What the
Minoan craftsman was capable of when he was allowed to deal with the
precious metals we can see from the few specimens which have survived
to the present time. The Vaphio gold cups, with their bull-trapping
scenes, are generally admitted now to be of Cretan workmanship,
though found in the Peloponnese, and Benvenuto Cellini himself
need not have been ashamed to turn out such work, admirable alike
in design and execution. Little of such gold-work has survived, for
obvious reasons. The metal was too precious to escape the plunderer
in the evil days which fell upon the Minoan Empire; and the artistic
value of the vases and bowls would seem trifling to the conquerors
in comparison with the worth of the metal.
But the artists of the time worked not only in the precious metals,
but also in stone, trying to reproduce there the forms with which
they had decorated the vessels wrought in the costlier medium.
Probably, when the steatite was worked to its finished shape, it was
covered with a thin coating of gold-leaf, at least this suggestion,
originally made by Evans, has been confirmed in one instance, where
part of the gold-leaf was found still adhering to a vase discovered
at Palaikastro by Mr. Currelly. In the case of the Hagia Triada
vases the gold-coated steatite had no charms for the plunderer,
who merely stripped off the gold-leaf and left its foundation to
testify to us of the skill of these ancient craftsmen.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145