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November 24th - History of Art - Palace of Minos

By Melissa Markham on November 24, 2007 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Welcome to Day 2 of my History of Art posts. Yesterday we learned about the Cave Drawings in Lascaux, France.

Today we are going to travel about 12,000 years in time and south to visit the Minoan Civilization. The Minoan Civilization flourished from around 3000-1000BC. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, in Crete was one of three built by the early Minoans. It was ruined when an earthquake devastated the entire area in 1700 BC. The palaces were rebuilt, but destroyed again in 1450 BC by another earthquake. Minoan civilization collapsed at about the same time and the area was settled by the Mycenaeans.

Throne of King Minos

According to Greek Mythology Knossos Palace is the legendary site of Theseus fighting the Minotaur, Ariadne and her ball of string, Daedalus the architect and doomed Icarus of the wax wings.

There are several beautiful frescoes that have been discovered in the ruins of the palace. Note how colorful they are and in addition to the colors found in the cave drawings, there are now blues thrown in for more color.

Minoan Bull Jumping

The figure of the powerful and virile bull appears throughout Minoan civilization. In this fresco of bull-jumping, an athlete has leaped over the bull's horns and is about to flip over the bull's hind legs to the waiting woman. Usually the athletes were children who didn't often reach adult hood.

The Museum of New Mexico has a wonderful lesson plan on frescoes.