Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/372

 Characteristics of Mycenian Sculpture. 319 finding out to what extent the artist derived his inspirations from models brought to him by trade. The only way I know to satisfactorily solve and set at rest the problem, is to subject the more important pieces of the series we have formed to a final revision. In casting our eye over the sculptor's work, we are struck at the small proportion of foreign elements to be found in it, and the predominance of characteristics that constitute the unity of these scattered images, and the originality of the mind of which they are the spontaneous expression. This originality is already obvious in the idol series. The oldest would scarcely be quite so barbarous, had their makers had models under their eyes to help their inexperience. If with the passage of time the artisan lost somewhat of his clumsiness, we feel that a vague remembrance and reflex of better-defined forms were with him, when he blocked out some of the divine simulacra. Such images accidentally and momentarily seen, but of which he had no specimens to hand, appear none the less to have suggested this or that movement, this or that attitude. Nevertheless, even when we feel most certain of being in presence of imitations, like the lead statuette discovered at Troy (Fig. 291), and the two gold leaves from Mycenae (Figs. 289, 290), the impression remains that these are no true copies. Not one of these statuettes is, or claims to be, the exact reproduction of one of those effigies of Egyptian or Syrian gods impressed or cast in the same moulds for centuries by Oriental artisans. The very choice of the material of which they are made is significant, and a standing witness that the iEgean statuettes were executed on the spot. This material is marble ; it forms the sub-soil of the islands, but is found neither in the Nile valley nor in Phoenicia. Moreover, works such as the two musicians of Keros would suffice to prove the independence of the insular sculptor (Figs. 353> 354)* The man who blundered out their uncouth shape started with the firm resolve of reproducing what he saw in Nature, and he sincerely thought he had done so. Intention, at a later date, will be carried out with better effect. If rapid advance is everywhere to seek, we are sure of its having been constant. Bronze statuettes, more particularly from Argolis and Laconia, close the idol series. Although female figures are con- cealed by drapery, we divine a form well hung together and of normal proportions. The exposed parts of men's figures are