Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/255

 212 PRiNfiTivE Greece: Mycenian Art. man, however, is kneeling/ His right hand is folded on the breast, in the other is carried an object which cannot be made out, because the stone breaks off here. Is the circular shape a chariot-box, or a wheel, or a shield ? It is impossible to say. On a piece from the upper portion of a stela — unusually coarse in execution (No. 13 in catalogue) — we see a chariot and a long spear above the reins ; this was certainly grasped by the driver, for there is no space for a second figure in front of the horse, since his head touches the frame of the picture. Differences are observable between these stelae which at first were not sufficiently taken into account.- In the first place, they are not all of the same stone. The foremost cippus is cut in the soft calcareous stone that forms the subsoil of Mycenae ; most are of hard limestone, like the slabs of the funereal circle, and one fragment is red (No. 12). The same may be said of the workmanship, which varies from one cippus to another. The surface within the contour bounding the figures is always flat ; we find neither superimposed planes nor attenuated roundnesses answering to those of the figured bodies ; the forms are indicated by a simple outline. Figures and ornaments are admirably set off by the carefully-polished surface of the stelae. These are enclosed by an incised line, nearly one centimetre deep. The exception to this general rule occurs in the stela on which are figured the lion and antelope ; the surface is scratched rather than frankly attacked as in the corresponding cippi ; rough- hewn with blows irregularly spaced and of varying depth, which are dealt with a great hammer, as will be seen by a glance at the annexed sketch, engraved from a photograph (Fig. 357). If certain details found in Reichel's drawing, to which reference was made above, are to seek here, the lacunae are made good by the excellent rendering of the background. The apparent carelessness is all the more extraordinary that none of these bas-reliefs can show a better drawing than this stela ; nowhere is the shape of the chariot indicated with so sure a hand, the position of the driver so natural, the elongated body of the lion and the horse — as required by running animals — so well marked as here. The antelope alone has not been well hit off. In despite of this slight defect, had the contour been chiselled with the mastery which we find in 1 AfycefKT. 2 Reichel, Die mykanschen Grabstchn.