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Dolphin Fresco

Τ10
Plaster
Fragmentary, joined from fragments, restored.
Height: 127 cm. Width: 176 cm.
Knossos
Palace
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan I period.:
1600 - 1450 BC:
Gallery:
XIII
Case:
142
Exhibition thematic unit:
Minoan wall paintings
The world of nature
Description
The Dolphin Fresco is a magnificent seascape as well as a decorative masterpiece. Two dolphins are shown swimming among small blue, yellow and pink fish. The light blue background with a darker blue net pattern represents the iridescent surface of the sea. The fragments of the fresco were found in a lightwell at the east end of the Queen’s Megaron in the Palace of Knossos, and Evans believed that it adorned a wall above the entrance. A different interpretation of the excavation data is that the fresco probably decorated a floor on the upper storey rather than a wall. Although the location and dating of the fresco are uncertain, it belongs to a long Minoan tradition of seascape imagery, with wonderful examples dating from as early as the beginning of the Neopalatial period.
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. Volume Ι. London, 1921, 542-544, figs. 394-395. 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. Volume ΙΙΙ. London, 1930, 377-380, figs. 251-252. Immerwahr, S.A. Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age. London, 1990, 42-46. Koehl, R.B. "A Marinescape Floor from the Palace of Knossos." American Journal of Archaeology 90 (1986): 407-417.
Author:
E. S.


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