The Role of Formal Decorative Patterns in the Wall Paintings of Thera

Most frequently used as subsidiary borders or framing devices, they played the role of organising the different parts of the wall, often reflecting the architectural structure beneath the plaster surfaces on which they were painted. Pure ornament could also serve as visually satisfying independent compositions, though this use was far rarer. The most innovative use of ornament, however, is to be found in the incorporation of formal patterns within figural scenes as a kind of decorative backdrop. Whether pure pattern or reflections of precious woven fabrics, embroideries or beadwork, these repetitive designs were intentional compositional devices that may have been used to suggest the ritual or sacred nature of the figural scenes set against them.

In her discussion of the art of the Mycenaean palaces in Greece in the Bronze Age, Emily Vermeule remarked: "We tend to underestimate the pleasure brought by formal patterns in the ancient world and overestimate the figured scenes for their illumination of ancient life" (Vermeule 1972, 186). While it may be an exaggeration to say that the figural scenes are overestimated, for indeed they do provide a rich repository of valuable information, this tendency may readily be demonstrated by even a cursory comparison of the vast bibliography for the figural paintings of Akrotiri with that of the few considerations of the ornamental patterns and their relationships to the large figural compositions. In fact, repetitive ornamental designs do have much to tell us about the artists' sources of inspiration and the decorative programmes for interior spaces.⁽¹⁾

Certainly, the use of formal repetitive patterns was not unique to the artists of the Aegean region. Decorative borders and ornamental schemes seem to be a fundamental part of artistic vocabularies around the globe. The Aegean art of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age developed a distinctive vocabulary of repetitive spirals, chevrons, hatched triangles and other motifs rendered in incision and relief that would continue to exert an enduring influence on the art of this region (Thimme 1977, 129-141).

In their choice of ornamental patterns, the artists of the Aegean wall paintings shared a common repertoire with the artists of other media, particularly the vase painters and gem cutters, and the evidence provided by these other humbler artefacts, which survive in far greater quantity than the wall paintings, is invaluable. The majority of Early and Middle Minoan decorative motifs are, in fact, abstract designs composed of spirals, circles, radials, nets and other patterns. The occurrence of figural imagery is remarkably rare, even among the vases (Walberg 1992, 6-56). Indeed, many of the patterns appear in the minor arts before they are found among the preserved paintings, and the once popular opinion that wall paintings provided the original source of inspiration for the minor arts has now generally been reversed (Immerwahr 1990, 39).

One reason that formal patterns among Aegean wall paintings have not been as thoroughly studied as the pictorial paintings is the fragmentary nature of the evidence. Decorative friezes often survive in only small pieces excavated in unclear contexts that make it difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct the original compositional or even architectural context from which they derive. They are generally considered to have provided subsidiary borders or frames for figurative compositions. Fragments of small-scale ornamental pattern work have sometimes proved to be parts of larger pictorial images, however, providing important evidence for the interpretation of the subjects represented,⁽²⁾ but no additional information about the overall programme of the wall decoration.

Based on the surviving evidence from the Old Palaces at Knossos and Phaistos (Immerwahr 1990, 21-23), the artists of Crete seem to have been the first in the Aegean to develop painted wall decoration and they surely influenced the dissemination of this art in the Cyclades and on the mainland of Greece. Fragments found among the remains of the oldest monumental buildings included spirals, crescents, foliate bands, labyrinths, quatrefoils and imitation veined stonework. The range of colours employed was fairly limited and included only grey, black, red, white and yellow (Fyfe 1902, 116).

In his original treatment of the painted plaster decoration at Knossos, Fyfe (1902, 107-131, pls. I-II) established some important criteria that have proved helpful for later consideration of the Minoan ornamental patterns in relationship to architectural settings. First, he distinguished between large-scale and small-scale ornament, noting that the large-scale patterns "formed controlling lines of decoration" in the overall scheme of wall decoration, while the small-scale "formed a setting for a 'picture' fresco proper" (Fyfe 1902, 107), more or less like a frame. The decorative patterns placed particular emphasis on the horizontal line, reflecting the underlying architectural structure in which horizontal wooden beams provided important reinforcement for the rubble construction (Fyfe 1902, 110). Some vertical elements were noted, as the construction beneath also relied on upright posts, but these were generally to be found in the lower area of the wall (Fyfe 1902, 112).

