Adjacent to the Queen's Megaron was a small bathroom,
constructed for a portable bath--a fragment of which, in painted
terra-cotta, was found in the portico of the adjoining hall.
The fresco of the bull-fight, already referred to, was paralleled in
subject, and more than matched in artistic quality, by the discovery,
in a small secluded room which had apparently served as a treasury,
of a deposit of ivory figurines of the most exquisite workmanship.
The height of the best preserved specimen is about 11-1/2 inches,
and it is hard to say whether the boldness of the design or the
precision with which the details of the tiny figure are wrought out
is the more admirable. The attitude is that of a man flinging himself
forth in the abandon of a violent leap, with legs and arms extended.
His straining muscles are indicated with perfect faithfulness, and
even the veins in the diminutive hand and the nails of the tiny
fingers are clearly marked. The hair had been formed by curling
strands of thin gold wire inserted in the skull. There can be no doubt
that these figures formed part of a scene like that of the toreador
fresco, for the violent motion suggested is consistent with nothing
but some desperate feat of agility like bull-grappling. Probably the
leaping figures were suspended by thin gold wires over the backs of
ivory bulls, and thus presented a realistic miniature reproduction
of the Minoan bull-ring.
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