This painting is an interpretation of a bronze age fresco which is one of many discovered in excavations at Akrotiri, Santorini, Greece. An earlier name for Santorini was Thera. The excavations were conducted by Professor Spyridon Marinatos beginning in 1967 and continued in 1974 by Professor Christos Doumas after the death of Professor Marinatos.
The Akrotiri excavation is of a bronze age settlement which had ties to the Minoan civilization on Crete. The Minoans are said to be the first advanced civilization of Europe. 1 They were a seafaring nation and thrived on Mediterranean trade from 3000 BC to between 1620 and 1550 BC.
The island of Santorini is one of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea 75 km north of Crete. It was formed by a volcano at the boundary between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates. At a time between 1620 and 1530 BC, the volcano erupted and buried the settlement near the modern town of Akrotiri. The buildings of the settlement were preserved because they were buried in 7 meters of ash by the early stages of the eruption with little damage. The later phases destroyed any man made structures left unburied.
The walls of the rooms of Akrotiri were adorned with frescos painted in wet plaster which had naturalistic themes similar to the Minoans. The plaster of these frescos lay on the floors of the excavation and were carefully removed, preserved and put back together by mounting them on a new plaster substrate much like a puzzle. These reconstructed frescos are on display in museums.
This work is my imagined interpretation of the fresco in building Xeste3, room 3a, north wall. The fresco measure H 2.3m W 3.22m. 2 It is my idea of how it might have looked.
One interesting surprise came in reading the description of this fresco in reference 2. What I took to be part of the goddess' hair was described as a snake. Reference was made to Dr. S. Marinatos calling it a Nosehorn viper. 3 After looking at a close-up of the goddess' head it does appear to be a snake which has a gold collar and is enshrouded in a spiral chain of yellow beads with red beads running down the middle of its back. I wonder if the collar attaches the shake to the goddess' hair and it sits on top of her head as a guardian.
The skirt of the goddess was mostly missing so the shape is the best I could guess from what is there. The colors and patterns are taken from images of Minoan patterns. The colors available to Minoan artists were white, brown, red, yellow, blue and black. 4 in other murals. using a stock photo of the reconstructed fresco and narrative from reference .
1. "Minoan Civilization", Wikipedia, Minoan civilization
2. Doumas, Cristos "The Wall-Paintings of Thera" 2nd ed. 1999 130
3. Doumas 158-159
4. "Minoan Art" Lumen, Boundless Art History Minoan Art