DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16205#0053
POTTERY: TOWN STYLE
AT the height of his power, the Gournia craftsman went to Nature for his inspiration. His
designs are full of grace and exuberance; reeds, grasses, and flowers adorn his vases; the
life of the sea is represented with astonishing fidelity, but this naturalism is controlled by
L a rare power of selection and grouping. Some of his most charming patterns were painted
on vases as thin as the 'egg-shell' cups of Middle Minoan style, and these were invariably shattered
(Fig. 20); others were executed on jars so heavy and coarse that no idea of their being decorated
was at first entertained by us (Fig. 21). With a true instinct for beauty, he chose as his favorite flowers
the lovely lily and iris, the wild gladiolus and crocus, all natives
of the Mediterranean basin and the last three, if not the lily (see
p. 53), of his own soil. They have not abandoned their ancient
haunts. Every year, Gournia fields reclothe themselves with
their graceful forms and exquisite colors. Much has been written
of late in support of an Egyptian naturalism in art—not the
realism of the Old Kingdom, but a free and thoroughly artistic
treatment of natural subjects, equal if not superior to the
parallel development in pre-Hellenic lands. We shall not begrudge
such an achievement to Egypt when sufficient evidence of it is
published, but until then, in spite of our admiration for the objects newly discovered at Deir-il-Bahari,
1 think we may claim that the art produced on Cretan soil surpassed Egyptian art in this one feature
to much the same degree as the irises of Cretan fields surpass the Egyptian lotus in grace and unpreten-
tious beauty. The artistic spirit, which delighted in fine shapes and decoration of vases, showed itself
in a more advanced form in frescoes (which time unfortunately demolished at Gournia) and a closely
related art of raised ornaments and bas-reliefs for the adornment of walls (p. 35, supra). The most
grandiose form of this art appears at Knossos in the masterly bull's head of gesso duro in high relief,
a fragment of a wall decoration of the Palace Period, which
combines high artistic skill in modelling with a wonderful
decorative instinct for the use of the colors, gray and red,
with which the head is painted. We have no evidence that
the Minoans made large figures of bronze, and large sculp-
tures in the round were not common in stone, the repre-
sentations of life-sized figures being practically limited, so far
as we know, to frescoes and bas-reliefs. As is generally true
in the artistic history of a race, in the Minoan world the
representations of animals in relief and in the round are superior to those of human beings; neverthe-
less, a striking naturalism was already displaying itself in the Snake Goddess from Knossos (M. M. Ill)
and in the bronze figures from Aghia Triadha (L. M. 1). Unfortunately, the Minoan modeller was not
destined to make the next advance in his art to sculpture in the round. The peaceful years came to
an end, and with them perished prematurely this art the full flower of which can be only conjectured.
4'
AT the height of his power, the Gournia craftsman went to Nature for his inspiration. His
designs are full of grace and exuberance; reeds, grasses, and flowers adorn his vases; the
life of the sea is represented with astonishing fidelity, but this naturalism is controlled by
L a rare power of selection and grouping. Some of his most charming patterns were painted
on vases as thin as the 'egg-shell' cups of Middle Minoan style, and these were invariably shattered
(Fig. 20); others were executed on jars so heavy and coarse that no idea of their being decorated
was at first entertained by us (Fig. 21). With a true instinct for beauty, he chose as his favorite flowers
the lovely lily and iris, the wild gladiolus and crocus, all natives
of the Mediterranean basin and the last three, if not the lily (see
p. 53), of his own soil. They have not abandoned their ancient
haunts. Every year, Gournia fields reclothe themselves with
their graceful forms and exquisite colors. Much has been written
of late in support of an Egyptian naturalism in art—not the
realism of the Old Kingdom, but a free and thoroughly artistic
treatment of natural subjects, equal if not superior to the
parallel development in pre-Hellenic lands. We shall not begrudge
such an achievement to Egypt when sufficient evidence of it is
published, but until then, in spite of our admiration for the objects newly discovered at Deir-il-Bahari,
1 think we may claim that the art produced on Cretan soil surpassed Egyptian art in this one feature
to much the same degree as the irises of Cretan fields surpass the Egyptian lotus in grace and unpreten-
tious beauty. The artistic spirit, which delighted in fine shapes and decoration of vases, showed itself
in a more advanced form in frescoes (which time unfortunately demolished at Gournia) and a closely
related art of raised ornaments and bas-reliefs for the adornment of walls (p. 35, supra). The most
grandiose form of this art appears at Knossos in the masterly bull's head of gesso duro in high relief,
a fragment of a wall decoration of the Palace Period, which
combines high artistic skill in modelling with a wonderful
decorative instinct for the use of the colors, gray and red,
with which the head is painted. We have no evidence that
the Minoans made large figures of bronze, and large sculp-
tures in the round were not common in stone, the repre-
sentations of life-sized figures being practically limited, so far
as we know, to frescoes and bas-reliefs. As is generally true
in the artistic history of a race, in the Minoan world the
representations of animals in relief and in the round are superior to those of human beings; neverthe-
less, a striking naturalism was already displaying itself in the Snake Goddess from Knossos (M. M. Ill)
and in the bronze figures from Aghia Triadha (L. M. 1). Unfortunately, the Minoan modeller was not
destined to make the next advance in his art to sculpture in the round. The peaceful years came to
an end, and with them perished prematurely this art the full flower of which can be only conjectured.
4'