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extended legs to indicate movement. His horns, however, are being firmly held by the woman in front - possibly either in preparation to leap over the bull, or while stationary. However, if the woman is holding the bull, it cannot be galloping. The boy could be interpreted as being shown in a balancing, not a tumbling, position. He holds the flanks of the bull with both hands. If he were tumbling, and if he had used the horns to get a purchase, the woman would not be now holding them. It may not show a compressed chronological sequence, as the individuals are all different. Instead, icons that are disconnected in real time and space may have been superimposed to give an overall impression of a scene familiar to the artists and their viewers, but not to today's public.
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152:, their polychrome hues – white, pale red, dark red, blue, black – exclude them from the Early Minoan (EM) and early Middle Minoan (MM) Periods. They are, in other words, instances of the "mature art" created no earlier than MM III. The flakes of the destroyed panels fell to the ground from the upper story during the destruction of the palace, probably by earthquake, in Late Minoan (LM) II. By that time the east stairwell, near which they fell, was disused, being partly ruinous.
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only certain perception is that the leaper goes over the bull in an upside-down position, whether diving from above, leaping up from below, or with or without the assistance of another human or a device such as a pole. Why he should choose to do so also is strictly theoretical, although motives may probably presumed to be similar to those of modern adolescents in France: adventure and peer status. It would have to be, certainly, a volunteer activity of some social reward.
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637:. Vol. IV Part II: Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii, Chryselephantine Boy-God and ritual hair-offering, Intaglio Types, M.M. III - L. M. II, late hoards of sealings, deposits of inscribed tablets and the palace stores, Linear Script B and its mainland extension, Closing Palatial Phase, Room of Throne and final catastrophe. Archived from
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There are more fragments than are included in the famous reconstruction, and it is generally thought that there were several bull-leaping scenes. A proposed reconstruction by M. Cameron has four very similar scenes, each with a left-facing bull and three human figures, one upside-down over the bull's
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convention of painting women with pale skin and men with dark skin. The status of the participants is identified by their clothes and jewelry. The bull evidences the
Mycenaean Flying Leap, which means he is intended to be at full gallop. The artist has shown the bull's body in an elongated form with
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Arthur Evans recognized that depictions of bulls and bull-handling had a long tradition represented by copious instances in multi-media art, not only at
Knossos, and other sites on Crete, but also in the Aegean and on mainland Greece, with a tradition even more ancient in Egypt and the Middle East.
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The
Taureador Frescoes are not frauds or incorrect reconstructions. The same bull-leaping scene appears in miniature in sealings and sealstones of the MM and LM periods. Explanations and classifications of the figures depicted are strictly theoretical, never illustrated by real-life examples. The
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The Circus Sports are to be contrasted to bull-catching. They are "a more structurally organized and ceremonial form of the sport confined, of its very nature, to a specially devised structure." He goes on to conjecture, "the Palace Bull-Ring itself lay on the river flat immediately below." The
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from which kine were domesticated. This type of cattle motif is shown on the stucco fresco in the North
Entrance of the palace. Additionally, Jordan Wolfe, of Furman University, explains how the act of bull-leaping is especially significant to Minoan culture because it highlights man's dubious
586:. Vol. IV Part I: Emergence of outer western enceinte, with new illustrations, artistic and religious, of the Middle Minoan Phase, Chryselephantine "Lady of Sports", "Snake Room" and full story of the cult Late Minoan ceramic evolution and "Palace Style". Archived from
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scenes. They were difficult to produce. The artist had to manage not only the altitude of the panel but also the simultaneous molding and painting of fresh stucco. The panels, therefore, do not represent the formative stages of the technique. In
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266:. First the bull in the ring is baited by riders to exhaust him. Then a rider comes up beside him, leaps on his back, seizes the horns, and falling to one side twists the head, bringing down the tired bull. Macedonian coins depict
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Taureador
Frescoes, then, are not depictions of real events in real time, but are decorative motifs on the wall above a ceremonial bull-ring. They depict a stock scene, of a conventional nature, which has come to be termed "
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At
Knossos he distinguished between "bull-grappling scenes" or "'cow-boy' feats in the open" and "Circus Sports." The cowboy scenes depict the catching and handling of wild cattle, represented by animal icons very like the
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POLITEIA. Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 5th
International Aegean Conference / 5e Rencontre égéenne internationale, University of Heidelberg, Archäologisches Institut, 10–13 April
213:." It still has no viable definition. Although it vaguely brings to mind the act of jumping over bulls, the technique and the reasons for doing that remain obscure, a century after the discovery of the frescos.
