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.dt The History of Pottery, Volume 1 by Henry Beauchamp Walters, a Project Gutenberg eBook
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Transcriber’s Note:
Minor errors in punctuation and formatting have been silently
corrected. Please see the transcriber’s #note:endnote# at the end of this
text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues
encountered during its preparation. The end note also discusses the
handling of the many Greek inscriptions.
Volume II of this text is available separately at Project Gutenberg
at:
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PGADDRESS
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References to Volume II are linked as well for ease of navigation.
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Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Bold font is
shown delimited by the ‘=’ character. Super- and subscripted
characters are shown as '^2' and '_{2}' respectively.
This text includes the rendering of ancient Greek inscriptions, using
the alphabets in a number of different regions, not all of which exist
in the unicode character set. It is not possible to render these
inscriptions in text without a wholesale loss of information about the
variant forms. Each inscription, therefore, is simply rendered using
modern Greek characters, including several archaic characters
(koppa = Ϙ and digamma= Ϝ) which are supported in unicode fonts. These
inscriptions are better viewed, obviously, in the HTML or epub versions
which can be found at Project Gutenberg.
Minor errors and inconsistency in punctuation and formatting have been
silently corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of
this text for details regarding the handling of any other textual
issues encountered during its preparation.
Footnotes appeared in the printed text numbered sequentially on each
page. They have been renumbered to be unique across the text, and
gathered at the end of each chapter. The occasional references to them
by the original number have been changed.
Volume II of this text is available separately from Project Gutenberg
at:
.ti 4
PGADDRESS
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.hr 75%
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.h1
HISTORY OF ANCIENT POTTERY
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KYLIX BY DURIS.
THE LABOURS OF THESEUS.
(British Museum).
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT POTTERYGREEK, ETRUSCAN, AND ROMAN
BY H. B. WALTERS, M.A., F.S.A.
BASED ON THE WORK OF
SAMUEL BIRCH
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IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I
WITH 300 ILLUSTRATIONS
INCLUDING 8 COLOURED PLATES
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[ILLUSTRATION]
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LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1905
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PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
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PREFACE
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In 1857 Dr. Samuel Birch issued his well-known work on
ancient pottery, at that time almost the first attempt at
dealing with the whole subject in a comprehensive manner.
Sixteen years later, in 1873, he brought out a second edition,
in some respects condensed, in others enlarged and brought
up to date. But it is curious to reflect that the succeeding
sixteen years should not only have doubled or even trebled
the material available for a study of this subject, but should
even have revolutionised that study. The year 1889 also saw
the completion of the excavations of the Acropolis at Athens,
which did much to settle the question of the chronology of
Attic vases. Yet another sixteen years, and if the increase
in actual bulk of material is relatively not so great, yet the
advance in the study of pottery, especially that of the
primitive periods, has been astounding; and while in 1857,
and even in 1873, it was impossible to do much more than
collect and co-ordinate material, in 1905 Greek ceramics
have become one of the most advanced and firmly based
branches of classical archaeology.
It therefore implies no slur on the reputation of Samuel
Birch’s work that it has become out of date. Up till now
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it has remained the only comprehensive treatise, and therefore
the standard work, on the subject; but of late years
there has been a crying need, especially in England, of a
book which should place before students a condensed and
up-to-date account of Greek vases and of the present state
of knowledge of the subject. The present volumes, while
following in the main the plan adopted by Dr. Birch,
necessarily deviate therefrom in some important particulars.
It has been decided to omit entirely the section relating to
Oriental pottery, partly from considerations of space, partly
from the impossibility of doing justice to the subject except
in a separate treatise; for the same reason the pottery of
the Celts and of Northern Europe has been ignored. Part I.
of the present work, dealing chiefly with the technical
aspect of the subject, remains in its main outlines much as
it was thirty years ago; but the other sections have been
entirely re-written. For the historical account of vase-painting
in Birch’s second edition one chapter of forty
pages sufficed; it now extends to six chapters, or one quarter
of the work. The subjects on the vases, again, occupy four
chapters instead of two; and modern researches have made
it possible to treat the subjects of Etruscan and Roman
pottery with almost the same scientific knowledge as that
of Greece.
A certain amount of repetition in the various sections
will, it is hoped, be pardoned on the ground that it was
desirable to make each section as far as possible complete
in itself; and another detail which may provoke unfavourable
criticism is the old difficulty of the spelling of Greek names
.bn 010.png
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and words. In regard to the latter the author admits that
consistency has not been attained, but his aim has been
rather to avoid unnecessary Latinising on the one hand
and pedantry on the other.
Finally, the author desires to express his warmest acknowledgments
to all who have been of assistance to him in his
work, by their writings or otherwise, especially to a friend,
desiring to be nameless, who has kindly read through the
proofs and made many useful suggestions; to the invaluable
works of many foreign scholars, more particularly those of
M. Pottier, M. Salomon Reinach, and M. Déchelette, he
owes a debt which even a constant acknowledgment in the
text hardly repays. Thanks are also due to the Trustees
of the British Museum for kind permission to reproduce
their blocks for Figs. 75, 109, 118, 125, 128, 131, 138, 185,
191, and 197, to M. Déchelette for permission to reproduce
from his work the vases given in Figs. 224, 226, and to the
Committee of the British School at Athens for similar facilities
in regard to Plate #XIV:pl14#. (pottery from Crete). Lastly, but by
no means least, the author desires to express to Mr. Hallam
Murray his deep sense of obligation for the warm interest
he has shown in the work throughout and for the pains he
has taken to ensure the success of its outward appearance.
.rj
H. B. W.
London, January 1905.
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CONTENTS OF VOLUME I
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| PAGE
PREFACE | #v:preface#
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I | #ix:toc#
LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I | #xiii:top#
LIST OF TEXT-ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I | #xv:toi#
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT POTTERY | #xix:biblio#
NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS WORK | #xxxvi:abbrev#
PART I
GREEK POTTERY IN GENERAL
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Importance of study of ancient monuments—Value of pottery as\
evidence of early civilisation—Invention of the art—Use\
of brick in Babylonia—The potter’s wheel—Enamel\
and glazes—Earliest Greek pottery—Use of study of\
vases—Ethnological, historical, mythological, and\
artistic aspects—Earliest writings on the subject—The\
“Etruscan” theory—History of the study of Greek\
vases—Artistic, epexegetic, and historical methods—The\
vase-collections of Europe and their history—List of\
existing collections | #1–30:ch01#
CHAPTER II
SITES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF DISCOVERY\
OF GREEK VASES
Historical and geographical limits of subject—Description of Greek\
tombs—Tombs in Cyprus, Cyrenaica, Sicily, Italy—Condition\
of vases when found—Subsequent restorations—Imitations\
and forgeries—Prices of vases—Sites on which painted vases\
have been found: Athens, Corinth, Boeotia, Greek islands,\
Crimea, Asia Minor, Cyprus, North Africa, Italy, Etruria—Vulci\
discoveries—Southern Italy, Sicily | #31–88:ch02#
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CHAPTER III
THE USES OF CLAY
Technical terms—Sun-dried clay and unburnt bricks—Use of these\
in Greece—Methods of manufacture—Roof-tiles and architectural\
decorations in terracotta—Antefixal ornaments—Sicilian\
and Italian systems—Inscribed tiles—Sarcophagi—Braziers—Moulds—Greek\
lamps—Sculpture in terracotta—Origin\
of art—Large statues in terracotta—Statuettes—Processes\
of manufacture—Moulding—Colouring—Vases with\
plastic decoration—Reliefs—Toys—Types and uses of statuettes—Porcelain\
and enamelled wares—Hellenistic and Roman\
enamelled fabrics | #89–130:ch03#
CHAPTER IV
USES AND SHAPES OF GREEK VASES
Mention of painted vases in literature—Civil and domestic use of\
pottery—Measures of capacity—Use in daily life—Decorative\
use—Religious and votive uses—Use in funeral ceremonies—Shapes\
and their names—Ancient and modern classifications—Vases\
for storage—Pithos—Wine-amphora—Amphora—Stamnos—Hydria—Vases\
for mixing—Krater—Deinos or Lebes—Cooking-vessels—Vases\
for pouring wine—Oinochoë and variants—Ladles—Drinking-cups—Names\
recorded by Athenaeus—Kotyle—Skyphos—Kantharos—Kylix—Phiale—\
Rhyton—Dishes—Oil-vases—Lekythos—Alabastron—Pyxis—Askos—Moulded\
vases | #131–201:ch04#
CHAPTER V
TECHNICAL PROCESSES
Nature of clay—Places whence obtained—Hand-made vases—Invention\
of potter’s wheel—Methods of modelling—Moulded\
vases and relief-decoration—Baking—Potteries and furnaces—Painted\
vases and their classification—Black varnish—Methods\
of painting—Instruments and colours employed—Status of\
potters in antiquity | #202–233:ch05#
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PART II
HISTORY OF GREEK VASE-PAINTING
CHAPTER VI
PRIMITIVE FABRICS
Introductory—Cypriote Bronze-Age pottery—Classification—Mycenaean\
pottery in Cyprus—Graeco-Phoenician fabrics—Shapes\
and decoration—Hellenic and later vases—Primitive pottery\
in Greece—Troy—Thera and Cyclades—Crete—Recent discoveries—Mycenaean\
pottery—Classification and distribution—Centres\
of fabric—Ethnography and chronology | #234–276:ch06#
CHAPTER VII
RISE OF VASE-PAINTING IN GREECE
Geometrical decoration—Its origin—Distribution of pottery—Shapes\
and ornamentation of vases—Subjects—Dipylon vases—Boeotian\
Geometrical wares—Chronology—Proto-Attic fabrics—Phaleron\
ware—Later Boeotian vases—Melian amphorae—Corinth\
and its pottery—“Proto-Corinthian” vases—Vases\
with imbrications and floral decoration—Incised lines and\
ground-ornaments—Introduction of figure-subjects—Chalcidian\
vases—“Tyrrhenian Amphorae” | #277–327:ch07#
CHAPTER VIII
VASE-PAINTING IN IONIA
General characteristics—Classification—Mycenaean influence—Rhodian\
pottery—“Fikellura” ware—Asia Minor fabrics—Cyrenaic\
vases—Naukratis and its pottery—Daphnae ware—Caeretan\
hydriae—Other Ionic fabrics—“Pontic” vases—Early\
painting in Ionia—Clazomenae sarcophagi | #328–367:ch08#
CHAPTER IX
ATHENIAN BLACK-FIGURED VASES
Definition of “black-figured”—The François vase—Technical and\
stylistic details—Shapes—Decorative patterns—Subjects and\
types—Artists’ signatures—Exekias and Amasis—Minor Artists—Nikosthenes—Andokides—“Affected”\
vases—Panathenaic\
amphorae—Vases from the Kabeirion—Opaque painting on\
black ground—Vase-painting and literary tradition—Early\
Greek painting and its subsequent development | #368–399:ch09#
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CHAPTER X
RED-FIGURED VASES
Origin of red-figure style—Date of introduction—Καλός-names and\
historical personages—Technical characteristics—Draughtsmanship—Shapes—Ornamentation—Subjects\
and types—Subdivisions of style—Severe period and artists—Strong period—Euphronios—Duris,\
Hieron, and Brygos—Fine period—Influence\
of Polygnotos—Later fine period—Boeotian local fabric | #400–453:ch10#
CHAPTER XI
WHITE-GROUND AND LATER FABRICS
Origin and character of white-ground painting—Outline drawing\
and polychromy—Funeral lekythi—Subjects and types—Decadence\
of Greek vase-painting—Rise of new centres—Kertch,\
Cyrenaica, and Southern Italy—Characteristics of the latter\
fabrics—Shapes—Draughtsmanship—Influence of Tragedy and\
Comedy—Subjects—Paestum fabric—Lucanian, Campanian,\
and Apulian fabrics—Gnathia vases—Vases modelled in form\
of figures—Imitations of metal—Vases with reliefs—“Megarian”\
bowls—Bolsena ware and Calene phialae | #454–504:ch11#
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LIST OF PLATES IN VOLUME I
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(Except where otherwise noted the objects are in the British Museum)
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PLATE | |
I.| Kylix signed by Duris: Labours of Theseus (colours) | #Frontispiece:pl01#
| | TO FACE PAGE
II. | Archaic terracotta antefixes | #98:pl02#
III.| Restoration of temple at Civita Lavinia | #100:pl03#
IV.| Greek lamps and “brazier-handles” | #106:pl04#
V.| Moulds for terracotta figures | #114:pl05#
VI.| Terracotta vases from Southern Italy | #118:pl06#
VII.| “Melian” reliefs | #120:pl07#
VIII.| Archaic terracotta figures | #122:pl08#
IX.| Terracotta figures of fine style | #124:pl09#
X.| Porcelain and enamelled wares | #128:pl10#
XI.| Cypriote Bronze-Age pottery | #242:pl11#
XII.| Mycenaean vases found in Cyprus | #246:pl12#
XIII.| Cypriote “Graeco-Phoenician” pottery | #252:pl13#
XIV.| Example of Kamaraes ware from Palaiokastro, Crete (from\
Brit. School Annual) | #266:pl14#
XV.| Mycenaean vases (colours) | #272:pl15#
XVI.| Subjects from the Aristonoös krater in the Vatican (from\
Wiener Vorl.) | #296:pl16#
XVII.| Phaleron, Boeotian, and Photo-Corinthian vases | #300:pl17#
XVIII.| Melian amphora in Athens (from Conze) | #302:pl18#
XIX.| Proto-Corinthian and Early Corinthian vases | #308:pl19#
XX.| Corinthian pyxis and Rhodian oinochoë (colours) | #312:pl20#
XXI.| Later Corinthian vases with figure subjects | #316:pl21#
XXII.| Chalcidian vase in Bibl. Nat., Paris: Herakles and Geryon;\
chariot | #320:pl22#
XXIII.| “Tyrrhenian” Amphora: The death of Polyxena | #324:pl23#
XXIV.| Rhodian and Naucratite wares | #336:pl24#
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XXV.| Situla from Daphnae; later Ionic vase in South Kensington | #352:pl25#
XXVI.| Caeretan hydria (colours) | #354:pl26#
XXVII.| Painted sarcophagus from Clazomenae | #364:pl27#
XXVIII.| The François vase in Florence, general view (from Furtwaengler\
and Reichhold, Gr. Vasenm.) | #370:pl28#
XXIX.| Attic black-figured amphorae | #380:pl29#
XXX.| Vases by Nikosthenes | #384:pl30#
XXXI.| Obverse of vase by Andokides: Warriors playing draughts\
(B.F.) | #386:pl31#
XXXII.| Reverse of vase by Andokides: Herakles and the Nemean\
lion (R.F.) | #386:pl32#
XXXIII.| Panathenaic amphora, earlier style | #388:pl33#
XXXIV.| Panathenaic amphora, later style | #390:pl34#
XXXV.| Vases with opaque figures on black ground (Brit. Mus. and\
Louvre) | #394:pl35#
XXXVI.| Red-figured “Nolan” amphorae and lekythos | #412:pl36#
XXXVII.| Cups of Epictetan style | #422:pl37#
XXXVIII.| Kylix at Munich signed by Euphronios: Herakles and Geryon (from Furtwaengler and Reichhold) | #432:pl38#
XXXIX.| Kylikes by Duris at Berlin and in the style of Brygos at\
Corneto (from Baumeister) | #436:pl39#
XL.| Vases signed by Sotades (Brit. Mus. and Boston) | #444:pl40#
XLI.| Hydria signed by Meidias | #446:pl41#
XLII.| Vases of “late fine” style (colours) | #448:pl42#
XLIII.| Polychrome white-ground vases (colours) | #456:pl43#
XLIV.| Campanian and Apulian vases | #484:pl44#
XLV.| Apulian sepulchral vase (colours) | #486:pl45#
XLVI.| Vases modelled in various forms | #492:pl46#
XLVII.| Archaic vase in Athens with reliefs (from Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική) | #496:pl47#
XLVIII.| Vases of black ware with reliefs (Hellenistic period) | #500:pl48#
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LIST OF TEXT-ILLUSTRATIONS IN | VOLUME I
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FIG. | | | PAGE
1.| Coffin containing vases, from Athens |Stackelberg | #34:fig001#
2.| Bronze-Age tombs in Cyprus | Ath. Mitth. | #35:fig002#
3.| Tomb at Gela (Sicily) with vases | Ashmol. Vases | #37:fig003#
4.| Campana tomb at Veii | Campana | #39:fig004#
5.| Map of Greece | | #47:fig005#
6.| Map of Asia Minor and the Archipelago || #63:fig006#
7.| Map of Cyprus | | #66:fig007#
8.| Map of Italy | | #70:fig008#
9.| Diagram of roof-tiling, Heraion, Olympia | Durm | #93:fig009#
10.| Antefix from Marathon | Brit. Mus. | #99:fig010#
11.| Inscribed tiles from Acarnania and Corfu| Brit. Mus. | #102:fig011#
12.| Ostrakon of Megakles | Benndorf | #103:fig012#
13.| Ostrakon of Xanthippos | Jahrbuch | #103:fig013#
14.| Hemikotylion from Kythera| Brit. Mus. | #135:fig014#
15.| Child playing with jug | Brit. Mus. | #137:fig015#
16.| Dedication to Apollo (Naukratis) | Brit. Mus.| #139:fig016#
17.| Youth with votive tablet | Benndorf | #140:fig017#
18.| Vases used in sacrifice| Furtwaengler and Reichhold | #141:fig018#
19.| Funeral lekythos with vases inside tomb |Brit. Mus. | #143:fig019#
20. |Vases placed on tomb (Lucanian hydria) | Brit. Mus. | #144:fig020#
21.| Pithos from Knossos | | #152:fig021#
22.| Greek wine-jars | Brit. Mus. | #154:fig022#
23.| Amphora-stamps from Rhodes | Dumont. | #156:fig023#
24.| Amphora-stamps from Thasos | Dumont. | #158:fig024#
25. | “Tyrrhenian” amphora | | #160:fig025#
26.| Panathenaic amphora | | #160:fig026#
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27.| Panel-amphora | | #161:fig027#
28.| Red-bodied amphora | | #161:fig028#
29.| “Nolan” amphora | | #162:fig029#
30.| Apulian amphora | | #162:fig030#
31.| “Pelike” | | #163:fig031#
32.| Stamnos | | #164:fig032#
33.| “Lekane” | | #164:fig033#
34.| Hydria | | #166:fig034#
35.| Kalpis | | #166:fig035#
36.| Krater with column-handles | | #169:fig036#
37.| Volute-handled krater | | #170:fig037#
38. |Calyx-krater | | #170:fig038#
39.| Bell-krater | | #170:fig039#
40.| Lucanian krater | | #172:fig040#
41.| Psykter | | #173:fig041#
42.| Deinos or lebes | | #173:fig042#
43.| Oinochoë (7th century) | | #177:fig043#
44.| Oinochoë (5th century) | | #177:fig044#
45.| Prochoös | | #178:fig045#
46.| Olpe | | #178:fig046#
47.| Epichysis | | #179:fig047#
48.| Kyathos | | #179:fig048#
49.| Kotyle | | #184:fig049#
50.| Kantharos | | #188:fig050#
51.| Kylix (earlier form) | | #190:fig051#
52.| Kylix (later form) | | #191:fig052#
53.| Phiale | | #191:fig053#
54.| Rhyton | | #193:fig054#
55.| Pinax | | #194:fig055#
56.| Lekythos | | #196:fig056#
57.| Lekythos (later form) | | #196:fig057#
58.| Alabastron | | #197:fig058#
59.| Aryballos | | #197:fig059#
60.| Pyxis | | #198:fig060#
61.| Epinetron or Onos | | #199:fig061#
62.| Askos | | #200:fig062#
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63.| Apulian askos | | #200:fig063#
64.| Guttus | | #200:fig064#
65.| Potter’s wheel, from Corinthian pinakes |Ant. Denkm.| #207:fig065#
66.| Potter’s wheel (vase of about 500 B.C.) |Ath. Mitth. | #208:fig066#
67.| Boy polishing vase; interior of pottery| Blümner | #213:fig067#
68.| Seilenos as potter | | #216:fig068#
69.| Interior of furnace (Corinthian pinax)| Ant. Denkm. | #217:fig069#
70.| Interior of pottery | Ath. Mitth. | #218:fig070#
71.| Red-figured fragment, incomplete | | #222:fig071#
72.| Studio of vase-painter | Blümner | #223:fig072#
73.| Vase-painter varnishing cup | Jahrbuch | #227:fig073#
74. |Vase-painter using feather-brush | Jahrbuch | #228:fig074#
75.| Cypriote jug with concentric circles| Brit. Mus. | #251:fig075#
76.| Cypriote vase from Ormidhia | Baumeister | #254:fig076#
77.|“Owl-vase” from Troy | Schliemann | #258:fig077#
78.| Deep cup from Troy | Schliemann | #259:fig078#
79.| Vase in form of pig from Troy | Schliemann | #259:fig079#
80. | Double-necked vase from Troy | Schliemann| #259:fig080#
81.| Vases from Thera | Baumeister | #261:fig081#
82.| Mycenaean vases with marine subjects | Brit. Mus.| #273:fig082#
83.| Ornamentation on Geometrical vases | Perrot | #283:fig083#
84.| Geometrical vase with panels | Brit. Mus. | #284:fig084#
85.| Boeotian Geometrical vases | Jahrbuch | #288:fig085#
86.| Coffer from Thebes (Boeotian Geometrical)| Jahrbuch | #289:fig086#
87.| Burgon lebes | Brit. Mus. | #296:fig087#
88.| Warrior vase from Mycenae | Schliemann | #297:fig088#
89.| Proto-Attic vase from Vourva | Ath. Mitth.| #299:fig089#
90.| The Dodwell pyxis (cover) | Baumeister | #316:fig090#
91.| Vases of Samian or “Fikellura” style | Brit. Mus. | #337:fig091#
92.| The Arkesilaos cup (Bibl. Nat.) | Baumeister | #342:fig092#
93.| Cyrenaic cup with Kyrene | Brit. Mus. | #344:fig093#
94.| Naukratis fragment with “mixed technique”| Brit. Mus. | #346:fig094#
95.| “Egyptian situla” from Daphnae | Brit. Mus. | #351:fig095#
96.| Kylix by Exekias | Wiener Vorl. | #381:fig096#
97.| Vase by Amasis: Perseus slaying Medusa |Brit. Mus. | #382:fig097#
98.| Vase from Temple of Kabeiri | Brit. Mus. | #392:fig098#
.bn 021.png
.pn +1
99.| Diagram of rendering of eye on Attic vase| Brit. Mus. Cat.| #408:fig099#
100.| Palmettes under handles (early R.F.)| Jahrbuch | #414:fig100#
101.| Palmettes under handles (later R.F.) | Riegl | #415:fig101#
102.| Development of maeander and cross pattern |Brit. Mus. Cat. | #416:fig102#
103.| Krater of Polygnotan style: Slaying of Niobids\
(Louvre) | Mon. dell’ Inst. | #442:fig103#
104.| Boeotian kylix | Brit. Mus. | #452:fig104#
105.| Burlesque scene: Herakles and Auge | Jahrbuch | #474:fig105#
106.| Apulian sepulchral vase | Brit. Mus. | #477:fig106#
107. |Vase by Assteas in Madrid | Baumeister | #480:fig107#
108.| Lucanian krater: Departure of warrior | Brit. Mus. | #482:fig108#
109.| Hydria with opaque painting on black ground| Brit. Mus. | #489:fig109#
110.| Phiale with Latin inscription | Brit. Mus. | #490:fig110#
.ta-
.bn 022.png
.pn +1
.h2 id='biblio'
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT POTTERY
.nf c
PART I
PERIODICALS DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT
.nf-
.in 4
.ti -4
American Journal of Archaeology. Baltimore and Boston, 1885, etc. In
progress. (Amer. Journ. of Arch.)
.ti -4
Annali dell’ Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica. Rome, 1829–85. (Ann.
dell’ Inst.) Plates of vases re-edited by S. Reinach in Répertoire des Vases,
vol. i. (1899).
.ti -4
Annual of the British School at Athens. London, 1894, etc. In progress.
(Brit. School Annual.)
.ti -4
Antike Denkmäler, herausgegeben vom kaiserl. deutschen Institut. Berlin,
1887, etc. In progress. A supplementary atlas to the Jahrbuch. (Ant.
Denkm.)
.ti -4
Archaeologia, or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity. London, 1770, etc.
Issued by the Society of Antiquaries. In progress.
.ti -4
Archaeological Journal, issued by the Royal Archaeological Institute. London,
1845, etc. In progress. Numerous articles on Roman pottery, etc. in
Britain. (Arch. Journ.)
.ti -4
Archaeologische Zeitung. Berlin, 1843–85. Vols. vii.–xxv. have the secondary
title Denkmäler, Forschungen und Berichte. (Arch. Zeit.) Plates of
vases re-edited by S. Reinach in Répertoire, vol. i. (1899).
.ti -4
Archaeologischer Anzeiger. Berlin, 1886, etc. In progress; a supplement
bound up with the Jahrbuch (new acquisitions of museums, reports of
meetings, etc.). (Arch. Anzeiger.)
.ti -4
Archaeologische-epigraphische Mittheilungen aus Oesterreich-Ungarn. Vienna,
1877–97. Now superseded by Jahreshefte. (Arch.-epigr. Mitth. aus
Oesterr.)
.ti -4
Athenische Mittheilungen. Athens, 1876, etc. In progress. Organ of the
German Archaeological Institute at Athens. (Ath. Mitth.)
.ti -4
Berichte der sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften. Leipzig, 1846, etc.
In progress. Important articles by O. Jahn, 1853–67. (Ber. d. sächs.
Gesellsch.)
.ti -4
Bonner Jahrbücher. Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im
Rheinlande. Bonn, 1842, etc. In progress. Important for notices of
pottery, etc., found in Germany, and for recent articles by Dragendorff
and others on Roman pottery (Arretine and provincial wares, vols.
xcvi., ci., cii., ciii.). (Bonner Jahrb.)
.bn 023.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique. Athens and Paris, 1877, etc. In
progress. (Bull. de Corr. Hell.)
.ti -4
Bullettino archeologico Napolitano. Naples, 1842–62. Ser. i. 1842–48. New
ser. 1853–62. Re-edited by S. Reinach, 1899. (Bull. Arch. Nap.)
.ti -4
Bullettino dell’ Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica. Rome, 1829–85.
Chiefly records of discoveries in Italy and elsewhere. (Bull. dell’ Inst.)
.ti -4
Classical Review. London, 1887, etc. In progress. Reviews of archaeological
books and records of discoveries.
.ti -4
Comptes-Rendus de la Commission impériale archéologique. Petersburg,
1859–88. Edited by L. Stephani. With folio atlas, re-edited by S.
Reinach in Répertoire, vol. i. (1899). (Stephani, Comptes-Rendus.)
.ti -4
Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική. Athens, 1883, etc. (new series). In progress. Plates
of vases, 1883–94, re-edited by S. Reinach in Répertoire, vol. i. (1899).
(Ἐφ. Ἀρχ.)
.ti -4
Gazette archéologique. Paris, 1875–89. (Gaz. Arch.)
.ti -4
Hermes. Zeitschrift für classische Philologie. Berlin, 1866, etc. In progress.
.ti -4
Jahrbuch des kaiserlichen deutschen archaeologischen Instituts. Berlin, 1886,
etc. In progress. With Arch. Anzeiger (q.v.) as supplement and Antike
Denkmäler (q.v.) as atlas. (Jahrbuch.)
.ti -4
Jahreshefte des oesterreichischen archaeologischen Institutes. Vienna, 1898, etc.
In progress. (Jahreshefte.)
.ti -4
Journal of Hellenic Studies. London, 1880, etc. In progress. With atlas
in 4to of plates to vols. i.–viii., and supplementary papers (No. 4 on
Phylakopi). (J.H.S.)
.ti -4
Journal of the British Archaeological Association. London, 1845, etc. In
progress. A few articles on Roman pottery in Britain. (Journ. Brit.
Arch. Assoc.)
.ti -4
Monumenti antichi, pubblicati per cura della R. Accad. dei Lincei. Milan,
1890, etc. In progress. (Mon. antichi.)
.ti -4
Monumenti inediti dell’ Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica. Rome,
1829–85 (with supplementary volume, 1891). Re-edited (the plates of
vases) by S. Reinach in Répertoire, vol. i. (1899). (Mon. dell’ Inst.)
.ti -4
Monuments Grecs, publiés par l’Association pour l’encouragement des Études
grecques. Paris, 1872–98. (Mon. Grecs.)
.ti -4
Monuments Piot. Fondation Eugène Piot. Monuments et mémoires publiés
par l’Académie des Inscriptions. Paris, 1894, etc. In progress.
.ti -4
Museo italiano di antichità classica. 3 vols. Florence, 1885–90. Plates of
vases re-edited by S. Reinach in Répertoire, vol. i. (1899). (Ath. Mitth.)
.ti -4
Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, communicate alla R. Accademia dei Lincei.
Rome and Milan, 1876, etc. In progress. Important as a record of
recent discoveries in Italy and Sicily. (Notizie degli Scavi.)
.ti -4
Philologus. Zeitschrift für das klassische Alterthum. Göttingen, 1846, etc.
In progress. With occasional supplementary volumes.
.ti -4
Revue archéologique. Paris, 1844, etc. In progress (four series, each
numbered separately). (Rev. Arch.)
.ti -4
Römische Mittheilungen. Rome, 1886, etc. In progress. Organ of German
Institute at Rome. (Röm. Mitth.)
.in
.bn 024.png
.pn +1
.nf c
PART II
WORKS ON GREEK VASES
.nf-
.in 4
.ti -4
Adamek (L.). Unsignierte Vasen des Amasis. Prague, 1895 (Prager Studien,
Heft v.).
.ti -4
Amelung (W.). Personnificierung des Lebens in der Natur in den Vasenbildern
der hellenistischen Zeit. Munich, 1888. See also Florence.
.ti -4
Anderson (W. F. C.). See Engelmann and Schreiber.
.ti -4
Antiquités du Bosphore cimmérien. 3 vols. Petersburg, 1854, fol. Vases,
etc., found in the Crimea. (Re-edited in 8vo by S. Reinach, 1892.)
.ti -4
Arndt (P.). Studien zur Vasenkunde. Leipzig, 1887. Adopts Brunn’s
theory of the late Italian origin of black-figured vases.
.ti -4
Athens (National Museum). Catalogue des Vases peints, by M. Collignon
and L. Couve. Paris, 1902. With atlas of photographic plates. The
fragments from the Acropolis form the subject of a separate catalogue
(in preparation).
.ti -4
Aus der Anomia. Collected articles, some relating to vases. Berlin, 1890.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Baumeister (A.). Denkmäler des klassischen Alterthums. 3 vols. Munich,
1884–88. Excellent illustrations of numerous vases accompanying the
articles, which are arranged alphabetically in dictionary-form. The
article Vasenkunde, by Von Rohden, is useful, but now somewhat out of
date. (Baumeister.)
.ti -4
Beger (L.). Thesaurus Brandenburgicus selectus. 3 vols. Köln, 1696, fol.
Publishes vases belonging to the Elector of Brandenburg (see Vol. I. p. 16).
.ti -4
Benndorf (O.). Griechische und sicilische Vasenbilder. Berlin, 1869–83,
fol. Chiefly funerary vases and later fabrics. (Benndorf, Gr. u. Sic.
Vasenb.) See also Wiener Vorlegeblätter.
.ti -4
Berlin. Beschreibung der Vasensammlung im Antiquarium, by A.
Furtwaengler. Berlin, 1885. 2 vols. With plates of shapes.
.ti -4
Bloch (L.). Die zuschauenden Götter in den rothfig. Vasengemälden.
Leipzig, 1888.
.ti -4
Blümner (H.). Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste.
4 vols. Leipzig, 1875–86. (Vol. ii. Arbeit in Thon, for pottery and
terracottas; vol. iii. for building construction.) Out of date in some
particulars, but still exceedingly useful, and fairly well illustrated.
(Blümner, Technologie.)
.ti -4
Boeckh (A.) and others. Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum. 4 vols. Berlin,
1828–77, fol. Vol. iv. contains many vase-inscriptions. (Boeckh, C.I.G.)
.ti -4
Böhlau (J.). Aus ionischen und italischen Nekropolen. Leipzig, 1898, 4to.
Indispensable for the study of Ionic vase-fabrics. (Böhlau, Aus ion. u.
ital. Nekrop.)
.ti -4
Bologna (Museo Civico). Catalogo dei vasi, by G. Pellegrini. Bologna,
1900. (Plates and cuts.)
.ti -4
Bolte (J.). De monumentis ad Odysseam pertinentibus capita selecta.
Berlin, 1882, 8vo.
.ti -4
Bonn. Das akademische Kunstmuseum zu Bonn, by R. Kekulé. Bonn, 1872.
.bn 025.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Bonner Studien. Aufsätze aus der Alterthumswissenschaft R. Kekulé
gewidmet. Berlin, 1890. Collected papers, including several on Greek
vases.
.ti -4
Boston. Catalogue of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman vases in the Museum of
Fine Arts. Boston, 1893. By E. Robinson. Now withdrawn, owing to
re-numbering and extensive subsequent accessions, for which see Boston
Museum Reports (below).
.ti -4
Boston Museum Reports, 1895, etc. In progress from 1896. Issued annually,
with full details of new acquisitions, describing many unique specimens.
(Boston Mus. Report.)
.ti -4
Böttiger (C. A.). Griechische Vasengemälde. Weimar and Magdeburg,
1797–1800.
.ti -4
—— Kleine Schriften. 3 vols. Dresden, 1837–39.
.ti -4
Bourguignon Collection. Sale Catalogue, 18 March 1901. Paris, 1901. (Best
vases not included.)
.ti -4
Branteghem (A. van). See #Froehner:froehner#.
.ti -4
British Museum. Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases. Vol. i., by
C. Smith, in preparation. Vol. ii., Black-figured vases, by H. B. Walters
(1893). Vol. iii., Red-figured vases, by C. Smith (1896). Vol. iv., Vases
of the later period, by H. B. Walters (1896). (Referred to as B. M. Cat.
of Vases, or B.M. with number of vase.)
.ti -4
—— Designs on Greek Vases, by A. S. Murray and C. Smith. 1894, fol.
(Plates of interiors of R.F. kylikes.)
.ti -4
—— White Athenian Vases, by A. S. Murray and A. H. Smith. 1896, fol.
.ti -4
—— Terracotta Sarcophagi, by A. S. Murray. 1898, fol. (The sarcophagi from
Clazomenae, Kameiros, and Cervetri; see Chapters VIII. and XVIII.)
.ti -4
—— Excavations in Cyprus (Enkomi, Curium, Amathus). 1900. By A. S.
Murray, H. B. Walters, and A. H. Smith.
.ti -4
Bröndsted (P. O.). A brief description of 32 ancient Greek painted vases,
lately found at Vulci by M. Campanari. London, 1832, 8vo.
.ti -4
Brongniart (A.). Traité des Arts Céramiques, ou des Poteries considerées
dans leur Histoire, leur Pratique, et leur Théorie. 3rd edn., 1877.
2 vols., with Atlas. (Brongniart, Traité.) See also Sèvres.
.ti -4
Brunn (H.). Geschichte der griechischen Künstler. 2 vols. Stuttgart, 1859.
The second volume has some account of the vase-painters then known.
.ti -4
—— Probleme in der Geschichte der Vasenmalerei. Munich, 1871, 4to.
Theory of Italian origin of B.F. vases.
.ti -4
—— Neue Probleme in der Geschichte der Vasenmalerei. Munich, 1886.
.ti -4
—— Griechische Kunstgeschichte. 2 vols. (incomplete). Munich, 1893–97.
Deals with some of the earlier fabrics.
.ti -4
—— Kleine Schriften. Vol. i. Leipzig, 1898. In progress.
See also Lau.
.ti -4
Bulle (H.). Die Silene in der archaischen Kunst. Munich, 1893.
.ti -4
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of objects of Greek Ceramic Art
(exhibited in 1888), by W. Froehner. (Mostly vases from Branteghem
Collection.)
.ti -4
—— Catalogue of Exhibition of Ancient Greek Art, 1903, by E. Strong and
others. A revised édition de luxe (1904) with plates.
.bn 026.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
.ti -4
Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum). A Catalogue of the Greek vases in the
Fitzwilliam Museum, by E. A. Gardner. Cambridge, 1897. With plates.
.ti -4
Canessa (C. and E.). Collection d’Antiquités, à l’Hôtel Drouot, 11 May
1903, 4to. Paris, 1903. A sale catalogue of an anonymous collection
containing several interesting vases.
.ti -4
Canino (Prince Lucien Bonaparte of). Muséum Étrusque de L. Bonaparte,
prince de Canino. Fouilles de 1828 à 1829. Vases peints avec inscriptions.
Viterbo, 1829, 4to. With atlas of plates, of which only one part
was published.
.ti -4
—— Catalogo di scelte Antichità Etrusche trovate negli Scavi del Pr. di
Canino, 1828–29. Viterbo, 1829, 4to.
.ti -4
Caylus (A. C. P. de). Recueil d’antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques
et romaines. 7 vols. Paris, 1752–67, 4to. (Vases given in vols. i. and ii.)
.ti -4
Cesnola (L. P. di). Cyprus: its ancient cities, tombs, and temples. (With a
chapter on the pottery, by A. S. Murray.) London, 1877, 8vo.
.ti -4
Christie (J.). Disquisitions upon the Painted Vases, and their connection
with the Eleusinian Mysteries. London, 1825, 4to. (See Vol. I. p. 21.)
.ti -4
Collignon (M.). See #Athens:athens#, #Rayet:rayet#.
.ti -4
Commentationes philologae in honorem T. Mommseni. Berlin, 1877, 4to.
Several useful papers on vases.
.ti -4
Conze (A.). Melische Thongefässe. Leipzig, 1862. Folio plates.
.ti -4
—— Zur Geschichte der Anfänge griechischer Kunst. Vienna, 1870, 8vo.
See also Wiener Vorlegeblätter.
.ti -4
Corey (A. D.). De Amazonum antiquissimis figuris. Berlin, 1891, 8vo.
.ti -4
Couve (L.). See #Athens:athens#.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Daremberg (C.) and Saglio (E.), and subsequently E. Pottier. Dictionnaire
des antiquités grecques et romaines. Paris, 1873, etc. In progress
(to M in 1904). (Daremberg and Saglio.) Special reference should be
made to the articles Figlinum, Forma, Lucerna, and those on vase-shapes.
The bibliographies are very exhaustive.
.ti -4
Dennis (G.). The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. 2 vols. London, 1878
(2nd edn.), 8vo. Introductory matter on vases antiquated; useful as
record of discoveries, etc. (Dennis, Etruria.)
.ti -4
Des Vergers (N.). Étrurie et les Étrusques. 2 vols. and atlas. Paris,
1862–64. Some fine vases published.
.ti -4
Disney (J.). Museum Disneianum, being a description of a collection of
various ancient fictile vases in the possession of J. D. (now at Cambridge).
London, 1846, 4to.
.ti -4
Dubois-Maisonneuve (A.). Introduction à l’étude des vases antiques d’argile
peints. Paris, 1817, fol. (Dubois-Maisonneuve, Introd.)
.ti -4
Dumont (A.). Inscriptions céramiques de Grèce. Paris, 1872, 8vo. (Inscriptions
on handles of wine-amphorae.)
.ti -4
—— Vases peints de la Grèce propre. Paris, 1873. (Reprinted from the
Gazette des Beaux Arts.)
.ti -4
—— Les Céramiques de la Grèce propre; histoire de la peinture des vases
grecs depuis les origines jusqu'au V. siècle avant Jésus-Christ. Illustrations
by J. Chaplain. Revised by E. Pottier. 2 vols. Paris, 1888–90.
.bn 027.png
.pn +1
Vol. i., on earlier vase fabrics (now becoming out of date); plates mostly
of later vases. Vol. ii., miscellaneous papers (vases, terracottas, etc.).
(Dumont-Pottier.)
.sp 2
.ti -4
Endt (J.). Beiträge zur ionischen Vasenmalerei. Prague, 1899, 8vo. (Endt,
Ion. Vasenm.)
.ti -4
Engelmann (R.). Bilder-Atlas zum Homer. Leipzig, 1889. Translated by
W. F. C. Anderson: Pictorial Atlas to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,
London, 1892. (Engelmann-Anderson.)
.ti -4
—— Archaeologische Studien zu den Tragikern. Berlin, 1900.
Eranos Vindobonensis (collected papers). Vienna, 1893, 8vo.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Fea (C.). Storia dei vasi fittili dipinti che si trovano nell’ antica Etruria.
Rome, 1832. (Dealing with “Etruscan” theory.)
.ti -4
Festschrift für Johannes Overbeck (collected papers). Leipzig, 1893, 4to.
.ti -4
Festschrift für Otto Benndorf zu seinem 60. Geburtstage gewidmet (collected
papers). Vienna, 1898, 4to.
.ti -4
Fiorelli (G.). Notizia dei vasi dipinti rinvenuti a Cuma nel 1856. Naples,
1857. Plates reproduced in Bull. Arch. Nap. (q.v.).
.ti -4
Flasch (A.). Angebliche Argonautenbilder. Munich, 1870.
.ti -4
—— Die Polychromie der griechischen Vasenbilder. Würzburg, 1875.
.ti -4
Florence. Führer durch die Antiken in Florenz, by W. Amelung.
Munich, 1897.
.ti -4
Förster (P. R.). Hochzeit des Zeus und der Hera, Relief der Schaubert’schen
Sammlung in .... Breslau. Breslau, 1867, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone. Stuttgart, 1873.
.ti -4
Froehner (W.). Choix de vases grecs inédits de la collection du Prince
Napoléon. Paris, 1867, fol.
.ti -4
—— Deux peintures de vases grecs de la nécropole de Kameiros. Paris, 1871,
fol.
.ti -4
—— Musées de France. Recueil de monuments antiques. Paris, 1873, fol.
.ti -4
—— Collection de M. Albert B(arre). Paris, 1878, 4to. (Sale catalogue.)
.ti -4
—— Collection Eugène Piot, Antiquités. Paris, 1890. (Sale catalogue.)
.ti -4
—— Collection van Branteghem. Brussels, 1892, fol., with plates. (Sale
catalogue.)
.ti -4
—— Collection d’antiquités du Comte Michael Tyszkiewicz. Paris, 1898.
(Sale catalogue.)
And see #Burlington Fine Arts Club:burlfinearts#, #Marseilles Mus:marseilles#.
.ti -4
Furtwaengler (A.). Eros in der Vasenmalerei. Munich, 1875, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Collection Sabouroff. 2 vols. (the first giving vases). Berlin, 1883–87,
4to. (Also a German edition; the vases now in Berlin.)
.ti -4
—— Orpheus, Attische Vase aus Gela (in 50tes Winckelmannsfestprogr.,
1890).
.ti -4
—— Neuere Fälschungen von Antiken. Munich, 1899, 4to.
.ti -4
—— and Loeschcke (G.). Mykenische Thongefässe. Berlin, 1879, obl. fol.
.ti -4
—— —— Mykenische Vasen: Vorhellenische Thongefässe aus dem Gebiete
des Mittelmeeres. Berlin, 1886, 4to, with atlas in fol.
.ti -4
—— and Reichhold (C.). Die griechische Vasenmalerei, Auswahl
.bn 028.png
.pn +1
hervorragender Vasenbilder. Munich, 1900, etc. Text by A. F. and
C. R.; plates (separate) by C. R.
And see #Berlin:berlin#, #Genick:genick#.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Gardner (E. A.). See #Cambridge:cambridge#, #Naukratis:naukratis#.
.ti -4
Gardner (P.). See #Oxford:oxford#.
.ti -4
Gargiulo (R.). Cenni sulla maniera di rinvenire i vasi fittili Italo-Greci.
Naples, 1831; 2nd edn., 1843.
.ti -4
—— Raccolta de Monumenti più interessanti del Real Mus. Borb. Naples,
1825–3-. 2 vols. of plates.
.ti -4
Genick (A.) and Furtwaengler (A.). Griechische Keramik. 4to. Tafeln
ausgewählt und aufgenommen von A. G., mit Einleitung und Beschreibung
von A. F. 2nd edn. Berlin, 1883, 4to.
.ti -4
Gerhard (E.). Antike Bildwerke. Munich, 1828–44. Text in 8vo and
plates in fol.
.ti -4
—— Berlins antike Bildwerke. Berlin, 1836, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Griechische und etruskische Trinkschalen des königl. Museums zu
Berlin. Berlin, 1840, fol.
.ti -4
—— Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder. 4 vols. Berlin, 1840–58. (Gerhard,
A. V.) Re-edited by S. Reinach, Répertoire, vol. ii. (1900).
.ti -4
—— Etruskische und campanische Vasenbilder des königl. Museums zu
Berlin. Berlin, 1843, fol.
.ti -4
—— Apulische Vasenbilder des königl. Museums zu Berlin. Berlin, 1845, fol.
.ti -4
—— Trinkschalen und Gefässe des königl. Museums zu Berlin und anderer
Sammlungen. Berlin, 1848–50, fol.
.ti -4
—— Gesammelte akademische Abhandlungen und kleine Schriften. 2 vols.
in 8vo and atlas in 4to. Berlin, 1866–68. (Chiefly papers on mythology,
illustrated by vases.)
.ti -4
Girard (P.). La Peinture antique. Paris, 1892. Vases as illustrative of
Greek painting.
.ti -4
Gori (A. F.). Museum Etruscum. 3 vols. Florence, 1737–43, fol.
.ti -4
Gsell (S.). Fouilles dans la nécropole de Vulci, exécutées et publiées aux
frais de Prince Torlonia. Paris, 1891, 4to.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Hancarville (P. F. Hugues, pseud. D’). Antiquités étrusques, grecques, et
romaines, tirées du cabinet de M. Hamilton. 4 vols. folio, 1766–67.
.ti -4
Harrison (Jane E.). Myths of the Odyssey in art and literature. London,
1882, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens (with translation from
Pausanias, by M. de G. Verrall). London, 1890. Introduction important
for vases relating to Attic cults.
.ti -4
—— Prolegomena to Greek Religion. Cambridge, 1903. Numerous vases
interpreted with reference to mythology and religion.
.ti -4
—— and MacColl (D. S.). Greek Vase-paintings. London, 1894.
.ti -4
Harrow School Museum. Catalogue of the classical antiquities from the collection
of the late Sir G. Wilkinson, by Cecil Torr. Harrow, 1887, 8vo.
.ti -4
Hartwig (P.). Die griechischen Meisterschalen des strengen rothfigurigen
Stils. Stuttgart, 1893, 4to, with atlas in fol. Invaluable for a study of
cups of R.F. period.
.bn 029.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Helbig (W.). Das homerische Epos, aus den Denkmälern erlautert. 2nd
edn. Leipzig, 1884, 8vo. (Vases used to illustrate civilisation of
Homeric poems.)
.ti -4
—— Les vases du Dipylon et les naucraries. Paris, 1898, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Eine Heerschau des Peisistratos oder Hippias auf einer schwarzfigurigen
Schale. Munich, 1898, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— LesἹππεῖςAthéniens. Paris, 1902, 4to.
And see #Rome:rome#.
.ti -4
Hermann (P.). Das Gräberfeld von Marion auf Cypern. Berlin, 1888, 4to.
An account of the finds by O. Richter and others at Poli, Cyprus. (48tes
Winckelmannsfestprogr.)
.ti -4
Heydemann (H.). Iliupersis auf einer Trinkschale des Brygos. Berlin,
1866, fol.
.ti -4
—— Humoristische Vasenbilder aus Unteritalien. Berlin, 1870. (30tes
Winckelmannsfestprogr.)
.ti -4
—— Griechische Vasenbilder. Berlin, 1870, fol. (Chiefly vases at Athens.)
.ti -4
—— Nereiden mit den Waffen des Achill. Halle, 1879, fol.
.ti -4
—— Satyr und Bakchennamen. Halle, 1880. (5tes hallische Festprogr.).
Numerous other monographs, chiefly Hallische or Winckelmannsfestprogramme.
And see #Naples:naples#.
.ti -4
Hirschfeld (G.). Athena und Marsyas. Berlin, 1872.
.ti -4
Hoppin (J. C.). Euthymides; a study in Attic vase-painting. Leipzig, 1896.
.ti -4
Huddilston (J. H.). Greek Tragedy in the light of vase-paintings. London
and New York, 1892.
.ti -4
—— Lessons from Greek Pottery. London and New York, 1902. With
bibliography.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Inghirami (F.). Monimenti etruschi o di etrusco nome. Ser. 5. Vasi fittili.
Fiesole, 1824, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Galeria Omerica. 3 vols. Fiesole, 1831–36.
.ti -4
—— Etrusco Museo Chiusino. 2 vols. Fiesole, 1832–34, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Pitture di vasi fittili. 4 vols. Fiesole, 1833–37.
.ti -4
—— Pitture di vase etruschi. 4 vols. Florence, 1852–56. (A second
edition of the preceding work.)
.sp 2
.ti -4
Jahn (O.). Telephos und Troilos. Kiel, 1841, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Ueber Darstellungen griechischer Dichter auf Vasenbildern. Leipzig,
1861. (From Abhandl. des sächs. Gesellsch. viii.)
.ti -4
—— Archaeologische Aufsätze. Greifswald, 1845, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Archaeologische Beiträge.Berlin, 1847, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Beschreibung der Vasensammlung Königs Ludwigs in der Pinakothek
zu München. Munich, 1854, 8vo. (Vasens. zu München.) The Einleitung
(Introduction) gives a résumé of the whole subject.
.ti -4
—— Ueber bemalte Vasen mit Goldschmuck. Leipzig, 1865, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Die Entführung der Europa auf antiken Kunstwerken. Vienna, 1870, 4to.
.ti -4
Jatta (G.). Catalogo del Museo Jatta (at Ruvo). Naples, 1869, 8vo.
.bn 030.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
.ti -4
Karlsruhe. Beschreibung der Vasensammlung der grossherzoglichen vereinigte
Sammlungen zu Karlsruhe, by H. Winnefeld. 1887, 8vo.
.ti -4
Karo (G.). De arte vascularia antiquissima quaestiones. Bonn, 1896, 8vo.
.ti -4
Kekulé (R. von, now Kekule von Stradonitz). See #Bonn:bonn#.
.ti -4
Kirchhoff (A.). Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Alphabets. 4th edn.
Gütersloh, 1887.
.ti -4
Klein (W.). Euphronios; eine Studie zur Geschichte der griechischen
Malerei. 2nd edn. Vienna, 1886, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Die griechischen Vasen mit Meistersignaturen. 2nd edn. Vienna,
1887, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Die griechischen Vasen mit Lieblingsinschriften. 2nd edn. Vienna,
1898.
.ti -4
Knapp (P.). Nike in der Vasenmalerei. Tübingen, 1876, 8vo.
Kopenhagen. De malede Vaser i Antikkabinettet i Kjöbenhavn. Kopenhagen,
1862. Catalogue of the vases, by S. Birket Smith. (Referred to
as Kopenhagen, with number of vase.)
.ti -4
Kramer (G.). Ueber den Styl und die Herkunft der bemalten griechischen
Thongefässe. Berlin, 1837.
.ti -4
Krause (J. H.). Angeiologie. Halle, 1854, 8vo. (Study of vase-shapes and
their names.)
.ti -4
Kretschmer (P.). Die griechischen Vaseninschriften ihrer Sprache nach
untersucht. Gütersloh, 1894.
.sp 2
.ti -4
La Borde (A. de).Collection des vases grecs de M. le Comte de Lambert.
2 vols. Paris, 1813–28, fol. The vases are now at Vienna. Re-edited
by S. Reinach in Répertoire, vol. ii. (1900).
.ti -4
La Chausse (M. A. de = Caussius). Romanum Museum. Rome, 1690;
3rd edn., 1746.
.ti -4
Lanzi (L.). Dei vasi antichi dipinti volgarmente chiamati Etruschi.
Florence, 1806.
.ti -4
Lau (Th.), Brunn (H.), and Krell (P.). Die griechischen Vasen, ihre
Formen und Decorationssystem. Plates and text. From originals at
Munich. Leipzig, 1877. (Brunn-Lau, Gr. Vasen.)
.ti -4
Lenormant (C.) and De Witte (J.). Élite des monuments céramographiques.
4 vols. Paris, 1837–61, 4to. (Él. Cér.)
.ti -4
Letronne (J. A.). Observations sur les noms de vases grecs. Paris, 1833.
.ti -4
London. See #British Museum:BM#.
.ti -4
Longpérier (H. A. Prévost de).Musée Napoléon III. Choix de monuments
antiques ... Texte explicatif par A. de L. Paris, unfinished,
1868–74, 4to.
.ti -4
Louvre. See #Paris:paris#.
.ti -4
Lützow (C. von).Zur Geschichte des Ornaments an den bemalten griechischen
Thongefässen. Munich, 1858.
.ti -4
Luynes (H. d’A. de).Description de quelques vases peints, étrusques,
italiotes, siciliens et grecs. Paris, 1840, fol. The vases are now in
the Bibliothèque Nationale. Re-edited by S. Reinach, Répertoire, ii,
(1900).
.bn 031.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
.ti -4
MacColl (D. S.). See #Harrison:harrison#.
.ti -4
Macpherson (D.). Antiquities of Kertch, and researches in the Cimmerian
Bosphorus, etc. London, 1857, 4to. (Discoveries in the Crimea.)
.ti -4
Madrid (Museo arquelogico nacional). Catalogo del Museo, by A. G.
Gutierrez and J. de D. de la Rada y Delgado. Part i. Madrid,
1883, 8vo.
.ti -4
Marseilles. Catalogue des antiquités grecques et romaines du Musée, by W.
Froehner. 1897.
.ti -4
Martha (J.). L'Art Étrusque. Paris, 1889, 4to.
.ti -4
Masner (K.). See Vienna.
.ti -4
Mayer (M.). Die Giganten und Titanen in der antiken Sage und Kunst.
Berlin, 1886.
.ti -4
Mélanges Perrot. Paris, 1902, 4to. (Collected papers in honour of Perrot.)
(Recueil de mémoires concernant l’archéologie classique, la littérature, et
l’histoire anciennes, dedié à Georges Perrot.)
.ti -4
Micali (G.). Storia degli antichi popoli Italiani. 3 tom. Firenze, 1832, 8vo.
With atlas entitled Monumenti per servire alla storia, etc. Fol.
.ti -4
——— Monumenti inediti a illustrazione della storia degli antichi popoli
italiani. Florence, 1844, 8vo, plates in fol. Vases found in Etruria.
(Micali, Mon. Ined.)
.ti -4
Milchhoefer (A.). Die Anfänge der Kunst in Griechenland. Leipzig,
1883, 8vo.
.ti -4
Milliet (P.). Études sur les premières périodes de la céramique grecque.
Paris, 1891.
.ti -4
Millin (A. L.). Peintures des vases antiques. 2 vols. Paris, 1808–10, fol.
The Introduction of Dubois-Maisonneuve (q.v.) was published uniform
with this. Re-edited by S. Reinach in 4to, Paris, 1891. (Millin-Reinach.)
.ti -4
Millingen (F.). Ancient Unedited Monuments of Grecian Art. 2 vols. in
one. London, 1822–26. (Millingen, Anc. Uned. Monum.)
.ti -4
——— Peintures antiques de vases grecs, tirées de diverses collections. Rome,
1813, fol. Re-edited by S. Reinach in 4to, Paris, 1891. (Millingen-Reinach.)
.ti -4
——— Peintures antiques de vases grecs de la collection de Sir J. Coghill.
Rome, 1817, fol. Re-edited by S. Reinach in Répertoire, ii. (1900).
.ti -4
Morgenthau (J. C.). Ueber den Zusammenhang der Bilder auf griechischen
Vasen. I. Die schwarzfigurigen Vasen. Leipzig, 1886. 8vo.
.ti -4
Moses (H.). A collection of antique vases, etc., from various museums and
collections. London, 1814.
.ti -4
——— Vases from the collection of Sir Henry Englefield. London, 1848.
.ti -4
Mueller (E.). Drei griechische Vasenbilder. Zurich, 1887. 4to.
.ti -4
Müller (K. O.). Denkmäler der Alten Kunst. 1832–69, obl. fol. 2 vols.
(2nd re-edited by F. Wiestler).
.ti -4
—— —— Theil ii. 3rd edn., 1877. Text 4to; plates, 1881, obl. fol.
.ti -4
Munich. Beschreibung der Vasensammlung König Ludwigs in der Pinakothek,
by O. Jahn. Munich, 1855. With admirable introduction. See
also the guide (Führer) published in 1895. A new catalogue by
Furtwaengler said to be in progress.
.bn 032.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Murray (A. S.). Handbook of Greek Archaeology. London, 1892. (Chaps.
i. and ii. deal with vases.) And see British Museum.
.ti -4
Museo Borbonico. Naples, 1824–57. 16 vols., 4to. Illustrations of the
collections in the Naples Museum (Real Museo Borbonico). See also
#Gargiulo:gargiulo#.
.ti -4
Museo Gregoriano. Museo Etrusci ... in Aedibus Vaticanis ... Monumenta.
2 vols. (vases in 2nd). Rome, 1842, fol. (Mus. Greg.)
.ti -4
Myres, J. L. See #Nicosia:nicosia#.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Naples. Die Vasensammlungen des Museo Nazionale zu Neapel, by H.
Heydemann. Berlin, 1872. See also #Gargiulo:gargiulo#, #Museo Borbonico:borbonico#.
.ti -4
Naukratis, I. and II. Third and Sixth Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration
Fund, by W. M. Flinders Petrie, E. A. Gardner, etc. London, 1886–88.
Plates of pottery found at Naukratis, discussed in text by C. Smith and
E. A. Gardner.
.ti -4
Nicosia (Cyprus Museum). A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum, by J. L.
Myres and M. Ohnefalsch-Richter. Oxford, 1899.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Ohnefalsch-Richter (M.). Kypros, the Bible, and Homer. 2 vols., text
and plates. Berlin, 1893. Also a German edition. Useful for collected
examples of Cypriote pottery and terracottas. See also #Nicosia:nicosia#.
.ti -4
Overbeck (J.). Die Bildwerke zum thebischen und troischen Heldenkreis.
2 vols., text and atlas. Brunswick and Stuttgart, 1853–57. Lists of vases
illustrating Theban and Trojan legends. (Overbeck, Her. Bildw.)
.ti -4
—— Griechische Kunstmythologie. Vols. ii.–iv. only published (Zeus, Hera,
Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, and myths connected with them). Leipzig,
1871–89. With atlas in fol. (Overbeck, Kunstmythol.)
.ti -4
Oxford (Ashmolean Museum). Catalogue of the Greek Vases in the Ashmolean
Museum, by P. Gardner. Oxford, 1893. With coloured plates.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Panofka (T.). Vasi di premio illustrati. Florence, 1826.
.ti -4
—— Musée Blacas. Paris, 1829, fol. Vases mostly in B.M.
.ti -4
—— Recherches sur les véritables noms des vases grecs. Paris, 1829.
.ti -4
—— Antiques du cabinet du comte Pourtalès-Gorgier. Paris, 1834, 4to.
(Panofka, Cab. Pourtalès.)
.ti -4
—— Bilder antiken Lebens. Berlin, 1843, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Griechinnen und Griechen nach Antiken skizzirt. Berlin, 1844, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Der Vasenbilder Panphaios. Berlin, 1848.
.ti -4
—— Von den Namen der Vasenbildner in Beziehung zu ihren bildlichen
Darstellungen. Berlin, 1849, 4to.
.ti -4
—— Die griechischen Eigennamen mitκαλόςin Zusammenhang mit dem
Bilderschmuck auf bemalten Gefässen. Berlin, 1850.
(And many other pamphlets with publication of vases, chiefly from the
mythological point of view, but now out of date.)
.ti -4
Paris (Louvre). Catalogue des vases antiques de terre cuite, by E. Pottier.
Paris, 1896, etc. In progress (two volumes issued, dealing with earlier
fabrics). With accompanying atlas of photographic plates (2 vols., down
to Euphronios).
.bn 033.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Paris (Bibliothèque Nationale). Catalogue des vases dans le Cabinet des Médailles,
by A. de Ridder. Paris, 1901–02. 2 vols. With plates.
.ti -4
Passeri (J. B.). Picturae Etruscorum in Vasculis. 3 vols. Rome, 1767–75,
fol.
.ti -4
Patroni (G.). Ceramica antica nell’ Italia meridionale. Naples, 1897. A
useful study of Greek and local fabrics of Southern Italy.
.ti -4
Pellegrini (G.). See #Bologna:bologna#.
.ti -4
Perrot (G.) and Chipiez (C.). Histoire de l’art dans l’antiquité. (Text
by Perrot, plates by Chipiez.) In progress: 8 vols, published in 1882–1904.
Vol. iii., Cypriote pottery; vol. vi., Mycenaean; vol. vii., Dipylon.
(Perrot, Hist. de l’Art.)
.ti -4
Petersburg. Vasensammlung der kaiserlichen Ermitage, by L. Stephani.
Petersburg, 1869. 2 vols.
.ti -4
Pollak (L.). Zwei Vasen aus der Werkstatt Hierons. Leipzig, 1900.
.ti -4
Pottier (E.). Étude sur les lécythes blancs attiques à représentations
funéraires. Paris, 1883, 8vo. (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises, No. 30.)
.ti -4
—— La peinture industrielle chez les Grecs. Paris, 1898, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— and Reinach (S.). La Nécropole de Myrina. 2 vols. Paris, 1887.
See also #Daremberg:daremberg#, #Dumont:dumont#, #Paris:paris#.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Raoul-Rochette.Monumens inédits d’antiquité figurée. Paris, 1833, fol.
.ti -4
—— Peintures antiques inédites. Paris, 1836, 4to.
.ti -4
Ravestein (E. de M. de). Musée de Ravestein; Catalogue descriptif. 2 vols.
Liège, 1871–72, 8vo.
.ti -4
Rayet (O.) and Collignon (M.). Histoire de la céramique grecque. Paris,
1888. (More or less popular, and becoming out of date; well illustrated.)
(Rayet and Collignon.)
.ti -4
Reinach (S.). Chroniques d’Orient. Paris, 1891–96. 2 vols. Reprinted
from the Revue Archéol. (1883–95). Notes of discoveries, etc.
.ti -4
—— Répertoire des Vases Peints. Paris, 1899–1900. 2 vols. An invaluable
re-editing, with outline reductions of the plates, of many publications of
vases, with bibliographical notes and explanations appended. See #Laborde:laborde#,
#de Luynes:luynes#, #Tischbein:tischbein#, etc., and list of periodicals.
(Referred to as Reinach, with number of volume and page. In Chapters
XII.-XV. the references are all to this publication in preference to the
original works.)
See also #Millin:millin#, #Millingen:millingen#, #Ant. du Bosph. Cimm.:bosph#, and #Pottier:pottier#.
.ti -4
Reisch (E.). See #Rome:rome#.
.ti -4
Ridder (A. de). See #Paris:paris#.
.ti -4
Riegl (A.). Stilfragen. Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der Ornamentik.
Berlin, 1893, 8vo. A valuable study of early vegetable ornament on
vases.
.ti -4
Robert (C.). Thanatos. Berlin, 1879, 4to. (39tes Winckelmannsfestprogr.)
.ti -4
—— Bild und Lied. Berlin, 1881, 8vo. On the relation of vase-paintings to
the Homeric poems.
.ti -4
—— Archaeologische Märchen aus alter und neuer Zeit. Berlin, 1886, 8vo.
Papers on various subjects, more or less controversial.
.ti -4
—— Homerische Becher. (50tes Winckelmannsfestprogr.) Berlin, 1890.
.bn 034.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Robert (C). Scenen der Ilias und Aithiopis auf einer Vase der Sammlung
des Grafen M. Tyszkiewicz. Halle, 1891, fol. (15tes Hall. Winckelmannsprogr.)
.ti -4
—— Die Nekyiades Polygnot. Halle, 1892. (16tes Hallisches Festprog.; a
restoration of the painting on the basis of vases.)
.ti -4
—— Die Iliupersis des Polygnot. Halle, 1893. (17tes Hallisches Festprogr.;
dealing similarly with that painting.)
.ti -4
—— Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile und weiteres über Polygnot.
(18tes Hallisches Festprogr.) Halle, 1895.
.ti -4
Roberts (E. S.). An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy. Part i. The
archaic inscriptions and the Greek alphabet. Cambridge, 1887, 8vo.
.ti -4
Robinson (E.). See Boston.
.ti -4
Roehl (H.). Inscriptiones Graecae antiquissimae praeter Atticas in Attica
repertas. Berlin, 1882, fol. (Roehl, I.G.A.)
.ti -4
Rohden (H. von). See Baumeister.
.ti -4
Rome (Vatican, Museo Gregoriano). Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen
in Rom, by W. Helbig and E. Reisch. 2nd edn., 1899.
2 vols. In vol. ii. is given a full description of the best vases (about 250)
in this collection; they are quoted as Helbig 1, 2, 3, etc., according to the
numbers of the book. See also #Museo Gregoriano:gregoriano#.
.ti -4
Roscher (W. H.). Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen
Mythologie. Leipzig, 1884, etc. In progress (down to P in 1904).
Many vases published in the later parts.
.ti -4
Ross (L.). Reisen auf die griechischen Inseln des ägäischen Meeres. Halle,
1840–52, 4 vols., 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Archaeologische Aufsätze. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1855–61. With plates in fol.
.ti -4
Roulez (J.). Choix de vases peints du Musée d’antiquités de Leyde. Gand,
1854. Re-edited by S. Reinach, Répertoire, vol. ii., 1900.
.ti -4
Ruvo (Museo Jatta). See Jatta.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Salzmann (A). Nécropole de Camiros. Paris, 1866–75, fol. Plates only.
.ti -4
Schliemann (H.). See Vol. I. p. 269.
.ti -4
Schneider (A.). Der troische Sagenkreis in der älteren griechischen Kunst.
Leipzig, 1886.
.ti -4
Schneider (F. J.). Die zwölf Kämpfe des Herakles in der älteren griechischen
Kunst. Leipzig, 1888.
.ti -4
Schneider (R.). Die Geburt der Athena. Vienna, 1880, 8vo.
.ti -4
Schöne (R.). Le antichità del Museo Bocchi di Adria. Rome, 1878, 4to.
.ti -4
Schreiber (Th.) and Anderson (W. C. F.). Atlas of Classical Antiquities.
London, 1895, obl. 8vo. (Schreiber-Anderson.)
.ti -4
Schulz (H. W.). Die Amazonenvase von Ruvo, erklärt und in Kunsthistorischer
Beziehung betrachtet. Leipzig, 1851, fol. See Reinach,
Répertoire, vol. ii.
.ti -4
Sèvres Museum. Description méthodique du Musée Céramique de Sèvres, by
A. Brongniart and D. Riocreux. Paris, 1845. 2 vols., with atlas
of plates.
.ti -4
Sittl (K.). Die Phineusschale und ähnliche Vasen mit bemalten Flachreliefs.
Würzburg, 1892.
.bn 035.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Smith (A. H.). See #British Museum:BM#.
.ti -4
Smith (Cecil). Catalogue of the Forman Collection of Antiquities (illustrated).
London, 1899. And see #British Museum:BM#.
.ti -4
Smith (S. B.). See #Kopenhagen:kopenhagen#.
.ti -4
Stackelberg (O. M. von). Die Gräber der Hellenen. Berlin, 1836, fol.
.ti -4
Stephani (L.). See Petersburg and Compte-Rendu.
.ti -4
Strena Helbigiana. (Collected papers in honour of W. Helbig.) Leipzig,
1900, 8vo.
.ti -4
Studniczka (F.). Kyrene, eine altgriechische Göttin. Leipzig, 1890.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Tanis II. Fourth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Tell-Nebesheh
and Defenneh). London, 1887. By W. M. F. Petrie and F. L.
Griffith, with notes on the Daphnae pottery by A. S. Murray.
.ti -4
Thiersch (F.). Ueber die hellenischen bemalten Vasen, mit besonderer
Rücksicht auf die Sammlung des Königs Ludwigs von Bayern. Munich,
1849. From Abhandl. d. k. bayer. Akad., Philosoph.-philol. Classe, vol iv.
.ti -4
Thiersch (H.). Tyrrhenische Amphoren. Eine Studie zur Geschichte der
altattischen Vasenmalerei. Leipzig, 1899.
.ti -4
Tischbein (W.). Collection of engravings from ancient vases (the second
Hamilton Collection; see Vol. I. p. 17). 4 vols. Naples, 1791–95, fol.
Re-edited by S. Reinach, Répertoire, vol. ii., 1900. About 100 plates
were engraved for a fifth volume, never published.
.ti -4
Treu (W.). Griechische Thongefässe in Statuetten- und Büstenformen.
Berlin, 1875, 4to. (35tes Winckelmannsfestprogr.)
.ti -4
Tyszkiewicz (Count M.). See #Froehner:froehner#.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Urlichs (C. L. von). Der Vasenmaler Brygos und die ruland’sche Münzsammlung.
Würzburg, 1875, fol.
.ti -4
—— Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte. Leipzig, 1884, 8vo.
See also #Würzburg:wurzburg#.
.ti -4
Ussing (J.). De nominibus vasorum graecorum disputatio. Copenhagen, 1844.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Vienna. Die Sammlung antiker Vasen und Terracotten im k. k. Oesterreichischen
Museum für Kunst und Industrie, by K. Masner. Vienna,
1892. With plates.
.ti -4
Vogel (K. J.). Scenen euripideischer Tragödien in griechischen Vasengemälden.
Leipzig, 1886.
.ti -4
Vorlegeblätter für archäologische Übungen. Vienna, 1869–91, fol. Plates
without text. Series i.–viii. 1869–75, ed. A. Conze (chiefly R.F. kylikes,
by Euphronios, Hieron, Duris). Series A-E, 1879–86, ed. O. Benndorf
(chiefly R.F. kylikes). Third series, 1888–91 (3 vols.), ed. Benndorf and
others (chiefly signed B.F. vases). (Wiener Vorl.)
.sp 2
.ti -4
Wallis (H.). Pictures from Greek Vases. The White Athenian lekythi.
London, 1896.
.ti -4
Walters (H. B.). See British Museum.
.ti -4
Watzinger (C). De vasculis pictis tarentinis capita selecta. Darmstadt,
1899, 8vo.
.bn 036.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Welcker (F. G.). Alte Denkmäler. 5 vols, and atlas. Göttingen, 1849–64.
.ti -4
Wernicke (K.). Die griechischen Vasen mit Lieblingsnamen. Berlin, 1890.
.ti -4
—— and Graef (B.). Denkmäler der antiken Kunst. Leipzig, 1899, etc.
In progress. A new edition of Müller and Wieseler’s well-known work.
Text and atlas.
.ti -4
Westropp (H. M.). Epochs of painted vases, an introduction to their study.
London, 1856.
.ti -4
Wilisch (E. G.). Die altkorinthische Thonindustrie. Leipzig, 1892.
.ti -4
Winkler (A.). De inferorum in vasis Italiae inferioris repraesentationibus.
Breslau, 1888, 8vo.
.ti -4
Winnefeld (H.). See #Karlsruhe:karlsruhe#.
.ti -4
Winter (F.). Die jüngeren attischen Vasen und ihr Verhaltniss zur grossen
Kunst. Berlin, 1885.
.ti -4
Witte (J. J. A. M. de, Baron). Description des antiquités et objects d’art qui
composent le cabinet de feu M. E. Durand. Paris, 1836, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Description d’une collection de vases peints et bronzes antiques provenant
des fouilles de l’Étrurie. Paris, 1837, 8vo. [Another edition, 1857.]
.ti -4
—— Noms des fabricants et dessinateurs de vases peints. Paris, 1848, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— Études sur les vases peints. Paris, 1865, 8vo. (Extract from the
Gazette des Beaux-Arts.)
.ti -4
—— Description des collections d’antiquités conservées à l’Hôtel Lambert
(the Czartoryski collection). Paris, 1886, 4to. (Coll. à l’Hôtel Lambert.)
See also #Lenormant:lenormant#.
.ti -4
Würzburg. Verzeichniss der Antikensammlung der Universität Würzburg,
by C. L. von Urlichs. 1865–72, 8vo.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Zannoni (A.). Gli Scavi della Certosa di Bologna. 2 vols., text and plates.
Bologna, 1876, fol. (An account of excavations at Bologna; many illustrations
of tombs and Greek vases.)
.in
.sp 2
.nf c
PART III
TERRACOTTAS
.nf-
.in 4
.ti -4
Athens. See #Martha:martha#.
.ti -4
Berlin Museum. Ausgewählte griechische Terrakotten im Antiquarium des
königliches Museum zu Berlin, herausgegeben von der Generalverwaltung.
Berlin, 1903. See also #Panofka:panofka#.
.ti -4
Blümner (H.). Technologie und Terminologie. See above, p.#xxi#. Vol. ii.
deals with method of working in clay (Thonplastik, p. 113 ff.).
.ti -4
Borrmann (R.). Die Keramik in der Baukunst. Durm’s Handbuch der
Architektur, part i. vol. 4. Stuttgart, 1897. On the use of terracotta in
classical architecture. See also #Dörpfeld:dorpfeld#.
.ti -4
British Museum. Terracotta Sarcophagi, by A. S. Murray. London, 1898.
See above, p. #xxii#.
.ti -4
—— Catalogue of the Terracottas in the British Museum, by H. B. Walters.
London, 1903.
See also #Combe:combe#.
.bn 037.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Campana (G. P.). Antiche opere in plastica. Rome, 1842–52, fol. Text
incomplete; plates of architectural terracottas of the Roman period.
.ti -4
Combe (Taylor). A description of the collection of ancient Terracottas in
the British Museum. London, 1810. Describes the Towneley figures
and mural reliefs.
.sp 2
.ti -4
Daremberg (C.), Saglio (E.), and Pottier (E.). Dictionnaire des Antiquités.
See above, p. #xxiii#. The article Figlinum in vol. ii. will be found
useful.
.ti -4
Dörpfeld (W.), Graeber (F.), Borrmann (R.), and Siebold (K.). Über
die Verwendung von Terrakotten am Geison und Dache in griechischen
Bauwerke, (41tes Winckelmannsfestprogr.) Berlin, 1881. (On terracotta
in architecture.)
