Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/107

 78 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. much more than the circular chamber. If the masonry, com- posed of well-wrought stones, is unimpaired, if the two semi- columns which flanked the entrance are alone missing, the whole of the upper part of the edifice is but the ghost of its former self. The closing slab of the triangle has gone, and left the space gaping ; here and there cavities mark the place in the wall where stones have been ; and the joints are mostly wide apart. Of the facing that once formed the flesh and epidermis of this great body, scarcely anything remains. Notwithstanding the shock which the spectator feels in presence of these signs of decay, his eye ere long follows with keen interest the ease with which were set up these materials, whose colossal dimensions fill him with astonishment ; his artistic sense is gratified with the effect of the stately doorway, and its simple wreathing bands, towards which the eye is led by the vanishing lines of the long side-walls. The mighty effort which brought this structure into being is felt at every turn ; it is an effort which pre-supposes, not only a large contingent of skilful and well-trained artisans, but the directing mind of a master, who begins to feel the subtle beauty of forms, and the charm of proportions. How much more lively would be our admiration could we see this frontispiece as it appeared on the removal of the scaffolding, in all the freshness and splendour of its richly-coloured decoration, with the lustre of bronze and the gleam of white marble, married to the red and green tones of porphyries and breccias, perhaps also to the tender blue of enamels, where, as in the frieze of the Tirynthian palace, they were brilliantly relieved against alabaster. In the middle of the spirals of a fragment which we have utilized for the triangle (Fig. 265) are seen holes into which, mayhap, were stuck glass-pastes.^ Stone and bronze everywhere exhibit ornament of the most varied kind, chevrons and rosettes, palmettes, discs, and scrolls. Palmettes, though dependent on the same taste, permitted a certain latitude in their treatment. The painter, it may well be, added the lighter notes of frescoes to the polished surface of marble slabs which lined 1 A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, by A. H. Smith, 1892: **Two of these bands are in low-relief, the third is in high-relief, with a hole bored in the centre for the insertion of glass or metal ornaments." Owing to the small scale of our illustration, the small holes and the difference of relief of the bands in question could not be indicated.