Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/103

 74 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. is well seen in PI. VI. We have supposed the ends of the side- walls as slightly overhanging, and projecting over the frontis- piece; their relief served to enframe the cornice and help the monumental effect of the fa9ade. On these saliences we have placed a covering slab of limestone, with double slope, of which many fragments have been found in the passage. The saliences in question are not visible in PI. V., because the section was made at the back of this coping. The restoration of the inner building (PI. VII.) is justified and accounted for in advance by the arrangement of the sealing- holes (Fig. 262). The shape and irregular spacing of the double- holes between the third and sixth course prove that the surface was filled by a continuous frieze, composed of metallic laminae.^ No stringent rule was laid upon the artisan to have all his pieces cut of the same size, provided they were kept of uniform height ; all he had to do when he came to join the units together and put them in place, was to enlarge or narrow the spaces between his clamps, as the case might be. Thus, many a double-hole falls in the centre of a course, many another close to a joint. Between the double-holes of the fifth bed are smaller ones, which are absent from the fourth. The difference observable in the distribution of the dowels seems to indicate that the band was divided into two zones of unequal height. In the lower strip we have put a continuous design, a row of crouch- ing sphinxes, set in pairs face to face. The Mycenian artist has frequently resorted to this type and mode of grouping to fill in lengthy spaces. For the present purpose it will be enough to recall an ivory tablet, with a figuration of running sphinxes (Fig. 205), and a comb of the same material, where the sphinxes are lying down ; whence we have derived the principal element of our restoration (Fig. 280). In furnishing the upper zone, we were obliged to take into account the small holes distributed over the surface ; each one of these suggests a nail stuck into the middle of a separate ornament, a star, flower, or rosette. ^ In 1862, Stark and Vischer, during an excursion to Mycenge, cleared in part a small domed-tomb, " quite close to the Treasury of Atreus." This must be No. VI. or VII. They found "eine Erzeplatte an der inneren Flache noch wohl erhalten." Though badly worded, the phrase can only mean, " A well-preserved plaque was still adhering to the inner face of the wall." [It may also be translated by, " the inner face of the plaque was still in good condition ; /. e, the decorated side." — ^Trans.]