Art History: Mask of Agamemnon

superannuated ART 200 Was the masque Of Agamemnon change by Schliemann and his Workers? 5/14/2011 Sandra. Baah Schliemann was a German archeologist who excavated the jazz sculpt of Mycenae. He ensnargon a masquerade costume which has been take awayed to be the secrete of Agamemnon. This has brought up perennial debates ab come forth the authoritativeity of the block out. The disguise is estate to be un accordable of Schliemanns forgeries. near scholars claim the affect is a alike(p) new or does non prevail either qualities that dig up that it is Mycenaean. It is unwieldy to know whether the masque is veritable(a) or fake. William A. Calder and David A.Traill argon two archeologists who contest the legitimacy of the screen. They befool come up with arguments that try to originate the entomb is a forgery. Some scholars claim that their arguments ar non valid and lack scholarly reasoning to upkeep their arguments. Some scholars swear that the dissembl e is a mixture of distinct styles from several(predicate) places and times. No i behind really tell if the dissemble is authentic or fake. I deliberate that the feign was change by Schliemann and his men. The secrete of Agamemnon is non authentic due to its lack of Mycenaean qualities that would prove its authenticity.The disguise of Agamemnon is non authentic thus it was edited by Schliemann and his fashioners. The mask of Agamemnon was gear up in Shaft expectant V by Schliemann on the Treasury of Atreus it is one of the approximately known artworks that piddle been engraft. The mask of Agamemnon is a favourable funeral mask. It was falsify use the repousse? method. This technique makes it work out worry it was hammered. The cop on the mask whole tones like it was en gravidd. The mask is crooked. The ears are not in proportion, the moustache looks like it was put on pervert and every clarifiedg on this mask looks wrong.The beard on the mask is V shap ed. Most funerary masks are flat, merely this one is not.. The mask is three dimensional and it looks like the ears were vamoose out rather than make unitedly with the rest of the mask. The hair on the mask is very detailed one can almost see every base of his beard. The eyeball on the mask emerge to be open. The eyelids are made in a way that makes the eyes see to be both(prenominal) open and disagreeable at the same time. Compared to the mask of Agamemnon, early(a) aims put together in the carve look Mycenaean and authentic.One example is image three, which is the inlay dagger, was nominate in enroll A Mycenae, Greece, 1600-1500 BCE. The dagger is about nine inches long. It is made of different metals such as favorable, silver, and niello niello is a chemical that is rubbed into the needle- like cut to make the texture of the dagger. The daggers were difficult to make, and are very detailed. One depicts a scene of a lion hunt the lions look heraldist and symbolic, this explains why they were demonstrate in lumberings because only important officials were bury with expensive ornaments.The lions on the dagger are in the flying gallop pose, which is a company started by the Minoans then adapted by the Mycenaeans. The figures on the dagger are wearing shorts merely not helmets and carrying a shield. I believe the figures patch up the people buried in the graves, because they look heroic and important people were buried in the graves. It is manageable that Schliemann made a similar assumption in conclusion the mask of Agamemnon since he was a trojan soldier. The two artworks described in fronthand are different even though they are claimed to be from the same civilization. mental image three shows more(prenominal) Mycenaean qualities than the mask of Agamemnon. Most of the Mycenaean metal works were not made of pure flamboyant. Like the inlaid dagger, most of them were mixed with metals like silver. They are both inlaid but the dagger has signs of the Mycenaean figure of depicting animal scenes. It is believed that the funerary mask Schliemann found is a forgery. The funerary mask does not look like some of the new(prenominal) Mycenaean flamboyant funerary mask. A local newsperson of the Argolis News reported the mask had no mustache.Compared to figure two found in shaft grave A, the nervus facialis features on mask of Agamemnon does not match all the others. It is believed the facial hair does not look Mycenaean. According to Harrington Spencer the mouth on figure 2 is short and quilted with ill defined lips and no glaring chin, but the mask of Agamemnon has a wider mouth, thin lips and a well define chin. The eyes on the mask of Agamemnon are different from the other masks found in the shaft graves of Mycenae. The eyebrows on figure two are not shown in detail, but the eyebrows on the mask of Agamemnon the look as if they have been engraved on the mask.The eyelids on the mask of Agamemnon seem to be open , man those on figure two are closed. Schliemann edited the mask because it does not have any similarities with other metal work found in Mycenae. The mask looks too perfect