.ti -4
Furtwaengler (A.). Collection Sabouroff. See above, p. #xxiv#. Vol. ii.
contains plates of Tanagra figures, with useful text to each.
.ti -4
Heuzey (L.). Les Figurines antiques de terre cuite du Musée du Louvre.
Paris, 1883, 4to. Plates, with brief text.
.ti -4
—— Catalogue des figurines antiques de terre cuite du Musée du Louvre.
Vol. i. Paris, 1891. Deals with archaic terracottas (Rhodes and Cyprus).
No more published.
.ti -4
Huish (M. B.). Greek Terracotta Statuettes, their origin, evolution, and uses.
London, 1900. (The plates include some doubtful specimens.)
.ti -4
Hutton (Miss C.A.). Greek Terracotta Statuettes. (Portfolio monograph,
No. 49.) London, 1899. An excellent résumé of the subject, with good
illustrations.
.ti -4
Kekulé (R., now Kekule von Stradonitz). Griechische Thonfiguren aus
Tanagra. Stuttgart, 1878, fol.
.ti -4
—— Die antiken Terracotten, im Auftrag des archäologischen Institutes des
deutschen Reichs, herausgegeben von R. K. Stuttgart, 1880, etc., fol.
In progress.
.in +4
.ti -4
Vol. i. Terracotten von Pompeii, by A. von Rohden. 1880. Chiefly
architectural.
.ti -4
Vol. ii. Terracotten von Sicilien, by R. Kekulé. 1884.
.ti -4
Vol. iii. Typen der griechischen Terrakotten, by F. Winter. 1903.
In two parts. A Corpus of all known types of terracotta
statuettes, with numerous illustrations and other useful
information.
.in
.ti -4
Martha (J.). Catalogue des Figurines en terre cuite du Musée de la Société
Archéologique d’Athènes. Paris, 1880, 8vo. (Bibliothèque des Écoles
françaises, Fasc. 16.)
.ti -4
Minervini (G.). Terre cotte del Museo Campano. Vol. i. Naples, 1880.
Illustrations of architectural terracottas.
.ti -4
Panofka (T.). Terracotten des königlichen Museums zu Berlin. Berlin,
1842, 4to.
.ti -4
Paris (P.). Élatée, la ville, le Temple d’Athéna Cranaia. Paris, 1892.
(Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises, Fasc. 60.) Contains some useful
information on the subject.
.ti -4
Pottier (E.). Les Statuettes de Terre Cuite dans l’Antiquité. Paris, 1890.
(Bibliothèque des Merveilles.)
.bn 038.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Pottier (E.) and Reinach (S.). La Nécropole de Myrina. 2 vols., text
and plates. Paris, 1887.
.ti -4
Rohden (H. von). See Kekulé.
.ti -4
Schöne (R.). Griechische Reliefs aus athenischen Sammlungen, herausgegeben
von R. S. Leipzig, 1872, fol. Illustration and discussion of
the “Melian” reliefs (see pls. 30–34).
.ti -4
Winter (F.). See Kekulé.
.in
.sp 2
.nf c
PART IV
ROMAN POTTERY
.nf-
.in 4
.ti -4
Artis (E. T.). The Durobrivae of Antoninus identified and illustrated.
London, 1828, fol. Plates only; for accompanying text (by C. Roach-Smith)
see Journ. of Brit. Arch. Assoc. i. p. 1 ff. Deals with pottery
and kilns of Castor and neighbourhood.
.ti -4
Blanchet (A.). Mélanges d’Archéologie gallo-romaine, ii. Paris, 1902, 8vo.
(Lists of potteries in Gaul on p. 90 ff.)
.ti -4
Blümner (H.). Technologie und Terminologie, etc. See above, p. #xxi#.
.ti -4
Brongniart (A.). Traité de la Céramique. See above, p. #xxii#.
.ti -4
Buckman (J.) and Newmarch (C. H.). Illustrations of the remains of
Roman Art in Cirencester, the ancient Corinium. London and Cirencester,
1850, 4to. (Now somewhat out of date.)
.ti -4
Caumont (A. de). Cours d’antiquités monumentales; histoire de l’art dans
l’Ouest de la France. 6 vols. Paris and Caen, 1830–41, 8vo, with atlas
in oblong 4to.
.ti -4
Choisy (A.). L'Art de Bâtir chez les Romains. Paris, 1873, 4to. (For the
use of bricks and tiles.)
.ti -4
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin, 1863, etc., fol. In progress. The
portions of the published volumes giving the inscriptions on vases, tiles,
and lamps, under the heading Instrumentum Domesticum, are invaluable,
especially vol. xv. (by H. Dressel) relating to Rome. (C.I.L.)
.ti -4
Déchelette (J.). Les Vases céramiques ornés de la Gaule romaine (Narbonnaise,
Aquitaine, et Lyonnaise). 2 vols. Paris, 1904, 4to. An invaluable
survey of the pottery of Central and Southern Gaul, with much new
material. (Déchelette.)
.ti -4
Fabroni (A.). Storia degli antichi vasi fittili aretini. Arezzo, 1841, 8vo.
(On the Arretine wares.)
.ti -4
Guildhall Museum. See London.
.ti -4
Hölder (O.). Formen der römische Thongefässe, diesseits und jenseits der
Alpen. Stuttgart, 1897, 8vo.
.ti -4
Koenen (K.). Gefässkunde der vorrömischen, römischen, und frankischen
Zeit in den Rheinlanden. Bonn, 1895, 8vo.
.ti -4
London (Guildhall Museum). Catalogue of the Collection of London
Antiquities in the Guildhall Museum. London, 1903, 8vo.
.ti -4
—— (Museum of Practical Geology). Handbook to the collection of British
Pottery and Porcelain in the Museum. London, 1893, 8vo.
.bn 039.png
.pn +1
.ti -4
Marini (G.). Iscrizioni antiche doliari, edited by G. B. de Rossi and H.
Dressel. Rome, 1884, 4to.
.ti -4
Marquardt (J.). Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer (with T. Mommsen).
Bd. vii., Privatalterthümer. Leipzig, 1879–82, 8vo. See p. 616 ff. for
Roman pottery.
.ti -4
Mazard (H. A.). De la connaissance par les anciens des glaçures plombifères.
Paris, 1879, 8vo. (On the enamelled Roman wares described in
Vol. I. p. 129.)
.ti -4
Middleton (J. H.). The Remains of Ancient Rome. 2 vols. London, 1892,
8vo. (On the use of bricks and tiles at Rome.)
.ti -4
Plicque (A. E.). Étude de Céramique arverno-romaine. Caen, 1887, 8vo.
(On the potteries of Lezoux.)
.ti -4
Roach-Smith (C). Collectanea Antiqua; etchings and notices of ancient
remains, etc. 7 vols. London, 1848–80, 8vo. Useful for records of discoveries
of Roman remains in Gaul and Britain.
.ti -4
—— Illustrations of Roman London. London, 1859, 4to.
.ti -4
Steiner (J. W. C). Codex Inscriptionum Romanarum Danubii et Rheni.
4 vols. Darmstadt, etc., 1851–61, 8vo. Contains many inscriptions on
pottery and tiles not as yet published in the C.I.L.
.ti -4
Victoria County History of England, ed. by W. Page, etc. In progress.
London, 1900, etc. Articles in the first volume of each separate county
history, by F. Haverfield, dealing with all known Roman remains.
Those of Northants and Hampshire are especially useful and complete.
.ti -4
Wright (T.). The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. Fourth edn., 1885.
Still useful as a summary of Roman Britain, though out of date and
inaccurate in many particulars.
.hr 15%
.ti -4
Reference should also be made to the Bonner Jahrbücher (see above,
p. xix), especially to the treatise by Dragendorff in vol. xcvi., and
for German pottery to Von Hefner’s article in Oberbayrische Archiv für
vaterlandische Geschichte, xxii. (1863), p. 1 ff.
.in
For Bibliography of Roman Lamps, see heading to Chapter #XX:vol2_ch20#.
.hr 15%
.h3 id='abbrev'
NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS WORK
B.F. = Black-figured vases.
R.F. = Red-figured vases.
B.M. = British Museum.
Reinach = Reinach’s Répertoire des Vases (see Bibliography).
In the cases where particular vases are cited, as in Chapters XII.-XV., the name of
the museum is given with the catalogue number attached, as B.M. B 1; Louvre G 2;
Berlin 2000, etc. The vases in the Vatican Museum at Rome are quoted as Helbig,
1, 2, 3, etc. (see Bibliography, under Rome).
All other abbreviations will be found in the Bibliography.
.bn 040.png
.pn 1
.sp 4
.h2
PART I | GREEK POTTERY IN GENERAL
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch01'
CHAPTER I | INTRODUCTORY
.pm start_summary
Importance of study of ancient monuments—Value of pottery as evidence
of early civilisation—Invention of the art—Use of brick in Babylonia—The
potter’s wheel—Enamel and glazes—Earliest Greek pottery—Use
of study of vases—Ethnological, historical, mythological, and artistic
aspects—Earliest writings on the subject—The “Etruscan” theory—History
of the study of Greek vases—Artistic, epexegetic, and historical
methods—The vase-collections of Europe and their history—List of
existing collections.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
The present age is above all an age of Discovery. The thirst
for knowledge manifests itself in all directions—theological,
scientific, geographical, historical, and antiquarian. The handiwork
of Nature and of Man alike are called upon to yield up
their secrets to satisfy the universal demand which has arisen
from the spread of education and the ever-increasing desire
for culture which is one of the characteristics of the present
day. And though, perhaps, the science of Archaeology does
not command as many adherents as other branches of learning,
there is still a very general desire to enquire into the records
of the past, to learn what we can of the methods of our forefathers,
and to trace the influence of their writings or other
evidences of their existence on succeeding ages.
To many of us what is known as a classical education seems
perhaps in these utilitarian times somewhat antiquated and
.bn 041.png
.pn +1
unnecessary, but at the same time “the glory that was Greece
and the grandeur that was Rome” have not lost their interest
for us, and can awaken responsive chords in most of our hearts.
Nor can we ever be quite forgetful of the debt that we owe to
those nations in almost every branch of human learning and
industry. To take the most patent instance of all, that of
our language, it is not too much to say that nearly every word
is either directly derived from a classical source or can be
shown to have etymological affinities with either of the two
ancient tongues. Nor is it necessary to pursue illustrations
further. We need only point to the evidences of classical
influence on modern literature, modern philosophy, and modern
political and social institutions, to indicate how our civilisation
is permeated and saturated with the results of ancient
ideas and thoughts. The man of science has recourse to Greek
or Latin for his nomenclature; the scholar employs Latin as the
most appropriate vehicle for criticism; and modern architecture
was for a long time only a revival (whether successful or not)
of the principles and achievements of the classical genius.
Now, those who would pursue the study of a nation’s history
cannot be content with the mere perusal of such literary records
as it may have left behind. It needs brief consideration to
realise that this leaves us equipped with very little real knowledge
of an ancient race, inasmuch as the range of literature
is necessarily limited, and deals with only a few sides of the
national character: its military history, its political constitution,
or its intellectual and philosophical bent—in short, its external
and public life alone. He who would thoroughly investigate
the history of a nation instinctively desires something more;
he will seek to gain a comprehensive acquaintance with its social
life, its religious beliefs, its artistic and intellectual attainments,
and generally to estimate the extent of its culture and civilisation.
But to do this it is necessary not only to be thoroughly
conversant with its literary and historical records, but to turn
attention also to its monuments. It need hardly be said that
the word “monument” is here used in the quasi-technical sense
current among archaeologists (witness the German use of the
word Denkmäler), and that it must bear here a much wider
.bn 042.png
.pn +1
signification than is generally accorded to it nowadays. It may,
in fact, be applied to any object which has come down to us
as a memorial and evidence of a nation’s productive capacity
or as an illustration of its social or political life. The student
of antiquity can adopt no better motto than the familiar line
of Terence:
.ce
Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto.
For the very humblest product of the human brain or hand,
a potsherd or a few letters scratched on a stone, may throw
the most instructive light on the history of a race.
In no instance is this better seen than in the case of Assyria,
where almost all that we know of that great and wonderful
people is derived from the cuneiform inscriptions scratched on
tablets of baked clay. Or, again, we may cite the stone and
bronze implements of the primitive peoples of Europe as another
instance where “the weak and base things of the world and
the things that are despised” have thrown floods of light on
the condition of things in a period about which we should
have been completely in the dark so long as we looked only
to literary records for our information. Nothing is so common
that it may be overlooked, and we may learn more from a
humble implement in daily use than from the finest product
of a poetic or artistic intellect, if we are really desirous of
obtaining an intimate acquaintance with the domestic life
of a people.
Among the simplest yet most necessary adjuncts of a developing
civilisation Pottery may be recognised as one of the most
universal. The very earliest and rudest remains of any people
generally take the form of coarse and common pots, in which
they cooked their food or consumed their beverages. And
the fact that such vast quantities of pottery from all ancient
civilisations have been preserved to us is due partly to its comparatively
imperishable nature, partly to the absence of any
intrinsic value which saved it from falling a prey to the ravages
of fire, human greed, or other causes which have destroyed more
precious monuments, such as gold ornaments, paintings, and
statues of marble or bronze. Moreover, it is always in the pottery
.bn 043.png
.pn +1
that we perceive the first indications of whatever artistic instinct
a race possesses, clay being a material so easy to decorate
and so readily lending itself to plastic treatment for the creation
of new forms or development from simple to elaborate shapes.
To trace the history of the art of working in clay, from its
rise amongst the oldest nations of antiquity to the period of
the decline of the Roman Empire, is the object of the present
work. The subject resolves itself into two great divisions, which
have engaged the attention of two distinct classes of enquirers:
namely, the technical or practical part, comprising all the
details of material, manipulation, and processes; and, secondly,
the historical portion, which embraces not only the history
of the art itself, and the application of ancient literature to
its elucidation, but also an account of the light thrown by
monuments in clay on the history of mankind. Such an
investigation is therefore neither trifling in character nor
deficient in valuable results.
It is impossible to determine when the manufacture of pottery
was invented. Clay is a material so generally diffused, and its
plastic nature is so easily discovered, that the art of working it
does not exceed the intelligence of the rudest savage. Even
the most primitive graves of Europe and Western Asia contain
specimens of pottery, rude and elementary indeed, but in
sufficient quantities to show that it was at all times reckoned
among the indispensable adjuncts of daily life.
It is said that the very earliest specimens of pottery, hand-made
and almost shapeless, have been discovered in the cave-dwellings
of Palaeolithic Man, such as the Höhlefels cave near
Ulm, and that of Nabrigas, near Toulouse; and pottery has
also been found in the “kitchen-middens” of Denmark, which
belong to this period. Such relics are, however, so rude and
fragmentary, and so much doubt has been cast on the circumstances
of their discovery, that it is better to be content with
the evidence afforded by the Neolithic Age, of which perhaps
the best authenticated is the predynastic pottery of Egypt.[1]
Abundant specimens of pottery have been found in long
.bn 044.png
.pn +1
barrows in all parts of Western Europe; these are supposed
to be the burial-places of the early dolichocephalic races, now
represented by the Finns and Lapps, which preceded the
Aryan immigration. The chief characteristic of this pottery
is the almost entire absence of ornamentation. Neolithic man
appears to have been far less endowed with the artistic instinct
than his palaeolithic predecessor. Where ornament does occur,
it appears to have a quite fortuitous origin: for instance, a
kind of rope-pattern that appears on the earliest pottery of
Britain and Germany, and also in America, owes its origin
to the practice of moulding the clay in a kind of basket of
bark or thread. It is also possible that cords of some kind
were used for carrying the pots; and this reminds us of another
characteristic of the earliest pottery, which, indeed, lasts down
to the Bronze Age—namely, the absence of handles.
The baking of clay, so as to produce an indestructible and
tenacious substance, was probably also the result of accident
rather than design. This was pointed out as long ago as the
middle of the eighteenth century by M. Goguet. In most
countries the condition of the atmosphere precludes the survival
of sun-dried clay for any length of time; moreover, such a
material was more suitable for architecture (as we shall see
later) than for vessels destined to hold liquids. Thus it is
that Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia alone have transmitted
to posterity the early efforts of workers in sun-dried clay.
To return to the new invention. The savage conceivably found
that the calabash or gourd in which he boiled the water for
his simple culinary needs was liable to be damaged by the
action of fire; and it required no very advanced mental process
to smear the exterior of the vessel with some such substance
as clay in order to protect it. As he found that the surface of
the clay was thereby rendered hard and impervious, his next
step would naturally be to dispense with the calabash and
mould the clay into a similar form. These two simple qualities
of clay, its plastic nature and its susceptibility to the action
of fire, are the two elements which form the basis of the whole
development of the potter’s art.
>From the necessity for symmetrical buildings arose the
.bn 045.png
.pn +1
invention of the brick, which must have superseded the rude
plastering of the hut with clay, to protect it against the sun
or storm. In the history of the Semitic nations the brick
appears among the earliest inventions, and its use can be traced
with various modifications, from the building of the Tower
of Babel to the present day. It is essential that bricks should
be symmetrical, and their form is generally rectangular. Their
geometrical shape affords us a clue to ancient units of measurement,
and the various inscriptions with which they have been
stamped have elevated them to the dignity of historical monuments.
Thus the bricks of Egypt not only afford testimony,
by their composition of straw and clay, that the writer of
Exodus was acquainted with that country, but also, by the
hieroglyphs impressed upon them, transmit the names of a
series of kings, and testify to the existence of edifices, all knowledge
of which, except for these relics, would have utterly
perished. Those of Assyria and Babylon, in addition to the
same information, have, by their cuneiform inscriptions, which
mention the locality of the edifices for which they were made,
afforded the means of tracing the sites of ancient Mesopotamia
and Assyria with an accuracy unattainable by any other means.
The Roman bricks have also borne their testimony to history.
A large number of them present a series of the names of consuls
of imperial Rome; while others show that the proud nobility of
the eternal city partly derived their revenues from the kilns
of their Campanian and Sabine estates.
>From the next step in the progress of the manufacture—namely,
that of modelling in clay the forms of the physical
world—arose the plastic art. Delicate as is the touch of the
finger, which the clay seems to obey, almost as if comprehending
the intention of the potter’s mind, yet certain forms and
ornaments which require a finer point than the nail gave rise to
the use of pieces of horn, wood, and metal, and thus contributed
to the invention of tools. But modelling in clay was soon
superseded by sculpture in stone and metal, and at length
only answered two subordinate ends: that of enabling the
sculptor to elaborate his first conceptions in a material which
could be modified at will; and that of readily producing works
.bn 046.png
.pn +1
of a small and inexpensive form, for some transitory purpose.
The invention of the mould carried this last application to
perfection, and the terracottas of antiquity were as numerous
and as cheap as the plaster casts now sold by itinerants.
The materials used for writing have varied in different
ages and nations. Stone and bronze, linen and papyrus, wax
and parchment, have all been used. But the Assyrians and
Babylonians employed for their public archives, their astronomical
computations, their religious dedications, their historical
annals, and even for title-deeds and bills of exchange, tablets,
cylinders, and hexagonal prisms of terracotta. Some of these
cylinders, still extant, contain the history of the Assyrian
monarchs Tiglath-pileser and Assurbanipal, and the campaign of
Sennacherib against the kingdom of Judah; and others, excavated
from the Birs Nimrud, give a detailed account of the dedication
of the great temple by Nebuchadnezzar to the seven planets.
To this indestructible material, and to the happy idea of
employing it in this manner, the present age is indebted for
a detailed history of the Assyrian monarchy; whilst the decades
of Livy, the plays of Menander, and the lays of Anakreon,
confided to a more perishable material, have either wholly or
partly disappeared.
The application of clay to the making of vases was made
effective by the invention of the potter’s wheel. Before the
introduction of the wheel only vessels fashioned by the hand,
and of rude unsymmetrical shape, could have been made.
But the application of a circular table or lathe, laid horizontally
and revolving on a central pivot, on which the clay was placed,
and to which it adhered, was in its day a truly wonderful
advance. As the wheel spun round, all combinations of oval,
spherical, and cylindrical forms could be produced, and the
vases not only became symmetrical in their proportions, but
truthfully reproduced the potter’s conception. The invention
of the wheel has been ascribed to all the great nations of
antiquity. It is represented in full activity in the Egyptian
sculptures; it is mentioned in the Scriptures, and was certainly
in use at an early period in Assyria. The Greeks and Romans
attributed it to a Scythian philosopher, and to the states of
.bn 047.png
.pn +1
Athens, Corinth, and Sikyon, the first two of which were great
rivals in the ceramic art. But, as will be explained hereafter,
it was introduced at a very early stage in the history of
civilisation upon Greek soil (see p. #206#).
Although none of the very ancient kilns have survived the
destructive influence of time, yet among all the great nations
baked earthenware is of the highest antiquity. In Egypt,
in the tombs of the first dynasties, vases and other remains
of baked earthenware are abundantly found; and in Assyria and
Babylon even the oldest bricks and tablets have passed through
the furnace. The oldest remains of Hellenic pottery in all
cases owe their preservation to their having been subjected
to the action of fire. To this process, as to the consummation
of the art, the other processes of preparing, levigating, kneading,
drying, and moulding the clay were necessarily ancillary.
The desire of rendering terracotta less porous, and of producing
vases capable of retaining liquids, gave rise to the
covering of it with a vitreous enamel or glaze. The invention
of glass was attributed by the ancients to the Phoenicians;
but opaque glass or enamels, as old as the Eighteenth Dynasty,
and enamelled objects as early as the Fourth, have been found
in Egypt. The employment of copper to produce a brilliant
blue-coloured enamel was very early both in Babylonia and
Assyria; but the use of tin for a white enamel, as discovered
in the enamelled bricks and vases of Babylonia and Assyria,
anticipated by many centuries the rediscovery of that process
in Europe in the fifteenth century, and shows the early application
of metallic oxides. This invention apparently remained
for many centuries a secret among the Eastern nations only,
enamelled terracotta and glass forming articles of commercial
export from Egypt and Phoenicia to every part of the Mediterranean.
Among the Egyptians and Assyrians enamelling
was used more frequently than glazing; hence they used a
kind of faience consisting of a loose frit or body, to which
an enamel adheres after only a slight fusion. After the fall
of the Roman Empire, the art of enamelling terracotta disappeared
except amongst the Arab and Moorish races, who
had retained a traditionary knowledge of the process. The
.bn 048.png
.pn +1
application of a transparent vitreous coating, or glaze, to the
entire surface, like the varnish of a picture, is also to be referred
to a high antiquity. Originally intended to improve the utility
of the vase, it was used by Greeks and Romans with a keen
sense of the decorative effects that could be derived from its use.
In Greece, although nearly all traces of the Stone Age are
wanting, and little pottery has been found which can be referred
to that period,[2] yet the earliest existing remains of civilisation
are, as we shall see later, in the form of pottery; and Greece is
no exception to the general rule. But the important difference
between the pottery of Asia and Egypt and that of Greece
is that only in the latter was there any development due to
artistic feeling. Of the Greek it may be said, as of the medieval
craftsman, nihil tetigit quod non ornavit. In the commonest
vessel or implement in every-day use we see almost from the
first the workings of this artistic instinct, tending to exalt any
and every object above the mere level of utilitarianism, and
to make it, in addition to its primary purpose of usefulness,
“a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.” Feeble and rude it
may be at first, and hampered by imperfect knowledge of
technique or capacity for expression—but still the instinct is
there.
There is indeed at first but little in Greek pottery to
differentiate it from that of other nations possessing any
decorative instincts. As M. Pottier[3] has pointed out, there
is a universal law which manifests itself in nascent art all over
the world: “More than once men have remarked the extraordinary
resemblance which the linear decoration of Peruvian,
Mexican, and Kabyle vases bears to the ornamentation of the
most ancient Greek pottery. There is no possibility of contact
between these different peoples, separated by enormous distances
of time and space. If they have this common resemblance
at the outset of their artistic evolution, it is because all must pass
through a certain phase, resulting in some measure from the
structure of the human brain. Even so at the present day
.bn 049.png
.pn +1
there are savages in Polynesia who, by means of a point applied
to the soft clay, produce patterns exactly similar to those found
on Greek or Cypriote pottery of fifteen or twenty centuries
before our era.” Or to take a later stage of development, the
compositions of vase-paintings of the sixth century B.C. are
governed by the same immutable laws of convention and
principles of symmetry as the carvings of the Middle Ages.
Instances might be multiplied ad infinitum; but the principle
is universal.
.tb
A question that may be well asked by any visitor to a great
museum is, What is the use of the study of Greek vases? The
answer is, that no remains of Greek art have come down to
us in such large quantities, except perhaps coins, and certainly
none cover so long a period. Portraying as they do both the
objective and subjective side of Greek life, they form perhaps
the best introduction to the study of Greek archaeology in
general. In no other class of monuments are the daily life
and religious beliefs of the Greeks so vividly presented as in
the painted vases. Their value to the modern student may be
treated under four separate heads: (1) Ethnological; (2) Historical;
(3) Mythological; (4) Artistic.
(1) Ethnological.—On this subject we have already touched
in this chapter, pointing out that pottery has an exceptional
importance, not only as one of the most universal and instructive
illustrations of the early developments of a single nation,
but for purposes of comparison of one nation with another.
Sculpture, painting, architecture, and other arts have a more
limited range, and tell us nothing of domestic life or social
progress; but the common utensils of daily life, like flint
implements or bronze weapons, are of incalculable value for the
light that they throw on the subject, and the evidence which, in
the absence of historical data, they afford. We have also called
attention to the prevalence of universal laws acting on the
development of the early art of all nations.
Thus in dealing with the early history of Greece, before
historical records are available, we are enabled by the pottery-finds
to trace the extent of the Mycenaean civilisation, from
.bn 050.png
.pn +1
Egypt to the Western Mediterranean; we may see Homeric
customs reflected in the vases of the Geometrical period from
Athens; and in the decorative patterns of the succeeding period
we may see signs of close intercourse with Assyria and a knowledge
of Oriental textile fabrics. The finds in Rhodes, Cyprus,
and the islands off Asia Minor also testify to a continued and
extensive intercourse between the mainland of Greece and the
Eastern Aegean.
(2) Historical.—The historical value of Greek vases rests
partly on the external, partly on the internal evidence that they
afford. In the former aspect those of historic times, like those
of the primitive age, confirm, if they do not actually supplement,
literary records of Greek history. Thus the numerous importations
of vases from Corinth to Sicily and Italy in the seventh
century B.C. show the maritime importance of that city and the
extent of her commercial relations; while in the succeeding
century the commercial rivalry between her and Athens is
indicated by the appearance of large numbers of Attic fabrics
in the tombs of Italy along with the Corinthian; the final
supremacy of Athens by the gradual disappearance of the
Corinthian wares, and the consequent monopoly enjoyed by the
rival state. The fact that after the middle of the fifth century
the red-figured Attic vases are seldom found in Sicilian or
Italian tombs shows clearly the blow dealt at Athenian commerce
by the Peloponnesian War, and the enforced cessation
of exports to the west, owing to the hostility of Sicily and the
crippling of Athenian navies; and the gradual growth of local
fabrics shows that the colonists of Magna Graecia at that time
began themselves to supply local demands. Instances might be
multiplied.
But the internal evidence of the vases is of even greater
value, not only for the political, but still more for the social
history of Greece. By the application of painting to vases
the Greeks made them something more than mere articles of
commercial value or daily use. Besides the light they throw on
the Greek schools of painting, they have become an inexhaustible
source for illustrating the manners, customs, and literature
of Greece. A Greek vase-painting—to quote M. Pottier—
.bn 051.png
.pn +1
is not only a work of art, but also an historical document.
Even when all artistic qualities are lacking, and the vase at
first sight is liable to be regarded as a worthless and uninteresting
production, a closer inspection will often reveal some
small point which throws light on a question of mythology,
or of costume or armour. Or, again, an inscription painted or
even scratched on a vase may be of surpassing philological
or palaeographical importance. For instance, the earliest inscription
known in the Attic alphabet is a graffito on a vase of the
seventh century B.C. (see Chapter XVII.), which of itself would
command no consideration; but this inscription is valuable not
only as evidence for early forms of lettering, but from its
subject-matter. It is true that it need not necessarily be
contemporary with the vase itself, as it may have been scratched
in after it was made, but this cannot detract from its importance
or affect its chronological value.
Or, again, a fragment of a painted vase found at Athens
bears the name of Xanthippos rudely scratched upon it;
on the foot of another is that of Megakles (see below, p. 103).
Both of these are undoubted instances of ὄστρακα, which were
used for the banishment of these historical personages. They
therefore provide a striking illustration of the institution of
Ostracism, and bear out what we have said as to the importance
of archaeological discoveries for the study of History.
Historical or quasi-historical subjects are sometimes actually
depicted on the vases, but this question must be reserved for
fuller treatment in Part III., which deals with the subjects on
vases in detail. In that section of the work we shall also
deal with the relations of vase-paintings to ancient literature;
and in the list of subjects taken from daily life (Chapter #XV:vol2_ch15#.)
it will be seen what ample information is afforded on such
points as the vocations and pastimes of men, the life of
women, war and athletics, sport and education.
(3) Mythological.—On this head reference must again be
made to the chapters on Subjects, as affording ample evidence
of the importance of the vases not only for the elucidation
of Greek mythology and legend, but also for religious cults
and beliefs. One other point, however, is worth noting here.
.bn 052.png
.pn +1
Our knowledge of Greek mythology, if only derived from
literary records, rests largely on the compilations of Roman
or late writers, such as Ovid, Hyginus, and Apollodoros. It
has been aptly pointed out by a recent writer[4] that in these
authors we have mythology in a crystallised form, modified
and systematised, and perhaps confused with Latin elements,
and that our popular modern notions are mainly derived from
these sources as they have been filtered down to us through
the medium of Lemprière’s Dictionary and similar works. But
vase-paintings are more or less original and contemporary
documents. Granted that it is possible to run to the opposite
extreme and accept art traditions to the utter neglect of the
literary tradition as derived from Homer and the Tragedians,
the fact still remains that for suggestions, and for raising
problems that could never have arisen through a literary
medium, the evidence of vases is of inestimable value.
In regard to Greek religious beliefs, it should be borne in
mind that with the Greeks art was the language by which they
expressed their ideas of the gods. It was thus largely due to
their religion that they attained supremacy in the plastic art,
and their absolute freedom of treatment of their religious beliefs
almost eliminated the hieratic and conventional character of
Oriental art from their own, with its infinite variety of conceptions.
The vase-paintings, almost more than any other class
of monuments, reveal the universal religious sentiment which
pervaded their life—the δεισιδαιμονία which prevailed even in
Romanised Athens. Thus the vases constitute a pictorial
commentary on all aspects of Greek life and thought.[5]
(4) Artistic.—(a) Form. In the grace of their artistic forms
the Greeks have excelled all nations, either past or present.
The beauty and simplicity of the shapes of their vases have
caused them to be taken as models; but as every civilised
.bn 053.png
.pn +1
people has received from other sources forms sanctioned by
time, and as many of the Greek forms cannot be adapted to
the requirements of modern use, they have not been extensively
imitated. Yet to every eye familiar with works of art of the
higher order their beauty is fully apparent.
(b) Decoration. It is at first difficult to realise how little
we actually know of Greek painting. Our modern museums
are so full of specimens of Greek sculpture, either originals
or ancient copies of masterpieces, that we feel it possible to
obtain an adequate idea of the genius of Pheidias or Praxiteles
at first-hand, so to speak. But ancient literature clearly shows
that painting was held by the Greeks in equally high estimation
with sculpture, if not even higher. Consult the writings of
the elder Pliny on ancient art. A considerable space is there
devoted to the account of the great painters Zeuxis, Apelles,
and Parrhasios, while Pheidias is barely mentioned, and the
account of Praxiteles’ works is far from complete. Yet we
look in vain through most modern collections for any specimen
of Greek painting on fresco or panel.
This is, of course, due to the perishable character of pictures
and the destruction of the buildings on the walls of which the
great frescoes were preserved. But the fact remains that we
have to look in other directions for the evidence we require
to find. We have here and there a painted Greek tombstone,
a Pompeian fresco, or the decoration of an Etruscan sepulchre
to give us a hint; but while the first-named are far too
inconsiderable in number to give us any idea of the art of their
time, the two latter are merely products of an imitative art,
giving but a faint echo of the originals.
Now, in the vases we have, as noted in regard to mythology,
contemporary evidence. It must never be forgotten that vase-painting
is essentially a decorative art; but, as we shall see
later in tracing its historical development, there is always a
tendency to ignore the essential subserviency of design to use,
and to give the decoration a more pictorial character. Many
of the late vases are, in fact, pictures on terracotta. Again,
there is a class of fifth-century vases with polychrome paintings
on white ground which actually recall the method we know
.bn 054.png
.pn +1
to have been employed by the great master of that century,
Polygnotos. And with regard to the late vases we shall hope to
show in a future chapter that, like the Pompeian paintings, they
often reflect the spirit, if not the exact likeness, of some well-known
painting of which we have record.
Many instances might be given of vase-paintings which reflect,
or assist our knowledge of, the products of the higher arts.
Even as early as the end of the sixth century the group of the
Tyrant-slayers, the creation of Antenor and of Kritios and
Nesiotes, is found repeated on a black-figured vase[6]; and the
early poros pediments from the Athenian Acropolis find an
interesting parallel in an early Attic vase of about the same
date.[7] So again in Ionia, the style of the sculptures of the
archaic temple at Ephesos finds its reflection in some of the
local sixth-century vase-fabrics.[8] Coming to the fifth century,
the heads in Euphronios’ paintings may be compared with
some of the Attic heads in marble, like that of the ephebos
from the Acropolis.[9] Combats of Greeks with Amazons and
Centaurs on later R.F. vases often seem to suggest a comparison
with the friezes of Phigaleia and Olympia; a figure from the
balustrade of the Nike temple is almost reproduced on a R.F.
vase,[10] and the riding youths of the Parthenon frieze on some of
the white Athenian lekythi; and the Kertch vase with the
contest of Athena and Poseidon (Plate #L:vol2_pl50#.) is of special interest
as an almost contemporary reproduction of the Parthenon west
pediment. In painting, again, the later R.F. vases in many
instances reflect what we know of the style and composition of
Polygnotos’ paintings, and there are many instances on the
vases of the subjects treated by him and Mikon.[11]
It is not necessary here to say more of the importance of
a study of Greek vases on the several lines that we have pointed
out. It is sufficient to say that specialists in all these branches
.bn 055.png
.pn +1
of Archaeology instinctively turn to vases for the main source of
their information.
.tb
The earliest date at which public attention was directed to
the painted vases was the end of the seventeenth century. In
those days, it need hardly be said, systematic excavation was
a thing quite unknown, while archaeology as a science was non-existent.
Beyond a few sculptures which had been handed down
at Rome or elsewhere through many vicissitudes, cabinets of gems
which had been preserved by cardinals and other dignitaries who
employed them for signet-rings, chiefly for ecclesiastical purposes,
and some collections of coins of the Renaissance period, there
were no specimens of ancient art preserved. During the seventeenth
century, however, the fashion arose of making voyages to
Italy or Greece, and bringing back any spoils that might attract
the notice of the traveller. In this way the collection of Arundel
Marbles at Oxford was made, and the nucleus of many of the
famous private collections of England formed. But the painted
vases, which for the most part lay buried in tombs, escaped
notice almost entirely—and, perhaps even where specimens
were preserved, they attracted little notice—until with Winckelmann
arose a gradual hankering after the possession of artistic
treasures and the formation of collections of antiques.
The earliest allusion to be found to painted vases is in the
works of La Chausse (Caussius),[12] and in the Thesaurus of
Graevius,[13] while the oldest existing catalogue is that of the
collection of the Elector of Brandenburg, compiled by L. Beger
in 1696–1701.[14] Some few are illustrated in these works, while
others were given later by Montfaucon,[15] Dempster,[16] Gori,[17] and
Caylus.[18] Winckelmann published several vases in his Histoire
de l’Art (1764) and Monumenti Antichi (1769), and the industrious
Passeri in 1767–75 published, besides a supplement to
Dempster, three volumes containing coloured engravings of
vases in various collections.
.bn 056.png
.pn +1
Sir William Hamilton, who was for some time English
Ambassador at Naples, formed there a considerable collection
of Greek and Roman antiquities, mostly painted vases, which
had been discovered in various tombs in Southern Italy and
Etruria. All these he brought with him to England and sold to
the newly instituted British Museum in 1767. A Frenchman
named Hugues or D'Hancarville compiled a magnificent work
in four volumes[19] illustrating the vases in this collection, with
elaborate diagrams of the shapes; but the representations of the
subjects are often marred by the imaginary ornamental borders in
which they are framed, while the whole work, like others of the
same period, is marked by a tendency to ignore all but the
artistic interest, and instead of an accurate reproduction to aim
merely at giving a pretty picture.
A second collection of vases belonging to Hamilton was mostly
lost at sea, but a record of it has been preserved in Tischbein’s
work, Vases d’Hamilton[20] in four volumes, which is more accurate
and useful than that of D'Hancarville. It is believed that many
of these vases are now in the Hope collection at Deepdene,
which is unfortunately inaccessible to archaeologists.
The Hamilton collection formed, as we have said, the nucleus
of the magnificent array of vases in the British Museum.
Most of them, it is true, belong to the later period or decadence
of vase-painting, and were not only found, but had also been
manufactured, in Italy. Although the time for a scientific
study and classification was not yet to be for some sixty years,
the interest in the subject was decidedly on the increase, and
many English noblemen and gentlemen were forming collections,
as well as such foreigners as the Duc de Blacas, the Duc de
Luynes, and M. Millin. It became the fashion to produce
large folio works embodying the contents of these collections
in series of coloured illustrations, and thus we have, besides
those already mentioned, the imposing publications of Millin,[21]
.bn 057.png
.pn +1
Millingen[22], Laborde[23], and others. On the same lines, but mostly
of later date, are the publications of De Rossi[24], Christie[25], Moses[26],
Inghirami[27], Lanzi[28], Böttiger[29], Micali[30], Raoul-Rochette[31], Stackelberg[32],
and the Duc de Luynes[33], who published either their own
vases, as De Luynes, or some well-known collection like that
of the Duc de Blacas, or some particular class of vases: e.g.
Micali, those found in Etruria; Raoul-Rochette and Inghirami,
those illustrating Homer; and Stackelberg, those found in
tombs in Greece Proper. Few of these, it will be seen, were
published in England, where neither public patronage nor
private enterprise were found prepared to rival the achievements
of the Continent.
In most of these works the vases are styled “Etruscan”
as a matter of course. Even nowadays it is a very common
experience to hear vases spoken of as “Etruscan” or even
as “Etruscan urns,” as if every vase was used as a receptacle
for the ashes of the dead. This error has lasted, with all the
perseverance of a popular fallacy, for over a century, and cannot
now be too strongly denounced. But at the beginning of the last
century the Etruscan origin of painted vases was most strongly
maintained by erudite scholars, chiefly Italians who desired
to champion the credit of their own country, and the controversy
raged with varying force till Greece was able to
substantiate her own case by the numbers of vases that came
forth from her tombs to proclaim their Hellenic origin.
The “Etruscan” theory was first promulgated by Montfaucon,
Gori, Caylus, and Passeri, between 1719 and 1752; their arguments
being based on the plausible ground that up till that
.bn 058.png
.pn +1
time the vases had been found almost exclusively in Etruria.
So the term “Etruscan vase” passed into the languages of
Europe, and has survived in spite of a century of refutation.
But in 1763 Winckelmann, the father of scientific archaeology,
conceived the idea that the spirit and character of the vase-paintings
were wholly Greek; and he proposed to call them
Italo-Greek or Graeco-Sicilian, indicating Magna Graecia as
the true place of their manufacture. This was a step in the
right direction, and he was supported later by Lanzi, Millin,
Millingen, and others (1791–1813). A further attempt was
made to define the particular places of their fabric, and Nola,
Locri, and Agrigentum were suggested as the most important
centres. Meanwhile, the discoveries of vases in Attica, at
Corinth, and elsewhere in Greece, and subsequently the publication
of Stackelberg’s work, helped to confirm the position of
Winckelmann’s followers.
In 1828 came what M. Pottier terms “an objectionable revival
of Etruscomania,” with the extensive and marvellously fruitful
excavations at Vulci under the direction of the Prince of Canino,
Lucien Bonaparte, on whose estates most of the tombs were
found. Several thousand vases were the yield of this site,
mostly of the best periods of Greek art. This was a great
epoch in the history of the study of Greek vases. A flood
of fresh light was thrown on the subject by the mass of new
material, and a whole new literature arose in consequence.
Hitherto vases of the archaic and fine periods had only been
known in isolated instances, and the bulk of the existing collections
was formed of the florid vases of the Decadence; but
now it became possible to fill up the gaps and trace the whole
development of the art from the simplest specimens with
decorative patterns or figures of animals down to the very last
stages of painting.
These discoveries prompted Prince Lucien Bonaparte to revive
the theory of Etruscan origin, in which he was supported by
D'Amatis and De Fea. It is probable that all three were
animated more by patriotic motives than by intellectual conviction.
At any rate their arguments appealed but little to
scholars, although not a few inclined to take a middle course,
.bn 059.png
.pn +1
and maintained that there existed, not only in Etruria but also
in Southern Italy, various local centres of manufacture under
Greek superintendence and in close connection with Athens
and her influences. These ideas were upheld by Gerhard,
Welcker, the Duc de Luynes, and Ch. Lenormant. But the
preponderating arguments were to be found on the other side,
from Kramer (1837), who attributed all vases but those of the
Decadence to an Attic origin, O. Müller, who limited this to
the finer examples from Vulci, and Raoul-Rochette, who pinned
his faith to Sicily, to Otto Jahn[34], who may be said to have
founded the modern comparative study of Greek ceramics on
its present basis (1854).
Jahn pronounced decisively for the Greek origin of all but
the later fabrics, and his principles have been adopted by all
succeeding archaeologists, with the exception of Brunn, and one
or two of the latter’s disciples, who have swung back to the Italian
theory in some respects. Up to his time all had been in chaos,
and each writer worked on his own particular line without
regard to others, both as regards the origin of the vases and
the subjects depicted thereon; but Jahn, in his epoch-making
catalogue of the vases at Munich, was the first to make a serious
and scientific attempt to reduce the chaos to order, not only
by adopting a rational system of interpretation, but by systematising
and reducing to one common denominator all previous
contributions to knowledge.
We may say that the study of Greek vases has passed through
three main stages: (1) Artistic; (2) Epexegetic; (3) Historical.
(1) Artistic (1690—1770).—In the first stage, as we have
seen, the artistic merit of the vases and the aim of producing
a pretty picture were alone regarded. Hence, too, arose the
fashion of making copies of Greek vases, and many specimens
were produced by Wedgwood[35], bearing, however, no more than
a superficial likeness to the originals.
(2) Epexegetic (1770—1854).—In the second stage it seems
to have been suddenly discovered that the figures on the vases
.bn 060.png
.pn +1
were not mere meaningless groups, like the Watteau shepherds
and shepherdesses on Dresden china, and many strange theories
were at first promulgated as to the purposes for which the
vases were made and the subjects thereon depicted. Three
main lines of interpretation seem to have been adopted by the
writers of this period:—
(a) Passeri, Millin, Lanzi, and Visconti supposed that allusions
were made to the life of the deceased person in whose
tomb they were found; allegorical representations were given
of his childish games, his youthful pastimes, or the religious and
social ceremonies in which he took part.
(b) Italynski, in his preface to Tischbein’s work, enunciates
the strange notion that they allude to events of Greek and
Roman history: for instance, three draped men represent the
three chief archons of Athens, or three women conversing,
Veturia, the mother of Coriolanus, with her daughter and
daughter-in-law, considering whether she should appear as a
suppliant before her son. The utterly fantastic and unscientific
nature of these explanations was self-evident; the writers of
the first group at any rate had a sounder basis for their theories,
and on the analogy of the sculptured Greek tombstones might
well have been near the truth.
(c) Another theory, which attained great popularity, and was
even adhered to partially for some years afterwards by Panofka,
Gerhard, and Lenormant, was that the subjects bore allusion
to the Mysteries, more particularly the Eleusinian. The vases
were regarded as presents given to the initiated, and the reason
why their interpretation was so difficult was that they related
to the secrets unfolded in those ceremonies. Many attempts
were made to unlock those secrets and to show the mystic
moral purport of the pictures; but all is the merest guesswork.
The height of fantastic explanation is perhaps reached
by Christie, whose work is quite worth perusal as a literary
curiosity. Panofka, on the other hand, turned his attention
to the inscriptions on the vases,[36] and discerned a symbolical
meaning in these, reading into the names of artists rebuses
on the subjects over which they were inscribed, e.g. Douris
.bn 061.png
.pn +1
is indicated by Athena with a spear (δόρυ) or Hermaios by
a figure of Hermes.
(3) Historical.—The historical or scientific method of studying
Greek vases consists mainly in classifying them according
to different periods, and within that period to different schools.
To these main considerations the artistic merits of the vases
and the explanation of the subjects are subordinated. The
reason for this is obvious. The artistic and mythological interest
of the vases is soon exhausted, and receives no new impetus
from new discoveries. Now, with the comparative study of
vases this is not the case. Any day may bring forth a new
discovery which will completely revolutionise all preconceived
theories; hence there is the constant necessity for being
“up-to-date,” and for the adjustment of old beliefs to new.
But the historical method is not entirely of modern growth.
As long ago as 1767 the first attempt was made by D'Hancarville[37]
to classify vases according to their age. Taking such
scanty data as were available, he divided Italian vases into
five classes, ranging from “some centuries before the foundation
of Rome” down to the reigns of Trajan, the Antonines, and
Septimius Severus, which “announc’d the total decadency of the
Art.” The earlier vases he sought to fix more precisely by
reference to the history of painting as told by Pliny.
The Duc de Luynes, writing in 1832,[38] hesitates to define
the exact age of the various styles, though he arranges them
generally in six classes, ranging from the “Doric” or
“Phoenician” vases down to barbaric imitations by the
natives of Italy. According to him the red-figured vases
lasted from the time of Perikles down to that of Pyrrhos.
Millingen was content with three periods only, his division[39]
being: (1) ancient style, 700–450 B.C.; (2) fine style, 450–228
B.C.; (3) late style, 228 to Social War. Kramer distinguishes
five epochs: (A) Egyptian style, 580–500 B.C.; (B) older style,
500–460 B.C.; (C) severe style, 460—420 B.C.; (D) fine style,
420–380 B.C.; (E) rich style, 380–200 B.C.[40] Gerhard[41] surmised
.bn 062.png
.pn +1
that the earliest vases might date from the ninth or tenth
century B.C., the fine style extending over the fifth and fourth,
while the decadence culminated in the second, and in the
first century fictile vases were entirely supplanted by those
of metal.
De Witte made a more detailed classification, extending to
nine groups, and based rather on technical differences, as
several of the groups are contemporaneous; but his classification
is essentially a practical one, and may be regarded as
forming a sound basis for all succeeding catalogues and treatises,
as also for the arrangement of museums.
Jahn in his Introduction is content with four main headings,
which for a general classification of a large collection is convenient
enough, and has, in fact, been adopted in the Vase
Rooms of the British Museum. Under this system the four
divisions are: (1) Primitive; (2) Black-figured; (3) Red-figured;
(4) Vases of the Decadence. In the Louvre, on the other hand,
the arrangement is mainly geographical, according to the sites
from which the vases have come.
It is recognised by modern archaeologists,[42] working on the
lines laid down by Jahn in the three main divisions of his
Introduction, that in dating and classifying a vase or series
of vases three points must be taken into consideration:
(1) circumstances of discovery; (2) technique and style;
(3) inscriptions (when present). The various questions with
which the modern study of vase-paintings has mainly to deal
will be fully investigated in subsequent chapters, and it is
not necessary to say more on this head. But we trust that
sufficient attention has been drawn to the many-sided interests
presented by—it is not necessary to say a collection of vases,
but—a single vase[43].
It may be worth while here to turn aside for a moment and
study the rise and growth of the various great vase-collections
of Europe. We may with pardonable pride regard the British
.bn 063.png
.pn +1
Museum as standing at the head of these collections, possessing
as it does the most representative collection of any, if not the
largest. Hardly any known fabric is unrepresented, nor the
work of any known artist; though here and there another
museum may have the advantage—as, for instance, the Louvre
in early black-figured fabrics, Naples in vases of Southern
Italy (especially the large specimens), or Athens in various
fabrics peculiar to Greece, such as the early vases of Thera and
Melos, or the marvellous specimens of “transitional” handiwork
found on the Acropolis of Athens.
The nucleus of the British Museum collection was, as has
been indicated, formed by the vases obtained from Sir W.
Hamilton in 1767, supplemented by those of Towneley and
Payne Knight (1805–24): these are nearly all vases of the
late period from Southern Italy. Between the years 1837 and
1845 a large quantity of fine black-figured and red-figured
vases was acquired from the Canino collection, having been
found on that estate at Vulci, and in 1836 acquisitions from
M. Durand’s sale had helped to swell the number of vases
representing that site, including some very fine examples.
In 1842 came the Burgon collection, mostly of small vases
from Athens and the Greek islands; in 1856 the bequest by
Sir William Temple of his collection, formed at Naples, added
greatly to the value of the collection of later vases. In
1860–64 large numbers of vases of all periods from 700 B.C.
to 400 B.C. were excavated by Salzmann and Biliotti at
Kameiros in Rhodes; and from Ialysos in the same island
came a number of Mycenaean vases by the generosity of
Prof. Ruskin in 1870. Meanwhile, the Blacas collection, purchased
in 1867, had added a large number, chiefly of red-figured
and Italian vases, and in 1873 many more fine specimens from
Capua, Nola, and elsewhere were acquired from M. Castellani.
Of late years the chief additions have been from Cyprus,
beginning with a few vases from Cesnola in 1876 down to the
Turner Bequest excavations in 1894–96, and from the Egypt
Exploration Fund’s excavations at Naukratis and Daphnae
(1884–86). Other acquisitions have been mostly in the form
of isolated purchases, especially of the white lekythi and similar
.bn 064.png
.pn +1
classes; some have come from important collections, such as
those of Forman, Tyszkiewicz, and Van Branteghem.
In 1870, when the old Catalogue was completed, the collection
must have numbered over 2,000 painted vases, besides 1,000
undecorated; at the present day the total cannot be computed
at less than 5,000, of which about 4,000 may be described as
painted vases.
The Louvre collection in Paris[44] started life about a century
ago under the first Napoleon, who established a ceramic section
about 1797. Other vases were added from the Vatican and
Naples; and meanwhile the Royal collection went to form the
present Cabinet of Antiquities in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
In 1818 the very limited collection was augmented by 564
vases from M. Tochon, and in 1825 came a magnificent acquisition
of about 2,000 vases (mostly painted) from M. Durand.
>From this time till 1863 the growth was very slow, and the
Louvre does not seem to have profited like other museums
by the excavations at Vulci. In the latter year, however,
another splendid collection of 2,000 painted and 1,400 unpainted
vases was acquired from Count Campana, which necessitated
the building of new galleries. The early B.F. fabrics, in which
the Louvre is so pre-eminently rich, were all in this collection.
During the last thirty years the only acquisitions of importance
have been representative specimens from Greece and Cyprus;
but the total number is now reckoned at 6,000.
The growth of the Berlin collection has been much more
slow and consistent.[45] Its nucleus was derived from the collection
of the Elector of Brandenburg described by Beger
in 1701. Up to 1830 most of the vases acquired were from
Southern Italy and Campania, including 1,348 from the Koller
collection in 1828. In 1831, 442 vases and 179 specimens of
Etruscan plain ware were acquired from the Dorow collection,
and from 1833 to 1867 the activity of Gerhard procured fine
specimens from time to time, while 174 were bequeathed
by him at his death. When Levezow’s Catalogue was published
in 1834, it included 1,579 specimens; the next one by
.bn 065.png
.pn +1
Furtwaengler in 1885 describes more than 4,000. Of late
years many valuable specimens have been derived from various
parts of Greece.
These three may be regarded as the typical representative
collections of Europe; those of Athens, Munich, Naples, and
Petersburg are all of great merit and value, but chiefly strong
in one particular department—Athens in early vases and Attic
lekythi, Petersburg in late red-figured vases, and Naples in the
fabrics of Southern Italy. Many of the finest specimens, however,
are to be found in the smaller collections in the Paris
Bibliothèque, at Florence, Vienna, Madrid, and in Rome. Of
late years Europe has found a formidable rival in America,
especially in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, which, backed
by almost inexhaustible private benefactions, is gradually
acquiring a large proportion of the signed vases and other
chefs-d’œuvre which from time to time find their way into the
market. The Metropolitan Museum at New York, on the other
hand, rests its claim to distinction on the possession of General
Cesnola’s enormous collections of Cypriote pottery of all
periods.
The gradual centralising of vases into public museums is a
noteworthy feature at the present day. The private collections
formed by so many amateurs at the beginning of the century
have nearly all been long since dispersed and incorporated with
the various national collections[46]; and those formed more
recently are rapidly sharing the same fate. Hardly a year
passes now without seeing the dispersion of some notable
collection like those of M. Sabouroff, M. van Branteghem,
Colonel Brown (Forman collection), or M. Bourguignon; and
almost the only important one that still remains intact is
that of Sig. Jatta at Ruvo (consisting almost entirely of South
Italian vases). Now that the days are past when it was the
custom for rich collectors to publish magnificently illustrated
atlases of their possessions, this tendency to centralisation can
only be welcomed both by artists and students. For the latter
now it only remains to be desired that a scientific and
.bn 066.png
.pn +1
well-illustrated catalogue of every public museum should be
available.
We append here a list of the principal museums and collections
in Europe, which may form a supplement to that given
by Jahn in 1854. The more important ones are printed in
heavier type.
.in 2
I. GREAT BRITAIN.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. London. British Museum (see p. #24#). Catalogue by
C. Smith and Walters.
.ti -4
South Kensington Museum (a few isolated
specimens; also some from the Museum of
Practical Geology Jermyn Street).
.ti -4
Soane Museum (the Cawdor Vase).
.ti -10
2. Oxford. Ashmolean Museum. Catalogue by P. Gardner
(1893).
.ti -10
3. Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum. Catalogue by E. A.
Gardner (1896).
.ti -10
4. Deepdene (Dorking). Hope Collection. Inaccessible to
students. Consists entirely of late vases from Southern
Italy.
.ti -10
5. Numerous private collections, among the more important
being—
.in +2
Richmond. The late Sir F. Cook.
Castle Ashby. Marquis of Northampton.
.in
.ti -10
6. Harrow School Museum (a fine “Theseus” Kylix and
Krater with Centaurs). Catalogue by C. Torr (1887).
.ti -10
7. Edinburgh.
.in
II. FRANCE.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Paris. The Louvre (see p. #25#). Catalogue by Pottier (in
progress).
.ti -4
Bibliothèque Nationale. Catalogue by A. de
Ridder (1902).
.ti -4
Dzialynski Collection. See De Witte, Coll. à
l’Hôtel Lambert.
.ti -10
2. Marseilles Museum. Catalogue by Froehner (1897).
.ti -10
3. Rouen Museum.
.ti -10
4. Boulogne Museum.
.ti -10
5. Compiègne Museum.
.ti -10
6. Sèvres Museum.
.in
.bn 067.png
.pn +1
III. BELGIUM AND HOLLAND.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Brussels.[47] See Cat. of Musée de Ravestein.
Somzée Collection (now dispersed).
.ti -10
2. Amsterdam. Six Collection.
.ti -10
3. Leyden Museum. See Roulez, Vases de Leyde.
.in
IV. GERMANY.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Berlin. Antiquarium (see p. #25#). Catalogue by Furtwaengler
(1885).
.ti -10
2. Altenburg.
.ti -10
3. Bonn.
.ti -10
4. Breslau.
.ti -10
5. Brunswick.
.ti -10
6. Dresden.
.ti -10
7. Frankfurt. Museum Städel.
.ti -10
8. Gotha.
.ti -10
9. Heidelberg.
.ti -10
10. Karlsruhe. Catalogue by Winnefeld (1887).
.ti -10
11. Leipzig.
.ti -10
12. Munich. Catalogue by Jahn (1854).
.ti -10
13. Schwerin.
.ti -10
14. Würzburg. Antikenkabinet.
Coll. Bankó.
.in
V. DENMARK AND SWEDEN.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Kopenhagen. Catalogue by Smith (1862).
.ti -10
2. Stockholm.
.in
VI. RUSSIA.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Petersburg. Hermitage. Catalogue by Stephani (1869).
Stroganoff Coll.
Pisareff Coll.
.ti -10
2. Dorpat (University).
.in
VII. AUSTRIA.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Vienna. Oesterreichisches Museum. Catalogue by
Masner (1891).
K. K. Kabinet.
University.
.bn 068.png
.pn +1
.ti -10
2. Cracow. Czartoryski Coll.
.ti -10
3. Prague. Pollak Coll.
.ti -10
4. Trieste. Museum.
.in
VIII. SWITZERLAND.
.if h
.li
1. Berne 2. Geneva 3. Zürich.All unimportant for Greek Vases.
.li-
.if-
.if t
.in +4
.nf
1. Berne }
2. Geneva } All unimportant for Greek Vases.
3. Zürich.}
.nf-
.in
.if-
IX. SPAIN.
.in +12
.ti -10
Madrid.
.in
X. ITALY AND SICILY.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Acerra. Spinelli Coll.
.ti -10
2. Adria. Museo Bocchi. Publication by Schöne.
.ti -10
3. Arezzo. Chiefly Roman Arretine ware.
.ti -10
4. Bologna. Museo Civico. Catalogue by Pellegrini (1900).
Università.
.ti -10
5. Capua. Campana Coll.
.ti -10
6. Cervetri. Ruspoli Coll.
.ti -10
7. Chiusi. Museum.
Casucchini Coll. (but see p. 73).
.ti -10
8. Corneto. Museum.
Bruschi Coll.
.ti -10
9. Florence. Museum.
.ti -10
10. Naples. Museo Nazionale. Catalogue by Heydemann
(1872).
.ti -10
11. Orvieto. Museum.
Faina Coll.
.ti -10
12. Palermo. Museum.
.ti -10
13. Parma.
.ti -10
14. Perugia. Museum.
.ti -10
15. Ruvo. Jatta Coll. Catalogue by Sig. G. Jatta (1869).
.ti -10
16. Taranto. Museum.
.ti -10
17. Terranuova (Gela). Private collections.
.ti -10
18. Rome. Vatican (Mus. Gregoriano). Guide by Helbig.
Museo Capitolino.
Museo Papa Giulio.
Numerous private collections: Hartwig, Torlonia, Castellani,
etc., and Deutsches Arch. Inst.
.in
.bn 069.png
.pn +1
XI. GREECE.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Athens. National Museum. Catalogue by Couve and
Collignon (1902).
Do. (Acropolis Collection). Catalogue in
progress.
Trikoupis Coll.
Other private collections.
.ti -10
2. Eleusis. Museum (local finds).
.ti -10
3. Candia (Crete).
.in
XII. ASIA MINOR.
.in +4
Smyrna. Various private collections.
.in
XIII. CYPRUS.
.in +12
.ti -10
Nicosia. Cyprus Museum. Catalogue by Myres and Richter
(1899).
.ti -10
Private collections at Larnaka, Nicosia, and Limassol.
.in
XIV. EGYPT.
.ti +2
Cairo. Ghizeh Museum.
XV. AMERICA.
.in +12
.ti -10
1. Boston. Catalogue by Robinson.
.ti -10
2. New York. Metropolitan Museum. Atlas of Cesnola Collection
from Cyprus published.
.ti -10
3. Baltimore.
.ti -10
4. Chicago.
.in
.in // close outer indentation (.in 2)
.fm
.fn 1
B.M. Guide to First and Second
Egyptian Rooms (1904), p. 22; for early
Neolithic pottery from Ireland see Guide
to Antiqs. of Stone Age, p. 84.
.fn-
.fn 2
Remains of Neolithic pottery have
recently been found in Crete (J.H.S.
xxiii. p. 158) and in the Cyclades.
.fn-
.fn 3
Cat. des Vases Antiques du Louvre
i. p. 18.
.fn-
.fn 4
Miss Harrison, Mythology and Monuments
of Athens, preface, p. ii. The
Introduction to this work contains some
excellent examples of the modern method
of using vase-paintings to elucidate
mythology.
.fn-
.fn 5
For the use of vase-paintings in
illustration of Greek religious beliefs and
customs, reference may be made to Miss
Harrison’s Prolegomena to Greek Religion
(Cambridge Press, 1903), containing
many interesting interpretations of scenes
on the vases which may bear on the
subject.
.fn-
.fn 6
See Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#., ad fin.
.fn-
.fn 7
Ant. Denkm. i. 57.
.fn-
.fn 8
Cf. for instance Berlin 2154 (Endt,
Ion. Vasenm. p. 29).
.fn-
.fn 9
Collignon, Hist. de la Sculpt. Grecque,
i. p. 362.
.fn-
.fn 10
Gerhard, Auserl. Vasenb. 81.
.fn-
.fn 11
As, for instance, the subjects of
Odysseus and Philoktetes; Orestes slaying
Aegisthos; the death of Polyxena;
Theseus fetching the ring from Amphitrite.
Cf. Huddilston, Lessons from Greek
Pottery, p. 28.
.fn-
.fn 12
Museum Romanum, Rome, 1690, fol.
.fn-
.fn 13
Thesaur. Antiq. Rom. xii. 955.
.fn-
.fn 14
Thesaur. regii Brandenb. vol. iii.
.fn-
.fn 15
Ant. Expliq. iii. pls. 71–77 (1719).
.fn-
.fn 16
Etr. Regal. 1723, fol.
.fn-
.fn 17
Mus. Etr. 1737–43.
.fn-
.fn 18
Recueil, 1752–67 (especially vols.
i.–ii.).
.fn-
.fn 19
Antiqs. Étr. Gr. et Rom., tirées du
Cabinet de M. H., fol. 1766–67.
.fn-
.fn 20
1791–1803. Plates for a fifth volume
were prepared, but never regularly published
(see Reinach, Répertoire des Vases
Peints, ii. p. 334).
.fn-
.fn 21
Peintures des Vases Antiques,
edited by M. Dubois-Maisonneuve,
in two volumes, with Introduction
(1808–10); now re-edited by S. Reinach
(1891).
.fn-
.fn 22
Vases Grecs, Rome, 1813; Vases de
Coghill, Rome, 1817; Ancient Uned.
Monuments, London, 1822; the two
former now re-edited by S. Reinach,
1891 and 1900.
.fn-
.fn 23
Vases de Lamberg, Paris, 1813–25;
re-edited by S. Reinach, 1900.
.fn-
.fn 24
Vasi de Blacas. This was never
actually published: see Reinach, Répertoire,
ii. p. 383.
.fn-
.fn 25
Disquisitions on the Painted Vases,
1806.
.fn-
.fn 26
Coll. of Antique Vases, London, 1814.
.fn-
.fn 27
Vasi Fittili, 4 vols. 1833; Mon.
Etruschi (1824), vol. v.; Gal. Omerica,
3 vols. 1831–36, etc.
.fn-
.fn 28
De’ vasi antichi dipinti, 1806.
.fn-
.fn 29
Gr. Vasengemälde, 1797–1800.
.fn-
.fn 30
Monumenti per servire alla storia
degli ant. pop. ital. 2nd edn. 1833;
Monumenti inediti, 1844.
.fn-
.fn 31
Mon. Inéd. 1828.
.fn-
.fn 32
Gräber der Hellenen, Berlin, 1837.
.fn-
.fn 33
Descr. de quelques vases peints, 1840.
.fn-
.fn 34
Die Vasensammlung zu München,
Introduction.
.fn-
.fn 35
He gave the name of Etruria to the
place in Staffordshire where he set up
his pottery, after the supposed origin of
the ancient vases.
.fn-
.fn 36
Namen der Vasenbilder, 1849.
.fn-
.fn 37
Vol. ii. p. 108.
.fn-
.fn 38
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1832, p. 145 ff.
.fn-
.fn 39
Peintures, p. viii.
.fn-
.fn 40
Der Stil u. Herkunft der gr. Vasen,
p. 46 ff.
.fn-
.fn 41
Rapporto Volcente, in Ann. dell’ Inst.
1831, p. 98 ff.
.fn-
.fn 42
The names of the chief modern
writers on the subject are given in the
Bibliography, and in the notes to the
Historical Chapters (VI.-XI.), where also
brief bibliographies are given.
.fn-
.fn 43
The writer is indebted to the Introduction
to M. Pottier’s admirable little
Catalogue of the Vases in the Louvre for
many ideas worked up in the foregoing
pages.
.fn-
.fn 44
See Pottier’s Catalogue, i. p. 59.
.fn-
.fn 45
See the Introduction to Furtwaengler’s
Catalogue.
.fn-
.fn 46
Cf. the lists given by Jahn, Vasens.
zu München, pp. xi, xiv, with (for
instance) the notes appended to the
pages of Reinach’s Répertoire.
.fn-
.fn 47
The collection made by Baron Hirsch in Paris is now incorporated with this
Museum.
.fn-
.bn 070.png
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch02' pn=+1
CHAPTER II | SITES AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF DISCOVERY OF GREEK VASES
.pm start_summary
Historical and geographical limits of subject—Description of Greek tombs—Tombs
in Cyprus, Cyrenaica, Sicily, Italy—Condition of vases when
found—Subsequent restorations—Imitations and forgeries—Prices of
vases—Sites on which painted vases have been found: Athens, Corinth,
Boeotia, Greek islands, Crimea, Asia Minor, Cyprus, North Africa,
Italy, Etruria—Vulci discoveries—Southern Italy, Sicily.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
Before dealing with Greek vases in further detail, it may be as
well to say something of the circumstances under which, and
the localities in which, they have been discovered. And further,
we must clearly define the limits of our subject, both historically
and geographically.
(1) Historical.—It may seem somewhat paradoxical to doubt
whether the primitive pottery found on Greek soil ought, strictly
speaking, to be called Greek. In a succeeding chapter we shall
have occasion to touch upon the question of the ethnological
origin of this pottery, which, in the opinion of some authorities,
is not the product of Greeks as we understand the term, but
of some Oriental nation, such as the Phoenicians. It is, however,
enough for our present purpose that it has been found on
Greek soil, and that it forms a stage which we cannot omit
from a study of the development of Greek pottery, seeing that
its influence can be plainly traced on later fabrics.
Turning to the other limit of the subject, we find that nearly
all the latest vases, belonging to the period of the Decadence,
were manufactured in Southern Italy or Etruria. But nearly all
bear so unmistakably the stamp of Greek influence, however degenerate
and obscured, that we can only regard them as made
.bn 071.png
.pn +1
by Greek artists settled in the colonies of Magna Graecia, or at
any rate by native workers in direct imitation of the Greeks.
We may roughly define our historical limits as from 2500 B.C.,
the approximate age of the early pottery of Crete, Cyprus, and
Hissarlik, down to 200 B.C., when the manufacture of painted
vases came to an end under the growing dominion of Rome.
It was formerly supposed that the senatorial edict of 186 B.C.,
forbidding the performance of Bacchanalian ceremonies in Italy,
was the means of putting an end to this industry, but this
is hardly borne out by facts; it rather died a natural death
owing to the growing popularity of relief-work both in terracotta
and in metal (see Chapters XI. and XXII.).
(2) Geographical.—Having defined our historical limits, it
remains to consider the extent of Greek civilisation during
that period, as attested by archaeological or other evidence.
Besides the mainland of Greece and the islands of the Aegean
Sea, the whole of Asia Minor may be regarded as in a measure
Greek, although practically speaking only a strip of territory
along the western coast became really Hellenised, and we shall
not be concerned with pottery-finds in any other part of the
country.[48] To the north-east, Greek colonisation penetrated as
far as Kertch and other places in the Crimea, known to the
ancients as Panticapaeum and the Bosphoros respectively. In
the Eastern Mediterranean the island of Cyprus will demand
a large share of our attention. Egypt, again, has yielded large
numbers of vases, mostly from the two Greek settlements of
Naukratis and Daphnae; and farther to the west along the
north coast of Africa was the Greek colony of Kyrene, also
a fruitful site for excavators.
The rest of the ground is covered by the island of Sicily
and the peninsular portion of Italy from Bologna southwards.
Greek vases have occasionally turned up in Spain, Gaul (i.e.
France and North Italy), as at Marseilles (Massilia), where
primitive Greek pottery has been found, and also in Sardinia;
.bn 072.png
.pn +1
but the Western Mediterranean sites are chiefly confined to
Southern Italy and Etruria. In fact, till recent years these
regions were almost our only source of information on Greek
pottery, as has already been pointed out.
Generally speaking, it may be said that all Greek vases have
been found in tombs, but the circumstances under which they
have been found differ according to locality. We propose in
the succeeding section to say something of the nature of the
ancient tombs, and the differences between those of Greece,
Cyprus, Italy, and other sites.
Of finds on the sites of temples and sanctuaries it is not
necessary to say much here; the explanation of such discoveries
will receive some attention in Chapter IV., and the individual
sites will also be noted in the next section of this chapter. It
is a rare occurrence to find complete vases under these circumstances,
as they generally owe their preservation to the fact that
they have been broken in pieces and cast away as rubbish into
holes and pits. The most notable instance is the remarkable
series of fragments discovered on the Acropolis at Athens.
Greek tombs are not usually very remarkable in character,[49]
being for the most part small and designed for single corpses;
this may possibly account for the comparatively small size
of the vases discovered on most Hellenic sites. In the earlier
tombs at Athens and Corinth the pottery was found at a very
great depth below the soil. The six shaft-graves in the circle
at Mycenae are of great size, and contained large quantities
of painted pottery; an exact reproduction of the sixth, found
by M. Stamatakis in 1878, with its contents, is in the National
Museum at Athens. Here also are reproductions of two typical
fifth-century Greek tombs containing sepulchral lekythi,[50] and
showing how the vases were arranged round the corpse.[51]
Rock-graves are seldom found in Greece, the normal form of
tomb being a hole or trench dug in the earth, either filled in
.bn 073.png
.pn +1
with earth or covered with tiles (as at Tanagra). The rock-grave
is almost exclusively Asiatic, but some fine specimens
were found at Kertch in the Crimea.[52] Some large ones have
also been found in Rhodes,[53] but the most typical form of tomb
there is a square chamber cut out of the hard clayey earth,
approached by a square vertical shaft and a door. They
generally contained single bodies, round which were ranged
vases and terracotta figures. Sir A. Biliotti, in his diary of
the excavations at Kameiros (1864), also records the finding
of tombs cut in the clay in the form of longitudinal trenches,
covered with flat stones forming a vaulted roof. Others were
merely troughs cut in the surface of the rock and covered
with stones and earth. In the shafts of the first type of
tomb large jars or πίθοι were often found containing the
bones of children (see page 152). Nearly all these tombs
have yielded Greek vases of all dates. In the island of
Karpathos[54] Mr. J. T. Bent found tombs containing early
pottery, consisting of two or three chambers with stone
benches round the sides.
.il id=fig001 fn=fig001_073.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 1. INTERIOR OF COFFIN FOUND AT ATHENS, SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF VASES.
The tombs of Cyprus are especially interesting for two
.bn 074.png
.pn +1
reasons: firstly, that they exhibit types not found elsewhere;
and, secondly, that they vary in size and character at different
periods of the island’s history. In the earliest tombs of the
Bronze Age period (down to about 800 B.C.) we find a very
simple type, consisting of a mere oven-like hole a few feet
below the surface of the ground, with a short sloping δρόμος
leading to it (Fig. #2:fig002#). These tombs have very rarely been found
intact, and in most cases are full of fallen earth, so that exact
details of their original arrangement can seldom be obtained.
Each tomb generally contained a few exported Mycenaean vases
and a large number of local fabric, usually hand-made and rude
in character. The rich cemetery of Enkomi is, however, an
exception, for here we find large built tombs, with roofs and
walls of stone. Sometimes the Bronze Age tombs were in the
form of a deep well.[55]
.il id=fig002 fn=fig002_074.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Ath. Mitth.
FIG. 2. DIAGRAM OF BRONZE AGE TOMBS, AGIA PARASKEVI, CYPRUS.
.ca-
In the Graeco-Phoenician period (about 700–300 B.C.) the
“oven” type of tomb is preserved, but on a larger scale and
at a greater depth, and often reached by a long flight of stone
steps. These tombs usually contain large quantities of the
local geometrical pottery, as many as eighty or a hundred vases
.bn 075.png
.pn +1
being sometimes found in one tomb. At Curium and elsewhere,
where the tombs contain Greek painted vases, they are sometimes
in the form of narrow ramifying passages.
The tombs of the Hellenistic period are of a very elaborate
character, especially those of Roman date, with long narrow
δρόμος leading to a chamber some ten by twenty feet or more,
round the walls of which are sarcophagi and niches; but
these tombs seldom contain any but plain and inferior pottery,
the manufacture of painted vases in the island having come
to an end, as in the rest of Greece.
Frequently a tomb was found to contain pottery of widely
different periods, especially in cemeteries such as Amathus
and Curium, where the finds are of all dates, showing that the
tombs were used again and again for burials.[56]
The tombs in the Cyrenaica, which were explored by
Mr. Dennis and contained many Greek vases, he describes
as follows[57]: “The great majority of the tombs were sunk
in the rock, in the form of pits, from 6 to 7 feet long,
from 3½ to 4½ feet wide, and from 5 to 6 feet deep....
Vases were sometimes placed in all four corners of the
sepulchre, but this was rare; they were generally confined
to two corners, often to one. The most usual place was the
corner to the right of the head, and this was the place of
honour; for here a Panathenaic vase in the tomb of a victor,
a ribbed amphora of glazed black ware, or more commonly
an ordinary wine-diota, would be deposited upright, with a
number of smaller vases within it, or at its foot, either
figured or of black or plain ware, according to the circumstances
of the deceased. Occasionally small vases, or sometimes
terracotta figures, were placed along the sides of the
tomb, between the head and feet of the corpse; but I do
not remember ever to have found vases deposited on the
breast, or under the arms of the deceased, as was often the
case in the Greek tombs of Sicily.”
