[Fig. 6]. KYLIX FROM MYCENÆ.
the lords of the Argolid who first and most freely opened their gates to Cretan importation and influence; in the shaft graves of Mycenae, famous for their rich treasure of gold, discovered by Schliemann in 1874 behind the Lion Gate, the oldest Cretan import in the shape of vases of the first late Minoan style ([p. 10]), appears beside Minyan and lustreless ware (Figs. [4] and [6]).
By the side of these local products, the ‘Varnish’ vases in the shaft graves appear like children of a strange and sunnier world, representative of a quite different and superior style of art. The idea that they came from Crete has been confirmed by the excavations carried on since 1900, which in different parts of the island disclosed a compact civilization of markedly un-Greek character, developing without a break from the third millennium to the end of the second, which is in striking contrast to that of the mainland. This civilization has been named Minoan after the fabulous king Minos, the builder of the labyrinth, and it has been divided into three epochs, of which the first two precede the period of the shaft graves.
In the early Minoan period, following on the miserable Stone Age ([p. 2]) the Cretans must have laid the foundation of their riches, if an inference may be drawn from the stone vases and goldsmith’s work of Mochlos. The ceramic art enters on two paths, which have a future before them. The vases were hitherto unpainted and only incised. Now either they are covered with brilliant black paint (‘varnish’) on which the old patterns are painted in tenacious white colour, a technique which celebrated its triumph in the subsequent period, or the vases are left in the colour of the clay and painted with bands of ‘varnish’; to this so-called ‘Mycenean’ technique belongs the whole late period ([p. 10]). There is a special group of flamed ware, the patterns of which, like much that is Minoan, are far nearer to modern applied art than to Greek. Even in the first half of this period the kiln seems already to be known; the potter’s wheel appears in the second, which is characterized by the first appearance of curvilinear patterns, especially the wave series and running spiral.
The Middle Minoan period, a pure and richly-developed bronze civilization, is the height of polychromy: the clay is finely cleansed, the black glaze is at its very best, red in different shades occurs besides white. A transition leads to the brilliant period of the Kamares style, named after the first discoveries in the Kamares cave on Mt. Ida. The ‘Mycenean technique’ occurs not infrequently alongside of the polychrome; but as it often edges the ornaments with incised lines or puts white spots on them, it does not reject the tendency to richer effect, which is a feature of the age and is also expressed in the relief-like ornamentation of many vases (Barbotine). The ornamentation is still very fond of linear patterns, and also develops the spiral still further, and lays the foundation of the numerous decorative motives which characterize the later periods; living creatures also (birds, fishes, quadrupeds) are represented in painting. The motive of drops falling from the brush, which would be inconceivable in Greek vase-painting proper, occurs already. There is a simultaneous use of decoration in bands, and without division; the emphasizing of the shoulder by ornamentation is found in contrast with the lower part decorated, if at all, with stripes (Figs. [3] and [4]). The stock of forms increases, and the imitation of metal-work is often unmistakeable.
In the Kamares style proper (Figs. [5] and [9]) polychromy (white, red, and dark yellow on black) reaches its highest development, the greatest variety of plastic decoration appears, the Mycenean technique (dark on light) is relegated to the background.
