Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/333

 3o8 Primitive Greece: Myceniak Art. the size of the slabs, the elaborate care bestowed on the construction, and above all the great bas-relief set up on high, like a coat-of-arms, over the entrance. Countless engrav- ings and photc^raphs have made the Lions Gate known to all the world, learned and unlearned alike. SchUemann found the gate choked up to the middle of the bas-relief; he cleared it and laid the threshold bare, but could detect no trace of the chariot-wheels mentioned by several travellers, who, had they existed, for obvious reasons could not have seen them.* That Fli;. 98. — Seclion uf norlliem gMe. did not prevent ruts being reproduced as an established fact in most descriptions of the ruins at Mycenae. We shall return more than once to the Lions Gate, both for the sake of studying there the art of fortification as it was practised by the Mycenian military engineers, and of paying our respects to the oldest monu- ment of Grecian sculpture. Viewed in the latter capacity, it forms no inglorious prelude to the noble Art-history of Greece (Fig- 99)- • ScHLiEMANN, Myaua.