.bn 076.png
.pn +1
Mr. Arthur Evans has given an interesting account of the
tombs at Gela (Terranuova) in Sicily, from which he has
excavated many fine vases for the Ashmolean Museum.[58]
Chronologically the limits of their date can be ascertained,
between the foundation of Gela in 589 B.C. and its depopulation
by the Carthaginians in 409 B.C., but a few tombs belong to
the subsequent period down to 284 B.C., when it was finally
destroyed by the Mamertines. In the early graves containing
B.F. vases skeletons were found; these tombs were in the
form of terracotta cists with gabled covers and tiled floors.
The next stage, containing R.F. vases, has vaulted roofs made
of two pieces of stone.
During this period cremation-pits
containing ashes
and bones are sometimes
found; the burnt bones
were placed in kraters
and covered with shallow
vessels. In these were
found white lekythi, in some respects rivalling those of
Athens; but the subjects are domestic rather than sepulchral,
and they are probably, like many of the B.F. and R.F.
vases, local fabrics. Some of the tombs with B.F. vases are
in the form of chambers with vaulted cement roofs. In the
earlier tombs the disposition was usually as follows: a kylix
on the left side of the head, an alabastron under the right
arm, and a lekythos under the left (Fig. #3:fig003#.). The tombs of
Selinus, which are all of early date, have been described by
a local explorer.[59]
.il id=fig003 fn=fig003_076.jpg align=r w=300px ew=50%
.ca
From Ashmolean Vases.FIG. 3. DISPOSITION OF VASES IN TOMB AT
GELA, SICILY.
.ca-
We next review the types of tombs in Italy from which vases
have been obtained. Those at Vulci, and in the Etruscan
territory generally, from which the finest and largest vases have
been extracted, are chambers hewn in the rocks. The early
tombs of Civita Vecchia and Cervetri are tunnelled in the earth;
in Southern Italy, especially in Campania, they are large
chambers, about two feet under the surface. In D'Hancarville’s
.bn 077.png
.pn +1
work (see p. #17#) an illustration is given[60] of a tomb in Southern
Italy, which is constructed of large blocks of stone, arranged
in squared masses, called the Etruscan style of masonry, in
contradistinction to the Cyclopean. The walls are painted
with subjects, the body is laid upon the stone floor, and the
larger vases, such as the kraters, are placed round it. The
jugs are hung upon nails round the walls. Fig. #4:fig004#. gives an
example of a tomb of this kind from Veii. A full account,
with illustrations, of the tombs excavated in the Certosa at
Bologna about thirty years ago, has been given by Signor
Zannoni.[61] The tombs of Southern and Central Italy were
made upon the same plan, and the same description applies
to both sites.[62]
The most ordinary tombs were constructed of rude stones
or tiles, of a dimension sufficient to contain the body and five
or six vases; a small one near the head and others between the
legs, and on each side, more often on the right than on the
left side. An oinochoe and phiale were usually found in every
tomb; but the number, size, and quality of the vases varied,
probably according to the rank or wealth of the person for whom
the tomb was made. The better sort of tombs were of larger
size, and constructed with large hewn stones, generally without,
but sometimes completed with, cement; the walls were stuccoed,
and sometimes ornamented with painted patterns.
In these tombs, which were like small chambers, the body
lay face upwards on the floor, with the vases placed round it;
sometimes vases have been found hanging upon nails of iron
or bronze, attached to the side walls. The vases in the larger
tombs were always more numerous, of a larger size, and of a
superior quality in every respect to those of the ordinary tombs,
which had little to recommend them except their form.
Many of the larger and more important Etruscan tombs have
also been described and illustrated by Dennis in his work on
Etruria, especially those of Vulci and Corneto, which are famous
.bn 078.png
.pn +1
both for their contents and for the paintings which adorn their
walls.[63] In the basement of the British Museum may be seen
large models of Etruscan tombs in which the arrangement is
carefully reproduced.
The vases, as we have already mentioned, are often ranged
round the dead, being hung upon or placed near the walls, or
piled up in the corners. Some hold the ashes of the deceased;
others, small objects used during life. They are seldom perfect,
having generally either been crushed into fragments by the
weight of the superincumbent earth, or else broken into sherds,
and thrown into corners. Some exhibit marks of burning,
probably from having accompanied the deceased to the funeral
pyre. Sometimes they are dug up in a complete state of preservation,
and still full of the ashes of the dead.[64] These are
sometimes found inside a large and coarser vase of unglazed
clay, which forms a case to protect them from the earth.
.il id=fig004 fn=fig004_078.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 4. THE CAMPANA TOMB AT VEII, AS IT APPEARED WHEN OPENED.
.tb
Almost all the vases in the museums of Europe have been
mended, and the most skilful workmen at Naples and Rome
were employed to restore them to their pristine perfection.
Their defective parts were scraped, filed, rejoined, and supplied
.bn 079.png
.pn +1
with pieces from other vases, or else completed in plaster of
Paris, over which coating the restored portions were painted
in appropriate colours, and varnished, so as to deceive the
inexperienced eye. But either through carelessness, or else
owing to the difference of process, the restorations had one
glaring technical defect: the inner lines are not of the glossy
hue of the genuine vases, and there is no indication of the
thick raised line which follows the original outline in the old
paintings. Sometimes the restorer pared away the ancient
incrustation, and cut down to the dull-coloured paste of the
body of the vase. Sometimes he even went so far as to paint
figures in a light red or orange oil paint on the black ground,
or in black paint of the same kind on orange ground. But
in all these frauds the dull tone of colour, the inferior style
of art, and the wide difference between modern and ancient
drawing and treatment of subjects, disclose the deception. The
calcareous incrustation deposited on the vases by the infiltration
into the tombs of water, containing lime in solution, can be
removed by soaking the vases in a solution of hydrochloric acid.[65]
In other cases vases with subjects have been counterfeited
by taking an ancient vase covered entirely with black glaze,
tracing upon it the subject and inscription intended to be
fabricated, and cutting away all the black portions surrounding
these tracings, so as to expose the natural colour of the clay for
the fictitious ground. When red figures were intended to be
counterfeited, the contrary course was adopted, the part for the
figures only being scraped away, and the rest left untouched.
Vases, indeed, in which the ground or figures are below the
surface should always be regarded with suspicion, and their
genuineness can only be determined by the general composition
and style of the figures, and by the peculiarities of the inscriptions.
The latter also are often fictitious, being painted in with
colours imitating the true ones, and often incised; indeed, nearly
all inscriptions incised after the vase has been baked are liable
to give rise to suspicion. The difference of style in the composition
of groups, and especially small points in the drawing,
such as the over-careful drawing of details, the indication of
.bn 080.png
.pn +1
nails, and various other minute particulars, are also criteria for
detecting false or imitated vases. Water, alcohol, and acids will
remove false inscriptions, but leave the true ones intact.
Greek vases are not so easy to imitate as terracotta figures,
the main difficulty being the black varnish, which can never be
successfully reproduced. Acids or alcohol will always remove
modern counterfeits, but cannot touch the original substance.
Since the discovery in Greece of white-ground vases forgers
have had a better chance, and they have often ingeniously
availed themselves of genuine ancient vases on which to place
modern paintings. But the antique drawing is exceedingly
difficult to imitate. In former times Pietro Fondi established
manufactories at Venice and Corfu, and the Vasari family at
Venice, for fictitious vases,[66] and many such imitations have
been made at Naples for the purpose of modern decoration.
The first to make such an attempt in England was the famous
potter Wedgwood, whose copy of the Portland Vase is well
known. His paste is, however, too heavy, and his drawings far
inferior to the antique in freedom and spirit. At Naples, chiefly
through the researches and under the direction of Gargiulo,
vases were produced, which in their paste and glaze resembled
the antique, although the drawings were vastly inferior, and the
imitation could be at once detected by a practised eye. They
were, indeed, far inferior in all essential respects to the ancient
vases. Even soon after the acquisition of the Hamilton collection
by the public, the taste created for these novelties caused
various imitations to be produced. Some of the simplest kind
were made of wood, covered with painted paper, the subjects
being traced from the vases themselves, and this was the most
obvious mode of making them. Battam also made very excellent
facsimiles of these vases, but they were produced in a
manner very different from that of the ancient potters, the black
colour for the grounds or figures not being laid on with a glaze,
but merely with a cold pigment which had not been fired, and
their lustre was produced by a polish. In technical details they
did not equal the imitations made at Naples, some of the best
of which deceived both archaeologists and collectors.
.bn 081.png
.pn +1
Sometimes illustrations of vases which never had any real
existence have appeared in publications. One of the most
remarkable of these fabricated engravings was issued by
Bröndsted and Stackelberg in a fit of archaeological jealousy.
A modern archaeologist is seen running after a draped woman
called
.pm ii inscr_42_pheme.jpg PHÊMÊ '' ','
or “Fame,” who flies from him exclaiming, // Tr: PHÊMÊ
.pm ii inscr_42_ekas_pai_kale.jpg 'ΕΚΑΣ ΠΑΙ ΚΑΛΕ' '' ','
“A long way off, my fine fellow!” This // Tr: EKAS PAI KALE
vase, which never existed except upon paper, deceived the
credulous Inghirami, who too late endeavoured to cancel it
from his work. Other vases, evidently false, have also been
published.[67]
M. Tyszkiewicz, the great collector, in his entertaining
Souvenirs,[68] gives some interesting illustrations of the methods
of Italian forgers of vases, of which he had frequent experience.
“The Neapolitans,” he says, “excel above all others in this
industry; and it is in ancient Capua, now Sta. Maria di Capua
Vetere, that the best ateliers for the manufacture of painted
vases are situated.” But “even the famous connoisseur
Raimondi, who was considered the master of his art at Sta.
Maria—even he could never invent altogether the decoration of
a vase so as to make it pass for an antique. Only if this
talented artist could get just a few fragments of a fine vase,
he was clever enough to be able, by the aid of illustrations of
vases in museums or in private collections, to reconstruct the
whole subject. He replaced the missing parts, and threw
such an air of uniformity over the vase that it was almost
impossible to tell what was modern. But if you tried to wash
a vase faked up in this manner, in pure alcohol chemically
rectified, you would find that the modern portions would vanish,
while the ancient paintings would remain. Neither Raimondi
nor any one else could ever manage to discover the secret
of the ancient potters—how to obtain the background of a
brilliant black colour, improperly known as the varnish of Nola.
To disguise their failure in this respect, the forgers are obliged,
.bn 082.png
.pn +1
when the vase is entirely reconstructed and repainted, to cover
it all over with a varnish of their own invention; but the
surface of this varnish, although brilliant, lacks the freshness
and brightness of that used by the ancients. Relatively this
surface appears dull, and vanishes the moment it is washed with
alcohol.”
At Athens also, says M. Tyszkiewicz, laboratories have been
established for making vases, of which he was acquainted
with three. These forgers excel in turning out the white-ground
vases, which, even when antique, cannot resist the action
of alcohol. For the same reason they apply gilding to their
black-and-red vases, because this also yields to its action. The
large prices fetched by the white vases (see below) have stimulated
their activity in this direction, and their efforts have not
been without artistic merit, though failing in technique.[69]
On the subject of forgeries in relation to Greek vases the
literature is very scanty; but reference may be made to Prof.
Furtwaengler’s Neuere Fälschungen von Antiken, which raises
some very interesting questions in regard to forgeries, though
his conclusions may sometimes be thought rather arbitrary.
Of the prices paid for painted vases in ancient times, no
positive mention occurs in classical authorities, yet it is most
probable that vases of the best class, the products of eminent
painters, obtained considerable prices. For works of inferior
merit only small sums were paid, as will be seen by referring
to the account of the inscriptions which were incised
underneath their feet, and gave their contemporary value
(Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.). In modern times we have no information
about the prices paid for these works of art till about seventy
years ago, when they began to realise considerable sums. In
this country the collections of Mr. Towneley, Sir W. Hamilton,
Lord Elgin, and Mr. Payne Knight all contained painted
vases; but as they included other objects, it is difficult to
determine the value placed on the vases. The sum of £8,400
was paid for the vases of the Hamilton collection, one of the
.bn 083.png
.pn +1
most remarkable of the time, and consisting of many beautiful
specimens from Southern Italy. The great discoveries of the
Prince of Canino in 1827, and the subsequent sale of numerous
vases, gave them, however, a definite market value, to which the
sale of the collection of Baron Durand, which consisted almost
entirely of vases, affords some clue. His collection sold in
1836 for 313,160 francs, or about £12,524. The most valuable
specimen in the collection was the vase representing the death of
Kroisos (Fig. #132:vol2_fig132#), which was purchased for the Louvre at the price
of 6,600 francs, or £264. The cup with the subject of Arkesilaos
(p. #342#) brought 1,050 francs, or £42. Another magnificent
vase, now in the Louvre, with the subject of the youthful
Herakles strangling the serpents,[70] was only secured for France
after reaching the price of 6,000 francs, or £240; another, with
the subject of Herakles, Deianeira, and Hyllos,[71] was purchased
for the sum of 3,550 francs, or £142. A krater, with the subject
of Akamas and Demophon bringing back Aithra, was obtained
by Magnoncourt for 4,250 francs, or £170.[72] An amphora of the
maker Exekias (B 210) was bought by the British Museum for
£142. The inferior vases of course realised much smaller sums,
varying from a few francs to a few pounds; but high prices
continued to be obtained, and the sale by the Prince of Canino
in 1837 of some of his finest vases contributed to enrich the
museums of Europe, although, as many of the vases were
bought in, it does not afford a good criterion as to price.
An oinochoë with Apollo and the Muses, and a hydria, with
the same subject, were bought in for 2,000 francs, or £80 each.
A kylix, with a love scene, and another with Priam redeeming
Hektor’s corpse,[73] brought 6,600 francs, or £264. An amphora
with the subject of Dionysos, and the Euphronios cup with
Herakles and Geryon (Plate #XXXVIII:pl38#.), sold for 8,000 francs, or
£320 each. A vase with the subject of Theseus seizing Korone
(Chap. #XIV:vol2_ch14#.), another by Euthymides with the arming of Paris,
and a third with Peleus and Thetis, sold for 6,000 francs, or
£240. The collector Steuart was offered 7,500 francs, or £300,
for a large krater, found in Southern Italy, ornamented with
.bn 084.png
.pn +1
the subject of Kadmos and the dragon; £120 was paid by the
British Museum for a fine krater ornamented with the exploits
of Achilles[74]; £100 for an amphora of Apulian style, with the
subject of Pelops and Oinomaos at the altar of the Olympian
Zeus.[75] For another vase, with the name of Mousaios, £120
was paid, and £100 for the well-known Athenian prize vase
excavated by Burgon.[76] At Mr. Beckford’s sale the Duke of
Hamilton gave £200 for a lekythos representing a procession
of Persians, which is now in the British Museum (E 695). At
Naples the passion for possessing fine vases outstripped these
prices; 2,400 ducats, or £500, was given for a vase with
gilded figures discovered at Capua. Still more incredible,
early in the nineteenth century, 8,000 ducats, or £1,500, was
paid to Vivenzio for the vase now in the Naples Museum
representing the sack of Troy; 6,000 ducats, or £1,000, for
one with a Dionysiac feast; and 4,000 ducats, or £800, for
the grand vase with the battle of the Amazons, published by
Schulz.[77] Another vase, for which the sum of £1,000 was paid,
was the so-called Capo di Monte Vase, purchased by Mr.
Edwards, at Naples.[78] For the large colossal vases of Southern
Italy from £300 to £500 has been given, according to their
condition and style. But such sums will not be hereafter
realised, now that their place in the estimation of the connoisseur
has been rightly taken by the fine red-figured or white ground
vases, which, owing to the stringency of modern laws, seldom
now find their way into the market. The vases with white
grounds and polychrome figures have also been always much
sought after, and have realised large prices, the best-preserved
examples fetching as much as £70 or £100.[79] Generally the
highest prices have been paid for artistic merit, but these have
been surpassed in the case of some vases of high literary
or historical value. As a general rule vases with inscriptions
have always been most sought after, especially when the
.bn 085.png
.pn +1
inscriptions are the signatures of the names of potters or artists,
or names of historical interest. The inferior kinds have
fetched prices much more moderate, the kylikes averaging
from £5 to £10, the amphorae from £10 to £20, the hydriae
about the same; the kraters from £5 to £20, according to their
general excellence, the oinochoae about £5, and other shapes
from a few shillings to a few pounds. The charming glaze and
shapes of the vases discovered at Nola have often obtained
good prices from amateurs. Those of Greece Proper have also
fetched higher prices than those of Italy, on account of the
interest attached to the place of their discovery.[80]
.tb
We propose now to give a survey of the principal localities
in which the fictile products of the Greeks have been discovered,
and the excavations which have taken place on these
sites. It need hardly be said, however, that it is quite impossible
to detail all the places where specimens of common pottery
have been found.
.il id=fig005 fn=fig005_086.jpg w=500px
.ca FIG. 5. MAP OF GREECE.
.h4
I. GREECE
We naturally begin with Greece, following the geographical
order observed by Jahn,[81] as the mainland and centre of Hellenic
civilisation; and since Athens was not only the principal, for
many years the only, centre of the manufacture of Greek vases,
but has also been the most prolific source of recent discoveries,
it is to Athens that we first turn our attention.
Athens was duly celebrated in ancient times as the chief
home of the ceramic industry.[82] The clay of Cape Kolias is
eulogised by Suidas for its excellent qualities, and the extent
of the Κεραμεικός, or potters’ quarter, is still visible beyond
the Dipylon gate. One of the earliest painted vases found
on Attic soil was the famous Panathenaic amphora discovered
.bn 086.png
.pn +1
by Burgon in 1813 outside the Acharnian gate, and now in
the British Museum.[83] The tomb in which it was found also
contained remains of burnt bones, a lekythos, and other small
vases. The subjects are: on one side Athena brandishing a
spear, with the inscription
.pm ii inscr_47_ton.jpg ΤΟΝ '' ''
.pm ii inscr_47_athenethen.jpg ΑΘΕΝΕΘΕΝ '' ''
.pm ii inscr_47_athlon.jpg ΑΘΛΟΝ '' ''
.pm ii inscr_47_emi.jpg ΕΜΙ '' ',' // Tr: TON ATHENETHEN ATHLON EMI
“I am a prize from the games at Athens”; on the other, a
man driving a biga, or two-horse chariot. The date is usually
considered to be about 560 B.C. It was rightly identified by
.bn 087.png
.pn +1
the early writers as one of the prize-vases described by Pindar
in the passage we have quoted elsewhere (p. #132#), and was the
means of identifying many other vases similarly painted and
inscribed, but found on other sites, as belonging to the same
class. A considerable number of vases found on Greek soil,
mostly at Athens, were published by Stackelberg in 1837,[84] but
little was done for many years in the way of systematic
excavation. The National Museum was opened shortly after
the declaration of Greek independence, and assisted by royal
benefactions. The law forbidding the export of antiquities has
now been in force for many years, but unfortunately has had a
bad as well as a good effect, in that the vendors of surreptitious
finds are wont to give imaginary accounts of the circumstances
of their discoveries, in order to screen themselves.
To give anything like a description of the vases found at Athens
would be useless here, where so many classes are illustrated
by the finds; it may, however, be worth while to note a few
of the most typically Athenian groups of pottery. (1) Earliest
in date are the Dipylon vases, which were found outside the
gate of that name, and have from their conspicuous character
given a name to a whole class. They are, however, fully treated
of in Chapter #VII:ch07#. (2) The numerous fragments of vases found
on the Acropolis, which can all be dated anterior to 480 B.C.,
include many exceedingly beautiful and unique specimens of
the transitional period of vase-painting, some having black,
some red figures.[85] Although in few cases anything more than
fragments have been preserved, yet these fragments are enough
to show that the originals were masterpieces surpassing even
the finest examples from the Italian cemeteries. They will, it
is to be hoped, shortly be made known to the world by means
of an exhaustive catalogue. (3) The white lekythi, discussed
at length elsewhere (Chapter XI.), besides forming a class by
themselves, are specially remarkable as being almost peculiar
to Athens. It is not, however, certain that they were not made
.bn 088.png
.pn +1
also at Eretria, where many fine ones have been found of late
years; but otherwise none have been found outside Attica, with
the exception of a few importations to Cyprus, Locri in Italy,
or Sicily. (4) A group of late R.F. vases of the “fine” style,
mostly of small size and sometimes with polychrome decoration.
The drawing is free and graceful, but tends to carelessness;
the subjects are drawn chiefly from the life of women and
children. Some of the smaller specimens were no doubt actually
children’s playthings.
Elsewhere in Attica vases have not been numerous. Eleusis
has yielded some interesting fragments,[86] including a plaque
of about 400 B.C., with an interesting representation of the
local deities, found in 1895; at Marathon the grave of the
fallen warriors has been recently explored, and was found to
contain both B.F. and R.F. vases, but none of particular merit.[87]
The find was, however, important, as illustrating Greek methods
of burial. The tombs of Phaleron are important, as having
yielded a special class of early vases which are known by the
name of the site.[88] These Phaleron vases combine in an interesting
manner the characteristics of the Geometrical and Rhodian
or Oriental styles, being akin to the so-called Proto-Corinthian.
The beehive tombs at Menidi and Spata and other tombs at
Haliki, near Marathon, have yielded Mycenaean pottery of the
usual types, and an instructive find of early Geometrical pottery
has been made at Aphidna.[89] There are vases in the museums of
Athens and Berlin of various dates, to which the following provenances
are assigned: Alike, Alopeke, Hymettos,[90] Kephissia,
Cape Kolias,[91] Pikrodaphni,[92] Peiraeus,[93] Sunium,[94] Thorikos,[95]
Trakhones,[96] Vari,[97] Velanideza, and Vourva, the two latter near
.bn 089.png
.pn +1
Marathon.[98] Megara[99] has produced little beyond specimens of
a class of late bowls with designs in relief, sometimes known
as “Megarian bowls,” but more probably of Boeotian origin
(see p. 53).
Corinth, as a centre of the manufacture of vases, occupied
in early times a position in Greece only second to Athens.
Down to the first half of the sixth century it actually seems
to have held the pre-eminence; but after the rise of Athens
it sank altogether into obscurity, and ceased to produce any
pottery at all after about 520 B.C. But we know from Strabo[100]
that the fame of Corinthian wares still existed in Roman times,
for in the days of Julius Caesar the tombs of the new Colonia
Julia were ransacked for the vases which were the admiration
of the rich nobles of Rome. The expression used by Strabo,
ὀστράκινα τορεύματα, seems to imply that these were probably
specimens of the later relief-ware which did not become popular
in Greece before the fourth century, but then gradually ousted
the painted fabrics.
Corinth, like Athens, claimed the invention of pottery and of
the wheel; it was also one of the supposed centres of the origin
of painting in Greece. We read, moreover, that when Demaratos
fled thence to Italy he took with him two artists named
Eucheir and Eugrammos, who doubtless helped to develop the
art of vase-making in Etruria. The vases found here are nearly
all of the early archaic and B.F. periods, from the so-called
Proto-Corinthian wares down to ordinary B.F. fabrics. The
Mycenaean and Geometrical styles are practically unrepresented,
but occasional finds have been made of Attic B.F. and R.F.
vases. With these exceptions all were actually made at Corinth,
as is shown in many cases by the inscriptions in the local alphabet
painted upon the vases.
The earliest discovery, and in some respects one of the most
remarkable, was the vase known as the Dodwell pyxis (see
p. 315), which was acquired by that traveller in 1805, and
.bn 090.png
.pn +1
is now at Munich. In 1835 a large number of vases were
found by peasants at Chiliomodi, the ancient Tenea,[101] one of
which represented Herakles and the Centaur Nessos; most of
these are now at Athens. In 1843 Ross[102] records the discovery
of over a thousand at various sites, on the Isthmus and at or
near Tenea, and ever since that time tomb-digging has been
carried on without intermission. The best collections of
Corinthian vases are those at Athens, Berlin, and the British
Museum. But the most noteworthy find at Corinth has been
that of the series of plaques (πίνακες) or votive tablets discovered
at Penteskouphia in 1879, most of which are now at Berlin.
They are all of votive character, and come from the rubbish-heap
of a temple of Poseidon; most of them are painted with
figures of and inscribed with dedications to that deity, and
they belong to the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.[103]
The British Museum possesses a R.F. “pelike” from Solygea,
near Corinth, and isolated finds are also recorded from
Sikyon.[104]
Turning to the adjoining state of Argolis, we find three sites
of special importance in early times—Mycenae, Tiryns, and
Argos. Of these the two former had ceased to have any importance
in historic times, but this is amply compensated for
by the wonderful discoveries of the Mycenaean period.[105] At
Mycenae large quantities of painted pottery were found in the
six shaft-tombs in the Agora, five of which were excavated
by Dr. Schliemann; outside the Acropolis, and possibly belonging
to a later period, was found the remarkable vase with
figures of warriors marching.[106] The finds at Tiryns were chiefly
fragmentary, but at Nauplia, where considerable quantities
were found, there were some fragments with painted designs
of chariots like the vases from Cyprus (p. #246#).[107] Mycenaean
.bn 091.png
.pn +1
pottery has also been found at Asine,[108] and the site of the
Heraion at Argos, recently excavated by the American
School, has yielded an exhaustive series of fragments of pottery,
representative of nearly every known fabric from Mycenaean
times down to the best Greek period. They have not as yet
been published, but may be expected to yield important results.
Other occasional finds are reported from Argos, including a
curious archaic vase with a representation of Herakles and
Kerberos.[109] At Kleonae, on the northern frontier of the state,
was found a Corinthian vase signed by Timonidas, and there
are vases from Hermione in the museum at Athens.[110]
In the rest of the Peloponnese finds of painted vases have
been exceedingly rare. The Berlin Museum possesses a B.F.
vase found at Megalopolis,[111] and isolated finds are also recorded
from Magoula in Laconia and Amyklae near Sparta.[112] At
Olympia painted vases were very rare, but several different
fabrics from the Proto-Corinthian downwards are represented
by fragments.[113]
In Central and Northern Greece the only fruitful region has
been Boeotia, particularly its capital, Thebes. This city, like
Corinth, has principally yielded early vases. As has been shown
elsewhere (pp. 286, 300), Boeotia was the home of more than one
indigenous fabric, notably the local variety of Geometrical ware,
partly parallel with that of Athens and other sites, partly a
degenerate variety with local peculiarities, forming a transition
to the Phaleron and Proto-Corinthian fabrics. The last-named
have frequently been found at Thebes, notably the Macmillan
lekythos in the British Museum. Signed vases of local fabric,
with the names of Gamedes, Menaidas, and Theozotos, are in
the British Museum and in the Louvre. On the site of the
Temple of the Kabeiri, near Thebes, a remarkable series of
late B.F. pottery came to light, evidently a local fabric, with
dedicatory inscriptions and subjects of a grotesque or caricatured
.bn 092.png
.pn +1
nature.[114] They are quite peculiar to the site, and seem to
have had a close connection with its religious rites. Besides
many examples of the Geometrical and Corinthian fabrics,
there have been found at Thebes several specimens of the
so-called Megarian bowls with reliefs, of the second century
B.C.; the proportion to other sites is such that Thebes has
been thought to be the centre of the fabric. Another local
fabric is that produced by Tanagra about the end of the fifth
century B.C., consisting of small cups, toilet-boxes, etc., with
somewhat naïve outlined designs.[115] The vase-finds here have
served as evidence for the dating of the terracotta statuettes,
with which no painted fabrics were found, but only ribbed or
moulded black-glaze wares, characteristic of the fourth and third
centuries B.C.[116] Where painted vases have been found, the accompanying
statuettes were all of an archaic or even primitive type.[117]
In excavations at Orchomenos in 1893[118] the French School
unearthed large numbers of fragments, Mycenaean, Boeotian
Geometrical, Proto-Corinthian, Corinthian, and Attic black-figured;
Mycenaean vases have been found at Lebadea, and
Thespiae, Thisbe, and Akraiphiae are also mentioned as sites
where painted vases have been found.[119] Very few sites in
Northern Greece have yielded finds of pottery, but the Athens
Museum contains R.F. vases from Lokris, Phokis, and Lamia[120] on
the Malian Gulf, and finds are also recorded from Anthedon,[121]
Atalante,[122] Exarchos, and Galaxidi in Lokris, from Elateia,[123]
Abae,[124] and Daulis in Phokis, and from Thessaly. Fragments
of painted pottery were seen by early travellers at Delphi.[125]
At Daulis the pottery was of Mycenaean character,[126] as also
.bn 093.png
.pn +1
that from the beehive-tombs of Volo in Thessaly and its neighbourhood.
A recent excavation at Dimini is reported to have
yielded very early painted vases of a quite new, probably local
ware, with affinities to the Cycladic types of Thera and elsewhere.[127]
Turning now to the Greek islands, we find somewhat more
extensive and interesting results. Little indeed has been found
in the Ionian Islands of the western coast,[128] even in Corfu, which
as a rule has been fruitful in works of art. The only vases
worth mentioning from that island are those found in the
cemetery of Kastrades, in the tomb of Menekrates.[129] The
contents of this tomb, which are all of an early and somewhat
mixed character, are now in the British Museum; they
can be dated from the inscription on the tomb about 600 B.C.
Travelling round by the south of the Peloponnese, we come to
Kythera, which has yielded a cup (now in the British Museum)
remarkable for its inscription, ἡμικοτύλιον; it is illustrated below,
p. #135:fig014#. Salamis[130] again has produced little, but some interesting
pottery of a transitional character from Mycenaean to Geometrical
has been found.[131]
Aegina appears to have been a pottery centre in early times,
and recent discoveries are adding to our knowledge of its fabrics.
Among the older finds from this island are a fine early oinochoe
in the British Museum (from the Castellani collection), formerly
supposed to be from Thera,[132] and several very fine red-figured
and white-ground vases, notably the elegant R.F. astragalos or
knucklebone-shaped vase in the British Museum, with its figures
of dancers; a white Athenian lekythos, with the subject of
Charon,[133] and two beautiful vases now in the Munich Museum
(208, 209), with polychrome designs on a white ground.[134] In
.bn 094.png
.pn +1
1892–93 the British Museum acquired a series of Mycenaean,
Corinthian, and Attic vases from a find on this island,[135] and
other examples of Corinthian and Attic vases are recorded.[136]
In 1894 excavations were made on the site of the so-called
temple of Aphrodite, and yielded a number of early vases
chiefly Mycenaean, Geometrical of the Athenian type, and
a large series of Proto-Corinthian wares, some of unusual
size.[137] Some of this pottery may possibly be of local fabric.
More recently the excavations on the site of the great Doric
temple (now shown to be dedicated to the goddess Aphaia) have
yielded an extensive series of fragments of different dates.[138]
Aegina was always celebrated in antiquity for its artistic achievements,
and that it was a centre for pottery is indicated by an
anonymous comic writer, who addresses the island as “rocky
echo, vendor of pots” (χυτρόπωλις).[139] // Tr: chytropôlis
Euboea possessed two important art-centres in Chalkis and
Eretria. It is true that no vases have actually been found at
Chalkis, but the existence of early B.F. vases with inscriptions
in the local dialect amply testifies to the existence of potteries
there (see p. #321#). Eretria, on the other hand, has been
carefully excavated in recent years, and has yielded many antiquities
both of the early and of the finest period. Among the
former are vases of a type akin to the earlier Attic fabrics, but
distinguished by the use of a “pot-hook” decorative ornament,
and others more akin to the Attic B.F. vases, but clearly of local
make[140]; among the latter are so many fine white-ground lekythi
(as well as other forms) that it has been supposed that they must
have been specially manufactured here as well as at Athens.
The British Museum has lately acquired several white-ground
and late R.F. vases of considerable beauty from this site. Many
years ago an inscribed Corinthian vase was found at Karystos.[141]
.bn 095.png
.pn +1
The Cyclades.—In these islands we find traces of absolutely
the earliest fabrics known in the history of Greek pottery, but
later finds of painted vases are comparatively rare. Mycenaean
pottery has been found in the islands of Amorgos,[142] Delos and
Rheneia, Kythnos, Seriphos, Sikinos, Syros, Thera, and Melos.[143]
Other finds recorded are from Paros and Antiparos (early
fabrics), Keos, Kimolos,[144] Kythnos,[145] Siphnos, and Syros[146]; a
remarkable Ionic vase in the Louvre, found in Etruria, has
also been attributed to an island fabric, that of Keos,[147] and
another at Würzburg to that of Naxos.[148] The chief finds of
“Cycladic” or pre-Mycenaean pottery are those from the
volcanic deposits of the island of Thera (see p. #260#), which,
from the circumstances of their discovery and the geological
history of the island, are supposed to date back beyond
2000 B.C. They are painted with vegetable patterns in brown
on a white ground, and have chiefly been excavated by the
French School during the years 1867–74; a few are in
Athens, but the majority are in the Louvre or the Sèvres
Museum. In the superincumbent layers Mycenaean and
Geometrical pottery came to light,[149] and a fragment of a large
Melian amphora with the so-called Asiatic Artemis, now in
the Berlin Museum (No. 301), is stated by Ross to have
come from this island. The same traveller saw here large
πίθοι with painted subjects of early character and similar
smaller vases, also some with black figures, in a private
collection.[150] More recently (in 1900) excavations made in
the Acropolis cemetery by German archaeologists yielded a
large quantity of pottery, chiefly Geometrical in character,
extending from the eighth to the middle of the sixth
century B.C.[151]
.bn 096.png
.pn +1
The vases found in Melos amount to a considerable number,
of different ages and styles.[152] Recent excavations by the British
School on the site of Phylakopi brought to light large quantities,
not only of Mycenaean, but of pre-Mycenaean remains,
including pottery.[153] Mr. Thomas Burgon’s collection included
many B.F. and later vases from Melos, now in the British
Museum; they are mostly small and unimportant. Ross
also saw painted vases in Melos.[154] The island is, however,
chiefly celebrated for a class of early vases, few in number,
but of exceptional merit, which have mostly been found in
the island, and so are known as “Melian” amphorae (see
below, p. #301#). Recently, however, large numbers of fragments
of similar pottery have been found at Rheneia, opposite Delos,
and it is possible that Delos was the centre of the fabric, not
Melos, as hitherto supposed.[155] They date from the seventh
century B.C. Among the finds of later date from Melos, by
far the most noteworthy is the Louvre Gigantomachia krater
(see Chapter #XII:vol2_ch12#.).[156]
Turning now to the eastern group of Aegean Islands, known
as the Sporades, we begin with Lesbos, where many fragments
of B.F. and R.F. vases were found by Mr. Newton during his
Vice-Consulate. From epigraphical evidence it seems probable
that many of the early B.F. fragments found at Naukratis
(see below) should be attributed to a Lesbian fabric, but this
has not so far been established. Vases have also been found
in Tenedos and Chios.[157]
Next we come to Samos, an island always renowned in
antiquity for its fictile ware. The Homeric hymn to the potters
is addressed to Samians. It was, however, in Roman times
that its renown was especially great, and its connection with
a certain class of red glazed wares has caused the name of
“Samian Ware” to be applied indiscriminately but falsely
.bn 097.png
.pn +1
to all Roman pottery of that kind.[158] Finds of pottery have,
however, been few and far between. The British Museum
possesses a lekythos of the B.F. period in the form of a sandalled
foot (Plate #XLVI:pl46#.), which Mr. Finlay obtained here. More
recently Dr. Böhlau excavated some early cemeteries, and found
a considerable quantity of pottery of the “Ionic” type, which
enabled him to establish a Samian origin for certain wares
of the sixth century.[159] Kalymnos was explored by Mr. Newton
in 1856, but has yielded little beyond plain glazed ware,[160]
and the same may be said of Kos, although the latter was
famed in antiquity for its amphorae and culinary vessels.
The small islands of Telos,[161] Nisyros, Chiliodromia,[162] and
Karpathos have been explored at different times by Ross,
Theodore Bent, and others, and have yielded vases of a late
R.F. period, corresponding to the later Athenian fabrics, several
of which are in the British Museum. Messrs. Bent and Paton
have also found pottery of the Mycenaean period in Kalymnos
and Karpathos[163]; and similar remains are reported from Kos.[164]
But all other discoveries in the islands are far exceeded both
in extent and importance by those of Rhodes.[165] They are principally
due to the labours of Messrs. Salzmann and Biliotti, who
diligently explored the island during the ’sixties, and the results
as far as pottery is concerned, extend from Mycenaean times
down to the destruction of Kameiros in 404 B.C. The earliest
finds were on the site of Ialysos, and these are exclusively of
“Mycenaean” type. The tombs containing Mycenaean vases
were cut in the rock in quadrangular form, with vaulted δρόμος
and steps. This site was explored by the above-named
gentlemen about the years 1867–70, and the results of the
excavation, by the liberality of Prof. Ruskin, found their way
into the British Museum. Their archaeological value was
.bn 098.png
.pn +1
not recognised for some years; but when the discoveries of
Mycenae became known, it was at once seen that the Ialysos
pottery must fall into line with them.
Kameiros is first heard of as a Dorian colony of the eleventh
century, and its history extends down to 408 B.C. It was
fully and systematically excavated between 1859 and 1864.
Far more abundant and comprehensive than the Ialysos results,
the Kameiros finds illustrate the history of Greek pottery
from the Geometrical period[166] down to the time of its decline,
and include many fine specimens of the B.F. and R.F. periods,
as well as numerous examples of the Rhodian, Corinthian,
and other early classes, from the eighth to the sixth century B.C.
The most interesting discovery was perhaps that of the pinax,
with the fight over the body of Euphorbos, which is described
elsewhere (p. #335#). Among the finer specimens of the later
period is the polychrome pelike with Peleus wooing Thetis.
The majority of these finds are now in the British Museum,
together with porcelain, bronze, and other objects illustrating
the early pottery; part also went to the Louvre and to Berlin.
The latest vases are of the free and careless type of late R.F.
Athenian fabrics, and since they are known to be not later
than the fifth century they supply valuable evidence for the
dating of R.F. vases.
Crete in all probability will, before many years are over,
supply a great mass of material for the history of early Greek
pottery. Until recent years it has received little attention
from travellers or explorers, and few vases of any period have
come therefrom into our Museums.[167] But Crete has always been
looked to by archaeologists for the solution of the Mycenaean
problem, and the systematic excavations now at length set on
foot are even richer in their yield of Mycenaean and primitive
pottery than those of Rhodes, Melos, and Cyprus. Mr. J. L.
Myres found at Kamarais in 1894 a series of fragments of
painted pottery with designs in opaque colours on a black
.bn 099.png
.pn +1
ground, which he regarded as pre-Mycenaean.[168] This theory
was subsequently borne out by the discoveries of Messrs. Arthur
Evans and D. G. Hogarth at Knossos and elsewhere, which
have been very rich in pottery of a similar kind, and also
in vases with remarkably naturalistic patterns in relief.[169] Other
finds have been made in the Dictaean Cave,[170] at Zakro[171] and
Palaeokastro,[172] at Phaestos,[173] Praesos, Erganos and Kourtes, and
Kavousi.[174]
Before we turn our attention to the continent of Asia we
must hark back to the European mainland, working round
by the northern coasts of the Aegaean and Euxine Seas.
Macedonia and Thrace have yielded scarcely anything,[175] but
when we come to the northern shore of the Black Sea we
find at Kertch, in the Crimea (the ancient Panticapaeum),
a remarkable centre of Greek artistic production. The finds
here are practically limited to one period, covering little more
than a hundred years, and mainly illustrate the art of the fourth
century B.C. There are, however, many magnificent vases,
which in style, if not in shape or composition of subjects, must
belong to an earlier time—namely, that of the fine red-figured
period.[176] The excavations have mostly been undertaken by
the Russian Government, in whose museum at the Hermitage
the collections are now to be seen, but much was done unsystematically
by Englishmen and others at the time of the
Crimean War. It cannot be said that more than about one-quarter
of the total find of 400 vases have any merit; they
are chiefly small, with red figures, and of the later fine period;
some are polychrome and ornamented with gilding.[177] The
.bn 100.png
.pn +1
most remarkable by far is the vase signed by the Athenian
Xenophantos (p. #447#); but that with the contest of Athena and
Poseidon (Plate #L:vol2_pl50#.) is also an exceptionally fine specimen;
and others have interesting subjects relating to the Eleusinian
mysteries. At Phanagoria an early B.F. vase of Ionic style
came to light.[178] Vases have also been found at Olbia on the
neighbouring mainland, at Kief, at Temir Gora in Circassia,
and on the modern sites of Blisnitza, Iouz Oba, Melek Chesme
and Pavlovski-Kourgane in the Crimea.[179]
.h4
II. ASIA MINOR
The Troad first claims our attention. Here on the site of
the second city of Troy, at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann found
the earliest pottery at present known from Greek soil (see
Chapter #VI:ch06#.). This has been generally dated about 2500–2000
B.C. In subsequent excavations Dr. Dörpfeld proved
the sixth city to be the Homeric Troy, the remains from which,
including pottery, are all of Mycenaean character. Later
finds of pottery from the Troad are of no great importance[180];
some are of Aeolic or Ionian origin, and others seem to be
from an inferior local fabric, consisting of flat bowls with looped
side-handles, carelessly painted in matt-black silhouette with
figures of ducks and other animals. Some of these were
found in 1855–56 by Mr. Brunton on the sites of New Ilium
and Dardanus; others by Mr. Calvert in 1875–76, and by
Dörpfeld and Brueckner in 1893. The finds of the two first-named
are in the British Museum, together with some poor R.F.
vases of late style. From Sigeion two polychrome lekythi have
been reported, resembling the Attic white-ground fabric[181];
Jahn also records finds of painted vases from Lampsakos and
.bn 101.png
.pn +1
Parion,[182] and a fine gilded vase with figures in relief has recently
been found on the former site.[183]
In Aeolis and Mysia the finds have not been considerable,
but some are of importance as throwing light on the existence
of local fabrics. In a private collection at Smyrna there is
or was a late B.F. vase from Assos, with careless silhouette
figures.[184] At Pitane a very curious Mycenaean false amphora
has been found, with figures of marine and other animals[185];
and at Larisa Dr. Böhlau has found fragments of early painted
vases, probably a local fabric imitating that of Rhodes.[186]
MM. Pottier and Reinach, in the course of their excavations
at Myrina (1884–85), found pottery of various dates and styles:
Mycenaean, Ionian, Corinthian, Attic B.F. and R.F., late R.F.,
and vases of the so-called Gnatia style (see p. #488#) or with
reliefs.[187] Among those which can be traced to an Ionic or local
fabric there is a very remarkable one with a head of a bearded
man. Pergamon does not seem to have yielded any vases, but
Kyme may have been a centre of Ionic vase-manufacture (see
Chapter #VIII:ch08#.). Some fragments of an early B.F. krater have
been found there which presents similar characteristics to those
of the Ionian fabrics mentioned below.[188]
Coming lower down the coast of Ionia we meet with the
home of an important school of painting in the sixth century,
which seems to have centred in the flourishing cities of Phocaea,
Clazomenae and elsewhere round the Gulf of Smyrna. The
actual finds of such vases in the neighbourhood is not great,
but is compensated for by the remarkable series of painted
terracotta sarcophagi discovered at Clazomenae, the finest
of which is now in the British Museum. These, which obviously
represent the characteristics of the Ionian school of painting, show
such a close relation with a series of vases found at Naukratis
and Daphnae in Egypt, and at Cervetri and elsewhere in Italy,
.bn 102.png
.pn +1
.il id=fig006 fn=fig006_102.jpg w=450px
.ca
MAP of ASIA MINOR & the ARCHIPELAGOShowing sites on which painted vases have been found.
FIG. 6.
.ca-
.bn 103.png
.pn +1
that the latter classes can only be regarded as of Ionian origin,
or, if not imported, local Italian imitations of the Ionic wares.
Such are the Caeretan hydriae which were directly imitated by
the Etruscans.[189]
A vase obtained at Phocaea by Mr. W. M. Ramsay in 1880
(p. #254#) appears to be an imported Cypriote fabric of late date,
though archaic in appearance. At Smyrna little has been found,
but there are some vases attributed thereto in the Leyden Museum.
At Clazomenae some fragments of painted vases in the style
of the Caeretan hydriae have recently been found, which help
to establish the theories above mentioned.[190] Teos is associated
with a particular kind of cup (Τήιαι κυλίχναι) mentioned by // Têiia kylichnai
the poet Alcaeus,[191] but nothing has been found there, nor yet
at Kolophon, Ephesos, or Miletos. In the interior regions
of Asia primitive painted pottery is recorded from Mount
Sipylos,[192] and also from Sardis on the sites of the tombs of the
Lydian kings. From the tumulus known as Bin Tepe on the
latter site the British Museum has obtained (through the agency
of Mr. Dennis) some early pottery, which is decorated apparently
in direct imitation of Phoenician glass wares. Fragments
of Mycenaean and other primitive fabrics are reported from
Cappadocia and from Gordion in Galatia,[193] and have been recently
picked up by Prof. W. M. Ramsay at Derbe in Lycaonia.
In Caria early local fabrics seem to be indicated by finds
at Mylasa and Stratonikeia (Idrias).[194] At Assarlik Mr. W. R.
Paton found pottery of a transitional character from Mycenaean
to Geometrical. Tralles and Knidos were famous in antiquity
for pottery,[195] but have left virtually nothing, nor has Halicarnassos.
A Mycenaean false amphora is reported from
Telmessos in Lycia, and fragments of B.F. and R.F. vases
from Xanthos.[196]
>From the distant site of Susa in Persia an interesting find
.bn 104.png
.pn +1
has been recently reported,[197] of part of a R.F. rhyton in the
form of a horse’s head, on which is painted the figure of a
Persian in polychrome on a white ground. It belongs to the
period 500–480 B.C., and may have been carried off by the
Persians when they sacked the Athenian Acropolis.
Cyprus.—This island is of special interest to us as being
now the only classical land in our own possession. Although
we have not perhaps utilised to the full extent the opportunities
thereby afforded us for excavations, yet of late years much
has been done, especially by the British Museum, to remedy
this defect, and the collection of Cypriote antiquities in the
national museum is now fully worthy of that institution and
as representative as could be wished. Previous to the English
occupation the island remained undisturbed, with a few exceptions,
the first being the excavations of Mr. R. Lang at Dali
(Idalion) in 1867. The finds here were chiefly of terracottas
and sculpture, and are now in the British Museum, but, owing
to the misconception of Cypriote history that formerly prevailed,
have been somewhat incongruously placed in the Oriental
Department. Meanwhile, another consul, General L. Cesnola,
was not slow to make use of his opportunities, seeing in the
obvious richness of the field, the chances of gaining great
distinction as an explorer. Of his energy and liberality in the
cause there can be little doubt; but he was not an archaeologist,
and did not realise the value of scientific evidence, negative
or positive. Hence, although he deserves a meed of praise
as the pioneer of Cypriote exploration, his statements are
not always sufficiently explicit to be used without hesitation.
His extensive collections are now in the Metropolitan Museum
at New York; the British Museum has a few of the vases, but
lost the opportunity of acquiring the whole. Another English
consul, Mr. Sandwith, also made a collection of Cypriote pottery,
and, with an acuteness in advance of his time, made a successful
attempt to classify it according to periods and styles. Lastly, a
brother of General Cesnola’s, A. P. di Cesnola, who lived for some
time in the island, made large collections in the same manner
as his brother, but with the same lack of scientific accuracy.
.bn 105.png
.pn +1
The record of discoveries since 1878 has been carefully
systematised by Mr. J. L. Myres, who has given an excellent
summary of results.[198] The cemeteries in which the island is so
extraordinarily rich may be divided into two classes: Bronze
Age tombs, including Mycenaean and earlier remains; and
Graeco-Phoenician, with tombs of Hellenistic and Roman date.
On some sites, such as Curium and Salamis, tombs of all periods
are found.
.il id=fig007 fn=fig007_105.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 7. MAP OF CYPRUS.
Mr. Myres notes about thirty sites on which Bronze Age
pottery has been discovered, mostly in the centre and east of
the island, i.e. in the more level and cultivated districts. The
most important sites are Enkomi (Salamis), Curium, Alambra,
Agia Paraskevi (Nicosia), Maroni, and Larnaka (several sites),
at all of which Mycenaean pottery has been found, Enkomi
being especially rich in this respect; others only contained local
varieties, either of the earliest incised wares or of the hand-made
pottery which seems to have been a later development.
Graeco-Phoenician pottery (700–300 B.C.) has been found
in great quantities in all parts of the island, chiefly at
Amathus, Dali, Larnaka (Kition), Curium, Poli (Marion),
.bn 106.png
.pn +1
Paphos (Kouklia), Salamis, and Tamassos. In conjunction
therewith Hellenic vases have appeared at Amathus, Curium,
Salamis, and especially at Poli, where some really fine R.F. vases
have been found, some with artists’ names.[199] Hellenistic pottery
has appeared on most of the above sites, Poli and Curium
supplying the best examples. The different varieties of Cypriote
pottery are described in detail in Chapter #VI:ch06#.
.h4
III. AFRICA
Greek settlements in Africa were far fewer than in Asia, and
in fact only two appear to have had any importance, these being
the Ionic colony in the Egyptian Delta and the Dorian colony
from Thera in the Cyrenaica. Mycenaean vases have, however,
appeared spasmodically in Egyptian tombs of the eighteenth
to twenty-first dynasties, the evidence for the date of those at
Tell-el-Amarna (c. 1400 B.C.) being apparently well established.
It should also be noted that pre-Mycenaean wares corresponding
to the second city pottery at Hissarlik and the Kamaraes (Crete)
pottery have been found at Kahun and elsewhere in the
Fayûm, in tombs of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties
(2500–2000 B.C.).[200]
Painted and other pottery of the Hellenistic age has not
infrequently been found in Egypt; the British Museum
acquired a specimen from Alexandria in 1898 with a boy
riding on a fish painted in opaque pink and blue on a red
unglazed ground. Other examples come from Naukratis,[201] and
from the Fayûm.[202] At Alexandria, where for obvious reasons
no vases earlier than the third century could have come to
light, a hydria was found in the catacombs with a myrtle-wreath
painted on a light ground; this when discovered was
filled with bones.[203] Other vases of the same type are said to
be in the Louvre. In Mons. G. Feuardent’s collection in New
.bn 107.png
.pn +1
York, the late Prof. Merriam saw a group of seventy-five vases
from rock-cut tombs at Alexandria, some with inscriptions.[204]
They include hydriae of a dark red clay, covered with a white
slip on which are polychrome designs (Gorgoneia, armour, etc.);
others of unglazed salmon-coloured clay, painted with wreaths,
monsters, etc.; two-handled vases of black ware with ribbed
body and twisted handles, decorated with medallions in relief
and wreaths in white, like the vases of Gnatia (p. #488#). The
inscriptions are laid on in ink with a reed, or incised, the
former being in MS. type; the method of dating is difficult
to interpret, but they seem to belong to the middle of the
third century.
The Ionian settlements of Naukratis and Daphnae (Defenneh)
in the Delta have yielded very important results for the history
of Greek pottery, though differing in extent. The finds of
pottery at Daphnae may from the circumstances of discovery
be dated entirely between 600 and 550 B.C.; and though only
fragmentary, they are interesting not only as showing the results
of Egyptian influences, but for the points of comparison they
afford with the pottery of Ionic origin and the Clazomenae
sarcophagi. At Naukratis, on the other hand, the finds form
a complete series extending from the foundation of the city by
Milesians about 650 B.C., down to the end of the fifth century,
at which point importations of Greek pottery ceased. The
earlier fabrics are by far the most important, being almost
entirely of local character and distinguished by the white
ground on which the Naucratite artist painted his designs or
figures in various colours. Among the fragments of B.F. pottery
were many with names of artists. These finds were all made
among the rubbish-heaps of temple-sites by the Egypt Exploration
Fund in 1884–86, with the exception of some subsequent
work by the British School in 1898–99. Most of the results are
in the British Museum: see also p. 345 ff.
In the second season (1885–86) at Naukratis were found
several interesting fragments of a B.F. white-ground ware, which
from the nature of the designs has been connected with Kyrene
(see Chapter VIII., p. #341#). But so far no specimens of this ware
.bn 108.png
.pn +1
have been found in the latter place, nor indeed anything earlier
than the end of the fifth century. It is to be hoped that the
earlier cemeteries are yet to be discovered. Mr. George Dennis
and others, however, explored a considerable tract of country
in the Cyrenaica between 1856 and 1868,[205] and found many
vases of late R.F. style, some of considerable merit; also several
Panathenaic amphorae of the fourth century on which the old
B.F. method of painting is preserved. These were found on
the site of Teucheira, but most of the vases came from
Benghazi, the ancient Euesperitis, more to the south-west, the
ancient name of which, Berenike, came from the queen of
Ptolemy Euergetes. Nearly all the vases found here are of
the late fine R.F. period, corresponding to those of the Crimea;
they are, however, mostly smaller and inferior in merit. The
Panathenaic amphorae can be dated by the names of Athenian
archons which appear upon them: Nikokrates, 333 B.C.;
Hegesias, 324 B.C.; Kephisodoros, 323 B.C.; Archippos, 321 B.C.;
and Theophrastos, 313 B.C. (see p. #390#). They are of course
importations from Athens. Among the R.F. vases is one
representing a Persian king attacked by a lion; some have polychrome
designs, in one case combined with reliefs (B.M. G 12).
Most of the Cyrenaica vases are now in the British Museum
and the Louvre.
.h4
IV. ITALY
With the mainland of Italy we include in our review the two
islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The remaining area in which
Greek pottery has been found on classical sites thus corresponds
with the modern kingdom of Italy. Beyond its borders there
is only one site, that of Massilia (Marseilles), which has produced
Greek pottery. Vases of the primitive Thera style (see
p. #261#) were found here,[206] betokening a system of commerce
between East and West in those times.
.bn 109.png
.pn +1
The vases found in Greece may be regarded as on the whole
small in size and few in number, when compared with those
discovered in the ancient cemeteries and on the sites of the
old cities of Italy. These are indeed so numerous that (within
certain limits) they might in themselves almost serve as a basis
for the history of Greek vase-painting. Roughly speaking,
the vases found in Italy fall into two geographical divisions.
.il id=fig008 fn=fig008_109.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 8. MAP OF ITALY.
The first division comprises the vases discovered in Etruria,
which are found in every Etruscan city of importance, from
Atria or Hadria at the mouth of the Po to the very gates of
Rome itself. In particular, the tombs of Caere, Tarquinii, and
above all Vulci, have yielded an immense number of vases.
The second is formed by the vases found in the southern
.bn 110.png
.pn +1
half of the peninsula, including the territories of Campania,
Lucania, and Apulia, and the cities of Magna Graecia, such
as Cumae, Locri and Tarentum. The establishment of the
potter’s art in these maritime cities at an early stage of Greek
history helped to infuse a certain degree of civilisation into
the regions of the interior, and its influence is to be seen in
the pottery of the semi-barbarous populations, such as the
Osco-Samnites and Iapygians. The chief sites for the discovery
of vases are: in Apulia and Calabria, Ruvo, Canosa, and Tarentum;
in Lucania, Anzi; in Campania, Capua and Nola.
We now proceed to describe in detail these sites and the
discoveries of which they have been the scene. It is obvious
that it will be found impossible to enumerate every spot in Italy
where painted vases have been found, but it is hoped that no
place or site of interest has been omitted. The order followed
in describing these sites is a geographical one from north to
south, which on the whole will be found the most convenient.
We accordingly begin with the northernmost spot to which
the exportation of Greek vases seems to have reached—namely,
Atria or Hadria, at the mouth of the Po. This place down
to the time of Pliny[207] continued to manufacture drinking-cups
of fine quality, celebrated for their durability, and painted vases
have also been found in its tombs. They were first excavated as
early as the sixteenth century; and in later excavations undertaken
by the Austrian Government fragments of Greek pottery
were found at some depth below remains of the Roman period.[208]
The cities of Asti, Modena (Mutina), and Pollenza (Pollentia)
were also celebrated in Pliny’s time for their cups, which he
groups with those of Arretium under the heading of “Samian”
ware[209]; specimens of this ware have been found in the two latter
places.[210] Near Mantua a vase was discovered with the subject of
Perseus and Andromeda[211]; and others at Gavolda on the Mincio.[212]
At Genoa a fine R.F. krater was found in 1898.[213]
.bn 111.png
.pn +1
Bologna has been the scene of discoveries sufficiently important
to demand a separate paragraph. These were made
by Signor Zannoni, in 1869–76, in the cloister of the Certosa
convent, and a fully illustrated description was published by
him at the conclusion of his labours.[214] The finds include,
besides remarkable bronzes of the Villanova period of Italian
civilisation (800–500 B.C.), a large number of B.F. and R.F.
vases covering the whole period of exportations from Athens
to Etruria (550–400 B.C.), and also some local imitations
of B.F. fabrics. All these are now in the Museo Civico at
Bologna.
Turning now to the important district of Etruria, which
has been so prolific in discoveries of ancient vases, we come
first to Pisa, where, in the beginning of the last century,
a potter’s establishment was discovered. Since that time
red-figured vases both of the severe and fine styles have been
found, including a hydria figured by Inghirami.[215]
At Volterra (Volaterrae) Jahn states that many painted vases
have been found[216]; but the contents of the local museum are
limited to inferior Etruscan pottery of the later period with
yellow figures on black ground or staring heads painted in
silhouette. On the other hand some of the plain black ware
is remarkably good.[217]
Arezzo (Arretium) enjoyed in Pliny’s time an even wider
reputation than the places already mentioned, for its pottery
of all kinds, not only cups[218]; its ware is also referred to by
Martial and other authors. These allusions have been fully
borne out by the extensive discoveries of potteries that have
been made; the red glazed ware, stamped with the potter’s
name and with designs in relief, has been found in large
quantities, and fully justified the substitution of the name Arretine
for the old “Samian” in relation to the whole class. It is more
fully dealt with in the section on Roman pottery (Chapter #XXII:vol2_ch22#.).
.bn 112.png
.pn +1
Few Greek vases have been found here; but Lucignano in the
neighbourhood is mentioned as a site where they have been
discovered.[219]
Perugia was another important town of ancient Etruria, but
does not appear to have been a centre either for the manufacture
or importation of pottery. The museum, however,
contains several good Greek vases with mythological subjects,
and some Etruscan imitations of R.F. vases have also been
found here.[220]
At Chiusi (Clusium), on the other hand, some very important
discoveries have been made, including the magnificent krater
of the Florence Museum, known as the “François Vase,” after
its discoverer.[221] It was found in a tomb which had been already
pillaged, and was broken to pieces, but entire. Many vases
of the B.F. and R.F. periods have been found, some signed with
artists’ names, including those of Pamphaios and Anakles.
On the whole, this site has yielded more fine vases than any
in Etruria, except Cervetri, and of course Vulci; it is also
noteworthy for the early Etruscan black wares, of which there
are many remarkable specimens in the Museum.[222] The
Casuccini collection, which was very representative of Chiusi
finds, has now been disposed of en bloc to the Museum at
Palermo.[223]
In the immediate neighbourhood is Sarteano, also remarkable
for the specimens of early black ware which it has yielded,
but almost entirely deficient in painted vases. At Roselle
(Rusellae) and Orbetello in the Maremma the finds of pottery
have been of a comparatively insignificant character, the vases
of Orbetello being nearly all late Etruscan fabrics, of rude
forms, with coarse ill-drawn subjects. The same remark applies
to Toscanella, near Vulci, where Greek vases are seldom found.
Bolsena (Volsinii) is specially distinguished by a curious
class of late vases of coarse red ware with designs in relief,
which show evident signs of having been coated with a solution
.bn 113.png
.pn +1
producing the effect of silver.[224] They seem to be peculiar to
this locality, though Athenaeus[225] tells us that a similar practice
was in vogue at Naukratis. No other kinds of pottery have
been found.
At Orvieto excavations were first made in 1830, but without
very great results; the site was then neglected until the
’seventies, during which years Signor Mancini’s excavations were
so successful that a local Museum has been established, which
now contains many good specimens of Greek vases, as well
as Etruscan black wares.[226] At Viterbo various Greek vases,
mostly black-figured, were found in the early ’twenties, and
later on a kylix by the master Euphronios came to light.[227]
Bomarzo has yielded some good Greek vases, including signed
examples by Euphronios and Hieron.[228]
Corneto is more famous for the splendid wall-paintings of
its tombs and for its coloured sarcophagi than for painted
vases, but has nevertheless yielded some vases of considerable
interest, notably a fine R.F. kylix with representation of the
Olympian deities, signed by Oltos and Euxitheos, the beautiful
kylix representing the desertion of Ariadne by Theseus,[229] and
some specimens of Corinthian wares. Under its ancient name
of Tarquinii it was of course famous as the spot to which
Demaratos and his artist-companions were said to have fled
from Corinth. Excavations were first begun in 1825–27.
Besides the collection now in the public Museum,[230] there is a
large one made by Count Bruschi from excavations on his own
lands, the majority of the vases being of the B.F. period.[231] Not
far distant are Civita Vecchia, represented only by some remarkable
early vases in the British Museum,[232] Italian imitations of
the Greek Dipylon ware, and La Tolfa, where Etruscan,
Corinthian, and Ionic B.F. vases have been found.[233]
.bn 114.png
.pn +1
Few finds, at least of Greek pottery, have been made at
Civita Castellana, the ancient Falerii; but this town appears
to have had a special manufacture of its own in the fourth
or third century B.C., like all other Etruscan fabrics an imitation
of Greek vases, but with certain strongly marked peculiarities
of drawing and colouring. There is a fine specimen in the
British Museum.[234] These vases have only been found in
recent years. The British Museum also (among others)
possesses an interesting collection of local early black and
red wares from this site, including two large caldrons on
open-work stands, with Gryphons’ heads projecting. Isola
Farnese, the ancient Veii, again, is more celebrated for its
local fabrics than for Greek importations. Painted vases
were found in 1838–39,[235] and in 1843 Campana discovered a
remarkable tomb containing vases of early character without
human figures, and early Italian wares. The archaic paintings
of this tomb are of special interest for comparison with the
vases of the period.[236]
Next to Vulci, which we have reserved for the last, by far
the most important discoveries in Etruria are those made in
the tombs of Cervetri (Caere), mostly of early fabrics. In
1836 the famous Regulini-Galassi tomb came to light, a passage-like
structure sixty feet in length, with doorway of slabs
sloping forward to form an arch; but it contained few vases.
In the same year was found a remarkable vase of plain black
ware, on which was engraved an early Greek alphabet, with
a sort of syllabic primer.[237] Another tomb contained a series
of slabs painted with archaic Etruscan figures in the style of
early B.F. vases, which are now in the British Museum. Others
of similar character are in the Louvre.[238] But though these
large tombs yielded little painted pottery, yet Cervetri has
been the site of many notable discoveries, chiefly of early
B.F. vases illustrating various developments of vase-painting.
The most important is formed by the series of hydriae
.bn 115.png
.pn +1
named “Caeretan,” after the site, which are fully discussed in
Chapter #VIII:ch08#.; and among other finds we may note the
Amphiaraos krater at Berlin,[239] of Corinthian style. Excavations
went on for many years from 1831 onwards, and yielded also
some interesting later vases, including examples with the signatures
of Nikosthenes, Xenokles, Pamphaios, Euphronios,[240] and
Charitaios, and the famous vase representing the oil-merchant.[241]
Jahn[242] gives a list of the most important red-figured vases
found here. At Selva la Rocca, near Monteroni in the same
neighbourhood, the Duchessa di Sermoneta excavated a series
of Greek painted vases of all periods. Other sites in Etruria
on which vases have been found are Doganella,[243] Ferento near
Viterbo,[244] Capannori,[245] Montepulciano,[246] Pitigliano,[247] Poggia
Sommavilla on the border of the Sabine territory,[248] S. Filippo
dei Neri, Tragliatella.[249]
But the discoveries made on all the other Etruscan sites
combined are surpassed, both in number and interest, by those
of Vulci, a name which eighty years since was scarcely known,
but now represents to us one of the most important cities
of antiquity. The site is represented by the modern Ponte
della Badia, a district of about five miles in circumference
round the bridge over the stream Fiora, between the estates
of Canino and Montalto. The former estate lay on the left
bank, distinguished by a hill named Cucumella.
The discovery of painted vases here was brought about
purely by accident, about the year 1828. Some oxen in
ploughing broke through into an Etruscan tomb containing
two broken vases, and thus the local landlord, the Prince of
Canino, was led to further researches. In the course of four
months he discovered about 2,000 objects in tombs on one
small plot of ground, and subsequently other explorers joined
in emulating his good fortune. The number of painted vases
.bn 116.png
.pn +1
alone discovered during the year 1829 is reckoned at over
3,000, according to the elaborate report published by Gerhard
in the Annali,[250] describing and classifying the results. It would
not be too much to assert that nine-tenths of the painted vases
that have been brought to light in Etruria are from this site.
Most of those now in the British Museum are from Camposcala,
on the Montalto estate; but many are from the collections formed
by Lucien Bonaparte, the Prince of Canino, who continued to
excavate intermittently for many years, though the numbers of
the finds materially diminished after the first great discovery.
In recent years the only important excavations on this site
have been those conducted by M. Gsell on the estate of
Musignano, at the expense of the proprietor, Prince Torlonia.
The object was to exhaust the site by sporadic diggings over
the three principal areas of Ponte della Badia, Polledrara, and
Cucumella. In all 136 tombs were opened, ranging from the
period of “well-tombs” (about the ninth or eighth century B.C.)
down to the chamber-tombs of the early fifth century.[251] Besides
local pottery of all kinds they contained imported Greek fabrics
from the Geometrical ware down to the red-figure period. The
later included Corinthian vases of various kinds, a good
“Tyrrhenian” amphora, and one of the “affected” B.F. style,
a cup signed by Tleson and one in the style of Epiktetos, and
Etruscan imitations of B.F. fabrics.
M. Tyszkiewicz, the great collector, in his entertaining
Souvenirs,[252] tells a curious story of the fate of one of the vases
found in M. Gsell’s excavations:—
.fs 90%
.in +2
“One day I received a visit from a country fellow, who said he
had come from the neighbourhood of Canino, and brought with
him a vase painted in the early Corinthian manner, the names of the
figures being indicated by Greek inscriptions. The man declared
he had discovered it in a tomb which had fallen in after heavy rains.
The price asked was very reasonable, and the bargain was soon concluded.
At that time M. van Branteghem ... was one of the most
eager buyers of Greek vases, and he was so envious of my acquisition
.bn 117.png
.pn +1
that I had real pleasure in giving it up to him. A little while after
this, there called on me at my house a member of the French School
in Rome, M. Gsell.... He began by asking me if I had not lately
purchased a vase, which he closely described, and which proved to
be the very one I had bought from the native of Canino. Now
M. Gsell inspected so attentively the excavations under his care that it
was impossible, he assured me, for the workmen to have stolen anything.
All objects found were registered as soon as they were taken
out of the tombs, and were locked up every evening in a warehouse.
However, one day M. Gsell perceived that one had disappeared. He
sent for the supposed thief (one of his superintendents), and by means
of threats extracted a confession of the theft, and the name of the
amateur to whom the vase had been sold. In conclusion, M. Gsell
entreated me to let him have the vase.... Having parted with the
vase, I felt the situation very embarrassing, but I told my interlocutor
what had happened, and why I had handed the vase over to M. van
Branteghem. The distress of M. Gsell on hearing this news touched
me to such a degree that I ended by telling him that, knowing M. van
Branteghem to be a gentleman, I would inform him he had become the
owner of stolen goods, and throw myself on his mercy. The same day
I wrote to the Belgian amateur and made a clean breast of the matter,
and the vase was returned as quickly as possible. The vase was
replaced in the museum of the Prince Torlonia at the Lungara.
“Years passed away, when one morning I was told that a peasant,
who was waiting in the hall, desired to show me an antique work of art.
This was an event of daily occurrence—indeed, it happened several
times every day, and usually I found that the object for whose sake
I had been disturbed was either quite uninteresting or else a fraud.
But this time—astonishing fact!—I was shown the very vase that I had
restored to the French School, and had afterwards seen at the Lungara
Museum. Once again it had been stolen!”
.in
.fs 100%
The tombs in which the vases were found were mostly small
grottoes hollowed in the tufa, and with a few exceptions only a
few feet underground. There was nothing remarkable in them
except the vases, for they were neither spacious nor decorated,
nor finished with splendid ornaments like the tombs of Corneto
and of Magna Graecia. Some had seats for holding the objects
deposited with the dead; others pegs for hanging the vases on
the walls. The wonder was to find such fine specimens of art
in tombs so homely. These vases were of all styles and epochs
.bn 118.png
.pn +1
from early Corinthian of about the seventh century to the
Decadence. Besides these, an immense number of vases painted
black only, without any subject, and others of the black bucchero
ware, were discovered in the various tombs, along with bronzes,
ivories, and other objects peculiarly Etruscan.[253]
This vast discovery naturally attracted the attention of Europe.
Notwithstanding the obvious fact of their possessing Greek
inscriptions, and the light thrown upon them by the researches
of Winckelmann, Lanzi, and other enlightened scholars, the
Italian antiquaries, fired with a mistaken patriotism, insisted on
claiming all the vases as Etruscan fabrics. The history of this
error, long since discredited, is briefly summarised in the Introductory
chapter.[254]
.tb
Turning now to Southern Italy, Latium need not detain us
long. It is true that Greek vases have from time to time been
found at Rome, or at any rate fragments, as in the recent
excavations in the Forum[255]; but few of these are of importance
except as historical data. When Rome is given as the provenance
of a vase, it probably implies nothing more than that
it has been acquired from some dealer in that city. At Civita
Lavinia Lord Savile found some fragments of painted pottery
of different periods. Alba Longa is famous as the site whence
the hut-urns, elsewhere discussed, have been obtained; but on
the whole Rome and the cities of Latium seem to be quite
barren in regard to finds of pottery.
.bn 119.png
.pn +1
.pn +1
With the three main divisions of the southern half of Italy
the case is quite different. It is true that there has been no
Vulci in these districts, and indeed that no scientific excavations
have taken place compared with those in Etruria; yet the yield
of vases from these parts is extraordinarily large. In the
eighteenth century the neighbourhood of Naples, Paestum, etc.,
was a favourite hunting-ground with dilettanti, such as Sir
William Hamilton, who appear to have acquired their large
collections chiefly from Campanian tombs; but unfortunately
they have left no record of the sites on which these vases were
found. In the Samnite district and north of the Apennines
pottery-finds are almost unknown; while the barbaric regions
of Bruttii and Calabria are only represented by a few late
painted vases of the rudest local fabrics.
It may be noted that as a general rule the Greek colonies on
the coast, which maintained from the earliest times a constant
intercourse with Greece, have yielded from their tombs a fair
proportion of the older Greek fabrics, whereas the inland cities
are more remarkable for their remains of the later Athenian and
local wares, being of more recent origin.
Beginning with Campania, we take first the famous colony of
Cumae, the most ancient in Magna Graecia, which was founded
by the Chalcidians of Kyme in Aeolis at an unknown date, but
not later than the eighth century. Vases of all periods have
been found here, though not in great numbers. The earliest
belong to the infancy of the colony, and include the famous
lekythos of Tataie found in 1843, and now in the British
Museum.[256] It bears an inscription in the Chalcidian alphabet.
But the majority of the finds belong to the period when there
appears to have been a flourishing local fabric, about the third
century B.C. They are the most typical representatives of the
Campanian style, and may be studied to best advantage in
the Raccolta Cumana of the Naples Museum, where they are
collected together.[257] Many of these were found in 1842. Cumae
was famous for its pottery even in Roman times,[258] and specimens
.bn 120.png
.pn +1
of Roman ware with reliefs have been found here, as also at the
neighbouring Puteoli (Chapter #XXII:vol2_ch22#.)
Next in importance for the history of local fabrics are the
vases found at S. Agata dei Goti, the ancient Saticula, which can
also claim a manufacture of its own.[259] They are for the most
part bell-shaped kraters, and were chiefly excavated at the end
of the eighteenth century. Signed vases by the Paestum masters
Assteas and Python (see below) came from this site. The vases
of Abella form another class of Campanian ware, but of a
degenerate and late type, mostly hydriae of very pale clay.
Other sites which have yielded Campanian vases are: Naples
(Neapolis), Telese, Teano, Acerra, Sessa, and Nuceria Alfaterna
(Nocera).[260]
Capua, on the other hand, does not appear to have had any
special fabric of its own, although the finds of all periods are as
numerous as from any site in Southern Italy except Ruvo and
Nola. Among the earlier specimens may be mentioned the
inscribed Corinthian krater in the British Museum (B 37) from
the Hamilton collection (Plate #XXI:pl21#.). The red-figured vases
include cups signed by Euergides, Epiktetos, and Pistoxenos.
The vases of the Decadence have, as indicated, no distinctive
features of their own. Most of the late red-figured vases of
fancy shapes (such as rhyta) in the British Museum are from
this site, whence they passed into the hands of Castellani. The
black vases with gilded ornamentation, of which the British
Museum possesses some fine specimens, are also characteristic
of Capua. A large number of the vases obtained by Sir William
Temple are from this site, as is also one of the later Panathenaic
amphorae.[261]
At Calvi (Cales) Greek painted vases are almost unrepresented,[262]
but this site is distinguished as the origin of two late
varieties of fictile ware. One is formed by the Calene phialae
(p. #502#), or bowls of black ware with interior designs in relief,
sometimes signed with the names of local potters; the other
.bn 121.png
.pn +1
consists of large vases highly ornamented with terracotta figurines
attached in different places, or else modelled in the form of
female figures or heads. Strictly speaking, the latter must be
classed under the heading of terracottas (see p. #119#).
Lastly, we have to speak of Nola, which, like Capua, was
always a city of considerable importance, and is represented by
a large series of vases of all periods.[263] Here again we can detect
no signs of a special local fabric, though for a long time the so-called
“Nolan” amphorae of the red-figured period were thought
to have been made on the spot, so frequently have they been
found. The name is still retained as convenient for describing
this particular form of amphora (see p. #162#), with its exquisite
black varnish, graceful outlines, and simple yet effective decoration;
but it is, of course, quite conventional. The vases
are purely Attic (some are signed by Athenian artists), and it
can only be supposed that they found especial favour in the
Nolan market. Corinthian and Attic black-figured vases occur
in large numbers, and both here and at Capua there seems to
have been a tendency to imitate the exported Athenian wares.
