[ΚΕΝΟ]



Blue Bird Fresco

Τ38
Plaster
Fragmentary, joined from fragments, restored.
Height: 77 cm. Width: 1 m.
Knossos
House of the Frescoes
Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period, Late Minoan ΙA period.:
1600 - 1500 BC:
Gallery:
XIII
Case:
146
Exhibition thematic unit:
Minoan wall paintings
The world of nature
Description
The Blue Bird is part of the “Monkeys and Birds Fresco” that decorated the walls of a room in the House of the Frescoes, on the west side of the palace of Knossos. It is one of the three framed scenes which were originally restored from the many fresco fragments found. Continuing study of the fragments has shown that all three scenes formed part of a single fresco composition that ran around the walls of the room in a trompe-l’oeil painting, giving the illusion of three-dimensionality. The Blue Bird is perched on a rock among flowers and plants, next to a stream. It is part of a larger landscape with rocks, rivulets and a wide variety of plants (lilies, crocuses, papyri, myrtle trees and reeds), where monkeys chase birds resembling wild doves and eat their eggs. The fresco is not only decorative but also symbolic, as the natural world played a crucial role in Minoan religion and ritual.
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 II part II. London, 1928, 431-467. Cameron, M.A.S. "Unpublished Paintings from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos." Annual of the British School at Athens 63 (1968): 2-31. Chapin, A.P. "Power, Privilege and Landscape in Minoan Art." In A.P. Chapin (ed.), ΧΑΡΙΣ. Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr (Hesperia Supplement 33), Princeton, 2004: 47-64. Chapin, A.P. and M C. Shaw. "The Frescoes from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos: A Reconsideration of their Architectural Context and a New Reconstruction of the Crocus Panel." Annual of the British School at Athens 101 (2006): 57-88. Immerwahr, S.A. Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age. London, 1990, 42-46.
Author:
E. S.


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