The dado was often covered with finely grained gypsum revetments or painted imitations of such slabs. In the spaces with ceilings some four metres above the floor, the dado could reach the height of the door frame (Fyfe 1902, 110). In the more intimate spaces with lower ceilings, the dado generally seems to have been less than a metre (Fyfe 1902, figs. 4, 6 and 8) and often included a broad band of ornament along its upper border. The broad zone of plaster beginning immediately above the dado provided space for ornamental patterns and figural decoration. In most interior spaces, the tops of the door frames and the windows provided a particularly important line of separation that was often marked with ornamental pattern work, for it was at this height that the internal wooden crossbeams which strengthened the walls were set. Fyfe speculated that their circular ends may have inspired the rosettes that often appear as decorative motifs in the horizontal bands at this level (Fyfe 1902, 110). This common radial device, which may well have had its origins in the ancient Near East (Crowley 1989, 194), may also reflect ceramic and stone tile inlays used to decorate the surfaces of buildings in that region (Evans 1935, 124-125 where the author mentions parallels from Ur, Erech and Kirkup; also Marinatos 1970, 63).

Until now, no figural paintings from the Old Palaces have been found among the fragmentary ornamemal patterns and imitations of veined stone preserved from this period (Hood 1978, 98; Immerwahr 1990, 21), so it is impossible to know for certain when such pictorial scenes were introduced. From the New Palace period, which scholars now generally agree cannot have begun before MM III (Immerwahr 1990, 39; Walberg 1986, 70), fragments of figural decoration are numerous and show refinement in their execution. Though the sophistication of these paintings would seem to suggest that there should have been some antecedents in the earlier buildings, recent studies of the motifs on painted pottery and engraved gems indicate that figural imagery developed much earlier in these media, and they may well have provided the sources of inspiration for the wall compositions (Immerwahr 1990, 39; Walberg 1992, 86-88).

Among the New Palaces of Crete and related villas on Crete and the Cycladic islands, the preserved remains of formal repetitive patterns used for architectural decoration include numerous variations on the interconnected and contiguous spirals, rosettes (including the rosette-triglyph ornament), foliate bands, dentils, toothed and notched bands, and imitation veined stone, as well as simple painted fillets and stripes in various colours. In addition to the palette of colours found in the Old Palaces, the paintings now include blue, and all the secondary tones and shades achieved by mixing.⁽³⁾

Few pictorial frescoes have been found in any reliable combination with the many vestiges of ornamental pattern work, so reconstructions of the overall decoration for the interior spaces into which these elements fit have been based mostly on conjecture (Cameron 1976, 20-32; Hood 1978, 85-86; Immerwahr 1990, 17). For this aspect of organisation, the wall paintings of Akrotiri provide exceptionally valuable evidence, as at least six separate buildings preserve remains of painted spaces that can be reconstructed with confidence from floor to ceiling. Since these spaces belong to architecture of generally modest scale, they cannot offer precise parallels for the decorative schemes of the larger Cretan structures. They do, however, illustrate how formal ornamental patterns were used effectively to organise monumental wall decoration. At the same time, they provide some important indications of the ways in which formal patterns could also play a role in pictorial compositions. Focusing in particular on these wall paintings and their parallels among contemporary (i.e. MM III-LM IA) paintings preserved from sites on Crete and other islands in the Cyclades, this paper will consider the use of formal patterns in the paintings for three different purposes: as borders or organising elements; as independent compositions; and as compositional devices within figural scenes. The question of when figural representation ceases to be pictorial and crosses into the realm of repetitive pattern is of fundamental importance to the identification of the purpose of certain motifs. The role of decorative patterns within larger figural contexts may also assist with the interpretation of these images.

PATTERNS PRESERVED AT AKROTIRI

Before considering the compositional uses of repetitive pattern work at Akrotiri, it may be useful to review the range of preserved decorative motifs and their contexts.

     Stripes.

The most common borders are stripes, usually consisting of bands of varying width divided by lines of white; red, blue, black and yellow are all used in striped borders, and the particular combination of colours always includes the dominant colours of the figural composition framed by the border. Striped borders only are found above the figural compositions in the House of the Ladies (Doumas 1992, 33-35), where the distinctions in colours are used to emphasise the separation of the chamber with the female figures (Doumas 1992, figs. 6-12) from that of the papyrus plants (Doumas 1992, figs. 2-5). They also appear above the fishermen and the ikria in the West House (Doumas 1992, 44-49, figs. 18-19 and 49-56 respectively; see Pls. 5, 7), below the boxers and antelopes in Beta 1 (Doumas 1992, 108-110, figs. 79, 82-83), and above the figural scenes in Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, 126-131, figs. 100-101, 108-111, 116, 122-129, 131; Pls. 8, 12) and Xeste 4 (Doumas 1992, 176, figs. 139-141). Stripes appear in combination with more elaborate patterns in Beta 1 (Doumas 1992, figs. 78-79, 83) and 6 (Doumas 1992, figs. 85-86, 90).

