Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/370

 GLYrTic Art. 317 British Museum (Fig. 425, 8, 11). I feel no hesitation for two others, representing a doe struck by an arrow, and a stork crowned with stag-antlers (Fig. 425, 10, 6). In these two last the field is plane, instead of being more or less concave, as is always the case with Mycenian gems. Our impression is further strengthened by the fact that the chalcedony with the stork figured on it was picked up in a tomb which cannot be older than the fourth century b.c.^ To avoid confusing epochs one with another, it will be well to form a clear notion relating to the processes which the My- cenian engraver employed in his work. Examination of the intaglios leads to the following conjecture. As a rule, the gems are regular in shape. Such perfect regularity as we see here is absent from the polished but uncut stones of the primitive period ; nor would simple friction against harder materials have been more successful in obtaining the desired form. The en- gravers probably began by cutting the outline on crystal and agate, and used for the purpose a lathe or wheel, dropping upon it from time to time moist emery powder or crushed corimdiun. This done, they set their tools to the actual engraving of the stone, penetrating it and modelling the image. To attack quartz, and even harder materials, tools finer and more resisting than the chisel were required. We guess the intervention of two kinds of instruments : a drill ending in a rounded button, which was used for the circular hollows,'^ and turned by a movable bow, like that of a modern centre-bit or wimble, and one for the straight lines. This drill was probably worked with the hand ; for the lathe, is a comparatively late invention. It was introduced by Theodorus of Samos into Ionia in the sixth century u.c, and does not seem to have been known in Anterior Asia until the eighth century li.c.^ The holes indicating the main divisions of the figure having been drilled into the stone, the engraver connected them with one another, using points and hand-saws ; ^ The famous and many-coloured vase, now among the treasures of the British Museum, was brought out of this tomb. It represents the struggle of Thetis and Peleus. of a leather strap {Odyssey). As to the drill with rounded end, it is no more than ihQfermm retusum of Pliny. •* Information relating to glyptic processes are detailed at some length in History of Art
 * ^ The Homeric carpenter already sets a rotary movement to his tool by means