised skill in
replaced rePr°ducing the masterpieces of Minoan Art the preceding Volumes of this
in situ work bear sufficient evidence.
In this way, as by no other means, it has been possible to preserve
something of the inner life of the old Palace Sanctuary, to a degree, it may
be fairly said, more considerable than in the case of any other great monu-
ment of Antiquity.
Already, at the head of the 'Great South Road', beneath the site, the
little refectory of the ' Caravanserai'—there built for the weary traveller__
has gained much in actuality from the replacement in facsimile of the
' Partridge frieze'—as appetizing a provision for the guests as the still-life
pictures of game in an old Dutch dining-room. So, too, to those entering
the Palace on the South-West, the restoration of the fresco of the ' Cup-
bearer' and some of his associates on the wall where it had originally
stood in the 'South Propylaeum' may help to carry with it a vision of the
whole long series of stately processional figures that originally rose in tiers
along the winding Corridors that led from the ceremonial Western Porch
to the entrance hall of the piano nobile.
Following out in the same way the entrance system from the South—
which may itself have stood in relation with a ' Pilgrims' Way ' to the Sacred
Mountain of Knossos—the painted bas-relief restored in the Corridor above,
brings with it as it were the visible presence of a Priest-king, who wears his
lily crown and collar and walks in an Elysian field, leading, it would seem,
his guardian Griffin.
In the Residential Quarter, again, on the Eastern side, as shown in
detail in the last Volume, the imposing fresco of the Minoan shields suspended
against the spiral band, that has been restored in the lower loggia of the
Grand Staircase, suggests an impression of military parade that fits in with
what seems to have been the more aggressive character of the later dynasty.
In the spacious Reception Hall below, to which they lead, where the spirali-
form bands alone are depicted, it has been thought legitimate to fill the void
with facsimiles of the shields themselves. On the other hand the dancing
figure, replaced in replica on a pillar of the adjoining ' Queen's Megaron .
marks it as a scene of more peaceful diversions, while the ' Dolphin Fresco
of somewhat earlier date, here also restored in the inner section of the
Chamber, gives an example of the naturalistic style of Ait that reached
such a high stage of development in the Middle period of the Palace.
It would indeed have been a splendid achievement to restore some