The Power of Images: Re-Examining the Wall Paintings From the Throne Room at Knossos

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to re-examine the painted fragments discovered by Arthur Evans and his team in the Throne Room at Knossos in 1900. We have tried to integrate systematically the extant archival data stored in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the archaeological remains at Herakleion in an attempt to retrace the history of discovery of the paintings. In our view, the iconography of this programme places its execution at the onset of Late Minoan (LM) II. We see the inclusion of both ‘traditional’ (Neopalatial) and ‘innovative’ (Final Palatial) elements in the composition as suggestive of an attempt on behalf of the artist(s) and the commissioner(s) to blend artistic traditions in the creation of a new, yet still recognisable, image of power. We assess the implications stemming from this suggestion and interpret the decorative programme of the Throne Room at Knossos as part and expression of the emergence of the wanax ideology.

Wingless Griffins Among Papyrus Plants From Neopalatial Knossos? A Reconstruction Proposal of the Seal Impression CMS Ii8, 321

“…Moreover, the most recent and precise re-investigation of the wall-paintings fragments convincingly ascribes the origin of the fresco to an earlier period than hitherto assumed. Basing their considerations on the archaeological investigation of the area by V. Fotou and D. Evely, which assigns the building of the north wall at the earliest to LM II, the authors of this new study point out the Neopalatial and Final Palatial compositional elements of the mural paintings, suggesting a LM II date for their execution (Galanakis, Tsitsa and Günkel-Maschek 2017, 73–8, 88). The discussion of such a complex matter is not the purpose of this paper, but it can also be noted that the papyrus-reeds surrounding the griffins support the Neopalatial dating, since this variant, with a single and meaningful exception, appears no more after LM IB, as noted above 26 .…”

“…5.Reconstruction drawing of the west wall of the Throne Room at Knossos with couchant wingless griffins among papyri. Galanakis, Tsitsa and Günkel-Maschek 2017, 64, fig. 21.…”

“…nos 333, 336, 337, 396, 416, 424, 425. The study of Y. Galanakis, E. Tsitsa and U. Günkel-Maschek (2017) mentions a further image of a wingless griffin, preserved on a LM IIIA1 pyxis from tomb 7 of Mochlos. The rich decoration of the pyxis also displays the figure of a winged griffin; since the rendering of the two animals is quite different, especially in the muzzle, this supposed wingless griffin is probably a lion.…”

“…The griffins flanking the throne are either very poorly preserved, as on the right side, or not at all, as on the left, but no parts of wings are recognisable among the corpus of the fresco fragments from the Throne Room. See Galanakis, Tsitsa and Günkel-Maschek 2017, 63 no. 5, 61 fig.…”

Palatial Crete: recent discoveries & research, 2014–2019

“…The iconographic programme of the Throne Room, the most emblematic space of the Knossian palace, has been re-examined recently on the basis of a comparative study of the archaeological remains and the archival data. This has revealed a different picture to that restored by Evans and his team (Galanakis et al 2017). The stylistic analysis of the pictorial elements shows that the artist blended Νeopalatial and Final Palatial artistic traditions in order to create a new, yet easily recognizable composition, an image of power and political propaganda perhaps associated with the emergence of the wanax ideology.…”