Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/528

Secondary Forms. 501 Atreus a. series of chevrons in slight relief, enframed in bands covered with spirals {Fig. 203). These furnish us with a clue as to the embellishment of the palace column ; we divine forms other than flutes. The chevrons under notice, carved in low relief on very hard stone, are reminiscent of those bronze, gilded strips which are fastened with nails to a wood backing whose existence the metal shreds found near to certain Mycenian bases bear witness to.' Wood does not lend itself kindly to over- FiG. 204. — Green breccia capital. fining ; to have demanded of it, therefore, delicate slender spirals had been well-nigh impossible. There was no such difficulty with metal. Curvilinear forms of the nature beheld here are found everywhere in ornamental pieces that have been collected in the Mycenian graves of the lower and upper city, be it on vases, on gold, silver, or bronze objects. Wood-carving and metal sheets may very well have been concurrently applied to one and the same column. Hence the pillar seen in the palace fa9ade has been restored in this style by us (Pis. XI., XII.). ' History of Art.