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is its logical sequence. Depicted are three individuals, two women (one at the front, one at the back), and a male youth shown balancing on the bull. Their genders are identified according to the accepted
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564:. Vol. III: The great transitional age in the northern and eastern sections of the Palace: the most brilliant record of Minoan art and the evidences of an advanced religion. Archived from
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258:. The word means "laying hold of the bull," which in modern times is sometimes used for dabing of the Taureador Fresco. Evans did not use it in that way. The Thessalian
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167:, owner of the palace and director of excavation, presents the topic in Chapter III of his monumental work on Knossos and Minoan Civilization,
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Younger, John G. (1995), "Bronze Age
Representations of Aegean Bull-Games III", in Laffineur, Robert; Niemeier, Wolf-Dietrich (eds.),
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was performed from horseback. The Tiryns Fresco depicts a youth on the back of a bull holding its horns, an activity similar to
230:, is practiced in south-western France. Jeremy McInnerny identifies this as "an almost exact parallel" to Minoan bull-leaping.
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Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art
Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Volume I. Wadsworth, 2010. p.72
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This close-up depicts a possible reconstruction of the fresco depicting the grip used by bull-leapers.
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back, and then one at each end, the ones at the front holding the bull's horns.
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78.2 cm × 104.5 cm (30.8 in × 41.1 in)
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Evans noted the survival of bull sports into classical times; for example, the
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panels originally sited on the upper-story portion of the east wall of the
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Ivory bull-leaper, "Ivory
Deposit" at Knossos, prob. MM IIIB, AMH.
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Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth
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396:, 67-69, 1993 Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
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664:Ελληνική Τέχνη, Η Αυγή της Ελληνικής Τέχνης, Εκδοτική Αθηνών
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451:""Bull-Leaping Fresco (ca. 1450-1400 BC)" by Jordan Wolfe"
281:, "Bull Driving," involving a bull-grappling contest.
273:, "Artemis Bullrider," mounted on a charging bull.
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Close-up of central figure of the Taureador Fresco.
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Possible reconstruction of the act of bull leaping.
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220:Close-up of right figure of the Taureador Fresco.
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246:Close-up of left figure of the Taureador Fresco
496:, Aegaeum 12, pp. 507–549, archived from
656:. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, 2000.
411:"Bulls and Bull-leaping in the Minoan World"
306:Gallery of other Minoan bull-leaping scenes
292:One problem with the Taureador Fresco as a
119:is the most completely restored of several
394:Minoan Religion: Ritual, Image, and Symbol
609:. Penguin (Penguin/Yale History of Art).
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16:Minoan mural painting from Knossos, Crete
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238:Taurokathapsia and other classical words
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224:A modern version of bull-leaping, the
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455:Art 230: Ancient Art Digital Exhibit
714:Archaeological discoveries in Crete
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319:Bull-leaping on a gold signet ring
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409:McInerney, Jeremy (Winter 2011).
668:Greek Art, The Dawn of Greek Art
652:MacGillivray, Joseph Alexander.
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331:Bronze bull-leaper group in the
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699:Heraklion Archaeological Museum
449:Wolfe, Jordan (30 March 2016).
93:Heraklion Archaeological Museum
607:The Arts in Prehistoric Greece
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29:Ταυροκαθάψια (Taurokathapsia)
362:, Knossos, 1600-1450 BC, AMH
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558:Evans, Arthur John (1930).
139:scene. Although they were
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662:C. Christopoulos (ed.),
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684:15th-century BC works
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694:Bullfighting in art
205:mastery of nature.
187:Minoan bull-leaping
117:Bull-Leaping Fresco
22:Bull-Leaping Fresco
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670:), (Athens 1994).
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709:Bull-leaping
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161:Arthur Evans
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521:Evans 1935a
678:Categories
660:(in Greek)
645:2012-05-10
616:0140561420
594:2012-05-10
572:2012-05-08
552:References
474:Evans 1930
460:2017-10-02
435:2012-05-09
418:Expedition
381:Evans 1930
299:Minoan art
271:Tauropolos
157:Minoan art
81:Dimensions
542:Hood 1978
277:held the
97:Heraklion
605:(1978).
256:Thessaly
89:Location
704:Knossos
275:Miletus
269:Artemis
202:aurochs
141:frescos
129:Knossos
99:, Crete
55:1450 BC
47:Unknown
27:Greek:
613:
279:Boegia
145:relief
121:stucco
74:Stucco
70:Medium
64:Fresco
44:Artist
507:9 May
501:(PDF)
494:(PDF)
429:(PDF)
414:(PDF)
368:Notes
133:Crete
104:Owner
611:ISBN
509:2012
490:1994
115:The
60:Type
52:Year
254:of
131:in
127:at
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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