Reproduction of the "Grandstand" fresco

Emile Gilliéron · 1525-01-01T00:00:00Z

Excavated 1900 fallen in a room north of the Central Court, Knossos.This painting and that of the "Sacred Grove and Dance" are the best known examples of the miniature style of fresco painting at Knossos. The central element of the composition, as Gillieron has restored it, is an elaborate architectural facade identified by Evans as a tripartite columnar shrine. Elegantly dressed seated women with white skin and throngs of men with red skin interspersed with more women flank the structure. A series of superimposed piers surmounted by ornate square capitals form a grandstand from which the figures presumably await a spectacle. The setting has been identified as representing the west side of the Central Court of Knossos. Evans used the representations of architectural elements in this fresco as models for his extensive restorations of the palace. The original is in the Archaeological Museum of Herakleion, Crete.