More Science from an Easy ChairLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
More Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history; Science
How did the Mycenaeans come to invent, or at any rate adopt, the
convention of "the flying gallop," seeing that it does not truly
represent either the fact or the appearance of a galloping horse?
Though 20,000 years ago the earliest of all known artists, the
wonderful cave-men of the Reindeer period, drew bison, boars, and deer
in rapid running movement with consummate skill, they were (be it said
to their credit!) innocent of the conventional pose of the "flying
gallop." I base this statement on my own knowledge of their work. M.
Reinach thinks that the "flying gallop" was devised as an intentional
expression of energy in movement. I venture to hold the opinion that
it was observed by the Mycenaeans in the dog, in which Muybridge's
photographs (now before me) demonstrate that it occurs regularly as an
attitude of that animal's quickest pace or gallop (see fig. 5, Pl.
II). It is easy to see the "flying gallop" in the case of the dog,
since the dog does not travel so fast as the galloping horse, and can
be more readily brought under accurate vision on account of its
smaller size. The late Professor Marey (a great investigator of animal
movement) appears to have denied that the dog exhibits the full
stretch of both limbs with the pads of the hind-feet upturned, and all
the feet free from the ground. He was mistaken, as Muybridge's
photograph giving side and back view of a galloping fox-terrier amply
demonstrates. It is quite in accordance with probability that the
early Mycenaean artists, having seen how the dog gallops, erroneously
proceeded to put the galloping horse, and all other animals which
they wished "to make gallop," into the same position.
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