A considerable portion of the area
of the palace at Knossos, dating from the preceding age, is now
covered up by new construction, and the second palace begins to
assume the form which was completed in the subsequent period. In
pottery the naturalistic style still persists, but the technique
begins to modify, and the white design on a dark ground occurs
less frequently than design in dark glaze paint on the natural
light ground of the clay. Ornament begins to partake increasingly
of a marine character; the octopus, the Triton shell, the nautilus,
and seaweed, appear as designs, and are executed in lifelike fashion,
which contrasts strongly with the later conventionalized method
of representing them. Indeed, Middle Minoan III. And Late Minoan
I. and II. show a distinct appreciation of and delight in all the
beauty and wonder of the sea, which suggest the important part
which it played in the lives of the Cretan populace. 'At ports
where sailors and fishermen and divers for sponge and purple went
and came, it was natural for an imaginative race to acquire that
sense of the magic and mystery of the sea, that curiosity about
the life in its depths, which found expression in these ceramic
pictures.'[*]
[Footnote *: R. C. Bosanquet, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol.
xxiv., part 2, p. 322.]
[Illustration XXVI: GREAT STAIRCASE, PHAESTOS (_p_.
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