Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/315

^90 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. apartments. The outer walls, as well as the secondary chambers, both internally and externally, were panelled with a niono- chfome plastering. From observations made at the time of the disinterment of these plastered scraps, it has been proved that only five colours were employed — white, black, blue, red, and yellow. We reserve our description of the patterns found here for a subsequent chapter, which will deal with the processes and forms employed by the Mycenian artist to decorate his buildings. For the present we will confine ourselves to a few remarks. Geometric designs, made up of horizontal and vertical bands, circles, and dots, hold a prominent place ; but this is not all. The painter also derived his inspirations from such types as he found in the vegetable and animal kingdoms — leaves, rosacai, and other flowers ; star-fish, bulls, and even men. Faint traces of great winged figures are not rare ; unfortunately, the poor state in which they are found does not lend itself to a complete restoration ; but in these mutilated remains we guess imaginary beings analogous to those types that play so great a part in the creations of Egyptian and Chaldaeo-Assyrian art. Nor were these the sole elements that entered into the scheme of the Tirynthian orna- mentist. His resources were much greater than might have been supposed from the constructive mode displayed in the walls. He not only looked to fresco-painting to vary the aspect of the inner and external walls, but in calling in the help of different sub- stances, he obtained contrasts of colour by opposing one shade to another. Wood, according to the kind of tree whence it comes, furnishes, here lighter tints, there colours of a sombre hue, and bronze plates in all probability further heightened the effect. The surfaces which they covered no longer exist, and oxidation has destroyed the bronze ; but the plating has left its mark on the polished slabs of the domed-graves at Mycenae and Orchomenos. That we are justified in applying to the house conclusions deducible from the tomb, is incontestable ; in both the architect has introduced blocks whose vivid tones are tren- chantly relieved against the dull grey of the limestone. From two friezes have come fragments of applied ornaments of this nature ; one consists of very hard green stone, and the other of alabaster ; the latter still retains in the hollows of the rosettes scraps of a vitreous paste of a fine blue colour. We have already said how the floors were enlivened with gay tints.