DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34678#0034
34
TRANSACTIONS, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY, U. OF P.
The Rower which he put on the stalk is no real Rower. The only truly natural-
istic element in the design is the pair of tendrils springing from either side of
the stem.
We have already had occasion (p. 27, footnote) to refer to the frescoes of
the villa at Hagia Triada, which date from the end of this or from the beginning
of the next period. Like the most characteristic class of vases of this period,
their designs* are highly naturalistic in character. These plant motives—sprays
of leaves and Rowers—Prof. Halbherr has pointed ouP to be local rather than
Egyptian, so that here again, in the realm of wall decoration, we Rnd evidence
for the originality of Cretan artists.
LATE MlNOAN II.
We come now to the second division of the Late Minoan II period. Again
no break in continuity separates this from the preceding period. On the
contrary, here, more than elsewhere, the transition from one style to another
is gradual. The vases and vase fragments of this period might be arranged
in a series, the Rrst member of which would be scarcely distinguishable from
the vases of the Late Minoan I period and the last from the Late Minoan III
period. In fact, it seems scarcely possible to include Fig. 48 and PL III in the
same class, and yet they belong to well deRned groups which, as a whole,
could not be put into any other period.
The technique of vases of this period differs but little from that of the
foregoing period except that the decoration is now applied in the dark glaze
paint alone without superadded white.
Characteristic of this period are large decorated amphorae and pithoi,
standing, some of them, as high as 1.20 m. (PI. II). The habit of decorating
large vessels gives rise to a showy and, as Dr. Evans terms it, a quasi archi-
tectonic style, the beginnings of which may be traced in the preceding
period, but the full culmination of which takes place in this epoch. There
is observable in this style, especially towards the end of the period, a Aorror
vacm from which Late Minoan I vases were free. Parallel to this tendency
toward stop-gap ornaments and a "close" style is to be noted a change in
the syntax of designs. Designs are now frequently divided up either verti-
cally (PI. Ill), obliquely (J. R. & 1904, XXIV, PI. XI), or horizontally (Pre-
Afs^orfc Tombs, p. 158, Fig. 143). However, this period at its best, or as a
whole is not decadent. Fig. 50 and PI. II show the rare artistic skill which
potters display, both in inventing designs and in adapting them to the Reid
of the vase.
^ See Mon,. AM. 1903, XIII, Part 1, Pl. YII-X.
^ cols. 55-60.
TRANSACTIONS, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY, U. OF P.
The Rower which he put on the stalk is no real Rower. The only truly natural-
istic element in the design is the pair of tendrils springing from either side of
the stem.
We have already had occasion (p. 27, footnote) to refer to the frescoes of
the villa at Hagia Triada, which date from the end of this or from the beginning
of the next period. Like the most characteristic class of vases of this period,
their designs* are highly naturalistic in character. These plant motives—sprays
of leaves and Rowers—Prof. Halbherr has pointed ouP to be local rather than
Egyptian, so that here again, in the realm of wall decoration, we Rnd evidence
for the originality of Cretan artists.
LATE MlNOAN II.
We come now to the second division of the Late Minoan II period. Again
no break in continuity separates this from the preceding period. On the
contrary, here, more than elsewhere, the transition from one style to another
is gradual. The vases and vase fragments of this period might be arranged
in a series, the Rrst member of which would be scarcely distinguishable from
the vases of the Late Minoan I period and the last from the Late Minoan III
period. In fact, it seems scarcely possible to include Fig. 48 and PL III in the
same class, and yet they belong to well deRned groups which, as a whole,
could not be put into any other period.
The technique of vases of this period differs but little from that of the
foregoing period except that the decoration is now applied in the dark glaze
paint alone without superadded white.
Characteristic of this period are large decorated amphorae and pithoi,
standing, some of them, as high as 1.20 m. (PI. II). The habit of decorating
large vessels gives rise to a showy and, as Dr. Evans terms it, a quasi archi-
tectonic style, the beginnings of which may be traced in the preceding
period, but the full culmination of which takes place in this epoch. There
is observable in this style, especially towards the end of the period, a Aorror
vacm from which Late Minoan I vases were free. Parallel to this tendency
toward stop-gap ornaments and a "close" style is to be noted a change in
the syntax of designs. Designs are now frequently divided up either verti-
cally (PI. Ill), obliquely (J. R. & 1904, XXIV, PI. XI), or horizontally (Pre-
Afs^orfc Tombs, p. 158, Fig. 143). However, this period at its best, or as a
whole is not decadent. Fig. 50 and PI. II show the rare artistic skill which
potters display, both in inventing designs and in adapting them to the Reid
of the vase.
^ See Mon,. AM. 1903, XIII, Part 1, Pl. YII-X.
^ cols. 55-60.