Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/555

 528 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. all the single rose and its congeners, daisies and the like, whilst offering him a form not far removed from the circle, are instinct with a suppleness and variety found in organic life alone. These rosaceae, whose particular species it is not hard to divine, like those of Figs. 231, 232, are very simple, and given but seven or eight petals at most; the ribs on the leaflets of the latter are correctly marked. The sculptured and well- furnished rosaceae of the ceiling at Orchomenos and the triglyphs of the Tirynthian frieze put one in mind of an aster. Occasionally an attempt seems to have been made to render the aspect of a double flower ; the result, it must be owned, leaves much to be desired, in that two separate flowers appear to be clapped one upon the other, the greater serving as background to the Fig. 235. — Decoration of terra-cotta vat. lesser (Fig. 233). We recognize a daisy in the painted rosaceae surrounding the doorway of a rock-cut tomb at Mycenae, from its yellow centre and the pure white of its radiating petals ; dashes of red and yellow, not found in nature, are put in from a mistaken notion of heightening the effect (PI. XIII., Fig. 3). From the above specimens we learn how great and general was the employment of the rosette in the decoration of buildings, notably for borders. Had the artist been taught to put them there by the weaver and embroiderer ? Or had the floral orna- ment come to him in that situation on imported fabrics? We are aware that rosettes, imitated from those seen on textiles, wreathed the doorways of Assyrian palaces,^ precisely as they did those of the Mycenian buildings.'^ Discarding for the present the question of origin or of transmission, we wish to point out that there is a notable difference between the Assyrian and the History of Art, « Ibid.