Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/527

 470 Primitive Greece: Mvckniax Art. vases on which plants and animals have been traced with the brush. If the industry of Thera is in advance of that of Troy, it lags behind that of Mycenae and Tiryns. Thus, at Mycenae the domestication of metal has become general, but at Thera and Troy we have nothing but stone implements. There is no doubt a certain affinity between the forms and shapes of Mycenian and Tirynthian ceramics ; but the latter arc inferior in every respect to those of its neighbour. Thera therefore, from a cultured point of view, stands mid-way between Troy and Mycena^ The material of the industrial products of several other islands of the Archi- pelago, Oliaros, Amorgos, Melos — all in close proximity to Paros — largely consists of marble, which is found everywhere on the soil surface. Out of marble are made small figures which may be considered as the far-off ancestors of Greek statues ; as well as vases intended for utilitarian or ornamental purposes. Terra- cotta statuettes and rudimentary pottery are not unknown. The inceptive efforts of the ceramist were directed towards incised figures, but he next learnt how to use the brush ; the vases, utensils, and ornaments from the island-graves bear the impress of the Mycenian style, but at a distance, for they neither exhibit the variety nor the rich effect beheld on the similar objects that reach us from continental Greece. The necropoles of Rhodes, of the adjacent islands, and of Crete belong to a much later period, so that the vases which have been brought out of them are characterized by exactly the same shapes and forms as the pottery from Mycenae and Tiryns. We are thus led to raise the question whether the style under notice is not island-born, and whether its favourite types, sometimes comprised under the denomination of ** floral and maritime decoration," had not there its being. This view of the case would considerably detract from the inventive faculty ascribed in the first instance to the Mycenian artisans ; in that it would place elsewhere the seat of their ornamental scheme, more especially perhaps in the island of Crete, to which the oldest traditions assign the part of " Queen of the Isles." Thence the shapes and designs peculiar to this art would have passed to continental Greece, which at that time was ruled over by great Achaean and Minyan chieftains. These provided the artisan with more precious metals and fine materials than i