Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/85

 62 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. created a hollow which warned the spectator that there occurred ti gap in the masonry. The triangular space required a border. We have supposed that the slabs adjoining it were adorned by spirals which formed a frame around the cavity. The portion of the frame which corresponds with the height of the bands was fixed by clamps or bedded in the slabs. We have now to furnish the frontispiece, below and at either side of the discharging space. We start from slab g, of which a drawing was made by Lord Elgin's draughtsman (Fig. 268). It is the only fragment which will fill in one half of the space com- prised between the rows of holes 2 and 3. Accordingly, we may Fir,. 268. — Tomb I. Fragment of decoration of fa5ade. Height o m., 512. White marble. safely infer that the facade was lined from right to left by two such slabs, set one above the other. Reference to our engraving (Fig. 268) shows that it was furnished above with a border of a single row of spirals ; a corresponding line ran along the lower edge of the second slab, and the two formed a polished zone of about one metre in height, whose rich tint and almost plain surface were in pleasing contrast with the elaborate ornaments circling it. We are inclined to believe, with Dr. Adler, that painting is not unlikely to have aided the decoration of these fagades.^ Have we not a curious instance of the intervention of the painter, and the taste with which he knew how to replace chiselling by ornaments drawn with red, yellow, and black figures, ^ Tiryns,