Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/432

 Pottery. 377 built, down to the time when cupola-buildings became general throughout Eastern Greece. That many generations went on making it is further implied by the prodigious number of frag- ments of this ware found all over the .^Egean. Moreover, the unequivocal differences to be observed in the designs and execution could only have been produced slowly and by degrees, e.g. during the lapse of a long time. Then decadence fell upon the art. Like the fortunes of the Achaean dynasties in their decline. FlO. 458. — Stirrap-handled amphora. lalysos. Height, 23 c. ground and figures — everything — grow pale on the vase. The grounds, instead of their former warm deep tone, are of a light dirty red or olive green, and the painted designs grow dull and confused. Fragments of this pottery, polished within and without, are especially collected at Mycense, and the unmistakable falling off in the style and workmanship permits us to read as in an open book the gradual decay and impoverishment of the community. Such differences, however, can hardly be detected away from the vases themselves. The majority of the pieces