Archaeology Magazine - January 1971 - 40

LADY IN RED

continued

restoration operations (at no. 4 on the plan of the
palace) in the room to the west of that which produced the "miniature Temple" and "miniature Sacred
Grove" frescoes from Knossos (numbered 3 in the
plan of the palace). Part of a second woman in a
yellow jacket, paints worn, is seated to the right
below light brown architectural framework. The lefthand woman, of greater interest in the present connection, wears a blue-sleeved jacket with black decorative details; the nipple of her breast, like that of
the "Lady in Red," is indicated in red paint, and below her bosom two curved lines represent the fingers
of her right hand. A comparison of the "right" date
and scale for restoration of the ear of the lady in the
red jacket is lacking, but a later fragment from the
Room of the Woman's Seat or North Foundations at
Knossos (numbers 5 and 6 respectively on the plan)
shows details which have been followed in the present
restoration.
As for restoration of the jewelry in our figure's
hair, there is only the evidence of one fragment to
guide us on details: it comes from the north of the
Palace, is assigned by Evans to Middle Minoan III,
and is the piece which Gilliéron also had in mind
when he restored the hairstyles of the "Ladies in
Blue" (see above, page 35). The arrangement of the
jewelry is largely conjectural, but the "miniature"
paintings from Knossos also throw some light on
hair ornaments and bands. It remains to consider how
our fragment played a part in the restoration of the
"Ladies in Blue," and to discuss briefly the significance of all four ladies.
The "Ladies in Blue" is one of the earliest known
Minoan frescoes depicting the human figure. Its importance evidently had been clear to Evans long before the composition was actually restored. In his early
reports of excavations at Knossos he mentioned the
pieces showing women's hands and jewelry in an
article in the Annual of the British School at Athens,
1 (1900-1901) page 26. Sometime in 1910 or earlier
he had requested Gilliéron to make colored copies of
the more readily intelligible pieces for reproduction
in the "Knossian Atlas," Volume I, which was to be
devoted to the wall paintings he had uncovered.
These can be seen in color plate xii b of Evans' Knossos Fresco Atlas, published in 1967. The earliest for
the preparation of these plates, hitherto tentatively
put at 1915, is now known to be 1910 from newspaper clippings, from The Times dated 16 September
1910, in a file of papers and photographs once belonging to Evans' scientific assistant Noel Heaton.
These documents were discovered early in 1969 by
Miss Joan du Plat Taylor among a series of files of
papers of Sir Leonard Woolley at the Institute of
40

Archaeology in London.
It seems likely, therefore, that by 1910 Evans and
Gilliéron were already contemplating the possibility
of restoring the "Ladies in Blue," but successwas not
to come until several years later. Meanwhile, gradual
progress was made with a number of small fragments
which were eventually to solve their problems. At
some time before 1914, these pieces were joined up to
make two larger fragments: a photograph once belonging to Noel Heaton, Evans' scientific assistant,
shows the one part, depicting our figure's sleeve and
arm, positioned for the photograph to the right of the
second fragment which shows her jacket and bust.
Heaton, actively engaged in carrying out scientific
tests on fresco material from Knossos between 1908
and 1911 during which years he published his most
important conclusions, was interested in our pieces
because at the top edge of the sleeve (where the fragment breaks off) he had scraped a clean cross section
in the plaster for inspection under a magnifying lens
or for a sample of the lime plaster for analysis. The
photograph was probably taken, therefore, between
1908 and 1911. The great "breakthrough" for Gilliéron came, however, at least three years later in 1914
with Droop's successful reconstruction of the two
pieces as a single large fragment- as we now see it
on page 37. Gilliéron was evidently working in
Crete on the fresco material at that time and Droop's
achievement inspired new thoughts on the restoration
of the "Ladies in Blue." These Gilliéron communicated to Evans in a hastily written but exciting note.
On a small sheet of paper he drew in ink our fragment and three pieces of the "Ladies in Blue" and
worked out in pencil rough sketches for the restoration of both compositions, adding also some comments in French. This paper, which clarifies the rest
of the story, is reproduced here on page 41 by courtesy
of the Ashmolean Museum.
Our fragment appears to the upper left in this illustration and is accompanied by the following notes:
"La Dame au vêtement rouge x est devoilée"; also
ff
rouge x je crois que le vêtement était jaune et a été
brûlé en rouge-." (The lady in the red^ dress is unveiled ; redx I believe that the dress was yellow and has
been burned to red.) On this last point Gilliéron (and
Evans, who adopted the suggestion) is certainly incorrect: there are no signs of heavy burning (only
traces of smoke stains) on the painted surface and
none in the cross section of the plaster such as would
indicate beyond doubt that the yellow paint had
turned red through oxidation as a result of proximity
to great heat or fire.
Of his drawing of the "Ladies in Blue" Gilliéron
remarks: "The Lady in the yellow dress with the blue
Archaeology Magazine - January 1971

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