DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0280
228 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
companion piece is a quiet pastoral scene in the midst of
olive-trees. In the first the central figure is a bull caught
in a net, which is fastened to two trees — naively repre-
sented in the same plane. On the right is another bull,
which appears to be clearing the net at a bound ; while on
the left a third animal has shaken off one hunter and is
tossing another on his horns. In this part of the picture
we have the Bull-hunter of the Tiryns fresco over again,
but distinctly getting the worst of it; and there are quite
kindred designs on two Mycenae gems (Figs. 102, 103).
On the second cup we have the strongest possible con-
trast in the whole composition and in the individual groups.
Over against the enmeshed and struggling animal at the
centre of the first composition, we see in the second a tran-
quil pair with their heads companionably together; instead
of the animal in headlong flight, one quietly grazing; and
finally ■■— as the very climax of contrast — for the infuriated
bull, tossing his pursuers, a brnte hobbled and driven away
to the sacrifice. The victim is tamed, but bellows out his
protest against the shambles, "as when a dragged bull
roareth, that the young men drag to the altar of the Lord
of Helike." l
The composition could not well be more bold or vigorous,
and it is wrought out with surprising skill and fidelity, par-
ticularly so in the pastoral scene, where the artist has set
himself a task distinctly within his powers. The violent
action required by the first subject made demands upon
him which transcended then, if it does not still transcend,
the reasonable limitations of his art; still his bold free hand
compels our admiration, even though the life and passion of
his picture cannot quite blind us to unquestioned crude-
nesses and impossible attitudes like that of the bull in the
toils.
1 Iliad, xx. 403 f.
companion piece is a quiet pastoral scene in the midst of
olive-trees. In the first the central figure is a bull caught
in a net, which is fastened to two trees — naively repre-
sented in the same plane. On the right is another bull,
which appears to be clearing the net at a bound ; while on
the left a third animal has shaken off one hunter and is
tossing another on his horns. In this part of the picture
we have the Bull-hunter of the Tiryns fresco over again,
but distinctly getting the worst of it; and there are quite
kindred designs on two Mycenae gems (Figs. 102, 103).
On the second cup we have the strongest possible con-
trast in the whole composition and in the individual groups.
Over against the enmeshed and struggling animal at the
centre of the first composition, we see in the second a tran-
quil pair with their heads companionably together; instead
of the animal in headlong flight, one quietly grazing; and
finally ■■— as the very climax of contrast — for the infuriated
bull, tossing his pursuers, a brnte hobbled and driven away
to the sacrifice. The victim is tamed, but bellows out his
protest against the shambles, "as when a dragged bull
roareth, that the young men drag to the altar of the Lord
of Helike." l
The composition could not well be more bold or vigorous,
and it is wrought out with surprising skill and fidelity, par-
ticularly so in the pastoral scene, where the artist has set
himself a task distinctly within his powers. The violent
action required by the first subject made demands upon
him which transcended then, if it does not still transcend,
the reasonable limitations of his art; still his bold free hand
compels our admiration, even though the life and passion of
his picture cannot quite blind us to unquestioned crude-
nesses and impossible attitudes like that of the bull in the
toils.
1 Iliad, xx. 403 f.