It is by now evident that consuming Greek antiquity especially in Greece takes many forms and may have quite astonishing results. One should always be prepared for the unexpected, but there are lots of cases where evidently reality overcomes imagination.
Today I present you one of these cases: two large-scale frescoes decorating the outer walls of the veranda of a decrepit Greek house in a mountainous village in Crete (Kouloukonas).
***To be noted: both photographs of this house were taken and are hereby reproduced courtesy of Dr Anastasia Tzigounaki, an eminent Greek archaeologist working in Crete.
I warmly thank her for her kindness to let me publish them here and offer information on the whereabouts of the house.***
Since Aegean iconography is my area of expertise I may add a few more words to this astonishing decoration.
The veranda is decorated with two large figures well-known in Aegean fresco art, the Minoan Priest-King (an expected choice in Crete) and a woman holding a pyxis from a large procession scene copying an original from Tiryns. The two figures are evidently not interconnecting as they are depicted back to back against different backgrounds and also differing in size.
The Priest King, slightly smaller than the woman, seems to be floating against the red background as his legs don't rest on the ground line. In this respect it differs from its prototype, E. Gillieron's reproduction as it was published in The Palace of Minos and presented on the site and Herakleion museum.
I find the choice of the female procession figure more unexpected, at it adds a Mycenaean element to the picture. It follows another Gillieron reproduction of a fresco from Tiryns but again it is not a faithful reproduction of the reproduction.
Evidently the artist of the Cretan village house felt the liberty to adapt his figures to available space, respect the architectural limitations, i.e. the openings of doors, and add refreshing decorative motifs to fill the space, i.e. the reeds in the Tiryns woman background or the narrow meander zones.
Come to think of it he acted much like a Minoan or Mycenaean painter would have done in a similar situation some thousand years ago.
The Priest King, slightly smaller than the woman, seems to be floating against the red background as his legs don't rest on the ground line. In this respect it differs from its prototype, E. Gillieron's reproduction as it was published in The Palace of Minos and presented on the site and Herakleion museum.
I find the choice of the female procession figure more unexpected, at it adds a Mycenaean element to the picture. It follows another Gillieron reproduction of a fresco from Tiryns but again it is not a faithful reproduction of the reproduction.
Evidently the artist of the Cretan village house felt the liberty to adapt his figures to available space, respect the architectural limitations, i.e. the openings of doors, and add refreshing decorative motifs to fill the space, i.e. the reeds in the Tiryns woman background or the narrow meander zones.
Come to think of it he acted much like a Minoan or Mycenaean painter would have done in a similar situation some thousand years ago.
4 σχόλια:
Ο νικήσαντας τον Άδη και τον Έρωτα σώσαντας,
αυτός ο Πρίγκιπας των Κρίνων είναι.
Κι από κείνες πάλι τις πνοές της Κρήτης,
μια στιγμή ζωγραφιζόμουν.
πύξος > πυξίς > *buxida > boîte, box, bussola > μπούσουλας, πυξίδα
Σ'ευχαριστώ τόσο πολύ για τους υπέροχους στίχους. Είναι τόσο ταιριαστοί εδώ!
Πράγματι αυτή είναι η ετυμολογία της πυξίδας. Στην προϊστορική αρχαιολογία πυξίδα αποκαλούμε κάθε κουτί με πώμα ανεξαρτήτως υλικού κατασκευής.
Μου είχαν πει ότι πυξίς είναι κάθε στρογγυλό κουτί και ότι χρησιμοποιούνταν για να φυλάνε οι γυναίκες τα κοσμήματά τους, δηλαδή πυξίς είναι κοινώς η στρογγυλή κοσμηματοθήκη. Πάντως το κουτί που κοιτά η Ηγησώ είναι μεν πυξίς και κοσμηματοθήκη, χωρίς όμως να είναι στρογγυλό.
Στις ξένες γλώσσες πώς λέγεται η πυξίς;
Η πυξίδα είναι πράγματι κατά κανόνα στρογγυλή, αλλά όχι πάντα, μπορεί να είναι και ορθογώνια παραλληλεπίπεδη ας πούμε, όπως πολύ σωστά θυμήθηκες αυτή της Ηγησούς. Όντως θεωρείται κατά κανόνα κοσμηματοθήκη, αλλά θα φυλάσσονταν εκεί και χρώματα μακιγιάζ ή εδώ που τα λέμε οποιοδήποτε πολύτιμο μικροαντικείμενο.
Στα αγγλικά λέγεται pyxis.
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