Waldstein, Charles: The Argive Heraeum (Band 1): General introduction, geology, architecture marble statuary and inscriptions (Boston [u.a.], 1902)

MYCENAEAN TERRA-COTTA IMAGES

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discovered by us in close proximity to the Heraeum, these early images are found with
the most beautiful specimens of Mycenaean ware in pottery as well as other materials.

At first sight it might appear that these thoroughly conventional figurines are earlier
than some of those we have just described. They consist, in form, generally of a round
elongated foot, like that of a cup, a flattened, more or less circular or semicircular body
above it, again reminding us of a Mycenaean cup, and an upper portion which generally
curves outward and leaves the top like the lip or rim of a vase. This general outline, in
spite of all detailed variation, is kept in a fixed and stereotyped manner, and is adhered
to as a convention by the modeler in so manifest a way, that he clearly tells us he
does not intend to follow nature, though he is well able to do so. Thus in their bare
outline they are further removed from naturalism than many specimens of the primitive
type we have just examined. On the other hand, the fine clay of which they are made,
the certainty of touch and neatness with which they are modeled in this conventionalized
form, and, above all, the modeling and painted decoration on any portions which the
artist chose thus to decorate, show a degree of artistic skill and
a suppressed power of naturalism which is never to be met with
in the works of the previous class, and is not always found in
some of the succeeding classes. Within the circumference of
this rounded, shield-shaped, flattened surface which represents
the torso, the female breasts and the arms hidden under the
drapery (compare Fig. 19) are indicated with great delicacy and
skill, and are certainly out of keeping with the stiff convention
of the outline form. Moreover, the painted ornamentation
sIioavs a power of free-hand brush-work, a fluency and variety of
line, which are the reverse of conventional, and which, together
with the glazed color used, are to be found only in vases of the
Mycenaean order.

We are here brought face to face with a most curious pheno-
menon : whereas the chief distinctive characteristic of Mycenaean
art in other spheres is its naturalism (especially when contrasted
with the " Geometric " style which succeeds it), we have the
most pronounced instance of stereotyped conventionalism in the
form of these figures. But this archaeological paradox is most
readily accounted for by the explanation which the facts invari-
ably attending their discovery necessarily force upon us. These
figurines are, we may say, almost always found together with

Mycenaean vases ; and their painted decoration betrays the hand of the maker of these
vases. Their shape, moreover, is constructively and intrinsically " vase-like." They are
distinctly ceramic figurines, and not coroplastic figurines. Now it was the Mycenaean
potter who produced the greatest innovations and marks the greatest advance in ceramic
art, — we may say for all times. But besides his chief characteristic of naturalistic
painting and his introduction of glazed color into ceramic painting, there is one thing
which appears to me almost greater and more important, — he was the first really to
establish constructive and final ceramic forms and shapes for the vessels that were to
receive, retain, and preserve fluids. And it is this central tectonic attitude of mind of
the ceramist which has influenced him in fashioning these Mycenaean figurines, and in
giving them the stereotyped form to which he adheres. We have this interesting phe-

FlG. 19. — M Y C E N A IS A N

Type of Terra-cotta.
From a Tomb near the He-
raeum.