Identifier: palacesofcreteth00moss (find matches)
Title: The palaces of Crete and their builders
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Mosso, A. (Angelo), 1846-1910
Subjects: Palaces
Publisher: London, Unwin
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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he modern prize ring ; in thesecond and fourth zones are columns with a rectangular impostwhich has a border of small circles, representing the portico of acourtyard. The columns taper upward in Greek fashion, whilethose which we have noticed in the preceding chapters are conical,and therefore wider above than below. The great bull in the last division but one made a strongimpression on me and was the reason of this study. Havingcopied from life the profile of a gigantic bull, the artist, in orderto keep the proportions right, has reduced the figure of the manwho is on the bulls head3 (Pig. 94) to half the size of theother men. The attitude of the gymnast may be explained in several Halbhcrr, Rendifonti R. Accad. dei Lincei, vol. xiv. pp. 365-^05, 1905. 2 Height 45 centimetres and width 16 centimetres at the mouth. 3 The artist, Dante Paolocci, drew Fig. 94, which shows this part of the vaseone-third less than the original, from a plaster model. 212 PALACES OF CRETE AND THEIR BUILDERS
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ways—either he was stand-ing on the back of thebull and sat down on thehead astride of the horns,or, finding himself uponthe beast opposite, hehad sprung on to theback of this bull, whichhad thrown up its headin order to reach himwith its horns ; or, it maybe that these men weresuch skilful gymnasts thatwith a running jump theycould spring upon the headof a bull with a single leap.The presence ot the bullsamong fighting gladiatorsproves that it is not a bullhunt after wild bulls. Thefreedom of movement andthe contraction of themuscles in this gymnasticaction assure us that theman is not injured. Theattitude is exactly that ofa man who has just takensuch a. leap. For the complete appre-ciation of this vase we mustrecollect that it was overlaidwith gold leaf, which gaveit the appearance ot solidmetal. A similar vase ofsteatite was found at Palai-kastro, and a thin piece FIG. 93.—steatitp: vask found at hagia TRIADA. BULL- GRA PPL ING 213 ot gold leaf can still be seen in the ear of

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