     Spirals.

A large running spiral appears in Beta 6 (Doumas 1992, figs. 85-86, 90), and a more elaborate double spiral in Room 2 of Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, 128, figs. 93-94). In Beta 6, the position of the pattern in the lintel zone is certain; this same position is proposed for the pattern band in Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, 128). A small fragment of a spiral was also recovered in Alpha 2, which may be part of a socle decoration (Immerwahr 1990, 188).⁽⁴⁾

     Foliate band.

A foliate border in the form of naturally drawn sacral ivy appears in the lintel zone in Beta 1 (Doumas 1992, 110, figs. 78-79, 83).

     Rosettes.

These floral elements form part of a large ornamental design in Room 9 of Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, 131, figs. 136-137). They have also been found in Gamma 10, bordered by wavy bands of colour; the composition and its original location on the wall remain unclear, though it may have been similar to that from Xeste 3, without the relief borders (Marinatos 1970, 63, pls. 59:2 and 60). Another rosette from building Gamma (Doumas 1992, 17) offers no information about its original decorative context. Immerwahr (1990, 188 no. 19) cites a rosette frieze from the upper storey of a pylon in Delta 9, but no image is available.

     Nautilus.

Fragments of a nautilus frieze were found in Gamma 1, and originally decorated the upper or lower part of the wall (Marinatos 1970, 39, 42-43, 63, figs. 24-25, pl. 59:1 and col. pl. B2, where it is identified as a fine spiral; Immerwahr 1990, 188 no. 17, where it is identified correctly as a nautilus but cited as coming from Beta 1).

     Notched band.

Notched bands, alternately blue/black or red/yellow, frame the double spiral from Room 2 of Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, 128, figs. 93-94).

     Dentils.

A band of blue/black dentils provides the upper border for the large ornamental frieze from Room 9 of Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, figs. 136-137).

     Imitation stone.

Imitation veined gypsum or alabaster forms the dado and interior frame of the window in Rooms 4, 4b and 5 of the West House (Doumas 1992, figs. 14-17, 49-56, 63-64).

PATTERN AS BORDER OR ORGANISING DEVICE

When large-scale pattern was employed as a horizontal border, the most common motif after the stripes seems to have been the running spiral. In Beta 6, S. Marinatos uncovered remains of a complex composition of blue monkeys scampering across a field of highly stylised rocky outcroppings (Doumas 1992, figs. 85-86). In contrast to the schematic landscape in which it is difficult to read positive and negative spaces, the creatures themselves are rendered with great detail and vitality. At the bottom of the frieze, irregular undulating striations of yellow, red and blue suggest a flowing stream, with a darker, black bank at the bottom. No dado existed below this landscape, but at the top the scene is bordered by a large running spiral pattern set between red and blue guard stripes separated by fine white lines. The left-handed spiral is robust. At the heart of the decoration is a series of interlocking blue S-shaped curves outlined with spiky black contours, resembling "woolly bear caterpillars" (Doumas 1992, 110). Set within wide white borders against a background of dark red, the design stands out vividly. Both the blue and red pigments are repeated below in the figural composition, making the frieze an integral part of the compositional programme. Most importantly, the curves of the spirals are repeatedly echoed in the curling tails of the monkeys and in the globular forms of the fantastic rocks. Though the decorative pattern may well have been painted by a different artist than the scene below, it forms the ideal complement, at once defining the upper limits for the active creatures and reinforcing the planar surface of the wall.⁽⁵⁾

A second spiral pattern was found in Room 2 of Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, figs. 93-94). Though it was not associated with any figural decoration, its narrow dimensions from top to bottom suggested that it was a subsidiary decorative band and Doumas placed it, like the spiral in Beta 1, in the lintel zone (Doumas 1992, 128). Only the fragmentary spiral pattern found in Alpha 2 has been thought to be part of a dado decoration (Immerwahr 1990, 188 no. 18).

