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Bull-Leaping Fresco (Taureador Fresco)

Τ14
Plaster
Fragmentary, joined from fragments, restored.
Height: 107 cm. Width: 184 cm.
Knossos
Palace
Late Bronze Age. Final Palatial period, Late Minoan II period.:
1450 - 1400 BC:
Gallery:
VI
Case:
60
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Private and public life. Bread and circuses
Athletes and Acrobats. Bull-leaping
Description
This fresco is the best preserved of at least four paintings depicting the same subject, which were found in the East Wing of the Palace of Knossos and adorned a room on the upper floor. Their theme is bull-leaping, an acrobatic sport involving bulls. Most scholars believe that the numerous depictions of the sport in frescoes, seals, figurines and other objects indicate that bull-leaping was a real event, rather than just a depiction of a myth. Men and women (rendered in red and white respectively) executed athletic leaps over charging bulls, an extremely risky enterprise demonstrating their acrobatic skill and daring. The sequence of movements from the ground to the back of the bull and landing on the ground again has formed the subject of many studies, with contradictory conclusions. Βull-leaping is one of the most popular subjects in the frescoes adorning the palace of Knossos. Together with bull-hunting, it is a pictorial symbol of Knossian authority.
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 ΙII. London, 1930, 209-224. Rethemiotakis, G. "Τα Μινωικά Αθλήματα." In S. Mandalaki and G. Rethemiotakis, Μινωικός κόσμος. Ταξίδι στις Απαρχές της Ευρώπης, Heraklion, 2015, 200-206. Shaw, M.C. "Bull Leaping Frescoes at Knossos and their Influence on the Tell el-Daba Murals." ?gypten und Levante V (1995): 91-120. Younger, J. "Bronze Age Representaions of Aegean Bull Games ΙΙΙ." In R. Laffineur and W-D. Niemeier (eds), Politeia. Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Aegaeum 12. Li?ge-Austin, 1995, 507-545.
Author:
E. S.


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