n6 COCKLE-SHELLS AND COMPOSITE BIVALVES

' Nature-moulding' of sea-shells is now shown to go back to the initial phase
of Middle Minoan Art. The grotesque rockwork seen on the seal-impres-
sions referred to—notably the actual grotto on that reproduced here in Fig.

Fig. 81. Romantic Rock Landscape with
Grotto (M. M. II Sealing) (f).

81 '—suggesting a romantic landscape scene such as those once popularly
associated with the name of Salvator Rosa—was the natural outgrowth of
the imitations of marine rock surfaces long familiar with the Minoan potters.
That this, with the associated ' barnacle work' above described, had a con-
tinuous history on vases down to the beginning of the Late Minoan Age,
has, as we have seen, been clearly demonstrated by the peg-top shaped
' rhyton' from Zakro,2 which, with its partial use of black glaze, preserves the
earlier Middle Minoan tradition.

Cockle-
shell
reliefs on
M. M.
II b jug.

Cockle-shell Reliefs.
Three cockle-shells, about half life-size, are seen naturalistically moulded
in relief on the flat upper rim of a miniature bridge-spouted jug found near
the ' House of the Frescoes '. The rim of the vessel has a black surface
with white bars, and the cockles are of a whitish colour with black streaks
between their ridges, Fig. 82.3 '1 he vase itself belongs to the borders of
M. M. II and III.*

1 P.ofM., i, p. 273, Fig. 202, c; ii,
Pt. II, p. 453, Kg- 265.

- Ibid, ii, Pt. I, p. 225, Fig. 129, 11.

1 See ibid., ii, Pt. I, pp. 369, 371, and
Fig. 200, / 1,/2.

' In Fig. 206 it is placed beside vessels
from a stratum in the Earl)' Basements belong-
ing to M. M. Illffl. It was found, however,
outside this area, though near it.