Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/70

 The Country. 49 and hurt it ; wearied and confused by this excess of effulgence, it can no longer distinguish with ease the real dimensions of objects presented to its observation. On the contrary, deeper tones, inasmuch as they absorb a greater number of rays, soothe the retina and do not deprive it of the faculty of making out, even in the splendour of a noonday sun, the quality and solidity of substances. The effects and advantages of this intense colouring were brought to the notice of the Hellenes by certain aspects of the land in which their intellectual growth was effected. At first northern eyes, accustomed to see their own land everywhere clothed in a thick mantle of grass and forests, are apt to open wide and be repelled by the brown and bare aspect of this landscape. It is as unlike the plain of Lombardy as it is possible to imagine — this is green everywhere and in all directions, green as far as the eye can reach ; yet after its own fashion it is no less richly, I would go so far as to say, very delicately tinted. It has, above and around it, the azure of sky and sea, the one more tender and constant, the other more intense and apt to pass, in a short space of time, through every shade of colour, from deep violet to light green, according as the sky is overcast or serene, according as the flood is lulled asleep or shivers and darkens under the freshening breeze, and is presently furrowed and silvered with foam. This intense blue, with all its gradations of colours, is the dominant note in the gamut, the main tone round which semi- tones are gathered ; trenchantly relieved against the exquisite softness of the background are the fine grey or metallic reflections of the olive, of the holm oak and laurel, whether their light branches are outlined against the sky, or fringe a wide expanse of sea along the rugged coast. Celestial blue and sea blue blend equally well, both with the dazzling white of snow-capped mountains or the creamy white of the sandstone, streaked here and there with red and yellow, whether glorified by the sun's rays or due to the presence of iron and manganese oxides. Igneous rocks, with their more sombre hues, are of rare occurrence in Hellas ; serpentine however is found in Argolis, and the Thanian peninsula is but a trachytic upheaval ; but fine porphyries come from Laconia, notably the eastern slope of Taygetus.^ large a use in their buildings, is a variety of the Laconian porphyries ; quarries of it have been discovered hard by Levetzova. VOL. I. E
 * The porfido verde antico of the Italians, of which Roman architects made so