Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/391

 338 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. by a Hon (PI. XVI. 12), strikes me as even superior to the great vases near which it was^ found. The design is as impressive and varied as that of the vases, but more correct Despite the small dimensions of the image, the limbs of the bull are modelled quite as cleverly as the best the goblets have to show. The rendering is somewhat dry and sinuous, and in strong contrast with the amplitude of the powerful flanks swelled out by agony. Fleshy though the sides may be, they allow us to see under the skin the ribs stretched by the effort which the animal makes to breathe, whilst the teeth of his adversary tear his back, and his claws threaten to strangle him. The convulsive movement of the head as it falls between the rigid paws, is copied from Nature herself; he lowers it that he may avoid the deadly embrace of his terrible foe, from whom he vainly tries by a violent and desperate jerk to free himself. Of the lion we see but the top of the back ; yet we divine right well the spring which has landed him on his prey, and the voracity with which he satisfies his appetite on that back, which sinks under his weight. I very much doubt whether Grecian glyptic art in its palmiest days will turn out figures more living and realistic than these. Two more lions (PI. XVI. 6, 14) and a pair of bulls (PI. XVI. 2, 17) claim our attention for qualities of the same high order. Here, too, the design is at once fine and singularly broad. Having passed in review the march pursued by this art in its development, we are now in a position to pass a well- pondered judgment on the merits and demerits of this sculpture, such as we find it in the last days of the Mycenian period, when we see it in its perfection in the works of continental Greece, notably Peloponnesus. The result of our study is to the effect that the sculptor, even when he became most skilful, never advanced far enough to be able to thoroughly cope with the human figure. If in chiselling the sepulchral masks he honestly strove to express the shades of meaning which make up indi- vidual character, he yet failed in some respect whenever he attempted to represent the nude, the whole frame-work of the human figure. The proportion which he adopted between the different parts of the body is not correct at all points. The attachment of limb and trunk leaves much to be desired ; the limbs are too long and slender ; his most glaring fault, however,