Morphological Analysis of the Akrotiri Wall-Paintings of Santorini

He concludes that a better understanding of the ancient artist's approach to, and treatment of, the principles and practice of painting is a necessary aid to the interpretation of the subjects of the paintings.

INTRODUCTION

The Akrotiri wall-paintings of Santorini are unique in one important respect: they are the only ones from the Minoan world that have been preserved nearly intact until the present day, unlike those from Crete, whose few remaining fragments have been restored according to the imagination of the specialists.

At Akrotiri consideration of the wall-paintings is not handicapped by conjecture or uncertainty about their form, composition or function within the architectural space they decorate. Their restoration, based on the solid results of excavation, leaves little room for doubts as to its accuracy.

For this reason, and because the quantity of the wall-paintings allows us the possibility, and also because research has hitherto been concerned basically with the interpretation of their subject matter, we thought it would be useful to consider the paintings from a different point of view, that of painting proper and its aesthetic values. In other words, we examined the solutions sought by the ancient artist to the problems of trying to depict his subject, that is, to render space, forms in space, composition and colour; and secondly, we looked at the ways in which he managed to overcome the difficulties inherent in his material, because that, too, to some degree determines the forms things will take.

It would have been useful if this study could have included a comparison with the Cretan wall-paintings and set out their differences and similarities, but that would have required a separate study of them along the same lines, which is outside the scope of this paper. The question remains an open one, and here we shall do no more than mention it.

SURFACES

We will begin with the surfaces to be painted. First, it should be noted that the pictorial space is not determined simply by the four sides of the walls. It is almost as if the painter felt intimidated in their midst and tried to impose his own spatial limits in order not to lose himself. This is the reason he meticulously laid out his pictorial space at the very start, while the stucco was still fresh, dividing the wall into horizontal zones by means of a taut string which was pressed onto the stucco and left its imprint there. The bottom zone, which is the narrowest, serves as the ground on which the main composition rests, the middle one is used for the main theme and the third for the friezes or decoration that run all round the room over the doors and windows (pl. 1).

This system is strictly adhered to and constitutes the style, except for the wall-paintings in D2 (pl. 2). Here the upper zone is limited by the horizontal shelf, and the small remaining space caused no unease. Hence the lower zone is developed in a fashion that is free, but at the same time respects the space allotted to it. In the case of the so-called "Pancratium Lilies" the straight line produced by the taut string gives way to an undulating ground line (pl. 3), and the same thing happens with the Monkeys. At this point it is worth looking at the wall-paintings of room 5 of the West House with this scheme in mind. The "marbling" under the window makes up the first zone, the fishermen the second, while in place of the third, the decorative zone, are the miniature paintings. Regarded in this light everything takes on a new meaning and interpretation is able to get closer to the truth.

SPACE

Space is neutral, the white of the stucco, but it never manages to function as a void with spatial existence to which the forms are related. The "silent wave" (Marinatos 1971, 9), a decorative motif used to fill up blank space, does nothing to modify this impression. Where it was necessary to depict a real place - a landscape - this was done in various ways and in each case with varying results. In the Monkey painting the rocks, an organic element in the subject, were treated in a purely decorative spirit, but their broad undulations and rhythmic alternation of colour harmonize with the movement of the animals; in this way the feeling of movement that characterizes the composition is enhanced (pl. 4). In the Saffron-gatherers painting the theme itself suggests the third dimension. It was necessary to represent flowering meadows, and to achieve this more was needed than just a thickly flowering terrain stretching in the foreground. This, however, posed a technical problem which perhaps they had not encountered previously, and neither their tradition nor the technical advances of the period were conducive to its solution. The artist's extemporaneous improvization has given us a picture which is truly beautiful in its naivety, with all the crocuses swaying in the empty space (Marinatos 1976, pl. C). We cannot, it is true, say that distance has been rendered convincingly, but we are made conscious of the artist's striving after a third dimension by the ranks of flowers trying unskillfully to lead the eye away towards the background.

Pictorial space in the miniature wall-paintings is something rather different and if we consider them independently of their position in the general scheme of the room they adorn they assume a special importance for us. In them is found concentrated all the artistic achievement of the period.

The small dimensions allow the artist to overcome his fear of white and to develop his subject without restriction from one end of the surface to the other.

The whole surface is covered with colour, a purely pictorial vision, and the few reserved white places themselves function as colour.

The Ship wall-painting, almost intact, shows us clearly how the artist confronted his problems. The composition has a strictly ordered balance. Two large forms at the two ends - sea coasts - define the limits of the composition, and in between are the small forms of the ships, perfectly lined up in two files. The empty space between two of the ships in the upper row is filled by a ship below, and in this way continuity is not interrupted (pl. 5). The space is simply and effectively organized, stretching upwards and not away towards the background, and it gives us a measure of the aesthetic values of the time. The more distant parts are depicted above the nearest ones, in parallel horizontal zones and without any tricks of perspective (pl. 6). The same holds true for the two cities, where the more distant houses are depicted above the nearest ones. Ones view is continually changing its angle. Everything is shown in the vertical; even the sea rises up like a curtain, higher than the mountains. The conception of space is cartographic, typical of folk art, and is still to be met with even to-day. For Santorini it must have represented a new achievement, for the artist, working carefully across every wall, found himself confined against his will within the narrow boundaries of the wall, and his freedom therefore restricted.