Spiral patterns, both painted and in relief, were used in the palaces of Knossos and Zakros. Evans restored a spiral frieze above the gypsum dado in the lintel zone of the Hall of the Double Axes (Evans 1930, 324, fig. 216, here Fig. 1) and another in the Queen's Megaron (Evans 1930, 378, fig. 252) on the basis of preserved traces. Another fragmentary spiral is from a dado (Evans 1930, 381, fig. 254), perhaps like the Akrotiri fragment from Alpha 2, and one relief complex spiral pattern has been identified as a probable ceiling. The Zakros fragment, which is executed in relief, can be placed with confidence in the upper part of the decorated wall, coming from the moulding that separated the wall from the ceiling (Platon 1971, 172). The spiral from Beta 6 is as yet without parallel for its spiky contours. The double running spiral from the lintel zone in Room 2 of Xeste 3 can be compared in its complexity with the spiral frieze from the north-west quarter of the palace at Knossos (Evans 1921, fig. 272). but the Akrotiri example is more rigid in its composition, with the double spirals presented back-to-back instead of alternating as they are in the Knossos example.

In contrast to the successful combination of formal pattern with figural composition in Room Beta 6, the decorative scheme found in Room 1 of the same building does not achieve the same sense of unity (Doumas 1992, figs. 79-84). Here, above the black dado, which is interrupted near the top by a single blue stripe, the figural zone is filled with two distinct subjects: on the north, west and east walls are pairs of antelopes, while the south wall carries a pair of boys engaged in a boxing match. A frieze of stylised sacral ivy⁽⁶⁾ encircles the entire room above the level of the door and window frames, set off from the red backgrounds of the panels by a broad band of white with narrow red and blue stripes. From the central red stem spring pairs of blue heart-shaped leaves attached by fleshy brown stems. As in other decorative bands, the colours used in the foliate ornament are repeated in the figural scenes below, but the static pattern complements neither the spirited physical combat between the boys nor the alert liveliness of the animals. What it does do effectively is unify the space and reinforce the suggestion that the scenes have some definite relationship to one another.⁽⁷⁾ It may also provide a subtle indication of the direction in which the observer was to read the images around the interior space, beginning at the proper left upon entering the room and continuing around to the south wall where the unique combat scene occupied the space between two doors.

The stylised ivy garland is without parallel among the preserved ornamental patterns from other sources, though sacral ivy does appear on painted vessels (Walberg 1992, 81-83) and ivy is represented in a more naturalistic manner in wall paintings (Hood 1978, figs. 34, 50). Its particular use here may well have a significance for the event celebrated in the figural decoration of the room.

The last decorative motif that most likely comes from a border pattern is the nautilus, which is preserved in several fragments from the area of Gamma 1 (Marinatos 1970, 39, 42-43, 63, figs. 24-25, pl. 59:1 and col. pl. B2). Here the stylised shell of the nautilus is formed from intersecting black spirals, with red dotted lines filling the white spaces between. The upturned end of the shell is more complex, with a yellow centre surrounded by an aureole of red dots, a blue volute outlined in black, and a series of red crescents marking the outer contour. Marinatos (1970, 39) identified the fragments as part of a spiral and floral pattern "from a cornice or frieze"; and though Immerwahr (1990, 188 no. 17) identified the subject as a nautilus, she does not refer to it in her discussion of this repetitive motif, which she views as "a Mycenaean phenomenon"  (Immerwahr 1990, 142). Well known among Mycenaean decorative patterns on gold and ivory (Lang 1969, 143 no. 92), it is rarely represented in frescoes and appears in no other extant example of this early date. Fragments of nautilus patterns are most numerous at Pylos (Lang 1969, 141-143, 147-150, pls. 79-85). One example does survive from Knossos (Evans 1935, 889-892, figs. 870-871), but on the basis of its more sombre colours it was recognised by Evans as coming from a late phase in the decoration of the palace. Still, the Akrotiri example does share one feature with the Knossos example, and that is the incorporation of a grid of fine black lines against the blue background colour. This same device also appears behind the spiral pattern from Room 2 of Xeste 3 (Doumas 1992, figs. 93-94).

ORNAMENT AS INDEPENDENT COMPOSITION

Large-scale ornamental patterns provided both a practical and pleasing means of covering broad expanses of walls, and the artists of Akrotiri showed an originality in their use of this device. Room 9 of Xeste 3 yielded large fragments of a wall treatment that was entirely decorative in scheme (Doumas 1992, figs. 136-137). Against a background of deep red, the artist set three horizontal bands of quatrefoil shapes. The borders of the top and bottom bands are defined with bipartite relief mouldings that form three curves around the centre and taper towards the sides. Each lozenge is separated from the next by a double gold ring rendered in perspective. The centre band occupies the spaces left between the contiguous inner borders, which are exactly the same quatrefoil shape.

