Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/366

 Glyptic Art. 313 dignity which he has imparted to these forms. This style of drawing has not always preserved, among other races and at other times, so bold a character or so vivid a feeling of life. So, too, we must allow for the horror vactd which, ever present with the primitive artists of every country, prompted them to fill in every available space. This feeling, coupled with a desire to define the locality, suggested the frequent insertion of flowers, branches, and trees, and unnecessary details such as the two mouflon-heads beheld above an ox on a Mycenae intaglio (Fig. 419, 7). Perhaps the myth of the Chimaera has no other origin.^ The ingenious and subtle mind of the Hellenic race^was not satisfied unless it could discover a meaning for every form which it saw brought together in the field, but whose juxtaposition was probably accidental, a mere expedient and artifice of the decorator. We now know the stereotyped themes of Mycenian glyptics whose style we have passed in review. We are, then, in a position to pick out among intaglios of mysterious or doubtful origin, but which belong to remote antiquity, those that should be ascribed to the archaic period. Mistakes in this direction are so unlikely to arise, that we need not take them into serious consideration. Among the choice specimens of this art which figure in our plates, we do not think there is one to which the attribution we claim for them can be seriously disputed. Our gems, like those whose birth-place and antiquity are warranted by the Excavation Journal, are characterized by shapes, themes, accessories, and execution which are common to both sets. No doubt the pair of bulls, the one moving along peacefully, the second his head bent between his legs preparing to rush against his foe, will never be surpassed (PI. XVI. 2, 17). Yet the attitude and technique of the bull devoured by a lion (PL XVI. 12), and two or three more lions, are quite up to their high level. There is an intaglio in the British Museum (PL XVI. 3) which on the first blush might rouse some slight suspicion, in that it not only is a scarabceoid, but has a cable or denticulated border, neither of which forms have as yet been encountered on any well-established example. But let us remember that Mycenian gems are by no means uniform in shape ; that the relations of the Mycenian world with Egypt ^ Murray, Catalogue of Gems,