DISCOVERY 



315 



jars of to-day. Two interesting features in the decora- 

 tion of these jars are cunningly practical in origin. 

 One was an imitation in relief of the coils of rope 

 which were used in moving the jars, the other a 

 " trickle " ornament produced by allowing splashes of 

 paint to trickle down the side of the jar — a device which 

 virtuously anticipated the inevitable trickles which 

 would result from the storage of oil in it. 



Towards the end of the Middle Minoan period the 

 exaggerated use of colour which had marked the first 

 introduction of polychrome ware gave way to a con- 

 centration upon design. Perhaps the most remark- 

 able specimen of this later phase is the "lily vase " 

 found at Knossos. It stands about two feet high, and 

 for design has a simple row of lilies painted in white 

 on a purple ground. The shape of the vase is artisti- 

 cally made to serve the design by enabling the hlies 

 to bend slightly outward and then to curve in a little 

 at the top. 



Then came a curious clash in the separate evolution 

 of polychrome and monochrome ware. The latter 

 had been used as an easy decoration for ordinary 

 vessels, but towards the end of the M.M. period the 

 two styles began to coalesce in the form of a simple 

 light design on a dark ground. Then a final resolution 

 took place by a volte jace into a monochrome dark on 

 light brought about by the experience that the black 

 varnish was a more durable colour than the lustre- 

 less colour pigments. The varnish, indeed, possessed 

 a remarkable tenacitj'. It probably was the forerunner 

 of that used in the later Attic Black Figure vases, 

 whose secret is still exercising the ingenuity of modern 

 potters. As yet nothing further has been established 

 than that the varnish was not a " glaze " in the 

 modem sense. A contributing' factor to the final 

 triumph of the monochrome over polychrome rested 

 upon simple necessity.' When naturalist motives 

 became dominant in the painter's art, the lack of a 

 green pigment left no satisfactory alternative to the 

 general abandonment of variation in colour. In 

 L.M. I, when the complete absorption of the poly- 

 chrome into the monochrome style took place, we find 

 a general use of a brilliantly lustrous brown-to-black 

 " glaze " paint on a buff clay shp, carefully pohshed by 

 hand on terra-cotta clay. The naturalism of plants 

 and flowers now extends to sea-objects — fish, shells, 

 weeds, rocks — and is marked by careful truth to life. 

 A striking example of this style is the famous " octo- 

 pus " vase found at Goumia.' 



As the rise of Cretan civilisation had been faithfully 

 reflected in pottery, so was its fall. One can trace in 

 it the general decadence of Crete. In the eventful 

 L.M. II period, which saw the final destruction of 

 Knossos and the sudden end of Cretan greatness, the 



' See Hawes, loc. cit., pp. 126-7. 



\,ContiHucd on p. 316 



The London 



MERCURY 



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October 

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