Each quatrefoil contains four star rosettes of blue or gold; inner petals are respectively black or white, and the centres white or blue. The preserved expanse of the frieze is fortunately complete enough to show that, though the rosettes in the three linked lozenges at the top and bottom are uniformly blue, the gold blossoms are limited to the two central quatrefoils, with blue flowers filling the half-lozenges at the ends. It could be speculated that the adjoining walls repeated the same pattern, completing the half-lozenges in the middle section. When Christos Doumas (1992, 131) described this fresco as one of the loveliest masterpieces in the art of Akrotiri, he did not exaggerate. The successful combination of low relief with painted ornament and the balance of saturated and pale colours provide great visual satisfaction.

Given its positive impact today, it is odd that this pattern is so rare among contemporary Aegean frescoes, for it appears only once among the published fragments, in the skirt of a female figure modelled in relief found on Pseira (Evans 1930, 28 fig. 15A (here Fig. 2), 38 figs. 21-22). The Pseiran example differs slightly in that the quatrefoils are separated by rosettes rather than rings and filled with zigzag lines or four interlocked spirals. The overall impression is the same, however.

Though rare, this pattern is closely related to the tricurved arch networks that are plentiful in Minoan and Mycenaean textile, pottery and relief vessel designs (Kantor 1947, 99-100). The arch network pattern has often been identified as a schematic representation of a rocky surface, and, indeed, one scholar has described the design of the Xeste 3 wall as stylised rocks (Hackmann 1978, 615-616). Such networks differ from the Akrotiri and Pseira designs in one significant detail: the individual lozenges are not symmetrical top and bottom. As a pattern for a running horizontal frieze, it would have the problem that it is vertically directional and, while the curving upper contours of the arches would provide a suitable framing element, the pointed lower contours would not. The Akrotiri/Pseira pattern has the advantage that it could be expanded horizontally or vertically to fill any space without sacrificing the all important consistency of contours on both sides of the motif. It could also ignore the constraints of the corners of the room, wrapping around gracefully without breaking the design.⁽⁸⁾

This monumental design provides one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the Cretan influence in the Akrotiri wall decorations. The Pseira relief fragment has always been associated with Crete, considered close enough in style to be the work of an artist from Knossos because of its similarity to wall paintings from the palace (Hood 1978, 77). The Akrotiri frieze is unique among the preserved Theran wall paintings in its use of the relief for outlines that enclose the rosettes. This technique of execution recalls other fragmentary wall paintings from Knossos, where the use of relief decoration is well documented (Kaiser 1976, 257-298; Hood 1978, 71-77). The appearance of the blue and grey/black dentil border at the top of the wall reinforces this connection. This pattern, which does not appear elsewhere among the Akrotiri paintings, is well known among the Cretan fragments, including moulded relief decoration from the palace of Knossos executed in the same colours (Fyfe 1902, 116, figs. 28-30).

The running frieze from Room 9 of Xeste 3 can indisputably be identified as formal pattern work at its purest. Room 4 of the West House (Doumas 1992, 49, figs. 52-64) presents a more complex issue: when does representation cease to be figural and fall into the category of pattern or ornament? In this room, a painted dado imitating variegated alabaster or gypsum slabs surrounded the lower walls of the room, ending at the upper edge in a painted black moulding. Around the upper walls at the level of the tops of the door and window frames, a series of coloured fillets (red, black, blue and black) of equal width separate the figural frieze from the solid yellow zone above. Between, on the broad white expanse of the frieze, is represented a series of richly decorated objects. Their identification as ikria, or portable boat cabins, is confirmed by their appearance in the miniature frescoes of the adjacent Room 5 (Doumas 1992, figs. 35-40; Pl. 3). The cabins appear to be constructed of oxhide, generally mottled with grey or yellow splotches on a red or white background (though one is pure white), stretched over a wooden frame consisting of three upright poles which end in elaborate and distinctive finials, waz-lilies or waz-irises. At the top, the hide covering is distinctively contoured, dipping between each of the poles in a deep curve, and its edge is bordered with a band that matches the two lower cross braces in its surface design. These curves echo the lines of the two garlands that are suspended between the upright poles beneath the top brace.

