Spring Fresco
Late 17th c. BC (Late Cycladic I period)
ΝΑΜ, inv. no. BE 1974.29
This unique work of art has been created using the fresco technique (painting on wet lime plaster), and depicts the Theran landscape in springtime when red sea-lilies bloom among the yellow ochre and red-brown rocks while swallows fly “flirtatiously” among them. The composition is so vivid and the colours are so bright, similarly like it used to be when the room was in use, when the town of Akrotiri was destroyed by a catastrophic volcanic eruption.