Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/541

 484 Primitive Grefxe: Mvcenian Art. points of contact. But the Mycenian art, with its intense feeling of life, soars far above the culture of Northern Syria and Cappa- docia ; the latter is singularly deficient in the inventive faculty throughout its career, never having risen above mere conven- tionalism.^ Phrygia has also been named ; ^ lions — separated by a column or a vase — in front of each other, are beheld on several Phrygian tombs. So, too, analogies are observable between the two sets of ornament ; but there are inscriptions on apparently the oldest tombs of the Phrygian necropoles, and the shapes of some of the letters seen there are already farther removed from their Phoenician prototype than in certain varieties of the Greek alphabet. This is because the reigns of the princes whose names are read on these fronts are placed between the ninth and seventh centuries B.C. The Phrygian style, then, can only be considered as the prolongation and the tag-end, if the expression be allowed, of Mycenian art. Whatever Mycenc-e may have derived from Phrygia was not gotten from the Phrygia lying away on the banks of the Sangarius ; but from a much older Phrygian state, whose existence was alone remembered by tradition, and whose centre rose at the foot of Mount Sipylus. Here had been enthroned Tantalus, the father of Pelops, and on the sunny side of the hill are still seen the ruins of some forty tumuli, or cones of masonry resting on circular bases. They cover a domed-shaped chamber which gives the impression of a natural vault. The type, in small, is that of the cupola-buildings of Mycenae. The tumulus shape is better adapted to and probably originated in a flat country, rather than a hilly region like Anatolia, where the rock comes to the surface ^ Respecting the analogies referred to above, see Mykenisclu Vasefi ; Sayce, lUos ; TsouNDAS, 'E^rifjteplcy 1 888; and above all, Winter, Arc/i, Anzeigery 1890. The points of resemblance, however, are more apparent than real. The conventions which Winter has detected on the two sets of monuments suggest rather the notion of the imperfect technique of beginners. Affinities may be allowed to exist in the decoration strictly so called (Heuzev, On'gines orientales). Interchange of small objects may, likely enough, have been carried on between Asia Minor and the /Kgcan. - The opinion referred to above is expressed by Prof. Ramsay, Journal of Hellenic Studies, To suit his theory, however, that the bas-relief of the Lions Gate is copied from a Phrygian model, he is obliged to place it in the middle of the eighth century r.c, and ascribe it to the Dorian kings of Argos. But, as it seems to us, the facts set forth in the foregoing pages are diametrically opposed to his hypothesis.