The ikria were originally systematically disposed around all walls of Room 4 and 4B, with regular spacing separating the individual structures. No two are identical and all are described with careful attention to the great variety of materials and ornamental details used to distinguish one from another, including finials, cross-brace patterns and suspended garlands. Nevertheless in general form, the ikria are all alike and together form a unified repetitive composition that provides a predictability and visual pleasure similar to that offered by the frieze from Room 9 of Xeste 3. The ikria have rightly been compared to the frieze of shields from the palace at Knossos (Immerwahr 1990, 140-141), which is now restored in the loggia opposite the grand staircase (Evans 1930, fig. 196, pl. XXIII). Both are patterns composed of representations of a series of distinctive but very similar objects - emblemmata of some significance which must have been meant to 'stand in' for real ikria or shields that at some time were probably intended to be similarly displayed (Immerwahr 1990, 138-141; Marinatos 1984, 46).⁽⁹⁾ Dated slightly later than the Theran ikria frieze, the shields of Knossos actually reinforce their identification as formal pattern work with the incorporation of the spiral frieze that runs behind them and from which they appear to be suspended. Even without this additional element, the Theran frieze fits securely into the category of a decorative pattern, albeit with the added interest of individual details. The device of the shield frieze was widely imitated by later artists in the palaces of Mycenae, Tiryns and Thebes (Immerwahr 1990, 138-140), often with a proliferation of ornamental patterns surrounding it. The frieze of ikria may also have been imitated at Mycenae (Shaw 1980).

PATTERN AS COMPOSITIONAL DEVICE

In some rare instances, the role of formal, repetitive pattern becomes blurred with figural imagery in another way. In the House of the Ladies, Marinatos found the remains of painted walls from two small adjoining chambers (Doumas 1992, figs. 2-7). Like those of Rooms 4 and 4b in the West House, the walls of Room 1 preserve a series of repetitive images in their white figural zone, in this case large tripartite flowering plants (apparently papyrus; see Warren this volume). Above them, on the level of the top of the window frame, fillets of black, red and blue interspersed with white lines separate the frieze from the smaller yellow zone just below the ceiling. What prevents these paintings from becoming a formal repetitive pattern similar to the ikria is the irregular disposition of the plants on the walls and the fact that they appear to grow from the gently rolling, irregular surface of golden brown sand beneath that forms the dado of the room. Though highly stylised and decorative, these flowers remain in the category of nature paintings, like the lilies in the Spring fresco of Delta 2 (Doumas 1992, figs. 66-76; cf. Pl. 15).

In the adjoining space, paintings from the eastern sections of two opposing walls, the north and south, survive. Each preserves the fairly complete image of a mature woman, and on the north wall are the vestiges of a third female. The two better preserved figures are dressed in tightly fitting tunics over which they have wrapped elaborately layered, multi-coloured skirts. The woman on the north wall bends forward, apparently to offer a similar skirt to her companion, whose image is poorly preserved. The scene has been interpreted as a ceremonial robing scene in preparation for some ritual performance or festival (Marinatos 1984, 97-105). All the figures stand on a level dark brown band that forms the top of the dado.

Of greater interest for the purposes of this paper, however, is the area above their heads. The figural zone has been divided unevenly into two sections by a broad undulating band of black and blue fillets. This border seems to follow the upper contours of the figures, outlining them against the blank background and separating them from the remarkable patterned field above their heads. In the upper section, against the same white ground as below, the artist has created a beaded net or diaper pattern in red with star-like blue lozenges, outlined in black, superimposed at the intersections of crossed beaded strings. The division of the figural zone into two or more sections of background is not without parallel, for the boxing boys and the antelopes of Beta 1 are all set against a white ground, but, over their heads, an irregular area of deep red fills the spaces between them and the bottom of the ornamental pattern zone above. This zone is not patterned, nor is the separation marked with a distinctive border, as it is in the House of the Ladies fresco.⁽¹⁰⁾

Such a distinctive use of a repetitive formal pattern as the background in a figural scene is rarely paralleled among the Minoan and Cycladic frescoes. The pattern itself is apparently unique. Net patrerns with star-shaped lozenges in the interstices of the net are well documented on representations of fabrics, especially among the Theran wall paintings (Doumas 1992, figs. 101, 103: the left figure on the north wall, ground floor of Xeste 3).⁽¹¹⁾ No replica of the pattern with stars at the intersections of the beaded lines has yet appeared.⁽¹²⁾ In an article on the Aegean garden, Maria Shaw (1993, 679) persuasively suggested that this pattern may represent a woven or embroidered wall hanging. Given the careful definition of the dotted net and the star attachments, a third possibility might be beadwork.⁽¹³⁾ Surely a painted representation of some precious fabric would create a special setting appropriate to a room for the performance of ceremonial activities.⁽¹⁴⁾

