Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/409

 35*5 Primitive Greece: Mvcenian Art. The intervention of the brush characterizes the vases of the second class. The designs are painted either in dark red, brown, deep violet, or white, on a yellow or light red ground ; but the colours are always dull. Geometric ornament reigns supreme ; yet there is a tendency towards more complicated arrangements, and a marked inclination for curvilinear lines. Henceforward effort is made to copy the living form, and models, for the most part, are sought among inferior animals. Many of the bulging shapes, of which the oldest monochrome pottery is entirely com- posed, are continued in these vases ; but vessels of more elegant Fig. 436. — Broken pottery, wilti holes for suspension. Actual siie. outline begin to appear alongside of them. The paste has been more carefully prepared ; the walls become thinner, and the vase itself consequently lighter ; in this respect some of the pieces approach those of Greek ceramics. Nearly all the vases of this class have been built on the wheel (PI. XX.). The height of the art of the Mycenian ceramist is reached with the vases of the third class. All are turned on the wheel, carefully polished, and the external surface overspread with a lustrous covering of various shades of red, brown, or black. To the glaze with which these vases are covered corresponds a notable change in the forms and shapes. These become taller and finer, and some of the jars and jugs are outlined with