Prince of the Lilies

The Prince of the Lilies is a celebrated Minoan relief fresco excavated by Sir Arthur Evans from the palace of Knossos on Crete, dated to c. 1550 BC. The life-size figure wears a crown of lilies and peacock feathers, a Minoan kilt, and a beaded necklace, with reddish-brown skin following Minoan artistic convention. Created using lime plaster mixed with sand for a three-dimensional effect, the work was reconstructed from three non-joining fragments. Modern scholars widely dispute Evans' reconstruction, noting the fragments may represent separate figures, and the headdress may have belonged to a sphinx rather than a human. The original is in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.