Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/534

Decoration. 507 know of his work is found in the megarons and the sepulchral fa9ades, where the stones of the first course near the ground, though larger, have but a feeble salience beyond those of the super- imposed rings (Pis. III., VII.). The only reliefs shown in the fa9ades are (i) a stone ledge or pent-house which projects over the entrance to Mdme. Schliemann's Tomb (Grave II.) (Fig. 118); and (2) a very salient slab which overhangs the abacus of Tomb I. (Pis. IV.-VI.). We divine here a bronze beam, and have re- established it in our restored fa9ade (Pis. V., VI.). The pent- house in question is a curious recall of the entablature seen over the porticoes, but it is impossible to consider it as one of those inflections or modulations of the form which are called mouldings. These are equally non-existent in the applied decoration sur- mounting the pent-house. The only real moulding is that which enframes the door of the Treasury of Atreus. But instead of being carved in relief, as that of classical architecture, it is formed of two deeply-grooved fasciae, which are joined to each other, on plan, by a curvilinear line or cavetto. A precisely similar arrangement occurs in the second tomb — with this differ- ence, that the fasciae are connected with each other by straight lines (Fig. 198) ; whilst in the door-frame of the bee-hive graves of the lower city, the moulding consists of a single band (Fig. 1 24). Fasciae, whether single or double, are apparently derived from timber architecture. When their junction is effected by straight lines, it produces the aspect of off-sets, or of planks set back the one from the other. A very analogous arrangement is observable in the fa9ades of Phrygian and Lycian tombs, where the tool has reproduced in the living rock faithful copies of the house made of planks and beams.^ The curve which served to join the bands is a later embellishment, bound up with the use of stone ; a few blows of the chisel sufficed to modify the profile in the direction of a more cleverly-contrived transition. Decoration. In the Mycenian building, the characteristics of the decoration were determined in advance, by the nature of the materials and ^ History of Art,