Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/465

4o8 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. on in a single locality, or in many workshops distributed around the i^gean, each one of which was distinguished by processes and tastes of its own ? To the first question it is difficult for the present to give an answer. Vases painted with dead colours were known to the civilization of the Cyclades, which is generally considered older than that of Argolis. Several fine examples of this fabric have been discovered in those quadrangular troughs, made of tufa, and fastened down with a large slab, which Thucydides identified with Carian sepultures,^ whether at Thera, Cyprus, Amorgos,^ or Melos.' The use of a varnish or glaze to heighten the colour of the vases would appear to have been early, for fragments of lustrous pottery were found at Thera in the houses buried under puzzolana.* They did not find out, however, until much later how to make the most of the invention. As already remarked, the objects that have come from the oldest establishment at Tiryns show that industry was less advanced at the beginning of the archaic period on continental Greece than in the islands; a fact easily understood, in that the isles were less distant than the mainland from polished communities of long standing, such as Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria. Whether we consider the question from the result of the excavations, or bear in mind that the march of ancient culture was from east to west, we find no reason for placing the beginnings of the painted vase in Argolis. Nor would the question be advanced by calling to our aid the peculiarities of style which characterize Mycenian pottery ; for here again, if the probabilities alone are considered, a diametrically opposed con- jecture is reached. What struck us most, as we examined the decorations of these vases, is the predilection shown by the painter for marine organisms, flexible sea-weeds unfolding with the wave, polyps and shells that live and die on the piece of rock where they had their being, mollusks with long tentacles which the fisherman sees floating amidst a veritable forest of weeds. We have even caught on the wing, as it were, the intent of the artist who chose the liquid element to explain the first manifestations and metamorphoses, the mysterious arcana of life, its infinite diversity and perpetuity. On what spot was it most likely that ^ Thucydides. See also observations by Furtw angler, Mykenische Vasen. - Aihcfiische Mittheihmgen. ^ Ji^id. 4 Mykenische Vasen.