Concept
Émile Gilliéron (1850–1924) was a Swiss artist and archaeological draftsman best known for his reconstructions of Mycenaean and Minoan artifacts from the Bronze Age. Émile Gilliéron studied at the trade school in Basel from 1872 to 1874, the Art Academy in Munich from 1875 to 1876, and finally at the studio of Isidore Pils in Paris from 1875 to 1877. In 1877, Gilliéron relocated to Athens where he began his career as an archaeological artist who produced drawings for Greek and foreign excavators, designed commemorative postage stamps for the inaugural Olympic Games (1896 and 1906), and served as an art tutor for the royal family of George I. Émile Gilliéron worked as an archaeological illustrator for Heinrich Schliemann and gained a reputation for being widely recognized as the best archaeological illustrator working in Greece at the time. This reputation helped Gilliéron acquire a position assisting with fresco reconstructions at the excavation at Tiryns from 1910-1912. Gilliéron also became the chief restorer for Arthur Evans at the Palace of Minos at Knossos on Crete. For over three decades, Gilliéron worked with his son, and successor, also named Émile, creating reproductions of frescoes and other artifacts for Arthur Evans. The Gilliérons can be recognized as contributing many illustrations to Evan's four-volume book, The Palace of Minos at Knossos. Some of the most famous reconstructions by the Gilliérons include the Priest King fresco, the Ladies in Blue fresco, and the painting of the throne room at the Palace of Minos. Émile Gilliéron and his son formed a family business known as E. Gillieron & Son where they sold original commissioned watercolors and other reproductions made directly from originals on Skoufa Street in Athens. The Gilliérons created replicas of metal artifacts based on molds of the original masks, weapons, and vessels. They also created full-scale copies of Minoan frescoes on watercolor paper and created three-dimensional reconstructions in plaster form.
