Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/428

Pottery. 2>7i out, the introduction of colour to enliven the best-executed vases shows a notable change in the habits of the ceramist. Hence we note with some surprise that his repertory is poorer than that of his colleague of Thera ; wholly composed of the simplest combinations of geometric patterns, chevrons, lozenges opposed to each other at the apex, vertical or slanting strokes, crosses, bands running round the vase at different heights, and the like. Occasionally the neck and body of the vase are decorated by what we take to be a very free and conventional rendering of leaves. Animal forms are conspicuously absent. The status of these islands was not calculated to forward the march of industry. With the advent of the Achaean dynasties, however, whose wealth and exploits were sung by the Epic bards, affairs took a different turn. Centuries before the erection of the walls of Tiryns, Mycenae, and Orchomenos, around which Fig. 453. — Stone cup. Diameter^ 95 c. Fir.. 454. — Stone spoon. Total length, 55 c. were gathered troops of dependants and slaves, small groups had been settled there whose handicrafts were about on a level with those of Antiparos. The result of Schlicmann's excavations at Tiryns has established the fact that the site had been occupied ere the Cyclopes cast a wall around the rock.^ Not only did Schliemann come upon the foundation walls of the earliest settlement, but he also found stone vases and rude hand-made pottery, slackly baked. The clay wares are not painted ; what ornament there is has been moulded on shapes of the simplest description. Some of the vases, however, before they went into the kiln, were immersed in a coloured bath which changed the natural tone of the clay. The dawn of coloured decoration appears on a vase with white lines. Idols, whether of marble or clay, are inexpressibly coarse. The excavations in Argolis have re- vealed nothing to fill up the gap between this primitive pottery and that of the Mycenian shaft-graves. The biggest and most remarkable vases, painted in dead colours, came out of these ^ Schliemann, Tiryns.