Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/323

 270 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. chieftain s piety. What lends colouring to the assumption is the fact that small ox-heads of no artistic value, cut of thin gold plate and all similar, have been found in this grave to the number of about fifty-six.^ Stamped out by the dozen, such objects can only be symbols, designed to recall the remembrance of an holocaust, which was celebrated perhaps in honour of one of the dead buried in the tomb. The battle-axe interposing between the horns, where it is supported on a slender stem, would be the actual instrument which was used in bringing down the victims (Fig. 392). Such offerings were calculated to familiarize the sculptor with the bull and cow type. In the Elgin collection at the British Museum is preserved an animal of the bovine species ; but there is no indication of sex, and its origin is unknown (Fig. 393). We infer from the shape and dimensions of the rectangular slab in which it is carved that, along with another fragment engraved above (Fig. 287), it formed part of the external decoration of a grave. Its material, a greenish limestone, detaches itself from the grey rock of the structure. A pair of bulls, passant, and facing each other, exactly like the lions of one of our restorations (PL VI.), must have stood here. All that remains of the two slabs over which these figures extended in elevation is a fragment of the lower block. As far as these scraps will permit us to judge, the work seen here approaches, nay even surpasses, that of the bas- relief over the Mycenae gateway. The rendering of the relief is equally frank and vigorous, yet void of harshness, whilst the modelling of leg and paw is more realistic than at Mycense. The treatment of the form is not so happy on two ivory figures, set back to back, which must have formed pendants on some small piece of furniture. M, Tsoundas, who brought them out of a rock-cut tomb at Mycenae, is doubtful whether the animals belong to the ovine or bovine species.^ They are shockingly worn ; nevertheless, in the least mutilated of these heads we guess rather a heifer with budding horns than a sheep (Fig. 394). The Hon is the anirnal which, with the bull, the Mycenian artist seems to have felt greatest pleasure in picturing. The king of the forest is depicted in various attitudes on incrusted daggers (Pis. XVIII., XIX.), and over the Myceii^ gate (PI. XIV.), yet not one of these can challenge comparison with a small lion carved ^ Eijujfieplc, 1888.