But in Middle Minoan I. there are indications
which, though slight, seem to point to a striving after realism
on the part of some of the artists of the period. This tendency
is apparent even in some of the geometric designs, which are so
disposed as to form an approach to naturalistic patterns. But the
most remarkable example of the tendency is seen in a fragment of
a vase from Knossos, figured by Dr. Mackenzie,[*] on which the
figures of three of the Cretan wild goats are followed by that
of a gigantic beetle with a tail. 'The subject of the design,'
says Dr. Mackenzie, 'in its naturalistic character is so advanced
that, were it not for the company in which the fragments occur,
we should be tempted to assign it to a much later age.' It is
unfortunate that only a part of the design has survived, and that
no parallel to it has ever been found. Was it merely a sport, the
freak of some ancient potter who was weary of the conventional
designs of his time, and tried his hand at something new, combining
the wild life that he could see from the window of his workshop
with that which crawled upon its floor, without ever dreaming of
the problem he was setting for the students of 4,000 years later to
exercise themselves upon? The style of the goat and beetle fragment
is dark upon light. The goats are surrounded by an incised outline,
and filled in with lustrous black glaze; the beetle is drawn freely
in the black glaze, without incision, almost as though it had been
a humorous afterthought of the potter.
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