588 COILED AND CONTORTED ANIMAL FIGURES

a kind of horror vacui which made him seek to fill the entire surface of the
seal. The artistic concentration visible in the Transitional M. M. III-L.M. I
epoch which led to the reservation of part of the
field for the fuller emphasis of the design^so well
illustrated by the horned sheep on the flat cylinder
(Fig. 546 above)—was no longer maintained. A good
illustration of this growing tendency has been already
supplied by the comparison of the exquisite instan-
taneous sketch of the three water-birds in varying
action \ silhouetted against a plain background with
the later group in which the rest of the field is filled
in with papyrus sprays.2 This later work, dating from
about the beginning of L. M. Ill, itself contrasts
with a still further stage in the same ' lentoid' evolution in which the

Fig. 582. Cat and Duck.
Cornelian : Arkhanes.

Fig. 583. Contorted Lion
Rock Crystal : Kkossos.

Fig. 584. Contorted Bull
with Globule in Centre.

Fig. 585. Galloping Bull with
Shield below : Red Jasper.

Coiled
and con-
torted
animal
figures.

kindred Nilotic theme of the Cat and Duck is reduced to the closely packed
form shown in Fig. 582.

Figures of animals coiled or contorted so as to fit the circular field are
now of constant repetition. The lion of the crystal lentoid from near
Knossos (Fig. 583) is itself of exceptionally fine work, and the pottery found
with it established the date, in this case, as mature L. M. II. The bull of
Fig. 584, coiled round a central globule, recalls the lion, Fig. 583. In the
latter case, the Vapheto relief of the great beast caught in the net may help
to explain the attitude. So, too, the twisted body of the wild-goat, Suppl.
PL LV, /, is itself of very early tradition in the history of Cretan seal-

See p. 492, Fig. 426.

See lb., Fig. 427.