It is known from the Monkey painting and the one in D 2 that the same subject might spread across more than one wall, but here this was forgotten in the light of the new discovery. We have four independent subjects, one on each wall, and, contrary to what has been said and written, this is proved beyond doubt by the one sure corner that has been preserved; the river does not continue onto the Ship painting. They are two separate scenes (pl. 7).

FIGURES

The figures are characterized by the attempt to render the natural original faithfully, and especial attention is paid to this right from the beginning. The design is first incised (pl. 8) or drawn with diluted paint (pl. 9) in order to achieve the greatest exactness in the study and placing of the figures, and it undergoes continuous improvement in the course of its execution. The attempt to render the natural original is still more apparent in the movement of the figures and the striving after anatomical detail. The medium, however, - the brushes and the thickness of the paint - does not allow the rendering of volume by means of modelling.

Here it should be stressed that the Santorini painter did not try, or was not able, to achieve mastery of his material, and he worked without regard for the possibilities it offered him. Every material has its own texture, tone and brightness, and inspires its own kind of forms. The Santorini painter, however, made no attempt to discover them. On the contrary, he tried to express the very thing that was beyond the potentialities of his material; he tried to create volume in a medium that can only render shape, and the attempt is typical of his naturalistic proclivity.

In the end he only succeeded in giving volume an outline, which, in the case of the boys' bodies, faithfully traces all the anatomical volumes of the child's body.

This outline, in addition to its remarkably accurate observation, seeks to penetrate beneath the merely external, although in doing so it risks losing its unity of form; for every external curve denotes a hidden inner volume (pl. 10).

The separation of planes in the same figure, in accordance with its position relative to the viewer, is done consciously and with precision. Thus, in the case of the boy on the left in the Boxers painting, we have first his right shoulder, second his chest and third his left arm. Just how consciously this was executed is shown by the beads, which disappear out of sight behind the right shoulder (pl. 10). The same tendency is found in all the figures, to a greater or lesser degree, according to the complexity of the movement.

The figure of the saffron-gatherer who has been pricked by a thorn is even more typical (Marinatos 1976, pls. I, J). The posture is striking in its boldness. She is sitting down on the right, with her right hand outstretched towards her left foot, which has been hurt, while her left hand is raised to her forehead, a movement eloquent in its expression of pain, which is further emphasized by the half-parted lips. It is a tender scene, conveying the whole aesthetic gamut of the age and the compass of its art.

COLOUR

The arrangement of colour is purely decorative, on broad chromatic planes and with an alternating rhythm. The three colours, red, ochre and blue, outlined with black, give the impression of an unlimited chromatic range. This impression is strengthened by the juxtaposition of different coloured, decorated surfaces.

Surfaces are further differentiated qualitatively by the use of diluted paint in order to give the rhythm more emphasis. There are even hesitant attempts at colour mixing; black with blue makes grey, black and red make brown, red is thinned with white to produce different shades. This, too, plays a part in the general endeavour to depict things faithfully. Materials are carefully distinguished; stone is intended to be portrayed as stone, wood as wood and fabric as fabric.

There are also instances where incision is employed (Marinatos 1976, pl. 60) on the painted surface to make the differentiation more complete; or the surface may be combed to convey the texture of animal hair (pl. 11).

The technique of tempera, by allowing corrections and repeated modifications, gives the artist the opportunity to present his work in exactly the way he wants. Nevertheless, his art did not achieve a proper unity. Form remained independent of the background. His love of detail often prevented him from visualizing the detail incorporated into the whole.

This is the reason the design is loose and the figures, sacrificed for the sake of graphic effect, lose their proportions. Arms are lengthened unnaturally, feet are exaggeratedly enlarged below the skirts (Marinatos 1972, pl. 100; 1976, pl. I), and the toes could belong to even bigger feet. There is no measure, no discipline, no searching for rules, no deeper elaboration of pictorial form. The eye scans the world superficially and tries to depict it just as it sees it. There is even an attempt at indicating time: in the Saffron-gatherers painting we have three different time periods: the gathering, the transporting and the unloading. (Marinatos 1976, pls. E, C, K).

This, too, is natural, since art projects an interpretation of man's existence.

The world in which the artist lives, full of colour and ostentation, bathed in the unique Aegean light, finds its perfect expression in the Akrotiri wall-paintings.

Furthermore, the gay, carefree feeling engendered by this human, friendly place, since absolute beauty exorcizes evil, reaches down through its art to our own troubled world like a messenger of hope.

This survey of the Akrotiri wall-paintings is not intended as a critical evaluation of them. We believe that an examination of their pictorial aspect, which cannot be separated from the subject-matter they depict, assists in their interpretation, since the same idea lies behind both, and the one is part of the other. The need for a clearer understanding of them becomes the more imperative in view of the huge bibliography that has already accumulated.

Finally, it may be added, the origins of this art become more intelligible when one takes into consideration the processes through which they developed.

---------------------------------------

--------------------------------------