Thus we find not only vases with black figures on buff ground
on which the drawing is obviously free and developed, but also
imitations of the “Nolan” amphorae, both classes dating from
about the fourth century B.C.
At Sorrento and the neighbouring Vico Equense a few vases
of different periods have been found, including a fine R.F. krater
signed by Polygnotos, which was discovered in 1893, and is now
in the British Museum.[264] Salerno is also mentioned as a site
where Greek vases have come to light.
The famous city of Paestum lay actually within the borders
of Lucania, but all its relations were with Campania, and it
may practically be regarded as a Campanian city. Little has
been found here except local fourth- and third-century fabrics,
but these are for the most part so remarkable that they
have established the existence of a school of vase-painting at
Paestum quite distinct from and earlier than the fabrics of
.bn 122.png
.pn +1
the three districts of Southern Italy.[265] Nearly all the vases
found here (including three signed by the master Assteas)
have the distinguishing characteristics of this class. They are
mostly to be seen in the Naples Museum; a fuller account of
them is given in Chapter #XI:ch11#.
Among the sites in Lucania on which vases have been found,[266]
the most important is Anzi, the ancient Anxia, which appears
to have been the chief centre for the manufacture of the
Lucanian vases. Earlier examples of Greek red-figured vases
have also come from this site, but the majority are of the
Lucanian class.[267] Provenances in this district are, however,
always doubtful, and in many cases nothing more definite
than “Basilicata” can be ascertained. But discoveries on the
following sites seem to be well attested: Armento,[268] Eboli,[269]
Missanello, Grumento, Potenza,[270] Pomarico, and Pisticci.[271] The
British Museum collection includes a fine B.F. krater (B 360) from
Armento, the famous vase with the Doloneia (F 157 = Fig. #130:vol2_fig130#.)
from Pisticci, several from Anzi, and a few from Pomarico.
In the Naples Museum are vases from Pomarico, Pisticci,
and elsewhere (chiefly in the Santangelo collection), while
the Koller collection, now in the Berlin Museum, contains
many from Castelluccio, S. Arcangelo, and other sites. But
none of these finds compare in any sense with those of Apulia
and Campania. There were no ancient cities of special importance
in this region, and hence no large cemeteries, while the
local fabric was probably not of long duration.
In Apulia the site above all others important is that of
Ruvo, which was no doubt the chief centre of the local pottery-manufactures,
and has yielded a great majority of the vases
known as “Apulian,” as well as many of earlier style. Excavations
began here in the eighteenth century, but it was not
until 1828 that they were undertaken on any large scale. Vases
.bn 123.png
.pn +1
are still found from time to time at the present day, and one
of the largest private collections still existing, that of Signor
Jatta, is extraordinarily rich in the vases of Apulian style
collected by this gentleman and preserved on the spot. It
is curious that Ruvo (Rubi) had no special importance in
antiquity; it may, however, be worth noting that remains of
a pottery with furnaces, etc., have come to light.[272] The Apulian
vases from Ruvo have no special characteristics which distinguish
them from the other Apulian fabrics.
It would be futile to attempt a detailed description of the
finds at Ruvo,[273] which include such a large proportion of
the magnificent Apulian vases covered with paintings of an
elaborate nature. Of earlier specimens, an isolated Corinthian
vase, two Panathenaic amphorae, and sundry other B.F. vases
are known, as also occasional R.F. vases, but these are almost
exceptions. Among the most famous Apulian vases are those
representing the Death of Talos, the Death of Archemoros,
preparations for a Satyric Drama, and so on.[274]
More important in antiquity, though less productive in vases,
is Canosa, the ancient Canusium, where a set of fine vases was
first discovered in 1813 and published by Millin. Among the best
of these is the great Dareios vase at Naples (see Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.
ad fin.). Nearly all are of the Apulian class, with preferences for
certain forms and details (such as the use of purple) not appearing
at Ruvo, and a typical local product is a kind of prochoös or
tall jug.[275] Canosa was also a centre for the large terracotta
vases which have been also found at Calvi (see p. #119#).
At Bari vases have been found from time to time, and there
is a fair collection in the local museum[276]; they include the
famous Poniatowski vase with Triptolemos’ setting-out, now
in the Vatican, and the krater in the British Museum (F 269)
with the burlesque combat of Ares and Hephaistos over Hera.
Ceglie has chiefly supplied the Berlin Museum with its Apulian
specimens (from the Koller collection), others passing into
.bn 124.png
.pn +1
a private collection at Naples. They are mostly of the later
over-elaborated style.
Altemura has supplied a few, but chiefly fine, vases, including
the R.F. krater with the birth of Pandora (Brit. Mus. E 467)
and the magnificent vase representing the Under-world found
in 1847 and now in Naples. Other finds have been made at
Polignano, Putignano, and Fasano (Gnatia), which last site
is interesting as the probable centre of a late fabric. Most
of the vases found here have figures or patterns painted in
opaque white and purple on the black glaze, and represent the
latest stage of vase-painting in Southern Italy.[277] They are
found almost exclusively on this site. It is also represented
by some late R.F. vases with polychrome decoration.
In the region covered by the “heel” of Italy the most
important site, as also the most important city in ancient
times, is Taranto or Tarentum. Chiefly on the authority of
M. Lenormant,[278] this city was for a long time regarded as the
centre of many South Italian fabrics, including the vases with
burlesque scenes (φλύακες), those of Paestum, the Fasano
ware, and, in fact, all Apulian fabrics. But the extensive
excavations that have taken place at Tarentum of late years
have shown that Lenormant and those who followed him were
quite misled. Few Apulian vases have come to light, the
Paestum fabric is unrepresented, and although the φλύακες
of Tarentum were no doubt specially famous in antiquity,
there is no authority for connecting this class of vases with
them to the exclusion of other sites. Vases, in fact, are
extremely rare at Tarentum, which made a much greater
speciality of terracottas, especially of a votive kind; a few
B.F. and R.F. specimens are known,[279] including the remarkable
fragment of a R.F. krater in the British Museum (E 494), and
a fine krater with an Amazonomachia (Bibl. Nat. 421).
Vases from Metapontum also are few and far between; the
.bn 125.png
.pn +1
British Museum possesses a specimen with figures in relief
on black ground; and finds are also reported from Lecce,
Brindisi, and Oria.[280] Many examples of local fabrics, described
in Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#., have been found in this district,
and specimens are preserved in the museums at Bari, Lecce,
and elsewhere. Lastly we have to speak of the finds made
at Locri on the east side of the “toe” of Italy, the only
important site in that district which has yielded Greek vases.
Many of these are white lekythi with figures in outline and
polychrome, resembling the well-known Athenian fabrics.
They were originally (like those of Gela) thought to be local
products, but it is more likely that they were made at Athens
and imported, the Locrians having a particular preference for
these vases, as the people of Nola had for the slim amphorae.
Some of the B.F. and R.F. vases found here are of a very fair
order of merit.[281]
Sicily, so celebrated for its magnificent works of art, has
yielded a considerable number of painted vases of all periods.
The cities of the southern coast have produced the greatest
number, especially Syracuse, Gela (Terranuova), and Agrigentum
(Girgenti). Many have also come from the cemeteries of
Acrae, Leontini, and Megara Hyblaea. Palermo, Messina,
and Catania have produced isolated examples. The richest
finds have been in the recently excavated cemeteries of
Syracuse. The discoveries of early vases and fragments
made here by Dr. Orsi are of the utmost importance, and
include quantities of specimens of Mycenaean and “Proto-Corinthian”
wares.[282]
At Terranuova or Gela, one of the earliest settlements of
the island, vases with black and with red figures were found
as long ago as the eighteenth century,[283] and in 1792 a pottery
with furnaces and vases was discovered in the neighbourhood.[284]
.bn 126.png
.pn +1
Of late years vases with black and red figures, some of the
latter being of the finest style, have been discovered in large
numbers, as well as white lekythi, probably imported from
Athens. Of these finds we have already given some description
(p. #37#). In 1862 Mr. George Dennis found a series of fine
R.F. lekythi of the “severe” period, together with B.F. vases
and archaic terracottas, now in the British Museum; and these
have been fully rivalled by Mr. Arthur Evans’ discoveries in
later years. The site has also yielded vases of a primitive
character, imitating early Greek wares. Gela was always
noted for its potteries, as the ceramic decorations of the Geloan
Treasury at Olympia show (p. #100#); many of the vases have
characteristic Sicilian subjects, and there was undoubtedly a
considerable local fabric.
Of the vases found at Girgenti (Agrigentum) the most noteworthy
is the beautiful lebes now in the British Museum,[285] of
the finest R.F. style, described as “one of the finest specimens
of Greek ceramography that has come down to us, absolutely
unsurpassed in its combination of artistic merit and mythological
interest.” It was found in 1830, and belonged to the
poet Samuel Rogers; the subject is the combat of Theseus with
the Amazons. Other B.F. and R.F. vases of fine style have
come from this site,[286] as well as a series of moulds for vases
with reliefs, of the Hellenistic period.[287] Fine vases are said to
have been found at Kamarina,[288] a few with red figures at
Himera, and some archaic lekythi at Selinus.[289] From Lentini
Jahn records polychrome and R.F. vases, the latter of the
“strong” and later periods.[290] At Palazzolo (Acrae) B.F. and
R.F. vases have been found, including a B.F. kotyle in the
British Museum (B 79), representing Dionysos in a car formed
like a ship. At Centorbi (Centuripae) almost the only find of
.bn 127.png
.pn +1
note was a conical cover of a large bowl ornamented with
encaustic paintings, the colours having been prepared with wax;
parts of two bowls were also found decorated with designs in
relief and gilt, of scrolls, small Cupids, and heads of Medusa.[291]
Other sites that may be mentioned are: Hybla Heraea
(Ragusa),[292] Catania, Alicata,[293] Aderno[294] at the foot of Etna, and
Monte Saraceno.[295]
At Tharros, in Sardinia, extensive excavations were made in
1856, and a long series of tombs found containing Phoenician
objects in porcelain, engraved scarabs, terracotta figures, and
other objects, but little painted Greek pottery of any importance.[296]
An interesting krater of late date, with the head of the Satyr
Akratos, from the island of Lipari is now in the collection
of Mr. J. Stevenson at Glasgow[297]; and in Ischia was found
a krater with the subject of the infant Dionysos confided to
the Nymphs.[298] In the public museum of Malta some Greek
vases are to be seen,[299] but it is not known whether they were
actually found there.
We have now completed the circuit of the ancient world,
so far as finds of Greek pottery are concerned, as with the
exception of Marseilles, already alluded to none can be traced
in Spain or Central Europe.
.fm
.fn 48
Curiously enough, the relative proportions
of Greek and Oriental civilisation
in Asia Minor are almost exactly the
same at the present day as in the sixth
century B.C. The Greeks are mostly to
be found in towns like Smyrna, and the
adjoining islands, while the central part
of the country is almost entirely Turkish.
.fn-
.fn 49
See for references to descriptions of
tombs Hermann, Lehrbuch d. Antiq.
iv. (1882), p. 377.
.fn-
.fn 50
Room K, Cases 69–72.
.fn-
.fn 51
For specimens of typical Athenian
tombs see Stackelberg, Gräber der
Hellenen, pl. 7. Fig. #1:fig001#. gives a reproduction
of a cist full of vases from ibid. pl. 8.
For an admirable description of the
tombs of the Dipylon, see Ath. Mitth.
1893, p. 74 ff.
.fn-
.fn 52
Compte-Rendu, Atlas, 1859, pls. 5–6;
Macpherson, Antiqs. of Kertch, passim.
.fn-
.fn 53
Arch. Zeit. 1850, p. 209, pl. 19.
.fn-
.fn 54
Journ. Hell. Stud. vi. p. 237.
.fn-
.fn 55
See for illustrations of tombs at
Agia Paraskevi, near Nicosia, Ath.
Mitth. 1886, xi. p. 209 ff., and Suppl.
pl. 2, from which Fig. #2:fig002#. is taken.
.fn-
.fn 56
For specimens of Cypriote tombs of
all periods the reader is referred to
Cesnola’s Cyprus; Brit. Mus. Excavations
in Cyprus, 1893–96; Journ. Hell.
Stud. ix. p. 264 (Paphos) and xi. p.19 ff.
(Poli).
.fn-
.fn 57
Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit. 2nd Ser. ix.
(1870), p. 162.
.fn-
.fn 58
Gardner, Cat. of Vases in Ashmol.
Mus. p. vii.
.fn-
.fn 59
Cavallari in Bull. della Comm. di
Antich. in Sicil. 1872, v. p. 10, pl. 3.
.fn-
.fn 60
Vol. ii. p. 57, vignette. Models of
this tomb exist in cork, and specimens
may be seen in the Winchester College
Museum and Eton School Library.
.fn-
.fn 61
Scavi di Certosa, 1875, text and
plates.
.fn-
.fn 62
For tombs at Ruvo see Jatta, Cat.
del Museo, p. 53 ff.
.fn-
.fn 63
Reference may also be made to
Martha, L'Art Étrusque, p. 183 ff.
.fn-
.fn 64
For an example in the B.M. see
E 811 in the Fourth Vase Room,
Cases 6–7. A plain jar of late date, from
Halikarnassos, full of calcined bones, is
in the Terracotta Room of the B.M.,
Case 20.
.fn-
.fn 65
See also Rathgen, Konservirung von Altertumsfunden, p. 67.
.fn-
.fn 66
Westropp, Epochs of Painted Vases, p. 17.
.fn-
.fn 67
Inghirami, Vasi Fittili, i. pl. 13;
a false vase is also published in Passeri,
300, and others in D'Hancarville, ii.
71, 84. The worst specimen is perhaps
that engraved by Millin, Peintures, ii,
pls. 54–5 (reproduced in Reinach’s edition),
which yet for a long time found
general acceptance. As a curiosity and
a warning it deserves perpetuation.
.fn-
.fn 68
Eng. transl. p. 180 ff.
.fn-
.fn 69
Curiously enough there was in M.
Tyszkiewicz’s own collection a white-ground
cup with the subject of Phrixos
(Sale Cat. pl. 35), which is certainly
open to suspicion·
.fn-
.fn 70
Gaz. Arch. 1875, pl. 14.
.fn-
.fn 71
Reinach, ii. 62 (in Louvre).
.fn-
.fn 72
B.M. E 458.
.fn-
.fn 73
Munich 404.
.fn-
.fn 74
B.M. E 468.
.fn-
.fn 75
B.M. F 331.
.fn-
.fn 76
B.M. B 130.
.fn-
.fn 77
See Reinach, Répertoire, ii. p. 277.
.fn-
.fn 78
Millin-Reinach, i. pl. 49; now at
Deepdene (?).
.fn-
.fn 79
This has been especially the case of
late years, as in the sale of M. van
Branteghem’s collection in 1892, when
a small kylix signed by Sotades cost as
much as £400, and two others slightly
less.
.fn-
.fn 80
Some account of the prices paid for
vases will be found in De Witte’s Description
des Antiquités et Objets d’Art
qui composent le cabinet de feu M. le
Chev. E. Durand, Paris, 1836; and in
the same author’s Description d’une collection
de vases peints et bronzes antiques
provenant des fouilles de l’Étrurie, Paris,
1837.
.fn-
.fn 81
His Introduction to the Munich Vase
Catalogue gives a good account of finds
of vases in Greece up to that time (1854);
see p. xxi. ff.
.fn-
.fn 82
Cf. Athenaeus, i. 28 C; xi. 484 F,
and 480 C.
.fn-
.fn 83
B 130. See Cat. vol. ii. for list of publications of this vase.
.fn-
.fn 84
Gräber der Hellenen. He also gives
some description of the tombs in which
they were found, and the nature of their
contents (see above, p. #33#).
.fn-
.fn 85
Good summaries of these discoveries
will be found in the Arch. Anzeiger,
1893, p. 13 ff., and Berliner Philol.
Wochenschr. 1895, p. 59.
.fn-
.fn 86
E.g. Bibl. Nat. 865 bis; Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1885, pls. 8–9; 1888, pl. 12; 1898,
pls. 2–5; 1901, pl. 1.
.fn-
.fn 87
Ath. Mitth. 1893, p. 46 ff.: see also
Bibl. Nat. 496 bis, 506.
.fn-
.fn 88
Bibl. Nat. 417 is from the neighbouring
Munychia.
.fn-
.fn 89
Ath. Mitth. 1896, p. 385 ff.; and see
below, p. 278.
.fn-
.fn 90
Berlin 56 = Jahrbuch, 1887, pl. 5.
.fn-
.fn 91
A fine R.F. and polychrome kylix =
Mon. dell’ Inst. x. 37 a = Reinach, Répertoire,
i. p. 207; also Athens 688 =
Reinach, i. 164.
.fn-
.fn 92
Berlin 2030; Athens 1167.
.fn-
.fn 93
Berlin 2493, 2690; Arch. Zeit. 1880,
pl. 16 = Reinach, i. p. 428.
.fn-
.fn 94
Berlin 2373.
.fn-
.fn 95
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1895, pl. 11 (Mycenaean).
.fn-
.fn 96
Berlin 1887–89.
.fn-
.fn 97
Athens 1241; Amer. Journ. of Arch.
1903, p. 320.
.fn-
.fn 98
See for the Vourva vases Athens
592 ff.; Ath. Mitth. 1890, p. 318 ff.;
Jahrbuch, 1903, p. 124 ff.; and p. 299
below.
.fn-
.fn 99
See Dodwell, Tour, ii. p. 180. Stephanus
of Byzantium speaks of the pottery
of Megara (s.v.) See also Athens 1858;
Petersburg 1563 a.
.fn-
.fn 100
viii. p. 381: cf. p. 134.
.fn-
.fn 101
Ross, Arch. Aufs. ii. p. 344; Bibl.
Nat. 101: see also Jahn’s Einleitung,
p. xxv.
.fn-
.fn 102
Ibid. i. p. 57.
.fn-
.fn 103
See p. #316#.
.fn-
.fn 104
E.g. Bibl. Nat. 94, 313, 1179.
.fn-
.fn 105
See generally Furtwaengler and
Loeschcke, Myken. Vasen, p. 50; for
notices of Mycenaean fragments by early
travellers, Dodwell, Tour, ii. p. 237,
and Burgon in Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit.
2nd Ser. ii. (1847), p. 258 ff., with plate
opposite p. 296.
.fn-
.fn 106
Fig. #88:fig088#, p. 297.
.fn-
.fn 107
Ibid. pls. 15, 21, p. 45;
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1895, pl. 11.
.fn-
.fn 108
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, p.
47.
.fn-
.fn 109
Arch. Zeit. 1859, pl. 125 = Reinach,
i. 389: see also Bull. dell’ Inst. 1832,
p. 62; Ann. dell’ Inst. 1847, p.
250.
.fn-
.fn 110
Cat. 1615, 1901, 1931–32: see also
Branteghem Sale Cat. 94.
.fn-
.fn 111
Cat. 1974.
.fn-
.fn 112
Bibl. Nat. 166; Class. Review, 1891,
p. 73; Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1892, pl. 4.
.fn-
.fn 113
See Ergebnisse, iv. p. 198 ff.
.fn-
.fn 114
See p. 391.
.fn-
.fn 115
See p. 451.
.fn-
.fn 116
See Kekulé, Thonfiguren aus Tanagra,
p. 13.
.fn-
.fn 117
Isolated vase-finds from Tanagra are
the early B.F. tripod, Berlin 1727, and
the fine R.F. krater, Athens 1259.
.fn-
.fn 118
Bull. de Corr. Hell. xix. p. 177.
.fn-
.fn 119
Cf. Athens 678, 809, 1156, 1158.
.fn-
.fn 120
Vases from Lamia are Nos. 1621
and 1984; from Lokris, 1354, 1434;
from Phokis, 1177, 1181.
.fn-
.fn 121
Branteghem Sale Cat. No. 96.
.fn-
.fn 122
Ibid. No. 43; Berlin 2938.
.fn-
.fn 123
B.M. E 719, an alabastron formerly
in the Branteghem collection.
.fn-
.fn 124
Ath. Mitth. 1889, p. 151: see below,
p. 217. A late B.F. vase of “Kabeirion”
style.
.fn-
.fn 125
Fragments from Delphi are recorded
in Ann. dell’ Inst. 1841, p. 10; Jahn,
Vasens. zu München, p. xxv; Morgenblatt,
1835, p. 698.
.fn-
.fn 126
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, p. 43.
.fn-
.fn 127
Ath. Mitth. 1901, p. 237.
.fn-
.fn 128
For Kephallenia see J.H.S. xxiv. p.
126.
.fn-
.fn 129
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1847, p. 247, note 5;
Mustoxidi, Delle cose Corciresi, i. p. 271;
B.M. A 1670.
.fn-
.fn 130
A beautiful polychrome lekythos in
the B.M. (D 70 = Plate #LV:vol2_pl60#.) is from
this island, on the authority of Raoul-Rochette
(Peint. Antiq. p. 415); but see
Benndorf, Gr. u. Sic. Vasenb. p. 42,
where it is attributed to Aegina.
.fn-
.fn 131
Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vii. pp. 51,
208.
.fn-
.fn 132
Ath. Mitth. 1897, p. 259.
.fn-
.fn 133
Stackelberg, pl. 48; Magazin Encycl.
1811, ii. p. 140; and see note #130:f130#.
.fn-
.fn 134
See also Brongniart, Mus. Céram.
pl. 13, 11, and Traité, i. p. 576; Bull.
dell’ Inst. 1829, p. 113, 1830, p. 129;
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1837, p. 135, 1842,
p. 103, 1847, p. 250; and numerous
vases in the Bibl. Nat. (see p. 689 of
Catalogue).
.fn-
.fn 135
J.H.S. xvii. p. 77; xviii. p. 281 ff.
.fn-
.fn 136
B.M. B 8; Berlin 1682 = Reinach,
i. 441; Reinach, i. 118, 2; B.M. E 508;
Gerhard, A.V.B. iii. 238 = Reinach, ii.
120 (in Berlin), signed by Ergotimos.
.fn-
.fn 137
Pallat in Ath. Mitth. 1897, p. 265.
.fn-
.fn 138
Berl. Phil. Woch. 1901, pp. 1001,
1436.
.fn-
.fn 139
See Hesychius, s.v.Ἠχώ; he adds,
λέγει δὲ Αἴγιναν, ἐπειδὴ ἐκεῖ ὄστρακα πολλά ἐστι.
.fn-
.fn 140
Jahrbuch, 1903, p. 124 ff.; Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1901, pls. 9–12, p. 173 ff.
.fn-
.fn 141
Athens 618 = Baumeister, iii. p.
1963, fig. 2098.
.fn-
.fn 142
Ath. Mitth. 1886, p. 16.
.fn-
.fn 143
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, p. 33.
.fn-
.fn 144
Ross, Reisen, iii. p. 25.
.fn-
.fn 145
Athens 1861.
.fn-
.fn 146
Class. Review, 1899, p. 468.
.fn-
.fn 147
E 732: see p. 357 and Fig. III.
.fn-
.fn 148
Furtwaengler and Reichhold, Gr.
Vasenmalerei, p. 220.
.fn-
.fn 149
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, p. 21.
For Geometrical, see Brongniart and
Riocreux, Mus. de Sèvres, pl. 13, figs.
4, 13, 15, 16.
.fn-
.fn 150
Reisen, i. p. 66; iii. p. 27. See
also Berlin 3901, 4088; Brongniart,
Traité, i. p. 577; Bibl. Nat. 19, 21,
22. The Sèvres vases mentioned by
Brongniart were found about thirty feet
below the volcanic deposits.
.fn-
.fn 151
See Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 1 ff.; H.
von Gaertringen, Thera, vol. ii.
.fn-
.fn 152
See Jahn, Vasens. zu München, p.
xxvi; Berlin 1886; Rhein. Mus. 1843,
p. 435; Boettiger, Vasengem. i. p. 29.
.fn-
.fn 153
These are fully described and illustrated
in a volume issued by the Hellenic
Society (1904).
.fn-
.fn 154
Op. cit. iii. p. 15 ff.
.fn-
.fn 155
J.H.S. xxii. p. 46 ff.
.fn-
.fn 156
Mon. Grecs, 1875, pls. 1–2.
.fn-
.fn 157
Rhein. Mus. 1843. p. 435; Bibl.
Nat. 873 (Chios); for Tenedos as a
pottery centre see Dio Chrys. Orat.
42, 5; Plutarch, Vit. aer. alien. 2.
.fn-
.fn 158
For ancient references to Samian
ware see Chapter #XXII:vol2_ch22#., where the
subject is discussed in detail.
.fn-
.fn 159
Aus ion. u. ital. Nekrop. (1898);
he also found Cyrenaic, Corinthian, and
Attic pottery (p. 125 ff.). See below,
p. #336#.
.fn-
.fn 160
See also Arch. Zeit. 1848, p. 280.
.fn-
.fn 161
See Ross, Reisen, iv. p. 44.
.fn-
.fn 162
Brongniart, Traité, i. p. 581 (plain
wares only).
.fn-
.fn 163
J.H.S. viii. p. 446. pl. 83.
.fn-
.fn 164
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, p. 33.
.fn-
.fn 165
See Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 130 ff.
.fn-
.fn 166
See on the Geometrical pottery Pottier,
op. cit. p. 136. It is probably
imported, although Dümmler (Jahrbuch,
1891, p. 268) thinks otherwise.
.fn-
.fn 167
There is at least one late R.F. vase
from Crete in the National Museum at
Athens (Cat. 1851, 1860, 1921). See
for other instances of earlier finds, below,
p. 269; Furtwaengler and Loeschcke,
p. 22; Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 176.
.fn-
.fn 168
Proc. Soc. Antiqs. 2nd Ser. xv.
(1895), p. 351 ff.
.fn-
.fn 169
See J.H.S. xxiii. p. 157 ff. for an
estimate of the Knossos pottery; also
p. 265 below.
.fn-
.fn 170
British School Annual, 1899–1900,
p. 94 ff.; J.H.S. xxi. p. 78 ff.
.fn-
.fn 171
Ibid. 1900–01, p. 121 ff.; J.H.S.
xxiii. p. 248 ff.
.fn-
.fn 172
Ibid. 1901–2, p. 289 ff.; 1902–3, p. 297.
.fn-
.fn 173
Rendiconti dell’ Accad. dei Lincei,
1900, p. 631.
.fn-
.fn 174
American Journ. of Arch. 1901,
p. 371 ff., 302, 128; British School
Annual, 1901–02, p. 235 (Praesos).
.fn-
.fn 175
Nos. 98 and 99 in the collection of
M. van Branteghem were two fine R.F.
“aryballi” from Apollonia in Thrace.
.fn-
.fn 176
The reader who wishes to gain a
comprehensive idea of these vases is
referred to the plates of the Atlas to
Stephani’s Compte-Rendu de la Comm.
imp. arch. de St.-Pétersbourg (1861–83) =
Reinach, Répertoire, i. p. 1 ff.
.fn-
.fn 177
See also Jahn, Vasens. zu München,
p. xxvii.
.fn-
.fn 178
Compte-Rendu, 1870–71, pl. 4 =
Reinach, i. 34.
.fn-
.fn 179
See an interesting article in Anzeiger,
1900, p. 151, on the relations of the
Black Sea colonies to Greece, especially
in regard to pottery.
.fn-
.fn 180
See Dörpfeld, Troja und Ilion, i.
p. 304 ff.
.fn-
.fn 181
So Jahn, Vasens. p. xxvii, but from
the illustration given in Choiseul-Gouffier’s
Voyage pittoresque, pt. 2, pl.
30, this seems doubtful.
.fn-
.fn 182
Jahn, Vasens. p. xxvii.
.fn-
.fn 183
Monuments Piot, x. pls. 6–7.
.fn-
.fn 184
The style resembled that of B 80 in
the Brit. Mus.
.fn-
.fn 185
See Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vi. pp. 929,
931. The British Museum possesses a
similar one from Kalymnos (p. #273#).
.fn-
.fn 186
Ion. u. ital. Nekrop. pp. 86–7.
.fn-
.fn 187
Louvre Cat. ii. p. 274; Pottier and
Reinach, Nécropole de Myrina, pp. 221,
499; Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1884, p. 509;
Ath. Mitth. 1887, p. 228.
.fn-
.fn 188
Röm. Mitth. 1888, pl. 6; now in
Brit. Mus.
.fn-
.fn 189
See generally Chapter VIII.
.fn-
.fn 190
Ath. Mitth. 1898, pl. 6, p. 38 ff.
.fn-
.fn 191
Athen. xi. 481 A. See also Ath.
Mitth. 1900, p. 94.
.fn-
.fn 192
Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit. 2nd Ser. ii.
(1847), p. 258, and plate, fig. D.
.fn-
.fn 193
Chantre, Recherches archéol. pls.
8–14; J.H.S. xix. p. 37 ff.
.fn-
.fn 194
Ath. Mitth. xii. (1887), pp. 226, 376.
.fn-
.fn 195
Cf. Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 161; Athenaeus,
i. 28 D; Lucian, Lexiph. 7. For
pottery from Datcha, near Knidos, see
Rev. Arch. xxv. (1894), p. 27.
.fn-
.fn 196
Jahn, p. xxvii.
.fn-
.fn 197
Comptes-Rendus de l’Acad. des Inscr. Aug. 1902, p. 428 ff.; 1903, p. 216.
.fn-
.fn 198
Catalogue of Cyprus Museum, Oxford, 1899.
.fn-
.fn 199
See Hermann, Gräberfeld von Marion
(1888); J.H.S. xi. p. 41 ff., xii. p. 315;
Branteghem Sale Cat. Nos. 14–18, 28–30.
.fn-
.fn 200
J.H.S. xi. p. 273.
.fn-
.fn 201
B.M. Cat. of Vases, iv. F 510–12.
.fn-
.fn 202
Petrie, Hawara, pl. 16, figs. 1–4.
.fn-
.fn 203
It was presented to the British
Museum by Sir E. Codrington in 1830.
Similar painted vases were found in
Roman tombs at Curium, Cyprus (Excavations
in Cyprus, p. 78).
.fn-
.fn 204
Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1885, p. 18.
.fn-
.fn 205
See Trans. Roy. Soc. of Lit. 2nd
Ser. ix. p. 165 ff., and Arch. Zeit. 1846,
p. 216; also p. 36 above.
.fn-
.fn 206
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1884, pl. 13;
Froehner, Ant. du Mus. de Marseilles,
1928–30.
.fn-
.fn 207
H.N. xxxv. 161.
.fn-
.fn 208
See Jahn, Vasens. zu München, p.
lxxxiv; Arch. Zeit. 1850, pl. 18 = Reinach,
i. 372; Micali, Mon. Ined. pl. 45, p. 279;
and Schöne, Mus. Bocchi, 1878.
.fn-
.fn 209
H.N. xxxv. 160.
.fn-
.fn 210
See Chapter #XXII:vol2_ch22#., and Brongniart,
Traité, i. p. 583.
.fn-
.fn 211
Bull. dell’ Inst. 1848, p. 62.
.fn-
.fn 212
Ibid. 1847, p. 17.
.fn-
.fn 213
Class. Review, 1899, p. 329; Röm.
Mitth. 1899, pl. 7.
.fn-
.fn 214
Scavi della Certosa di Bologna, text
and plates, 1876: see also Bull. dell’
Inst. 1872, pp. 12 ff., 76 ff., 108 ff.
.fn-
.fn 215
See Vasi Fitt. iv. pl. 355, p. 82;
Bull. dell’ Inst. 1849, p. 23.
.fn-
.fn 216
P. lxxxiii.
.fn-
.fn 217
Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of
Etruria, ii. p. 189; Micali, Mon. Ined.
p. 216.
.fn-
.fn 218
H.N. xxxv. 160: Retinet hanc nobilitatem
(sc. of Samian ware) et Arretium
in Italia.
.fn-
.fn 219
Jahn, Vasens. p. lxxxii; Reinach,
Répertoire, i. 163, 332; and see 166.
.fn-
.fn 220
Dennis, Etruria, ii. p. 431; Jahn,
p. lxxxii; Reinach, Répertoire, i. 137,
161, 251, 384.
.fn-
.fn 221
See Plate #XXVIII:pl38#. and p. #370#.
.fn-
.fn 222
See Dennis, ii. p. 307 ff.; Jahn,
p. lxxix.
.fn-
.fn 223
Dennis, ibid.
.fn-
.fn 224
Brit. Mus. Cat. of Vases, iv. p. 25,
Nos. G 179–94: cf. Class. Review, 1897,
p. 276, and Ann. dell’ Inst. 1871,
p. 5 ff.
.fn-
.fn 225
xi. 480 E.
.fn-
.fn 226
Dennis, Etruria, ii. p. 46. Class.
Review, 1894, p. 277, gives some more
recent finds.
.fn-
.fn 227
Hartwig, Meistersch. pl. 47,
p. 466: cf. Bull. dell’ Inst. 1830,
p. 233.
.fn-
.fn 228
See Jahn, p. lxxviii.
.fn-
.fn 229
Reinach, i. 203, 222 (Plate #XXXIX:pl39#).
.fn-
.fn 230
See also Class. Review, 1893, pp. 84,
381; 1894, p. 277.
.fn-
.fn 231
Dennis, i. p. 405; Jahn, p. lxviii.
.fn-
.fn 232
B.M. A 469, 1537, 1540.
.fn-
.fn 233
Jahrbuch, 1889, pls. 5–6, p. 218.
.fn-
.fn 234
F 479; also Reinach, i. 215. For a
late R.F. vase with a Latin inscription
from this site see Röm. Mitth. 1887,
pl. 10, p. 231.
.fn-
.fn 235
Jahn, p. lxv.
.fn-
.fn 236
For an account of this tomb see
Dennis, i. p. 33 ff., and above, p. 39.
.fn-
.fn 237
See Chapter XVIII., and Roberts,
Gk. Epigraphy, i. p. 17.
.fn-
.fn 238
See for these Chapter XVIII.
.fn-
.fn 239
Cat. 1655=Reinach, i. 199: see p. 319.
.fn-
.fn 240
The Antaios krater and the Petersburg
psykter: see p. 431.
.fn-
.fn 241
Reinach, Répertoire, i. p. 106.
.fn-
.fn 242
P. lxvi. ff.: see also generally Pottier,
Louvre Cat. ii. p. 355 ff.
.fn-
.fn 243
B.M. E 41.
.fn-
.fn 244
Notizie degli Scavi, 1902, p. 84 ff.
.fn-
.fn 245
Class. Review, 1894, p. 277.
.fn-
.fn 246
Reinach, i. 320.
.fn-
.fn 247
Class. Review, 1897, p. 226.
.fn-
.fn 248
Jahn, p. lxiv; Reinach, i. 109, 368;
Class. Review, 1897, p. 276.
.fn-
.fn 249
Reinach, i. 345.
.fn-
.fn 250
1831; see also Bull. dell’ Inst. 1831,
p. 161. A view of the site is given in
Mon. dell’ Inst. i. pl. 41.
.fn-
.fn 251
See generally Chapter XVIII. The
finds are described in a work edited
by Gsell, entitled Fouilles de Vulci
(1891).
.fn-
.fn 252
Eng. transl. p. 112.
.fn-
.fn 253
Besides the already cited Rapporto
Volcente of Gerhard in the Annali for
1831, an account of these discoveries
will be found in the Muséum Étrusque of
the Prince of Canino; Trans. Royal Soc.
of Lit. ii. (1834), p. 76 ff. (Millingen);
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1829, p. 188 ff.; Jahn’s
Einleitung, p. lxviii; and an excellent
description in Dennis’s Etruria, 2nd edn.
i. p. 448 ff.: see also Chapter XVIII.
Above all, reference should be made to
the recent summary by Gsell (see above).
.fn-
.fn 254
Those who are curious in such matters
may be grateful for a bibliography
of the controversy: Lanzi, Dei Vasi
antichi dipinti; Winckelmann, Hist. de
l’Art, i. p. 188 ff.; Canino, Mus. Étr.
(1829), and Cat. di scelte ant. Étr.;
Annali, 1831, p. 105 ff., 1834, p. 285;
Bull. dell’ Inst. 1829, pp. 60, 113 ff.,
1831, p. 161 ff., 1832, p. 74 ff., 1833,
p. 73 ff.; Gerhard, Berl. ant. Bildw.
p. 143; Journal de Savans, 1830, pp.
115 ff., 177 ff.; Kramer, Styl und Herkunft,
p. 146; Thiersch, Hell. bemalte
Vasen, etc.
.fn-
.fn 255
Finds of “Proto-Corinthian,” B.F.,
and R.F. fragments have been recently
made in the precincts of the temple of
Vesta (Class. Review, 1901, p. 93).
.fn-
.fn 256
A 1054 = Bull. Arch. Nap. ii. pl. 1, 1–2.
.fn-
.fn 257
See p. 483, and Patroni, Ceramica
Antica, p. 79 ff.
.fn-
.fn 258
Mart. Ep. xiv. 114; Stat. Silv. iv.
9, 43.
.fn-
.fn 259
See Patroni, op. cit. p. 93, also Jahn,
op. cit. p. lxii, for B.F. and other vases
found here. Some of the vases are direct
imitations of Athenian fabrics.
.fn-
.fn 260
Naples 3352–55.
.fn-
.fn 261
B.M. B 610.
.fn-
.fn 262
See Jahn, p. lxiii; Reinach, Répertoire,
i. 317.
.fn-
.fn 263
See Jahn, p. lii. Those in the British
Museum from Nola came chiefly from
the Blacas collection.
.fn-
.fn 264
See also Reinach, Répertoire, i. 228,
348; Branteghem Sale Cat. Nos. 84–5;
and Jahn, p. li.
.fn-
.fn 265
Walters, B.M. Cat. of Vases, iv.
p. 16; Patroni, Ceram. Ant. pp. 37, 76.
.fn-
.fn 266
See Jahn, p. xlvi ff.
.fn-
.fn 267
E.g. Petersburg 355, and others in
B.M.
.fn-
.fn 268
Petersburg 1187, 1427; Naples
2991, S.A. 11, 708–9.
.fn-
.fn 269
See Jahn, p. l, for examples from
this site, mostly of inferior merit; also
Reinach, i. 250.
.fn-
.fn 270
Berlin 2694; Bull. dell’ Inst. 1830,
p. 21.
.fn-
.fn 271
B.M. F 157; Bibl. Nat. 422.
.fn-
.fn 272
Lenormant, Grande Grèce, i. p. 94.
.fn-
.fn 273
See Jahn, p. xl.
.fn-
.fn 274
For recent excavations see Class.
Review, 1893, p. 381; 1894, p. 129 (vases
with subjects of Kanake and Theseus
with the ring).
.fn-
.fn 275
Patroni, Ceram. Ant. p. 142; B.M.
F 237–38.
.fn-
.fn 276
Cf. also Petersburg 778, 895.
.fn-
.fn 277
See p. 488, and B.M. F 543 ff.; for
earlier vases, Reinach, i. pp. 471–77.
.fn-
.fn 278
La Grande Grèce, i. p. 92 ff.
.fn-
.fn 279
See Class. Review, 1898, p. 185, for
mention of two B.F. kylikes signed by
Antidoros; also Notizie degli Scavi, 1903,
p. 34 ff., 205 ff., for other interesting
B.F. vases, including signatures of Tleson,
Sakonides, and Thrax. The two latter
were found at Leporano, about ten miles
S.W. of Tarentum.
.fn-
.fn 280
Mycenaean vases from this site are in
the Louvre (Furtwaengler and Loeschcke,
Myken. Vasen, p. 48).
.fn-
.fn 281
As for instance Munich 781 = Reinach,
ii. 126.
.fn-
.fn 282
These discoveries are summarised in
the Class. Review, 1894, p. 278; 1896,
p. 173; 1898, p. 428. Fuller details
are given in the Notizie degli Scavi for
those years. See also Furtwaengler and
Loeschcke, p. 47.
.fn-
.fn 283
Jahn, p. xxxi.
.fn-
.fn 284
Arch.-Intell. Blatt, 1836, No. 34,
p. 283.
.fn-
.fn 285
Gerhard, Auserl. Vasenb. 329–30;
Forman Sale Cat. No. 357.
.fn-
.fn 286
Millin-Reinach, ii. 61–2 (Taleides);
Mon. dell’ Inst. i. pl. 52; B.M. B 295
(Nikosthenes); B.M. E 474, E 478: cf.
Jahn, p. xxxii, and the index to Reinach’s
Répertoire, s.v. Agrigente.
.fn-
.fn 287
Röm. Mitth. 1897, p. 261 ff.
.fn-
.fn 288
Jahn, p. xxxi.
.fn-
.fn 289
Arch.-Intell. Blatt, 1834, No. 56,
p. 457 ff.: see also Bull. della Comm. di
Antich. in Sicilia, 1872, p. 13 ff. pls.
4–5.
.fn-
.fn 290
P. xxxi. One of the late vases with
burlesque scenes (Mon. dell’ Inst. iv.
pl. 12) was also found here.
.fn-
.fn 291
See B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, D 1–2;
Röm. Mitth. 1897, p. 262.
.fn-
.fn 292
Class. Review, 1893, p. 231.
.fn-
.fn 293
Jahn, p. xxxii.
.fn-
.fn 294
Ibid. p. xxx.
.fn-
.fn 295
Reinach, i. 408.
.fn-
.fn 296
A B.F. vase in the Cagliari Museum
is published in Bull. Arch. Nap. N.S.
iv. pl. 13.
.fn-
.fn 297
J.H.S. vii. pl. 62, p. 55.
.fn-
.fn 298
Bull. dell’ Inst. 1842, p. 10.
.fn-
.fn 299
Jahn, p. xxix.
.fn-
.bn 128.png
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch03' pn=+1
CHAPTER III | THE USES OF CLAY
.pm start_summary
Technical terms—Sun-dried clay and unburnt bricks—Use of these in
Greece—Methods of manufacture—Roof-tiles and architectural decorations
in terracotta—Antefixal ornaments—Sicilian and Italian systems—Inscribed
tiles—Sarcophagi—Braziers—Moulds—Greek lamps—Sculpture
in terracotta—Origin of art—Large statues in terracotta—Statuettes—Processes
of manufacture—Moulding—Colouring—Vases with plastic
decoration—Reliefs—Toys—Types and uses of statuettes—Porcelain
and enamelled wares—Hellenistic and Roman enamelled fabrics.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
We now proceed to treat the subject of the fictile art among
the Greeks in its technical aspects, prefacing our study with
a section dealing with the uses of clay in general.
The term employed by the Greeks for pottery is κέραμος, or
for the material γῆ κεραμική. The word for clay in a general
sense is πηλός, while κέραμος has the more restricted sense of
clay as material for fictile objects; the latter word is supposed
to be connected with κεράννυμι, to mix. They likewise applied
to pottery the term ὄστρακον, meaning literally an oyster-shell,
and ὀστράκινα τορεύματα[300] is also an expression found for works
in terracotta. Nor must we omit to mention that πηλός too
comes to bear a restricted sense, when it is applied to the
unburnt or sun-dried bricks freely employed in early architecture.
Keramos was regarded by the Greeks as a legendary
hero, from whom the name of the district in Athens known as
the Kerameikos, or potter’s quarter, was derived.[301] The word
κέραμος soon became generic, and as early as Homer’s time
we find such an expression as χάλκεος κέραμος for a bronze
vessel[302]; similarly it came to be used for tiles, even when they
were of marble (see below, p. #100#).
.bn 129.png
.pn +1
The art of working in clay may be considered among the
Greeks, as among all other nations, under three heads, according
to the nature of the processes employed: (1) Sun-dried clay
(Gk. πηλινα or ὠμά, Lat. cruda); (2) baked clay without a
glaze, or terracotta (Gk. γῆ ὀπτή); (3) baked clay with the
addition of a glaze, corresponding to the modern porcelain. It
is then possible to treat of the uses of clay under these three
heads. The first, from its limited use, will occupy our attention
but very briefly; the second, the manufacture of building
materials and terracotta figures, only technically comes under
the heading of pottery, and will therefore also receive comparatively
brief mention. It remains, then, that in the
succeeding chapters, as in the preceding, it will be almost
exclusively with the third heading that we are concerned.
Before, however, dealing with this third heading, or pottery,
we may review briefly the purposes for which clay was worked,
under the other two headings of brick and terracotta.
The uses of clay among the Greeks were very varied and
extensive. Sun-dried clay was used for building material, and
we have already seen what an important part was played by
pottery in their domestic and religious life. The uses of terracotta
are almost more manifold than those of pottery. It
supplied the most important parts both of public and private
buildings, such as bricks, roof-tiles, drain-tiles, and various
architectural adornments; and was frequently used in the
construction and decoration of tombs and coffins. Among its
adaptations for religious purposes may be noted its use as a
substitute for more expensive materials in the statues of deities,
as well as the countless figurines or statuettes in this material,
many of which have been found on the sites of temples or in
private shrines; and besides the statuettes and other figures, of
which such quantities have been found in tombs, it was used for
imitations of jewellery or metal vases made solely for a sepulchral
purpose. It also supplied many of the wants of every-day life,
in the form of spindle-whorls, theatre-tickets, lamps and braziers,
and culinary and domestic utensils of all kinds, taking the place
of the earthenware of modern times. It supplied the potter with
moulds for his figures and the sculptor with models for his work
.bn 130.png
.pn +1
in marble or bronze, and placed works of art within the reach of
those who found marble and the precious metals beyond their
means.
One of the most elementary uses of clay is for the manufacture
of building material, for which it plays an important part, as we
have already seen, in the history of the Semitic races. Both burnt
and unburnt bricks were employed in Egypt and Mesopotamia,
and their use has already been referred to in the Introduction.
Vitruvius[303] speaks of the use of brick in the palace of Kroisos
at Sardis, and we also read of the walls of Babylon and Larissa
(on the site of Nineveh) as being of brick.[304] Generally speaking,
sun-dried bricks belong to an earlier period of development than
baked bricks; at any rate, this is the case in the buildings of
Greece and Rome.
In Greece itself the antiquity of brick is implied by the words
of Pliny,[305] who tells us that Hyperbius and Euryalus of Athens
“were the first to” construct brick-kilns (laterarias) and houses;
before their time men lived in caves. He further goes on to say
that Gellius regarded one Toxius as the inventor of buildings of
sun-dried clay, inspired by the construction of swallows’ nests.
The reference is obviously to the employment by swallows of
straw and twigs to make the clay for their nests cohere; this
may well have suggested, in the first instance, the principle
of mixing straw with sun-dried clay bricks, as was done
by the Israelites in their bondage in Egypt. The method is
one still practised in the East, where in such countries as
Palestine and Cyprus whole villages built in this fashion may
be seen.
There is no doubt, however, that in Greece, with its stores
of marble and stone for building, brick never became general,
though it was probably more used in sun-dried form in earlier
buildings before the Greeks had begun to realise the possibilities
of stone buildings. Pausanias[306] speaks of temples of Demeter
.bn 131.png
.pn +1
at Lepreon in Arcadia and Stiris in Phokis, of a shrine of
Asklepios at Panopeus in Phokis, and of the Stoa of Kotys at
Epidauros (restored by Antoninus Pius) as being of unburnt
brick (πηλός). Of the same material was the cella of a temple
at Patrae[307]; but the walls of various cities, such as Mantinea,
were of burnt brick.[308]
Nor was the use of sun-dried clay confined to building material.
It seems also to have been employed for modelling decorations
of public buildings. Thus Pausanias mentions “images of clay,”
representing Dionysos feasting in the house of Amphiktyon,
adorning a chamber in the temenos of that god in the Kerameikos,[309]
and it seems highly probable that these are to be identified
with the cruda opera of one Chalcosthenes or Caicosthenes
mentioned by Pliny,[310] where the word cruda can only be used
in a technical sense (Greek ὠμά). He also mentions at Tritaea
in Achaia[311] statues of the Θεοὶ μέγιστοι in clay, and at Megara
an image of Zeus by Theokosmos,[312] of which the face was gold
and ivory, the rest clay and gypsum.
Our knowledge of the use of brick (both burnt and unburnt)
and terracotta in Greek architecture has been largely increased,
not to say revolutionised, by recent discoveries in all
parts of the Greek world, and going back to a very remote
period.
Recent excavations have yielded walls of unburnt brick at
Eleusis, Mycenae, Olympia, Tegea, and Tiryns.[313] The Heraion
at Olympia, which dates from the tenth century B.C., is a
peripteral temple with stone stylobate, pillars and antae of wood,
and cella-wall of unburnt brick. In this respect it resembles the
temple of Zeus and Herakles at Patrae (see above). It also
possesses the oldest known example of a terracotta roof (Fig. #9:fig009#.).
A recently discovered temple at Thermon in Acarnania is constructed
of wood and terracotta, with painted terracotta slabs
in wooden frames for metopes; the style of the paintings
.bn 132.png
appears to be Corinthian, and they form a valuable contribution
to the history of early Greek painting.[314]
.il id=fig009 fn=fig009_132.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca
From Durm’s Handbuch.
FIG. 9. DIAGRAM OF ROOF-TILING, HERAION, OLYMPIA.
.ca-
The stone stylobate at the Heraion was a necessity because
of the destructive effect of the moist earth on terracotta; it
consisted of a row of vertical slabs on which the bricks were
placed in regular courses. We may see in this method of
construction the forerunner of the system, universal since that
time, of building walls on a plinth, which survives even to the
present day. In the same way door-jambs and lintels, which
were of necessity made of wood, not of brick, continued to be
constructed in that material even after the introduction of
stone.[315]
.bn 133.png
.pn +1
It has been assumed by some authorities that the Doric style
of architecture is derived from a wooden prototype; this,
however true of the Ionic style, is not altogether true of Doric.
The proportions of the latter are too heavy. A more probable
explanation is that it is the combination of wood with sun-dried
tiles or bricks which we see in the Heraion that developed with
the introduction of stone into the Doric system.[316]
It is then clear that although in Greece bricks were by no
means indispensable for building temples, houses, and walls,
and though stone and marble undoubtedly had the preference,
especially in later times, yet their use is more general than was
hitherto supposed. But when they are mentioned by classical
authors it is generally when speaking of foreign or barbarian edifices,
such as the palace of Kroisos at Sardis or the monument of
Hephaestion at Babylon,[317] and in a manner which shows that they
were not much employed in Greece at the time when they wrote.
The older temple of Apollo at Megara is described by Pausanias[318]
as having been of brick (πλίνθος), but we are left in doubt as to // Tr: plinthos
whether this was baked or sun-dried; while the excavations at
Olympia have distinctly contradicted his statement[319] that the
Philippeion was of brick, as it is proved to have been built of
stone ashlar.[320] In 333–329 B.C. the Long Walls of Athens were
constructed, partly in brick, under Habron, son of Lykourgos,
with Laconian tiles for the roofs.[321] Other recorded buildings are
all of late date and under Roman influence, and we must leave
an account of Roman brick-building to be dealt with in a later
chapter (#XIX:vol2_ch19#.).
There is an interesting passage in the Birds of Aristophanes,
in which he is describing the building of the city of Nephelokokkygia,
the walls of which are apparently conceived as
being of sun-dried brick. He there speaks of “Egyptian
brick-bearers,”[322] implying that the use of brick was a characteristic
distinction of that nation. The passage (1133–51) is
.bn 134.png
.pn +1
worth quoting in full, as showing the process employed in the
making of sun-dried bricks.
.if h
.in +2
.ll -4
.ll
.fs 95%
.nf
Mess.\ \ \ Birds and none else; no bricklayer of Egypt,
No stone-hewer was there, no carpenter:
With their own hands they did it, to my marvel.
There came from Libya thirty thousand cranes,
All having swallowed down foundation-stones,
Which with their beaks the rails still aptly shaped:
Another party of ten thousand storks
Were brick-makers: and water from below
The plovers and the other wading birds
Were raising up into the higher air.
Peisth. And who conveyed the mortar[323] for them?
Mess.\ \ \ Herons,
In hods (λεκάναισιν).
Peisth. And how did they get in the mortar?
Mess.\ \ \ That was the cleverest device of all, sir.
The geese with their webbed feet, as though with spades (ἄμαις),
Dipp’d down, and laid it neatly on the hods.
Peisth. What feat indeed may not be wrought with feet?
Mess.\ \ \ Aye, and the ducks, by Jove, all tightly girt,
Kept carrying bricks, and other birds were flying,
With trowel on their head, to lay the bricks;
And then, like children sucking lollipops,
The swallows minced the mortar in their mouths.
.nf-
.fs 100%
.in
.if-
.if t
.in +4
.ll -4
.ll
.nf
Mess.\ \ \ Birds and none else; no bricklayer of Egypt,
No stone-hewer was there, no carpenter:
With their own hands they did it, to my marvel.
There came from Libya thirty thousand cranes,
All having swallowed down foundation-stones,
Which with their beaks the rails still aptly shaped:
Another party of ten thousand storks
Were brick-makers: and water from below
The plovers and the other wading birds
Were raising up into the higher air.
Peisth. And who conveyed the mortar[323] for them?
Mess. Herons,
In hods (λεκάναισιν).
Peisth. And how did they get in the mortar?
Mess.\ \ \ That was the cleverest device of all, sir.
The geese with their webbed feet, as though with spades (ἄμαις),
Dipp’d down, and laid it neatly on the hods.
Peisth. What feat indeed may not be wrought with feet?
Mess.\ \ \ Aye, and the ducks, by Jove, all tightly girt,
Kept carrying bricks, and other birds were flying,
With trowel on their head, to lay the bricks;
And then, like children sucking lollipops,
The swallows minced the mortar in their mouths.
.nf-
.in
.if-
.rj
(Kennedy’s Trans.)
Sun-dried bricks were known as πλίνθοι ὠμαί (lateres crudi);
baked bricks as πλίνθοι ὠπταί (lateres cocti or coctiles). The
Romans also used the word testa for baked brick, corresponding
to the Greek κέραμος. Vitruvius[324] distinguishes three varieties
of unburnt bricks, as used by the Greeks. One, known as
“Lydian,” was also used by the Romans, who named the
bricks from their length sesquipedales; their size was 1½ by
1 ft. The other two, exclusively Greek, were known as πεντάδωρον and
τετράδωρον, the word δῶρον signifying a “palm”
.bn 135.png
.pn +1
or three inches; in other words, they were respectively fifteen
inches and one foot square. The former was used for public
buildings, the latter for private houses, and they were arranged
in the walls in courses of alternate whole and half bricks, as
is frequently done at the present day. Vitruvius also speaks
of bricks made at Pitane in Mysia, and in Spain, which
were so light that they would float in water.[325] He advises
that bricks should not be made of sandy or pebbly clay, which
makes them heavy and prevents the straw from cohering, so
that they fall to pieces after wet. Many other directions are
given by him,[326] but are too lengthy to quote here. Bricks were
made in a mould called πλαίσιον, a rectangular framework of
boards[327]; and the sun-dried bricks were, as we learn from the
passage quoted above, made by collecting the clay with shovels
(ἄμαι) into troughs (λεκάναι) and working it with the feet.[328]
It is probable that we have some allusion to the use of moulds
in certain passages from the Latin writers.[329] The final proceeding
was the drying in the sun.
An important branch of the subject is the use of terracotta
for roof-tiles and other architectural decorations of temples
and other buildings. On this point our knowledge has during
the last five-and-twenty years been marvellously increased, the
extent of its use in architecture having been hitherto but little
suspected.[330] The generic term for a roof-tile is in Greek κέραμος;
they are generally divided into flat tiles (στεγαστῆρες or σωλῆες,
tegulae) and covering-tiles (καλυπῆρες, imbrices). Besides the
ordinary roof-tiles there must also be taken into consideration
four varieties of ornamental tiles which found their place on
a classical building. They are: (1) the covering-slabs arranged
in a row along the γεῖσον, or raking cornice of the pediment;
.bn 136.png
.pn +1
(2) the κυμάτιον or cornice above the γεῖσον; (3) the cornice
along the sides of the building, with spouts in the form of lions'
heads, to carry off rain-water; (4) the row of antefixal ornaments
or ἀκρωτήρια surmounting the side-tiles.[331]
The flat roof-tiles or σωλῆες, as in the Heraion of Olympia
and other early buildings, are square and slightly concave, so
that the raised edges placed side by side may catch under the
semi-cylindrical καλυπῆρες, and so be held in their place. The
latter are of plain semi-cylindrical form, except the row at
the lower edge of the roof, which have attached to them the
vertical semi-elliptical slabs known as “antefixae,” of which
more later.
The κυμάτια were painted with elaborate patterns of lotos-and-honeysuckle,
or maeanders, in red, blue, brown, and yellow,
the principle being preserved (as always in Greek architectural
decoration) of employing curvilinear patterns only on curved
surfaces, rectilinear only on flat surfaces.[332] At the back was
the gutter for collecting rain-water, which ran off through the
holes pierced at intervals in the cornice, passing through the
mouths of lions’ heads, moulded in very salient relief. These
correspond to the gurgoyles of Gothic architecture. Many
specimens have been found at Olympia, Elateia, and elsewhere
in Greece; one of the finest, from a temple of Apollo at Metapontum,
is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. It is
very finely modelled, and the whole, with the background,
richly coloured in red, yellow, and black.[333] Spouts were sometimes
modelled in other forms, such as a Satyric mask, or the
fore-part of a lion; of the latter there are some examples in
the British Museum.[334] In the accounts for the erection of the
arsenal at the Peiraeus there is an interesting entry relating
to these lions’ head spouts, in which they are described as
κεραμίδες ἡγέμονες λεοντοκεφάλαι, “principal tiles with lions'
heads.”[335]
The invention of antefixae is attributed by Pliny[336] to Butades
.bn 137.png
.pn +1
of Sikyon, who is also credited with the invention of modelling
in clay, in a well-known story; “he was,” says Pliny, “the
first to place masks on the extremities of the roof-tiles, which
were at first called bas-reliefs (protypa), but afterwards alto-reliefs
(ectypa).”[337] It is possible that the ἀγάλματα ὀπτῆς γῆς seen by // Tr: agalmata optês gês
Pausanias in the Stoa Basileios at Athens[338] were ἀκρωτήρια // tr: akrôtêria
or antefixal ornaments at the angles of the cornice, but they
are more likely to have been modelled free and in the round
than in relief on a background.[339] Such sculptured groups were
not uncommon in Greek architecture; thus the cornice of the
pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia was adorned with
a series of figures of Victory. The groups above mentioned
represented Theseus slaying Skiron and Eos carrying off
Kephalos; and it is interesting to note that a terracotta group
with the latter subject found at Cervetri[340] also undoubtedly came
from the cornice of a building.
.pm onplate II
.il id=pl02 fn=plate02_138.jpg w=600px ew=90%
.ca
Archaic Antefixae of Graeco-Italian Style (British Museum).1. Satyr and Maenad, from Civita Lavinia; 2. Female Head, from Capua.
.ca-
.pm offplate
The manner in which the antefixae were treated by the
Greeks and Etruscans for purposes of decoration is well illustrated
in the British Museum collection. In Cases 64–71
of the Terracotta Room may be seen a series from Capua of
archaic style, the front part being semi-elliptical in form, having
within an ornamental border a female bust, Gorgon’s head, or
other design in relief, all being richly coloured (Plate #II:pl02#.).
The back projects in a semi-cylindrical termination, forming
the covering-tile, with an arched support to the upright piece.
Similar antefixae were found by Lord Savile at Civita Lavinia
(see below), and some have elaborate subjects, such as Artemis
with two lions, or a Satyr and Maenad with a panther
(Plate #II:pl02#.).[341] Many have also been found at Cervetri, from
which site came some interesting friezes of terracotta now in
the British Museum (B 626) and at Berlin. These works of
art, with which we must rank for their style the reliefs on
the archaic terracotta sarcophagus in the British Museum
(see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.), show throughout a strong influence of
.bn 138.png
.bn 139.png
.bn 140.png
.pn +1
Ionic art; though all of local manufacture, their style is purely
Greek, as is the case with many of the contemporary works in
bronze found in Italy.[342]
.il id=fig010 fn=fig010_140.jpg w=500px
.ca FIG. 10. TERRACOTTA ANTEFIX FROM MARATHON (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Antefixes from Hellenic sites are not so common, nor do
they present the same variety of subject or richness of colour.
In many cases, as in the fourth-century British Museum specimens
from Asia Minor,[343] the decoration is confined to scrolls
and floral patterns in low relief, the palmette being regarded
as the most appropriate decorative motive for this form of tile.
An example of this type in the British Museum (C 902 = Fig. #10:fig010#.),
found on the field of Marathon, is inscribed with the name
Athenaios. Many later antefixes with remains of colouring
have been found at Tarentum, the subjects being chiefly
heads of women or mythological personages.
Roof-tiles proper have been discovered in large numbers
both in Greece and Italy. Olympia has proved the richest
site in this respect, and there are many specimens in the
.bn 141.png
.pn +1
Museums of Athens and Palermo.[344] Many of them have
coloured decoration, and these terracotta remains are almost
the only evidence we now have of the extensive system of
colouring applied by the Greeks to their temples.[345]
At Olympia all the buildings have terracotta roofs except
the temple of Zeus and two others, the dates varying from
the seventh century B.C. down to Roman times. We know
from Pausanias[346] that the temple of Zeus was roofed with
marble tiles in imitation of terracotta, an invention traditionally
attributed to Byzes of Naxos. The covering-tiles of the Heraion
roof (see Fig. #9:fig009#.) end in semicircular discs painted with ornamental
patterns; the flat roof-tiles are of the concave type described
above. The normal sixth-century type of roof is seen in the
Treasury of the Megarians, which has smooth flat tiles and
covering-tiles ending in antefixes with palmette-and-lotos
ornament, and a kymation cornice with lion’s head spouts.
A greater variety of tiles is to be seen in the Treasury of
Gela. Here for the first time we note the introduction of a new
system, which consists in nailing slabs of terracotta over the
surface of the stonework, or, to use the convenient German term,
“Bekleidungstechnik.”[347] It is obvious at the first glance that
the origin of this practice dates from the time when buildings
were largely or wholly of wood, which required protection from
the weather. When the wood was replaced by stone, the fashion
held its ground for a time; but with the more extensive use
of marble, which could not well be covered in this manner,
it disappeared altogether in Greece.
.pm onplate III
.il id=pl03 fn=plate03_142.jpg w=600px ew=90%
.ca
Part of Archaic Temple with Terracotta Roof, Civita Lavinia, as Restored
in the British Museum.
.ca-
.pm offplate
But the Treasury of Gela is by a Sicilian architect, and it
seems highly probable that the method of decoration employed
was not one usually practised in Greece, but was introduced
from the Western Mediterranean. Though rare in Greece, it
is exceedingly common in Sicily and Southern Italy. The
.bn 142.png
.bn 143.png
.bn 144.png
.pn +1
middle temple (known as C) on the acropolis of Selinus, and
buildings at Gela and Syracuse, may be cited as examples.
The principle is also well illustrated in the terracotta remains
of the temple at Civita Lavinia, excavated by Lord Savile in
1890–94, which are now in the British Museum. They have,
as far as possible, been incorporated in a conjectural restoration
in the Etruscan Saloon (Plate #III:pl03#.).[348] It will be noted that
most of the slabs are pierced with holes, by means of which
they were attached to the walls or surface of the entablature;
they are mostly decorated with lotos-and-honeysuckle and other
patterns, in relief and coloured, the same being repeated in
colour only on the back of the overhanging edges of the
cornice. These remains belong to two periods, the end of
the sixth century and the fourth century B.C.; they may be
easily distinguished by the differences in the treatment of the
ornamental patterns, while there is a marked absence of
colouring in the later remains. Similar architectural remains
in terracotta have been found in Etruria, and are described in
Chapter XVIII. It should be noted that the Civita Lavinia slabs
are flat, whereas those used at Olympia, and many others in
Southern Italy and Sicily, are three-sided.
Specimens of ordinary Greek tiles have been found in many
parts of the ancient world, besides those for special architectural
purposes already discussed. Avolio[349] mentions many
examples from Acrae and elsewhere in Sicily, stamped with
emblems or names of officials and of makers. At Olbia, in
Southern Russia, tiles were found stamped with names of
Greek aediles (ἀστυνόμοι), like the amphora-handles described
below (p. #158#),[350] and in Corfu tiles and bricks with names of
magistrates (πρυτάνεις), indicating in each case the existence
of public regulations concerning the potteries.[351] At Kertch
(Panticapaeum) Dr. Macpherson discovered large numbers of
tiles with labels on which was stamped the word
.pm ii inscr_101_basilike.jpg ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ '' ','
“Royal,” together with other inscriptions.[352] These tiles showed
.bn 145.png
.pn +1
the manner of their attachment one upon the other, and their
dimensions answered to the Lydian variety mentioned above.
Other tiles discovered by Mr. Burgon at Athens, by Sir Charles
Newton in Kalymnos, and by Mr. Colnaghi at Kandyla (Alyzia)
in Acarnania, bore labels with inscriptions and designs in
relief.[353] On one of the latter series in the British Museum is
the inscription
.pm ii inscr_102_alyzia.jpg ALYZEIÔN '' ','
“of the people of Alyzia” (Fig. #11:fig011#);
on another was inscribed in the manner of the Athenian vases
(see Chapters #X:ch10#. and #XVII:vol2_ch17#.) // Tr: IPPEOS KALOS ARISTOMEDEI DOKEI
.pm ii inscr_102_ippeos.jpg ΙΠΠΕΟΣ '' ''
.pm ii inscr_102_kalos.jpg ΚΑΛΟΣ '' ''
.pm ii inscr_102_aristomedei.jpg ΑΡΙ[Σ]ΤΟΜΕΔΕΙ '' ''
.pm ii inscr_102_dokei.jpg ΔΟΚΕΙ '' ','
“Hippeus seems handsome to Aristomedes.”[354]
.il id=fig011 fn=fig011_145.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 11. INSCRIBED TILES FROM ACARNANIA AND CORFU (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Inscribed tiles from Greece proper are somewhat rare, and
the best-known examples, to the number of sixteen, have been
collected by M. Paris[355]; they are usually inscribed with the
word
.pm ii inscr_102_demosia.jpg ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ '' ''
or
.pm ii inscr_102_demosios.jpg ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟΣ '' ','
as a sort of Government // Tr: DÊMOSIA : DÊMOSIOS
stamp. Others have magistrates’ names, as
.pm ii inscr_102_phrodeis.jpg ΦΡΟΔFΙΣ '' ',' // Tr: PHRODFIS
Ἀ]φροδ(ε)ισίου, on a tile at Corinth, or the maker’s name, // Tr: A]phrod(e)isou
.pm ii inscr_102_fastoukrit.jpg FΑΣΤΟΥΚΡΙΤ '' ','
Fαστουκρίτ[ου, on one from Thisbe in Boeotia.[356] // Tr: FASTOUKRIT Fastoukrit[ou
Those found by M. Paris at Elateia have either the word
.pm ii inscr_102_demosios.jpg ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟΣ '' ''
or
.pm ii inscr_102_epi.jpg Ε[Π]Ι '' '' // Tr: EPI
with the name of the magistrate;
though all are fragmentary, it is possible to restore the full
formula as πλίνθος δημοσία ἐπὶ Ἀπελλέα, “government bricks, // Tr: plinthos dêmonsia epi Apellea
.bn 146.png
.pn +1
in the year of Apelleas’ office.”[357] A remarkable tile or stele,
found near Capua and now in the British Museum, has an
inscription in Oscan, and two stamps of a boar and a head
of Athena, resembling types on Italian coins of the early part
of the third century.[358]
.if h
.li
From Benndorf.
FIG. 12. OSTRAKON OF MEGAKLES.
From Jahrbuch d. arch. Inst.
FIG. 13. OSTRAKON OF XANTHIPPOS.
.li-
.if-
.if t
.nf b
[Illustration] [Illustration]
From Benndorf From Jahrbuch d. arch. Inst.
FIG. 12. CALYX-KRATER FIG. 13. OSTRAKON OF XANTHIPPOS.
.nf-
.if-
We may recall the fact that it was with a tile that Pyrrhus
met his death when besieging Argos. Nor is this the only
occasion on which these humble objects have played a part
in history. In the well-known Athenian institution of Ostracism
the act of voting was performed by writing on fragments of
tiles or potsherds the names of those whom it was desired to
banish. Recent excavations have yielded more than one actual
specimen of these ὄστρακα or sherds,—one bearing the name of // Tr: ostraka
Megakles (Fig. #12:fig012#.); another, part of a painted vase from the
pre-Persian débris on the Athenian Acropolis, the name of
Xanthippos, the father of Perikles (Fig. #13:fig013#); and a third, that
of Themistokles.[359]
It is also probable that in Greece, as among the Romans, the
hollow floors of the hypocausts, as well as the flue-tiles of the
hot baths, were made of terracotta. The same material was also
used for the pipes, by means of which water was conveyed from
.bn 147.png
.pn +1
aqueducts or drained from the soil. A drain-pipe from Ephesos
in the Museum at Sèvres is noted by Brongniart and Riocreux,[360]
and others have been found at Athens[361] and in the Troad.[362]
Tiles were also employed for constructing graves, as has
already been noted in Chapter II. (see p. #34#). In some tombs
the floor was paved with flat tiles, and the roof was constructed
of arched tiles forming a vault. The flat and square tiles were
not used for tombs until a comparatively late period. Some
graves had a second layer of tiles to protect the body from the
superincumbent earth.[363] We shall have occasion to make
further allusion to the use of painted terracotta slabs in Etruscan
tombs (Chapter #XVIII.:vol2_ch18#).
The sarcophagi which played so important a part in the tomb
were also frequently made of terracotta, this material being most
commonly employed in Etruria. We have already mentioned
(p. #62#) the series of archaic painted sarcophagi, which have all
come from Clazomenae, near Smyrna, and furnish us with much
valuable information on the art of painting in Ionia in the sixth
century B.C. They will receive some attention from this point
of view in Chapter #VIII:ch08#. The British Museum contains two
very remarkable examples of Etruscan terracotta sarcophagi,
which are described in Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#., as well as a series of
smaller examples, which are mere cinerary urns. Among other
examples of terracotta as used in tombs may be mentioned here
a series of small reliefs found in tombs at Capua and elsewhere
in Southern Italy. They consist of masks of Satyrs, river-gods,
and Gorgons, and are often highly coloured in red and blue.
They are of late archaic work, about 480 B.C., but the exact way
in which they were used to decorate the tombs is uncertain.
The British Museum collection contains many specimens of
these objects.[364]
There is a curious class of objects which hardly come under
the heading of any other category, but may be conveniently
discussed here. Complete specimens are very rare, but there is
.bn 148.png
.pn +1
one in the Museum at Geneva which has been identified as a
brazier (πύραυνος or ἐσχάρα), // Tr:pyraunos : eschara
and more recently as a baking-oven (κλίβανος).[365] // Tr:klibanos
The form is that of a large basin on a high stand,
hollow underneath, with three square solid handles projecting
upwards from the rim. These handles, of which over a thousand
examples are to be found in various collections, are usually the
only part remaining, sometimes with part of the rim attached.
They are decorated with heads and other devices, usually in
relief on square panels, and the majority of these heads are of
a Satyric or grotesque character, wearing conical caps or adorned
with ivy-wreaths. They probably represent demons of some
kind, and are placed there with superstitious intent, to avert evil
influences from whatever was baked or cooked in the vessel.
Similar masks are usually seen attached to representations of
forges and ovens on the painted vases,[366] and remind us of the
pseudo-Homeric invocation of evil deities against the potters
of Samos (see also p. #213# below). Professor Furtwaengler has
identified the heads as those of the Kyklopes, the attendant
workmen of Hephaistos.[367]
These objects are found all over the Mediterranean, especially
at Halikarnassos, Naukratis, and Delos, and the last-named place
has been regarded as the centre of their manufacture. They are
all of the same brick-like, coarse, red clay. Some bear the name
of their maker, Hekataios or Nikolaos. Besides the heads
already mentioned, heads of goats or oxen, or of Sirius,
thunderbolts and rosettes are used by way of devices. They
have been collected together, and illustrations of all the different
types given by Conze in the Jahrbuch for 1890, p. 118 ff.: two
specimens are given on Plate #IV:pl04#. They belong to the Hellenistic
Age.
Other objects that exemplify the use of clay or terracotta in
Greek daily life are: moulds for vases and terracotta figures,
lamps, weights, and stamps for various purposes. Many flat
discs of terracotta have been found at Tarsus, Gela in Sicily,
Tarentum, and other places, pierced with two holes and about
.bn 149.png
.pn +1
three inches in diameter.[368] They are stamped with various devices
and inscriptions, but their use is unknown. Other discs of convex
form found at Halikarnassos and stamped with heads in
relief are supposed to have been weights ([λεῖαι) to hold down the // Tr: leiai
threads of the loom (ἀγνύθες),[369] such as are used by the Greeks at // Tr: agnythes
the present day; others again may be the weights used for keeping
the ends of the folds of a himation in position. Small pierced
cones of terracotta often found in the fields of Greece have been
supposed to have been suspended round the necks of cattle, but
are probably weights of some kind.[370] Lastly, terracotta egg-shaped
objects have been found in Sicily inscribed with various
names, and are supposed to have been voting-tickets used for
the ballots of the tribes.[371]
Many examples have been found of terracotta impressions
from coins, which may have been the trial-pieces of die-sinkers
or forgers, since persons of that class, as among the Romans,
seem to have employed this material for their nefarious
practices. They are more fully discussed in Chapter #XIX:vol2_ch19#. The
British Museum contains a large collection of these found in
the Fayûm in Egypt, all of Roman date; also a copy of a coin
of Larissa from Acarnania. Terracotta medallions with impressions
of gems or seals are not uncommon, especially in Asia
Minor and at Naukratis, and among the latter are many lumps
of clay actually used as seals, with the pattern of the substance
in which they were impressed adhering to the back of them,
while on the front is a design from a signet-ring.[372]
.tb
The subject of Lamps is one that is more conveniently and
appropriately treated in the Roman section of this work (see
Chapter #XX:vol2_ch20#.), almost all existing examples in terracotta being
of that period; it may not, however, be out of place to include
here a few general remarks on the subject, pointing out the
distinctive features of those of purely Greek origin.
.pm onplate IV
.il id=pl04 fn=plate04_150.jpg w=500px
.ca
Greek Lamps and “Brazier-handles.”1, 3, 4, 6, Lamps from Greek Sites; 2, 5 Braziers from Halikarnassos and Cyprus (British Museum).
