Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/226

 Idols. 183 that the instinct for realism is slowly awaking, there is a secret desire to underline, unduly it is true, the leading features of the anatomical construction of the human form. The navel and the cross-lines on the stomach are sometimes given. These and similar points are so distinct in a series of figures from Sparta as to verge on heaviness. That they may be more recent in date is quite possible, but they none the less carry on the same tradition. The personage in question (Fig. 330) looks as if in the act of sitting down ; was this due to the sculptor's lack of skill, or did he intend to represent a seated figure whose chair is gone ? Who shall say ? I am rather inclined to believe in the existence of a seat. Figured on numbers of archaic terra-cottas are goddesses enthroned in large arm-chairs. It is not at all unlikely that these figures formerly looked very different to what they now do, when they are deprived of the colour that served to emphasize the indications of the chisel. The terra-cottas belonging to this type are all tinted ; details, either in the lineaments of the face or of the drapery, are marked by touches of red or brown pigments (Fig. 331). Several of these statuettes preserve distinct traces of colour ; but even assuming that all were so decorated, we cannot be surprised that such traces should not be more frequent. The hue which the ceramic painter laid on these vases and statuettes sank in the porous clay and was fixed by firing. It was quite different with marble. Rubbing would effectually efface the tones spread on the polished surface, and at best they could not long withstand the humidity of the grave. It is owing to the special dryness of the soil in some localities that certain marble pieces