Sir Arthur Evans argued that the Bull-Leaping Fresco depicts acrobats literally seizing the bull by the horns and leaping over the creature's back.

The fresco was painted in the Minoan bull-leaping fresco style: a dark-skinned individual with dark, wavy hair wearing Minoan-style clothing, namely the kilt, boots, and armbands, is depicted performing a flip over a bull's back.

The Bull-Leaping Fresco, as it has come to be called, is the most completely restored of several stucco panels originally sited on the upper-story portion of the east wall of the palace at Knossos in Crete.