DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0253
202 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
a composition in metals, made to serve every purpose of the
colorist, it is nothing less than a marvel. We cannot here
reproduce the colors,1 and we must content ourselves with
indicating their distribution. The nude parts of the men
and the bodies of the animals are rendered in gold; the
trousers and shields in electron (an alloy of gold and sil-
ver), while some black substance is used to represent the
hair and manes as well as the rims and straps of the shields,
with the devices on one of them, and certain other details.
The figures are not inlaid immediately on the dagger-blade,
but on a separate bronze plate which has been enameled to
give it a darker tone and a finer gloss. This plate, whose
outline is distinctly brought out in the illustration, was then
set into the blade. Thus we have the following colors: the
original bronze of the blade, which has now become green
by oxidation; the glossy black of the plate which served as
the ground for the design, and on which the forms stand
out in sharp relief; the pure, or almost* pure, gold of the
figures j the silvery gray of the electron in the dress and
armor; and finally the black of the devices and other de-
tails.2
Outside the Royal Graves and so presumably later than
the inlaid daggers, a few swords have been found of a
Later somewhat different type. One of these (Fig. 88)
Swords kas ^e usuaj Dronze blade, but broadening at the
heel to form a guard and then running back in a wood-
1 This has been done under the direction of M. Foneart, sometime Director
of the French School at Athens, by M. Blavette, who published this and five
more of the designs in the Bull, de correspondance Hellenique for 1881. The
same plates have since been used by Perrot and Chipiez (Myc. Art, Plates
XVIII., XIX.).
2 Though most of these blades were discovered by Dr. Schliemann, in 1876,
it was left to Koumanondes, in cleansing them four years later, to discover and
publish the designs ('Afyvawv, 1880).
a composition in metals, made to serve every purpose of the
colorist, it is nothing less than a marvel. We cannot here
reproduce the colors,1 and we must content ourselves with
indicating their distribution. The nude parts of the men
and the bodies of the animals are rendered in gold; the
trousers and shields in electron (an alloy of gold and sil-
ver), while some black substance is used to represent the
hair and manes as well as the rims and straps of the shields,
with the devices on one of them, and certain other details.
The figures are not inlaid immediately on the dagger-blade,
but on a separate bronze plate which has been enameled to
give it a darker tone and a finer gloss. This plate, whose
outline is distinctly brought out in the illustration, was then
set into the blade. Thus we have the following colors: the
original bronze of the blade, which has now become green
by oxidation; the glossy black of the plate which served as
the ground for the design, and on which the forms stand
out in sharp relief; the pure, or almost* pure, gold of the
figures j the silvery gray of the electron in the dress and
armor; and finally the black of the devices and other de-
tails.2
Outside the Royal Graves and so presumably later than
the inlaid daggers, a few swords have been found of a
Later somewhat different type. One of these (Fig. 88)
Swords kas ^e usuaj Dronze blade, but broadening at the
heel to form a guard and then running back in a wood-
1 This has been done under the direction of M. Foneart, sometime Director
of the French School at Athens, by M. Blavette, who published this and five
more of the designs in the Bull, de correspondance Hellenique for 1881. The
same plates have since been used by Perrot and Chipiez (Myc. Art, Plates
XVIII., XIX.).
2 Though most of these blades were discovered by Dr. Schliemann, in 1876,
it was left to Koumanondes, in cleansing them four years later, to discover and
publish the designs ('Afyvawv, 1880).