DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4856#0029
23
present all we venture to say is that these vases, when compared with the naturalism of
the bull-hunts on the gold cups of Vaphio, and certain other painted vases with marine
subjects, such as the nautilus among sea-weeds, carry us a distinct step nearer to the
beginnings of a true Hellenic spirit in art.1 More and more it is being accepted that
the so-called Mycenaean art was the immediate predecessor of the Ionian Greek art of
the 7th century B.C., as seen in the vase paintings of Cameiros now in the British
Museum, and in numerous objects of gold and porcelain from the same site.2 How
long before this the Mycenaean art may have lasted is a question which may ultimately
be decided by a closer examination of its actual remains and less reliance on the
imaginary effects of the Dorian migration about B.C. 1000, or the presence of Egyptian
cartouches of the 15th century B.C.
GLASS.
In several tombs, but particularly in one, we found vases of variegated glass (Fig. 63,
Nos. 1052-1056), differing but slightly in shape and fabric from the fine series of glass
vases obtained from the tombs of Cameiros, and dating from the 7th and 6th centuries,
or even later in some cases. It happens, however, that these slight differences of shape
and fabric bring our Enkomi glass vases into direct comparison with certain specimens
found by Prof. Flinders Petrie at Gurob in Egypt, and now in the British Museum.
If Prof. Petrie is right in assigning his vases to about 1400 b.c.,3 our Enkomi specimens
must follow suit. It appears that he had found certain fragmentary specimens of this
particular glass ware beside a porcelain necklace, to which belonged an amulet stamped
1 We observe that in almost these words a German writer (Riegl, Stilfragen, p. 148), who
approaches the subject from a different standpoint, and who accepts the Mycenaean antiquities as
belonging to the age of the Rameses, notes very truly that the genre element on the gold cups of
Vaphio-not only in subject and rendering, but also in the importance assigned to landscape—
indicates an extent of freedom on the part of the Mycenaean artists in their attitude towards nature
and the life of mankind such as was not again reached by the Greeks till about the time of the
successors of Alexander the Great. So also on p. 146, after a careful study of the principles of
decoration in Egypt and on the Mycenaean antiquities, he concludes that the Mycenaeans had
advanced considerably beyond the Egyptians, and had approached the results subsequently arrived
at by the Greeks. Similarly M. Pottier, Etudes Grecqties, vii. (1894), P- I28, in an article on the
" Orfevrerie Mycenienne," finds himself, in presence of the Mycenaean products, confronted with a
civilization composed of two distinct elements. On the one hand, " une barbarie intellio-ente et
laborieuse, s'essayant avec gaucherie a. imiter cle tres beaux modeles." On the other hand, "un art
exotique, raffine, parfaitement outille et maitre de ses precedes."
2 S. Wide, in the Athen. Mittheilungen, 1897, p. 256, says: "The opinion current to-day that the
Mycenaean civilisation ended about 1000 B.C. rests solely on the conjecture that the so-called Dorian
migration had put an end to the Mycenaean civilisation in Greece proper. But this is merely a conjecture
to which we,are equally entitled to oppose other conjectures." P. 257 he says : " The Ionian art had, in
a measure, taken over the inheritance of the Mycenaean." P. 233 : "The survival of Mycenaean Kunst-
motive in the later industrial art of Greece has been proved." Nor are these isolated opinions.
3 Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, PI. 17; compare also pi. 18 with two identical glass vases which
are assigned to Rameses 11.
present all we venture to say is that these vases, when compared with the naturalism of
the bull-hunts on the gold cups of Vaphio, and certain other painted vases with marine
subjects, such as the nautilus among sea-weeds, carry us a distinct step nearer to the
beginnings of a true Hellenic spirit in art.1 More and more it is being accepted that
the so-called Mycenaean art was the immediate predecessor of the Ionian Greek art of
the 7th century B.C., as seen in the vase paintings of Cameiros now in the British
Museum, and in numerous objects of gold and porcelain from the same site.2 How
long before this the Mycenaean art may have lasted is a question which may ultimately
be decided by a closer examination of its actual remains and less reliance on the
imaginary effects of the Dorian migration about B.C. 1000, or the presence of Egyptian
cartouches of the 15th century B.C.
GLASS.
In several tombs, but particularly in one, we found vases of variegated glass (Fig. 63,
Nos. 1052-1056), differing but slightly in shape and fabric from the fine series of glass
vases obtained from the tombs of Cameiros, and dating from the 7th and 6th centuries,
or even later in some cases. It happens, however, that these slight differences of shape
and fabric bring our Enkomi glass vases into direct comparison with certain specimens
found by Prof. Flinders Petrie at Gurob in Egypt, and now in the British Museum.
If Prof. Petrie is right in assigning his vases to about 1400 b.c.,3 our Enkomi specimens
must follow suit. It appears that he had found certain fragmentary specimens of this
particular glass ware beside a porcelain necklace, to which belonged an amulet stamped
1 We observe that in almost these words a German writer (Riegl, Stilfragen, p. 148), who
approaches the subject from a different standpoint, and who accepts the Mycenaean antiquities as
belonging to the age of the Rameses, notes very truly that the genre element on the gold cups of
Vaphio-not only in subject and rendering, but also in the importance assigned to landscape—
indicates an extent of freedom on the part of the Mycenaean artists in their attitude towards nature
and the life of mankind such as was not again reached by the Greeks till about the time of the
successors of Alexander the Great. So also on p. 146, after a careful study of the principles of
decoration in Egypt and on the Mycenaean antiquities, he concludes that the Mycenaeans had
advanced considerably beyond the Egyptians, and had approached the results subsequently arrived
at by the Greeks. Similarly M. Pottier, Etudes Grecqties, vii. (1894), P- I28, in an article on the
" Orfevrerie Mycenienne," finds himself, in presence of the Mycenaean products, confronted with a
civilization composed of two distinct elements. On the one hand, " une barbarie intellio-ente et
laborieuse, s'essayant avec gaucherie a. imiter cle tres beaux modeles." On the other hand, "un art
exotique, raffine, parfaitement outille et maitre de ses precedes."
2 S. Wide, in the Athen. Mittheilungen, 1897, p. 256, says: "The opinion current to-day that the
Mycenaean civilisation ended about 1000 B.C. rests solely on the conjecture that the so-called Dorian
migration had put an end to the Mycenaean civilisation in Greece proper. But this is merely a conjecture
to which we,are equally entitled to oppose other conjectures." P. 257 he says : " The Ionian art had, in
a measure, taken over the inheritance of the Mycenaean." P. 233 : "The survival of Mycenaean Kunst-
motive in the later industrial art of Greece has been proved." Nor are these isolated opinions.
3 Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, PI. 17; compare also pi. 18 with two identical glass vases which
are assigned to Rameses 11.