.ca-
.pm offplate
The invention of lamps was ascribed by Clement of Alexandria
.bn 150.png
.bn 151.png
.bn 152.png
.pn +1
to the Egyptians; and they were certainly in common use among
the Greeks. Herodotos[373] describes those which he saw in Egypt
as simple saucers filled with oil in which the wick floated, and
this statement is partly supported by the form of the lamps
found in the earlier tombs of Cyprus and on sites under
Phoenician influence.[374] He also uses the phrase περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς, // Tr: peri lychnôn haphas
“about the time of lighting lamps,” to denote the evening.[375]
The Greek comic writers allude to the use of lamps of terracotta
or metal,[376] and they played a part in religious ceremonies.
The regular Greek name for a lamp was λύχνος (not λαμπάς, // Tr: lychnos
which means a torch), and a lampstand was called λυχνοῦχος; // Tr: lychnouchos
the spout or nozzle in which the wick was placed was known as
μύξος or μυκτήρ, the wick itself as ἐλλύχνιον.[377] A lamp with more // Tr: myxos : myktêr : ellychnion
than one nozzle was known as δίμυξος or τρίμυξος.[378] The simple // Tr: dimyxos : trimyxos
form was that derived from the Phoenician lamp, an open saucer
with a bent-up lip in which the wick was placed; but commonly
the Greek lamp had a circular or oval body (the receiver) with
flat covered top, in the centre of which was the filling-hole. To
this was sometimes attached a handle permitting the insertion
of a finger, and the nozzle was usually very small and quite
plain. An epithet applied by Aristophanes[379] to a lamp is
τροχήλατος, “made on the wheel”; but evidence points to their // Tr: trochêlatos
being always made in moulds.
The majority of the lamps which have been found on Greek
sites are of Roman date, and they frequently bear Latin inscriptions;
those of the Hellenic period are seldom ornamented, and are
usually covered with a thin black glaze. Others are modelled
in the form of human figures, animals, heads, or sandalled feet;
the British Museum possesses a good example of grey ware
from Knidos in the form of a figure of Artemis (Cat. C 421),
with the oil-receptacle on the top of her head; another from
Naukratis represents Eros (see for these Plate #IV:pl04#.). One
from Athens was inscribed
.pm ii inscr_107_me_aptou.jpg 'ΜΗ ΑΠΤΟΥ' '' ','
“Do not touch,”[380] an
.bn 153.png
.pn +1
inscription of similar import to those on the Roman lamps
from the Esquiline described in Chapter #XX:vol2_ch20#.
Little has at present been done in the way of a scientific
investigation of Roman lamps, but the results of a rough
classification according to shapes show that certain forms
are more specially associated with Greek sites, and moreover
frequently bear names of makers in Greek letters. This is
particularly the case with one form, which appears to be
confined to Athens, Corfu, the coast of Asia Minor, and Cyprus.
These lamps, of a pale yellow clay, have a circular body with
flat top, round the edge of which runs a border of impressed egg-pattern,
interrupted on either side by a small plain raised panel.[381]
The handle is small and pierced with a hole, the nozzle also small,
with straight sides. These lamps bear the makers’ names (in
the genitive), Primus
.pm ii inscr_108_premiou.jpg ΠΡΕΙΜΟΥ '(' '),' // Tr: PREIMOU
Abaskantos
.pm ii inscr_108_abackantou.jpg ΑΒΑCΚΑΝΤΟΥ '(' '),' // Tr: ANACKANTOU
etc., the former being especially common; all are in Greek
letters. Some again only have a single letter or monogram
engraved underneath. They are often very carefully executed,
with sharply cut details, and the subjects are usually
mythological (see Plate #IV:pl04#. fig. 1); they appear to be of
very late date, not earlier than the third century after Christ.
Another form which appears to be specially characteristic
of Greek sites is that with a plain or heart-shaped nozzle, sometimes
with a groove incised at the base, but without a handle.
They are usually quite small, with circular bodies. Large
numbers of these were found by Mr. Newton at Knidos in
1859,[382] and by Mr. Barker at Tarsos in 1845.[383] The subjects
are mostly poor and devoid of interest, including animals,
rosettes, and various floral patterns. Many of these lamps
bear the signature ROMAINE(N)SIS, the form of the word
indicating that they were made by a Roman residing abroad
(i.e. at Knidos), not in Rome.[384] A third form, approximating
to the Christian type, has a small solid handle and plain
nozzle, and is confined to sites on or near the coast of Asia
.bn 154.png
.pn +1
Minor. These, with the remaining types of lamps, will be
more fully dealt with in the Roman section of this work.
It may, however, be worth while mentioning here that Mr.
Newton found at Knidos several lamps of a coarse black
ware, covered with thin glaze, which are mostly of large size.
They are circular, and convex above, and are supplied with
two or more long nozzles with blunt terminations radiating
round them (see Plate #IV:pl04#. fig. 6). Between the nozzles are
roughly stamped devices of Satyrs’ heads, flowers, etc., in relief.
These may fairly be regarded as a Greek type.
.tb
The subject of Greek sculpture in terracotta is so wide
as to demand a volume to itself; but a discussion of the
uses to which clay was put by the Greeks would not be
complete without some mention of their achievements in this
direction. We propose therefore briefly to review the main
features of Greek terracotta statuettes and reliefs, by way
of illustrating the purely artistic use which they made of
this material.
The subject may be divided under four heads: (1) Large
statues; (2) Statuettes or figurines; (3) Reliefs; (4) Moulds.
Large or life-size statues belong more particularly to the earlier
phases of Greek art, but appear again in its later developments,
under Italian influences. Statues of terracotta were also a
common feature of Italian art, being, in fact, the usual material
employed by Etruscan statuaries, as well as for the decoration
of temples (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.). Greek terracotta statues are
practically non-existent; and although there are some female
figures nearly life-size and a male torso of almost colossal
proportions in the British Museum, also a Hermes in the
Vatican, these were found at Rome, belong to the Roman
period, and, though Greek in style, are really following an
Etruscan fashion.
It is characteristic of the Hellenic race that from its earliest
beginnings it did not employ clay for utilitarian purposes
exclusively, but, influenced partly by the natural imitative
instincts of man, partly by the anthropomorphic tendencies of
the Greek religion, soon learned the value of this easily worked
.bn 155.png
.pn +1
material for producing images of deities, animals, and other
objects. Although an equally high antiquity may be claimed
for images of wood, and the word ξόανον used for a primitive // Tr: xoanon
cult-statue argues for the frequent use of this material, yet
the history of the word πλάσσειν tells equally in the other // Tr: plassein
direction. Originally used of moulding wet clay, it came
by degrees to denote modelling in general, and finally its
derivative πλαστική became the authorised classical word for // Tr: plastikê
sculpture.
Lactantius[385] speaks of Prometheus as the inventor of fictile
images for religious purposes, and of figures in bronze and
marble as a later development; the Latin poets[386] bear similar
witness to the primitive use of clay for sculptured images,
and Pliny marvels at its long-continued employment in Italy.[387]
Among early Greek legends the most noteworthy is that of
Butades, the potter of Sikyon, to whom the invention of
modelling clay in relief was ascribed by Pliny[388] and Athenagoras.
The story as told by the former was that, in order to preserve
the likeness of his daughter’s lover, he moulded in terracotta
the shadow of his profile which the girl drew on the wall.
This account, however, is not very intelligible, and the clue
is perhaps to be found in the words of Athenagoras,[389] who
says that he hollowed out the lines of the face in the wall,
filled in the grooves with clay, and so obtained his relief as
from a mould. This primitive work of art was said to have
been exhibited in the Nymphaeum at Corinth.
But this same invention was also claimed by the Samian
sculptors, Theodoros and Rhoikos, who flourished about the
end of the seventh century. They were pre-eminently artists
in bronze, and were associated with the introduction of hollow-casting
in that material into Greece; it may therefore be
supposed that they actually were among the first to use clay
models for statues, this being an essential preliminary to the
hollow-casting process. This would not be incompatible with
.bn 156.png
.pn +1
the invention of moulding reliefs by Butades, admitting the
truth of his story. The latter was also credited with the
invention of antefixal ornaments (see above, p. 98) and the
introduction of a mixture of red ochre or ruddle with clay
in order to give it a warmer tone.
The clay models used by sculptors as the basis of their
work, which were known as προπλάσματα, were probably made // Tr: proplasmata
on the same lines as the large works of art in clay. We read
that Lysistratos of Sikyon, the brother of Lysippos, was the
first to make casts of statues by means of terracotta moulds,[390]
implying that it was about this time that the practice arose
of multiplying the principal statues in the same manner as
is now done by means of plaster casts. Some of the latter
artists combined the plastic art with that of painting, and
Zeuxis is said to have previously modelled in terracotta the
subjects which he afterwards painted. Pasiteles, an artist
who lived at Rome in the first century B.C., always first
modelled his statues in terracotta, and spoke of the plastic
art as the mother of statuary.[391] But it must not be supposed
that as a general rule the Greek sculptors worked their marble
statues from models; rather, the contrary was the case, and
Pasiteles seems to have been peculiar in this respect.
The statue of Zeus, which has already been mentioned as
made by Theokosmos for Megara (p. #92#), appears to have been
made from a clay model. It was intended to be of gold and
ivory, but the breaking out of the Peloponnesian War prevented
the artist from carrying out his intention, and only the head
was completed, the other portions being of gypsum and terracotta.
At a later period gypsum was sometimes used for
sculpture, as in the case of an Apollo mentioned by Prudentius,[392]
and some fragmentary remains from Cyprus in the British
Museum.
The clay models were sometimes made entirely by hand,
but more usually on a wooden core known as κάναβος,[393] which // Tr: kanabos
we may conjecture to have been formed of two rods in the
.bn 157.png
.pn +1
form of a cross, from the use of the Latin word crux in this
connection.[394] It was certainly a framework, not a solid core,
and must be carefully distinguished from κίνναβος, a lay-figure. // Tr: kinnabos
Aristotle, in an interesting passage, uses the word
in speaking of skeletons drawn on a wall.[395] The modelling
of details was done partly with tools, partly with the finger.
The use of the finger-nail for this purpose became proverbial,
as in the saying attributed to Polykleitos: “When the clay
has reached the finger-nail stage, then the real difficulty
begins.”[396]
The chief attention of inferior artists was directed to the
production of small terracotta figures, which the Greeks used
as ornaments or household gods, buried in their tombs, or
dedicated in their temples. They follow the same lines of
development as the larger sculptures, beginning with the
columnar (ξόανα) and board-like (σανίδες) types found in the
primitive tombs of the Mycenaean and early Hellenic civilisation.
Originally they seem to have been manufactured purely for
religious purposes, but in course of time, with the gradual
rationalising of religious beliefs and consequent secularisation
of art-types, they lost this significance, and, while the types were
preserved, they were converted into genre figures from daily life.
These statuettes have been found on nearly all the famous
sites of antiquity from Babylonia to Carthage and Kertch; the
most fruitful have been Tanagra in Boeotia, Rhodes, the
Cyrenaica, Capua and Canosa in Italy, and various sites in
Sicily. In Cyprus, Sardinia, and to a great extent also
in Rhodes, Phoenician influences seem to have been dominant,
and the earlier types bear a markedly Oriental character. For
beauty and charm the palm has by general consent been given
to the Tanagra statuettes of the fourth and third centuries, which
were known in antiquity as κόραι or “maidens,” from the prevalence // Tr: korai
of the seated or standing types of girls in various attitudes.
The makers of these charming figures, known as κοροπάσται // Tr: koroplastai
or κοροπλάθοι, were, like the vase-painters, quite in // Tr: koroplathoi
a subordinate position in the artistic world, and are spoken of
.bn 158.png
.pn +1
with some contempt by Isokrates, as if it would be absurd to
compare them with a Pheidias or a Zeuxis.[397] A fable of Aesop’s[398]
represents Hermes being offered a statue of Zeus for a drachma
and one of himself for a mere song; the low price seems to
suggest that they were of terracotta, but the vendor is called an
ἀγαλματοποιός, not a κοροπλάθος. Demosthenes[399] condemns the // Tr: agalmatopoios : koroplathos
Athenians for voting for figure-head generals like makers of toys
for the market; and in further illustration of the uses to which
they were put, we may cite the definition of Suidas, of “those
who fashion little images out of clay of all kinds of creatures, with
which to trick children”; and the remark of Dio Chrysostom,
who speaks of those who buy the “maiden” figures for their
children. A pretty epigram in the Anthology[400] tells how Timareta,
when about to marry, dedicated to Artemis the playthings of
her childhood, including her terracotta dolls (κόρας). Lastly, // Tr: koras
Plato speaks of κόραι and images hung up in shrines.[401] // Tr: korai
The processes employed in the manufacture of terracotta
statuettes were five in number: (1) the preparation of the clay;
(2) moulding; (3) retouching; (4) baking; and (5) colouring
and gilding. It does not follow that all five were employed in
the production of any one object; on the other hand, all processes
necessary to the completion of any one object fall under
one or other of these heads.
There were many varieties of clay in use among the Greeks,
some being considered more suitable for one purpose, some for
another. These clays vary in their characteristics in different parts
of the Greek world, and this may often be an important criterion
for distinguishing fabrics and detecting instances of importation.
The clay of Cyprus differs much from that of Rhodes, and that
of Naukratis again from either, being of a dark, coarse, and
brick-like consistency. M. Pottier noted nine varieties of clay
in use at Myrina in Asia Minor, and M. Martha distinguishes
five in the terracottas of Athens. But these differences may
be explained by variations in the length or temperature of the
firing rather than in the clay.
.bn 159.png
.pn +1
Generally speaking, the clay of the terracottas is softer and
more porous than that of the vases. It is easily scratched or
marked, and does not ring a clear sound when struck; nor does
it when submitted to a high temperature become so hard as the
pottery.[402] Its colour ranges from deep red to a pale buff colour,
and its texture and density vary greatly in different localities.
It was prepared by being washed free of all granular substances,
and then kneaded with the aid of water. So, as we read in
Hesiod’s account of the creation of Pandora,[403] the god directed
the mixing of clay and water, in order to form his new creation.
The modelling of the figures was done by hand in the case of
the earlier fabrics, and of small objects such as the toys and dolls;
the clay was worked up into a solid mass with the fingers, and
the marks of these, left while it was wet, may still be often seen.
Subsequently the use of moulds became universal, the final
touches being given to the figure either with the finger or with
a graving-tool, traces of which are often visible on the faces and
hair of the Tanagra figures. These were invariably moulded,
and the finer ones show traces of having been most carefully
touched up.
There is a pretty epigram in the Anthology,[404] which seems to
imply that the wheel was sometimes brought into use for modelling
figures, perhaps for the first rough outlining. A statuette
of Hermes is supposed to say:
//.in +10
//.fs 90%
//.nf
.pm onpoem
The rolling circle of the potter’s wheel
Me, Hermes, formed, of clay from head to heel.
Mud-made, I lie not: the poor potter’s art,
Stranger! was ever pleasant to my heart.
.rj
(Macgregor.)
.pm offpoem
//.nf-
//.fs 100%
//.in
The process of moulding gave scope for reducing the “walls”
of the figure to the smallest possible thickness, thereby avoiding
the danger of shrinkage in the baking; it also rendered them
extremely light, and allowed of great accuracy in detail. A
model (πρότυπος) was made in terracotta with modelling-tools, // Tr: protypos
from which the mould (τύπος) was taken, also in terracotta, // Tr: typos
.bn 160.png
.pm onplate V
.il id=pl05 fn=plate05_160.jpg w=500px ew=100%
.ca
Moulds for Terracotta Figures, with Casts from the Moulds.
2, 3. Archaic, from Rhodes; 1, 4. Archaistic, from Tarentum (British Museum).
.ca-
.pm offplate
.bn 161.png
.bn 162.png
.pn +1
usually in two pieces, which were then baked to a considerable
hardness. From this mould the figure was made by smearing
it with layers of clay until a sufficient thickness was reached,
leaving the figure hollow. The back was made separately, either
from a mould or by hand, and then fitted carefully on to the
front, the join being concealed by a layer of wet clay. The
base was usually left open, and a vent-hole was left at the back
which may have served a double purpose—first to allow the clay
to contract without cracking, and subsequently in some cases for
the suspension of the completed figure.
The heads and arms were usually moulded separately and
attached afterwards, and altogether the average number of
moulds employed—say for a Tanagra figure—was four or five.
M. Pottier[405] quotes an instance of an Eros from Myrina which
is made up of no less than fourteen; yet it is not a specially
complicated figure.
Greek moulds, either for statuettes or reliefs, are somewhat
rare; but the British Museum contains a fair number from
Tarentum of all kinds (see Plate #V:pl05#.).[406] Those that we
possess are mostly for small objects, such as figures of animals;
but in the Museum collection there are several moulds for
reliefs, as well as for vases of the later class with reliefs
(see Chapters #XI.:ch11#, #XXII:vol2_ch22#.), such as the Calenian phialae with
embossed designs.[407] Moulds employed for making stamps of
various kinds are also in existence; at Naukratis Mr. Petrie
found several circular “cake-stamps” with various designs.
Of the moulds used by forgers or others for copying coins
we have already spoken (p. #106#).[408]
The shrinkage of the clay as it dried afterwards permitted
the figure to be withdrawn easily from the mould, and it was
then ready for the necessary retouching. It is obvious from a
glance at any collection of terracottas that there is a great
.bn 163.png
.pn +1
similarity between the various representatives of any one type,
and that actual or virtual repetitions are by no means uncommon.
This was, of course, due to the fact that only a limited number
of moulds were used, corresponding to the different types. At
the same time there are in almost all cases minute differences
which redeem them from a charge of monotony, and these were
obtained in various ways: by varying the pose of the head or
attaching the arms in different positions; by retouching before
the baking; or by the addition of attributes and colouring. As
it has been neatly put by M. Pottier,[409] “All the Tanagra figures
are sisters, but few of them are twins.” But retouching is not
invariable, and is, in fact, confined to the finer specimens, such
as those of Tanagra. In the statuettes from the Cyrenaica and
Southern Italy it is the exception. The difference which it
effected may be well observed by comparing two statuettes
of Eros in the British Museum from Myrina (C 535–36), which
are from the same mould. They are identical in style and type,
yet one is far superior to the other in artistic merit, just because
of the greater finish of detail.
The process of baking required great care and attention;
for if no allowance was made for the evaporation of moisture, or
if too great a degree of temperature was reached, the result
was bound to be disastrous. It does not appear that a very
high temperature was reached, especially as compared with the
pottery. The clay was further insured against too rapid drying
by preliminary exposure to the air. A story told by Plutarch[410]
of the fate which befell the chariot cast for the temple of
Jupiter on the Capitol illustrates the possibility of disasters
either from accident or carelessness. The clay swelled up to
such a size and hardness that it could only be extracted by
pulling the kiln to pieces.
The colouring of statuettes may be considered a fairly universal
practice, although not always suggested by their present
appearance. The earlier archaic specimens were not always,
or only roughly, coloured, and those of the Roman period
seem to have been often left plain; but otherwise it is the
general rule. The surface on which the colours were applied
.bn 164.png
.pn +1
was formed by a white slip or engobe of a creamy colour and
consistency, with which the whole figure (except the back) was
coated. This when dry becomes very flaky, and is liable to
drop off, carrying the colours with it; most statuettes retain at
least traces of this coating.
The method of painting is that known as in tempera, the pigments
being opaque, mixed with some stiffening medium. The
colouring was as a rule conventional, aiming at giving the
figure a pleasing appearance, without any particular regard
to nature. It was applied after the firing, as in that process the
colours would have been liable to injury. The tints are what
are known as body-colours, without any attempts at shading,
and those usually employed are red, blue, yellow, and black,
the white slip forming a ground throughout, and left untouched
over the nude parts and often over the drapery; of these
the favourites, especially for drapery, were blue and red, as
also we learn from Lucian.[411] Pollux says it was a speciality
of the κοροπλάθοι to colour their figures yellow, or with a // Tr: koroplathoi
golden tint.[412] The reds range in shade from scarlet to rose-colour
and purple. At all times there was a tendency to
treat the drapery in masses of colour, and this we see especially
in the Tanagra figures, in which the chiton is almost invariably
blue, the himation rose-pink. At a later date it became more
customary to leave the drapery white, with borders and stripes
only of colour. Black was only used for details of features,
such as the eyes; green is very rare; and yellow was employed
(in a deep brownish shade) for the hair, and also for jewellery,
etc. The use of gilding is at all times rare in the statuettes;
but some good examples are known—as, for instance, two
archaic statuettes from the Polledrara tomb, and a head of
Zeus, all in the British Museum.[413] Imitation jewellery in terracotta
gilt is not at all uncommon. On many of the earlier
figures from Cyprus the drapery is indicated by stripes of red
and yellow laid directly on the clay, while animals are usually
decorated with stripes of red and black; the method employed
is the same as on the contemporary vases (p. #253#). Similarly,
.bn 165.png
.pn +1
in the terracottas of the Mycenaean and Geometrical periods,
such as those from Boeotia, the technique of the painted vases
is closely followed, and the same decorative patterns are
employed.
The use of an enamelled glaze first appears at Athens in
the fourth century, and it is also occasionally found at Tanagra.
The colour is uniformly a dull ashen-grey. A few examples are
also known from the Cyrenaica, but it was in Sicily that the
practice found most favour. There we find attempts to reproduce
the colouring of the flesh by an enamel coating varying in
hue from rose-pink to orange, and also grey and purple tints.
It is probable that the colours employed for painting terracottas
were made from the same earths, though of a coarser
kind, as the ware itself. Some information on the subject may
be derived from Theophrastos, Vitruvius, and Dioskorides.[414]
For white the artist used a white earth, such as Melos produces,
and white lead; it is also said to have been produced from
the burnt lees of wine, and from ivory. The reds were composed
of a red earth, probably ochre from Sinope, and vermilion
or minium. Yellow was obtained from Skyros and Lydia;
and a yellow ochre was obtained by burning a red earth.[415]
The Egyptian smalto or cobalt served for blue, and a copper
solution prepared with alkali and silica was also employed.
Copper green was obtained from many places, and mixed with
white or black.
.tb
This may be a convenient point at which to speak of
a class of vases which come rather under the heading of terracottas
than that of painted pottery. They are found at Calvi,
Canosa, Cumae, and other places in Southern Italy, and belong
to the Hellenistic period, forming a parallel development to
the glazed wares with reliefs of which we shall speak later
(p. #497# ff.). They combine in a marked degree the characteristics
of the vase and the statuette, some being vases with moulded
reliefs or small figures in the round attached in different places,
others again actual figures or colossal heads modelled in vase
.bn 166.png
.bn 167.png
.bn 168.png
.pn +1
form by the addition of mouth, handle, and base (see Plate #VI:pl06#.).
They are usually of considerable—sometimes gigantic—size, and
do not appear to have served any practical purpose; some,
indeed, are only imitation vases with false bottoms. It is
reasonable to suppose that they were manufactured for sepulchral
purposes only, like the large painted kraters and amphorae of
Apulia (p. #476#).
.pm onplate VI
.il id=pl06 fn=plate06_166.jpg w=431px
.ca Terracotta Vases from Southern Italy (British Museum).
.pm offplate
Like the statuettes, they are covered throughout with a white
slip laid directly on the unglazed clay, and this is often richly
coloured in tempera. Some of the heads have the hair covered
with intersecting pink lines to imitate a net, and the figures
attached to them are usually coloured in the manner of the
statuettes, with blue and pink draperies. There are some, however,
in which the encaustic or a similar process seems to have
been employed[416]; one example, in the British Museum (D 185,
shown on Plate #VI:pl06#.), has a Hippocamp painted on either side in
white and colours outlined with black, the wings being elaborately
rendered in blue, brown, yellow, and pink. The same process
is employed for a large cover of a vase in the British Museum
from Sicily (D 1), but the figures are now nearly obliterated.
The prevailing shape of these vases is that conventionally
known as the askos, with spherical body, over which passes
a flat handle and three mouths on the top; the latter are often
covered in and figures placed upon them. On the front and
back of these vases appliqué masks of Medusa or figures in
relief are usually placed, flanked by the fore-parts of galloping
horses. Others take the form of a large jug or bowl with
appliqué ornaments.
It now remains to consider the small but interesting class
of terracotta reliefs, which are nearly all of the late archaic
period, dating from the beginning of the fifth century. Later
reliefs are nearly all architectural in character, and have already
been described, as have those which were made for the decoration
of tombs and sarcophagi. But the purpose for which
the reliefs were made, of which we are about to speak, is not
so certain. One group appears from the character of the
.bn 169.png
.pn +1
subjects to be votive, and they may possibly have been let
into the walls of temples or shrines; but the others are mostly
known to have been found in tombs. The former group are
found at Athens and at Locri in Southern Italy; the latter
at Melos and other sites round the Aegean Sea, being usually
known as “Melian” reliefs.
The character of the work of these Melian reliefs (see
Plate #VII:pl07#.) is exceedingly delicate and refined; the subjects are
mainly mythological, and include the slaying of Medusa by
Perseus and of the Chimaera by Bellerophon, Helle on the
ram, Peleus seizing Thetis, Eos carrying off Kephalos, and
the death of Aktaeon. Three classes have been distinguished,[417]
of which the peculiarly Melian type has the figures cut out,
without background; in the second only the outer contours
are cut round, and the third consists of rectangular plaques.
Brunn[418] considers that they served a definite architectural
purpose, being intended to cover a field enclosed by borders,
and that the holes with which they are pierced show that they
were used either for suspension or attachment. But his reasons
for regarding them as an archaistic survival have not been
generally accepted.
The Locrian type of relief takes the form of a square plaque.[419]
They are easily recognised by the rough micaceous character
of the clay, and by their subjects, which mostly relate to the
myth and cult of Persephone. They were probably dedicated
in one of her shrines, as were those found on the
Acropolis at Athens to Athena. All these reliefs seem to
have been impressed in moulds, not modelled by hand, as
many of them exist in duplicate. Those from Greece are
sometimes coloured.
.pm onplate VII
.il id=pl07 fn=plate07_170.jpg w=340px ew=90%
.ca
Terracotta “Melian” Reliefs, Archaic Period (Brit. Mus.).
.ca-
.pm offplate
Many little figures in the shape of animals and other objects,
such as goats, pigs, pigeons, tortoises, chariots or boats, boys or
apes riding on animals, women making bread, and similar subjects,
together with jointed dolls or νευρόσπαστα, were evidently used // Tr: neurospasta
as children’s toys. They have been found deposited with the
.bn 170.png
.bn 171.png
.bn 172.png
.pn +1
bodies of children in the tombs of Melos, Rhodes, and Athens.
In Mr. Biliotti’s excavations at Kameiros in Rhodes in 1863,
one child’s tomb was found containing two of the “Melian”
reliefs, small vases of glass and black-glazed ware, a terracotta
basket of fruit, and a sea-shell; in another were a bird, two
dolls, a child in a cradle, two grotesque figures, a woman
playing a tambourine, and two other terracotta figures.
The terracotta dolls were cast in a mould like the ordinary
figures, but the bodies, legs, and arms are formed of separate
pieces pierced with holes, so that they might be joined and
moved with strings, like the modern marionettes; hence their
name of νευρόσπαστα, “drawn by wires.” They all represent //Tr: neurospasta
girls, and sometimes dancers with castanets in their hands;
they are coloured in the usual manner, and date from various
periods between 500 and 200 B.C. Allusion is sometimes made
to these figures in the Greek writers—as, for instance, by
Xenophon, who in his Symposium[420] introduces Socrates inquiring
of an exhibitor of these puppets what he chiefly relies
on in the world. “A great number of fools,” he replies, “for
such are those who support me by the pleasure they take in
my performances.” Aristotle[421] mentions dolls that moved their
limbs and winked their eyes like marionettes, but this can
hardly refer to terracotta figures.[422]
.tb
It would require too much space to enumerate all the subjects
represented in the terracotta statuettes. But it may be found
convenient to give an outline of the subjects and principal types
adopted at different periods.[423] Roughly speaking, the range
of subjects may be divided into seven groups: (1) figures of
deities; (2) mythological subjects; (3) scenes from daily life;
(4) imitations of works of art; (5) caricatures; (6) masks;
(7) animals. Among the figures of the Olympian deities we
find most commonly Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis;
.bn 173.png
.pn +1
Hephaistos, Ares, and Hestia are seldom if ever represented;
Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, and even Athena are also very rare.
Of the inferior deities, Dionysos, Persephone, Eros, and Nike
(Victory) are most frequently found, as well as Satyrs and
similar personages. Nor is it always easy to ascertain definitely
whether a figure is or is not intended to be mythological in
significance.
This question is, in fact, closely bound up with that of the
Uses for which the statuettes were made, as on such a purpose
their interpretation in a mythological or human sense may
largely depend. The uncertainty of identification arises from
the practice which obtained of adhering closely to certain
recognised types, which occur repeatedly at all periods. There
is a strong probability that a clear distinction was not recognised
by the Greek κοροπλάσται, but that the same type of // Tr: koroplastai
figure might be used either for a votive offering to a deity,
or as a mere ornament or article of tomb-furniture. And we
are further met with the fact that a type which was mythological
at one period ceases to be so at another, or at any
rate is transformed by some slight alteration of details or
omission of an attribute. Thus the seated figure of an Earth-goddess
or Nursing-mother of a Rhodian or Cypriote tomb
becomes the nurse and child of the fourth century at Tanagra,
while the archaic standing type of a Persephone holding a
flower requires little but the omission of her special head-dress
to transform her into the girl-type of the Hellenistic
age.
.pm onplate VIII
.il id='pl08' fn=plate08_174.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Archaic Greek Terracottas (British Museum).1. Man with Ram (Rhodes); 2. Persephone (Sicily); 3. Rhodes; 4. Doll (Athens).
.ca-
.pm offplate
The earliest beginnings of the statuette proper show, as
might be expected in primitive Greek art, a very limited
range of ideas. As in marble, bronze, and wood, so also in
clay, the type of the female deity reigns supreme. The primitive
Hellenic type of goddess adopts two forms, both derived
from an original in wood, the board-form or σανίς, and the // Tr: sanis
column-form (κίων or ξόανον), each of which finds parallels in // Tr: kiôn : xoanon
sculpture. The limbs are either completely wanting or of
the most rudimentary description, the figure terminating below
in a spreading base. Both these types are found in Rhodes,
but on the mainland of Greece the columnar form is confined
.bn 174.png
.bn 175.png
.bn 176.png
.pn +1
to the Mycenaean period. In the succeeding “Geometrical”
age the board-like types rose into popularity at Athens and
Tegea, and above all in Boeotia. Two varieties are found,
a standing and a sitting type, and they are usually painted
in the manner of the local vases (see p. #290#). The later examples
show a great advance in modelling, especially in the heads.
The columnar form exhibits its development best in the terracottas
of the Graeco-Phoenician period from Cyprus.
The standing and sitting goddess (Plate #VIII:pl08#.) are the two
principal types in archaic Greek art, and are remarkable for
their wide distribution and universal popularity. The name of
the goddess may vary with the locality, but the types remain
almost identical, and the attributes show little variation.
Another interesting archaic type is the so-called funeral mask
or bust (Plate #VIII:pl08#.), of which the best examples have come
from Rhodes. Being almost exclusively feminine, we must
suppose that they ceased to represent the image of the dead
person, as in Egypt and primitive Greece, and became images
of the Chthonian goddess, Demeter or Persephone, represented
under the form of a bust rising out of the earth.[424] Thus
they played in the tombs the rôle of protection against evil
influences, like the mask of Demeter Kidaria, worn by the
priest at Pheneus in Arcadia on certain occasions.[425] Male
masks are occasionally found, representing the Chthonian
Dionysos. They are very rare after the fifth century.
The purely divine and mythological types in the archaic
period are very few in number. Of the Olympian deities few
are represented, except in the conventional hieratic types,
hardly to be differentiated one from another. But on certain
sites are found representations of nature-goddesses, such as
the Earth-mother with a child in her lap (Gaia Kourotrophos),
or a nude goddess within a shrine, who may be a combination
of Astarte and Aphrodite. These types are of Oriental origin,
and are found in Cyprus, Rhodes, Naukratis, and Sardinia.
They may represent offerings made after child-birth. Among
the individualised deities we may point to figures of Hermes
.bn 177.png
.pn +1
Kriophoros (from Rhodes and Sicily),[426] of Herakles,[427] or of the
local nymph Kyrene, who appears holding the silphium-plant
in a terracotta from Carthage.[428]
Among miscellaneous feminine types are the hydrophoros
or water-carrier, the woman riding on a mule, horse, or other
animal, the musician, and the mother nursing a child. Some
of these have their mythological counterparts, as in the
Aphrodite riding on a goose, or the Earth-mother, already
mentioned. Male types are curiously rare, the athletic influences,
which are so strongly manifest in early Greek sculpture, not
affecting terracottas. The most popular is that of the horseman,
particularly in Cyprus. These figures are usually of a rude
and primitive kind, especially in Cyprus and at Halikarnassos.
The examples from Greece Proper show a more developed
archaism, and are found at Athens and in Boeotia. Sometimes
instead of a horse the man rides on a swan, mule, or
tortoise.
Reclining male figures are sometimes characterised as
Herakles or a Satyr; but this type is most fully developed at
Tarentum, in numerous terracottas representing the well-known
subject of the Sepulchral Banquet, associated with a
cult of the Chthonian deities.[429] There are also various types
of grotesque figures, usually in a squatting or crouching attitude;
some assume the form of a Satyr, and others are obviously
derived from the Egyptian figures of Ptah-Socharis, with bent
knees and protruding stomach.
.pm onplate IX
.il id=pl09 fn=plate09_178.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Greek Terracottas of Hellenistic Period (British Museum).1, 4, Tanagra; 2, 3, Southern Italy.
.ca-
.pm offplate
In the fine and later periods, from the end of the fifth century
onwards, the standing or seated feminine figures are still by
far the most prominent. The change, however, which has
taken place, from mythological to genre, has been described
as an evolution rather than a revolution, brought about by
artistic, not religious, considerations. The possible varieties of
the feminine standing types may be best studied in the Tanagra
figures (Plate #IX.:pl09#), which include women or girls in every
variety of pose or attitude. In most cases the arms are more
or less concealed by the himation, which is drawn closely
.bn 178.png
.bn 179.png
.bn 180.png
.pn +1
across the figure; in others a fan, mirror, wreath, or mask is
held in one hand, the other drawing the edges of the drapery
together. Some lean on a column or are seated on a rock;
others play with a bird or perform their toilet. Imitations
of the Tanagra figures, but vastly inferior in merit, subsequently
became popular all over the Greek world; they are
found at Myrina in Asia Minor, in Cyprus, the Cyrenaica,
and many parts of Southern Italy.
Among miscellaneous types of the Hellenistic period, many
of the archaic ones already mentioned retain their popularity.
Others appear for the first time, and are more in accordance
with the spirit of the age, such as girls dancing, playing with
knucklebones, or carrying one another pick-a-back. There
is a beautiful group of two knucklebone-players from Capua
in the British Museum (D 161). The dancing type is found
widely distributed.
Figures of goddesses and mythological subjects are very
rare at Tanagra, but fairly common on other sites, as at Myrina
and Naukratis. Archaistic imitations of the archaic seated
and standing goddesses are often found in the Cyrenaica and
Southern Italy; but the Chthonian deities appear but rarely
among the types of more advanced style. As in sculpture
and vase-paintings, Aphrodite now becomes the most prominent
among the feminine deities, and some of the later statuettes
appear to be reproductions of well-known works of art, the
Cnidian Aphrodite, the Anadyomene, or the crouching type
of Aphrodite at the bath. Artemis and Athena are occasionally
found, but Nike (Victory) is really the most popular figure after
Aphrodite. She, however, plays little more than the part of
a female Eros, a counterpart to whom the Hellenic artist felt
to be a necessity. Formerly these winged female types were
styled Psyche, but this was a conception of post-Hellenistic
origin.
Among the male deities the conditions remain much as before.
Zeus appears for the first time, and was especially popular at
Smyrna, and Sarapis and Asklepios are also occasionally found.
In Naukratis the influence of the Egyptian religion made itself
felt in the production of numerous figures of Bes, Harpocrates,
.bn 181.png
.pn +1
and the like. Hermes is not found so often as might have been
expected, though there is a notable instance in the British
Museum (C 406) of a caricature of the famous statue by
Praxiteles, where a Satyr takes his place. Dionysos is only
met with occasionally, as are Satyrs and Maenads; but masks
of a Bacchic character are very common in Italy.
The one deity who really seems to have caught the popular
taste is Eros, although at the time when most of the Tanagra
statuettes were produced this popularity was hardly assured.
The types of Eros standing, seated, flying, or riding on animals
are innumerable and found all over the Greek world. The best
examples come from Eretria in Euboea, but Myrina and Sicily
have also produced large numbers. They vary from almost
Praxitelean conceptions, like the Flying Eros from Eretria
in the British Museum (C 199), to the veritable Pompeian
amoretti from the same site and from Myrina. The riding
types of Eros (on a horse, dog, swan, or dolphin) are chiefly
found in the Cyrenaica or Southern Italy. In many cases
the Eros types are used for ordinary unwinged boys.
Among the human male types a new feature is the introduction
of the athlete, as he appears in many boyish figures
from Tanagra, and later as a boxer among the somewhat coarse
conceptions of the Roman period. Some years ago a remarkable
copy of the Diadumenos of Polykleitos in terracotta was
found in Asia Minor.[430]
.tb
In the tombs of the Aegean Islands, Italy, and elsewhere, a
class of ware has sometimes been found quite distinct from
the ordinary fictile pottery and resembling the porcelain or
enamelled ware of the Egyptians and Babylonians, such as the
ushabtiu, found in the tombs of the former, and the enamelled
bricks of the latter. For the most part they must be regarded
as importations, of foreign manufacture, the medium of
commerce being the Phoenicians, who not only introduced
Egyptian objects of art, but themselves endeavoured to imitate
them. Hence we must distinguish some as of Egyptian origin,
others as made by the Phoenicians. As might be expected,
.bn 182.png
.pn +1
they are most often found where Phoenician influence was
strong, as in Rhodes and Sardinia. Egyptian perfume-vases
have been found in the Polledrara tomb at Vulci (see Chapter
XVIII.) and may be dated by the accompanying scarabs of
Psammetichus I. as belonging to the end of the sixth century.
But these are by no means the earliest examples. In the
Bronze Age tombs of Cyprus occasional finds have been made
of plates of blue porcelain or faïence, with Egyptian designs
going back to the eighteenth dynasty[431]; and for several
centuries other Egyptian objects in porcelain, or with enamelled
glaze, continue to be found in the tombs of Cyprus, Rhodes,
and Greece. And there is also a considerable quantity of such
wares which is not Egyptian in character, although it may be
to some extent imitative, and therefore demands notice. Of
this the most remarkable examples are the rhyta, or drinking-horns,
found at Enkomi in Cyprus, in 1896, and now in the
British Museum.[432] The two finest specimens are in the form
of a female head surmounted by a cup (Plate #X.:pl10#) and a ram’s
head respectively. Although found in tombs with Mycenaean
objects, and therefore presumably of early date, the style and
modelling are so far advanced—so purely Hellenic—that they
may be compared with archaic work of the sixth century B.C.
or even later.
In the tombs of Kameiros in Rhodes,[433] along with Egyptian
porcelain objects, were found many vases of this ware, of
apparently Greek workmanship. This is further implied by
the presence in one tomb of a figure of a dolphin with a Greek
.pm ii inscr_127_pthyeo_emi.jpg '[Π]Υ[Θ]ΕΩ [Ε]ΜΙ' '' ','
“I belong to Pythes.”[434] It is quite
conceivable that the Greeks of Rhodes (as of Naukratis: see
below) knew and practised Egyptian methods. The finds include
small alabastra with friezes of men and animals in relief, and
flasks of a compressed globular shape similarly ornamented;
also aryballi of various moulded forms, such as animals or
helmeted heads (Plate #X:pl10#. fig. 3). The vase in the form of
.bn 183.png
.pn +1
a head seems to be an early Phoenician idea; and this particular
type of the helmeted head seems to have been adopted subsequently
by Ionian artists in the Clazomenae sarcophagi.[435]
Similar vases and figures have been discovered in the tombs
of Melos, Corinth, Cervetri, and Vulci, and also in Syria and
at Naukratis in Egypt.[436] Others again from the tombs of
Kameiros and Vulci take the form of jars of opaque glass
ornamented with zigzag patterns in white and dull crimson on
a greenish ground.[437] A specimen of somewhat similar ware
was found in a Bronze Age tomb at Curium, Cyprus, in 1895,[438]
consisting of a tall funnel-shaped beaker of blue and yellow
glazed ware with an edging of dark brown (Plate #X:pl10#.). The
technique is superior to that of the later examples, and more
on a level with that of the porcelain rhyta from Enkomi.
In Greece Proper there are altogether few traces of this
enamelled ware, and after the sixth century B.C. it quite disappeared.
But some very fine specimens have been found in
the tombs of Southern Italy. A jug with delicate ornamentation
in blue and white came from Naples, and a similar vase from
the same site, but shaped like a kalathos and of a pale green
colour, is now in the British Museum. Objects of this ware
have also been found on the site of the ancient Tharros in
Sardinia. Their glaze was a pale green, like that of the twenty-sixth
dynasty wares, and with them was found a scarab of
Psammetichus I, which shows them to be contemporaneous
with the objects found in the Polledrara tomb. But the strong
Phoenician element in Sardinia is sufficient to indicate that these
fabrics are all of Egyptian importation.
.pm onplate X
.il id=pl10 fn=plate10_184.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Porcelain and Enamel-glazed Wares (British Museum).
4, 6, Cypriote Bronze Age; 3, Archaic Greek (Rhodes); 1, 2, 5, Graeco-Roman Period.
.ca-
.pm offplate
In the Hellenistic period, when vase-painting had reached its
latest stages, the fashion of glazed enamelled ware was revived;
its chief centre was Alexandria, which would naturally have
.bn 184.png
.bn 185.png
.bn 186.png
.pn +1
carried on the traditions of Egyptian porcelain or faïence.
Specimens of glazed ware with reliefs or modelled in various
forms have been found at Naukratis and in the Fayûm, including
a fine blue porcelain head of a Ptolemaic queen (Plate #X:pl10#.). In
a tomb at Tanagra were found a beautiful askos in the form
of a duck on which Eros rides, and another porcelain vase,[439]
evidently imported from Alexandria, or some other industrial
centre of Hellenised Egypt. Porcelain jugs, inscribed with the
names of Arsinoe, Berenike, and one of the Ptolemies, have
been found at Benghazi in North Africa, at Alexandria, and at
Canosa in Southern Italy.[440] They are of blue ware, with reliefs
of Greek style attached. Fragments of the same kind dating
from the first century B.C. were found at Tarsos in Cilicia,[441] and
in the Louvre there are glazed wares covered with yellow or
green enamel from Smyrna and Kyme. The British Museum
possesses similar vases from Kos and elsewhere, with wreaths
and similar patterns in relief (Plate #X:pl10#.), but these are not
earlier than the Roman period. Enamelled wares of early
Roman date have also been found on the Esquiline, and the
ware is common at Pompeii.[442]
It does not appear that the manufacture of these enamelled
wares was confined to one spot; they are found all over Asia
Minor, Italy, and Gaul, and in other countries bordering on the
Mediterranean. It seems probable, however, that there were
three principal centres of the fabric, at least in the Roman
period. The first of these was in Asia Minor, or the islands
along its coasts, whence came the specimens found at Tarsos,
in Ionia, and in the islands such as Kos. These are mostly
small vases, of metallic form, especially in the treatment of the
handles (cf. Plate #X., fig. 5:pl10#), the colour being usually a bluish
green, though some examples are more polychromatic. These
seem to have been exported to Italy, and viâ Marseilles to
Gaul. Next, there are the wares made at Alexandria, of which
.bn 187.png
.pn +1
the vases described above are examples. And, thirdly, there
was a Gaulish fabric, which must probably be located at Lezoux
in the Auvergne (see Chapter #XXIII:vol2_ch23#.), examples from which
are found at Vichy, in the Rhone Valley, and at Trier and
Andernach in Germany.[443] Fragments of this ware are even
reported to have been found in England—as, for instance, at
Ewell in Surrey, at Colchester and Weymouth.[444] These are of
grey clay with yellow, green, or brown glaze, with ornaments
of leaves, vine-branches, or scrolls, stamped in moulds; the
shapes are jugs, flasks, or two-handled cups. A later variety
is of white clay with a malachite-green glaze, the forms
being again of a metallic type, and towards the end of the
period imitations of glass with barbotine decoration (see
Chapter #XXIII:vol2_ch23#.) appear. These two groups cover the first
century after Christ.
Sometimes the ornamentation of the later glazed wares from
Italy takes the form of small reliefs (emblemata), made separately
and attached before the glaze was applied, and there are two
or three specimens of this class in the British Museum. It was
also not infrequently used for lamps, which, apart from the glaze,
have all the characteristics of the ordinary kinds, and even for
figures of gladiators, boats, and other objects. The glaze is of
a thick vitreous character, and was not improbably produced
by lead; at all events a French writer[445] maintains, in opposition
to the views of Brongniart and Blümner, that by a study of
this ware he has established a knowledge of lead-glaze among
the ancients.[446]
.fm
.fn 300
Strabo, viii. p. 381 (the expression
should probably be confined to vases
with reliefs).
.fn-
.fn 301
Paus. i. 3, 1; Harpokration, s.v.
κεραμεῖς.
//Tr: kerameis
.fn-
.fn 302
Il. v. 387.
.fn-
.fn 303
ii. 8, 10.
.fn-
.fn 304
Hdt. i. 179; Xen. Anab. iii. 4, 7.
Cf. Ovid, Mel. iv. 57:
.in +10
.nf
“ubi dicitur altam
Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.”
.nf-
.in
.fn-
.fn 305
H.N. vii. 194.
.fn-
.fn 306
v. 5, 4; x. 35, 5 and 4, 3; ii. 27, 7
(ὠμῆς τῆς πλίνθου: see Frazer’s note //Tr: ômês tês plinthou
ad loc.); Nissen, Pompeian. Studien,
p. 24.
.fn-
.fn 307
Vitr. ii. 8, 9.
.fn-
.fn 308
Xen. Hell. v. 2, 5; Paus. viii. 8, 5.
.fn-
.fn 309
ἀγάλματα ἐκ πηλοῦ, i. 2, 5. //Tr: agalmata ek pêlou
.fn-
.fn 310
xxxv. 155; see Milchhoefer in Arch.
Stud. H. Brunn dargebr. p. 50.
.fn-
.fn 311
vii. 22, 6.
.fn-
.fn 312
i. 40, 4.
.fn-
.fn 313
See on the subject generally Dörpfeld
and others, Die Verwendung von Terrakotten,
Berlin, 1881.
.fn-
.fn 314
Ath. Mitth. xxiv. (1899), p. 350; Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1903, pls. 2–6, p. 71 ff.
Cf. the painted terracotta panels in
wooden frames at Sparta, mentioned by
Vitruvius (ii. 8, 9).
.fn-
.fn 315
See a passage in Xenophon (Mem.
iii. 1, 7) bearing on the different
materials used in Greek domestic
architecture.
.fn-
.fn 316
See Dörpfeld, Die antike Ziegelbau
u. sein Einfluss auf d. dor. Styl, in Hist.
u. Phil. Aufsätze E. Curtius gewidmet,
p. 139 ff.
.fn-
.fn 317
Diod. Sic. xvii. 115.
.fn-
.fn 318
i. 42, 5.
.fn-
.fn 319
v. 20, 5.
.fn-
.fn 320
Blümner, Technologie, ii. p. 11;
Olympia (Ergebnisse), ii. p. 129 ff.
.fn-
.fn 321
Inscr. Gr. (Atticae), ii. 167.
.fn-
.fn 322
Αἰγύπτιοι πλινθοφόροι (l. 1133). //Tr: Aigyptios plinthophoros]
.fn-
.fn 323
An obviously incorrect rendering of πηλός; Tr. pêlos
the process of making sun-dried
bricks is certainly here referred to, as
the allusion to Αἰγύπτιοι πλινθοφόροι //Tr. Aigyptios plinthophoros
implies.
.fn-
.fn 324
ii. 3, 3.
.fn-
.fn 325
ii. 2, 4.
.fn-
.fn 326
ii. 2, 1, 2. For further details see
Chapter #XIX:vol2_ch19#.
.fn-
.fn 327
Ar. Ran. 800, quoted by Pollux, x.
148: cf. Plut. Vit. Sol. 25.
.fn-
.fn 328
For representations of this process in
Egyptian wall-paintings see Rosellini,
Mon. Civili, ii. p. 255, pl. 49, 1, and
Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, i.
p. 344.
.fn-
.fn 329
Isid. Orig. xix. 10, 16: lateres ...
inde nominati sunt quod lati ligneis formis
efficiuntur. Cf. ibid. xv. 8, 16.
.fn-
.fn 330
See on the subject generally, Dörpfeld,
Die Verwendung von Terrakotten,
1881, and Borrmann’s excellent treatise
in Durm’s Handbuch d. Architektur, Die
Keramik in d. Baukunst (1. Theil, Bd. 4),
p. 28 ff.; also Wiegand, Puteol. Bauinschr.
pp. 719, 756 ff.
.fn-
.fn 331
On the origin of ἀκρωτήρια see Benndorf //Tr: akrôtêria
in Jahreshefte, 1899, p. 1 ff.
.fn-
.fn 332
Cf. B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, C 904.
.fn-
.fn 333
Rayet and Collignon, pl. 16.
.fn-
.fn 334
Cat. of Terracottas, D 707–8.
.fn-
.fn 335
Boeckh, Urkunde über Scewesen
(Staatshaushaltung, iii.), p. 406.
.fn-
.fn 336
H.N. xxxv. 151.
.fn-
.fn 337
H.N. xxxv. 152.
.fn-
.fn 338
i. 3, 1.
.fn-
.fn 339
The use of the word ἄγαλμα also //Tr: agalma
seems to point to this conclusion.
.fn-
.fn 340
Arch. Zeit. 1882, pl. 15.
.fn-
.fn 341
J.H.S. xiii. p. 315. See generally,
Minervini, Terrecotte del Museo Campano.
.fn-
.fn 342
See Furtwaengler, Meisterwerke, p. 250.
.fn-
.fn 343
Cat. of Terracottas, C 910 ff.
.fn-
.fn 344
A good example of a painted tile
from Aegion in Achaia is in the British
Museum (Cat. of Terracottas, C 908).
.fn-
.fn 345
Cf. also the tiles from the temple at
Elateia in Boeotia, described by M.
Paris, Élatée, p. 106.
.fn-
.fn 346
v. 10, 3. It is noteworthy that
Pausanias here uses the word κέραμος, //Tr:keramos
although the tiles are not of terracotta,
indicating that it had become by long
usage the generic word for tiles of all
kinds. Cf. St. Luke v. 19.
.fn-
.fn 347
See Dörpfeld, etc., Verwendung von
Terrakotten, pls. 1–4; Olympia, ii. p. 193 ff.
.fn-
.fn 348
See Builder, 4 March 1899, p. 219.
.fn-
.fn 349
Fatture di argille in Sicilia, pp. 27, 31.
.fn-
.fn 350
Becker in Mélanges Gréco-Romaines,
i. (1854), p. 482 ff.
.fn-
.fn 351
Inscr. Gr. ix. p. 164.
.fn-
.fn 352
Antiqs. of Kertch, pp. 72, 75,
pl. 7.
.fn-
.fn 353
See Brit. Mus. Cat. of Terracottas,
E 131 ff., E 186.
.fn-
.fn 354
Boeckh, C.I.G. i. 541.
.fn-
.fn 355
Élatée, p. 110.
.fn-
.fn 356
See also Ath. Mitth. 1877, p. 441, for
a long inscription from Sparta.
.fn-
.fn 357
Others with ἐπί and a magistrate’s //Tr: epi
name are in the British Museum (Cat. of
Terracottas, E 131–33, 186 ff.): see also
Inscr. Gr. ix. 735 ff.
.fn-
.fn 358
B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, E 130.
.fn-
.fn 359
See Benndorf, Gr. u. Sic. Vasenb.
p. 50, pl. 29, fig. 10; Jahrbuch d. arch.
Inst. ii. (1887), p. 161; Ath. Mitth.
1897, p. 345; Hicks and Hill, Gk. Hist.
Inscrs. p. 16.
.fn-
.fn 360
Musée de Sèvres, p. 19.
.fn-
.fn 361
Ath. Mitth. ii. (1877), pl. 8, p. 119;
Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. i. p. 1260,
fig. 1673.
.fn-
.fn 362
Daremberg and Saglio, i. p. 338,
fig. 399.
.fn-
.fn 363
Cf. Stackelberg, Gräber der Hellenen,
pl. 7; Dodwell, Tour, i. p. 452.
.fn-
.fn 364
Cat. of Terracottas, B 494 ff.
.fn-
.fn 365
Benndorf in Eranos Vindobonensis,
p. 384.
.fn-
.fn 366
Fig. #67:fig067#.. Cf. also Berlin 2294, and
see Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. Caminus.
.fn-
.fn 367
Jahrbuch, vi. (1891), p. 110.
.fn-
.fn 368
B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, E 156 ff.
.fn-
.fn 369
See J.H.S. xiii. p. 80.
.fn-
.fn 370
Cf. Macpherson, Antiqs. of Kertch,
p. 103.
.fn-
.fn 371
Boeckh, C.I.G. iii. 5686.
.fn-
.fn 372
For examples of these see B.M. Cat.
of Terracottas, E 93 ff.
.fn-
.fn 373
ii. 62.
.fn-
.fn 374
See Daremberg and Saglio, art.
Lucerna, init.; Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 80.
.fn-
.fn 375
vii. 215.
.fn-
.fn 376
Ar. Eccl. 1; Axionikos, quoted by
Pollux, x. 122.
.fn-
.fn 377
The words φλόμος and θρυαλλίς seem //Tr: phlomos : thryallis
to denote the material of which the wick
was made (cf. Pollux, x. 115).
.fn-
.fn 378
Pollux, vi. 103; x. 115.
.fn-
.fn 379
Loc. cit. supr.
.fn-
.fn 380
Bull. dell’ Inst. 1868, p. 59.
.fn-
.fn 381
Probably an imitation of the projections
on bronze lamps, to which chains
for suspension were attached. See on
this type Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1903,
p. 338 ff.
.fn-
.fn 382
Newton, Travels and Discoveries,
ii. p. 184=Discoveries, ii. pt. 2, p. 395.
.fn-
.fn 383
Barker and Ainsworth, Lares and
Penates, p. 201.
.fn-
.fn 384
See C.I.L. iii. Suppl. No. 7310.
.fn-
.fn 385
Div. Inst. ii. 11.
.fn-
.fn 386
Juvenal, xi. 116; Propertius, v. 1,
5; Ovid, Fast. i. 202.
.fn-
.fn 387
H.N. xxxiv. 34.
.fn-
.fn 388
H.N. xxxv. 151.
.fn-
.fn 389
Leg. pro Christ. 17, 293, ed. Migne;
see Blümner, Technologie, ii. p. 129,
note 2.
.fn-
.fn 390
H.N. xxxv. 153.
.fn-
.fn 391
Ibid. 156.
.fn-
.fn 392
Apotheosis, 458. See generally Blümner,
ii. p. 140 ff.
.fn-
.fn 393
Pollux, x. 189; Hesych., s.v.; Ber.
d. sächs. Gesellsch. 1854, p. 42; Blümner,
ii. pp. 42, 117; and cf. p. 153 below.
.fn-
.fn 394
Tertull. Apol. 12; ad Nat. i. 12.
.fn-
.fn 395
Anim. Gener. ii. 6; Hist. Anim. iii. 5.
.fn-
.fn 396
Plut. De profect. in virt. 17, p. 86 A;
Quaest. conviv. ii. 3, 2, p. 636 C.
.fn-
.fn 397
De permut. 2.
.fn-
.fn 398
Fab. 137 (Teubner).
.fn-
.fn 399
Phil. i. 9, § 47.
.fn-
.fn 400
Anth. P. vi. 280.
.fn-
.fn 401
Phaedr. 230 B.
.fn-
.fn 402
Brongniart, Traité, i. p. 305.
.fn-
.fn 403
Op. et Di. 60: ἐκλευσε ... γαῖαν ὕδει φύρειν. // Tr: ekeleuse ... gaian hydei phyrein.
.fn-
.fn 404
Anth. P. xvi. 191.
.fn-
.fn 405
Statuettes de Terre Cuite, p. 251.
.fn-
.fn 406
Cat. of Terracottas, E 1 ff.
.fn-
.fn 407
See also for some interesting moulds
from Girgenti, Röm. Mitth. xii. (1897),
p. 253 ff. Similar specimens have been
found at Kertch and Smyrna.
.fn-
.fn 408
See also on the subject C. C. Edgar,
Greek Moulds (Cat. du Musée du Caire,
viii. 1903), pls. 23–8, 33, p. xiv ff. These
moulds are nearly all made of plaster;
but the account there given of the technical
processes would hold good of terracotta
moulds.
.fn-
.fn 409
Op. cit. p. 254.
.fn-
.fn 410
Poplic. 13: see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.
.fn-
.fn 411
Lexiph. 22.
.fn-
.fn 412
vii. 163.
.fn-
.fn 413
Cat. B 458–59, D 392.
.fn-
.fn 414
See Blümner, Technologie, iv.
p. 464 ff.
.fn-
.fn 415
Hirt, Gesch. d. bild. Kunst, p. 165.
.fn-
.fn 416
Pliny (H.N. xxxvi. 189) mentions
one Agrippa who painted in encaustic
on terracotta: see Chapter XIX. for
possible examples of this process.
.fn-
.fn 417
Schöne, Gr. Reliefs, p. 62.
.fn-
.fn 418
Sitzungber. d. k. bayer. Akad. Phil.
Cl. 1883, p. 299 ff.
.fn-
.fn 419
See for those from Athens J.H.S.
xvii. p. 306 ff.
.fn-
.fn 420
iv. 55.
.fn-
.fn 421
De Mundo, 6, 398.
.fn-
.fn 422
See on the subject Hermann, Lehrbuch
d. gr. Altert. iv. (1882), p. 295;
Blümner, Technol. ii. p. 123; Baumeister,
Denkm. ii. p. 778.
.fn-
.fn 423
A Corpus of all the known types of
terracotta statuettes has recently been
published by the German Archaeological
Institute, edited by Dr. F. Winter
(Typen der figürlichen Terrakotten,
2 vols. 1903).
.fn-
.fn 424
Cf. the types on painted vases, Vol. II.
Chapter #XII:vol2_ch12#. (Eleusinian deities).
.fn-
.fn 425
Paus. viii. 15, 3.
.fn-
.fn 426
B.M. B 258, 410.
.fn-
.fn 427
B.M. B 256, 286, 335.
.fn-
.fn 428
B.M. B 359: cf. p. 344.
.fn-
.fn 429
J.H.S. vii. p. 9 ff.
.fn-
.fn 430
J.H.S. vi. pl. 61.
.fn-
.fn 431
Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 102; B.M. Excavations
in Cyprus, p. 35, fig. 63.
.fn-
.fn 432
B.M. Excavations, p. 22, pl. 3.
.fn-
.fn 433
See Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 150;
Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 193; Perrot, Hist.
de l’Art, iii. pl. 5.
.fn-
.fn 434
Roberts, Gk. Epigraphy, i. p. 192.
.fn-
.fn 435
Cf. J.H.S. iv. p. 11. Heuzey, however,
thinks that the Phoenicians imitated
the Greek painted examples of this time
(such as A 1117 ff. in B.M.). Cf. Gaz.
Arch. 1880, p. 159.
.fn-
.fn 436
Good examples are given in Perrot,
Hist. de l’Art, iii. p. 676; Gaz. Arch. 1880,
pl. 28 (in Louvre, from Corinth); Ath.
Mitth. 1879, pl. 19: cf. also Berlin
1288–91, and many examples in B.M.
(First Vase Room). On one from Kos
was found the name of Apries (599–569
B.C.). See also Naukratis I. pl. 2,
figs. 6–18.
.fn-
.fn 437
Perrot, Hist. de l’Art. iii. pl. 6.
.fn-
.fn 438
B.M. Excavations, p. 69, fig. 99.
.fn-
.fn 439
Furtwaengler, Coll. Sabouroff, i. pl.
70, fig. 3 (with text); Rayet and Collignon,
p. 374.
.fn-
.fn 440
See Journ. des Savans, March 1862,
p. 163; Rev. Arch. vii. (1863), p. 259
(name of Ptolemy wrongly read as
Kleopatra); Arch. Zeit. 1869, p. 35;
Rayet and Collignon, p. 372.
.fn-
.fn 441
Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Nov. 1876,
p. 385 ff.
.fn-
.fn 442
Von Rohden, Terracotten von Pompeii,
p. 29.
.fn-
.fn 443
Hettner in Festschr. für J. Overbeck,
p. 169.
.fn-
.fn 444
Archaeologia, xxxii. p. 452 (Ewell);
British Museum, Romano-British Room,
Case H.
.fn-
.fn 445
Mazard, De la connaissance par les
anciens des glaçures plombifères; cf.
Blümner, Technol. ii. p. 89.
.fn-
.fn 446
On the subject generally see Dumont-Pottier,
i. chap. xiii.; Rayet and
Collignon, p. 365 ff.; Daremberg and
Saglio, s.v. Figlinum, p. 1131; and for
the Graeco-Roman enamelled wares,
Bonner Jahrbücher, xcvi. p. 117, and
Mazard, op. cit., where a full description
and list of examples is given.
.fn-
.bn 188.png
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch04' pn=+1
CHAPTER IV | USES AND SHAPES OF GREEK VASES
.pm start_summary
Mention of painted vases in literature—Civil and domestic use
of pottery—Measures of capacity—Use in daily life—Decorative
use—Religious and votive uses—Use in funeral ceremonies—Shapes
and their names—Ancient and modern classifications—Vases for
storage—Pithos—Wine-amphora—Amphora—Stamnos—Hydria—Vases for
mixing—Krater—Deinos or Lebes—Cooking-vessels—Vases for pouring
wine—Oinochoe and variants—Ladles—Drinking-cups—Names recorded
by Athenaeus—Kotyle—Skyphos—Kantharos—Kylix—Phiale—Rhyton—
Dishes—Oil-vases—Lekythos—Alabastron—Pyxis—Askos—Moulded vases.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
Those who are acquainted with the enormous number of painted
vases now gathered together in our Museums, showing the
important part they must have played in the daily life of
the Greeks and the high estimation in which they were clearly
held, as evidenced by the great care bestowed on their decoration
and the pride exhibited by artists in their signed productions,
may feel some surprise that so few allusions to them can be
traced in classical literature. Such passages as can be interpreted
as referring to them may actually be counted on the
fingers of one hand, and even these are but passing allusions;
while any full descriptions of vases, such as that in Theocritus'
first Idyll or some of those in Athenaeus’ Book XI., almost
invariably refer to metal vases with chased designs. Nor can
we trace any reference to known potters or artists in literature
or documents, save in a few inscriptions recently found at
Athens, which are, of course, of secondary importance for literary
history.
More general allusions to pottery and its use in daily life are
common enough, and it would hardly be profitable to quote all
.bn 189.png
.pn +1
such passages in detail; many indeed, such as the early allusion
to the potter’s wheel in the Iliad (see p. #207#), have found a place
elsewhere in this work. The passage of Homer at all events
supplies proof, if such were needed, that the use of the wheel
was known in early times in Greece.
Of undoubted references to painted vases there are but two,
though both of them are particularly interesting, as they refer to
well-known special classes of Attic vases. The earlier of the
two is in Pindar’s tenth Nemean Ode,[447] in which he celebrates
the victory of Thiaios of Argos, who had twice been successful
in the Panathenaic games at Athens. He says:
//Tr: gaia de kautheisa pyri karpos elaias
// emolen Hêras ton euano, a laon, en angeôn herkesi pampoikilois
.nf b
γαία δὲ καυθείσα πυρὶ καρπος ἐλαίαςἔμολεν Ἤρας τὸν ευάνορα λαόν, ἐν ἀγγέων ἔρκεσι παμποικίλοις.[448]
.nf-
These prize-vases are also mentioned by Simonides of Keos:
//Tr: kai Panathênaiois stephanous labe pent' ep' aethlois
// hexês amphiphoreis elaiou
.nf b
καὶ Παναθηναίοις στεφάνους λάβε πέντ’ ἐπ’ ἀέθλοιςἑξῆς ἀμφιφορεῖς ἐλαίου.[449]
.nf-
The other passage, from the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes
(l. 996), is equally well known. One speaker, in somewhat
contemptuous terms, alludes to “the fellow who paints the
lekythi for the dead”:
.nf b
ὃς τοῖς νεκροῖσι ζωγραφεῖ τοὺς ληκύθους.[450] // Tr: hos tois nekroisi zôgraphei tous lêkythous
.nf-
These lekythi may with certainty be identified with the white
Athenian variety decorated with appropriate subjects and made
specially for funerals (see Chapter #XI:ch11#.). The best examples of
this class belong to the very period at which the Ecclesiazusae
was written (392 B.C.), but most of them show signs of being
hastily executed or made to be sold at a low price. It is
probably for this reason that the speaker implies his contempt
.bn 190.png
.pn +1
for the painter, although at the same time it seems likely that
vase-painters, like all craftsmen, were looked down upon by the
Athenians of that day, in spite of the real beauty and artistic
merit of their productions.
One or two doubtful allusions must next be considered. The
lyric poet Alcaeus, who flourished 610–580 B.C., seems to allude
to painted vases, but the reading is very doubtful. The passage
is read by Bergk as follows (Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 165, frag. 41):
//Tr: kad d' aeire kylichnais megalais, ait' hoti, Oiki, lais;
// ... enchee kirnais hena kai dyo
//pleais kak kephalas, ha d' atera tôn aterôn kylix
//ôthêtô
.in +10
.nf
κἀδ δ' ἄειρε κυλίχναις μεγάλαις, αἴτ’ ὄτι, Οἶκι, λαῖς·... ἔγχεε κίρναις ἔνα καὶ δύοπλέαις κὰκ κεφάλας, ἁ δ’ ἀτέρα τῶν ἀτέρων κύλιξὠθήτω.[451]
.nf-
.in
Ahrens[452] read αἶψα ποϊκίλαι for αἴτ’ ὄτι, Οἶκι, λαῖς, and other // Tr: aipsa poikilais] : ait' hoti, Oiki lais
versions have been suggested. Bergk’s reading is very uncouth,
and it certainly seems as if ποϊκίλαις was intended, whatever //Tr: poikilais
the preceding word. If it is allowed to stand, it obviously
implies painted vases, as in the παμποικίλοις of Pindar. // Tr: pampoikilois
In the speech of Demosthenes De Falsa Legatione (p. 415)
occurs a passage which is generally taken as having reference
to painted vases: καὶ σύ, Φιλόχαρες, σὲ μὲν τὰς ἀλαβαστοθήκας
γράφοντα καὶ τὰ τύμπανα, “And you, Philochares, who paint the // Tr: kai sy, Philochares, se men tas alabastothêkas graphonta kai ta tympana
alabastos-stands and the pediments.” The word ἀλαβαστοθήκη is // Tr: alabastothêkê
commonly supposed to describe a stand with holders for pots of
perfume (also called κέρνος, see below, p. #195#), although most // Tr: kernos
painted examples of this vase found in Greece are of very early
date. The τύμπανα are more easy of explanation, being the // Tr: tympana
triangular pediments of temples, which, like the metopes of the
so-called Theseion at Athens and those at Thermon (p. #92#),
were no doubt often adorned with paintings in place of sculpture.
Other passages, if they do not actually refer to painted or
even to fictile vases, are at least of value as giving information
as to the current names for those in every-day use, or as to
various purposes for which they were used. Reference will be
made to many of these in the course of the chapter.
.bn 191.png
.pn +1
Suetonius in his Life of Caesar (§ 81) describes how the
colonists who were sent out under the Lex Julia to build new
houses were destroying ancient tombs for the purpose when
they came upon remains of ancient pottery (aliquantum vasculorum
operis antiqui), the discovery of which caused them to
redouble their efforts in the work of destruction. Similarly
Strabo[453] tells us that when Julius Caesar sent colonists to rebuild
Corinth they came upon tombs containing large quantities of
ὀστράκινα τορεύματα, which they nicknamed “Necrocorinthia.” // Tr: ostrakina toreumata
The meaning of this expression is somewhat doubtful, but the
word τορεύματα seems to imply chased or relief work, and it is // Tr: toreumata
probable that these were not painted vases, but Hellenistic ware
with reliefs, like the so-called Megarian bowls.[454] The latter can
be identified, by means of their subjects, with the scyphi Homerici
of which Nero was so fond; Suetonius tells us that they were
so named a caelatura carminum Homeri, from the subjects from
Homer’s poems carved in relief upon them.[455] The scyphi were
doubtless of metal, the use of which was confined to the wealthy
and luxurious, while the so-called Megarian bowls and similar
ware were copied from them in the cheaper material for the use
of the humbler classes.
We see, then, that classical literature throws but little light on
the uses made of painted vases as such by the Greeks. But we
are by no means ill supplied with information as to the uses of
pottery in general, about which evidence may be obtained both
from the vases themselves and from innumerable passages in
ancient writers or the commentaries of the scholiasts and lexicographers.
This question is more or less bound up with that of
the different shapes and names of vases, of which some 150 have
been handed down by Athenaeus, Pollux, and other writers, and
these will be considered in detail subsequently. For the present
it may suffice to say a few words on what is known of the use
of pottery in general and of painted vases in particular.
As most of the vases hitherto known have been discovered in
.bn 192.png
.pn +1
tombs, it would at first sight appear that they were exclusively
destined for sepulchral purposes; but this seems to have been
in many cases only a subsequent use of them, and they doubtless
also found a place among the wants of daily life. That this is
true of the plain unglazed or unpainted pottery goes indeed
without saying; in regard to the painted vases the question
is, in view of the scanty literary evidence, more difficult to
decide.
.il id=fig014 align=r fn=fig014_192.jpg w=300px
.ca
FIG. 14. HEMIKOTYLION (VASE USED AS MEASURE).
BRITISH MUSEUM.
.ca-
As the civil and domestic use of pottery is the most important,
it is necessary to consider it first. For ordinary purposes earthenware
largely took the place of bronze and the precious metals,
just as it does at the present day. One instance of this we
have already quoted
in speaking of the
“Homeric bowls,” and
others might be cited,
in particular its use
for measures, for
which metal would
naturally be employed
as a general
rule. This usage is
established by the
occasional discovery
of vases inscribed
with the names of measures and the like. The British Museum
possesses a small one-handled cup of black glazed ware (F 595 =
Fig. #14:fig014#) found in the island of Cerigo (Kythera), on which is
incised in fifth-century lettering the word
.pm ii inscr_135_hemikotylion.jpg ΗΕΜΙΚΟΤΥΛΙΟΝ '' ','
ἡμικοτύλιον, or “half-kotyle.” The word κοτύλη is interesting as // Tr: hêmikotylion : kotylê]
denoting not only a shape of a drinking-cup (see below, p. #184#),
but a Greek measure, equivalent to about half a pint. Again,
in 1867, a cylindrical vase of red ware was found at Athens
inscribed
.pm ii inscr_135_demosion.jpg ΔΗΜΟΣΙΟΝ '' ','
δημόσιον, or “public (measure).”[456] It was // Tr: DÊMOSION : dêmόsion
stamped with the figure of an owl and an olive-branch, the
official seal of Athens, and has been supposed to represent the
χοῖνιξ or quart, its capacity having been estimated at 0·96 litres, // Tr: choinix
.bn 193.png
.pn +1
or 1¾ pints, while the χοῖνιξ is generally reckoned as equivalent // Tr: choinix
to 1 litre.[457]
Many of the names in common use for shapes of vases are also
found applied to measures of capacity either for liquid or dry stuffs;
and it is possible that herein lies the explanation of the somewhat
puzzling graffiti inscriptions found under the feet of Attic
vases (see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.), where the words used seem to have
no relation to the vase itself. Thus in liquid measure the
amphora (ἀμφορεύς) or κάδος, also known as μετρητής, was // Tr: amphoreus : kados : metrêtήs
equivalent to about 7½ gallons, and was divided into 12 χόες, the // Tr: choes
χοῦς into 12 κοτύλαι, which, as we have seen, answer to our // Tr: kotylai
½-pints. The ὀξύβαφο was one-fourth of a κοτύλη, the κύαθος // Tr: oxybopho : kotyle : kyathos
one-sixth.[458] All these words were in common use to express
various forms of vases, as will be seen later on. Further, the
word κεράμιον, which, like the Latin testa, is used generally for // Tr: keramion
pottery, has a more restricted sense of a cask or vessel used
for transporting wine, and is even used as a term of measure,
presumably equivalent to the amphora.[459]
Earthenware was also used generally for the purpose of storing
liquids or various kinds of food, for the preparation of food and
liquids, and for the uses of the table or toilet. The painted
ware, however, was not employed for the commoner purposes,
nor to contain large quantities of liquids, for which it would
have been far too expensive. But we know that it was largely
used at banquets and drinking-bouts, and on other occasions,
from the evidence of the vases themselves. Thus, in the well-known
vase with the Harpies robbing the blind Phineus of his
food (p. #357#), a kotyle painted with black figures is seen in the
king’s hands; and in a scene representing the reception of Paris
by Helen,[460] the former is offered wine drawn from a large
four-handled vase on which figures are painted.[461] Vases with
subjects represented on them are also seen placed on columns
forming the background of scenes, as if forming part of the
furniture of a hall or chamber. But as a general rule the vases
.bn 194.png
.pn +1
represented in banquet scenes and elsewhere are left plain or
only decorated with patterns.
To the use of vases in connection with athletic games we have
already alluded in discussing Pindar’s mention of the Panathenaic
amphorae; it is, of course, likely that other forms of vases were
also given as prizes or presented to young men on special occasions,
such as entering the ranks of the ἔφηβοι or being married, // Tr: ephêboi
but we have no evidence of such customs.
