Beyond Iconography: The Frescoes from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos

Greek Painting in Context - Webinar Series, Ep. 1

Speaker: Emilia Oddo, Tulane University

Moderators: Jenifer Neils, American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Dimitris Plantzos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

About the Webinar:
Excavated by Arthur Evans in 1923, the Neopalatial House of the Frescoes at Knossos owes its name to the rich deposit of elaborately decorated frescoes discovered within it. The frescoes were found stacked in layers at the end of a room within the building they once decorated. The popular image of the blue monkeys and the blue birds on a dark red background, the fragments depicting a lush natural environment, the field with crocus clumps: iconography can reveal important clues to interpret the function of the rooms and the building itself. But it cannot tell us why these frescoes were taken off the walls and stacked together; or whether the stack was a convenient method of trash disposal or a meaningful way to remove special objects. In this lecture, Professor Oddo explores these frescoes and their archaeological context to reconstruct the final moments in the life and afterlife of the House of the Frescoes.