492 LENTOID TYPES-GROUP OF THREE WATER FOWl

intaglio in an opaque green stone found near Mirabello East of Candia It

is an instantaneous sketch, presenting a group of three water-fowl, displave 1

in such a way that each illustrates a different phase of bird life (Fig. i'tf)

One is asleep, with his head and long neck

resting on his back; another, below this, plunges

his head into a stream—indicated by undulated

lines—in search of food. A third, behind, with

outspread wing and head gracefully thrown back

and extended neck, prepares for flight. No one

will question the selective felicity and power of

artistic grouping displayed in this design. It is

executed with a firm hand and with great sureness

Fig. 426. Group or Water- °f touch, which, though singularly free of details,

fowl: M. M.III-L. M.In: brings the essential features into strong relief. The

Mirabello, Crete (f). background is clear. Not a single papyrus spray,

so characteristic of other versions of this subject, is here introduced to break

Fig. 427. Ducks and Papy
rus Sprays: L.M. II-III
Knossos (-f).

Fig. 428

Banded Agate Lentoid : Mirabel

the simplicity of the composition. The wing feathers are not defined, u
the rendering of the outlines of wings themselves and the general contour
so skilful and true that the absence of such details hardly strikes the eye.

As a foil to the varied :

little masterpiece

here

.scene presented by the muv .....— - .

reproduced, the design, on a green jasper intaglio found on the si

Knossos itself,1 is here repeated. i e

In this case, Fig. 427, we see a group of three wild ducks on ^

same level, two swimming one way and one another, while, above a

front, rise three papyrus sprays—one weighed down by two of the ' ^
in a manner often seen in the wall-painting's of the Egyptian Thebes.

1 Given me by Dr. Joseph Hatzidakis in 1899. Cf. P. of M., iii, P- tl6> l'l&'