.il id=fig015 fn=fig015_194.jpg w=400px
.ca FIG. 15. CHILD PLAYING WITH JUG (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Vases were also used as toys, as is proved by the discovery of
many little vases, chiefly jugs, in the tombs of children at Athens,
on which are depicted children playing at various games.[462] They
are too small to have served any other purpose, and as similarly
shaped jugs appear among the toys used by the children in these
scenes, it is reasonable to suppose that they were playthings.
No doubt some of the more unusual shapes were made with the
same end, such as vases in the shape of animals or fruit, or the
aski (p. #200:fig062#), which contained little balls and were used as rattles.
We have already hinted at the purely decorative use of vases
.bn 195.png
.pn +1
as domestic ornaments, in which capacity they were often placed
on columns; there is, however, no hint of this in ancient authors.
But that it was customary in Greece and Italy, at all events in
the later period (i.e. after the Persian Wars), seems to be indicated
by the practice which obtains with the larger vases of
executing only one side with care, while the other exhibits an
unimportant and badly painted design (generally three boys or
men wrapped in mantles). It is natural to suppose that the
carelessly executed side was not supposed to be seen, owing to
the fact that the vase was intended to be placed against a wall.
Some of the large round dishes of Apulian fabric seem to
have been intended for hanging up against a wall, on the same
principle.[463]
The question which next arises is that of the extent to which
vases were used for religious and votive purposes. Here, however,
with one exception noted below, we derive little aid from
a study of the painted vases themselves, in spite of the frequency
of mythological subjects. But inasmuch as many instances are
known of offerings of metal vases in the temples of the gods,
it can hardly be doubted that painted vases served the same
purpose for those who could only afford the humbler material.
It was at one time supposed that the large vases painted for a
front view only, of which we have just spoken, were destined for
this purpose; but as they are mostly found in tombs, this can
hardly be the case.
Of late years, however, much light has been thrown upon
this question by means of scientific excavations. On many
temple-sites which have been systematically explored, such as
the Acropolis of Athens or Naukratis in the Egyptian Delta,
enormous numbers of fragments of painted vases have been
found which are clearly the remains of votive offerings. It was
a well-known Greek custom to clear out the temples from time to
time and form rubbish-heaps of the disused vases and statuettes,
sometimes by digging pits for them; and thus these broken fragments,
rejected from their apparent uselessness, have from these
very circumstances been preserved to the present day to cast a
flood of light on many points of archaeology. At Naukratis
.bn 196.png
.pn +1
many of the fragments bear incised inscriptions in the form of
dedications to Apollo (Fig. #16:fig016#.) or Aphrodite, according to the
site on which they were found. At Penteskouphia near Corinth
a large series of early painted tablets, with representations of
Poseidon and inscribed dedications, were found in 1879 (p. #316#),
and illustrate the practice of making offerings in this form, mentioned
by Aeschylos.[464] Tablets painted with figures and hung
on trees or walls are not infrequently depicted on red-figured
vases, the subject generally implying their votive character.[465]
Fig. #17:fig017#. represents a youth carrying a tablet of this kind.
.il id=fig016 fn=fig016_196.jpg w=500px ew=70%
.ca FIG. 16. RIM OF VASE FROM NAUKRATIS WITH DEDICATION TO APOLLO (BRIT. MUS.).
.il id=fig017 fn=fig017_197.jpg align=l w=203px ew=30%
.ca
From Benndorf, Gr. u. Sic. Vasenb.
FIG. 17. YOUTH WITH VOTIVE TABLET.
.ca-
There is no doubt that vases (though not, perhaps, painted
ones) must have played a considerable part in the religious
ceremonies of the Greeks. In the Athenian festival of the
Anthesteria, the second day was devoted to the holding of
ἀγῶνες χύτρινοι, or “pot-contests,” vessels full of corn being // Tr: agônes chytrinoi
dedicated to Hermes Chthonios.[466] At the festival of the Gardens
of Adonis flower-pots of earthenware containing flowers were
cast into the sea, as a type of the premature death of Adonis.[467]
These flower-pots were also placed on the tops of houses, and
in this same festival, which was chiefly celebrated by hetairae,
little terracotta figures (κοράλλια) were introduced.[468] The // Tr: korallia
.bn 197.png
.pn +1
use of flower-pots placed in windows to form artificial gardens
is mentioned by Martial and Pliny[469]; and they were also
employed to protect tender plants, as hinted by Theophrastos,[470]
who speaks of the necessity of propagating southernwood by
slips in pots.
It is, perhaps, hardly necessary
to speak of the constant use of
the jug and bowl (phiale) in
sacrifices and libation scenes, as
seen on innumerable vases of
the R.F. and later periods (see
pp. #178#, #191#). Fig. #18:fig018# shows the
use of vases on the occasion of
a sacrifice to Dionysos. There
is also a type of vase which,
according to a recent writer,[471] was
used for burning incense. It is
a form which hitherto had been
conventionally named the κώθων, // Tr: kôthôn,
on account of its recurved lip
(see below, p. #187#); but it is
pointed out that it had three feet
(the form being clearly derived
from the tripod), and therefore
stood, and was not carried about;
also that it varies much in size,
and is found at an early date,
and chiefly in women’s graves.[472]
There is also evidence that it
was meant to stand fire or hold
coals. From these details the
conclusion is deduced that it represents the earlier form
of incense-burner (down to about 500 B.C.), those of later
.bn 198.png
.pn +1
date being of a different form, as often seen on R.F.
vases.[473]
.il id=fig018 fn=fig018_198.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Furtwaengler and Reichhold.
FIG. 18. VASES USED IN SACRIFICE (FROM VASE AT NAPLES).
.ca-
The most important use, however, for which vases were
employed, and that to which their preservation is mainly
due, was for purposes connected with funeral ceremonies.
These were of a varied nature, including the use of vases at
.bn 199.png
.pn +1
the burial, the placing of them on the tomb to hold offerings,
and the depositing of them in the tomb, either to hold the
ashes of the dead or as “tomb-furniture,” in accordance
with the religious beliefs of the Greeks on the life after
death. The principal methods in which they have been
found deposited in the tombs have already been described in
Chapter #II:ch02#.
Vases were employed in the burial rites in various ways,
as we learn from the subjects depicted upon them. In the
celebrated vase representing the death and funeral of Archemoros,[474]
two persons are seen carrying tables laden with vases
to the tomb, while an oinochoë is placed under the bier on
which the corpse is laid. It is also probable that they were
often burnt on the funeral pile with the corpse, and if this
is the case it may account for the discoloured condition of
many fine vases in which the red glaze has turned to an
ashen grey under the action of fire.[475] In any case vases were
often broken before being placed in the tomb, the idea being
that they must participate in the death of the person to
whom they were consecrated. There is a special class of
B.F. amphorae found at Athens, which are commonly known
as “prothesis-amphorae,” the subjects relating exclusively to
the πρόθεσις or laying-out, and other funeral rites. They // Tr: prothesis
were, therefore, probably placed round the bier during this
ceremony.
Vases were also used for holding milk, oil, unguents, and
other liquids which were poured upon the corpse, or for
the lustral water placed at the entrance of the tomb. It
was the regular practice of the Athenians to place vases
on the outside of the tombs, the commonest forms being
that of the lekythos, or a larger vase known as the
λουτροφόρος, mentioned by Demosthenes.[476] These were, however, // Tr: loutrophoros
generally of stone, and are sometimes sculptured in
relief, or bear inscriptions like the Attic stelae[477] and modern
tombstones.
The custom of placing lekythi on tombs is also alluded to
.bn 200.png
.pn +1
once or twice by Aristophanes in the Ecclesiazusae—e.g. line 538:
.ce
οὐδ’ ἐπιθεῖσα λήκυθον,
and again, line 1032:
.ce
καὶ ταινίωσαι καὶ παράθου τὰς ληκύθους.[478]
.il id=fig019 fn=fig019_200.jpg w=400px
.ca FIG. 19. FUNERAL LEKYTHOS, WITH VASES INSIDE TOMB (BRIT. MUS.).
The manner of employing vases as adjuncts to the tomb is
nowhere better illustrated than on the Athenian white lekythi,
which are almost all painted with funeral subjects, and, from
the hasty way in which many are executed, show that they
were often made to order at short notice (see above, p. #132#).
In particular, one example in the British Museum (D 56 =
Fig. #19:fig019#) shows the interior of a conical tomb or tumulus,
within which vases of various shapes are seen. In other
examples they are ranged along the steps of a stele, or are
represented as being brought to the tomb in baskets by
mourning women.[479] The larger vases of Southern Italy, which
.bn 201.png
.pn +1
similarly show by their subjects that they were only made
for funeral purposes, bear a close relation to the white lekythi,
and also to the Attic funeral stelae with reliefs. The treatment
of the subject varies in the different fabrics, but two main
types prevail. In the one, of Lucanian origin, the tomb takes
the form of a stele or column, round which vases are ranged
on steps[480]; in the other, on the large Apulian kraters and
amphorae, the tomb is in the shape of a ἡρῷον or small temple,
// Tr: hêrôon
within which is seen the figure of the deceased, while on either
side approach women bearing offerings (Fig. #106:fig106#); but vases do
not play an important part in these latter scenes.
.il id=fig020 fn=fig020_201.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca FIG. 20. VASES PLACED ON TOMB (LUCANIAN HYDRIA IN BRIT. MUS.).
Thirdly, we have to deal with the use of painted vases in
the tomb itself. As regards their use as cinerary urns, to
contain the ashes of the dead, it appears to have been somewhat
restricted.
.bn 202.png
.pn +1
In the Mycenaean period we know that inhumation, not
cremation, was the practice, contrary to that of the heroic
or Homeric age, in which an entirely different state of things
is represented. But when we do read in Homer or the tragic
poets, of the methods of dealing with the ashes of the dead,
there is no mention of any but metal urns. Thus the ashes
of Patroklos were collected in a χρυσέη φιάλη[481] (the word is
probably used loosely), while those of Achilles were stored
in a golden amphora.[482] Again, Sophokles, in the fictitious
account of Orestes’ death given in his Electra, uses the expression
(l. 758)[483]:
.in +10
.nf l
ἐν βραχεῖχαλκῷ μέγιστον σῶμα δειλαίας σποδοῦ,
.nf-
.in
showing that metal vases were generally employed for this
purpose.
No instances occurred among the early tombs in the Dipylon
cemetery at Athens or elsewhere in Greece before the sixth
century, nor was the practice usually favoured by the Etruscans,
who employed painted vases in their tombs exclusively as
furniture. In Mycenaean times in Crete coffers (λάρνακες)
of terracotta, painted like the vases, were used as ossuaria[484];
and similarly in Etruria at all periods the remains of the
deceased were placed in rectangular chests or sarcophagi of
terracotta or stone. But in the earliest tombs of Etruria
and Central Italy urns and hut-shaped receptacles for the
ashes were invariably employed (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch28#.).
It is, however, probable that in course of time there was
a partial adoption of the practice in Greece. As early as the
middle of the sixth century there is an instance in the well-known
Burgon Panathenaic amphora, now in the British
Museum,[485] found by Mr. Burgon in 1813; it contained remains
of burnt bones and several small plain vases. This would
seem to indicate that the Panathenaic amphorae in particular
were considered appropriate for this purpose, namely, that
.bn 203.png
.pn +1
the cherished prize won by the living should be used for the
most sacred purpose in connection with the dead.
Among the red-figured vases of the fifth century which
have been found to contain ashes, may be mentioned the
famous Vivenzio vase at Naples,[486] which was found carefully
deposited within another vase at Nola, and a vase of the
shape known as λέβης, now in the British Museum, found // Tr: lebês
near the Peiraeus.[487] There is also a covered vase in the British
Museum,[488] which was employed for a similar purpose. It is
not, strictly speaking, a painted vase, being covered with a
white slip and coloured like the terracottas, while the heads
of monsters project from its sides; the shape is that known
as λεκάνη (“tureen”), and it dates from the fourth century. It // Tr: lekanê
contained human bones, among which were found a small
terracotta figure of a Siren and other objects; the jaw-bone,
which was preserved, had still fixed in it the obolos, or small
silver coin which was placed there as Charon’s fare for ferrying
the soul over the Styx. Of later date is a vase found at
Alexandria, in the catacombs, similarly decorated, and also
filled with bones; it was presented to the British Museum in
1830 by Sir E. Codrington.
The class of large terracotta vases found in tombs at Canosa,
Cumae, Capua and Calvi (Cales), of which fine specimens may
be seen in the Terracotta Room of the British Museum (see
above, p. #119#), seems to have been made for sepulchral purposes,
as in many cases they are not adapted for practical use. On
the other hand, they may have been ornaments for houses.
They are decorated with figures in high relief, or attached to
different parts of the vase, and many of them, especially those
in the form of female heads, are strictly speaking not vases at
all, having no proper bottom.
The majority of painted vases found in the tombs must be
regarded purely as tomb-furniture, placed there with the idea
that the deceased would require in his future life all that had
been associated with his former existence. Sometimes they
.bn 204.png
.pn +1
were placed round the corpse, with food or liquids in them
for the use of the “ghost,” and instances are known of eggs
and other objects having been preserved in this manner.[489] Toy-vases
are found buried with children in tombs at Athens and
elsewhere, and toilet-boxes or unguent-vases in women’s graves.
Nevertheless, it is probably not wide of the mark to say that
in the sixth and fifth centuries the custom had lost much of
its original meaning; the habit of placing painted vases in
tombs survived, but the original idea of the practice had become
obscured, and the religious significance was restricted to certain
classes of vases, the prothesis-amphorae, white lekythi, and
others, which were not used during life but only made specially
for this purpose.
Great value seems to have been set upon the painted vases
by their possessors. When broken, they were repaired by
the pieces being skilfully fitted and drilled, with a rivet of
lead or bronze neatly attached to the sides. Several mended
vases exist in the European collections.[490] Occasionally they
were repaired by inserting pieces of other vases. Thus a vase
with two handles, found at Vulci, of the shape called στάμνος, // Tr: stamnos
is repaired with a part of a kylix representing quite a different
subject, and thus presents a discordant effect.[491] A R.F. vase
in the Louvre has actually been mended with part of a B.F.
vase.[492] A B.F. kylix in the British Museum (B 398) has
a piece inserted with the name of Priapos; similarly the
two handles of the R.F. kylix E 4, with the signature of
Thypheithides, do not belong to the vase; but these may
both be modern restorations. The large casks of coarse
and unglazed ware (πίθοι) were also repaired with leaden // Tr: pithoi
cramps. “The casks of the ill-clad Cynic,” says the Roman
satirist, “do not burn; should you break one of them,
another house will be made by to-morrow, or the same will
.bn 205.png
.pn +1
continue to serve when repaired with lead.”[493] Aristophanes
puts into the mouth of his old litigant turned roué a popular
story of Sybaris which alludes to the use of bronze rivets.
A woman of that city broke an earthen pot, which was represented
as screaming out, and calling for witnesses to prove
how badly it had been treated. “By Persephone!” exclaims
the dame, “were you to leave off bawling for witnesses, and
make haste to buy a copper clamp (ἐπίδεσμον) to rivet yourself // Tr: epidesmon
with, you would show more sense.”[494]
.tb
After noting the chief uses of Greek vases it is necessary
to give some account of the different shapes, and to identify
the recorded names as far as possible with the various kinds
actually found.
The subject is, however, one of great difficulty, and it is
impossible to attain to scientific accuracy, owing to the
differences of time between the authors by whom they are
mentioned, the difficulty of explaining types by verbal descriptions,
and the ambiguity often caused by the ancient practice
of describing a vase of one shape by the name of another.
A study of any collection of Greek vases will make it apparent
that there is a great variety in the forms of the different periods.
This is especially marked in the earliest ages of Greece, in
which the variety is almost endless, and the adoption and
development of certain recognised forms practically unknown.
It must therefore be evident that the statements of ancient
writers must always be used with caution, and that a shape
described by an early writer must not be taken as representing
the same in a later period, even if the same word be used, or
vice versa. For instance, the δέπας ἀμφικύπελλον of Homer, // Tr: depas amphikypellon
which finds a curious parallel in the gold cup with the doves
discovered by Schliemann at Mycenae, is, whatever view we
may take of the Homeric civilisation, only an example of a
passing fashion. Or again, many of the drinking-cups described
by Athenaeus in his eleventh book are doubtless only instances
of new experiments in pottery or metal-work characteristic
of the Hellenistic age, with its tendency to strive after novelties.
.bn 206.png
.pn +1
Many of his names are little more than nicknames for familiar
shapes, which enjoyed a temporary popularity.
Some information may be derived from the vases themselves
by means of inscriptions, specimens of which are given in
Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#. Thus on the François vase the three-handled
pitcher used by Polyxena is inscribed
.pm ii inscr_149_hydria.jpg ΥΔΡΙΑ '' ',' // Tr: YDRIA
or “water-pot,”
and enables us to apply the name hydria with certainty to a three-handled
vase, of which many black- and red-figured specimens
exist.[495] Then we have the lekythos of Tataie, and the kylikes of
Philto and Kephisophon,[496] which testify by inscriptions to the
name by which they were known. The names incised in graffito
on the feet of vases[497] are a more doubtful source of evidence,
inasmuch as they may refer either to mixed batches of vases or to
the names of measures of capacity.
Examples of cursory mention of names in the ancient writers,
such as Aristophanes, are innumerable, but seldom explicit,
and the scholia on these writers are hardly more useful, inasmuch
as the grammarians probably knew little more about
obsolete shapes than we do ourselves, and their commentaries
have little critical weight. The loci classici on the subject
are the book of Athenaeus already referred to,[498] in which he
gives a list of over one hundred names, with more or less full
explanation and commentary, most of the forms being apparently
varieties of drinking-cups, and the Onomasticon of Pollux.[499]
Notices of vases are also to be found in the lexicographers, such
as Hesychius and Suidas, and the Etymologicum Magnum.
In the early days of modern archaeology the first to propose
an identification of the shapes of vases was Panofka,[500] whose
fanciful and uncritical lucubrations were shortly afterwards
combated by Letronne[501] and Gerhard,[502] the latter of whom
.bn 207.png
.pn +1
introduced a more scientific method of criticism and classification,
though his results cannot be considered as final. Other
writers were Müller,[503] Thiersch,[504] Ussing,[505] Krause,[506] and Jahn,[507]
of whom Ussing followed practically on Gerhard’s lines but
with more success; Krause, though exhaustive, is on the whole
uncritical; and Jahn has treated the subject with his wonted
conciseness and sobriety. Of late years little attention has been
paid to it, principally, no doubt, for the reason that so many
conventional names have been generally accepted for the
ordinary shapes by archaeologists, who have recognised the
fact that it will never be possible to treat the subject with
scientific accuracy.[508]
The classification of the shapes of vases has usually been
undertaken on the lines of distinguishing their main uses, such
as (1) those in which food or liquids were preserved; (2) those
in which liquids were mixed or cooked; (3) those by means
of which liquids were poured out or food distributed; (4)
drinking-cups; (5) other vases for the use of the table or toilet.
Thus we have the pithos and amphora for storing wine, the
krater for mixing it, the psykter for cooling it, the kyathos
for ladling it out, and the oinochoë or prochoos for pouring it
out; the hydria was used for fetching water from the well. Of
smaller vases, the names for drinking-cups are innumerable, but
the phiale, for instance, was employed chiefly for pouring
libations; while dishes and plates are represented by the
lekane, tryblion, pinax, and so on. The pyxis was used by
women at their toilet, and the lekythos, alabastron, and askos
for holding oil and unguents. There is an interesting passage
in Athenaeus (iv. 142 D)[509] which gives a list of the vases
required for use at a banquet: “And on the tripod was placed a
bronze wine-cooler (ψυκτήρ) and a κάδος (bucket) and a silver // Tr: psyktêr : kados
.bn 208.png
.pn +1
σκαφίον holding two kotylae (one pint), and a ladle (κύαθος); // Tr: kyathos
and the wine-jug (ἐπίχυσις) was of bronze, but nobody was // Tr: epichysis
offered drink unless he asked for it; and one ladleful was
given out before the meal.”
.tb
For the purposes of this work it is hoped that the usual
method of classification indicated above will be found sufficient,
supplemented by the descriptions of Athenaeus and other
writers, where any details can be obtained; but it is obvious
that a really critical treatment of the subject should be chronological,
with endeavours to trace the first appearance and
development of each type. In the present state of our
knowledge, however, it would seem impossible to do so with
success.
We begin our description of the vases of the Greeks with an
account of the large vases of rough manufacture calculated to
hold great quantities of wine, water, or food. The chief vase
of this class is the Pithos or cask (Lat. dolium), a vase of gigantic
size, found both in Italy and Greece.[510] They are shaped like
enormous barrels, with bulging bodies and wide mouths, and
answer to the modern hogshead or pipe. When full, the casks
were closed with a circular stone, or with a cover of clay.
They were used to hold honey, wine, and figs, and were usually
kept half-buried in the earth.[511] They were sufficiently capacious
to hold a man, and the famous “tub” of Diogenes was of
this form. On a lamp in the British Museum and other
monuments[512] he is represented appearing from one, presumably
on the occasion of his interview with Alexander. In the vase-paintings
Eurystheus takes refuge in a pithos from Herakles
when he brings the Erymanthian boar,[513] and the same shape
of vase is represented as holding the wine of the Centaurs
.bn 209.png
.pn +1
and the water drawn by the Danaids.[514] The “box” of Pandora
was in reality a large jar of this kind, as we learn from Hesiod.[515]
It required great skill to make these vases, whence a Greek
proverb characterised an ambitious but inexperienced man
as “one who began with a cask” (ἐν πίθῳ τὴν κεραμείαν μανθάνειν).[516] They were not // Tr: en pithô tên kerameian manthanein
made on the wheel but by
a peculiar process, which is
described as plastering the
clay round a framework of
wood, called κάνναβος[517]; it // Tr: kannabos
appears to have been made
of vertical boards ranged
in a circle, like a tub.
.il id=fig021 fn=fig021_209.jpg align=l w=250px ew=50%
.ca FIG. 21. PITHOS FROM KNOSSOS.
The British Museum
possesses two or three πίθοι // Tr: pithoi
of exceptional size, ornamented
with bands of
geometrical patterns in
relief, which were obtained
from Mr. (now Sir A.)
Biliotti’s excavations at
Ialysos in Rhodes, and
belong to the Mycenaean
period. In 1900 Mr. Arthur
Evans, among the remains
of the Minoan palace at
Knossos in Crete, came
upon a courtyard round
which stood a number of
similar πίθοι, // Tr: pithoi
with decorations of a Mycenaean character (see
Fig. #21:fig021#).[518] These may be considered to belong to the middle
.bn 210.png
.pn +1
of the second millennium B.C., and it is therefore evident that
the πίθος may claim an antiquity second to none among forms
of Greek vases.
Among examples of later date may be mentioned the large
series recently found in Thera by German explorers, some
plain, others with painted geometrical decoration; they are
partly of native make, partly importations from Crete, and date
from the seventh century B.C.[519] Dr. Dörpfeld found examples
of πίθοι in the remains of the earlier cities at Hissarlik, from
the second to the seventh layers. These were used for keeping
all sorts of liquids and solids, and also apparently formed part
of the cooking apparatus.[520] Others were found in the excavations
of Mr. J. Brunton on the site of Dardanus in the
Troad; they were of pale red clay, with a stone cover. In
excavating between Balaclava and Sevastopol Colonel Munroe
discovered no less than sixteen, about 4 ft. 4 in. in height,
within a circular building, apparently a storehouse; they
were also of pale red ware. One had incised upon its lip
.pm ii inscr_153_ddpppiii.jpg 'ΔΔΠΠ ΠΙΙΙ' '' ',' // Tr: DDPPPIII
apparently indicating its price. Similar πίθοι have // Tr: pithoi
been found in Athens, some having fractures joined by leaden
rivets. Large πίθοι with archaic reliefs have been found in // Tr: pithoi
Crete, Rhodes, Sicily, and Etruria (at Cervetri); they are
imitated from metal vases, with designs of Oriental character.[521]
Perhaps of all the ancient vases the best known is the
Amphora (ἀμφορεύς or ἀμφιφορεύς), which was used for a variety
of domestic and commercial purposes. So numerous are the
vases of this form, found all over the Greek world, that they
merit a lengthy description. They were principally used for
wine, but also for corn, honey, oil, and other substances,[522] and
to the use of the word as a measure of capacity we have already
alluded. It should be borne in mind that the conventional use
.bn 211.png
.pn +1
of the word amphora in speaking of the painted Greek vases
implies a quite different form from the plain wine-amphorae,
which were neither painted nor varnished; the type of vase is
the same, but the painted examples are smaller and stouter, with
a proper foot. For the present we confine our description to the
unadorned amphora of commerce.
Besides the two handles from which the word derives its
name,[523] the wine-amphora (Fig. #22:fig022#.) is distinguished by its long
egg-shaped body, narrow cylindrical neck, and pointed base;
this form is often known as diota (the Latin equivalent). The
base is sometimes supplied with a ring to stand on, but is
more usually pointed, in order to be easily fixed in the earth
in cellars. The mouth was sealed by means of a conical cover
terminating in a boss.
.il id=fig022 fn=fig022_211.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 22. GREEK WINE-JARS (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Remains of these amphorae have been discovered not only
in Greece itself, but also wherever the Greek commerce and
settlements extended, as in Alexandria, Kertch (Panticapaeum),
Corfu, Rhodes, Sicily, and Asia Minor. They appear to have
.bn 212.png
.pn +1
been used at a very early period, plain specimens of red ware
being found not only in the early Greek tombs, like that of
Menekrates in Corfu (p. #54#), but even in tombs of the Bronze
Age period, as in Cyprus. The typical long shape, however,
did not come into fashion until about 300 B.C., when the island
of Rhodes was a great trading centre, carrying on an active
commerce all over the Mediterranean. Amphorae of this form
are represented on the coins of Chios and Thasos with reference
to their trade in wine, and on the Athenian silver tetradrachms
which belong to the period subsequent to about 220 B.C.;
they are shown on the reverse, lying horizontally, with an
owl above. In this case the reference may be either to the
large Attic trade in oil or to the use of the amphora for voting
at the election of magistrates (see p. #167#).
The most interesting feature of the wine-amphorae is the
device or impression stamped on the handles either in a circular
medallion or an oblong depression. This was done by
means of a stone or bronze stamp, while the clay was still
moist. They are found in all parts of the ancient world, but
the greater number can be traced to a few places of origin,
of which the most important are: Rhodes, Knidos, Thasos,
Paros, and Olbia in Southern Russia. As regards the stamps,
the usage differs at each centre; but apart from them the handles
can be distinguished by their shapes and material, as will be
seen in the subsequent description.
The Rhodian amphorae, of which large numbers have been
found at Alexandria as well as in the island itself, were of a
very pure and tenacious clay, with a fracture as sharp as that
of delf. The colour is pale, deepening to a salmon hue. The
numerous separate handles which have also been found have
all belonged to the same form of amphora, with long square-shouldered
handles, as on the Athenian and Chian coins. An
entire vase, but without a stamp,[524] which was brought from
Rhodes, was 40 in. in height, and the height of the handles
alone was 10 in., the upper part attached to the top of the
mouth being 3 in. long. This is a typical instance for the shape.
The seal when found is impressed on the upper part of the
.bn 213.png
.pn +1
handle, the size of the label being generally about 1½ in. or
1¾ in. long, by ⅝ in. wide, except when they are oval or circular.
At Alexandria eight distinct varieties of handles were found,
broken from amphorae of different countries, but only one
inscribed; the base also assumed various forms.
In the Rhodian amphorae two stamps are in use, a principal
and an accessory one (Fig. #23:fig023#.a).[525] The former has a device of
the head of Helios, the Sun-God, or the emblematic rose, both
of which types occur on the coins; it is accompanied by an
inscription, in the form ἐπὶ τοῦ δεῖνος, sometimes explicitly // Tr: epi tou deinos
described as ἱερέως, i.e. in the year of the eponymous priest of // Tr: hiereôs
the Sun. This is followed by the name of a Rhodian month.
The accessory stamp contains the name of a person, usually
in the genitive. The months belong to the Doric calendar, and
are as follows: Thesmophorios, Theudaisios, Pedageitnyos,
Diosthyos, Badromios, Sminthios, Artamitios, Agrianios, Hyakinthios,
Panamos, Dalios, Karneios, and the second Panamos,
an intercalary month.[526] The object of the stamps is involved
in obscurity, but they were probably intended to certify that
the amphora (which was also a measure) held the proper
quantity. It is clear that they could not have been intended
to attest the age of the wine, as the vessel might be used
for any sort, and the stamps bear the name of every month
in the year.
.il id=fig023 fn=fig023_213.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca
From Dumont.
FIG. 23. AMPHORA-STAMPS FROM RHODES.
.ca-
Other handles of Rhodian amphorae, stamped with an oblong
.bn 214.png
.pn +1
cartouche or label, may be divided into two classes: (1) Those
inscribed with the name of a magistrate and an emblem. The
latter resembled the “adjuncts” found on the coins of some
Greek cities, but it is uncertain whether they were selected on
any fixed principle, or merely adopted from caprice. They
may perhaps allude to the deity whom the magistrate particularly
honoured as the patron god of his tribe or village.
The same symbol was, however, often used by many individuals,
and on the whole the number known is not large. (2) Those
bearing the name of a magistrate, accompanied by that of
a month of the Doric calendar, but without any emblem
(Fig. #23:fig023#.b).
Many handles of amphorae from Knidos have been found
on different sites. Their clay is coarser than the Rhodian,
its colour darker and duller, and the amphorae differ also somewhat
in form, nor are they of so early a date, being mostly
as late as the Roman Empire. The stamps on the Cnidian
amphorae, like those of Rhodes, are inscribed with the name
of the eponymous magistrate, and also with that of the wine-grower
or exporter of the produce, which is always marked
as Cnidian. The stamps show a great variety in the matter
of emblems. Remains of Cnidian amphorae have been found
in Sicily, at Athens, Alexandria, and Olbia. The palaeography
of the inscriptions covers a period of two centuries, from
Augustus to Marcus Aurelius, or even later.
Numerous examples have been found of handles of amphorae,
in which the celebrated wine of Thasos was exported to places
such as Thasos and Olbia. The stamps are nearly square,
with a device in the middle, the inscription
.pm ii inscr_157_thasion.jpg ΘΑΣΙΩΝ '' ',' // Tr: THASIÔN
and the
name of an official. The names are usually in the nominative,
but in one instance at least the genitive is used. The symbols
include an amphora, kneeling archer, cornucopia, dolphin, etc.
(Fig. #24:fig024#).[527] The known stamps of Paros are few in number;
they are simply inscribed
.pm ii inscr_157_parion.jpg ΠΑΡΙΩΝ '' ',' // Tr: PARIÔN
which in one instance is
written retrograde.[528]
.bn 215.png
.pn +1
Handles inscribed with the name of an aedile (ἀστυνόμος) // Tr: astynomos
and of another person, probably a magistrate, have been found
on various sites in the Crimea and Southern Russia, principally
at Olbia. At Panticapaeum (Kertch) two amphorae were found
with stamps across the neck, thus:
// Tr: EUARCHO EPI KALLIA
// ARISTON EOPAMONOS
.if h
.pm ii inscr_158_multiline.jpg 'ΕΥΑΡΧΟ ΑΡΙΣΤΟΝ : ΕΠΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΑ ΕΟΠΑΜΟΝΟΣ' '' ''
.if-
.if t
.nf c
EUARCHO EPI KALLIA
ARISTON EOPAMONOS
.nf-
.if-
the upper name being that of the magistrate.[529] These vases
appear to have been made on the spot.
.il id=fig024 fn=fig024_215.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Dumont.
FIG. 24. AMPHORA-STAMPS FROM THASOS.
.ca-
Stoddart also mentions amphora-handles as having come
from Corinth,[530] with names which can be traced to the time
of the Roman dominion. Falkner found at Pompeii an
amphora with a Greek inscription of three lines painted in
red and black, with the name of Menodotos and the letters
KOR. OPT., which may mean “the best Corcyraean brand.”[531]
A bibliography of the subject is appended below.[532]
.bn 216.png
.pn +1
Among painted vases the amphora holds a high place,
especially in the black-figure period, during which it was most
prominent. It is distinguished from the plain type, as already
pointed out, by the proportions of the body, as well as by
the graceful curve of the handles and the flat circular foot.
The variations in its form at different places and periods are
so marked that they have led to the adoption of qualifying
adjectives for each kind. Although these names cannot now
be accepted in a strict sense, they are sometimes useful as
conventional expressions. We proceed to describe these in
detail.
(1) The origin of the Greek amphora is clearly to be
sought in the pithos of primitive times, as may be seen
in the vases of the Melian and Proto-Attic classes, and in
the early vases with reliefs from Boeotia, Crete, Thera, and
elsewhere. It is not found in the Mycenaean style, the
large vases of which come under the heading of the krater
(see below); and its appearance in Greece dates from the
developed stage of the Geometrical period. The earliest
specimens among the painted vases are virtually small pithoi,
characterised by a long cylindrical neck, and large elaborate
handles obviously imitating metal (see p. #495#). Of this
type are several of the Boeotian Geometrical and Proto-Attic
vases discussed in Chapter #VII.:ch07#,[533] and the Boeotian
vases with reliefs.[534] Among the Proto-Attic vases found at
Vourva a development occurs, in which the neck is greatly
elongated, and the body becomes exceedingly slim, while the
handles are simplified into plain flat bands united to the neck
by bars of clay (see Fig. #89:fig089#, p. 299). This form is found
still further developed in the prothesis-amphorae of the B.F.
.bn 217.png
.pn +1
period[535]; but these are comparatively rare, and the more
normal evolution of the amphora with cylindrical neck is to
be traced in the varieties (2) and (6) described below.
.il id=fig025 fn=fig025_217.jpg align=l cw=150% w=75px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 25. “TYRRHENIAN” AMPHORA.
(2) The early amphorae preceding the ordinary B.F. Athenian
types were divided by Gerhard into two classes,
“Egyptian” and “Tyrrhenian.”[536] He describes the
former as a vase with tolerably pronounced curve
of body, entirely covered with horizontal bands
of figures; the latter as of similar form, but with
decoration confined to a panel on either side. As
regards shape, therefore, the two are actually one,
and may be regarded as such for our present
purpose; but it is curious to note that the
particular class called “Egyptian” by Gerhard has since his time
been generally known as “Tyrrhenian,” while his “Tyrrhenian”
class has now received, from the peculiar mannerisms of the
paintings, the name of “affected” vases.[537] At all events
the word is convenient to adhere to for the description of
this particular shape (Fig. #25:fig025#), with its long, egg-shaped
body, the vertical section of which is almost an ellipse, a shape
common to all early B.F. fabrics—Athenian,
Rhodian, Ionic, and Corinthian—but best
illustrated by the “Corintho-Attic” class
described by Thiersch.[538] It is seldom found
in purely Attic examples, and disappears
after the middle of the sixth century.
.il id=fig026 fn=fig026_217.jpg align=r w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 26. PANATHENAIC AMPHORA.
(3) Gerhard’s next class is that of the
Panathenaic amphorae, which have a long
body shaped something like a top, and
tapering sharply downwards; the mouth,
handles, and neck are small, as is also the
foot (Fig. #26:fig026#). It is so called as being the
characteristic form of the earlier (sixth-century)
Panathenaic prize-vases, but is also occasionally found
.bn 218.png
.pn +1
in the ordinary fabrics. This type, together with the two
following examples, not mentioned explicitly by Gerhard or
the other early writers, form the class of “black-bodied”
amphorae, as they may conveniently be
termed, in order to distinguish those with
panel-decoration from those in which the
body is entirely covered with red glaze (see
below).
(4) The second variety of “black-bodied”
amphora (Fig. #27:fig027#.) is closely akin to the Panathenaic,
but the body is better proportioned.
It is characterised by the wide mouth in the
form of a thick ring, the cylindrical handles,
and the concave curve of the shoulder. From
the style of the paintings it is probable that
this variety must be placed early in the
black-figure period.
.il id=fig027 fn=fig027_218.jpg align=r w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 27. PANEL-AMPHORA.
(5) This type, on the other hand, is later in the period, being
developed out of the last, from which it is marked off only
by the form of the handles, which are broad and flanged, and
often decorated with patterns. These vases are mostly of
large size, and are transitional, some R.F. varieties being known.
The paintings on them are in the style of
Exekias, Andokides, and Euthymides (see for
an example Plates #XXXI.:pl31#, #XXXII:pl32#.).
(6) The shape of the “red-bodied” amphora
(Fig. #28:fig028#) is peculiar to the black-figure period.[539]
Its characteristic features are the straight,
cylindrical neck, with its chain of lotos-and-honeysuckle,
the width of the shoulder, and
the ribbed handles, formed from moulds in
two or three parallel pieces. Artistically it
is far superior to the black-bodied, and includes
some of the finest specimens of B.F. painting
(as in the vases of Exekias), while the decorative element
reaches the perfection of beauty and symmetry.
.il id=fig028 fn=fig028_218.jpg align=l w=100px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 28. RED-BODIED AMPHORA.
.bn 219.png
.pn +1
(7) The red-bodied amphora seems to have been the prototype
of what is the most characteristic form of the red-figure
period—the so-called “Nolan” amphora (Fig. #29:fig029#).[540]
These have been largely, but not exclusively,
found at Nola, whither they seem to have been
imported in large numbers from Greece. The
whole vase is covered with black, and the
decoration confined to one or two figures each
side, while the elegant and beautiful outline,
the lustre of the varnish, and the restraint of
the designs combine to render these perhaps the
most beautiful products of Athenian ceramic art.
The handles are sometimes four-sided, more often
ribbed, and sometimes formed of two twisted
strands, produced by rolling up the soft paste; the general
outline is that of the last class, but the proportions are far
more slender and graceful.
.il id=fig029 fn=fig029_219.jpg align=l w=100px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 29. “NOLAN” AMPHORA.
(8) The Apulian amphora (Fig. #30:fig030#) illustrates the form which,
though generally adopted in Apulia, may have
had its origin at Athens, as it is adopted for
the fourth-century Panathenaic amphorae.[541] It is
distinguished by its great size and egg-shaped
body; the mouth is thick and high, spreading
out like an inverted cone, and the neck is not
cylindrical, but merges into the shoulder. A
variety of the Apulian amphora, hardly common
enough to form a separate class, was formerly
known as the “candelabrum-amphora,” from its
resemblance to an incense-burner (an object
wrongly interpreted formerly as a candelabrum,
or lamp-stand). Its peculiarities are the cylindrical
body, tall neck, and elaborate handles in the form
of double scrolls.[542]
.il id=fig030 fn=fig030_219.jpg align=r w=100px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 30. APULIAN AMPHORA.
(9) The Campanian amphora is derived directly from the
.bn 220.png
.pn +1
“Nolan,” and is in fact a local adaptation, but it was chiefly
manufactured at Cumae.[543] It generally has twisted handles,
and is painted in polychrome; the proportions are somewhat
more elongated than those of the “Nolan” class.
(10) A rare variety of the amphora is sometimes found in
the red-figure period, with large spheroidal body and pointed
base, intended to be placed in a separate stand. The conventional
name of diota is sometimes given to this form, from
its imitation of the pointed base of the wine-amphora.[544]
(11) The last variety of the amphora which calls for consideration
is the wide-bellied type, usually called (on very slight
authority) a pelike, πελίkη (Fig. #31:fig031#).[545] The
// Tr: pelikê]
name was invented by Gerhard, and has
been generally adopted since, but is only
to be regarded as a conventional term.
This form, which swells out towards the
base, and has no stem or neck, is very
rarely found before the fifth century,[546] but
is common in the R.F. period, and in the
Apulian style, in which its proportions are
usually more slender.
.il id=fig031 fn=fig031_220.jpg align=r w=125px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 31. SO-CALLED “PELIKE.”
The amphora when complete usually
had a cover of clay, either coated with
a plain black varnish or decorated with bands and patterns;
it was lifted by means of a central knob. An amphora in the
Berlin Museum (Cat. 1860) has a double cover, the inner one
being of alabaster.
Of the other names which seem to denote vases adapted
for containing and storing wine or other commodities, the
most important is the Stamnos (στάμνος), used for holding wine // Tr: stamnos
and oil. It is mentioned by Pollux[547] in his list of wine-jars,
and he quotes a line from Aristophanes about “a stamnos of
.bn 221.png
.pn +1
Chian wine arriving.” The diminutives σταμνίον and σταμνάριον // Tr: stamnion : stamnarion
are also found, and Aristophanes speaks of a “small Thasian
stamnos of wine.”[548] The amphora is
defined in the Etymologicum Magnum
as “a two-eared σταμνίον.” It has been // Tr: stamnion
generally identified with a form well
known in the R.F. period, but only found
in that style: a spherical jar with short
thick neck and small side-handles, of
which some very beautiful specimens
exist (Fig. #32:fig032#). The word is still in use
in modern Greek.
.il id=fig032 fn=fig032_221.jpg align=l w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 32. STAMNOS.
The βῖκος is described by Hesychios as a στάμνος with ears, // Tr: bikos : stamnos
and by Eustathius as a vessel holding wine[549]; it was also used
for figs and salted food.[550] It is probably only
another name for the στάμνοςστάμνος, but it seems // Tr: stamnos
to be inaccurately described by Athenaeus[551]
as “a saucer-shaped drinking-cup” (φιαλῶδες
ποτήριον). It was apparently identical with // Tr: : phialôdes: potêrion
the ὕρχη,[552] a word used by Aristophanes,[553] but // Tr: hyrchê
more commonly by Roman writers in its
Latin form orca.
.il id=fig033 fn=fig033_221.jpg align=r w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 33. SO-CALLED “LEKANE.”
The names of Apulian stamnos or λεκάνη // Tr: lekanê
have at different times been given to a late
form of painted vase found in Southern Italy,
with high or low stem, upright handles, and
cover, which latter often takes an elaborate
form, being surmounted by one or more small
vases, also with handles (Fig. #33:fig033#.). The word
λεκάνη,[554] however, seems to indicate a large // Tr: lekanê
bowl rather than a covered jar, and no satisfactory
name has as yet been found. A similar but flatter
.bn 222.png
.pn +1
form of vase, like a covered bowl or dish, has been
named λεκάνη, λεπαστή, or covered pyxis, but no name is // Tr: lekanê : lepastê
satisfactory.
The λαγυνος or λαγυνίς seems to have been a narrow-necked // Tr: lagynos : lagynis]
jar of considerable size. Athenaeus[555] says the word represented
a Greek measure, equivalent to twelve Attic κοτύλαι, // Tr: kotylai
or six pints, and that it was in use at Patrae. The word
is used by Plutarch for the jar in which the stork offered
entertainment to the fox[556]; it frequently appears in the
Latin form lagena (see Chapter #XXI:vol2_ch21#.). A wicker-covered
λαγυνος was known as a πυτίνη.[557] // Tr: lagynos: pytinê
Another form of the same class is the κάδοs, with its diminutive // Tr: kados
καδίσκος, which is represented by the Latin situla, or bucket, // Tr: kadiskos
the latter word being the one usually employed by archaeologists.
It is a form easily to be recognised in Greek art, but is more
usually found in metal-work, e.g. in Etruscan and Italian
bronzes, than in pottery.[558] The painted situlae, of which a few
late examples from Italian tombs exist, are obviously direct
imitations of the metal buckets, and in some cases actually
have movable bronze handles attached. The situla appears to
have been used not only for keeping wine in the cellar, but
for serving it up at banquets[559]; the word is also used by
Aristophanes for a voting-urn and a well-bucket.[560] In Latin
the uses were probably distinguished, cadus denoting a wine-jar,
situla a water-bucket. Athenaeus obviously goes astray in
regarding it as a drinking-cup.
A vase which was used almost exclusively for carrying water
was the Hydria, as is implied by its name (ὑδρία, from ὕδωρ). // Tr: hydria : hydôr
Its most essential characteristic is the possession of three
handles, a large one at the back for carrying when empty,
and two small horizontal handles at the sides for carrying
when full. The shape of the body varies at different periods;
in the B.F. period the shoulder is flat and marked off by a sharp
.bn 223.png
.pn +1
angle from the body (Fig. #34:fig034#); but about the beginning of the
fifth century this is replaced by a form with more rounded
outline and smaller handle at the back, generally
known for the sake of distinction as a kalpis
(Fig. #35:fig035#). In the earlier variety (of which some
R.F. examples are known) there are always two
subjects, one forming a frieze on the shoulder,
the other treated more in the manner of a
metope on the body; they are invariably enclosed
in frames or panels, as on the “black-bodied”
amphorae. Sometimes a third subject in the
form of a frieze of animals is added below. In
the earlier stages of the B.F. period this form is seldom found,
except in a class known as the “Caeretan hydriae,” distinguished
(as far as concerns their shape) by their round, plump body,
as also by the florid character of their ornament and curious
treatment of subjects (p. #353#). These vases were closely copied
by the Etruscans. The kalpis form sometimes occurs with black
figures, but only in small late specimens, chiefly found in
Rhodes. In the vases of Southern Italy
the kalpis is fairly popular, but the body
is more cylindrical and the foot higher.
.il id=fig034 fn=fig034_223.jpg align=l w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 34. HYDRIA.
Any doubt that might have existed
as to the identification of the ὑδρία is // Tr: hydria
solved by the appearance of the word
inscribed over the pitcher which Polyxena
dropped in her flight from Achilles, on
the François vase. In a scene very
common on B.F. hydriae, which represents
women drawing water at a
fountain, this form of vase is invariably
depicted. The word seldom occurs in
Greek literature, but Kallimachos speaks of καλπίδες placed // Tr: kalpides
on the roof of the Parthenon (?) at Athens, not, he says, by
way of ornament, but as prizes of wrestlers.[561] Hence the idea
was conceived by Panofka that Panathenaic prize-vases were
of this form.
.il id=fig035 fn=fig035_223.jpg align=r w=125px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 35. KALPIS.
.bn 224.png
.pn +1
Pollux (x. 74) thinks that the hydria was also a wine-vase,
and suggests its identity with the πλημοχόη, a vase with broad // Tr: plêmochoê
base used in the Mysteries; but Athenaeus[562] implies that this
was used for pouring, and it must therefore have been some
kind of jug. The κάλπις is actually identified with the ὑδρία // Tr: hydria : kalpis
by Aristophanes, as may be seen by a comparison of two
lines in the Lysistrata.[563] From a passage in Isocrates[564] it
would appear that the hydria was used as a voting-urn or
ballot-box, but the κάδος was more generally used for this // Tr: kados
purpose. That the amphora was also so used we know from
Athenian coins.
The next class to be considered is that of vases employed for
mixing wine and water for drinking, for which the generic name
is that of κρατήρ (from κεράννυμι, “I mix”). Before discussing // Tr: kratêr : kerannymi
this form, however, allusion must be made to a vessel which is
variously described as a hydria or a krater, and is therefore a link
between the two varieties; it was at any rate pre-eminently a
water-jar, and was known as a κρωσσός (connected with Fr. cruche = // Tr: krôssos
Eng. “crock”). We have no indications of its form except that
it had two handles[565]; Pollux (viii. 66) ranks it with the ὑδρία and // Tr: hydria
κάλπις as a water-vessel.[566] It was also used for holding ashes,[567] // Tr: kalpis
and Plutarch enumerates it among the vessels in the bath of
Darius.[568] Of the same character was perhaps the ἀρδάνιον or // Tr: ardanion
ἀρδάλιον, described as a water-pot.[569] Athenaeus also mentions a // Tr: ardalion
πρόαρον, or wooden vessel of the krater type, as used in Attica.[570] // Tr: proapon
The Krater is distinguished from the amphora by its larger
body, wider mouth, and smaller handles. It was often placed
on a stand, called ὑποκρατήριον, or ὑποκρατηρίδιον,[571] which was // Tr: hypokratêrion : hypokratêridion
either of pottery or metal such as bronze. This either took the
form of a hollow cylindrical base, painted with subjects, or of
an elaborately moulded stem with egg-and-tongue and other
.bn 225.png
.pn +1
patterns.[572] It is constantly mentioned in Homer, but the kraters
standing in the halls of the great palaces, as in that of Odysseus,
were made of gold or silver. It is on the average the largest
of all Greek vases (except the pithos), some of the later Apulian
specimens (of which F 278 in the B.M. is one) reaching a height
of about four feet; the ordinary examples have a capacity of
three or four gallons. The names Argolic, Lesbian, Laconian,
Corinthian, and Thericleian are applied to it by various ancient
authors.[573]
In the different fabrics of Greek pottery it takes several
distinct forms, to which convenient descriptive names have been
given by Italian dealers, and some attempt has been made to
identify names given by classical authors as forms of the krater,
but without any success. The Italian names, however, which
will be mentioned in due course, are somewhat cumbersome
for English use.
Among Mycenaean vases there is a variety almost confined to
Cyprus, to which the name of krater may fairly be given.[574] Its
chief characteristics are a wide spheroidal body, hardly contracted
at the neck (which in some varieties is non-existent), flat vertical
side-handles, and a high stem. We hardly meet with this form
again until the end of the Corinthian style, when it suddenly
leaps into popularity.[575] The form in which it appears recalls,
though it can hardly be imitated from, the Mycenaean krater,
but the stem disappears, and the body is in section about two-thirds
of a circle.[576] It is clearly a local invention, and on the
evidence of finds at Syracuse, its first appearance may be traced
to the first half of the seventh century. Its distinguishing
feature, however, is in the handles, each of which is composed
of two short vertical bars, sometimes meeting in an arch, supporting
a flat square piece formed by a projection from the flat
.bn 226.png
.pn +1
broad rim, which is generally decorated. From the columnar
appearance of these handles, the type has received the name of
vaso a colonnette, which at all events is a more accurate description
than the name κελέβη which, first proposed by Gerhard, has // Tr: kelebê
been generally employed by archaeologists,
on what grounds it is not clear. This
word, as described by Athenaeus, is clearly
intended to imply a drinking-cup of some
kind[577]; he quotes from Anakreon (frag. 63,
Bergk), who speaks of drinking its contents
at one draught (ἄμυστιν). On the other // Tr: amystin
hand he quotes the authority of Pamphilos
for identifying it with the θερμοπότις, or // Tr: thermopotis
“water-heater,” a kind of kettle. The
probability is that it was a general and loosely-employed word.
.il id=fig036 fn=fig036_226.jpg align=r w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 36. KRATER WITH COLUMN-HANDLES.
The column-handled krater is also found in the Naukratis
wares of the sixth century, as well as in the imitations of
Corinthian fabrics in which the Campana collection of the
Louvre is so rich; the clay, style, and inscriptions of the latter
clearly show their Corinthian origin, apart from the form. This
krater is often decorated with friezes of figures (as in the famous
Amphiaraos krater, p. 319). In the few existing Attic examples
with black figures the subjects are in framed panels. This form,
after dying out before the end of the sixth century, is revived
towards the middle of the fifth in the later R.F. fabrics, but
in a much altered form, which gives greater prominence to
the columnar character of the handles. The neck is higher and
narrower, and the handles consequently lengthened, the square
tops being much diminished, and the body also takes a narrower
and straighter form. In the fabrics of Southern Italy this
development is even more strongly marked, and the elongated
neck is adorned with an ivy-wreath in a panel; this type
enjoyed some popularity both in Apulia and Lucania. The
system of panel-decoration is employed throughout in all
these cases.
.bn 227.png
.pn +1
.il id=fig037 fn=fig037_227.jpg align=l w=200px
.ca FIG. 37. VOLUTE-HANDLED KRATER.
The only other form of krater found in the B.F. period—and
that but rarely—is that known as volute-handled (a rotelle), from
the large handles reaching above the lip and curved round in
a scroll (Fig. #37:fig037#). It has an
egg-shaped body and large neck.
The best and earliest example is
the François vase (p. #370#), from
which it may be clearly seen
that the form is derived from the
columnar-handled krater. The
British Museum also possesses a
fine example signed by Nikosthenes,
with a design in a frieze
on the neck (B 364). The same
shape and method of decoration
appear in some fine examples of
the severe R.F. style (cf. B.M.
E 468, 469). During the R.F.
period, two entirely new forms of
krater suddenly appear, known respectively as the vaso a calice
and the vaso a campana, or “calyx-krater” and “bell-krater”; the
former is first used by Euphronios.[578] These names give a very
accurate description of the forms, the one being like the opening
calyx of a flower, the other like an inverted bell (Figs. 38, 39).
In each the lip projects above the body, the neck having
.bn 228.png
.pn +1
entirely disappeared, while the handles of the calyx-krater drop
to the lower part of the vase, and those of the bell-krater are
attached horizontally to the sides. Both types of handle are
evidently adapted to carrying full vessels, like the side-handles
of the hydria. The name of ὀξύβαφον was given by Gerhard[579] // Tr: oxybaphon
to the bell-krater, again without any real authority, and probably
owing to an error, from finding the name scratched underneath
one example. Comparison, however, with similar inscriptions
(see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.) shows clearly that the ὀξύβαφον was a // Tr: oxybaphon
small measure, less even than a κύαθος, or ladleful. Athenaeus // Tr: kyathos
(xi. 494 B) is very explicit on this point. He derives the name
from ὀξός, vinegar, which liquid the vessel was used to contain, // Tr: oxos
and describes it as εἴδος κύλικος μικρᾶς. It was therefore a small // Tr: eidos kylikos mikras
cup of some kind (see p. #194#).
.ig
.dv class='column-container'
.dv class='column'
.il id=fig038 fn=fig038_227.jpg w=175
.ca FIG. 38. CALYX-KRATER
.dv-
.dv class='column'
.il id=fig039 fn=fig039_227.jpg w=150
.ca FIG. 39. BELL-KRATER
.dv-
.dv-
.ig-
.if h
.li
FIG. 38. CALYX-KRATER
FIG. 39. BELL-KRATER
.li-
.if-
.if t
.nf c
[Illustration] [Illustration]
FIG. 38. CALYX-KRATER FIG. 39. BELL-KRATER
.nf-
.if-
In Southern Italy the krater holds the same position as the
amphora of the B.F. period.[580] The calyx- and bell-kraters are
the two forms chiefly affected in the transition period when
Athenian artists were working in Italy, or Italian artists directly
under the influence of Athenian (see p. #465#), but they are
also found among the purely local fabrics, especially those of
Cumae and Paestum (ibid.). The calyx-krater seems to have
been reserved for the better and more carefully-executed specimens,[581]
and the Italian bell-kraters often have a top-heavy effect
from the greater height of their stems.
In Apulia (and occasionally also in Lucania—the Campanian
potters did not affect large vases) the volute-handled krater
once more appears, in great magnificence. Not only is the
total size and bulk increased, but the neck is lengthened and
the handles are often treated with great elaboration of detail,
ending below in swans’ necks spreading over the vase. In
Apulia the volutes are generally replaced by medallions (whence
the Italian name vaso con maniche a mascheroni) decorated
with Gorgons’ heads or figures, in relief, painted white, yellow,
and red. These vases are sometimes, but incorrectly, called
amphorae; they range from two to three or four feet in
height. They are generally painted from head to foot with
.bn 229.png
.pn +1
subjects, often of a sepulchral nature, and were no doubt largely
made for use at funeral ceremonies. They are more fully
described in Chapter #XI:ch11#.
.il id=fig040 fn=fig040_229.jpg align=l w=200px ew=40%
.ca FIG. 40. LUCANIAN KRATER.
The last variety of krater (Fig. #40:fig040#) is formed by a peculiar
type of vase, apparently devised by the Iapygian aborigines of
Southern Italy,[582] which has a wide mouth and sloping shoulder,
and sometimes a high neck. Its peculiarity is that it has four
handles, two upright and two horizontal, to the sides of which
large discs are attached, whence its
Italian name is vaso con maniche a
rotelle, from the wheel or rosette patterns
painted on the discs. This feature
caused Panofka to give it the name
of νεστορίς, with reference to the famous // Tr: nestoris
four-handled cup of Nestor (Il. xi. 632).
It need hardly be pointed out that there
can be little in common between this
form and the drinking-cup used by the
Homeric hero, in spite of the fact that
the latter was too heavy for an ordinary man to lift. We need
not suppose that Nestor’s cup (concerning which see below,
p. #181#) was larger than an ordinary “loving-cup,” and the
poet was probably guilty of a pardonable exaggeration. As
a painted vase, this four-handled krater is peculiar to Lucania,
and it is interesting to note that it sometimes appears depicted
on Lucanian vases as used in daily life.[583]
.il id=fig041 fn=fig041_230.jpg align=r w=150px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 41. PSYKTER.
Closely related to the krater is the ψυκτήρ or ψυγεύς, a wine-cooler // Tr: psyktêr : psygeus
(from ψύχω, “cool”), which was used for cooling wine // Tr: psychô
by means of snow or cold water.[584] The extant specimens are
but few in number and vary in form. The British Museum
possesses a very remarkable specimen in the form of a B.F.
panel amphora (B 148),[585] with double walls and bottom, and
a large spout on one side, through which the snow or cold
water was introduced into the outer space; it was afterwards
.bn 230.png
.pn +1
withdrawn through an aperture in the bottom.[586] Similar vases
in the “Chalcidian” style are also known. After the beginning
of the R.F. period a new type was introduced in the shape of
a vessel with a short neck, the body of which
bulges out towards its base, and is supported
on a high stem; it generally has
two small eared handles (Fig. #41:fig041#). Several
R.F. examples are known, of which two
are in the British Museum,[587] and three or
four in the Louvre; the British Museum
also possesses a late B.F. specimen (B 299).
The designs are painted in a frieze round
the vase.
The ἀκρατοφόρος, or vessel for holding // Tr: akratophoros
unmixed wine, seems to have been another name for the ψυκτήρ; // Tr: psyktêr
Pollux (vi. 90) says the difference was that it was supported on
small knobs (lit. small knucklebones) instead of a stem.
.il id=fig042 fn=fig042_230.jpg align=l w=150px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 42. DEINOS OR LEBES.
Another name identified in antiquity with the ψυκτήρ is // Tr: psyktêr
that of the δῖνος (sometimes spelled δεῖνος); but the identity // Tr: dinos : deinos
was more probably one of usage than of form.[588] As to the
latter, there is considerable discrepancy in the accounts of
the grammarians[589]; one calls it a deep cup tapering down to
a point; another, probably more correctly,
since it was certainly not a
drinking-vessel, a clay vessel for wine
without a base, but rounded underneath.
In virtue of this description the name
has usually been applied to a class of
vase, commoner in the earlier periods
than the later, and more often found
on Greek sites than on Italian, which
has a rounded base without foot, and no handles (Fig. #42:fig042#).
.bn 231.png
.pn +1
These vases are found as early as the seventh century in
Greece, and were very common at Naukratis, appearing also
in most of the B.F. fabrics. That they were used to contain
the ashes of the dead is shown by the B.M. example already
referred to (p. #146#), which belongs to the end of the R.F.
period.[590] In Southern Italy this form of vase is generally
placed on a separate high moulded stem, and has a cover
with an ornamental knob. A variety with hemispherical
cover nearly equal in size to the vase itself has been
identified with the ἡμίτομος (“cut in half”), a form mentioned // Tr: hêmitomos
by Athenaeus.[591]
This type of vase has more usually been described by the
name of λέβης, denoting a kettle or caldron; but though the // Tr: lebês
form of the λέβης was practically the same (as we may gather // Tr: lebês
from the fact of its always being placed on a tripod), the purpose
for which it was used (i.e. for boiling water) and the fact that
it was always of metal, suggest that it is not such an appropriate
name as δῖνος for this form of painted vase. The λέβης is // Tr: dinos : lebês
constantly mentioned in Homer, both as a cooking-vessel
and as a washing-basin.[592] Herodotos[593] says that the Scythians
used a λέβης for cooking flesh, which resembled the Lesbian // Tr: lebês
krater, but was much larger. It was also the vessel in which
the ram, and subsequently Pelias, were boiled by Medeia; and
may be seen depicted in several B.F. representations of that
story.[594] A golden lebes was placed at each angle of the temple
of Zeus at Olympia.[595] It is also the name of the vessel used
by the Boeotians in their ingenious contrivance at the siege
of Delion.[596] To its use as a cinerary urn in the tragic poets
we have already alluded.
The ordinary name for a cooking-vessel of earthenware in
Greece was χύτρα, answering to our “pot”: it was used both // Tr: chytra
for water and for solids, as well as for other domestic purposes.
Children were exposed in χύτραι[597]; and a boy’s game called // Tr: chytrai
.bn 232.png
.pn +1
χυτρίνδα is described by Pollux[598]; it was apparently played // Tr: chytrinda
in two ways, either by a boy representing a χύτρα, who was // Tr: chytra
pulled about by the other players until he caught one, or by
a boy carrying a pot, with some obscure reference to the story
of Midas. There were several proverbial expressions connected
with the χύτρα, such as ποικίλλειν χύτρας, “to paint // Tr: chytra : poikillein chytras
pots,” expressive of useless labour, owing to the roughness
of the ware; and together with the χοῦς, a vessel only // Tr: chous
known as a measure (12 kotylae or 5¾ pints), it played a
part in the festival of the Anthesteria, one day of which
was known as Χύτραι καὶ Χόες, or “Pot-and-Pan Day.”[599] // Tr: Chytrai kai Choes
The word χυτρόπους, used by Hesiod[600] and Aristophanes,[601] // Tr: chytropous
seems merely to denote a cooking-pot with feet. The
πύραυνοι or κλίβανοι large clay vessels used either as brasiers // Tr: pyraunoi : klibanoi
or for baking purposes, have been already described in
Chapter #III:klibanos#.
A few other general words for cooking-vessels and domestic
utensils may also be mentioned here. The θερμαντήρ mentioned // Tr: thermantêr
by Pollux[602] is presumably identical with the θερμοπότις and // Tr: thermopotis
ἀναφαία of Athenaeus (475 D, 783 F), the former, as its name // Tr: anaphaia
implies, being a vessel in which hot drinks were prepared. It
seems to have been exclusively made of metal, and may, indeed,
only be another name for the λέβης. It has, as we have seen, // Tr: lebês
been identified with the κελέβη. Pollux gives a list of vessels // Tr: kelebê
used for warming water.[603]
The ἡθμός, or strainer,[604] answers to the modern colander, // Tr: hêthmos
and is represented by a flat round vessel with long handle,
of which some late fictile examples exist.[605] It is mentioned
among the vessels in the Sigeian inscription,[606] but is there
spelled ἡθμός. Most of the existing specimens are of bronze.
The ὁλκεῖον mentioned by Athenaeus[607] appears to have been // Tr: holkeion
a bowl used for washing cups. The σκάφη (“boat”) is a // Tr: skaphê
general term used in the classics for vessels of varied import:
.bn 233.png
.pn +1
basins, troughs, washing-tubs, bowls, etc.[608] It is the name
used in inscriptions relating to the Panathenaic festival to
describe the flat dishes or trays borne by the maidens who
were called Skaphephori in the procession, as represented on
the Parthenon frieze.[609] The diminutive form σκάφιον or σκαφεῖον // Tr: skaphion : skapheion
also occurs, and is identified with καλπίον. The ὅλμος, generally // Tr: kalpion : holmos
used to denote a mortar,[610] also signified a bowl,[611] and
had the special signification of the hollow bowl in which
the priestess of Apollo sat when delivering oracles from the
Delphic tripod. It may here be noted that the word τρίπους // Tr: tripous
appears to be used in ancient writers[612] not only for the stand
which supported the λέβης and other vessels, but for a vessel // Tr: lebês
itself when thus supported on three feet. Most of the existing
tripods are made of bronze,[613] but one or two fictile examples
are known, including a very remarkable one in Berlin,[614] found
at Tanagra, and covered with archaic paintings in the B.F.
method.
On bathing and washing vessels our best authority is
Pollux (x. 63); it is not, however, likely that they were often
of earthenware. The ποδανιπτήρ at all events was of metal; // Tr: podaniptêr
it is often seen on R.F. vases with the subject of Theseus
killing Procrustes.[615] Large vessels, resembling modern baths,
were known by the names of πύελος: and ἀσαμινθος[616]; the // Tr: pyelos : asaminthos
λουτήριον, or laver, on a high stem, is frequently represented // Tr: loutêrion
on South Italian vases,[617] but is a purely decorative adjunct. It
is there painted white to indicate marble.
The λεκάνη[618] should also perhaps be included here, as according // Tr: lekanê
to the literary accounts it was a basin used for washing
feet or clothes, or for vomiting. It also served the purpose
.bn 234.png
.pn +1
of a mortar, and was used in the game of kottabos. A method
of divination sometimes practised was known as λεκανομαντεία // Tr: lekanomanteia
and consisted in placing waxen images in a
lekane full of water, which became as it were
animated and sank, thus signifying the destruction
of an enemy. In Pseudo-Callisthenes we
read how Nectanebos, the supposed father of
Alexander, made use of this procedure.[619]
.il id=fig043 fn=fig043_234.jpg align=r w=125px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 43. OINOCHOË (7TH CENTURY).
The next series with which we have to
deal is that of vases used for pouring out
wine and serving it at the table. They fall
into two classes: the wine-jug for pouring,
and the ladle for filling it out of the mixing-bowl.
We begin with the series of wine-jugs, as being the
more important.
.il id=fig044 fn=fig044_234.jpg align=l w=125px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 44. OINOCHOË (5TH CENTURY).
Of these the most conspicuous is the Oinochoë (οἰνοχόη, from // Tr: oinochoê
οἴνος, “wine,” and χέω, “pour”), one of the most beautiful shapes // Tr: oinos : cheô
among Greek vases. It appears in several forms, but the name
is generally restricted to one, which corresponds most closely
to the modern beer-jug. It is found at all periods, and the
form never varies to any marked extent, except that the later
examples are rather more graceful than the earlier, and some
of the fine R.F. specimens reach the perfection of elegance
in form and decoration (Fig. #44:fig044#). Its chief
characteristic is the trefoil-shaped mouth, but
this is not invariable, many specimens having
a plain circular lip. It is very commonly
found in the Rhodian wares of the seventh
century, with designs in a continuous frieze
(Fig. #43:fig043#); and a peculiar form appears in
an Ionic fabric (see page #359#), with egg-shaped
body and coarse designs. In the
B.F. period the subjects are nearly always
in framed panels. Among the R.F. vases
of the fine style, many diminutive oinochoae occur, nearly all
of which were found at Athens, the subjects being those of
children playing with go-carts and other toys, and sometimes
.bn 235.png
.pn +1
with jugs of the same shape. As these appear to have been
found in children’s tombs, it is evident that these painted
specimens were actually used as playthings.[620]
The oinochoë is frequently represented in vase-paintings,
chiefly in scenes of libation, in which
ceremony it was invariably used for pouring wine
into the phiale or patera, from which the libation
was made. It occurs on the Parthenon frieze.
In conjunction with the krater, or mixing-bowl, it
is seen on a “Cyrenaic” kylix in the B.M. (B 3),
in a scene representing a sacrifice. In reference
to this may be quoted a curious injunction given
by Hesiod (Op. et Di. 744),
// Tr: mêde pot' oinochoên tithemen krêtêros hyperthen pinontôn,
.in +5
μηδέ ποτ’ οἰνοχόην τιθέμεν κρητῆρος ὔπερθεν πινόντων,
.in
which seems to imply that it was considered an unlucky thing to
put the jug back in its place on the edge of the krater during a
banquet.[621] Thucydides[622] speaks of silver oinochoae in the temple
at Eryx, in conjunction with libation-bowls and incense-burners,
and Athenaeus[623] mentions similar offerings at Metapontum.
.il id=fig045 fn=fig045_235.jpg align=l w=100px ew=20%
.ca FIG. 45. PROCHOÖS.
A variety of the oinochoë, which is not found
before the middle of the R.F. period, but becomes
very popular in Apulia, has a very high curved
handle and tall stem, the body tapering straighter
downwards (Fig. #45:fig045#). This is usually known as
the πρόχοος, and corresponds in form to our // Tr: prochoos
claret-decanter. The πρόχοος served the same
purpose as the οἰνοχόη, and is frequently // Tr: oinochoê
mentioned in Homer. It was used not only
for pouring wine, but for water to wash the
hands of guests.[624]
.il id=fig046 fn=fig046_235.jpg align=r w=100px ew=20%
.ca FIG. 46. OLPE.
A third form, usually known as the ὄλπη // Tr: olpê
(Fig. #46:fig046#), is almost cylindrical in shape, with plain or trefoil lip
and no marked neck; it is more usually found in the B.F. period.
.bn 236.png
.pn +1
In early B.F. wares the subjects on the olpae are usually painted
on the side, adjoining the handle on the right[625]; they are always
in panels. The word is mentioned by Sappho and Ion of Chios.[626]
.il id=fig047 fn=fig047_236.jpg align=r w=75px ew=20%
.ca FIG. 47. EPICHYSIS.
Lastly, we have a curious form, only found in
Apulia, and belonging to the extreme decadence
of vase-painting (Fig. #47:fig047#), which has a flat cylindrical
body like a round toilet-box (see Pyxis,
p. #198#) with moulded edges. This is surmounted
by a long narrow neck and beak-like semi-cylindrical
mouth[627]; and the whole effect is
awkward and inartistic. The name ἐπίχυσις, // Tr: epichysis
derived from the list given by Pollux,[628] is generally
given to this form.
For the ladle used for drawing wine out of the krater to fill
the oinochoë the ordinary name was κύαθος (Lat. simpulum). // Tr: kyathos
This word also commonly denoted a measure of about one gill.
Among the painted vases it is represented by a rare but particularly
graceful shape, the body fashioned like a straight-sided
bowl, with a high looped handle (Fig. #48:fig048#). In the early B.F.
examples a high stem is added. This shape is not found in
the later R.F. period or in Southern
Italy. The long handle is obviously
for convenience in dipping.
.il id=fig048 fn=fig048_236.jpg align=l w=125px ew=40%
.ca FIG. 48. KYATHOS.
A series of names, all of which
are derivatives from the word ἀρύω, // Tr: aryô
“draw” (used only of drawing
water), appear to represent ladles of
various forms and uses. Herodotos[629]
mentions the word ἀρυστήρ, and // Tr: arystêr
the forms ἀρυστεῖς, ἀρυτήρ, ἀρυσάνη, ἀρυστρίς, are also found.[630] The // Tr: arysteis, arytêr, arysanê, arystris
ἀρύταινα appears to have been a bronze ladle, used in the // Tr: arytaina
baths for collecting oil, and for filling lamps.[631] The ἀρύςτιχος, // Tr: arystichos
.bn 237.png
.pn +1
on the other hand, was a wine-ladle, also known as an ἔφηβος; // Tr: ephêbos
it appears to have been used in voting in the law-courts.[632]
Another word used by Aristophanes is οἰνήρυσις[633]; two parallels // Tr: oinêrysis
to which are the ἐτνήρυσις and ζωμήρυσις of the same author[634] // Tr: etnêrysis : zômêrysis
and other comic writers, both words meaning “soup-ladle.” It
is doubtful if any of these words were in use for fictile utensils.
.tb
The next branch of the subject is concerned with the various
forms of Drinking-cups in use among the Greeks. In these
the potters may perhaps be said to have attained their highest
excellence, not only in regard to beauty and grace of form,
but also, so far as concerns one variety at any rate—the R.F.
Athenian kylix—in regard to the decoration. The locus classicus
on the subject is the eleventh book of Athenaeus, to which
frequent reference has already been made[635]; but there are of
course frequent references to these cups in Homer and other
poets. Athenaeus devotes a discourse by one of his “Doctors
at Dinner” entirely to this subject, the different names being
discussed in alphabetical order. Many of them are, as will
be seen, only alternatives names or nicknames for well-known
shapes, while others included in his description are certainly
not drinking-cups at all. It must also be borne in mind
that many of the names are purely generic, like the Latin
poculum, and are not intended to connote any special form;
this is particularly the case in the descriptions of Homer,
where, indeed, we should not look for scientific accuracy.
The ordinary word for a drinking-cup was ποτήριον or // Tr: potêrion
ἔκπωμα, but neither is known to Homer[636]; the terms he uses // Tr: ekpôma
are δέπας, ἄλεισον, and κύπελλον, the first being further // Tr: depas, aleison : kypellon
defined as ἀαμφικύπελλον. The word κισσύβιον[637] may be once // Tr: amphikypellon : kissybion
for all briefly dismissed; it was so called from κισσός (ivy), // Tr: kissos
probably as being ornamented with ivy-foliage in relief, and
was made of wood. It is seldom that Homer’s descriptions
.bn 238.png
.pn +1
give any details as to form, and where they do they are
difficult to interpret aright. Athenaeus devotes a lengthy
section of his discourse to the explanation of the famous cup
(δέπας) of Nestor,[638] which he names νεστορίς (cf. p. #172#), but arrives // Tr: nestoris
at no definite conclusion. It has already been pointed out
that a hint at its form seems to be given by the gold and
silver cups found in Mycenaean tombs, at Mycenae, and
Enkomi in Cyprus, although it need not be assumed that
these are the products of the civilisation which Homer
describes; he may, however, be speaking of traditional forms.
Another instance of the δέπας in legend, is in the story // Tr: depas
of Herakles crossing the ocean in the golden δέπας of // Tr: depas
the Sun.[639]
Among the names of drinking-cups given by Athenaeus, the
following may be taken as used in a purely general sense,
without any idea of a particular form.
Ἄμυστις.—A cup from which it is possible to drink at one // Tr: Amystis
draught (cf. κελέβη, p. #169#). // Tr: kelebê
Αμφωτις.—A two-handled cup (see under Skyphos, p. #186:skyphos#). // Tr: Amphôtis
Ἀντύγονις.—A cup named after King Antigonos. // Tr: Antygonis
Ἀργυρίς.—A cup of metal (not necessarily silver). Pollux also // Tr: Argyris
gives the word χρυσίς. // Tr: chrysis
Ἄωτον.—A Cypriote name for a cup (“without handles,” from // Tr: Aôton
α and οὔς). // Tr: a: ous
Βαυκαλίς.—An Alexandrine variety, of glass or clay. // Tr: Baukalis
Βῆσσα.—Also an Alexandrine form, widening out below. // Tr: Bêssa
Γυάλας.—A Megarian name (the form of the word is Doric). // Tr: Gyalas
Δεπαστρόν.—An uncertain form, variously explained. // Tr: Daktylôton
Δεπαστρόν.—A bye-form of δέπας, in use at Kleitor in // Tr: Depastron : depas
Arcadia.
