Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/283

 230 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. species of frame is wanting in the other vase. Handles and technique are identical in both. The design is hammered up ; but the hollows inside are not visible, because each cup is formed of two plates set one upon the other. The inner one, which is quite smooth, conceals the wrong side of the repousse, and does duty as lining. It was kept somewhat larger, and folded back on the outer plate to form the rim. Cups which, like these, are made of a double piece absolutely without seams, are widely different from vases composed of several pieces, and applied to the background either by solder- ing or riveting. The artisan knew how to solder gold upon gold; for thus, apparently, was fixed the vertical stem which serves to connect the two horizontal bands of the handle.^ But he used the hammer far too airily to dream of building up his vase with applied pieces that were apt to separate. Both plates, the inner as well as the external one, were beaten down from a thick circular sheet of gold. The artificer began at the centre, and hollowed it out with a series of gentle blows, driving the metal particles towards the periphery ; this he would call ** ex- panding" the metal. The ingot to be beaten up is placed into a mandrel or pan, which must be both massive and of a hard substance. The resistance it opposes to the pressure exercised on the molecules by repeated blows with the hammer helps the operation, which will progress easily and steadily enough when mere rough tinkering is in question ; but the operation is much more difficult when the form has to be beaten up from a thin plate. This is so readily influenced by the blows applied to it that, unless great caution is used, it is difficult to bring it even approximately to a level without cracking it. The vase, once made, had to be decorated ; and the silversmith has given proof of no less skill in this second part of his work. In saying this we do not advert to the composition of the scene or the modelling of the figures. In the master-smith who chiselled these vases we study the craftsman not yet the artist. Let us suppose that the artificer had to work out these figures in one of those bands or plates found at Mycenae ; all he would have had to do was to place the band or plaque upon a soft substance, sand or ashes, and the figures would have sprung up as by magic under his chisel. But the same methods could ^ TSOUNDAS, ''Ep£wi/at.