Why’d They Put That In A Museum?
Show Notes
Artist: Emile Gilliéron and/or son
Item: Acrobats Leaping over a Bull (after a wall painting from the Palace of Knossos, Crete, c. 1900 – 1910
Details: Watercolor on paper. 87.63 x 158.75 cm (34 1/2 x 62 1/2 in.) framed: 108 × 179.1 × 2.5 cm (42 1/2 × 70 1/2 × 1 in.) Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/291790
Acrobats Leaping Over A bull
by Emile Gillieron (and son?)
Beth Bacon and curator Sarah Lees are back for season three of “Why’d They Put That in a Museum?” This episode focuses on a listener request that traces back to an archeological site on the island of Crete from way back in 1900.
When British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans excavated the site at Knossos, he invited an artist named Emile Gilliéron (and Gilliéron’s son) to document what they found using watercolors. “Acrobats Leaping over a Bull” is Gilliéron’s depiction of a Bronze age wall painting that was uncovered during the dig.
Sarah explains this image’s ties to the Minoan culture, which existed in 3000 BCE, and was named after the mythical King Minos. She discusses how Gilliéron used surviving fresco fragments as a base for the composition, then filled in the parts that were lost over the centuries.
Why are the people in the image leaping over a bull? Turns out, bull-leaping was a sport in Minoan culture. How did this piece end up at Harvard? Tune in to the podcast to find out!
00:00 Welcome Back Season Three
01:07 Listener Request At The Fogg
01:34 Meet The Bull Leaping Watercolor
04:00 Fragments And Reconstruction
05:46 Knossos And Arthur Evans
07:25 Myths Minos And The Minotaur
11:05 Gilliéron The Archaeological Illustrator
14:50 How Harvard Acquired It
17:00 Why Museums Collect Copies
20:11 Was Bull Leaping a Real Sport?
22:49 What This Artwork Teaches
23:29 Wrap Up And Listener Call
Contact Us
Say helloAbout the Podcasters
Sarah Lees
Sarah is a museum curator and researcher who has worked in organizations both large and small, and who remembers her first assignment for an art history class – to look into Rembrandt’s eyes and describe what she saw there. She believes everyone can find those kinds of connections to some form of creative expression, whether it’s a painting, a grandmother’s quilt, or a perfectly formed pen-stroke in a manuscript.
Beth Bacon
In addition to being an avid museum-goer, Beth Bacon is an author for young readers. Her books empower today’s kids to learn about themselves and the world through reading. She is also a teacher and branding consultant and a volunteer at the Missouri History Museum. Beth holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, an MA in Communication Arts from NYU, and a BA in Literature from Harvard University.
Music Credit
The music you hear in the intro and outro was composed by Edward Whelan. We appreciate his contribution to our podcast.
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