• Fresco with figure-of-eight shields



Fresco with figure-of-eight shields
Fresco with figure-of-eight shields
Fresco with figure-of-eight shields
Fresco with figure-of-eight shields
Fresco with figure-of-eight shields

Fresco with figure-of-eight shields

Τ6
Plaster fresco
Κακή
Dimensions of restored painting: 1.84 Χ 3.68 / Dimensions of shield: 1.64 Χ 1.08 m.
Knossos
Palace, lightwell of staircase in the East Wing
Late Bronze Age. Final Palatial period, Late Minoan ΙΙ period:
1450 - 1400 BC:
Gallery:
XIII
Case:
129
Exhibition thematic unit:
Minoan wall paintings
The world of nature
Description
Restored fresco depicting two figure-of-eight shields, suspended vertically from their narrowest part, above a spiraliform band running around the area in which the fresco was found, at the height of the lintel of the adjacent door. The left-hand shield is dappled, with yellow patches on a buff ground (representing oxhide), with black spots on the yellow patches and a central vertical tapering area in yellowish-white with dark chevrons. The shield is surrounded by a double line. The right-hand shield is decorated with similar reddish dappling, with dark spots on a white ground and a double yellow outline. This scene probably represents real shields which were hung in this way against a frieze of relief running spirals on the ground floor of the same wing, near the main entrance to the palace from the river. This is one of the most important attestations of the revived military repertoire of the palace wall paintings, when the old Minoan complex was turned into the Mycenaean palace of the King of Knossos.
Bibliography:
Cameron M., 1975, A General Study of Minoan Frescoes, with particular reference to unpublished wall paintings from Knossos, vol. I, II, ΙΙΙ. A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, pl. 63A. Vol. I pp. 84, 141ff., 164, 325.pl. VI, pp. 430-432. Dating, pp. 439-442, 443, 597. Attributed to "School D".
Author:
D. S.


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