WALL NEAR CASE H. The Taureador Fresco

Accession Number GB/1648/AJE/4/1/15/1/7
Artist Émile Gilliéron père
Year c. 1902
Dimensions 86 x 153 cm
Medium painting
Location Ashmolean Museum
View in Collection

The Taureador Fresco was reconstructed from fragments discovered in the Court of the Stone Spout in 1901. Emile Gilliéron père both reconstructed the fragments and painted this copy for Evans, which was first exhibited in 1902 in Oxford. The white-skinned figures were identified as female by Evans, with the red-skinned jumper as male. Many scholars now doubt that the skin colour refers to gender: it seems more likely that the participants are all male, since they are dressed the same, with the colour denoting status.

Bibliography

Evans, Arthur. 1930. The Palace of Minos at Knossos, III, pp. 203-232, fig. 144

Myres, John (ed.). 1936. British Archaeological Discoveries in Greece and Crete 1886-1936, p. 22