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At first glance, the position of their hands reminds one of Egyptian representations of prisoners with their hands tied behind their backs. [handwritten: 26 28] Actually, we shall have to content ourselves with the fact that, for whatever reason, only the idea of the man behind the bull was taken over from the Egyptian prototype, whereas the unusual position of the man himself - [handwritten: 27 29] owing possibly to space limitations - is the invention of the adapting artist. Stylistically, the bulls belong to the Minoan world and rank among its finest glyptic representations. [handwritten: of SH 720] The forward thrust of the inward hind leg (that is, the one nearer the observer) seems to be the usual, though not exclusive, Minoan practice. [handwritten: MP 8] Several examples of standing bulls can be cited with hind legs in this position and with forelegs in various positions depending on the particular activity of the bull: a charging bull similar in many respects to the Bamboula example on a [handwritten: Late Minoan] M IIIa onyx from Phaistos; and a bull being beset by a lion on a gem [handwritten: 28 29] from Vapheio in a [handwritten: Late Helladic] H IIa context. This latter example is particularly close in style to the Bamboula impression. One might also adduce the famous intaglio [handwritten: 30] of a bull captured while standing at a tank, for similarity in the expressive modelling of taurine strength. The horns of the Bamboula bulls are even longer and more graceful than those in the examples just cited. In the Minoan rendering the brutal shock of collision, so realistically portrayed by the Egyptians, has been eliminated in favor of an effective heraldic spacing of the animals and a gracefully decorative intertwining of the horns.
To conclude the question of stylistic comparisons, it will be sufficient to point to what Evans called the Late Minoan vogue of "true cattle pieces". [handwritten: 31] Several of the examples with which he illustrates this vogue have something in … continues
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain