TREES IN PAINTING 199 



The branches radiate from the main stem, the 

 highest ones approximating most nearly to the 

 perpendicular, while the lowest ones actually 

 bend towards the ground, and extend, laterally, 

 beyond the upper ones to get their share of 

 air and light. The lowest ones only, on each 

 side, are forked. Stem, branches and fruit — of 

 which there is abundance, equally distributed 

 on the branches — are coloured yellow. The 

 leaves are coloured green. Being only mural 

 decoration, the tree has but two dimensions ; 

 a central stem with branches spreading laterally 

 only ; everything on one plane. But there is 

 enough to suggest that art, having gone so far, 

 will certainly go further. 



Trees figure, in quite conventional, symbolic 

 form, in the objects connected with the tree- 

 worship of Mycenaean Greece, to which, already, 

 repeated reference has been made — indeed, 

 the tree of life, often merely a decorative 

 pattern, is a familiar object in the early art of 

 many countries, including Assyria and Persia ; 

 and it survives even in the designs of our 

 carpets. 



Of more real artistic interest are two gold 

 cups of the Mycenaean period, found at Vaphio, 



