Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/88

Description and Restoration of Tomb I. 63 over ihe door-case of one of the Mycenian rock-cut graves? If a painted decoration existed here, what were its distinctive characteristics ? As this is a moot point, we prefer to leave that part of the fa9ade quite plain {PI. V.); but in our per- spective view, two running lions appear in that situation (PI. VI.), There are evidences as to the great part played by the lion in Mycenian art, be it in the Lions Gate, on engraved stones, or jewellery. We might with equal propriety replace the royal beast by sphinxes or bulls. The space which occurs between the first and second line of the sealing-holes, above the polished zone, is less than the next immediately below, between Fir,. 269. — Tomb I. Fragment of decoration of rn9[ule. Red porphyiy. the third and fourth line. We may assume that there existed here an ornament which might be repeated vertically, as often as the decorator required it, and continued along the edge of the slab. Accordingly, we have applied above and below the border in question a single row of spirals, of which two fragments are in existence {Figs. 369, 270). The perspective view of slab {Fig. 270) brings out very distinctly its thickness. Judging from analogy, wq have supposed that a very similar slab {PI. IV. 4) covered the space represented by the first row of dowel-holes. The surfaces enclosed by these salient bands (i and 2, 3 and 4) were lined with slabs, as thin as fragment g. They are gone, but the spaces they occupied have been rightly filled in with a form based on spirals, of the same family as that