• Semiglobular vessel with decoration of flowering olive branches



Semiglobular vessel with decoration of flowering olive branches
Semiglobular vessel with decoration of flowering olive branches

Semiglobular vessel with decoration of flowering olive branches

Π2596
Clay
Mended and restored.
Height: 7.5 cm. Rim diameter: 12 cm.
Knossos
NW Treasure House
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan ΙA period.:
1600-1500 BC:
Gallery:
IV
Case:
40
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisation
Palaces - Palatial Buildings
Description
Semiglobular cups with slightly everted rim were popular drinking vessels in the Neopalatial period, along with conical and straight-sided cups,. The shape has clear predecessors in similar Protopalatial cup types but the later examples have a deeper body and neater profile. The main difference, however, lies in the decoration, with the reversal of the painted decoration from light-on-dark to dark-on-light. On this cup we see all the new features adopted by potters producing fine ware at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age: the dark paint becomes glossy with firing and is often applied to a burnished surface to depict ornaments that are usually drawn from nature. On this cup, which has a foliate band representing flowering olive branches with the details picked out in white paint, the floral themes are rendered with particular naturalism. This trend is seen not only in vase-painting but also in the frescoes of the period, which display the same features. A fresco fragment from the palace of Knossos (Basement by the Stepped Portico) with flowering olive branches, featuring a similar pictorial vocabulary to this cup, expresses the interaction between the pictorial arts of the time in the clearest possible way.
Bibliography:
Evans, A.J. The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Vol. II. London, 1928, 475, fig. 282b.
Author:
I. N.


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