DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0344
29S THE 'PALACE STYLE' OF KNOSSOS
imported into Egypt, but already occur on the sites of Mainland Greece
from the Southern coasts of the Argolid to the Helladic Castle of Aegina.
In the Third Middle Minoan stage the Minoan potters were supplying
the models for derivative local fabrics, not only in the Cycladic Islands
as at Melos, where there was already a colonial plantation,, but in Main-
land sites like Mycenae itself. The first wave of what may be regarded
as actual conquest in that direction—which itself can be traced back to
the close at least of M. M. Ill—had greatly intensified this intrusive
process. Already in the earlier L. M. I phase it is often hard to say
L. M. I« whether a given vase is indigenous or imported, so identical are forms and
shared by designs. The brilliant decorative compositions of the succeeding L. M. I /;
Mam- style are, as has been shown, common to a very extensive Minoan area
that includes a considerable tract North of the Corinthian Gulf.
Knossian Then, in the epoch that immediately heralds the last palatial Age of
Styie'°of Knossos, this widespread community of fabric is somewhat abruptly broken
L.M.n— un. The traditional L. M. I b style, in the decadent aspect above described,
enclave m ... .... ......... , .,
L.M.I*, is still somewhat mechanically preserved on the Mainland side, while at
Knossos there rise into view the products of a truly palatial class, in its way
more stately and magnificent than anything that had preceded it.
Earlier In the Knossian Palace itself there had indeed, in the great days of
types of M. M. II polychromy, been an earlier ceramic class well deserving of the
M. M. II. same tjtie, it was also shared by Phaestos, but its most exquisite fabric,
the ' egg-shell' bowls and cups, with their delicate flutings and reliefs and
brilliant metallic lustre reflecting the gold and silver plate of the Palace
treasuries,1 was practically confined to Knossos. An analogous class of
vessels imitating metal-work also occurs in connexion with the later ' Palace
Style' with which we are here concerned.
The new fabrics, which about the middle of the fifteenth century B.C.
supersede the L. M. I b series in what by this time had become to an over-
whelming degree the centre of dominion of the Minoan Priest-kings in
Sources Crete, were largely of a more imposing calibre. This later class, from its
Palace'" outstanding character and from the singular example that it presents of
fabrics. artistic development in a general atmosphere of stagnation, has well main-
tained its claim to the title of the ' Palace Style' par excellence, already
applied to it when the monumental remains of the great jars and ' amphoras
of this kind were first excavated at Knossos in the West Quarter of the
great building.2
' See especially P. of M., i, p. 240 seqq. vi), where I described this class as ' My-
- See A. E., Knossos, Report, 1901 (B.S. A., cenaean' painted pottery of the ' Palace Style .
imported into Egypt, but already occur on the sites of Mainland Greece
from the Southern coasts of the Argolid to the Helladic Castle of Aegina.
In the Third Middle Minoan stage the Minoan potters were supplying
the models for derivative local fabrics, not only in the Cycladic Islands
as at Melos, where there was already a colonial plantation,, but in Main-
land sites like Mycenae itself. The first wave of what may be regarded
as actual conquest in that direction—which itself can be traced back to
the close at least of M. M. Ill—had greatly intensified this intrusive
process. Already in the earlier L. M. I phase it is often hard to say
L. M. I« whether a given vase is indigenous or imported, so identical are forms and
shared by designs. The brilliant decorative compositions of the succeeding L. M. I /;
Mam- style are, as has been shown, common to a very extensive Minoan area
that includes a considerable tract North of the Corinthian Gulf.
Knossian Then, in the epoch that immediately heralds the last palatial Age of
Styie'°of Knossos, this widespread community of fabric is somewhat abruptly broken
L.M.n— un. The traditional L. M. I b style, in the decadent aspect above described,
enclave m ... .... ......... , .,
L.M.I*, is still somewhat mechanically preserved on the Mainland side, while at
Knossos there rise into view the products of a truly palatial class, in its way
more stately and magnificent than anything that had preceded it.
Earlier In the Knossian Palace itself there had indeed, in the great days of
types of M. M. II polychromy, been an earlier ceramic class well deserving of the
M. M. II. same tjtie, it was also shared by Phaestos, but its most exquisite fabric,
the ' egg-shell' bowls and cups, with their delicate flutings and reliefs and
brilliant metallic lustre reflecting the gold and silver plate of the Palace
treasuries,1 was practically confined to Knossos. An analogous class of
vessels imitating metal-work also occurs in connexion with the later ' Palace
Style' with which we are here concerned.
The new fabrics, which about the middle of the fifteenth century B.C.
supersede the L. M. I b series in what by this time had become to an over-
whelming degree the centre of dominion of the Minoan Priest-kings in
Sources Crete, were largely of a more imposing calibre. This later class, from its
Palace'" outstanding character and from the singular example that it presents of
fabrics. artistic development in a general atmosphere of stagnation, has well main-
tained its claim to the title of the ' Palace Style' par excellence, already
applied to it when the monumental remains of the great jars and ' amphoras
of this kind were first excavated at Knossos in the West Quarter of the
great building.2
' See especially P. of M., i, p. 240 seqq. vi), where I described this class as ' My-
- See A. E., Knossos, Report, 1901 (B.S. A., cenaean' painted pottery of the ' Palace Style .