Ἐνιαυτός.—Also known as Ἀμαλθείας κέρας. See under // Tr: Eniautos: Amaltheias keras
Rhyton (p. #193:rhyton#).
Ἔφηβος or ἐμβασικοίτας.—The significance of these names is // Tr: Ephêbos: embasikoitas
not obvious, but see p. #179:ephebos# for the former.
.bn 239.png
.pn +1
Ἡδυποτίς.—A Rhodian name (cf. Pollux, vi. 96). Said to have // Tr: Hêdypotis
been made by the Rhodians in competition with the
Athenian Θηρίκλειοι (see below, p. #189#). They were of // Tr: Thêrikleioi
light make, and not, like the Thericleian cups, for the
exclusive use of the rich.
Ἠθάνιον.—Apparently an Egyptian name. // Tr: Êthanion
Ἡμίτομος.—An Athenian cup, probably hemispherical (but see // Tr: Hêmitomos
above, p. #174:hemitomos#).
Ἴσθμιον.—A Cypriote term. // Tr: Isthmion
Κελέβη.—See under Krater (p. #169#). // Tr: Kelebê
Κόνδυ.—An Asiatic name. Menander describes it as holding // Tr: Kondy
ten kotylae, or about five pints.
Κρατάνιον or κρανίον.—Polemon mentions silver specimens in // Tr: Kratanion : kranion
the temple of Hera and treasury of the Byzantines at
Olympia.
Κρουνεῖον.—It is doubtful if this word denotes a cup, as it is // Tr: Krouneion
catalogued with the κρατήρ, κάδος, and ὁλκεῖον. // Tr: kratêr, kados: holkeion
Λαβρωνία.—A Persian cup, named from “greedy” drinking // Tr: Labrônia
(λαβρότης ἐν τῷ πίνειν). // Tr: labrotês en tô pinein
Λάκαινα.—A cup made of Laconian clay. // Tr: Lakaina
Λέσβιον. // Tr: Lesbion
Μάνης.—A cup or bowl placed on the top of the kottabos-stand, // Tr: Manês
and used in the game of kottabos to receive the drops of
wine thrown from the kylix (q.v.)
Μέλη. // Tr: Melê
Ὄινιστηρία.—A name given to the wine-cup dedicated to // Tr: Oinistêria
Herakles by the ephebi at the time of entry into that rank.
Ὄλλιξ.—A wooden cup. // Tr: Ollix
Παναθηναικόν.—Probably a variety of the Skyphos (q.v.). // Tr: Panathênaikon
Πελίκη.—See under Amphora (p. #163#). A generally disputed form. // Tr: Pelikê
Πέταχνον.—A wide flat cup (from πετάννυμι, “spread”). // Tr: Petachnon : petannymi
Πρίστις. // Tr: psistis
Προυσίας.—Named from the king of Bithynia. // Tr: Prousias
Προχύτης.—Called a cup by Athenaeus, but more probably // Tr: Prochytês
to be identified with the πρόχοος (p. #178#). // Tr: prochoos
Ῥέον or Ῥέοντα.—Probably a variant of ῥυτόν. It is described // Tr: Rheon : Rheonta: rhyton
as taking the form of a Gryphon or Pegasos, both of
which occur in rhyta (p. #193#).
.bn 240.png
.pn +1
Σαννακία.—A Persian cup. // Tr: Sannakia
Σελευκίς.—A cup named after King Seleukos. // Tr: Seleukis
Ταβαίτας.—A wooden cup. // Tr: Tabaitas
Τραγέλαφος.—Probably a kind of rhyton (p. #193#). // Tr: Tragelaphos
Τριύρης.—See p. #186#, under κύμβιον. // Tr: Triêrês: kymbion
Ὑστιακόν. // Tr: Hystiakon
Χαλκιδικόν.—Probably named from the Thracian Chalkidike. // Tr: Chalkidikon
Χόννος.—A bronze cup (perhaps a kind of kylix). // Tr: Chonnos
ᾨδός.—A cup associated with the singing of σκόλια. // Tr: Ôdos: skolia
ᾨόν.—An egg-shaped cup. // Tr: Ôon
ᾨοσκύφιον.—A double cup, apparently like an egg standing // Tr: Ôoskyphion
in an egg-cup.
Pollux also mentions the names Βησιακόν and Καππαδοκικόν; // Tr: Bêsiakon: Kappadokikon
and Athenaeus describes a γραμματικὸν ἔκπωμα, or cup ornamented // Tr: grammatikon ekpôma
with letters (in relief), probably a late Hellenistic type.
We now come to the names which can be identified with
existing vases, or are described with some indication of their
form.
A name which constantly occurs in two forms is the κοτύλη // Tr: kotylê
or κότυλος. The distinction appears to be that the former // Tr: kotylos
had no handles, but the latter one,[640] but otherwise the form
was probably much the same, being that of a deep cup; it
is also probable that it was sometimes used like the κύαθος, // Tr: kyathos
as a ladle for drawing out wine, as well as for drinking. The
word κοτύλη is found as early as Homer,[641] used metaphorically // Tr: kotylê
for the hollow where the thigh-bone joins the hip; in its
proper meaning as a cup, it occurs in the familiar proverb[642]
which has been adopted into our language:
.in +10
.nf
πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κοτύλης καὶ χείλεος ἀκροῦ // Tr: polla metaxu pelei kotylês kai cheileos akrou],
“There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip.”
.nf-
.in
As a measure it was equivalent to six kyathi, or roughly
half a pint, as already shown (p. #135#). The ἡμικοτύλιον there // Tr: hêmikotylion
discussed is, however, a one-handled cup, and therefore to be
called a κότυλος rather than a κοτύλη. The latter is a word // Tr: kotylos: kotylê
.bn 241.png
.pn +1
constantly found in Greek literature from Homer downwards,
as in the passage where Andromache describes the impending
fate of her orphan child, to whom a pitying patron will hold
out a cup, merely to taste, not to drain.[643]
>From Athenaeus we learn that the κότυλος was like a deep // Tr: kotylos
washing-basin (λουτήριον), and that it was associated with // Tr: loutêrion
Dionysos. Eratosthenes[644] calls it the most beautiful and the
best for drinking of all cups. The diminutive form κοτύλισκος // Tr: kotyliskos
occurs in connection with the κέρνος], discussed below (p. #195#), // Tr: kernos
which had many of these little cups attached to it. It has been
customary to apply the name κοτύλη to a class of vase found // Tr: kotylê
at all periods, with flat base, slightly curved sides, and two flat
handles level with the rim (Fig. #49:fig049#); it sometimes attains a
considerable size for a drinking-cup, and
is usually decorated with one or two
figures each side. A notable exception is
the beautiful vase in the British Museum
(Plate #LI:vol2_pl51#.), signed by Hieron, with its frieze
of figures all round. This identification
is of course at variance with Athenaeus'
statement that the kotyle has no handle; but no other satisfactory
name has been found for the form.
.il id=fig049 fn=fig049_241.jpg align=l w=125px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 49. KOTYLE.
Closely connected, it would seem, with the κοτύλη is the cup // Tr: kotylê
known as the σκύφος or σκύπφος, to which there are frequent // Tr: skyphos: skypphos
references in the poets and elsewhere but not in Aristophanes.
Homer[645] describes it as a rustic sort of bowl, which held milk;
Simonides applies to it the epithet οὐατόεντα, or “handled.” // Tr: ouatoenta
Athenaeus connects the word with σκαφίς, a round wooden // Tr: skaphis
vessel which held milk or whey, and this seems to accord with the
mention of it in Homer. It was always specially associated with
Herakles,[646] who was said to have used it on his expeditions;
hence certain varieties were known as σκύφοι Ἡρακλεωτικοί, but // Tr: skyphoi Hêrakleôtikoi
it is more probable that this word refers to Heraklea Trachinia
in Northern Greece. Besides the Herakleotic, Athenaeus
.bn 242.png
.pn +1
mentions specially Boeotian, Rhodian, and Syracusan skyphi.
The ordinary shape of the vase may be inferred from the form
of that which Herakles is often depicted holding on the monuments[647];
it is of the same type as the κοτύλη, but the body // Tr: kotylê
tapers below and has a higher foot, while the handles are placed
lower down and bent upwards. Among the late black-glazed
wares with opaque paintings (p. #488#) some examples occur
of cups with handles twisted in a kind of knot, and it has been
suggested that these represent the “Heraklean knot” described
by Athenaeus[648] as to be seen on the handles of these: σκύφοι
Ἡρακλεωτικοί. // Tr: skyphoi Hêrakleôtikoi
The word is also frequently used by Roman authors, and
there is a particularly interesting passage in Suetonius (cf. p. #134#)
alluding to the Homerici scyphi adorned with chased designs
from the Homeric poems[649] which Nero possessed; these were, of
course, metal bowls with reliefs,[650] but they have their fictile
counterparts in the so-called Megarian bowls (p. #499#).
Athenaeus[651] quotes from the philosopher Poseidonios a
passage referring to drinking-cups called Παναθηναικά, which // Tr: Panathênaika
may be supposed to have some connection with the Panathenaic
festival, and attempts have been made to identify them with a
class of skyphi or kotylae of the R.F. period, the invariable
subject on which is an owl between two olive-branches (p. #410#).[652]
There is no doubt some reference to the Athenian goddess,
but it is more likely that they represent some kind of official
measure (see above, p. #135#).
It will be noted that the σκύφος appears to have been // Tr: skyphos
originally a wooden vessel used as a milking-pail, and it is
further identified in Theocritus with the wooden κισσύβιον, to // Tr:: kissybion
which we have already alluded. Two other words are given by
Athenaeus to denote large wooden bowls of the type of the
.bn 243.png
.pn +1
σκύφος, namely the ἄμφωτις and the πέλλα[653] both used as milking-pails. // Tr: skyphos : amphôtis : pella
They were not strictly speaking drinking-cups. Among
existing Greek vases this form, viz. a deep straight-sided bowl,
such as a carved wooden vessel would naturally take, seems
to be best represented by the examples discovered on the site
of the Cabeiric temple at Thebes, which are of this shape and of
considerable size (see Fig. #98:fig098#, p. 392).[654]
The βρομίας is described by Athenaeus[655] as a cup resembling // Tr: bromias
the taller skyphi, and the κιβώριον[656] (whence the ecclesiastical // Tr: kibôrion
Latin ciborium[657]) was also a kind of skyphos. The name μαστός // Tr: mastos
should also be included here, from the likeness of the cup to the
skyphos. Its characteristic is that it has no foot but only a
small knob, and therefore exactly resembles a woman’s breast
with the nipple, whence its name. In Greek pottery the only
known painted examples are of the B.F. period,[658] and these
are usually modelled and painted with great care and delicacy.
The so-called Megarian bowls (see p. #499#) should also be
included under this heading, in reference to which it has been
pointed out that μαστοί of metal were dedicated in temples at // Tr: mastoi
Oropos in Boeotia and at Paphos.[659]
Another form of cup, of which Athenaeus has much to say, is
the κύμβιον[660] (other forms being κύμβη and κύββα), which was // Tr: kymbion : kymbê : kybba
supposed to represent the κύπελλον of Homer. He describes it // Tr: kypellon
as small and deep, without foot or handles. On the other hand,
the word also means “a boat,” and we further find the words
ἄκατος and τριήρης cited by Athenaeus[661] as names of cups, the // Tr: akatos : triêrês
former being expressly called “a boat-shaped cup.” This has the
support of the author Didymos (quoted by Athenaeus, 481 F)
who says the κύμβιον was a long narrow cup like a ship.[662] A // Tr: kymbion
possible instance of it is a long askos-shaped vessel in the
British Museum,[663] on which is incised
.pm ii inscr_186_propine_me_katthes.jpg 'ΠΡΟΠΙΝΕ ΜΗ ΚΑΤΘΗΣ' '' ',' // Tr: PROPINE MÊ KATTHÊS,
.bn 244.png
.pn +1
“Drink, do not lay me down”; but it is not of a form adapted
for drinking. The question must therefore remain undecided.
Ussing thinks that κύμβιον was originally a cup-name, and // Tr: kymbion
that the other meaning is derived from it; but, on the other
hand, ἄκατος and τριήρης are merely nicknames as applied // Tr: akatos : triêrês
to cups.
The κώθων is a cup which cannot now be identified, but is // Tr: kôthôn
often referred to by ancient authors.[664] It seems to have been a
Spartan name for a soldier’s cup, used for drinking-water, and
was adapted by its recurved mouth for straining off mud.[665] It
has been conjectured to have been the name for the shape
we have above described as a κοτύλη, but on no good // Tr: kotylê
grounds; Pollux (vii. 162) wrongly classifies it with the πίθος // Tr: pithos
and amphora, but it was undoubtedly a cup, as indeed he
implies elsewhere (vi. 97). Usually of clay, it is sometimes
described as of bronze,[666] and Aristophanes applies to it the
epithet φαεινός,[667] which suggests a bright metallic surface. // Tr: phaeinos
Hesychius and Suidas describe it as having one handle.
>From the κώθων was derived the word κωθωνίζεσθαι, “to drink // Tr: kôthôn: kôthônizesthai
hard.”[668]
The κάνθαρος was a cup so called because of a fancied resemblance
to an inverted beetle.[669] It was specially associated with
Dionysos,[670] and from this fact its form has been identified with
certainty from the two-handled drinking-cup which he is so
often depicted holding, especially on B.F. vases. It is a very
beautiful though for some reason never a very popular shape
in pottery, and is found at all periods.[671] In form it may be
described as a deep straight-sided cup on a high stem, with
loop-shaped handles starting from the rim each side and coming
.bn 245.png
.pn +1
down to the lower edge of the body (Fig. #50:fig050#). Probably it
was considered a difficult shape to produce in pottery, and
was commoner in metal examples.
At all events the καρχήσιον, a similar // Tr: karchêsion
kind of cup, seems to have been consistently
made of metal. Athenaeus[672]
describes it with more than usual detail
as tall, moderately contracted in the
middle, with handles reaching to the
bottom (i.e. of the bowl). The form is
to be recognised on the monuments (if
not in actual examples[673]) as a variation
of the κάνθαρος in which the body has // Tr: kantharos
a sort of “waist,” bulging out again below. Virgil mentions
carchesia,[674] and silver specimens were among the dedications in
the Parthenon at Athens.[675]
.il id=fig050 fn=fig050_245.jpg align=l w=125px ew=33%
.ca FIG. 50. KANTHAROS.
Of all the ancient forms of drinking-cup, the most celebrated
and in some respects also the most beautiful, was the Kylixκύλιξ, Lat. calix),[676] a two-handled cup of varying size, with // Tr: kylix
large bowl on a high stem. The shape of this vase shows a
continuous development, as does also its decorative treatment,
from the most primitive times down to the end of Greek vase-painting.
It was moreover the form which the great artists
of the early part of the fifth century selected as the medium of
their finest efforts. The kylix played an important part at the
banquet, being not only one of the commonest forms of
drinking-cup in use, but as being also used in the game of
kottabos (see Chapter #XV:vol2_ch15#.). In the banqueting-scenes which
are so popular a subject on the R.F. kylikes of the best period,
the guests are often represented twirling vases of this shape on
one finger crooked through the handle; this being the manner
in which they discharged the drops of wine at the mark.
Hence the kylix was also known as ἀγκύλη or κοτταβίς. When // Tr: ankylê: kottabis
.bn 246.png
.pn +1
not in use the kylix was hung on a peg on the wall, as it is
sometimes depicted on R.F. vases.[677]
Athenaeus[678] cites the Athenian and Argive kylikes as being
of special repute; the latter are described by Simonides as
φοξίχειλος, a word of doubtful meaning.[679] In the former’s // Tr: phoxicheilos
own city of Naukratis a special kind of kylix[680] was made by
hand (not on the wheel), with four handles and a very flat base,
and this was dipped in a solution of silver to give it a metallic
appearance.[681] Lacedaemonian, Chian, and Teian kylikes are
also mentioned (the last-named by Alcaeus: see p. #64#). But
the most famous variety was the Thericleian, so named from
Therikles, a Corinthian potter contemporary with Aristophanes.
These cups were chiefly made at Athens; they are frequently
mentioned by Middle and New Comedy writers, and are
described by Athenaeus[682] as depressed round the sides, deep,
with short handles. They were imitated in wood or glass,
and gilded, and Athenaeus mentions that the Rhodians made
ἡδυποτίδες (see above) in emulation of them.[683] // Tr: hêdypotides
Besides the various diminutive forms of κύλιξ, such as κυλίχνη // Tr: kylix: kylichnê
(see above, p. #133#), κυλίσκη, etc.,[684] there is a long list of // Tr: kyliskê
synonyms for this form, about most of which, however, there
is nothing to say except that they are probably mere
nicknames. Athenaeus gives the following: Κονώνιος, Λάκαινα, // Tr: Konônios, Lakaina
λοιβάσιον, πεντάπλοον, σκάλλιον, χαλκόστομος, χόννος, and // Tr: loibasion, pentaploon, skallion, chalkostomos, chonnos]
μαθαλίς; also μετάνιπτρον, from its use after the washing of // Tr: mathalis: metaniptron
the hands, i.e. at the end of the meal; Προυσίας, named from // Tr: Prousias
a king of Bithynia; and φιλοτησία, corresponding to our // Tr: philotêsia
“loving-cup.”[685]
In the history of Greek vase-painting the kylix is a shape
known and popular at all periods, from the Mycenaean Age down
to the end of the fifth century; in the fabrics of Southern
.bn 247.png
.pn +1
Italy it but seldom occurs. The Mycenaean form is peculiarly
graceful, with its tall stem and swelling bowl; it is generally
decorated with a cuttle-fish, a motive well suited to its
outlines (see Plate #XV:pl15#.).
During the archaic period of Greek vases a steady development
can be traced, both in form and methods of decoration,
until the outburst of the R.F. style. The early Corinthian
specimens (cf. p. #313#) are somewhat cumbrous, with very low
stem, shallow bowl with heavy overhanging lip and small
handles; in strong contrast thereto are the Cyrenaic cups
(p. #341# ff.), which are in execution quite in advance of their
time (first half of sixth century); their graceful, delicate forms
are evidently imitated from metal. These early cups are as a
rule covered with a cream-coloured or buff slip and decorated
all over, and the interior designs,
which cover the whole or almost
the whole of the inside, are a
marked feature of these types.
.il id=fig051 fn=fig051_247.jpg align=l w=200px ew=33%
.ca FIG. 51. KYLIX (EARLIER FORM).
Turning to the Attic fabrics we
find that in the beginning of the
sixth century the prevalent form
(evolved from the Corinthian type)
has a high stem and deep bowl
with off-set lip, the decoration being confined to the upper
band of the exterior, in the form of a frieze (Fig. #51:fig051#). This
type is also illustrated by a small Rhodian group in the British
Museum,[686] which, however, has elaborate interior designs. In the
next stage, represented by the Minor Artists (see p. #379# ff.),
the form remains the same, but the manner of decoration is
different, interior designs again appearing; often the design
is confined to a narrow band, the rest of the exterior being
coloured black. Lastly, towards the end of the fifth century,
an entirely new form is introduced, in which the break in the
outline disappears and the bowl becomes flatter, with a gracefully-curved
convex outline, while the stem is shortened
(Fig. #52:fig052#). This form is the one adopted throughout the R.F.
period, with few exceptions, and it is possible that it was
.bn 248.png
.pn +1
actually invented by the earliest R.F. artists, such as Nikosthenes
and Pamphaios, though it is also employed by Exekias.[687]
The methods of decoration cannot however be treated of here.
.il id=fig052 fn=fig052_248.jpg align=r w=200px ew=33%
.ca FIG. 52. KYLIX (LATER FORM).
An extremely delicate form of
kylix is used by the potter Sotades
(Chapter #X:ch10#.), with handles in
imitation of a bird’s merrythought.
Towards the end of the fifth
century the shape changes somewhat,
the stem disappearing and
the bowl becoming deeper. In Southern Italy the kylix-form
is only represented by gigantic shallow bowls, with small stout
handles attached to the rim, probably intended for hanging
against the wall. The Naucratite kylikes mentioned above
seem to have been made somewhat after this pattern; it was
at any rate typical of Hellenistic taste.
.il id=fig053 fn=fig053_248.jpg align=l w=150px ew=30%
.ca FIG. 53. PHIALE.
The word φιάλη[688] (Lat. patera) bore in Greek a very different // Tr: phialê
meaning from that suggested by the modern word phial. It
was in fact a shallow bowl shaped like a saucer, and had no
handle, but in place of one a boss (ὄμφαλος) in the centre, which // Tr: omphalos
was hollowed out underneath in order to admit of the insertion of
a thumb or finger (Fig. #53:fig053#). Hence it was generally styled
μεσόμφαλος or ὀμφαλωτός.[689] As a vase-form it is not of frequent // Tr: mesomphalos: omphalôtos
occurrence, and was probably more frequently made in metal,
especially in the Hellenistic period. Those depicted on painted
vases are usually indicated as having ribbed
or fluted exteriors, which can only denote
metal (cf. Vol. II. Fig. #132:vol2_fig132#). About the
third or second century B.C. imitations of
metal phialae in terracotta, with moulded
interior designs, are of common occurrence.
Being signed by potters residing at Cales, they are
.bn 249.png
.pn +1
usually known as “Calene phialae.” There are two in the
British Museum,[690] which are an exact reproduction of silver
specimens in the same collection.
Homer uses the word in two senses: (1) as equivalent to
a λέβης, as if used for boiling water[691]; (2) as a cinerary urn.[692] // Tr: lebês
Obviously in both these cases the significance of this particular
word must not be pressed. Later, however, we find very
frequent mention of the phiale in classical authors, such as
Herodotos, Pindar, and Plato, in all cases with the same
restricted significance, that of a vessel used in making libations.
On the R.F. vases it appears in countless examples, used in
this manner, especially by Nike. Aristotle, by way of illustrating
the inversion of a simile, says “You may call the shield
the phiale of Ares, or the phiale the shield of Dionysos,” no
doubt with reference to its buckler-like shape.[693] Athenaeus
(xi. 462 D) quotes a passage from Xenophanes which implies
its use for holding perfumes at banquets.
Many words occur as synonyms of φιάλη, such as the αιακις, // Tr: phialê: aiakis
ἄροτρον, λυκιουργεῖς, ῥυσίς, φθοίς, βάτιακιον, and λεπάστη.[694] The // Tr: arotron, lykiourgeis, rhysis, phthois, batiakion: lepastê
last-named word has been suggested above (p. #165#) for a kind
of large covered dish or bowl, but we can only ascertain that
it was a drinking-vessel of some kind, resembling a large
kylix.[695]
.il id=fig054 fn=fig054_250.jpg align=r w=100px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 54. Rhyton.The ῥυτόν, or drinking-horn (from ῥέω, “flow”), is a familiar // Tr: rhyton: rheô
shape in the R.F. and later styles, but as a vase-form does
not occur before the middle of the fifth century.[696] Its peculiarities
were: firstly, that it could not be set down without drinking
the contents; secondly, that the narrow end was almost always
modelled in the form of the head of some animal, or of a woman
or Satyr. Some examples are known in the form of two heads
back to back, usually a Satyr and a Maenad, but these having
a flat circular base are an exception to the first rule noted above,
and partake more of the nature of a cup than of a drinking-horn.
Although no archaic examples have been preserved,
.bn 250.png
.pn +1
the rhyton, or κέρας,[697] as it is also called, frequently appears on // Tr: keras
B.F. vases, being generally held by Satyrs or revellers, or by
Dionysos.[698] Athenaeus says it was a form reserved for the
use of heroes, and that κέρας was the older name for it.[699] // Tr: keras
Among the South Italian vases, it is found almost exclusively
in Apulia, and these belong to the decadence of the Apulian
style, the paintings being limited to a figure of Eros, or a
woman, and little more. These rhyta have one handle, and
the cup-part is generally cylindrical in form, tapering slightly
towards the lower part, where the head is attached (Fig. #54:fig054#.). In
some instances the form is narrower and
more elongated, with fluted body. The
animals’ heads are usually left unvarnished,
and coloured in detail like the terracotta
figures; the mouth often forms a spout from
which the liquid could be allowed to run out.[700]
The heads, which occur in great variety,
include the panther, fox, wolf, horse, goat,
mule, deer, and dog[701]; also Gryphons and
Pegasi (see below). Athenaeus mentions a
vase called the τραγέλαφος,[702] which was doubtless a rhyton // Tr: tragelaphos
ending in two heads, a goat and a deer conjoined, like some
known specimens; he also quotes a description of another
called ελέφας, explained as a rhyton with two spouts (δίκρουνος).[703] // Tr: elephas: dikrounos
Further, under the heading ῥέοντα, which is doubtless a synonym // Tr: rheonta
for ῥυτόν, he mentions one in the form of a Gryphon, another // Tr: rhyton
in the form of a Pegasos.[704] The name is mentioned by Demosthenes,
together with κύμβια and φιάλαι.[705] It is worthy of // Tr: kymbia: phialai
mention that among the Mycenaean objects discovered at
Enkomi in Cyprus, in 1896, and now in the British Museum,
.bn 251.png
.pn +1
there are two or three rhyta in porcelain, corresponding in
form to those of the R.F. period, and of very advanced style[706];
they are in fact quite unique.
A few comparatively unimportant names of vessels for
holding food and liquids at the table may next be discussed.
.il id=fig055 fn=fig055_251.jpg w=200px ew=40%
.ca FIG. 55. PINAX.
The names given for dishes are δισκός, παροψίς, and τρύβλιον, // Tr: diskos, paropsis: tryblion
the latter of which frequently occurs in Aristophanes, but
παροψίς seems to be of late introduction, and more used by // Tr: paropsis
the Romans (see Chapter #XXI:vol2_ch21#.).[707] For a plate the usual name
was πίναξ (also πινακίον, πινακίσκος), a form which is interesting // Tr: pinax: pinakion, pinakiskos
as often occurring among painted vases (Fig. #55:fig055#). It is found
at all periods, from the fabrics of Rhodes and Naukratis down
to the Apulian and Campanian “fish-plates,” which have a
sinking in the centre, and are painted
with fish, shell-fish, etc. They were
no doubt used for eating fish, the
sinking being for the sauce.[708] A
famous early instance of the pinax is
the “Euphorbos-plate” in the British Museum (see p. #335#). The
name is also given to the square plaques or tablets, such as
those found at Corinth, on the Athenian Acropolis, and elsewhere,
which were generally of a votive character. They are
often depicted on the vases themselves, indicating the locality
of a shrine.[709]
Vessels for holding vinegar or sauces were known by the
names of ὀξύβαφον, ὀξίς, or ἐμβάφιον.[710] The shapes are not // Tr: oxybaphon, oxis: embaphion
exactly known, but they were apparently small cups or dishes;
the incorrect identification of the first-named with the κρατήρ we // Tr: kratêr
have already discussed (p. #171#). The words ἐρεύς and κυψελίς are // Tr: ereus: kypselis
given by Pollux[711] as vases for holding sweets, and the κυμινοδόκον // Tr: kyminodokon
or κυμινοθήκη was, as the name implies, a box or receptacle // Tr: kyminothêkê
.bn 252.png
.pn +1
for spices.[712] The last-named has been identified with the κέρνος, // Tr: kernos
described by Athenaeus as “a round vessel, having attached
several little kotylae (κοτυλίσκους).”[713] Two existing forms correspond // Tr: kotyliskous
in some degree to this description: one found in Cyprus
and at Corinth, and consisting of a hollow ring, to which small
cups or jars are attached at intervals; the other found chiefly
in Melos, and consisting of a central stand, round which are
grouped a varying number of alabastron-like vases, evidently
designed for holding small quantities of unguents or perfumes,
or perhaps flowers, eggs, or other objects. They are all of
very early date, and decorated in primitive fashion.[714] A better
form of the word seems to be κέρχνος. Many have been found // Tr: kerchnos
at Eleusis,[715] and it is supposed that they were used in the
Mysteries for carrying the first-fruits.[716]
.il id=fig056 fn=fig056_253.jpg align=l w=75px ew=20%
.ca FIG. 56. LEKYTHOS.
Several kinds of vases were used for holding oil, the characteristic
of all these shapes being the narrow neck and small
mouth, which were better adapted for pouring the liquid drop
by drop. The ordinary Greek word for an oil-flask is λύκυθος, // Tr: lêkythos
frequently found in Aristophanes and elsewhere. We have
already referred (pp. #132#, #143#) to the passages in the Ecclesiazusae
where the practice of placing lekythi on tombs, and generally
of using them for funeral purposes, finds allusion. From these
passages it has been possible to identify the class of white-ground
Athenian vases on which funeral subjects are painted,
with absolute certainty as Lekythi. But the shape is not confined
to this one class. In the early B.F. period (especially
in Corinthian wares) it assumes a less elegant form, with cup-shaped
mouth, short thick neck, and quasi-cylindrical body
tapering slightly upwards (cf. the alabastron below). The
later form, which prevails from the middle of the B.F. period
down to the end of the fourth century at Athens, with very
little variation of form, is one of the most beautiful types of
Greek vases (Fig. #56:fig056#). It has a long neck, to which the handle
is attached, flat or almost concave shoulder, and cylindrical
.bn 253.png
.pn +1
body, semi-oval at the base. The B.F. examples are seldom
found in Italy, and almost all come from Athens and other
Hellenic sites, or from Sicily, a country in which the form
seems to have been exceptionally popular. The same
may be said of the ordinary R.F. examples, which
have no sepulchral reference, and are found in large
numbers at Gela (Terranuova) in Sicily, but seldom
elsewhere. The white lekythi have been found in
Eretria, and at Gela, and Locri in Southern Italy,
besides Athens. The lekythos seldom attains to any
great size, except in the marble examples used as
tombstones. They were probably used at the bath
and in the gymnasium, and may also have served
other purposes, e.g. for pigments. In illustration
of this reference may be made to the well-known
passage in Aristophanes’ Frogs (1200 ff.), where the jeer of
Aeschylos at Euripides’ stereotyped beginnings of his plays,
ληκύθιον ἀπώλεσεν, seems to imply “he is hard up for something // Tr: lêkythion apôlesen
new to say,” i.e. “he has lost his paint-pot; his lines need
embellishment.”
.il id=fig057 fn=fig057_253.jpg align=r w=100px ew=25%
.ca
FIG. 57. LEKYTHOS (LATER FORM).
.ca-
Towards the end of the fifth century the lekythos takes a
new departure (Fig. #57:fig057#), and appears with a squat, almost
spherical body, without foot (except for the base-ring). This
form is sometimes known as aryballos (see below),
but is perhaps more accurately described as a
“wide-bodied” (Germ. bauchige) lekythos. It is
very popular at Athens in the late fine or polychrome
vases,[717] and was adopted exclusively in
Southern Italy, where it is the only form of
lekythos found. This type of vase is often found
in the period of the Decadence with a subject
moulded in relief attached to the front, sometimes
of a comic nature.
.il id=fig058 fn=fig058_254.jpg align=r w=100px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 58. ALABASTRON.
The alabastron (ἀλάβαστρον or ἀλάβαστος, both // Tr: alabastron: alabastos
forms being found in Classical Greek) is a shape closely allied
to the lekythos. It preserves the same form throughout the
period of Greek vase-painting (Fig. #58:fig058#.), but is not often found
.bn 254.png
.pn +1
after the middle of the sixth century. In the early Corinthian
wares it is very common. The name is derived from the
material of which it was originally made, and many examples
of alabaster vases of this shape have been found in
excavations. It was chiefly used for holding oil,
unguents, and cosmetics, and is often represented in
scenes of ladies’ toilet as in use for these purposes.
Its characteristics are a flat round top with small
orifice, short neck, and more or less cylindrical body
with rounded-off base, intended for placing in a stand
(ἀλαβαστοθήκη).[718] It is generally without handles, // Tr: alabastothêkê
but when they occur they are in the form of two
small ears, through which a cord was passed for
carrying or suspending it. The “alabaster box” of the Gospels
was a vessel of this form (cf. the original Greek), and it was
broken by knocking off the top, in order that the contents might
flow out quickly. The name βῆσσα is also given as a synonym // Tr: bêssa
of the ἀλάβαστρον.[719] // Tr: alabastron
.il id=fig059 fn=fig059_254.jpg align=l w=150px ew=35%
.ca FIG. 59. ARYBALLOS.
Another vase of the same type is that known as the
ἀρύβαλλος. The derivation of the word is unknown, but the // Tr: aryballos
first half connects it with the “ladle” class of vases (ἀρυτήρ, // Tr: arytêr
etc.), of which we have already spoken. It can, however,
hardly be a vase of that type, and the
connection seems to be its use in the bath,[720]
i.e. as an oil-flask. It is generally described
as resembling a purse; Athenaeus[721] says it
is broader below than above, like a purse
tied at the neck with a string. The name,
however, is usually applied to a form of
vase akin to the alabastron, but with small
globular body, handle, and very short neck
(Fig. #59:fig059#.). This type is almost confined to
the Corinthian and other early fabrics, and frequently occurs
in glazed or enamelled ware (see p. #127#). Its connection with
.bn 255.png
.pn +1
the bath is undoubted, and it was generally carried on a string,
together with a strigil or flesh-scraper. As this form died out
in the sixth century, the name has been used, as noted above,
for a later variety of the lekythos, in which the body approaches
a globular form.
Transitional between the alabastron and the aryballos is
a type of which some examples occur among early Corinthian
wares, with egg-shaped body, flat round top, and small ear-like
handle, the base being rounded off. To this the name βομβύλιος // Tr: bombylios
has been tentatively given, on the authority of Antisthenes, who
defines the word as meaning a kind of lekythos with narrow neck.[722]
In the same passage of Athenaeus[723] it is contrasted with the
quickly-emptied φιάλη or bowl; those who drink from it must // Tr: phialê
do so drop by drop (κατὰ μικρὸν στάζοντες). The name may
denote a cocoon, the shape of which this vase resembles, or // Tr: kata mikron stazontes
may be imitative, from the gurgling sound made by a liquid
poured therefrom. The ἐξάλειπτρον was also probably a kind // Tr: exaleiptron
of oil-flask.[724]
.il id=fig060 fn=fig060_255.jpg align=l w=200px ew=40%
.ca FIG. 60. PYXIS.
A few forms of vases were exclusively devoted to feminine
use. These include the πυξίς, a cylindrical // Tr: pyxis
box with cover, in which jewellery
or other objects such as hair-pins,
cosmetics, etc., might be kept for use
in the toilet (Fig. #60:fig060#.). The painted
examples of this form, which nearly all
belong to the later R.F. period, are
usually decorated with appropriate subjects, women at their
toilet, preparations for weddings, etc. The σμηματοθήκη, or // Tr: smêmatothêkê
soap-box, served similar purposes.[725] It seems to be represented
by a form of vase of which the British Museum possesses a
specimen (without figure decoration), with cover and high stem,
but no handle except the knob on the cover. It is intermediate
in form between the pyxis and the so-called λεπαστή (p. #165#), and // Tr: lepastê
.bn 256.png
.pn +1
sometimes appears in toilet and other scenes.[726] A rare form, found
almost exclusively in the R.F. period,[727] consisting of a globular
vase with vertical looped handles on a high stem, has been
variously named, but the latest theory is that it represents a
λέβης γαμικός.[728] It contained lustral water, and is usually // Tr: lebês gamikos
decorated with bridal scenes. One is depicted in a toilet scene
on a pyxis in the British Museum.[729]
.il id=fig061 fn=fig061_256.jpg align=r w=200px ew=40%
.ca FIG. 61. EPINETRON OR ONOS.
Lastly, a peculiar semi-cylindrical vessel, closed at one end
and open down the side (Fig. #61:fig061#.), was for a long time a
puzzle to archaeologists, but its use
was finally determined by its appearance
in a vase-painting.[730] It is there
held by a seated woman, fitted over
her knee and thigh, and was used
while spinning to pass the thread
over. The name of these objects is given by Pollux (vii. 32)
as ἐπίνητρον or ὄνος (“the donkey”). Several of them are // Tr: epinêtron: onos
painted with spinning scenes, and the vase-painting alluded to
above is curiously enough on a vase of this form.
There is a type of vase, of which two or three varieties occur,
which, from its general likeness to a wine-skin, is usually styled
Askos. It does not, however, appear that there is any direct
authority for this, at least in literary records; where the word
does occur, it always denotes a leather skin, such as is sometimes
depicted on the vases, carried by a Seilenos or Satyr. It is,
however, a convenient expression, and there is no other recorded
term which can on any grounds be associated with this type.
.il id=fig062 fn=fig062_257.jpg w=175px align=l
.ca FIG. 62. ASKOS.
The earliest examples, which date from the middle of the
R.F. period, have a flat round body with convex top, and a
projecting spout (Fig. #62:fig062#); the handle is sometimes arched over
the back to meet the spout, or else takes a separate ring-like
.bn 257.png
.pn +1
form.[731] They are usually decorated with two small figures,
one on each side. In the vases of Southern Italy a new
form appears (Fig. #63:fig063#), chiefly found
in Apulia, in which the resemblance
to a wine-skin is much more apparent,
the tied-up pairs of legs being represented
by the spout or a projection.
The handle is usually arched over
the back, and the pouch-shaped body
sometimes assumes an almost birdlike form.
.il id=fig063 fn=fig063_257.jpg w=175px align=r
.ca FIG. 63. APULIAN ASKOS.
A variety which is also common in Southern Italy is made
of plain black ware, and is not painted
but has a subject in relief in a medallion
on the top[732]; the handle is ring-shaped[733]
and the form generally resembles the
variety first described, except that the
body is flat on the top, and convex below,
with a base-ring (Fig. #64:fig064#). It seems
probable that these vases were used for
holding oil for feeding lamps, and consequently
they are generally known by the
Latin name of guttus, or “lamp-feeder” (see
pp. #211:gutti#, #503#). Whether the painted aski were used for the same
purpose is doubtful; those, however, with the large body seem
to have been intended for other purposes, especially as they
often have a strainer inserted in them.
Some indeed appear to have been
used as rattles, and still contain small
balls or pebbles, placed within them for
that purpose. On the whole, however,
it seems more convenient to reckon
the ἀσκοί with the oil-vases.[734] // Tr: askoi
.il id=fig064 fn=fig064_257.jpg w=175px align=l
.ca FIG. 64. SO-CALLED “GUTTUS.”
Among vases which do not exactly fall under the heading
of any particular shape may be noted certain types of moulded
.bn 258.png
.pn +1
vases, and those with reliefs modelled on them or attached. Many
of these almost fall under the category of terracotta figures,
but still must be reckoned as vases, even when painted in the
methods of terracottas rather than pottery. Such are the large
aski described on page #119#, and the contemporary ornamental
vases modelled in the form of female heads, of Maenads, or of
Athena (as B.M. G 1). Other types we have described elsewhere,[735]
such as the rhyta ending in animals’ heads, the kanthari
and rhyta of the R.F. period in the form of human or Dionysiac
heads, and the analogous vases of the archaic period. Again,
there are such forms as the flasks with flat circular bodies, and
the large pyxides which are often found in Southern Italy.[736]
They usually bear a subject in relief, covered with a white
slip and painted in pink and blue, like the Canosa vases;
a specimen from Pompeii, with rich remains of colouring, has
lately been acquired by the British Museum. The curious
type of vase sometimes found in Sicily, with a tall conical
cover, the ornamentation being partly in encaustic, partly in
gilded relief, has been already mentioned.[737] There is also a late
variety of the so-called kernos (p. #195#), consisting of four cups
united on an elaborate fluted stand, of which the British
Museum possesses two good examples.[738]
It should be borne in mind that all these exceptional shapes
are probably imitations of metal-work, perhaps made for the
benefit of those who could not afford the more expensive
material, just as imitation jewellery was sometimes made in
gilt terracotta. Throughout the Hellenistic period (to which
the classes we are discussing chiefly belong), the universal
tendency is to substitute metal vases for pottery, and moulded
or relief-wares for painted decoration, and the potter, finding
the painted vases were no longer appreciated, was forced to
confine himself to imitating metal, and thus keep abreast with
the new fashion. The whole subject of the plastic decoration
of vases has been more fully dealt with elsewhere (Chapter #XI:ch11#.).
.fm
.fn 447
L. 64.
.fn-
.fn 448
“And in earthenware baked in the
fire, within the closure of figured urns,
there came among the goodly folk of Hera
the prize of the olive-fruit” (Myers).
.fn-
.fn 449
“And he won five garlands in
succession at the Panathenaic games,
amphorae full of oil” (Frag. 155, ed.
Bergk = Anth. P. xiii. 19). See also
Schol. in Ar. Nub. 1005, and Inscr.
Gr. (Atticae), ii. 965b.
.fn-
.fn 450
Cf. Schol. in Plat. Hipp. Min. 368 C:
Λήκυθον δὲ ἀγγεῖόν τι φασίν οἱ Ἀττικοὶ ἐων
ᾡ τοῖς νεκροῖς ἕφερον τὸ μύρον. //Tr: Lêkython de angeion ti phasin hoi Attikoi en hô tois nekrois epheron to myron
.fn-
.fn 451
“And raise the great goblets, or if,
Oikis, thou desirest aught else ... pour
in and mix one and two full up to the
brim, and let the one goblet oust the
other.”
.fn-
.fn 452
Graec. Ling. Dialect, i. p. 247.
.fn-
.fn 453
viii. 381: see also p. #50#.
.fn-
.fn 454
See p. #499#.
.fn-
.fn 455
Suet. Ner. 47: see Robert, Homer.
Becher, and Class. Review, 1894, p. 325.
The British Museum possesses a silver
phiale, with terracotta replicas (G 117,
118), one of which is shown on Plate
#XLVIII:pl48#. See also p. #500#.
.fn-
.fn 456
Cf. the use of the word δημόσιον on bronze and lead weights.
.fn-
.fn 457
Egger in Revue Archéol. xvi. (1867),
p. 292.
.fn-
.fn 458
See Hultsch, Metrologie, p. 99 ff.
.fn-
.fn 459
Arist. Categ. 12; also Polybius, iv.
56, ἡτοίμασαν οίνου κεράμια μύρια.
.fn-
.fn 460
B.M. F 175.
.fn-
.fn 461
Other instances are: Millingen-Reinach,
2; Munich 423; Reinach, i.
291–92.
.fn-
.fn 462
Cf. B.M. E 534–37, 548–53; also
Stackelberg, Gräber der Hellenen, pl. 17.
Fig. #15:fig015# is from the vase F 101 in the
British Museum.
.fn-
.fn 463
Cf. B.M. F 457–66.
.fn-
.fn 464
Suppl. 463.
.fn-
.fn 465
E.g. B.M. E 494. See also Chapter
#XV:vol2_ch15#.
.fn-
.fn 466
See Schol. in Ar. Ran. 218, and
J.H.S. xx. p. 110 ff.
.fn-
.fn 467
For explanation and parallels see
Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. p. 119 ff.
.fn-
.fn 468
Raoul-Rochette in Revue Archéol.
viii. (1851), p. 112: see also Theocr. xv.
113 ff.
.fn-
.fn 469
Revue Archéol. l.c. p. 118; Mart. xi.
19; Pliny, H.N. xix. 59.
.fn-
.fn 470
Hist. Plant. vi. 7.
.fn-
.fn 471
Pernice in Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 60 ff.
He would also regard the so-called
σμηματοθήκη (see p. #198#) as a vase
of this class; but this seems much
more doubtful. See also p. #167#, under
πλημοχόη.
.fn-
.fn 472
Cf. Böhlau, Ion. u. Ital. Nekrop.
p. 39; Berlin 1108.
.fn-
.fn 473
Pernice’s arguments have been directly
impugned by Kouroniotes in Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1899, p. 233, and by Robinson in Boston
Mus. Report, p. 73; and it certainly
seems more probable that metal vessels
would have been used for this purpose;
moreover, the form of the θυμιατήριον is
well known. But he has personally
assured the present writer that the clay
κώθωνες show traces internally of the use
of fire.
.fn-
.fn 474
Reinach, i. 235 = Naples 3255.
.fn-
.fn 475
See p. 214.
.fn-
.fn 476
Adv. Leoch. 1086, 1089.
.fn-
.fn 477
Cf. B.M. Cat. of Sculpture, i. p. 297.
.fn-
.fn 478
See note on p. #132# above. The
custom seems to have been specially in
favour in the fourth century B.C.
.fn-
.fn 479
E.g. B.M. D 65, 70–1; J.H.S. xix.
pl. 2. On the subject generally, see ibid.
p. 169 ff.
.fn-
.fn 480
Fig. #20:fig020# = F 93, a Lucanian hydria in
the British Museum, is a very fine instance,
several of the vases being represented
with painted subjects. Among them is a
Panathenaic amphora (see above, p. #132#),
on which is depicted a chariot-race.
.fn-
.fn 481
Il. xxiii. 253.
.fn-
.fn 482
Q. Smyrn. iii. 737.
.fn-
.fn 483
It no doubt suggested Tennyson’s
“Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an
urn of brass.” Cf. l. 1142 (κήτει).
.fn-
.fn 484
Brit. School Annual, 1901–2, pls. 18–19,
p. 298; Mon. Antichi, i. p. 201,
pls. 1–2.
.fn-
.fn 485
B 130: see also p. 46.
.fn-
.fn 486
No. 2422 = Furtwaengler and Reichhold,
pl. 34.
.fn-
.fn 487
E 811: see for other instances, Jahn,
Vasensamml. zu München, p. lxxxv,
note 600, and p. #39# above.
.fn-
.fn 488
Cat. of Terracottas, C 12.
.fn-
.fn 489
Mr. J. L. Myres, on opening a tomb
at Amathus, in Cyprus, in 1894, found
jugs, bowls, and other kinds of vases
ranged round the body, like a dinner-service
set out on a table.
.fn-
.fn 490
A good instance is the Python krater
in the British Museum (F 149), one of
the handles of which has been repaired
with lead. See also Jahn, Vasens. zu
München, p. ci, note 731; B.M. B 607,
B 608, E 106; Berlin 1768.
.fn-
.fn 491
Gerhard, Auserl. Vasenb. ii. 145 =
Reinach, ii. 75.
.fn-
.fn 492
Rev. Arch. iii. (1904), p. 50.
.fn-
.fn 493
Juvenal, xiv. 308.
.fn-
.fn 494
Vespae, 1437.
.fn-
.fn 495
The use of this form of vase is further
illustrated by the hydrophoria-scenes on
B.F. vases, in which it constantly occurs.
See below, p. #166#.
.fn-
.fn 496
B.M. A 1054, B 450; Boeckh, C.I.G.
i. 545.
.fn-
.fn 497
See Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch16#., where examples
are given.
.fn-
.fn 498
Cf. also Bk. v. 198 ff.
.fn-
.fn 499
x. 62 ff.
.fn-
.fn 500
Recherches sur les véritables Noms
des Vases Grecs, Paris, 1829.
.fn-
.fn 501
Observations sur les Noms des Vases
Grecs, etc., Paris, 1833, and Supplément,
1837–38.
.fn-
.fn 502
Rapporto Volcente in Ann. dell’ Inst.
1831, p. 221 ff.; and in criticism of
Letronne, Berlins ant. Bildwerke, i. p.
342 ff., and Ann. dell’ Inst. 1836, p. 147 ff.
.fn-
.fn 503
Handbuch d. Archäol. § 298–301.
.fn-
.fn 504
Ueber die hellenischen bemalten
Vasen, Munich, 1844.
.fn-
.fn 505
De Nominibus Vasorum Graecorum,
Kopenhagen, 1844. This work is very
useful for its exhaustive references to
classical literature. It is also critically
up to the mark.
.fn-
.fn 506
Angeiologie, Halle, 1854.
.fn-
.fn 507
Vasensamml. zu München, p. lxxxvi ff.
(1854).
.fn-
.fn 508
There are some very useful articles
in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire
under the respective headings, so far as
the work has appeared (down to M in
1904).
.fn-
.fn 509
Cf. also xi. 462 D.
.fn-
.fn 510
Pliny (H.N. iii. 82) states that the
island of Pithecusa (the modern Ischia)
was so called not from πίθηκος, an ape, // Tr: pithêkos
but from πίθος (a figulinis doliorum), implying // Tr: pithos
that wine-casks were made here in
antiquity, as they are at the present day.
.fn-
.fn 511
Athen. xi. 465 A, and cf. 495 B;
Il. xxiv. 527; see Ussing, p. 33, and
Suidas, s.v. The comic poets also speak
of a πιθάκνη, or small πίθος, used for holding // Tr: pithaknê: pithos
wine at festivals.
.fn-
.fn 512
See Chapter #XX:vol2_ch20#., and a relief in the
Villa Albani, Helbig, Führer^2, ii. p. 56,
No. 853; cf. also Hesychius, ἐν πίθῳ, and Ar. Eq. 792. // Tr: en pithoi
.fn-
.fn 513
See Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#. (Fig. #126:vol2_fig126#).
.fn-
.fn 514
B.M. B 464, F 210.
.fn-
.fn 515
Op. et Di. 98; the word has been
confused with πυξίς, meaning a box. See // Tr: pyxis
J.H.S. xx. p. 99.
.fn-
.fn 516
Hesych. s.v.; Pollux, vii. 163.
.fn-
.fn 517
This must be distinguished from
κάναβος (see p. #111#), a skeleton frame // Tr: kanabos
on which statues were modelled. See
Geoponica, vi. 3, p. 4; Pollux, vii. 164;
Jahn in Ber. d. sächs. Gesellsch. 1854,
p. 42; Blümner, Technologie, ii. p. 42.
.fn-
.fn 518
Brit. School Annual, 1899–1900,
p. 22; cf. Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1901,
p. 404.
.fn-
.fn 519
Ath. Mitth. 1903, pp. 96 ff., 140 ff.,
Beilagen 1–5.
.fn-
.fn 520
Troja und Ilion, i. p. 315.
.fn-
.fn 521
See Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii. p. 381 ff.;
Ath. Mitth. 1886, pl. 4; Röm. Mitth.
xii. (1897), p. 256; Arch. Zeit. 1881,
p. 44 ff.; Kekulé, Terracotten von Sicilien,
pls. 55–7, 60; and p. 496.
.fn-
.fn 522
Hom. Il. xxiii. 170; Od. ii. 290, ix.
164; Inscr. Gr. (Atticae), ii. 965 b (oil);
and see Chap. #XXI:vol2_ch21#., s.v. See also
Jahn, Vasens. zu München, p. xcii, and
cf. the amphora in Rome with the oil-selling
scene (Helbig, 70 = Reinach, i.
p. 106).
.fn-
.fn 523
ἀμφιφορεύς, from ἀμφί, “on either // Tr: amphiphoreus
side,” and φέρω, “I carry.” Athenaeus // Tr: pherô
(xi. 501 A) explains it as ὁ ἑκατέρωθεν // Tr: kata ta hota dynamenos pheresthai
κατὰ τὰ ὧτα δυνάμενος φέρεσθαι.
.fn-
.fn 524
Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit. 2nd Ser. iii. (1850), p. 7.
.fn-
.fn 525
Dumont, Inscrs. Céramiques, pl. 9.
.fn-
.fn 526
The order here given is that suggested
by H. von Gaertringen in Inscr.
Gr. xii. pt. 1, p. 8.
.fn-
.fn 527
Dumont, Inscrs. Céramiques, pl. 6;
see also Revue Archéol. N.S. iii. (1861),
pls. 9, 10, p. 283.
.fn-
.fn 528
Jahrbücher für Philol. Suppl. xvii.
(1890), p. 281.
.fn-
.fn 529
Boeckh, C.I.G. ii. 2121.
.fn-
.fn 530
Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit. iii. (1850),
p. 84.
.fn-
.fn 531
C.I.L. iv. 2584; other examples
from Pompeii are given in Chapter #XXI:vol2_ch21#.
.fn-
.fn 532
Stoddart in Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit.
2nd Ser. iii. (1850), p. 1 ff., iv. (1853),
p. 1 ff.; Boeckh, C.I.G. iii. Nos.
5375–5392, 5555–5566, 5751 (Sicily);
Philologus, 1851, p. 278 ff. (Sicily);
Jahrb. für Philol. Suppl.-Bd. xviii.
p. 520 ff.; Abh. d. phil.-phil. Kl. d.
k. bayer. Akad. d. Wiss. ii. (1837),
p. 781 ff.; Mélanges Gréco-Romaines, i.
p. 416 ff. (Olbia); Dumont, Inscrs.
Céramiques de Grèce, Paris, 1872; Ath.
Mitth. 1896, p. 127 ff.; Jahrb. für
Philol. Suppl.-Bd. iv. p. 453, v. p. 447,
x. pp. 1, 207 (Olbia); Inscr. Gr.
(Ins. Maris Aegaei), xii. pp. 175–203,
Nos. 1065–1441 (amphora-handles from
Rhodes); and other references already
given.
.fn-
.fn 533
E.g. Athens 657.
.fn-
.fn 534
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1898, pls. 4, 6;
Plate #XLVII:pl47#.
.fn-
.fn 535
E.g. Baumeister, iii. p. 1975, fig.
2114; Athens 688, 690.
.fn-
.fn 536
Berlins ant. Bildw. p. 346; see also
Thiersch, Tyrrhen. Amphoren, p. 1 ff.
.fn-
.fn 537
See below, p. #388#, and Karo in J.H.S.
xix. p. 147 ff.
.fn-
.fn 538
See note #536:f536# above; also p. #324#.
.fn-
.fn 539
A “transitional” example has recently
been published by Hartwig in
Röm. Mitth. 1901, pl. 5, p. 117.
.fn-
.fn 540
See also Plate #XXXV:pl35#.
.fn-
.fn 541
Cf. B 603–609 with F 331, 332 in the
Fourth Vase Room of the Brit. Mus.
But it appears in Southern Italy at an
earlier period than the fourth century;
see Patroni, Ceram. Antica, p. 138, and
below, p. #485#.
.fn-
.fn 542
See for examples F 339, 340 in Brit.
Mus., and Patroni, Ceramica Antica,
p. 142.
.fn-
.fn 543
See Patroni, Ceramica Antica, p. 79.
.fn-
.fn 544
Instances in B.M., E 350, and
Brussels Museum (Noel des Vergers,
Étrurie, pls. 32–36); also a plain wine-amphora
of this form, dredged up from
the sea, in the Terracotta Room, British
Museum, Case 51.
.fn-
.fn 545
See Pollux, x. 78; Athen. xi. 495 A.
The former gives πελίκα as an Aeolic
synonym of λεκάνη.
.fn-
.fn 546
B.F. “pelikae” in B.M., B 190–192.
.fn-
.fn 547
x. 72. Cf. also Plat. Com. apud
Athen. xi. 783 D.
.fn-
.fn 548
Lys. 196. See also Demosth. Lacr.
933, where eighty stamni of sour wine
are mentioned.
.fn-
.fn 549
Οἰνοδόχον ἀγγεῖον, ad Il. xviii. 1163,
23. Cf. also Herodotos, i. 194; Xen.
Anab. i. 9, 25.
.fn-
.fn 550
Lucian, Meretr. dial. 14; Athen, iii.
116 F.
.fn-
.fn 551
xi. 784 D.
.fn-
.fn 552
Pollux, vi. 14.
.fn-
.fn 553
Vesp. 676, and Schol. ad loc.
.fn-
.fn 554
See below for an account of this
word (p. #176#).
.fn-
.fn 555
xi. 499 B, q.v. for several quotations
illustrative of this word; also Anth. P.
vi. 248 (στειναύχην).
.fn-
.fn 556
Quaest. Conviv. i. 1, 5, p. 614 E
(λαγυνίς): cf. Phaedr. i. 26, 8.
.fn-
.fn 557
Hesych. s.v.βυτίον.
.fn-
.fn 558
See for a fine instance, Brit. Mus.
Cat. of Bronzes, 650.
.fn-
.fn 559
Cf. Hdt. iii. 20; Athen. xi. 483 D;
Hor. Od. iv. 11, 2; 12, 17.
.fn-
.fn 560
Av. 1032; Eccl. 1002.
.fn-
.fn 561
Ussing, p. 45. Cf. Pind. Ol. vi. 68; also Schol. in Nem. x. 64.
.fn-
.fn 562
xi. 496 A. See Boston Mus. Report,
1899, p. 73.
.fn-
.fn 563
Cf. 327 with 539. See for other
mentions of the word, Ussing, p. 44.
.fn-
.fn 564
Trapezitae, 33; cf. Lucian, Hermot.
40, 57 (κάλπις), and Chap. XXI.
.fn-
.fn 565
Soph. O.C. 473, λαβὰς ἀμφιστόμους.
He is here speaking of a κρατήρ, but in
l. 478 he calls the same vase a κρωσσός.
.fn-
.fn 566
Cf. also Aesch. Fr. 91, and Eur.
Cycl. 89; Ion, 1173; Theocr. xiii. 46.
.fn-
.fn 567
Mosch. iv. 34; Anth. P. vii. 710.
.fn-
.fn 568
Alex. 20.
.fn-
.fn 569
Hesych. s.v.; Pollux, viii. 66.
.fn-
.fn 570
xi. 495 A.
.fn-
.fn 571
Cf. Hdt. i. 25 and the Sigean inscription
(Roberts, Gk. Epigraphy, i.
p. 78).
.fn-
.fn 572
Examples of such painted stands in
the B.M. are A 383–85, 464 (Geometrical);
A 1349; B 167 (does not belong to
the amphora below which it is placed).
A 741 is unpainted; F 279 is placed on
an ornamental open stand of bronze.
.fn-
.fn 573
See Hdt. iv. 61, 152; Athen. xi.
472 A and v. 198 D, 199 B, 199 E.
.fn-
.fn 574
See p. #246# and Plate #XII:pl12#.
.fn-
.fn 575
The Aristonoös krater (see p. #297#)
is almost of the Mycenaean form, and
represents the transition to the Corinthian.
Cf. also Notizie degli Scavi, 1895, p. 185,
for one found at Syracuse.
.fn-
.fn 576
For specimens found at Corinth, see
Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1898, p. 196; the
form is also depicted on the Corinthian
pinakes (Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 8, Nos. 12, 18).
.fn-
.fn 577
xi. 475 D. But Couve, in his valuable
article in Daremberg and Saglio’s
Dictionnaire (s.v. Kelebe), is equally
confident that the passage implies a kind
of krater.
.fn-
.fn 578
The Antaios krater in the Louvre, G 103.
.fn-
.fn 579
See Berlins Ant. Bildw. p. 358,
No. 18.
.fn-
.fn 580
Cf. B.M. Cat. of Vases, iv. p. 6.
.fn-
.fn 581
Cf. F 37, 269–73 in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 582
See Chap. #XVIII:vol2_ch18#; Patroni, Ceramica
Antica, p. 25; Röm. Mitth. 1897,
p. 201 ff.
.fn-
.fn 583
E.g. Fig. #108:fig108#, p. 482.
.fn-
.fn 584
Cf. Plat. Symp. 214 A, where it is
described as holding more than eight
kotylae.
.fn-
.fn 585
J.H.S. xix. pl. 6, p. 141; cf. Arch.
Anzeiger, 1889, p. 91; Daremberg and
Saglio, i. p. 821, fig. 1026.
.fn-
.fn 586
A vase of the same type, but probably
used as a “puzzle-jug,” is published in
the Bull. de Corr. Hell. xix. pls. 19, 20.
.fn-
.fn 587
E 767, 768, the latter signed by
Duris; see also J.H.S. l.c. Another
good example is the Euphronios psykter
in Petersburg (p. #431#).
.fn-
.fn 588
Cf. Athen. xi. 503 C and 467 D. In
§ 467 F he identifies the δεῖνος with the
ποδανίπτηρ; this use would be parallel
to the Homeric use of the λέβης for
washing (see below).
.fn-
.fn 589
Cf. Schol. in Ar. Nub. 280, 1472 ff.
.fn-
.fn 590
Cf. the use of the word λέβης for a
cinerary urn by Aeschylus and Sophokles
(Ag. 444; Cho. 686; El. 1401).
.fn-
.fn 591
xi. 470 D. An example in the B.M.
is F 306.
.fn-
.fn 592
E.g. Il. xxi. 362; Od. xix. 386.
.fn-
.fn 593
iv. 61.
.fn-
.fn 594
E.g. B.M. B 221, B 328.
.fn-
.fn 595
Paus. v. 10, 4.
.fn-
.fn 596
Thuc. iv. 100.
.fn-
.fn 597
Hence the word χυτρισμός. Cf. the
episode in Ar. Thesm. 505 ff.
.fn-
.fn 598
ix. 113–14.
.fn-
.fn 599
Cf. Ar. Ach. 1076.
.fn-
.fn 600
Op. et Di. 748.
.fn-
.fn 601
Ran. 505.
.fn-
.fn 602
vi. 89 and x. 66.
.fn-
.fn 603
x. 66.
.fn-
.fn 604
Eur. Fr. 373; Pherekr. Δουλοδ. 4
(apud Athen. xi. 480 B).
.fn-
.fn 605
B.M. Vases, iv. G 194.
.fn-
.fn 606
Roberts, Gk. Epigraphy, i. p. 78.
.fn-
.fn 607
v. 195 C, 199 E: see also Pollux, vi.
100; Plut. Alex. 20.
.fn-
.fn 608
Ussing, p. 116; Poll. x. 77.
.fn-
.fn 609
Brit. Mus. Cat. of Sculpture, i.
p. 166, No. 325_{11}.
.fn-
.fn 610
Hdt. i. 200.
.fn-
.fn 611
Athen. xi. 494 A (ποτήριον). See
also Liddell and Scott, s.v.
.fn-
.fn 612
See Liddell and Scott, s.v.
.fn-
.fn 613
Cf. B.M. Nos. 587, 588, etc.; also
Olympia, iv. pl. 34.
.fn-
.fn 614
Cat. 1727.
.fn-
.fn 615
See Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.
.fn-
.fn 616
Cf. Hom. Od. iii. 468, iv. 128, x. 361;
Il. x. 576; also J.H.S. Suppl. iv. p. 139.
.fn-
.fn 617
E.g. F 332 in B.M. (Plate #XLV:pl45#.).
An early specimen is given by Wolters
in Jahrbuch, 1898, p. 26; 1899, p. 126.
.fn-
.fn 618
See Pollux, x. 76–78; Ar. Av. 840,
1143, Vesp. 600; Schol. in Pac. 1244;
Boeckh, C.I.G. ii. 3071; and generally,
Ussing, p. 118. The name has been
conventionally given to a kind of jar;
see above, p. #164#.
.fn-
.fn 619
Budge, Life and Exploits of Alexander, p. 4 ff.
.fn-
.fn 620
See p. #137#, and B.M. E 533 ff.,
548 ff.
.fn-
.fn 621
Cf. the modern superstition against
crossing a knife and fork on a plate.
.fn-
.fn 622
vi. 46.
.fn-
.fn 623
xi. 479 F; cf. Boeckh, C.I.G. i. 150,
line 30 = B.M. Inscrs. 29.
.fn-
.fn 624
Od. i. 136; xviii. 398.
.fn-
.fn 625
E.g. B.M. A 1532, B 33, B 52.
.fn-
.fn 626
Athen. x. 425 D (in form ὄλπις); xi.
495 B.
.fn-
.fn 627
German Schnabelkanne. This type
of mouth is often seen in the primitive
pottery of Cyprus.
.fn-
.fn 628
vi. 103; x. 92.
.fn-
.fn 629
ii. 168.
.fn-
.fn 630
Athen. x. 424 B; xi. 783 F.
.fn-
.fn 631
Ar. Eq. 1091; Pollux, x. 63;
Theophr. Char. 9.
.fn-
.fn 632
Hesych. s.v.; Pollux, vi. 19; Athen.
x. 424 C; Boeckh, C.I.G. ii. 2139;
Schol. in Ar. Vesp. 855.
.fn-
.fn 633
Ach. 245 and Schol.
.fn-
.fn 634
Ach. 1067 and Schol.; Athen. iv.
169 B; Boeckh, C.I.G. i. 161, 3.
.fn-
.fn 635
See also Pollux, x. 66.
.fn-
.fn 636
It should be noted that the cups he
describes are always of metal.
.fn-
.fn 637
Od. ix. 346, xiv. 78; cf. the description
in Theocr. i. 26 ff., and see below,
p. 185; also Ussing, p. 126.
.fn-
.fn 638
xi. 488 ff.; cf. Il. xi. 632. It is described
by Homer as “studded with
golden nails; and four handles there
were; and about each rested two golden
doves; and beneath there were two
bottoms.”
.fn-
.fn 639
See Chapter XIII.; and below,
p. #186#.
.fn-
.fn 640
Poll. vi. 96; Athen. xi. 478 B, F.
.fn-
.fn 641
Il. v. 306.
.fn-
.fn 642
Athen. xi. 478 E.
.fn-
.fn 643
Il. xxii. 494. See for other instances
of its use, Od. xv. 312, xvii. 12 (πύρνον
καὶ κοτύλην, “bite and sup”); Schol.
ad Ar. Plut. 1054; and Athen. xi. 478–79.
.fn-
.fn 644
Apud Athen. 482 B.
.fn-
.fn 645
Od. xiv. 112. See Athenaeus, xi.
498 for quotations; also Eur. Cycl. 256,
390, 556, and Liddell and Scott, s.v.
.fn-
.fn 646
Athen. xi. 500 A; Macrob. v. 21, 16.
.fn-
.fn 647
E.g. B.M. Cat. of Bronzes, 1244,
1272, 1309–14; Stephani, Ausruhende
Herakles, pp. 151 ff., 195 ff.
.fn-
.fn 648
Ἡράκλειος δεσμός (500 A).
.fn-
.fn 649
The sculptor Mys made a σκύφος
Ἡρακλεωτικός with the sack of Troy
chased upon it (Athen. xi. 782 B).
.fn-
.fn 650
In C.I.G. ii. 2852 silver σκύφοι chased
with figures of animals are recorded
among the offerings in the temple of
Apollo at Branchidae.
.fn-
.fn 651
xi. 495 A.
.fn-
.fn 652
E.g. B.M. E 152, and see Cat. iii.
p. 14. The owl and olive-branch seem
to have been official marks; they appear
on coins and dicasts’ tickets.
.fn-
.fn 653
xi. 783 D; 495 C; cf. Theocr. i. 25.
.fn-
.fn 654
Cf. B.M. B 77, 78; J.H.S. xiii. p. 78.
.fn-
.fn 655
xi. 784 D.
.fn-
.fn 656
See id. xi. 477 E.
.fn-
.fn 657
The word also occurs in Horace
(Od. ii. 7, 22) for a large wine-cup.
.fn-
.fn 658
E.g. B.M. B 370, 371, 681.
.fn-
.fn 659
Robert, Homerische Becker, p. 3.
.fn-
.fn 660
xi. 481 D.
.fn-
.fn 661
xi. 782 F, 500 F.
.fn-
.fn 662
Cf. Macrob. v. 21: pocula procera ac
navibus similia. In illustration of the
resemblance of a bowl to a ship we may
cite the story of the wise men of Gotham,
also the golden bowl of the Sun (p. #181#),
and the form of the Welsh coracle.
.fn-
.fn 663
F 596.
.fn-
.fn 664
Athen. xi. 483 B.
.fn-
.fn 665
Cf. Ar. Eq. 600, and see the account
of this cup given by Plutarch, Lycurg. 9.
The word for the inner rim or lip is
ἄμβων (Pollux, vi. 97; Critias apud
Athen. xi. 483 B; see ibid. viii. p. 347 B).
The shape formerly regarded as a κώθων
on account of its recurved lip has been
thought by Pernice to have been used for
incense (Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 60); but see
above, p. #140#.
.fn-
.fn 666
Boeckh, C.I.G. i. 161.
.fn-
.fn 667
Pac. 1094.
.fn-
.fn 668
Athen. xi. 483 F.
.fn-
.fn 669
Ibid. 473 D.
.fn-
.fn 670
Macrob. v. 21.
.fn-
.fn 671
See J.H.S. xviii. p. 288. For typical
examples see Athens 612 and Bull. de
Corr. Hell. 1897, p. 450 (Boeotian); also
Berlin 1737, 2116–20, 2876, 2877, 4019;
Anzeiger, 1891, p. 116.
.fn-
.fn 672
xi. 474 E; cf. v. 198 B, C.
.fn-
.fn 673
E.g. Visconti, Mus. Pio-Clem. iv.
pl. 35; B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, B 490.
.fn-
.fn 674
Georg. iv. 380.
.fn-
.fn 675
Boeckh, C.I.G. i. 140, 141, 150 =
B.M. Inscrs. 27–29.
.fn-
.fn 676
So called from being turned (κυλίεσθαι)
on the wheel (Athen. xi. 480 B).
The word constantly occurs in literature:
Phokyl. 11; Sappho, 5; Hdt. iv.
70, etc.
.fn-
.fn 677
E.g. B.M. E 49, 50. Cf. Hermippus
apud Athen. xi. 480 E, and the Ficoroni
cista (Roscher, i. p. 527).
.fn-
.fn 678
xi. 480 C (quoting Pindar).
.fn-
.fn 679
See p. #215#.
.fn-
.fn 680
Athen. xi. 480 E.
.fn-
.fn 681
This was also done in the case of
some late Italian fabrics; see B.M. Cat.
of Vases, iv. p. 25 and below, p. #501#.
.fn-
.fn 682
xi. 470 E, 471 D; cf. v. 199 B.
.fn-
.fn 683
xi. 469 B. In § 464 C he speaks of
Ρὁδιακαὶ χυτρίδες, which lessened the
tendency to inebriety, and in § 496 F he
describes a cup called Ρὁδίας. // Tr: podias
.fn-
.fn 684
Pollux, vi. 95–98; x. 66.
.fn-
.fn 685
Ar. Lys. 203.
.fn-
.fn 686
B 379–82.
.fn-
.fn 687
A recent writer (Böhlau, in Athen.
Mitth. for 1900, p. 40 ff.) attributes this
shape to an Ionic origin.
.fn-
.fn 688
See generally Athen. xi. 501 ff.
Isidorus (Etym. xx. 5) says: “Phyalae
dictae quod ex vitro fiant” (sc.ὔαλον).
.fn-
.fn 689
The words βαλανωτή, βαλανειόμφαλος,
and καρυωτή also seem to be descriptive
of this type. Phialae (καρυωταί) dedicated
to Agathe Tyche, Themis, Leto, and
Hekate, were among the possessions of
the temple of Apollo at Branchidae
(Boeckh, C.I.G. ii. 2852).
.fn-
.fn 690
G 117, 118: see Plate #XLVIII:pl48#.
.fn-
.fn 691
Il. xxiii. 270, where it is described
as ἀπυρωτός, implying that it was used
over a fire.
.fn-
.fn 692
Ibid. l. 243.
.fn-
.fn 693
Rhet. iii. 4: cf. Athen. x. 433 C.
.fn-
.fn 694
See Athen. xi. s.vv.; also Pollux,
vi. 98.
.fn-
.fn 695
Schol. in Ar. Pac. 916.
.fn-
.fn 696
Cf. B.M. E 784–803.
.fn-
.fn 697
See for a discussion of this word,
Athen. xi. 476 A.
.fn-
.fn 698
E.g. B.M. B 42, 46, 181, 204, etc.
.fn-
.fn 699
xi. 461 B, 497 B.
.fn-
.fn 700
διατετρημένον, Athen. xi. 497 E.
.fn-
.fn 701
Exx. in B.M. F 417–36.
.fn-
.fn 702
xi. 500 E. In the temple of Apollo
at Branchidae there were παλίμποτοι,
τραγέλαφοι, πρότομοι, with dedicatory inscriptions
to Apollo and Artemis; evidently
rhyta of this kind (Boeckh, C.I.G.
ii. 2852). An example in the B.M.
(F 431) ends in the heads of a boar and
dog conjoined.
.fn-
.fn 703
xi. 468 F; cf. 497 A.
.fn-
.fn 704
xi. 496 E; other names for the rhyton
are δικέρας (Pollux, vi. 97), ἐνιαυτός,
ὄλμος, and παλίμποτος: see note #702:f702#.
.fn-
.fn 705
In Meid. 565 fin.
.fn-
.fn 706
See p. #127# and Plate #X:pl10#.
.fn-
.fn 707
Pollux, vi. 84–5; x. 86; Ar. passim;
Lucian, Somn. 14, p. 723 (τρύβλιον);
see Ussing, De nom. vas. graec. p. 160 ff.
.fn-
.fn 708
Schöne in Comm. phil. in hon.
Mommseni, p. 653, mentions a plate
with ΙΧΘΥΑΙ inscribed underneath.
Cf. also Plate #XLIV:pl44#. and p. #487#.
.fn-
.fn 709
See p. #139#.
.fn-
.fn 710
Pollux, vi. 85; x. 86; Ar. Ran.
1440, Plut. 812, Av. 361; Athen. ii.
67 D, xi. 494 C. Cf. for these words
Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.
.fn-
.fn 711
x. 92. Liddell and Scott state that
ἐρεύς is a vox nihili.
.fn-
.fn 712
Pollux, x. 93.
.fn-
.fn 713
xi. 476 E.
.fn-
.fn 714
See Brit. School Annual, iii. (1896–97)
p. 58; Ath. Mitth. 1898, p. 271; Couve
in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dict. s.v.
Kernos. Athenaeus cannot have known
this type.
.fn-
.fn 715
Ath. Mitth. 1898, pls. 13, 14;
Ephem. Arch. 1885, pl. 9, 1897, p. 163 ff.
.fn-
.fn 716
Ath. Mitth.loc. cit. p. 295.
.fn-
.fn 717
See Jahrbuch, 1894, p. 57 ff.
.fn-
.fn 718
Cf. Dem. Fals. Leg. p. 415, and p.
#133# above.
.fn-
.fn 719
Athen. xi. 784 B.
.fn-
.fn 720
See Pollux, vii. 166; x. 63.
.fn-
.fn 721
xi. 783 F; he derives the -βαλλος
from βαλάντιον (sic). He also says it is
like the αρύστιχος, and that ἀρυστίς =
πρόχοος.
.fn-
.fn 722
See Athen. xi. 784 D; Pollux, vi. 98;
Hippokrates, 494, 55.
.fn-
.fn 723
He somewhat vaguely identifies it
with the Thericleian and Rhodian
kylikes. Pollux (vi. 98) also implies it
to be a cup.
