Bull-Leaping Fresco
Encyclopedia
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
fresco of bull-leaping
Bull-leaping
Bull-leaping is a motif of Middle Bronze Age figurative art, notably of Minoan Crete, but also found in Hittite Anatolia, the Levant, Bactria and the Indus Valley. It is often interpreted as a depiction of a ritual performed in connection with bull worship...
from the Middle Minoan III to Late Minoan B period (17th-15th centuries BC), though there is also a view that it is a later work, of 1425 BC, which would put it in the New Palace period
History
It was found on a wall on the east side of the palace of KnossosKnossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
, in the courtyard of the stone mouth. Its main subject is a scene of bull-leaping, surrounded by images of stone and abstract linear motifs. The ensemble as a whole is two-dimensional, except for the strong lines in the woman's chests, legs and thighs, which reflect the artist's attempt to deliver volume and depth, a rare attempt for this period. It is on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
On an Egyptian blue background, in the centre of the scene, is a bull, painted in pink-red ochre
Ochre
Ochre is the term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as "red ochre". The more rarely used terms "purple ochre" and "brown ochre" also exist for variant hues...
, lime and brown, or yellow ochre with coal - these colors may have been chosen for their effect, though it is also possible that the use of red ochre and other Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
colours is linked to contemporary ideas of death. The bull is suspended in the air, as a result of the artist's wish to capture its brash aggressive movement - bulls often continued to be represented that way right up to the creation of photography. Either side of the bull is a woman, one of whom holds the bull's horns and the other holds out her arms, while a man is on the bull's back. Both sexes are in the same costume (probably since a more complex garment could get entangled in the bull's horns) and they are differentiated by differences in the anatomy and colour used for their skin (the man is in red ochre, the women white, as in Cycladic and Mycenaean frescoes). The man's movement is dynamic, the figures' ears are fully formed and (as in most Bronze Age art) the bull's and humans' eyes are bird-like in appearance.
The fresco can be linked to different visual elements in other art forms, such as a steatite bull-headed rhyton
Rhyton
A rhyton is a container from which fluids were intended to be drunk, or else poured in some ceremony such as libation. Rhytons were very common in ancient Persia, where they were called takuk...
(1600 BC)
See also
- Minoan Bull-leaperMinoan Bull-leaperThe Minoan bull leaper is a bronze group of a bull and leaper in the British Museum. It is the only known largely complete three-dimensional sculpture depicting Minoan bull-leaping. Although bull leaping certainly took place in Crete at this time, the leap depicted is practically impossible and it...