Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/474

 Glass. 4^7 The former, as a rule, were covered with thin gold-leaf, either pressed down with the fingers or by artificial means, so as to bring out the design which the mould had impressed on the soft material. At the time of their discovery, many of these gold leaves still adhered to the buttons.^ Small plates, with a tiny tube at the top through which was passed a piece of wire for threading them, were utilized either to form necklaces (Figs. 495, 496, 499) or as trimming to skirts and bodices. Some of the pieces appear to be divine simulacra. The larger ones, representing a thoroughly conventionalized human form, could be carried about like the marble idols (Fig. 335). But the smaller served the double purpose of amulets and dress- trimming (Fig. 336). Mycenian paste never advanced beyond glass-ware. Amber, owing to its semi-transparency, may be considered as a natural substitute for glass. In the days of Homer, amber was mixed with gold to form necklaces which the Semite sold to Greek ladies.^ If no trace of it appears at Troy, it is already found in the royal graves at Mycenae, whilst the large beads from Menidi must have belonged to necklets.^ Chemical analysis has shown that these beads were made of Baltic amber ; * a fact which, like the jade of Central Asia picked up at Troy, suggests a whole series of intermediaries across the European continent, between the Baltic and Mycenae, and serves to explain why the material was so seldom utilized by the Greek artisan. Figurines cut in large pieces of amber, of which a goodly crop has been yielded by the necropoles of Upper and Central Italy, and even as far south as Apulia, are non-existent here. Unlike older nationalities, who found pleasure in the play and accidents of colour, Greece never set great store by glass or amber. Both materials absorb light, but do not reflect it back ; and the result is a weak, uncertain outline. Glass and amber are unsuitable for sculpture, in that they cannot be made to frankly imitate or accentuate the form ; now, what more than anything else dis- tinguishes the Grecian mind, is its lively feeling, even at that early date, for the beauty of the living form. ^ Mykenische Vasen, - Odyssey, 3 ScHLiEMANN, Mycifue ; Das Kuppelgrab, * Schliemann, Tiryns, VOL. II. E E