Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/362

 Glyptic Art. 309 him luck (Figs. 417; 421, 12). He has shown him at full speed (Figs. 417; 421, 12), or ere he makes his spring (Fig. 421, 20); now at rest, now stretched at full length on the earth (PI. XVI. 6; Fig. 421, 19); here crouching and leaning on his fore-paws, there roaming in solitary grandeur (PI. XVI. 14); now accompanied by the female (Fig. 419, 6) or another lion (PL XVI. i8); now licking and toying with his cub (PI. XVI. 7). Elsewhere we see him rushing on his favourite prey, antelopes, stags, and bulls (PL XVI. 12 ; Fig. 421, 14). Finally, we have a curious variant on the famous group of the Mycenae Gate, in a couple of lions, whose fore-paws rest upon an altar (PL XVI. II, 20). The artist was no less attracted towards the ample and powerful proportions of the bull and cow. We have seen bulls sometimes exposed to the attacks of man and the lion ; at other times in peaceful enjoyment of green pastures. Here he is moving along, his head turned on his back as if to listen and survey the scene (Fig. 419, 18), there his head is bent to browse the grass (Fig. 419, 7). Above his back appear two ram or mouflon-heads. Then, too, in a meadow there are two bulls lying down by the side of each other ; one is shown in profile, and his mighty sides squarely face the spectator. The head which projects beyond the neck of his companion is all that we see of the second beast (Fig. 421, 16). The awkward- ness of the arrangement seems to have dawned upon the artist ; for elsewhere he tried another expedient, but with hardly greater success ; a pair of bulls are lying down atop of each other, head to foot, and foot to head (Figs. 421, 24; 419, 8). Again, two cows are figured feeding their young, their head turned back- wards to lick the calf suspended to the udders (PL XVI. 15). A very similar attitude is given to a doe suckling her fawn (Fig. 421, 10); a second doe merely looks back towards her suckling (Fig. 424, 5). Animals of the deer type seem to have been as often portrayed as those of the bovine species ; we meet twice over an antelope walking along (PL XVI. i ; Fig. 421, 11). A third has its head bent as if to graze (Fig. 424, 11). Wild goats appear in couples amidst shady glades, which are indicated by leafy branches popped down in the field (Fig. 419, 9, 10). The first throws back her head as if writhing in an agony of pain, caused by the arrow which has just struck her (PL XVI. 19); the second is lying among flowering shrubs (Fig. 419, 20). Two