DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34678#0005
THE DECORATIVE ART OF CRETE IN THE
BRONZE
INTRODUCTION.
When in 1878 Professor Furtwangler and Professor Loschcke were sort-
ing the fragments of painted vases which had been brought into the Polytech-
nion in Athens from various "Mycenaean" sites in Greece, they found that,
"with the exception of the spiral and of a few motives derived from weaving,
all the patterns of vases with lustrous paint, even those in which delight in
fanciful combinations of lines had guided the artist's hand, were, in their oldest
forms, representations of natural objectsd The material available for a study
of Mycenaean design has been greatly increased since this statement was made,
especially by recent excavations in Crete. There ornamented objects have
been brought to light from all the successive stages of a civilization which
extended from the beginning to the end of the bronze age. The object of this
paper is to ascertain how far the observation of Professor Furtwangler about
the pottery known in 1878 holds good for this wider and better understood held
of Cretan decorative art. If the character of the designs of Cretan vases be
determined, the kind of ornament which appears in other prehistoric sites of
the Aegean basin will be intelligible, since the culture of these places will be
found to be parallel and akin to one stage or another of Cretan culture.
The English excavators in Crete have divided Cretan pottery of the bronze
age into three periods, to which they give the names: 'Early Minoan,' 'Middle
Minoan,' and 'Late Minoan.' ^ Each of these three periods is again divided into
three subdivisions. The Cretan bronze-age pottery which has been published
is arranged according to these nine divisions in the table opposite page 50.
In parallel columns are arranged according to the same classification the most
important decorated objects of early Cretan civilization other than pottery
and also the bronze-age pottery from other sites in the Aegean basin.
* See Furtwangler and Loschcke, AfyiceTMScTM Vase%, Introduction, p. iv.
^SeeA. J. Evans, Assai & cZasst/rca^o% &s eposes & ?a ciwHsa^oKMwoeTrwe, and
R. M. Dawkins, R. A A. X, pp. 195 and 196.
BRONZE
INTRODUCTION.
When in 1878 Professor Furtwangler and Professor Loschcke were sort-
ing the fragments of painted vases which had been brought into the Polytech-
nion in Athens from various "Mycenaean" sites in Greece, they found that,
"with the exception of the spiral and of a few motives derived from weaving,
all the patterns of vases with lustrous paint, even those in which delight in
fanciful combinations of lines had guided the artist's hand, were, in their oldest
forms, representations of natural objectsd The material available for a study
of Mycenaean design has been greatly increased since this statement was made,
especially by recent excavations in Crete. There ornamented objects have
been brought to light from all the successive stages of a civilization which
extended from the beginning to the end of the bronze age. The object of this
paper is to ascertain how far the observation of Professor Furtwangler about
the pottery known in 1878 holds good for this wider and better understood held
of Cretan decorative art. If the character of the designs of Cretan vases be
determined, the kind of ornament which appears in other prehistoric sites of
the Aegean basin will be intelligible, since the culture of these places will be
found to be parallel and akin to one stage or another of Cretan culture.
The English excavators in Crete have divided Cretan pottery of the bronze
age into three periods, to which they give the names: 'Early Minoan,' 'Middle
Minoan,' and 'Late Minoan.' ^ Each of these three periods is again divided into
three subdivisions. The Cretan bronze-age pottery which has been published
is arranged according to these nine divisions in the table opposite page 50.
In parallel columns are arranged according to the same classification the most
important decorated objects of early Cretan civilization other than pottery
and also the bronze-age pottery from other sites in the Aegean basin.
* See Furtwangler and Loschcke, AfyiceTMScTM Vase%, Introduction, p. iv.
^SeeA. J. Evans, Assai & cZasst/rca^o% &s eposes & ?a ciwHsa^oKMwoeTrwe, and
R. M. Dawkins, R. A A. X, pp. 195 and 196.