DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0121
78 THE EARLIEST HELLENIC STONE STATUES
figure of a man from a stele from the Shaft Graves at Mycenae
(see above, Fig. 14). The process of cutting round was the
same in each and the figure finally achieved has in each case
reached the same standard of unloveliness. Scratching of
detail with the point of the knife is plain enough in Nos.
17, 28, 32, 39, and 40, to choose the most obvious examples.
There is also a tendency here and there to that outlining
of form in low relief which we have already seen at Prinias in
Crete and in other Cretan works (above p. 68). Nos. 14 and
23 show this outlining more clearly than many.
But in addition to the groups of figures in the round and
of plain low relief-carvings there is another small group
which is technically of very great interest and importance.
No. 17 shows a horse (Fig. 32), partly damaged, which is un-
finished. Its process of manufacture is described.1 The carver
first drew his horse in outline on a plain slab, as in the case of
the low reliefs. But his next process was to cut away the back-
ground, not to make relief but to remove it altogether and
produce in the process a horse in three dimensions, of which
the back and front would be the two sides of the slab and the
other dimension derived from the thickness of the slab.
Having outlined his horse he then pared off the slab round
its outline. But he did not pare right up to the outline2
because he needed a little extra beyond the outline in order
to make the transition to the other surface provided by the
thickness of the slab. This particular example shows us the
horse just at the stage when it was on the point of acquiring
its third dimension. It was in fact a short cut to sculpture
in the round and as such a most instructive example. For
it is no isolated phenomenon. The best example of this
‘biscuit sculpture’, as it might well be called, is seen in the
pedimental relief in marble of Herakles, Apollo, and the
tripod on the front of the Treasury of the Siphnians at
1 The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, p. 190. It was presented to the
British Museum by the Greek Government in 1923. See Brit. Mus. Cat. of
Sculpture, 1. 2 As indeed the editor, Prof. Dawkins, suggests, p. 190.
figure of a man from a stele from the Shaft Graves at Mycenae
(see above, Fig. 14). The process of cutting round was the
same in each and the figure finally achieved has in each case
reached the same standard of unloveliness. Scratching of
detail with the point of the knife is plain enough in Nos.
17, 28, 32, 39, and 40, to choose the most obvious examples.
There is also a tendency here and there to that outlining
of form in low relief which we have already seen at Prinias in
Crete and in other Cretan works (above p. 68). Nos. 14 and
23 show this outlining more clearly than many.
But in addition to the groups of figures in the round and
of plain low relief-carvings there is another small group
which is technically of very great interest and importance.
No. 17 shows a horse (Fig. 32), partly damaged, which is un-
finished. Its process of manufacture is described.1 The carver
first drew his horse in outline on a plain slab, as in the case of
the low reliefs. But his next process was to cut away the back-
ground, not to make relief but to remove it altogether and
produce in the process a horse in three dimensions, of which
the back and front would be the two sides of the slab and the
other dimension derived from the thickness of the slab.
Having outlined his horse he then pared off the slab round
its outline. But he did not pare right up to the outline2
because he needed a little extra beyond the outline in order
to make the transition to the other surface provided by the
thickness of the slab. This particular example shows us the
horse just at the stage when it was on the point of acquiring
its third dimension. It was in fact a short cut to sculpture
in the round and as such a most instructive example. For
it is no isolated phenomenon. The best example of this
‘biscuit sculpture’, as it might well be called, is seen in the
pedimental relief in marble of Herakles, Apollo, and the
tripod on the front of the Treasury of the Siphnians at
1 The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, p. 190. It was presented to the
British Museum by the Greek Government in 1923. See Brit. Mus. Cat. of
Sculpture, 1. 2 As indeed the editor, Prof. Dawkins, suggests, p. 190.