Shocking!__ In 1900 British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans discovered an ancient lost paradise, a thriving culture where thin wasted men and beautifully dressed women lived in an enlightened society of equal status, a bronze age mercantile utopia of sorts. The Minoan culture Evans discovered on the island of Crete fired the European imagination with thoughts of a grandiose ancient pre-Greek civilization, however, Cathy Gere in her new book, "Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism," says not so __something was amiss. Gere claims the Minoan culture was largely the creation of Evan's imagination a projection of a man suffering form a mother goddess syndrome. Evans did discover a civilization and he did find the Minoan artifacts, but the artifacts were merely bits and pieces. The beautiful fresco of ladies dressed in colorful dresses, the impressive palace of Knossos and the thriving egalitarian culture were all "Evan's-inspired" reconstructions based on paltry evidence. Evans even hired a team of artists to paint and reconstruct the society the way he thought it existed. Gere says this all took place in a thriving milieu of antiquities forgers. Evans may not have even known he was purchasing forgeries. When the writer Evelyn Waugh visited the museum in Heraklion created by Evans in the 1920's he felt uneasy about Evan's reconstructions: "that their painters have tempered their zeal for accurate reconstruction with a somewhat inappropriate predilection for the covers of vogue." Again a modern perspective imposed on the past? Perhaps.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
BOOKS: Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism
Shocking!__ In 1900 British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans discovered an ancient lost paradise, a thriving culture where thin wasted men and beautifully dressed women lived in an enlightened society of equal status, a bronze age mercantile utopia of sorts. The Minoan culture Evans discovered on the island of Crete fired the European imagination with thoughts of a grandiose ancient pre-Greek civilization, however, Cathy Gere in her new book, "Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism," says not so __something was amiss. Gere claims the Minoan culture was largely the creation of Evan's imagination a projection of a man suffering form a mother goddess syndrome. Evans did discover a civilization and he did find the Minoan artifacts, but the artifacts were merely bits and pieces. The beautiful fresco of ladies dressed in colorful dresses, the impressive palace of Knossos and the thriving egalitarian culture were all "Evan's-inspired" reconstructions based on paltry evidence. Evans even hired a team of artists to paint and reconstruct the society the way he thought it existed. Gere says this all took place in a thriving milieu of antiquities forgers. Evans may not have even known he was purchasing forgeries. When the writer Evelyn Waugh visited the museum in Heraklion created by Evans in the 1920's he felt uneasy about Evan's reconstructions: "that their painters have tempered their zeal for accurate reconstruction with a somewhat inappropriate predilection for the covers of vogue." Again a modern perspective imposed on the past? Perhaps.
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