DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0231
188
VAPHEIO SCENES ON GEMS
Bull on
seal-im-
pressions
nosing
trail,
as on
CupB.
Lassoing
scene on
gem.
Fig. 131. Clay Sealing from Zakro show-
ing Bull nosing Cow's Trail, (f)
several seal-types, is in those cases generally associated with a human acrobatic
figure in the field above. On the other hand, the bull attempting, too late, to
turn and violently bundled back by the
rope cradle, as seen in the central scene,
which may be said to lend itself to
the conditions of the field of lentoid
bead-seals, seems certainly to have left
its impress in a not uncommon class
of contorted designs on Late Minoan
gems where, however, the rope cradle
itself is omitted.
The composition on the Vapheio
Cup B, showing the decoy scene, which
has been hitherto left out of account
in such comparisons, also finds some
remarkable parallels in Minoan intaglio
types. One of the later Zakro seal-
impressions—others of which illustrate
the more exciting scenes of the tauro-
kathapsia—gives, in fact, a very faith-
ful rendering of the first episode, con-
sisting of the more peaceful group in
which the bull makes his appearance
with his head lowered, nosing the cow's
trail (Fig. 131, and cf. Fig. 123, b). An
alternative rendering of this, in which
the bull walks to the right with his
head somewhat more raised, is seen on
two of the sealings from Hagia Triada.1
The agate lentoid2 (Fig. 132) presents,
on the other hand, in a sketchy style,
a variant version of the lassoing scene. This intaglio is itself an interesting
illustration of the gem-engraver's method. Were it not for the fact that it
has started running we might suppose that the cow from the preceding scene
on the Cup, with its head still turned back and tail erect, as it was during its
converse with the bull, were here repeated ! The man behind the bull seems
Fig. 132.
Man lassoing Bull on Agate
Lentoid.
1 Halbherr, Mori. Ant., vol. xiii, PI. V,
line 4, no. 2, and p. 36, no. 14.
2 In my own Collection. Bought at Athens
in 1926, and said to have been found in the
Peloponnese.
VAPHEIO SCENES ON GEMS
Bull on
seal-im-
pressions
nosing
trail,
as on
CupB.
Lassoing
scene on
gem.
Fig. 131. Clay Sealing from Zakro show-
ing Bull nosing Cow's Trail, (f)
several seal-types, is in those cases generally associated with a human acrobatic
figure in the field above. On the other hand, the bull attempting, too late, to
turn and violently bundled back by the
rope cradle, as seen in the central scene,
which may be said to lend itself to
the conditions of the field of lentoid
bead-seals, seems certainly to have left
its impress in a not uncommon class
of contorted designs on Late Minoan
gems where, however, the rope cradle
itself is omitted.
The composition on the Vapheio
Cup B, showing the decoy scene, which
has been hitherto left out of account
in such comparisons, also finds some
remarkable parallels in Minoan intaglio
types. One of the later Zakro seal-
impressions—others of which illustrate
the more exciting scenes of the tauro-
kathapsia—gives, in fact, a very faith-
ful rendering of the first episode, con-
sisting of the more peaceful group in
which the bull makes his appearance
with his head lowered, nosing the cow's
trail (Fig. 131, and cf. Fig. 123, b). An
alternative rendering of this, in which
the bull walks to the right with his
head somewhat more raised, is seen on
two of the sealings from Hagia Triada.1
The agate lentoid2 (Fig. 132) presents,
on the other hand, in a sketchy style,
a variant version of the lassoing scene. This intaglio is itself an interesting
illustration of the gem-engraver's method. Were it not for the fact that it
has started running we might suppose that the cow from the preceding scene
on the Cup, with its head still turned back and tail erect, as it was during its
converse with the bull, were here repeated ! The man behind the bull seems
Fig. 132.
Man lassoing Bull on Agate
Lentoid.
1 Halbherr, Mori. Ant., vol. xiii, PI. V,
line 4, no. 2, and p. 36, no. 14.
2 In my own Collection. Bought at Athens
in 1926, and said to have been found in the
Peloponnese.