Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/365

 312 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. betrays itself in a somewhat dry and meagre treatment. He is over-anxious to declare the main divisions of the human body, and the result is undue emphasis. Then, too, the unnatural drawing in of the body above the hips recurs on the intaglios (Figs. 413; 415 ; 419, 15, 21 ; 421, I ; 424, 3). But we find more than one bull, antelope, and lion where it is impossible to detect any tendency to systematic deformation ; on the contrary, the design is both impressive and broad. It would be wrong to conclude from the above observations that animal figures are all perfect. No doubt some come very near to that point (PI. XVI. 6, 7, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19), and the defects observable in many examples, sometimes even among the most carefully executed, should rather be accounted for by the programme which the artist was required to carry out than his unskilfulness. His composition had to fit a narrow field whose shape he could neither change nor modify in any way. Hence it was inevitable that the action of his figures should be forced, their heads turned on their backs more than was natural, and made to look towards the field, when technical necessities required them to be stretched contrariwise (Figs. 419, 8, 18, 24; 421, II, 24; 424, 5). Elsewhere one might be tempted to tax him with too precise and mechanical a symmetry ; for example, where the figures of a group of two, set face to face, or one above the other, are as like as two peas. One could wish that some of Natures noble freedom, who never repeats twice over the same thing at every point, had been with the artist (PI. XVI. 15, 20; Figs. 419, 16, 22, 23; 421, 17, 22, 24, 25 ; 424, 2, 10). First impressions, however, are not always reliable, and we should do him grave injustice in allowing them undue weight, for we must remember that he was not always free to indulge his own inclination. When we deplore the little variety instilled in these groups, we yet recollect their symbolic or heraldic character ; their being the representation of a religious or civic idea, i. e. allegorical figures, or the armorial bearings of a chieftain or clan. In either case, the engraver dared not improve or modernize the image, where the special destination of the gem, as well as the meaning attached to the emblem, were hallowed by tradition. Considering the restrictions put upon him, and the fetters from which he could not shake himself free, we should have none but grateful acknowledgments for the elegance and