Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/276

 Representations of Human Life. 225 the folds of drapery, spots of animals' skins, and the like, are traced with the point. The dagger figured in PL XVI I.^ is a typical specimen of this kind of work. Panthers, hunting wild ducks along a winding stream peopled with fish, appear on both sides. The water is rendered by a streak of pale gold, against which are trenchantly relieved the dark slender stalks of flowering plants. The figures are outlined in a very arbitrary fashion, by two shades of gold ; thus the neck of one of the ducks is picked out with dark gold-leaf, but the wings are pale yellow ; whilst the entire body of another is grey, and two golden specks mark its open bill. This holds good with the panthers. The body is overlaid with electron ; face, paws, and ears, however, are tipped with pure shining gold, and the tail is indicated by a narrow strip of the same precious metal, which stands out from the back- ground. The fish are painted in black, on the lighter tone of the water. The aquatic plants seen here have been identified, but we think erroneously, with the papyrus. The vegetable forms which bend over the brook are much more like a lotus than the straight papyrus of the Egyptian monuments; blossom and bud come nearer to those of the water-lily, than the terminal tuft of leaves of the Egyptian plant. PI. XVIII reproduces the two sides of perhaps the most remarkable daggers of the whole series. The decoration, though very like from one face to the other, is not identical. One side exhibits a great lion-hunt (PI. XVIII. 3),*^ composed of five men and three lions. Of these, one alone has stood his ground, the other two have turned tail and fled. On the other side of the blade (fig. 4), we see a lion and four gazelles ; the lion has seized the hindmost, but the others are scampering away. The peculiar drawers worn by these men are known to us from the bronze statuettes (Figs. 351-354). Four of them are armed with long spears, which they grasp with both hands. Their shields are of two kinds : round, huge, and curved in at the • the figures on the other, although not copied on those of the first, are precisely similar, and the different tints are indicated in the same manner. A drawing of this face will be found in Miitheilungeriy 1882, and in Schuchardt's book. 2 Length, 235 centimetres. VOL. IL Q
 * Length, seventeen centimetres. Our plate shows but one face of the blades ;