Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/218

 Troy. 195 and as it were counterforts, the purpose of which was doubt- less to support a penthouse or balcony extending on three sides of the court, so as to afford shelter against sun and rain ; in it we have the prototype of the porticoes with which architects of the classic age will adorn the front of their palaces and temples. Two buildings open on the northern side of this court, to which attention was particularly drawn both on account of the position they occupy in the centre of the esplanade opposite to the double entrance, as also by their exceptional dimensions and the character of the workmanship which they display. The decoration is entirely obliterated ; but the masonry beheld here is more regular and shows that greater care has been bestowed upon it than anywhere else. These distinctive signs have led to the conclusion that in this architectural group we have the *' palace" of the tribal chiefs; if the name is perhaps too ambitious and out of place at this date, it has the not unimportant advantage of being understood by all without further ado. With due reserve as to the sense to be attached thereto, we shall use the term for the edifices under discussion, as well as for the houses of the same nature which we shall find at Tiryns and Mycenae. Unfortunately, the larger of the twin edifices (a) has been shockingly mutilated, less by the weather than at the hand of Schliemann himself, who cut it right across from one angle to another, when he dug his great trench in 1872, and very nearly destroyed one-half of it. A plan however can be satisfactorily made from the remaining half (Fig. 48). It was entered by a large vestibule, open in front and nearly square ; one side measur- ing ten metres fifteen centimetres, the other ten metres thirty-five centimetres. The doorway, pierced in the end wall and leading to a large apartment, gives us the width of the ante-chamber; its length however can only be determined conjecturally, for the left and farther walls have wholly disappeared, that to the right is alone standing, to within twenty metres of its point of junction with the partition-wall. Now, assuming that it terminated close to the spot where the spade cut it asunder, we obtain a relation between hall and vestibule of two to one : a relation at once so simple and felicitous could not fail to recommend itself to the architects of that early age. In view of the mutilated state of our block of building, the question whether the great hall was not followed by a second in