Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/529

 472 Primitive Greece: Mvcenian Art. upper layers of rubbish surrounding these, or on the acropolis. For the forms seen on the sherds picked up here belong to vases of later date ; they foreshadow the near approach of a new system, that which archaeologists designate as the "dipylon style." * Changes in matters of taste were not brought about in a day, especially among the tribes distributed around the -^gean, on whom the action of foreign influences was too feeble to have hastened the spontaneous evolution of the plastic faculty. That intense life and fruitful prosperity went on uninterruptedly for centuries together in the Mycenian commonwealth is certain ; but we know nothing of its struggles and vicissitudes during the course of its career, except what we learn from the Epic, where such events and personages as are singled out assume an ex- aggerated importance at the expense of all besides, which is either deliberately set aside or forgotten. That it was populous is proved from its buildings, implying as they do numerous trained hands to carry out any scheme the native princes might devise. Henceforward the instances of this culture divide them- selves into two distinct periods ; in the first are placed objects of every kind which Schliemann brought out of the royal graves on the acropolis, and in the second glass-pastes, fibulcC, and iron. To this final stage of Mycenian culture belong the domed-buildings of Argolis, Orchomenos, Menidi, and Amyclae, together with the vaults of Palamidi and Spata. Considered as a whole, Mycenian art lends itself to yet another distinction. Whilst objects designed for common uses have reached us in such quantities as to cause weariness when examined at close quarters, time has spared a very small number of those monuments which partook of a public and almost national character ; such as the Lions Gate, the sepulchral stelae of the Mycenian acropolis, the gold cups meant for the royal table, even to the frescoes of the Tirynthian palace. We have on the one side a monotonous and somewhat crowded wealth, and on the other a few highly-interesting specimens which imply many more now disappeared. The existing examples are inadequate to show us under all its aspects the activity of artists entrusted with the execution of works, the beauty of which was to reflect distinction on both clan and its hereditary princes. In the products of this art, however, we discern two different tendencies,
 * That is to say, Early Geometric style.-^TRANS.