Two fragments of hands and arm from relief fresco scene



Two fragments of hands and arm from relief fresco scene

Τ30Β
Painted plaster
Fair
Total dimensions of composition. Length: 48 cm. Height: 40 cm.
Knossos
Palace, Great Hall of the East Wing, Deposit of High Reliefs
Middle-Late Bronze Age, Neopalatial period, Middle Minoan IIIB - Late Minoan IA period:
1630 - 1500 BC:
Gallery:
VI
Case:
61
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). Private and public life. Bread and circuses
Athletes and acrobats. Bull-leaping
Description
Two fragments of human fists and an arm from a large fresco scene in high relief depicting a multi-figured athletic scene (boxing/wresting and/or bull leaping). A. Clenched right fist with veins modelled in relief. B. Clenched left fist and forearm, holding a lengthwise hornlike object in relief. If this is indeed a horn, this is an extremely rare depiction of the grasping of a bull’s horn in a bull-leaping scene. These fragments were found in the so-called Great Hall of the East Wing of the palace of Knossos: a spacious, monumental colonnaded hall, probably with a great staircase leading to the Central Court. Its walls were covered in scenes of life-size or slightly larger than life-size figures in relief. The monumental wall paintings with athletic scenes, which probably decorated the east half of the hall, indicate that this was probably a space for important ceremonies, highlighting activities of special symbolic significance. The naturalistic rendering of the hands, with the exceptional depiction of the muscles and veins, demonstrates not only high artistic skill but also a detailed observation of human physiology at the peak of the Minoan civilisation (1630-1550 BC). The fragments of relief frescoes depicting bull-leaping and boxing scenes with life-size athletes, with their unparalleled plasticity and realistic rendition of musculature, have justly been compared with the masterpieces of Classical Attic sculpture.
Bibliography:
Cameron M., 1975, A General Study of Minoan Frescoes, with particular reference to unpublished wall paintings from Knossos, vol. I, II. A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, pl. 17 Β 1 (fist), 2 (arm and hand) = Knossos palace: Men’s fists and arm, by “School B”, MM IIIB/LM IA.
Author:
D. S.


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