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2 Works of Ancient Art

Two works of ancient art with a similarity of theme present very different approaches to the rendering of their subjects. In The "Bull Leaping" or "Tauromachy" fresco from the Minoan palace of Knossos, depicts a ceremonial game, an athletic event with religious overtones. The detail of horsemen from the sculptural frieze on the north side of the Parthenon in Athens shows the men and horses as part of an extended depiction of the procession in the greatest of Athens' religious festivals. The aims of the two works of art are similar. Each is a depiction of a religious event and an animal is included. Despite great differences in the media and the final effect, each work aims for a feeling of spontaneity and fluidity of movement combined with a certain amount of solemnity. In its own way, each work achieves these ends and the differences between them make an interesting contrast between cultures and artistic styles.

The first work, the "Bull Leaping" fresco, was created around 1500 B.C. at the Minoan palace at Knossos on the Island of Crete. The Minoan civilization is usually divided into three major periods. The first ended with the destructive earthquakes of the seventeenth century B.C. and the Middle Minoan period ran from 1625-1375 B.C. At the end of the first period the old palaces had been destroyed and were replaced in the Middle Period. The palace at Knossos is one of these new palaces and was itself destroyed in the earthquake that ended the second era.2

The fresco as it is seen today is largely restored. The design implied by the surviving fragments was completed on the background wall to which the fragments are attached. The reconstruction provides a picture of what the work probably looked like in its original location. The original location of the fresco was the Court of the Stone Spout, the site at which water entered the huge and sprawling palace compound at Knossos.3 The event pictured in the fresco i...

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2 Works of Ancient Art. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 14:01, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1693226.html