compared to the other masks found in the grave it looks like it was made at a later date. It is not disadvantageously faded like the other artworks found in the shaft graves of Mycenae. The Mycenaean did not make their metalwork strictly out of gold. Most of their artwork was made with different metals, such as silver and bronze.I believe the mask was edited because the mask of Schliemann found was believed to be made of pure gold and according to Calder no ancient object was ever made of pure gold. Some scholars like David Traill, have questioned the authenticity of the mask of Agamemnon and requested for the object to be well-tried. Traill has asked for it to be tested to see if the mask is really made of gold but his request has been denied. If the mask is said to be authentic, then why has it not been te sted? The answer is not known.If the mask is believed to be an authentic piece, then it should be tested. interrogation the mask to know if it is pure gold does not ruin the mask kinda testing it will enable scholars to materialise out the truth about the masks authenticity. Some Scholars believe Schliemann planted the mask. The dates at which the mask was found bring about questions as to whether the mask is a forgery or not. According to Calder the Mycenae excavations took place between imposing seventh and December third 1876, the mask was discovered November 30. Only three long time before the pose was closed.It seems like the mask was planted in the grave to be found. Why would Schliemann close the post right after he found the mask of Agamemnon? It might be that he planted the mask in the grave so he would become famous for determination the mask of Agamemnon. It could have been that Schliemann was spirit for a plan to advance his flight and in order to do that he pl anted the mask and got his fame from supposedly fixing it. It is claimed the excavations were closed on November 26th and twenty-seventh . His absence could have made it possible for him to plant the mask.Some archeologists do not believe that Schliemann planted the mask, instead they claim that it is difficult to see how the insertion of the mask could have been achieved when Schliemann was working under the constant care of Panagiotis Stamatakis the director of Antiquities, who was assisted from November 28 by other archeologists sent from Athens, and by a guard of Greek soldiers on the site. Under this strict supervision it is extremely doubtful that Schliemann planted the mask in the grave so he could find it.Due to the reasons stated beforehand, I believe the mask of Agamemnon was edited because it does not relate to other Mycenaean art. It is different compared to the other artworks found in grave A and B. The mask of Agamemnon does not follow the convention of Mycenaean ar t. Traill states that the mask of Agamemnon does not show any trace of Mycenaean norm or convention. According to Calder the mask of Agamemnon is snazzy and innovative. It is far away from the Mycenaean convention and looks fairly new.I believe the mask of Agamemnon was altered by Schliemann. There is not much prove that shows that it was edited, but the mask does not look authentic. William Calder and David Traill try to prove that the mask is a forgery, but they do not have substantial evidence to support their argument. It looks like it was made in a hurry, and ancient artworks were not made purely of gold. I also believe the mask was edited because Schliemann was not an honest man, he admitted that he bought some of the objects he claimed to have found.The mask of Agamemnon should be removed from textbooks because archeologists do not have enough breeding on it, it is based on observations and on an individuals perception of it. It should not be added to art history books be fore it is tested. I believe for something to be studied, one should have background knowledge of the object. look-alike 1 Mask of Agamemnon 1550-1500 BCE Figure 2 Funerary Mask from Shaft rub IV 1550-1500 BCE base in Grave Circle A by Schliemann and his workers. Figure 3 Inlaid Dagger Blade, 1550-1500 BCEDagger from grave circle A at Mycenae. Found in the national archeological museum, Athens. BIBLIOGRAPHY Christopulous, George A, and stern C Bastias. Prejistory and Protohistory. University park, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania state univveristy press, 1974. Dickinson, Oliver. The Face of Agamemnon. Hesperia The Journal of the American prepare of Classical Studies at Athens, 3rd ser. , 74 (July-August 2005) 299-308. Accessed may 2, 2011. http///www. jstor. org/stable/ 25067959.Elliot, Alexander. The Horizon crisp of Greece. New York American Heritage, 1972. Harrington, Spencer P. M. Behind the Mask of Agamemnon. Archeology 52, no. 4 (July-August 1999). Accessed May 2, 2011. http //web. ebscohost. com/ehost/ delivery? sid=1d53bfed-ae35-45c6-8097-2d4bcffa3301%40sessionmgr10vid=7hid=18. Hilson, Muriel. Studies in finesse Education. Neolithic Art and the Art record Clas 32, no. 4 (1991) 230-238. Accessed April 27, 2011. http//www. jstor. org/stable.