The Frescoes from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos: A Reconsideration of their Architectural Context and a New Reconstruction of the Crocus Panel

Abstract

Discovered in 1923 during excavations led by Duncan Mackenzie, the frescoes were found in a deposit in Space E on the ground floor of the building. Subsequent publication of the Monkeys and Birds Fresco suggested that the composition originally decorated a room on an upper floor of the House of the Frescoes. Shaw's close reading of the original excavation reports written by Mackenzie, however, yields no evidence for an upper storey. Shaw's review of the archaeological evidence and architectural comparanda suggests further that the House of the Frescoes may have been one-storied and that Room H-3 is the most likely candidate for frescoed decoration. Part Two, undertaken primarily by Chapin, publishes a new reconstruction of the Crocus Panel that incorporates 14 previously unpublished fresco fragments in addition to the 14 fragments previously attributed to the composition. Stylistic and iconographic associations confirm the distribution of red-flowered crocuses, undulating bands, and an olive tree, but evidence for the attribution of two agrimia and blue-flowered crocuses remains weak. Detailed stylistic and iconographic analysis places the Crocus Panel within the Neopalatial tradition of wall painting.

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