Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/290

Representations of Human Life. 237 animals pleased me also, for the poses are expressive and well chosen ; the quiescence of the lines are cleverly opposed to the more agitated groups of the first goblet ; they should therefore satisfy the mind in an equal degree ; yet, unconsciously as it were, the eye would steal back to my first love, where the interest was livelier. Of course the stirring theme had something to do in exciting my curiosity to greater depths ; but it was also because I divined, even through an imperfect copy,^ a freer and franker touch. Nevertheless, if there be glaring faults of drawing anywhere, they will be found rather in the first cup than the second. We do not allude to the quaint perspective or deforma- tion of the human figures. These are blemishes common to both vases, and which we find in other productions of Mycenian art. The scene representing the contest between the man and the wild bull discloses errors of a peculiar nature, not to be accounted for by insufficiency of conventions which contemporary plastic art had adopted. The pose of the bull entangled in the net is forced and unnatural ; nothing short of a broken back could have twisted him round in such a way as to bring his forelegs in touch with his horns. Then, too, the legs of the left bull disappear we know not whither. True, that part of the body is supposed to be covered by the bull caught in the net ; but the eye is perplexed by the incomplete outline. Finally, the treatment of the man transfixed by the beast's horns is somewhat confused. One of his arms is invisible ; the head, instead of bending forward towards the earth where he is falling, is thrown back. This is because the sculptor has attempted a bolder flight than he could well manage : he undertook to represent sudden and violent movements, which are necessarily of short duration. To satis- factorily carry out so arduous' an emprise required no less than the consummate knowledge of a specialist, a Landseer for example. The task allotted to the other sculptor was less difficult ; the stationary or slow movements represented there are natural to the animal, and can be observed at leisure wherever there is a drove. The posture of the one man who has a part in this picture is simple in the extreme. The figures are all quiescent ; they fall easily and without effort in their place. Nevertheless, as if the artist had been spurred on by the difficulties he had laid upon himself — in despite of crudities and