Although the use of a patterned backdrop to transform a space and event into something special, perhaps sacred, is exceptionally rare among other wall paintings of this period, it is not without associations among religious representations of other periods. In fact, the closest parallels for this device may be found among the mosaics, illuminated manuscripts and wall and panel paintings of mediaeval and early Renaissance Europe, where hieratic images of saints and the Holy Family are often placed against similar formally patterned backgrounds, often defined with elaborate architectural frameworks (Fig. 3). Such formal pattern work at once enriches the space and reinforces the two-dimensionality of the painting. In the case of later religious images, this device has the effect of separating the depicted image from the mundane into another sphere of importance. We may only speculate on its purpose in the Bronze Age, but given the rarity of its employment it is not without significance.

In fact, the incorporation of a repetitive ornamental device in the background of a figural painting may be found in only two other instances. Unlike the backdrop in the House of the Ladies, the formal pattern work in these examples is not separated from the images but forms instead an integral part of the landscape. The first, and most specific, use appears in the bull leaping scene discovered among the recently excavated fragmentary frescoes from Tell el-Dab'a (Bietak 1996, pls. III-V). As reconstructed, the figural zone begins above an elaborate variant of the rosette-triglyph border, which was also popular at Knossos (Fyfe 1902, 126-128, pl. II, figs. 60-61; Immerwahr 1990, 144). Within the frieze, images of four running bulls are represented on two levels; human acrobats or wrestlers are associated with at least two of them. The lower part of the scene and the rosette-triglyph border are set against a white background overlaid with an interlocking labyrinth pattern executed in black and red pigments. That this background is intended to represent the landscape, at least above the ornamental border, is indicated by the rolling contours of its upper border, defined with double lines. The hilltops and the two bulls in the upper level are set against a dark red sky.

Similar labyrinth patterns used as purely decorative motifs are known from an approximately contemporary fresco fragment executed in the incavo technique found at Knossos as well as numerous engraved seals (Evans 1921, 356-358, figs. 256 (fresco), 260 (engraved seals with similar patterns)). The appearance of the labyrinth pattern in this wall painting of Avaris only underlines the other strongly Minoan features of the composition.⁽¹⁵⁾ Like many interlocking patterns, it may well have its origins in woven designs of Minoan or Near Eastern origin. However, its use in this wall painting as an indication of landscape is thus far unique.

Evans considered the labyrinth motif as a symbol of the palace, adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphics (Evans 1921, 358-359). Its use in the Avaris frescoes may be intended to refer to the palace of Knossos where bull jumping and wrestling were practised and presented, or it may simply represent the stytised pavement of the arena or court where such events took place (Shaw 1995, 108, 110). While there exists the possibility that the pattern was referential, what is more important in the context of this consideration is the impact it has on the figural representation. Even more emphatically than the beaded network in the background above the females in the House of the Ladies, this repetitive pattern reinforces the planar surface of the wall and isolates the bull jumping contest in an unnatural environment. The very complexity of the labyrinth design competes with the clarity of the pictorial image at the same time that it enhances the overall visual impact of the wall composition.

The use of the Venetian red at the top of the painting as a kind of foil for the landscape may be compared with a similar application in Beta 1 at Akrotiri, where the antelopes are drawn in outline against a white background that ends abruptly above their images in irregular, undulating contours. Like the bulls in Avaris, their horns project across the white into the red background. In contrast to the painting from Egypt, which includes a palm tree, the Theran fresco includes no element to suggest landscape.

One fresco composition from Akrotiri does use a repetitive pattern within the landscape to similar effect, though it is more subtly represented, and this is the image of the saffron gatherers and the Mistress of the Animals from the adjoining north and east walls of Room 3a on the first level of Xeste 3. On the east wall, above a dado of black, two elegantly dressed females are represented climbing over a rugged landscape of fantastically coloured rocks (Doumas 1992, fig. 116; Pl. 8). The older girl carries a situla to hold the saffron-covered stamens that they are gathering. On the adjacent north wall, another saffron gatherer empties her situla into a shallow basket before the imposing image of an enthroned goddess (Doumas 1992, fig. 122; Pl. 12). The goddess is attended by a griffin and a blue monkey, which presents her with a bouquet of crocus blossoms. The white ground behind the goddess and her attendants is filled with delicate crocus plants. But unlike the flowers that grow in wild profusion in the paintings of the House of the Frescoes at Knossos, the villa at Ayia Triada, or even the miniatures of the West House, these plants are disposed in a rather carefully arranged pattern, not completely symmetrical but close enough to echo the diagonal lines of the beaded network in the House of the Ladies.

