Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/180

Tiiii House and the Palace. 139 But where was the frieze originally ? "At a certain height," says Dr. Dorpfeld, somewhat vaguely. The discovery of two fragments from the decoration of the upper part of Tombs I. and II. at Mycenae enables us to be more assertive (Figs. 272, 273, 286). In his provisionary restoration of Tomb II. — which he has placed at our disposal (Fig. 286) — Dr. Dorpfeld places over the door one of the fragments in question ; that is to say, he assigns thereto a function akin to that which, in our restoration of the palace, we attribute to the alabaster frieze. The vivid tints of the glass-paste, whilst accentuating the outline of the pattern, enhanced the effect of those elegant curves, inter- sected at regular intervals by vertical lines recalling triglyphs ; colours and forms were trenchantly relieved against the plain surface of the architrave on the one hand, and on the other in charming harmony with the enriched cornice below. The alabaster slabs are from fifteen to twenty centimetres thick. Fig. 303 shows how they were fixed to the woodwork ; each triglyph lined the salient face of a longitudinal timber, whilst the metopes were applied to the cross or tie-beams. We cannot explain in this place how the alabaster frieze has furnished a device which is generally considered as one of the distinctive features of the Doric frieze, namely gutUc. The question will be treated by and by, when we shall endeavour to show that the noblest type which prevailed during the classic age of Hellenic art had its beginnings and roots in Mycenian architecture. Agreeably with the conjecture we have adopted, we have pointed out how the mingling of the two processes, stone and wood, clustering timbers as facing to anta;, and tie-beams in brick and rubble walls, are in perfect agreement with the habits of the builder of that epoch. As to the fact that none of the columns — as clearly indicated