DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34678#0011
EDITH H. HALL—DECORATIVE ART OF CRETE IN THE BRONZE AGE.
11
Among these early experiments in curved lines appear several patterns
(Fig. 7), which have a slight resemblance to natural objects. Fig. 7 a, 5, c,
look like leaves. They are the counterparts of patterns which appear again in
the second division of the middle period.* In Fig. 7 c appears a pattern
which, were it from a later period, would be called a conventionalized flower or
leaf.2 The artist's task was here to decorate a lozenge-shaped piece of clay^
with an ornament adapted to the shape of the field. He drew two chevrons in
the corners and then bent their ends around to fill the central space. Again,
a
Fig. 8, from Tr<3%SGuAo%s I, Part III, Pis. XXVIII, XXX and XXXII.
the elongated dots of Fig. 7 & give the effect of leaves springing alternately from
a stalk, merely because they are tipped on end.
Are these designs naturalistic? It seems improbable that the decorators
of these vases ever seriously attempted to represent natural objects. Rather
in experimenting with straight and curved lines in their search for balanced
and harmonious decoration they happened upon designs which looked like
* Compare, e. g., the upper and lower bands of ornaments on the cup in J. A. X 1903
XXIII, PI. VI, 4.
2 See e. g. R. M. Dawkins, J. A. A 1903, XXIII, p. 254. Similarly Hogarth and
Welch call patterns like those in Fig. 7 degraded leaves, J. A. *8. 1901, XXI, p. 82.
3 This sherd is broken on the two short sides only. It may have been a part of an open-
work dish like the much later lid in A X A. 1903-1904, X, p. 224, Fig. 7.
11
Among these early experiments in curved lines appear several patterns
(Fig. 7), which have a slight resemblance to natural objects. Fig. 7 a, 5, c,
look like leaves. They are the counterparts of patterns which appear again in
the second division of the middle period.* In Fig. 7 c appears a pattern
which, were it from a later period, would be called a conventionalized flower or
leaf.2 The artist's task was here to decorate a lozenge-shaped piece of clay^
with an ornament adapted to the shape of the field. He drew two chevrons in
the corners and then bent their ends around to fill the central space. Again,
a
Fig. 8, from Tr<3%SGuAo%s I, Part III, Pis. XXVIII, XXX and XXXII.
the elongated dots of Fig. 7 & give the effect of leaves springing alternately from
a stalk, merely because they are tipped on end.
Are these designs naturalistic? It seems improbable that the decorators
of these vases ever seriously attempted to represent natural objects. Rather
in experimenting with straight and curved lines in their search for balanced
and harmonious decoration they happened upon designs which looked like
* Compare, e. g., the upper and lower bands of ornaments on the cup in J. A. X 1903
XXIII, PI. VI, 4.
2 See e. g. R. M. Dawkins, J. A. A 1903, XXIII, p. 254. Similarly Hogarth and
Welch call patterns like those in Fig. 7 degraded leaves, J. A. *8. 1901, XXI, p. 82.
3 This sherd is broken on the two short sides only. It may have been a part of an open-
work dish like the much later lid in A X A. 1903-1904, X, p. 224, Fig. 7.