In the case of this painting, we can judge the effects of this repetitive background pattern by comparing this composition with the iconographically related scene from the floor below. There, three young women are represented in a similar rocky landscape, though here the setting is indicated with only a small clump of rocks on which the central figure is seated and some other rocks that hang from the black border above her head. The seated girl has cut her left foot, which is now bleeding. Crocuses grow from the crevices of the rocky outcrop beneath her, but nowhere else. The background against which the figures are set is otherwise white and empty, a void that stands in marked contrast to the plant-studded backdrop in the composition on the floor above. Like the beaded net or the labyrinth patterns, the serried rows of crocuses enrich the surface and effectively separate this image from the one beneath; this is indeed another sphere where plants grow in decorative patterns and deities appear to the dutiful believers. The incorporation of formal pattern in this context would seem to be anything but accidental. It appears, rather, to be a device employed intentionally to impress the observer with the hieratic significance of the scene before him. Just as the patterned borders could be used to separate different zones of decoration in the composition of a wall, pattern work incorporated within the figural images could be used to distinguish one realm of activity from another.

CONCLUSION

This brief survey of formal pattern work in the wall paintings of Akrotiri has attempted to demonstrate that the artists of the wall paintings reflected the traditions of the Cretan models that had likely inspired them, especially in the use of patterns as borders and for large-scale compositions. Some individual patterns are thus far unique among wall paintings of this period (the sacral ivy and nautilus friezes) and the forms of the more common types of ornamental devices (spirals, rosettes) are mostly without specific parallels. Theran artists showed originality in their variations of standard motifs as well as aesthetic sensitivity in the incorporation of these ornamental patterns in the larger wall compositions. Finally, in their use of decorative pattern work within figural compositions, the Theran artists appear to be innovators. Found otherwise only in a Minoan painting from an Egyptian context, this device should have a significance for our understanding of the scenes in which it was employed. As all have been associated by scholars with scenes of religious ritual, the artistic intention may have been to emphasise the sacred nature of the figural image and remove the represented activities to another level of existence. This device is not repeated among preserved fragments of later frescoes from Mycenaean palaces, though the conceit of repetition of representational images becomes even more popular, as in the so-called 'wallpaper' schemes of decoration. The exceptional synthesis of pictorial and decorative imagery was lost in the later frescoes together with the sincerity and freshness that distinguishes the first period of Aegean wall painting.

(1). For extensive discussion of the ornamental patterns used in Aegean art and their origins, see Kantor 1947 and Crowley 1989.

(2). Bietak (1996, pl. VIIIc) illustrates the fragmentary spiral pattern preserved from the image of a griffin among the Tell el Dab'a fresco fragments.

(3). Doumas (1992, 19) notes that though the colour green is found elsewhere on Crete and in the Cyclades, the artists of Akrotiri did not mix yellow and blue to form green, so this colour is missing from the wall paintings at the site.

(4). Hood (1978, 71) suggested that this fragment might be part of a painted floor, which would be otherwise unparalleled at Akrotiri.

(5). See Immerwahr 1990, 17 on the possible distinction of painters of figures and ornament. Hollinshead (1989, 339-354) also separated the painter of the landscape from the painter of the swallows.

(6). Cerceau (1985, 184) identified the plant rather as Smilax aspera L..

(7). Morgan (1985, 18) draws a connection between pairs of males, human and animal, in formalised confrontation.

(8). S. Hood (1985, 23) saw this lack of interruption by vertical boundaries as a continuation of a primitive convention characteristic of Minoan art.

(9). R. Hägg (1985, 211) expands further on painted inanimate objects and their importance as indicators.

(10). Blakolmer (1994, 19-22) comments on this border, which he calls a 'Bänderbundel', and its associations with the contour of the landscape, especially along the horizon line.

(11). Barber (1991, 317) discusses this pattern and considers it "readily -even easily - weavable".

(12.) Barber (1991, 329) questions how it could have been woven.

(13). Barber (1991, 312) presents Mycenaean evidence and suggests that earlier popularity of this technique of textile enhancement was possible; F. Blakolmer (1994, 22) also suggests the possibility of beadwork, with the star-lozenges made of silver metal.

(14). Barber (1994, 22-27), accepting the painted motif as a representation of textile, discusses its greater symbolic significance the incorporation of celestial imagery.

(15). Walberg 1992 71, fig. 88a illustrates that the labyrinth pattern is also known from a fragment of wall plaster from the Old Palace at Phaistos.

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