Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/539

 482 Primitivk Grkkck: Mvckman Art. ornamentist frequently introduced it into his work in a slightly modified form. One, if not his most elaborate piece of handi- work, is the Orchomenos ceiling ; the decoration, like that of certain ceilings of the Theban tombs, consists of rosette borders, and flowers of the lotus surrounded by scrolls and spirals.^ Was the design borrowed from an Oriental carpet, or were there then — as now in Italy and Southern France — painters that went from place to place among the islands of the Archipelago and Greece proper, carrying enormous rolls whereon patterns were traced, out of which customers made a choice according to their taste and means ? We have evidence that intercourse was rife between Mycenian Greece and Egypt during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynas- ties. The names of Queen Ti and her consort, Amenophis III., have been read on scaraba^i and sherds of Egyptian enamelled ware, discovered on Grecian soil. It is quite possible that scarabs bearing the names of these two sovereigns were taken there by trade long after their reign. Factories chiefly engaged in producing for export did not scruple to engrave on their wares the label of famous Pharaohs who had died centuries before. Hence scarabs and vases may have been antedated, through a whim or the craftiness of the workman. Yet will not the hypothesis lose much of its probability, when we remember that no royal cartouches except those of the princes and princesses of the Eighteenth Dynasty have been discovered at lalysos and Mycenae up to the present time ? Had these been purely fanciful formulae, would they be quite so uniform ? should we not find some attempt at variety ? - 1 Prisse d'Avennes, Histoire de Vart en igypte, plates entitled, Ornementatwn des plafonds. See two ceilings from the tomb of Nefer-Hotpou, which bear a close analogy to the Orchomenos example {Mhioires de la mission du Caire). 2 The following list is by no means complete, but it has the merit of containing none but objects of undoubted Egyptian origin : (i) Ornaments of enamelled earthenware (faience) (Schliemann, Mycen^). (2) Ditto, fragment of helmeted head (Schuchardt, Mycencp), (3) Scarabseus of Queen Ti, from Mycenae ('E^»|i£^<c, 1887). (4) Scarabaeus of Amenophis III. from lalysos, and other scarabjei of Egyptian manufacture {Mykenisclie Vasen), (5) Fragment of enamelled earthenware bearing the name of Amenophis, read by Ermann ('E^ijfifptf, 1888). (6) Two ditto plaques, also picked up at Mycenae, with the cartouche of an Amenophis which Ermann identifies with Amenophis III. ('E^»i/iffM'r, 1891).