Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/333

 28o Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. the central hole was fixed a knob, to facilitate prehension. Remembering how timber at Mycenx has been destroyed by damp, one would be surprised to find a wooden piece in such good preservation, but for the fact that it comes from Egypt. With M. Puchstein, who first published the antiquity, we have no hesitation in ascribing to it a Mycenian origin. Its style and composition widely differ from Egyptian art. The Fit;. 403. -Ivory ii.^, surface is divided into four compartments. In one we see a lion pulling himself together ere he leaps upon his prey. In front of him are two antelopes, whom fear at sight of their terrible foe has paralyzed into quiescence ; a little farther we find the oft-recurring group of a griffin chasing an antelope or other animal of the deer type (Fig. 361). The movement of the crouching lion vividly recalls the netted bull of the Vaphio goblet (Fig. 362). The resemblance is even more marked in the landscape framing the figures. These are parted from one another by radiating bands, which represent a broken, stony ground, similar to that of the Mycenae daggers and the Vaphio vases. As at Vaphio, here also the trees have been dwarfed for reasons of space. Finally, if the draughtsmanship has nothing to say to that of Chald^a, Phoenicia, or Egypt, it bears a close analogy to the best works of iMycenian sculpture. Hence, we are