ART

For genuine masterpieces to be kept in dwellings, which are often very humble, a society must be so organized as not to reserve for some few privileged ones the possibility of rising above material needs. This was the case in the period when Crete was divided into clans or feudal groups; between all the chiefs there was fruitful emulation. Later, when the power of Minos extended, it did not impair local autonomy or personal liberty. Knossos becomes the centre of Crete, but does not absorb it altogether. Phaistos and Hagia Triada, Tylissos, Mallia, and all the towns of eastern Crete still flourish, and it was at Gournia, Pseira, and Palaikastro that the finest L.M.I. vases were found. Nothing shows better the rights of the individual in Crete and the influence of individualism on art than the innumerable quantity of seals which have been discovered in the houses of every town. They were used by the king and high officials, but also by private individuals, who all stamped contracts or bales of goods with the mark of their personality and all wanted this mark to be beautiful as well as original.