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PLATE VI.

Fig. 10. STIRRUP-VASE OF LATE MINOAN I STYLE FROM GOURNIA.

Fig. 11. AMPHORA OF LATE MINOAN I STYLE FROM PSEIRA.

curve of the vessel. The vegetable world had entered the decoration of vases in the Kamares period: now it does so afresh, but in a totally different spirit. Grasses, branches, ivy, crocuses, lilies as they grow and wave in nature, surround the vases. But these people were specially concerned with the sea, marine plants and live creatures. Lotus flowers, sea-weeds and reeds wave in the water, the cuttle-fish stretches out his feelers, the nautilus swims about, starfish and snails, corals and sea-anemones surround the living objects, and dolphins gambol around.

What impelled the Cretan vase-painters thus unweariedly to represent the marine world exclusively on vases? The explanation can only be sought in that supreme law of the development of artistic style, the talent for invention in a few pioneer brains and the slowness in invention of the many. The excellent idea of having the cool liquid in the vases surrounded by this decorative play of marine life, which filled the field and was so life-like, perhaps came from a single gifted brain. The idea became popular, and the common run of vase-painters created countless variations of the theme.