DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0290
238 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
of the Thera frescoes, which is confirmed by the fact that
the pottery found with them is of the older Mycenaean
style, whereas the frescoes of Mycenae and Tiryns undoubt-
edly belong to the later or latest period of Mycenaean
art.
This, however, is far from proving that wall-painting
flourished earlier in Thera than in Argolis. At Thera we
simply see the art in a very archaic stage, while in Argolis
we catch glimpses of the maturer art which adorned the
palaces of Mycenae and Tiryns at the time of their destruc-
tion. These frescoes, we know, are easily injured, and re-
quire frequent renewal — witness the hearth of the megaron
at Mycenae; and it is reasonable to believe that if we had
those old palace walls intact we should find them palimp-
sests, as it were, of painting upon painting, reaching back
toward the primitive stage of Thera.
In the absence of positive data for determining even the
priority of settlement in Argolis and Thera, we certainly are
not in a position to say which of the two led the way in
inventing — if it be of Hellenic invention — or in borrow-
ing this art. At Troy, indeed, lime-plaster is unknown in
the second city, and the walls, usually of unbaked brick,1
have no coating but the same clay mortar in which they
are laid up, and which serves at Mycenae and Tiryns as a
rough coat or background for the lime-plaster. In Egypt
and Chaldaea, however, we find plastering and wall-paint-
ing in free use from the earliest times, and hence it is prob-
able that this art was brought into Greece from the Orient
by the Phoenicians. In that case Thera would naturally
be the first to' receive it, and Argolis would follow suit.
We now come to a form of art of far wider distribution
1 In the sixth city, now known to be of the Mycenaean age, the house-walls-
are regularly of good, sometimes of excellent, stone masonry.
of the Thera frescoes, which is confirmed by the fact that
the pottery found with them is of the older Mycenaean
style, whereas the frescoes of Mycenae and Tiryns undoubt-
edly belong to the later or latest period of Mycenaean
art.
This, however, is far from proving that wall-painting
flourished earlier in Thera than in Argolis. At Thera we
simply see the art in a very archaic stage, while in Argolis
we catch glimpses of the maturer art which adorned the
palaces of Mycenae and Tiryns at the time of their destruc-
tion. These frescoes, we know, are easily injured, and re-
quire frequent renewal — witness the hearth of the megaron
at Mycenae; and it is reasonable to believe that if we had
those old palace walls intact we should find them palimp-
sests, as it were, of painting upon painting, reaching back
toward the primitive stage of Thera.
In the absence of positive data for determining even the
priority of settlement in Argolis and Thera, we certainly are
not in a position to say which of the two led the way in
inventing — if it be of Hellenic invention — or in borrow-
ing this art. At Troy, indeed, lime-plaster is unknown in
the second city, and the walls, usually of unbaked brick,1
have no coating but the same clay mortar in which they
are laid up, and which serves at Mycenae and Tiryns as a
rough coat or background for the lime-plaster. In Egypt
and Chaldaea, however, we find plastering and wall-paint-
ing in free use from the earliest times, and hence it is prob-
able that this art was brought into Greece from the Orient
by the Phoenicians. In that case Thera would naturally
be the first to' receive it, and Argolis would follow suit.
We now come to a form of art of far wider distribution
1 In the sixth city, now known to be of the Mycenaean age, the house-walls-
are regularly of good, sometimes of excellent, stone masonry.