.fn-
.fn 724
See Ussing, p. 117; Pollux, vi. 106,
x. 121; Ar. Ach. 1063.
.fn-
.fn 725
Hesych. s.v.ῥύμμα. Also called
σμηματοδοκίς.
.fn-
.fn 726
E.g. B.M. 208, 225, 376, 386, 794,
810, D 65. But see on this shape
Pernice in Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 68, and
Robinson in Boston Mus. Report, 1899,
p. 73. The latter rejects Pernice’s
incense-burner theory (see above, p. #140#),
and suggests their use for perfume or
scented water.
.fn-
.fn 727
The B.M. has a late B.F. example,
B 298.
.fn-
.fn 728
Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 129.
.fn-
.fn 729
E 774; E 810 in the B.M. is a good
example of this form.
.fn-
.fn 730
It was formerly thought to be a kind
of roof-tile. See Robert in Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1892,
p. 247; B.M. B 597, 598; Athens 1588–92.
.fn-
.fn 731
See B.M. Cat. of Vases, iii. p. 17.
.fn-
.fn 732
See op. cit. iv. p. 8, fig. 18.
.fn-
.fn 733
In the examples from Greek sites,
such as the Cyrenaica, the handle is
arched over the back, as in Fig. #62:fig062#.
.fn-
.fn 734
For the Mycenaean “false amphora,”
a variation of the askos, see p. #271# and
Plate #XV:pl15#.
.fn-
.fn 735
See Chapter #XI:ch11#. for a general discussion
of the subject, and Chapter #V:ch05#.
for its technical aspect.
.fn-
.fn 736
B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, D 204 ff.
.fn-
.fn 737
See p. #88#; also B.M. Cat. of
Terracottas, D 1–2; Röm. Mitth. 1897,
p. 262.
.fn-
.fn 738
Cat. of Terracottas, D 209–10.
.fn-
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch05' pn=+1
CHAPTER V | TECHNICAL PROCESSES
.pm start_summary
Nature of clay—Places whence obtained—Hand-made vases—Invention of
potter’s wheel—Methods of modelling—Moulded vases and relief-decoration—Baking—Potteries
and furnaces—Painted vases and their
classification—Black varnish—Methods of painting—Instruments and
colours employed—Status of potters in antiquity.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
In this chapter we propose to deal with the various technical
processes required for the manufacture of painted vases, that
being of all the methods of working in clay employed by the
Greeks the most important, and thus, as already implied,
forming the main branch of our subject. These vases show, in
fact, the highest point of perfection to which the ceramic art
attained.
In the making of Greek vases we can distinguish four
separate stages: (1) Preparation of the clay; (2) Modelling
(a) on the wheel, (b) by hand, or (c) from a mould; (3) Baking;
(4) Painting, glazing, and other decoration. The last-named
is not absolutely essential, i.e. a vase, especially one for ordinary
daily use, may be considered complete without it. Further,
the three first stages are practically the same at all periods
of Greek art, whereas the systems of painting and decoration
are subject to local variations and chronological development.
For the purposes of the present chapter it is sufficient to consider
only those vases which have undergone the complete
process of manufacture, or what are known for the purposes
of study as “Painted Greek Vases.”
.h4
1. Preparation of the Clay
The paste of these vases is similar to terracotta in its general
characteristics, such as the constitution of the mixture of which
.bn 260.png
.pn +1
it is composed; it is in general very delicate, but deeper in tone
and finer in texture than that of the terracottas. Brongniart
has described it as “tender, easily scratched or cut with a knife,
remarkably fine and homogeneous, but of loose texture”[739]; but
it would be more accurate to say that it varies in one respect,
being sometimes so hard that cutting or scratching has no
effect upon it. When broken it exhibits a dull opaque colour,
varying from red to yellow and yellow to grey. On being struck
it gives forth a dull metallic sound; it is exceedingly porous,
and easily allows water to ooze through.
The surface was protected by a fine, thin alkaline glaze, which
is semi-transparent, enhancing the colours with which the vase
was painted, like the varnish of a picture. It is this glaze which
forms the special distinction of the Greek painted vases and
renders them, in contradistinction to common pottery or earthenware,
the counterpart of the medieval faïences or majolicas, or
the finer porcelain of the present day.
As to the chemical composition of the paste, it would seem
that hitherto investigations have been confined to vases of
Italian origin, but probably those found on Greek soil would
yield similar results. The principal ingredients are clay, silicic
acid, and iron oxide, with slight admixtures of carbonate of lime
and magnesia. The principal results of previous investigations
have been tabulated by Blümner,[740] and yield the following
average result (chiefly from analyses of vases from Southern
Italy):—
.ta lr s='chemical composition of paste'
Silicic acid | 52 to 60 parts.
Clay earth | 13 to 19 parts.
Chalk | 5 to 10 parts.
Magnesia | 1 to 3 parts.
Iron oxide | 12 to 19 parts.
.ta-
The largest proportion of clay found in any one vase was
27 parts; there was also one instance given of 24 parts of
iron oxide.
The variations in tone of the clay of Greek vases are very
.bn 261.png
.pn +1
marked. The usual colour is an ochre varying from yellowish-white
to brownish-red, the mean being a sort of orange. These
variations were apparently regulated by the amount of iron
oxide employed. It has been noted by Jahn[741] that vases were
sometimes moulded “double,” i.e. turned on the wheel in two
different thicknesses of clay, the finer and ruddier forming the
exterior surface for decoration.
The earliest and most primitive Greek vases (including those of
the Mycenaean period) in most cases exhibit the natural quality
of the clay, ranging from yellow to grey in colour; it is usually
coarse and insufficiently baked, and protected by no lustrous
glaze. In the early archaic vases, such as those of Melos,
Athens, and Rhodes, we observe a pale yellow tone, which is
apparently not a glaze, but inherent in the clay.[742] Thenceforward
the clay becomes appreciably redder and warmer in
tone until the lustrous glaze reaches its perfection in the Attic
vases of the fifth century. In the later Italian fabrics again
there is a great degeneration, the clay rapidly reverting to a
paler hue, especially in the vases of Campania; while in the
Etruscan imitations of the third century it is a dull coarse
yellow, apparently due to a preponderance of lime. Generally
speaking, it may be said that the colour depends on the proportion
in which the constituent parts are mixed, a larger
proportion of iron oxide producing a redder, a larger proportion
of lime a paler hue.
The clay is permeable, allowing water to exude when not
glazed, and when moistened emits a strong earthy smell. It
is not known how this paste was prepared, for the Greeks have
left few or no details of their processes, but it has been conjectured
that the clay was fined by pouring it into a series
of vats, and constantly decanting the water, so that the last
vat held only the finest particles in suspension. The clay
was worked up to the right consistency with the hands, and
is supposed to have been ground in a mill or trodden out
with the feet. Either red or white clay, or a mixture of the
two, was preferred by the ancients, according to the nature of
.bn 262.png
.pn +1
the pottery required to be made, as we learn from an interesting
passage in the Geoponica:—“All kinds of earth are not
suited for pottery, but some prefer the reddish variety, others
the white; others again blend the two ... but the potter
ought personally to assist in the operations and see that the
clay is well levigated and not placed on the wheel until he has
obtained a clear idea of the probable appearance of the jar
after the baking” (vi. 3).
Certain sites enjoyed in antiquity great reputation for their
clays. One of the most celebrated was that procured from
a mine near the promontory of Cape Kolias,[743] close to
Phaleron, from which was produced the paste which gave so
much renown to the products of the Athenian Kerameikos.
The vases made of it became so fashionable, that Plutarch[744]
relates an anecdote of a person who, having swallowed
poison, refused to drink the antidote except out of a vessel
made of this clay. It seems to have been of a fine quality,
but not remarkably warm in tone when submitted to the
furnace; ruddle, or red ochre (rubrica), being employed to
impart to it that rich deep orange glow which distinguishes
the finest vases of the best period.[745] Corinth,[746] Knidos, Samos,
and various other places famous for their potteries, were
provided with fine clays. At Koptos, in Egypt, and in
Rhodes, vases were manufactured of an aromatic earth.[747] The
extreme lightness of the paste of these vases was remarked
by the ancients, and its tenuity is mentioned by Plutarch.[748]
That it was an object of ambition to excel in this respect,
appears from the two amphorae mentioned by Pliny as preserved
in the temple of Erythrae,[749] of extreme lightness and
thinness, made by a potter and his pupil when contending which
could produce the lightest vase. The thinnest vases which
have come down to us are scarcely thicker than pieces of stout
paper. Great difference is to be observed in the pastes of
.bn 263.png
.pn +1
vases from widely-separated localities, due either to the composition
or to the baking, as has been noted in the case of the
terracottas (p. #113#).
.h4
2. Manufacture of Vases
The earliest glazed vases were made with the hand, but the
wheel was an invention of very remote antiquity, as has been
noted in our Introductory Chapter. It is generally supposed that
its origin is to be attributed to Egypt. Its introduction into
Greece may easily be traced by a study of primitive pottery
from any site such as Crete, Cyprus, or Troy, where the distinction
between hand-made and wheel-made vessels is clear.
Thus in the tombs of Cyprus which belong to the Bronze Age, the
earlier finds, dating from about 2500–1500 B.C., are exclusively
of hand-made pottery.[750] The latter part of the Bronze Age may
be regarded as a transitional period, in which the tombs contain
hand-made unglazed painted vases, together with pottery of a
much more developed character, with a lustrous yellow glaze,
bearing unmistakable evidence of having been turned on a wheel.
This pottery appears to be largely imported, as opposed to the
local wares, which are still hand-made, and its widespread
distribution over the whole of the “Aegean” area marks an
important epoch in the history of early ceramics (see Chapter VI.).
It covers the period from 1500 to about 900 B.C., and it is to this
time that we may attribute the general use of the potter’s wheel
in Greece, although it was known even earlier, as some isolated
specimens prove.
Among the Greeks there were many contending claims for
the honour of having invented the potter’s wheel. Tradition
attributed it to various personages, such as Daedalos,[751] or his
nephew and rival Talos[752]; Hyperbios of Corinth[753]; Koroibos
of Athens; and Anacharsis the Scythian.[754] Kritias, the comic
poet, claimed the invention for Athens—“that city which ...
invented pottery, the famous offspring of the wheel, of earth,
.bn 264.png
.pn +1
and of fire.”[755] There is also a familiar allusion to it in Homer,[756]
which is a fair testimony to its antiquity:—
.pm onpoem
“Full lightly, as when some potter sitteth and maketh assay
Of the wheel to his hands well-fitted, to know if it runneth true.”
.pm offpoem
As regards the traditions, even Strabo[757] realised their absurdity,
when he asked, “How could the wheel be the invention of
Anacharsis, when his predecessor Homer knew of it?” On the
other hand, Poseidonios adheres to the tradition, maintaining
that the passage in Homer is an interpolation.[758] Other allusions
to the wheel are in the writings of Plato[759] and the comic poet
Antiphanes.[760]
.il id=fig065 fn=fig065_264.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 65. POTTER’S WHEEL (FROM A PAINTING OF ABOUT 600 B.C.).
Among the Egyptians and Greeks the wheel took the form
of a low circular table, turned with the hand, not as nowadays
with the foot.[761] The assumption that the wheel was turned with
the foot is only supported by one passage in the Book of
Ecclesiasticus[762]; the evidence of Plutarch[763] and Hippokrates[764]
tells decidedly against it. In 1840 some discs of terracotta,
strengthened with spokes and a leaden tire, came to light on
the site of the ancient potteries at Arezzo, and these had
evidently been used as potter’s wheels.[765] The process is also
.bn 265.png
.pn +1
represented on two or three vases, as on a Corinthian painted
tablet of about 600 B.C. (Fig. #65:fig065#),[766] on a kylix in the British
Museum (B 433), on a B.F. hydria in Munich (Fig. #67:fig067# b, below),
and on a R.F. fragment from the Acropolis of Athens (Fig. #66:fig066#),[767]
which shows a man modelling the foot of a large krater, while a
boy or slave turns the wheel, as on the Munich vase. On the
British Museum cup the potter is seated on a low stool, apparently
modelling a vase which he has just turned into shape on the
wheel.
.il id=fig066 fn=fig066_265.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 66. POTTER’S WHEEL (FROM A VASE OF ABOUT 500 B.C.).
In making the vases the wheel was used in the following
manner:—A piece of paste of the required size was placed upon
it vertically in the centre, and while it revolved was formed with
the finger and thumb, the potter paying regard not only to the
production of the right shape, but to the necessary thickness of
the walls. This process sufficed for the smaller pieces, such as
cups or jugs; the larger amphorae and hydriae required the
introduction of the arm. The feet, necks, mouths, and handles
were separately turned on moulds, and fixed on while the clay
was moist. They are often modelled with great beauty and
precision, especially the feet, which are admirably finished off,
to effect which the vase must have been inverted. The
modelling and separate attachment of the handle is represented
in more than one ancient work of art (see Fig. #66:fig066#). In many
.bn 266.png
.pn +1
cases the joining of the handles is so excellent that it is easier to
break than to detach them. Great technical skill was displayed in
turning certain peculiar forms of vases, and generally speaking
the Greeks with their simple wheel effected wonders, producing
shapes still unrivalled for beauty.
In the case of the earlier vases, which are made by hand,
after the clay was properly kneaded the potter took up a
mass of the paste, and hollowing it into the shape of walls
with one hand, placed the other inside it and pressed it out into
the required form. In this way also the thickness of the walls
could be regulated. When raised or incised ornaments were
required, he used modeller’s tools, such as wooden or bronze
chisels. The largest and coarsest vases of the Greeks were made
with the hand, and the large πίθοι, or casks, such as have
been recently found in such numbers in Crete and Thera (p. #152#),
were modelled by the aid of a kind of hooped mould (κάνναβος):
see ibid.). The smaller and finer vases, however, were invariably
turned on the wheel. On a Graeco-Roman lamp from
Pozzuoli, in the British Museum,[768] a potter is seen standing and
modelling a vase before his furnace, in the manner no doubt
employed at all periods.
Certain parts of the ancient painted vases were modelled by
the potter from the earliest times—e.g. on those of the Geometrical
period horses are occasionally found on the covers of the flat
dishes moulded in full relief, and in other examples the handle is
enriched with the moulded figure of a serpent twining round it.
This kind of ornament is more suitable to works in metal than
in clay, and suggests the idea that such vases were, in fact,
imitations of metallic ones. On vases of all periods moulded
bosses and heads, like the reliefs on metal vases, are sometimes
found; even in black-figured vases the insertions of the handles
of hydriae and oinochoae are occasionally thus enriched. In
the later styles modelling was more profusely employed; small
projecting heads were affixed to the handles of jugs[769] at their
tops and bases, and on the large kraters found in Apulia
the discs in which the handles terminated (see above, p. #171#)
.bn 267.png
.pn +1
were ornamented with heads of the Gorgon Medusa, or with
such subjects as Satyrs and Maenads. These portions were
sometimes covered with the black varnish used for the body
of the vase, but frequently they were painted with white and
red colours of the opaque kind.
A peculiar kind of modelling was used for the gilded portions
of reliefs, introduced over the black varnish. When the vase was
baked a fine clay was applied to the parts intended for gilding
and delicately modelled, either with a small tool or a brush,
a process similar to that adopted in the Roman red ware (en
barbotine, see Chapter #XXI:vol2_ch21#.). It may indeed have been squeezed
in a fluid state through a tube upon the vase, and then modelled.
As the gilded-portions are generally small, this process was not
difficult or important. A vase discovered at Cumae[770] has two
friezes executed in this style, the upper round the neck, representing
the Eleusinian deities, delicately modelled, coloured, and
with the flesh completely gilded; the lower one consists of
a band of animals and arabesque ornaments. Several vases
from the same locality, from Capua and from the Cyrenaica, have
wreaths of corn, ivy, or myrtle, and necklaces round the neck,
modelled in the same style, while the rest is plain.
But the art of modelling was soon extensively superseded by
that of moulding, or producing several impressions from a
mould, generally itself of terracotta. The subject was in the
first place modelled in relief with considerable care; and from
this model a cast in clay was taken and then baked. The potter
availed himself of moulds for various purposes. From them he
produced entire parts of his vase in full relief, such as the
handles, and possibly in some instances the feet. He also
stamped out certain ornaments in relief, much in the same
manner as the ornaments of cakes are prepared, and fixed them
while moist to the still damp body of the vase. Such ornaments
were principally placed upon the lips or at the base of the
handles, and in the interior of the kylikes or cups of a late
style. A late bowl of black glazed ware in the British Museum
(see Plate #XLVIII:pl48#.) contains an impression from one of the
later Syracusan decadrachms having for its subject the head
.bn 268.png
.pn +1
of Persephone surrounded by dolphins: it was struck about
370 B.C. by Euainetos.[771]
The last method to be described is that of producing the
entire vase from a mould by stamping it out, a process extensively
adopted in Roman pottery. During the best period
of the fictile art, while painting flourished, such vases were very
rare; but on the introduction of a taste for magnificent vases
of chased metal, the potters endeavoured to meet the public taste
by imitating the reliefs of metal ware.
The most remarkable of these moulded vases are the rhyta or
drinking-horns, the bodies of which terminate in the heads of
animals, produced from a mould (see above, p. #192#). By the same
process were also made vases in the form of jugs or lekythi,
the bodies of which are moulded in the shape of human heads,
and sometimes glazed, while the necks were fashioned on the
lathe, and the handles added. These were coloured and
ornamented on the same principle as the rhyta, the vase-portion
being generally covered with a black glaze, but sometimes
with a white slip, after the manner of the terracottas.
Besides the rhyta, phialae, or saucers, were also moulded; fine
examples of which process may be seen on the flat bossed
saucers, or phialae mesomphaloi, discussed in Chapter XI., p. #502#.
Amphorae and other vases of late black ware, the bodies
of which are reeded, were also evidently produced from moulds,
and could not be made by the expensive process of modelling.
Of smaller dimensions, but also made by moulding, were the
vases known as gutti, or “lamp-feeders” (see above, p. #200#).
They have reeded bodies, long-necked mouths, and circular
handles; and on their upper surface a small circular medallion
in bas-relief, with a mythological subject. Such vases are
principally found in Southern Italy and in Sicily, and
belong to the second century B.C. (Chapter XI., p. #502#).
After being moulded they were entirely covered with a black
glaze. Other vases again are entirely moulded in human or
animal forms, with a small mouth or spout. These are
found at all periods, but chiefly in the archaic Rhodian and
Corinthian fabrics, and again reviving in the later stages of
.bn 269.png
.pn +1
vase-fabrics in Southern Italy. Examples may be seen in the
First Vase Room (Cases 33–34 and F) and Fourth Vase Room
(Case B) of the British Museum: see also Plate #XLVI:pl46#. Others
again retain the form of the jug or lekythos, with a figure or
relief attached to the front of the body and coloured or covered
with a white slip, while the back is varnished black. The whole
subject is treated in fuller detail in Chapter #XI:ch11#.
Many vases of the fourth century and later are entirely
covered with a coating of black glaze, while rows of small
stamped ornaments, apparently made with a metal punch, have
been impressed on the wet clay before the glaze was applied.
These decorations are unimportant in their subjects, which are
generally small Gorgons’ heads, tendrils, or palmettes, and
hatched bands, arranged round the axis of the vase. This
latter ornament was probably produced by rolling the edge
of a disc notched for the purpose round the vase, in the
same manner as a bookbinder uses his brass punch. When
these vases came into use the potter’s trade had ceased to be
artistic, and was essentially mechanical. They are found on
almost all sites from Cyprus to Italy.[772]
.tb
After the vases had been made on the wheel they were
duly dried in the sun[773] and lightly baked, after which they
were ready for varnishing and painting; it is evident that they
could not be painted while wet and soft. Moreover the glaze
ran best on a surface already baked. It is also probable that
the glaze was brought out by a process of polishing, the surface
of the clay being smoothed by means of a small piece of
wood or hard leather. At all events this seems the most
satisfactory interpretation of a vase-painting in Berlin (Fig. #67:fig067#a),[774]
where a boy is seen applying a tool of some kind to the outer
surface of a completed vase (kotyle); that the vase is not yet
varnished is shown by its being left in a red colour, while two
others, varnished black all over, stand on the steps of an oven
close by, probably to dry after the application of the varnish.
.bn 270.png
.pn +1
.il id=fig067 fn=fig067_270.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 67. (a) CUP IN BERLIN WITH BOY POLISHING VASE; (b) HYDRIA IN MUNICH: INTERIOR OF POTTERY.
.bn 271.png
.pn +1
Many vases, whether decorated with designs or not, are
varnished black throughout the exterior, except the feet and
lips, and we cannot be certain whether or not any glaze had
been previously applied to the surface; but in respect of the
red-figured vases, it is clear from the method employed (see
p. #221#) that they were originally glazed throughout.
This lustrous glaze is, like the black varnish, now quite a lost
art. Seen under a microscope it has evidently been fused by
baking; it yields neither to acids nor the blow-pipe. It is
remarkably fine and thin, insomuch that it can only be analysed
with great difficulty. No lead entered into its composition.
It is however far inferior to modern glazes, being permeable by
water; but it is not decomposed by the same chemical agents.
On the later R.F. vases it is of decidedly inferior quality, and
often scales away, carrying the superimposed colours with it.[775]
.h4
3. The Baking of Vases
The process of baking (ὀπτᾶν, coquere) was regarded as one
of the most critical in the potter’s art. It was not indeed
universal, as Plato[776] distinguishes between vases which have
or have not been exposed to the action of fire (ἔμπυρα and
ἄπυρα), and Pliny[777] speaks of fictile crudum (ὠμόν) used for
medicinal purposes. But all the vases that have come down
to us have certainly been baked. The necessary amount of
heat required was regulated by the character of the ware, and
in the case of most Greek fabrics it appears to have been high.
Many examples exist of discoloured vases which have been
subjected to too much or too little heat, and in which the
varnish has acquired a greenish or reddish hue. On the other
hand, in some of those that have been subjected to subsequent
burning, the red glaze has turned to an ashen-grey colour,[778]
the black remaining unimpaired; but there are also instances
of the varnish peeling off, the red colour alone preserving the
outline of the figures.
Other accidents were liable to befall them in the baking,
.bn 272.png
.pn +1
such as the cracking of the vase under too great heat; this
produced an effect expressed by the term πυρορραγής or φοξός, // Tr: pyrorragês: phoxos
words which seem to have some reference to the sound of a
cracked pot.[779] Or the shape of a vase might be damaged
while it was yet soft, one knocking against another and denting
its side, or crushing the lip through being carelessly superimposed.
On a R.F. amphora in the British Museum (E 295)
a dent has been caused by the pressure of another vase, which
has left traces of a band of maeanders. This probably happened
when the vases were in the kiln for the second firing. The quality
of the baking was tested by tapping the walls of the vase.[780]
These misfortunes were attributed to the action of malicious
demons, whose influence had to be counteracted in various
ways; thus, for instance, a Satyric or grotesque head was
placed in front of the furnace and was supposed to have an
apotropaeic effect against the evil eye.[781] The pseudo-Homeric
hymn addressed to the potters of Samos invokes the protection
of Athena for the vases in the furnace, and mentions the evil
spirits which are ready to injure them in the case of bad faith
on the potter’s part. Among the names given are: Ἄσβεστος, // Tr: Asbestos
“the Unquenchable”; Σμάραγος, “the Crasher”; Σύντριψ, // Tr: Smaragos: Syntrips
“the Smasher”; Ὠμόδαμος, “the Savage Conqueror.” // Tr: Ômodamos
The form of the oven probably differed little from those in
use at the present day. No furnaces have been found in
Greece, and our only evidence is derived from the painted
vases; but they have been found at Ruvo[782] and elsewhere in
Italy, and also in France, Germany, and England. Those of
Roman date are indeed by no means uncommon, but are
.bn 273.png
.pn +1
discussed in fuller detail in the corresponding section of the
work (Chapter #XXI:vol2_ch21#.).
As depicted on vases and elsewhere, the ancient furnaces
seem to have been of simple construction, tall conical ovens
fed by fires from beneath, into which the vases were placed
with a long shovel resembling a baker’s peel. The kilns were
heated with charcoal or wood fuel, and in some of the representations
of them we see men holding long instruments with
which they are about to poke or rake the fires (Fig. #68:fig068#). They
had two doors, one for the insertion of the vases and one for
the potter to watch the progress of the baking. For vases of
great size, like the huge πίθοι, special ovens must have been // Tr: pithoi
necessary; and we have a representation on a Corinthian
pinax[783] of such an oven, the roof of which resembles the upper
part of a large pithos surrounded by flames.
.il id=fig068 fn=fig068_273.jpg align=l w=300px ew=60%
.ca FIG. 68. SEILENOS AS POTTER.
On the lamp from Pozzuoli in the British Museum, referred
to on p. #209#, there is a
curious subject in relief,
representing a potter
about to place a vase
in an oven with a tall
chimney; and on a
hydria at Munich[784] (Fig.
#67:fig067# b) a man is about to
place an amphora in a
kiln, while other jars
(painted white) stand
ready to be baked.
But for our purposes
the Corinthian pinakes
are even more valuable
for the information
they afford. There are
several representing the exterior of the conical furnace, with men
standing by watching the fires and tending them with rakes[785];
.bn 274.png
.pn +1
in another we have a bird’s-eye view in horizontal section
of the interior of an oven, filled with jugs of various forms
(Fig. #69:fig069#). Flames are usually indicated rising from underneath
the ovens.[786]
.il id=fig069 fn=fig069_274.jpg align=r w=350px ew=70%
.ca FIG. 69. INTERIOR OF FURNACE (FROM CORINTHIAN PINAX)
The Munich hydria
(Fig. #67:fig067#b) reproduces
the interior of a
potter’s workshop
with such detail that
a full description of
the scene may be
permissible.[787] On the
left of the picture a
seated man seems
to be examining an
amphora, which has just been finished (it is painted black) and
is brought up for his approval. Next is seen an amphora on
the potter’s wheel, painted white to indicate its imperfect state;
one man places his arm inside to shape the interior, while
another turns the wheel for him. On their right another
white amphora is being carried out, just fresh from the wheel,
but without handles or mouth, to be dried in the open or at
the furnace; next is another standing on the ground to dry.
On the right of the scene stands the foreman or master of
the pottery, before whom a nude man carries what has been
thought to be a sack of coals for the furnace, which is seen
on the extreme right.
Even more vivid and instructive, in spite of its careless
execution, is the painting on a kotyle found at Exarchos or
Abae in Lokris, and now in the Athens Museum (Fig. #70:fig070#).[788]
The style is that of the imitation B.F. vases found in the
temple of the Kabeiri at Thebes, late in the fifth century. We
see represented the interior of a potter’s workshop, in which
the master of the business sits holding up a kylix in one hand,
.bn 275.png
.pn +1
while with the other he threatens a slave, who runs off with
three kotylae ready for the furnace; three similar kotylae
stand by the master’s feet, and behind him are two more vases
on a shelf. On the right of the scene a workman sits at a
table on which is a pot full of paint, with a brush in it; he
holds up a newly-painted kotyle, admiring his workmanship.
The picture is completed by a realistic representation of an
unfortunate slave suspended by cords to the ceiling as a
punishment for some offence, while another belabours him with
a leather thong.
.il id=fig070 fn=fig070_275.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 70. INTERIOR OF POTTERY.
It would appear that the vases after the baking were often
placed on the exterior of the furnace, either to prevent the
too rapid cooling of the clay, or (as indicated on the Berlin
cup) for the pigments to dry. Jahn and others have published
a gem[789] on which a small two-handled vase is placed on the
top of an oven, and a youth is applying two sticks to it, perhaps
in order to take it down without injury by the contact of the
hand. A companion gem,[790] on which an artist is painting a
similar jar, shows a jug and a kylix standing on a kiln.
When the vases were returned from the furnace, the potter
appears to have made good as far as possible the defects of
those not absolutely spoiled; and if naturally or by accident
any parts remained too pale after the baking, the defect was
remedied by rubbing them over with a deep red ochre, which
supplied the necessary tone.
.h4 pn=+1
4. Painting
We may distinguish three principal classes of painted pottery,
of which one at least admits of several subdivisions:—
(1) Primitive Greek vases, with simple painted ornaments,
chiefly linear and geometrical, laid directly on the ground
of the clay with the brush. The colour employed is usually
a yellowish or brownish red, passing into black. The execution
varies, but is often extremely coarse.
(2) Greek vases (and Italian imitations) painted with figures.
These may be subdivided as follows:—
.in +6
.ti -3
(a) Vases with figures in black varnish on red glazed
ground (see #Frontispiece:vol2_pl49#, Vol. II.);
.ti -3
(b) Vases with figures left in the red glaze on a ground
of black varnish (see #Frontispiece:pl01#, Vol. I.).
.ti -6
(3) (a) Vases of various dates with outline or polychrome decoration
on white ground (see Plate #XLIII:pl43#.);
.ti -3
(b) Vases (also of various dates) with designs in opaque
colour on black ground.
.in
Of these, the second group is by far the largest and most
important, and the complicated and technical processes which it
involved will demand by far the greater share of our attention
in the following account of the methods of painting. In both
the classes (a) and (b) the colouring is almost confined to a
contrasting of the red glazed ground of the clay with a black
varnish-like pigment, a contrast which perhaps more than
anything else furnishes the great charm of a Greek vase.
This black varnish is particularly lustrous and deep, but
varies under different circumstances. Great difference of opinion
has always existed as to its nature, and the method by which
it was brought to such perfection by the Greeks. The variations
in its appearance are due partly to differences of locality and
fabric, partly to accidents of production. It is seen in its
greatest perfection in the so-called Nolan amphorae of the
severe red-figure period; and at its worst in the Etruscan and
Italiote imitations of Greek fabrics. On the vases found at
Vulci it shows a tendency to assume a greenish hue, as opposed
to the blue-black of the Nolan vases, while variations in the
.bn 277.png
.pn +1
direction of red, brown, and (on late South Italy fabrics) grey
are of frequent occurrence. It is probable that these gradations
of quality are mainly due to the action of fire, according as
a higher or lower temperature was employed. On the other
hand, the ashen-grey hue which vases of all periods sometimes
assume[791] seems to be due to the direct action of fire in contact
with them, and this may perhaps be explained by supposing
that they had been burnt on a funeral pyre. This varnish
also varies in the thickness with which it was laid on, as can
be easily detected with the finger.
Although the chemical action of the earth sometimes causes
the black varnish to disappear entirely, leaving only the figures
faintly indicated on the red-clay ground, there has never yet
been found any acid which has any effect upon it.[792] Various
opinions have been promulgated, from Caylus downwards, as to
the elements of which it is composed.[793] Brongniart[794] has analysed
it with the following results:—
.ta lrr s='clay composition'
Silicic acid | 46·30 | 50·00
Clay earth | 11·90|
Iron oxide | 16·70 | 17·00
Chalk | 5·70|
Magnesia | 2·30|
Soda | 17·10|
Copper | | traces.
.ta-
It is unnecessary here to enter in detail into the numerous
other theories of its composition, but so far it cannot be said that
any certainty has been attained.
Turning now to the methods by which the black varnish was
applied, we find it necessary to distinguish between the two
classes of black-figured and red-figured vases; some vases, of
course, are completely covered with it, having no painted design,
but these do not enter into the question.
In the black-figured vases the figures are painted in black
silhouette on the red ground of the vase, the outlines being first
.bn 278.png
.pn +1
roughly indicated by a pointed instrument making a faint line.[795]
The surface within these outlines was then filled in with the
black pigment by means of a brush, the details of anatomy,
drapery, armour, etc., being subsequently brought out in part
by further incising of lines with a pointed tool. In some of the
finest vases, such as those of Amasis and Exekias (p. #381#), the
delicacy and minuteness of these lines is brought to an extraordinary
pitch of perfection. After a second baking had taken
place, the designs were further enriched by the application
of opaque purple and white pigments, usually following certain
conventional principles, the flesh of women and devices on
shields, for instance, being always white, folds of drapery always
purple. A third baking at a much lower heat was necessary
to fix these colours, and the vase was then complete.
It should here be noted that there are really two subdivisions
of these black-figured vases, which may be termed for convenience
“red-bodied” and “black-bodied.”[796] In the former the
whole vase stands out in the natural red colour of the clay;
whereas in the latter the treatment approaches more nearly
to the red-figure method which we shall presently discuss.
The whole body of the vase is in these examples covered with
the black varnish, with the exception of a framed panel of red,
on which the figures are painted. This distinction may be
well observed in the Second Vase Room of the British Museum,
where most of the vases on the east side of the room belong
to the former or “red-bodied” class, while all those on the west
side are “black-bodied,” with designs in panels.
In the red-figured vases the black varnish is used as the
background, and covers the whole vase, as in the “black-bodied”
B.F. fabrics, the figures not being actually painted, but
left red in the colour of the clay. The process was as follows:—Before
the varnish was applied the outlines of the figures were
indicated, not by incised lines but by drawing a thick line of
black with a brush round their contours. It is probable that
a fine brush was used at first, especially for more delicate work,
.bn 279.png
.pn +1
and then a broader brush producing a line about an eighth of
an inch in thickness. The process, be it noted, is more akin
to drawing than painting; and it was as draughtsmen par
excellence that the red-figure artists excelled. The next stage
was to mark the inner details by means of very fine black lines
(corresponding to the incised lines of B.F. vases), or by masses
of black for surfaces such as the hair; white and purple were
also employed, but far more sparingly than on the earlier vases.
In the late Athenian and South Italian vases a tendency to
polychromy sprang up, but the main process always remained
the same to the final decadence of the art. The figures being
completed and protected from accidents by their broad black
borders, the varnishing of the whole exterior surface was then
proceeded with. This was of course a purely mechanical
business. A fragment of a red-figured vase in the Sèvres Museum
forms an excellent illustration of the method employed, as,
although the figures are finished, the ground has never been filled
in, and the original black border is plainly visible (Fig. #71:fig071#).
.il id=fig071 fn=fig071_279.jpg w=350px ew=75%
.ca FIG. 71. FRAGMENT OF UNFINISHED RED-FIGURED VASE.
The result of the second baking was to fix the varnish and
cause it to permeate the surface of the clay in such a way as to
become practically inseparable from it. The subsidiary colours,
on the other hand, which were laid on over the black, are always
liable to disappear or fade.
A very interesting representation of painters at work on their
vases is to be seen on a hydria from Ruvo (Fig. #72:fig072#).[797] Three
.bn 280.png
.pn +1
.bn 281.png
.pn +1
painters are seated at work with their brushes, of whom two
are being crowned by Victories, while the third is about to
receive a wreath from Athena, the protecting goddess of the
industry. Their paint-pots are to be seen by their side. At
one end of the scene a woman is similarly occupied.
From Blümner.
.il id=fig072 fn=fig072_280.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 72. STUDIO OF VASE-PAINTER.
In class 3 (a), or vases with figures on white ground, we have
to deal with the process of covering the naturally pale clay with
a white slip of more or less thick and creamy consistency, on
which the designs were painted. In the archaic period this
process is fairly common, especially in the earliest vases of
Corinth and of Ionia, and at Kyrene and Naukratis. It was
revived at Athens about the end of the sixth century (see
pp. 385, 455). But when once the white slip was laid on, the
technical process differed little from that in use on ordinary
red-ground vases, except for the general avoidance of white
as an accessory; it merely results that instead of a contrast
of black and red, one of black and cream is obtained. The
method was one also largely practised in early painting, as
we see in the Corinthian pinakes and the sarcophagi of
Clazomenae (pp. 316, 362).
But there is another class of white-ground vases to which we
must devote more special attention, namely, those on which
the figures are painted either in outline or with polychrome
washes on the same white slip. The earliest instance of such a
method is in the series of fragments found at Naukratis, dating
from the beginning of the sixth century (see p. 348), which
technically and artistically are of remarkably advanced character,
and combine the two methods of painting in outline and in
washes of colour. In the fifth century the practice was revived
at Athens as a means of obtaining effective results with small
vases, and became especially characteristic of one class, the
funeral lekythi, which are elsewhere described (Chapter XI.).
This, however, must serve as the most convenient place for a
few remarks on their technique.
The vases, after they had left the wheel and were fitted with
handle, etc., were covered with a coating of white flaky pigment,
in consistency resembling liquid plaster of Paris, or, when dry,
pipeclay. They received this coat of white while still on the
.bn 282.png
.pn +1
wheel, and then a second coating, of the usual black varnish, was
applied to such parts as were not required for decoration.
Usually the white covered the cylindrical part of the body, and
the shoulder up to the neck; black was applied to the mouth,
neck, handle, base of body, and stem. The clay, it should be
noted, is of the ordinary kind, but two varieties have been
distinguished, one of pale red, for light thin vases, the other of
a blackish-grey, for thicker and heavier ware. The natural
colour appears on the inside of the lip and foot. Before being
removed from the wheel the vases were finely polished, which
gave to the white coating a sort of lustrous sheen; they were
then fired at a low temperature.
The method of decoration[798] was usually as follows:—A preliminary
sketch was made with fine grey lines, ignoring draperies
(hence the lines of figures are usually visible through the
draperies), but not always necessarily followed when the colours
were laid on. This was done as soon as the first lines were dry,
the colour being applied with a fine brush and in monochrome—black,
yellow, or red—following the lines of the sketch more
or less closely. In the later examples red was used exclusively,
and at all periods at Athens; but in the vases attributed to
Locri and Sicily, a black turning to yellow is used. This combination
of black and yellow is also used on the best Attic vases
for various details, such as eyes and hair. The outlines also
served to indicate the folds of the draperies. For the surfaces
of drapery and other details, polychrome washes were employed,
the colour being spread uniformly by means of a large brush.
All varieties of red from rose to brown are found, also violet,
light and brownish yellow, blue, black, and green. Hair is
sometimes treated in outline, sometimes by means of washes.
It is noteworthy that in the later examples the wash-colours
were often painted right over the red lines. On the bodies of
the figures these washes are rare, but in some cases shades of
brown are used for flesh colour, as on the figure of Hypnos
on a lekythos in the British Museum (D 58).
At Athens this polychrome decoration was not indeed limited
to the lekythi, but was extended to the kylix, the pyxis, and
.bn 283.png
.pn +1
other forms, of which some beautiful examples exist in the
British Museum and at Athens.[799] In these, as in the best of
the lekythi, the drawing of Greek artists seems almost to have
reached perfection, and arouses our wonder yet more when we
reflect that everything was done merely by freehand strokes
of the brush. This technique is practically limited to the period
480–350 B.C.
The subsidiary ornamentation of the lekythi was put on
either after the main design or before, this being immaterial.
The lines above the design can be seen to have been painted on
the wheel, as they go all round the vase; but the palmettes on
the shoulder and maeander patterns above the design do not
extend beyond it. After the colouring the vases appear to
have been fired again, and in some cases the white slip was
probably varnished. The details of their manufacture show
that the lekythi were not intended for daily use; the shape is
awkward for handling—the handles, for instance, are obviously
not intended for practical use—and the delicate, lightly baked
slip made them too porous for liquids. Everything tends in the
direction of elegance and delicacy.
Our next sub-division consists of vases, chiefly of late date,
in which the decoration is by means of opaque colours laid on
the surface of a vase altogether coated with black varnish or
glaze. The process is not indeed one absolutely unknown in
earlier times, for there is the primitive Kamaraes ware of Crete
(p. #266#), and also a small series of archaic vases belonging to the
early part of the fifth century (p. #393#) in which this principle is
adhered to, the designs being painted in opaque red or white
on the black varnish. The latter seem to show a development
from the black-figure period, to the end of which they belong,
and may have been intended to rival the new red-figure
method, but failed to attain popularity.
We next meet with the process in Southern Italy, where it
again appears as the last effort of a worn-out fashion to flicker
into life with renewed popularity. The centre of this revival,
which follows on after the Apulian vases of the third century,
was Gnatia (Fasano), on the coast of that district. The vases are
.bn 284.png
.pn +1
partly modelled in relief, or have ornaments in relief attached;
the decoration, in white and purple, is confined to one side only,
and is very feeble and limited in its scope. An apparently
local variety, perhaps made in Campania by native craftsmen,
has the figures in opaque red, with details marked by
rudely incised lines.
The Gnatia style was adopted by the Romans in the second
century for a small series of vases inscribed with names of Italian
deities, such as Juno and
Vesta (p. #490#), and it
appears in the method of
decoration known as en
barbotine on the pottery
of the Empire (see Chapters
#XXI:vol2_ch21#., #XXIII:vol2_ch23#.).
.il id=fig073 fn=fig073_284.jpg align=r w=250px ew=50%
.ca FIG. 73. VASE-PAINTER VARNISHING CUP ON WHEEL.
The instruments which were
employed for the painting of the
vases were not, as formerly supposed,
limited to a metal or reed pen, and
a camel’s-hair brush. It has been recently
pointed out in a most illuminating article
by Dr. Hartwig[800] that the lines of black
bordering the figures on red-figured vases are
usually double, the space in between being
filled in with varnish thus:
.pm ii ornament_284.jpg ornament '' '.'
Practical experiments have shown that this can be
obtained with a feather brush or pen, drawing
the lines separately, not concurrently, as
might be done with a metal pen.[801] The
feathers of the snipe were specially suitable
for this purpose, as were also those of the swallow. It is
probable that we see the use of the ordinary brush on the Ruvo
vase-painting already mentioned, but this was no doubt used for
filling in the ground and all parts where the colour was laid
on in large masses. Again, on a fragment from the Athenian
Acropolis (Fig. #73:fig073#)[802] a man is seen covering the inside of a B.F.
.bn 285.png
.pn +1
kylix with black varnish while he turns it on the wheel; this
is also done with an ordinary brush. But there is a R.F.
kylix,[803] on the interior of which we see the undoubted use of
the feather-brush or pen (Fig. #74:fig074#). In his left hand the painter
seems to hold the sharp tool for engraving the outlines of the
figures, and with his right he manipulates the feather-pen
which is seen to consist of a small feather inserted in a
wooden holder.
.il id=fig074 fn=fig074_285.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 74. VASE-PAINTER USING FEATHER-BRUSH.
It is not likely that this instrument was generally used before
the introduction of the R.F. style; it would hardly have been
required either for the silhouette figures of the B.F. vases or
the outlines on the white ground. According to Hartwig,
Andokides, one of the earliest R.F. artists (about 520 B.C.) was
making experiments in the use of the feather-pen, and in the
.bn 286.png
.pn +1
course of twenty years, in the vases of Epiktetos and his school,
its use had become general. It is not indeed unknown on B.F.
vases, and can be traced in the ornamentation where fine lines
were required, as on the Amasis vase in the Bibliothèque
Nationale.[804] It was probably first used in the more developed
Ionic pottery, but as we have seen had no chance of becoming
generally used until the essentially linear R.F. style came into
vogue. The artists who reached the height of skill in its use
were Meidias and the painters of the delicate little vases of
the latter half of the fifth century, this instrument being also
admirably adapted for making the fine inner lines in which the
painters of that period achieved such success.
Besides the painting-brush and the feather-pen, the other
instruments used in the decoration of vases include the pointed
graving-tools employed for incised lines, modelling-tools for the
parts in relief, a stick for steadying the hand while at work,
and a pair of compasses. The latter were employed for marking
circles, as may be clearly seen on shields on the B.F. vases,
where the mark left by the central point of the compasses is
often visible.
The difficulties in the painting of Greek vases must have
been numerous. In the first place, it was necessary for the
artist to finish his sketch with great rapidity, since the clay
rapidly absorbed the colouring matter, and the outlines were
required to be bold and continuous, any joins producing a
bad effect. Again, the vases were often painted while in an
upright position, and the artist was obliged to stoop, rise,
and execute his work in these difficult attitudes; nor could
he remove the pencil from any figure which he had once begun.
The eye must have been his only guide. Then, as he was obliged
to draw his outline upon a damp surface, the black colour which
he used was instantly confounded with the tint of the clay.
The lines grew broad at first, and afterwards contracted themselves,
leaving but a light trace, so that the artist could with
difficulty discern what he had been doing. Moreover, the lines,
once begun, could not be left off except where they met other
lines which cut or terminated them. Thus, for example, the
.bn 287.png
.pn +1
profile of a head must have been executed with a single continuous
line, which could not be interrupted till it met the neck;
and in drawing a thigh or leg, the whole outline must have
been finished without taking off the pencil: proceeding from
the top downwards, making use of the point to mark the
horizontal lines, and afterwards rising upwards to finish the
opposite side. The drawing was done entirely by the hand
and no pattern used.
The outlines round the figures on R.F. vases were drawn
strongly, in the manner described above, to prevent the background
encroaching on the figure. That this was done while the
clay was moist appears by the outlines uniting, which could not
have taken place if the clay had been dry. It was so difficult
to fill in the outlines without alteration, that they were frequently
changed, and sometimes the ground was not reached, while at
others it exceeded the line.
The ancient artists, notwithstanding these difficulties, observed
all the laws of balance and proportion, especially
ἰσομετρία, or the law of equal height of all figures; conveyed // Tr: isometria
expression by means of attitude; and, by the use of profile,
and the introduction of accessories, or small objects, into
the background, contrived to compensate for the want of
perspective.
This latter deficiency was due to the use of flat colours,
which did not allow of shades, and the figures were consequently
not seen in masses distinguished by light and shade,
but isolated in the air. Hence, in order to make the figures
distinct, and to express by attitude all the actions and sentiments
required, the artist was compelled to use profile. The
black colour, the choice of which may at first appear singular, is,
after all, the most harmonious, and the best suited for showing
the elegance and purity of the outline; whilst by its aptness
to reveal any defects of shape, it compelled the artist to be
very careful in his drawing.
The colours employed[805] were, as we have seen, remarkably few
in number. Of the black varnish which plays such an important
part, and of its composition we have already spoken. Of
.bn 288.png
.pn +1
the opaque accessory colours, the white is said by Brongniart[806]
to be a carbonate of lime or fine clay. It is evidently an earth
of some kind, and gives no trace of lead under analysis. The
creamy slip of the white-ground vases is of similar character,
and appears to be a kind of pipeclay. It was probably of
the same character as the earth of Melos used by Polygnotos.[807]
The deep purple or crimson, so largely employed on the
Corinthian and early Attic B.F. vases, is known to be an oxide
of iron, an element which entered largely into the red glaze.
The yellow found on the white vases and those of Apulia
as an accessory to white is of an ochrous nature. The red
used for outlines on the white lekythi is probably not vermilion
(minium), but red ochre (μίλτος, rubrica). Blue and green, // Tr: miltos
which are rarely found, and only on vases of the later styles,
were produced from a basis of copper. On vases from the
time of Euphronios and Brygos (about 480 B.C.) onwards,
gilding was occasionally employed, the process being one
which we have already described (see above, p. #210#). Good
instances of this process are to be seen in the fourth-century
vases from Capua, which are glazed black throughout and
ornamented solely with gilding.[808] But the gold leaf has often
perished. Besides Capua, these vases are found chiefly in
Athens and the Cyrenaica.
.h4
5. Status of Potters
It now remains to say something respecting the makers of
Greek vases—the potters of antiquity. Unfortunately, however,
little is known of their condition, except that they formed a guild,
or fraternity, and that they amassed considerable fortunes by
exporting their products to the principal emporia of the ancient
world. The existence of two Kerameikoi, or pottery districts,
at Athens shows the great commercial importance of the manufacture.
In later times there seems to have been a considerable
tendency to division of labour among the potters, and each
.bn 289.png
.pn +1
man “specialised” in some particular shape; hence we find
them characterised as χυτρεύς and χυτροπλάθος,[809] ληκυθοποιός,[810]
καδοποιός,[811] or κωθωνοποιός.[812] It is assumed that the word
ἐποίησεν, “made,” when found on a vase, indicates the potter,
and not the artist, although it is reasonable to suppose that
when no artist’s name accompanies the formula the potter
was at the same time the painter. On one vase the names
of two potters, Glaukytes and Archikles, are found[813]; one
has been supposed to be the artist’s, but it is more probable
they were partners.
By the Athenians, potters were called Prometheans,[814] from
the Titan Prometheus, who made man out of clay—which,
according to one myth, was the blood of the Titans, or Giants—and
was thus the founder of the fictile art. It was not,
however, much esteemed, although without doubt the pursuit
of it was a lucrative one, and many of the trade realised large
fortunes; in proof of which may be cited the well-known anecdote
of Agathokles,[815] who, at a time when the rich used plate,
was in the habit of mixing earthenware with it at his table,
telling his officers that he formerly made such ware, but that
now, owing to his prudence and valour, he was served in gold—an
anecdote which also suggests that the profession was not
highly esteemed. The guild at Athens was called ἐκ κεραμέων,
“of the potters,”[816] and we also hear of a college of κεραμεῖς at
Thyateira.[817] However, the competition in the trade was so
warm as to pass into a proverb, and the animosity of some of
the rival potters is even recorded upon the vases.[818] To this spirit
are also probably to be referred many of the tricks of the trade,
such as imitations of the names of makers, and the numerous
.bn 290.png
.pn +1
illegible inscriptions. When the potter’s establishment—called
an ergasterion—was large, he employed under him a number of
persons, some of whom were probably free but poor citizens,
whilst others were slaves belonging to him.[819] How the labour
was subdivided there are no means of accurately determining,
but the following hands were probably employed:—(1) A potter,
to make the vase on the wheel; (2) an artist, to trace with a
point in outline the subject of the vase; (3) a painter, who
executed the whole subject in outline, and who probably returned
it to No. 2, when incised lines were required; (4) a
modeller, who added such parts of the vase as were moulded;
(5) a fireman, who took the vase to the furnace and brought it
back; (6) a fireman for the furnace; (7) packers, to prepare
the vases for exportation. Hence it may readily be conceived
that a large establishment employed a considerable number of
hands, and exhibited an animated scene of industrial activity.
.fm
.fn 739
Traité, i. p. 548.
.fn-
.fn 740
Technologie, ii. p. 56.
.fn-
.fn 741
Die Malerei, p. 176.
.fn-
.fn 742
See Jahn, Vasens. zu München, p.
cxliv; and Brunn-Lau, Griech. Vasen,
p. 6.
.fn-
.fn 743
Suidas, s.v.; Athenaeus, xi. 482 B;
Blümner, Technol. ii. p. 36.
.fn-
.fn 744
De recta audiendi rat. 9, § 42 D.
.fn-
.fn 745
Suidas, s.v.Κωλιάδος κεραμῆες; cf.
Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 152.
.fn-
.fn 746
For representations of quarrying for
clay at Corinth see the pinakes at Berlin,
Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 8, Nos. 7, 23.
.fn-
.fn 747
Athen. xi. 464 B. C.
.fn-
.fn 748
Reg. et Imp. Apophth. 174 E.
.fn-
.fn 749
Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 161.
.fn-
.fn 750
Myres in Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 16.
.fn-
.fn 751
Diod. Sic. iv. 76.
.fn-
.fn 752
See Frazer, Pausanias, note to i.
21, 4.
.fn-
.fn 753
Pliny, H.N. vii. 198; Schol. ad
Pind. Ol. xiii. 27.
.fn-
.fn 754
Diog. Laert. i. 105; Suidas, s.v.Ἀνάχαρσις.
.fn-
.fn 755
Athen. i. 28 C.
.fn-
.fn 756
Il. xviii. 600.
.fn-
.fn 757
vii. 303.
.fn-
.fn 758
Seneca, Ep. 90, 31.
.fn-
.fn 759
Rep. 420 E.
.fn-
.fn 760
Apud Athenaeum, x. 449 B.
.fn-
.fn 761
See Blümner, Technologie, ii. p. 38,
note 3.
.fn-
.fn 762
xxxviii. 29: κεραμεὺς καθήμενος ...
καὶ συστρέφων ἐν ποσὶν αὐτοῦ τροχόν.
.fn-
.fn 763
De gen. Socr. 20, p. 588 F.
.fn-
.fn 764
i. 645 K, quoted by Blümner.
.fn-
.fn 765
Blümner, ii. p. 39; Jahn in Ber. d.
sächs. Gesellsch. 1854, p. 40, note. See
also Chapters XXI.-XXII.
.fn-
.fn 766
Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 8, figs. 17, 18;
cf. Gaz. Arch. 1880, p. 106.
.fn-
.fn 767
Ath. Mitth. xiv. (1889), p. 157.
.fn-
.fn 768
Blümner, Technologie, ii. p. 51.
.fn-
.fn 769
As on the vases of Nikosthenes
(see below, p. #385#; B.M. B 619, 620;
Louvre F 116, 117).
.fn-
.fn 770
Reinach, Répertoire, i. 11 = Petersburg 525.
.fn-
.fn 771
Evans, in Num. Chron. 3rd Ser. xi. p. 319 = B.M. Cat. iv. G 121, 122.
.fn-
.fn 772
See for examples B. M. Cat. iv.
G 87–95.
.fn-
.fn 773
Cf. Aesop, Fab. 166 a, b.
.fn-
.fn 774
Cat. 2542 = Blümner, Technologie,
ii. p. 50.
.fn-
.fn 775
Brongniart, Traité, i. p. 552.
.fn-
.fn 776
Legg. iii. 679 A.
.fn-
.fn 777
H.N. xxix. 34.
.fn-
.fn 778
E.g. B.M. B 426, E 459.
.fn-
.fn 779
Cf. Ar. Ach. 933: ψοφεῖ λάλον τι
καὶ πυρορραγές. See also Suid. s.v.πυρορραγές; Pollux, vii. 164; Etym.
Magn. p. 798, 17; and Schol. in Hom.
Il. ii. 219. I cannot but think that in
the term φοξός, as applied to Thersites'
head, there is some correspondence to
our phrase “crack-brained.” Simonides
(apud Athen. xi. 480 D) speaks of a
φοξίχειλος Ἀργείη κύλιξ, a term of disputed
meaning; but a cup of which the
brim (χεῖλος) would suggest the shape of
a peaked head is hardly conceivable; and
here again there must surely be some
notion of sound.
.fn-
.fn 780
See Blümner, op. cit. ii. p. 46.
.fn-
.fn 781
See Fig. #67:fig067# b; Berlin 2294; Furtwaengler,
in Jahrbuch, vi. (1891), p. 110,
points out that these heads probably
represent the Kyklopes or demon-attendants
of the fire-god Hephaistos. See
above, p. #105#, under πύραυνοι; also
Daremberg and Saglio, art. Caminus.
.fn-
.fn 782
Lenormant, La Grande Grèce, i. p. 94.
.fn-
.fn 783
Berlin 802 = Ant. Denkm. i. 8, 4.
.fn-
.fn 784
Cat. 731 = Jahn in Ber. d. sächs.
Gesellsch. 1854, pl. 1, fig. 1, p. 27.
.fn-
.fn 785
A Seilenos in this act appears on a
vase in Sale Cat. Hôtel Drouot, May 11th,
1903, No. 131 (reproduced in Fig. #68:fig068#).
.fn-
.fn 786
Examples are: Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 8,
figs. 12, 19b, 22 (in Berlin); Gaz. Arch.
1880, pp. 105, 106 (in Louvre).
.fn-
.fn 787
A better drawing has recently been
given in Furtwaengler and Reichhold,
Gr. Vasenm. p. 159; but the reproduction
in Fig. #67:fig067# is accurate in all
essentials.
.fn-
.fn 788
Cat. 1114 = Ath. Mitth. xiv. (1889),
p. 151.
.fn-
.fn 789
See Blümner, ii. p. 52.
.fn-
.fn 790
Ibid.
.fn-
.fn 791
See above, p. 214.
.fn-
.fn 792
Blümner (ii. p. 75) gives an account of
various chemical experiments made upon it.
.fn-
.fn 793
See Blümner, ii. p. 76 ff.
.fn-
.fn 794
Traité, i. p. 550.
.fn-
.fn 795
This process is well illustrated on
certain vases (e.g. B 158 in Brit. Mus.),
where the artist has subsequently altered his
design, and the lines still remain visible.
.fn-
.fn 796
See for a fuller consideration of this
point p. #368#.
.fn-
.fn 797
Baumeister, iii. p. 1992, fig. 2137 = Reinach, i. 336.
.fn-
.fn 798
See Pottier, Lecythes blancs, p. 99 ff.
.fn-
.fn 799
See Chapter XI., and Hartwig, Meisterschalen, p. 499.
.fn-
.fn 800
Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 147 ff.
.fn-
.fn 801
See Ath. Mitth. 1891, p. 376.
.fn-
.fn 802
Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 154.
.fn-
.fn 803
Jahrbuch, 1899, pl. 4.
.fn-
.fn 804
Cat. 222.
.fn-
.fn 805
See Durand-Gréville in Rev. Arch. xviii. (1891), p. 99 ff., xix. (1892), p. 363 ff.
.fn-
.fn 806
See Blümner, Technol. ii. p. 81.
.fn-
.fn 807
See for the four colours used by him,
Plut. de defect. orac. 47, 436 C; Cic. Brut.
18, 70; and cf. Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 50.
.fn-
.fn 808
On vases with gilding, see Jahn,
Vasen mit Goldschmuck (1865).
.fn-
.fn 809
Plat. Theaet. 147 A, Rep. iv. 421 D;
Pollux, vii. 163.
.fn-
.fn 810
Strabo, xv. 717; Pollux, vii. 182.
.fn-
.fn 811
Schol. in Ar. Pac. 1202.
.fn-
.fn 812
Pollux, vii. 160.
.fn-
.fn 813
B.M. B 400.
.fn-
.fn 814
Lucian, Prom. in Verbis, 2; cf.
Lactantius, Div. Inst. ii. 11.
.fn-
.fn 815
Plutarch, Apophth. Reg. et Imp.
176 E.
.fn-
.fn 816
Cf. B.M. Cat. of Sculpt. i. 599;
Ross-Meier, Demen von Attika, p. 122,
No. 67. The persons here mentioned
were not necessarily potters.
.fn-
.fn 817
Boeckh, C.I.G. ii. 3485.
.fn-
.fn 818
Hes. Op. et Di. 25: καὶ κεραμεὺς
κεραμεῖ κοτέει; quoted by Aristotle,
Rhet. ii. 4, 21, and Plat. Lys. 215 C.
Euthymides on one of his vases places
the boast, “Euphronios never did anything
like this.” See for these two
artists, Chapter #X:ch10#.
.fn-
.fn 819
Cf. the vase at Athens described above (p. #218#), and the others with representations
of potteries.
.fn-
.bn 291.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
PART II | HISTORY OF GREEK VASE-PAINTING
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch06'
CHAPTER VI | PRIMITIVE FABRICS
.pm start_summary
Introductory—Cypriote Bronze-Age pottery—Classification—Mycenaean
pottery in Cyprus—Graeco-Phoenician fabrics—Shapes and decoration—Hellenic
and later vases—Primitive pottery in Greece—Troy—Thera
and Cyclades—Crete—Recent discoveries—Mycenaean pottery—Classification
and distribution—Centres of fabric—Ethnography and
chronology.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
In the preceding chapters we have given a general résumé
of the subject of Greek pottery; we have discussed the sites
on which Greek vases have been found, the methods employed
in their manufacture, the shapes which they assume, and the
uses to which they were put both on earth and in the tombs;
and we have now reached perhaps the most important part of the
subject, at any rate in the eyes of archaeologists, namely, the
history of the rise, development and decadence of painting on
Greek vases.
It has already been noted (in Chapter #I:ch01#.) that this branch
of the study of Greek vases is one that has only been called into
existence in comparatively recent times, and that up to the year
1854 or thereabouts all attempts at dating the vases (chiefly of
course owing to the poverty of material) were purely empirical
and tentative. They were moreover largely combined with
fantastic interpretations of the painted designs.
.bn 292.png
.pn +1
During the last forty years, and especially during the last
twenty, the steady growth of archaeological study and increased
attention to excavations have enormously increased both the
material at command and the power of utilising it with
scientific method. The extensive finds of pottery in Greece,
Asia Minor, Northern Africa, Italy, and elsewhere, including
more especially products of the earlier periods, have enabled
the students of the subject to trace the sequence of fabrics from
the rude wares of Troy and the Greek Islands up to the graceful
and finished products of the Athenian ateliers, and onward to
the overgrown luxuriousness of the gigantic Apulian wares.
The subjects of the paintings, once of all-absorbing, are now
only of subordinate interest, except so far as they illustrate
certain phases of development, and the chief interest of the
vases is the question of their origin, their maker, or their place
in relation to others.
It will therefore be the object of this and of the succeeding
chapters to trace with all possible detail, as far as space permits,
the history of Greek vase-manufacture and vase-painting in all
their aspects. We have already indicated (p. #31#) the limits
within which the subject falls, and the convenient rough division
into four main classes of which it permits (p. #23#). This introductory
chapter, therefore, deals with the primitive fabrics,
leading up, through the two following, to the period of black-figured
vases in Chapter IX. The lines of demarcation are,
indeed, difficult if not impossible to draw, but they must not
in any case be taken as rigid ones, being largely conventional,
and only adopted in order to obtain a point of division for
the chapters.
Perhaps the leading feature of the early history of Greek
vases is the gradual coalescence of the numerous local fabrics
first into two or three main streams, and finally into the one
great and all-absorbing current of Athenian art. In the sixth
century this was really brought about more by historical causes
than anything else, as a result of the gradually increasing
supremacy of Athens in art and culture from the time of
the Peisistratidae down to that of Perikles.
One region, and one only, pursues its artistic course without
.bn 293.png
.pn +1
regard to the contemporaneous tendencies prevailing in the
Greek world, and that is the island of Cyprus. Here again
the causes are largely political, as we shall see; largely also
ethnographical and geographical, from the character of the
inhabitants and the position of the island, a meeting-place and
bone of contention between the great nations of the Eastern
Mediterranean. For this reason we propose to deal first with
the pottery of Cyprus, which has little in common with that
of the rest of Greece, and always retains something of its
primitive character, though it is always as much influenced
from Greece on the one hand as from the East on the other.
It is in Cyprus also that we meet with some of the earliest
remains of pottery yet found on Greek soil.
.h4
§ 1. Cypriote Pottery
.ce
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.pm start_summary
Cesnola, Cyprus; O.-Richter, Kypros, the Bible, and Homer; Perrot and
Chipiez, Hist. de l’Art, iii. p. 648 ff.; Cyprus Mus. Cat. (Myres and
O.-Richter); B.M. Excavations in Cyprus (Turner Bequest), 1894–6;
Dümmler in Ath. Mitth. xi. (1886), p. 209 ff.; Archaeologia, xlv. p. 127 ff.;
Pottier, Cat. des Vases ant. du Louvre, i. p. 82 ff., and other references there
given.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
In order to understand aright the history of Cypriote art, it
is indeed necessary to know something of its ethnography and
political history, and the various influences to which it has been
subjected. But space forbids us to do more than make very brief
allusions to the more important of these features. Speaking
generally, Cyprus may be regarded as a centre wherein have
met all the currents of ancient civilisation, forming an amalgamation
of artistic elements. Thus Cypriote art, though it loses
in originality, gains in interest; and yet though often slavishly
imitative, it has at bottom great individuality, more especially in
its pottery. Hence it will be seen that it is essentially necessary
to consider the pottery of Cyprus as a thing apart.
As regards chronology, except for a certain determinable
sequence of artistic phases, even more caution than in dealing
with Hellenic art is required. The remarkable conservatism
.bn 294.png
.pn +1
and persistence of types exhibited by Cypriote art has more
than once proved a pitfall, and has given rise to considerable
controversy at one time or another. Dates can only be used
in the vaguest manner.
The pottery of Cyprus falls under three headings, which
for convenience, though not perhaps with the strictest accuracy,
are usually defined as follows:—
.in 6
.ti -4
1. Bronze Age, from about 2500 B.C. to 800 B.C.
.ti -4
2. Graeco-Phoenician period, from 800 B.C. to 400 B.C., overlapping
with
.ti -4
3. Hellenic period, from 550 B.C. to 200 B.C., representing the
time during which imported Greek vases are found in the
tombs, native pottery gradually dying out except in the form
of plain vessels.
.in
The pottery of the Bronze-Age period again falls into two
distinct periods: (1) Copper Age or pre-Mycenaean period
(2500–1500 B.C.), during which few bronze implements are
found in the tombs, and all the pottery is purely indigenous,
the work of the original inhabitants of the island, without
any admixture of importations. (2) The Mycenaean period
(1500–800 B.C.), during which the local pottery (including
both unpainted and painted vases) is reinforced by large
quantities of imported Mycenaean pottery, together with elaborately
decorated vases of Mycenaean technique, either made
locally or specially made for Cyprus and imported.
The sites on which Bronze-Age remains are found (see
above, p. #66#) are chiefly confined to the central and southern
parts of the island, the most important sites being near the
modern towns of Nicosia, Larnaka, and Famagusta. The
discovery in these tombs of such objects as milking-bowls and
querns is an additional proof of the conclusion naturally to
be drawn—that the early inhabitants of Cyprus were a race
of pastoral lowlanders.[820] The tombs (see p. #35#) are mostly
pit-tombs of moderate depth, recalling in type the Egyptian
mastaba, and burial is universal.
There is no doubt that the art of pottery was introduced into
.bn 295.png
.pn +1
Cyprus coincidently with the beginning of the Copper Age,
which may be placed at about the year 2000 B.C. Although
no bronze is found in the earliest tombs, on the other hand
stone implements are absent, and the types of the pottery are
identical with those of the later Bronze Age. It will be seen
that it presents throughout very striking parallels with the
pottery of Hissarlik, which will form the subject of the next
section. The forms are largely similar and the technique is the
same, but the Hissarlik pottery is ruder and of inferior clay.
Stone implements are found at Hissarlik, but no copper, from
which the inference may be drawn that that metal, being
indigenous to Cyprus, supplanted stone there at an earlier date
than in the Troad, whither it had to find its way by means
of commerce. It was no doubt largely due to the existence of
its copper ores that Cyprus so early shows an advance in its
civilisation.
The shapes of the earliest Cypriote pottery are purely indigenous
and very characteristic, but the technique may very
likely have been learned from elsewhere; in regard to which it
should be noted that as it is invariably hand-made, an Egyptian
origin is altogether precluded, owing to the early use of the
wheel for pottery in that country (see pp. #7#, #206#). For the
most part the forms are characterised by a tendency to fantastic
and unsymmetrical modelling, with a preference for complicated
forms, such as two or three vases joined together. Others again
imitate gourds or vessels of straw and basket-work, such as are
used in Cyprus at the present day. They have no foot or
“base-ring” to stand upon; and another characteristic is the
frequent absence of handles, the place of which is supplied by
small ears, by means of which the vase was hung up or carried
by cords.[821] Sometimes these ears cover the whole outline of the
vase. The plastic principle is always popular in the Bronze-Age
pottery, and manifests itself in more than one direction. From
the first it is exhibited in the tendency, so common in early
art, to combine the vase and the statuette,[822] a tendency which
is even stronger in the pottery of Hissarlik. It also takes
.bn 296.png
.pn +1
the form of designs in relief covering the surface of, or moulded
to, the vase.
In one point Cyprus is manifestly in advance of the rest of
the ancient world, and that is, in the decoration of the pottery.
Here, in fact, we meet with the first attempts at painted vases,
combined with the employment of a fine bright red or polished
black slip to cover the surface. In the earlier varieties the
designs, when they occur, are confined to simple rectilinear
geometrical patterns incised through the slip before baking;
but these are soon supplemented by the employment, first of a
matt-white pigment, secondly of a brown-black paint obtained
from the native umber. The only other locality in which painted
vases occur at so early a period is the island of Thera (see
below, p. #260#).
We pass now to the consideration of the later Bronze-Age
pottery—namely, that which is found in tombs together with
vases of Mycenaean style. In this we see various modifications
of the indigenous art, and witness its eventual transformation
by the introduction of new processes and ideas from various
sources. The main streams of influence are three in number,
coming from the east, south, and west respectively. Of these
the first represents the Asiatic civilisations of Babylonia and
the Hittites, to whom in the first place are due the engraved
cylinders frequently found in these tombs, and at a comparatively
late date such objects as the ivory draught-box from
Enkomi in the British Museum, which affords points of comparison
with the reliefs of Kouyounjik. Egyptian influences
date from the invasion of Cyprus by Thothmes III. (eighteenth
dynasty), about 1450 B.C., as exemplified by the frequent occurrence
of scarabs and porcelain objects. A counter-influence of
Cyprus on Egypt is seen in the presence of exported Cypriote
pottery in tombs at Kahun, Saqqara, and elsewhere.[823] Lastly,
there is the far more extensive influence of the Mycenaean
civilisation, covering several hundred years, and eventually
absorbing the indigenous fabrics until the foundations of a new
phase of decorative art were laid on a combination of the two.
The Mycenaean vases belong to the later styles exclusively
.bn 297.png
.pn +1
(see below, p. #271#), and show a strong preference for certain
forms such as the false-necked amphora and the large richly-decorated
krater peculiar to Cyprus; but these we must discuss
later in fuller detail. Briefly, they represent the first entry of
Greece proper into the Cypriote world.
The ethnological affinities of the early inhabitants of Cyprus
cannot be positively ascertained. In M. Heuzey’s opinion they
were Asiatics, Syrian rather than Phoenician, and he suggests
that the names of Kition (Chittim) and Amathus (Hamath)
imply Hittite and Hamathite colonists. Dümmler regarded
them as closely akin to the race which inhabited the second city
at Hissarlik,[824] an idea to which the similarity of the pottery
might be thought to lend support. At all events in Greek
legend this people was personified by the mythical king
Kinyras, the father of Adonis, who came from the neighbouring
Asiatic coast. The Hellenic, or rather Achaean, invasion is
crystallised into the legends of Teucer’s colonisation of Salamis
after the fall of Troy,[825] of an Arcadian settlement at Kerynia
and elsewhere, and of the founding of Curium by Argives
(? Mycenaeans).[826]
The first attempt to classify the pottery of Cyprus, and to
distinguish between the Bronze-Age wares and what are now
known as the Graeco-Phoenician fabrics, was made by the late
Mr. T. B. Sandwith in 1876.[827] Considering the comparative
poverty of material at his command, and the state of archaeological
knowledge at the time, his brief but illuminating
monograph is a wonderfully accurate and scientific contribution,
and, so far as it goes, his classification can still be
accepted in the main. But the extensive series of excavations
in the island since the British occupation, and the investigation
of such fruitful sites as Salamis, Curium, and Kition,
have resulted in a great advance of our knowledge of the
subject. The elaborate classification made by Messrs. Myres
and Ohnefalsch-Richter of the representative collections of
.bn 298.png
.pn +1
the Cyprus Museum must for the present be regarded as
final, and of necessity forms the basis of the succeeding
description.
.tb
The pottery of the Bronze Age may be classified under
two main headings: Painted and Unpainted Pottery. Of these
the former is practically confined to the later tombs, and we
naturally turn first to the unpainted pottery as taking precedence
in chronology and development.
Almost the commonest, and probably the earliest, variety
is the red polished ware, sometimes plain, but generally
ornamented with incised patterns or reliefs (see Plate #XI:pl11#.,
Nos. 3, 4, 7).[828] The polished surface, which seems to betoken
a great advance in technique, was doubtless produced by
means of a burnisher. In some varieties the surface is black,
a result due to the action of smoke in firing. The commonest
forms are a globular bottle with long neck and handle, a plain
bowl, a cooking-pot on feet, and a two-handled globular
amphora; besides composite and abnormal forms. None of
these vases have any kind of base except the cooking-pots.
The incised patterns, when they occur, are scratched in deeply
before firing, and often filled in with white; the patterns, which
tend to become more and more elaborate, consist of zigzags,
wavy lines, chequers and lozenges, network patterns, and concentric
circles. Ornament in relief is applied in the form of
strips of clay, often worked into the shape of rude figures
of trees, snakes, animals, or simple patterns. Many tombs and
even cemeteries, as at Alambra, Agia Paraskevi, and elsewhere,
contain no other form of pottery; but though these are undoubtedly
earlier than the mixed tombs, the red ware in a
degenerate form continues long afterwards.
There is also a small class of black-slip ware, covered with
a thin dark lustreless slip which flakes off easily. The ornamentation,
which is seldom absent, is generally in the form
of a straight or wavy line with a row of dots alternately on
.bn 299.png
.pn +1
either side, either incised or in relief. The forms are much the
same as in the red ware, but often seem to suggest metal or
leather prototypes.
An interesting class is formed by the black punctured ware,
in which the clay is black throughout, without a slip, but partly
polished. Most of these vases are small jugs with a narrow
neck, swelling body, and small foot, and they are ornamented
with punctured dots, usually in triangular patches, but sometimes
irregularly distributed. In Cyprus they are mostly found
in the early necropolis at Kalopsida, but they also occur in the
late Mycenaean tombs at Enkomi. The special interest of this
ware is that it is found in Egypt, under such circumstances that
it can fairly be dated; notably at Khata'anah in conjunction
with scarabs and flint chips of the twelfth and thirteenth
dynasties (2500–2000 B.C.). It is also found in the Fayûm,
where Prof. Petrie obtained some good specimens.[829]
Allied to this is the Cypriote bucchero ware, of plain black
clay without slip, ornamented with ribs or flutings. It is only
found in the later tombs, and can be traced through the subsequent
transitional period.[830]
Of the remaining fabrics the most conspicuous is that termed
by Mr. Myres the base-ring ware, which is marked off from
other Bronze-Age types by its flat-ringed base in all cases.
The clay is dark and of fine texture, with thinly-glazed surface.
The ornament is either in relief or painted in matt-white, the
patterns being exclusively of a basket or network type
(Plate #XI:pl11#., figs. 1, 2). The reliefs, when they occur, consist
of scrolls or raised seams curving over the body, obviously in
imitation of the seams of a leather bottle; they sometimes
end in a leaf-ornament,[831] and at other times take the form of
a snake. This fabric is very commonly found in the later
tombs with Mycenaean vases, and hardly earlier. It has been
found in Egypt and at Lachish.[832]
.pm onplate XI
.il id=pl11 fn=plate11_300.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Early Cypriote Pottery (British Museum).1, 2, “Base-ring” Black Ware; 3, 4, 7, Incised Red and Black Wares; 5, 6, “White-slip” Wares.
.ca-
.pm offplate
Among the rarer varieties of unpainted wares Mr. Myres
.bn 300.png
.bn 301.png
.bn 302.png
.pn +1
includes white base-ring ware (plates and bowls), imitations of
straw-plait or wicker-work, and plain wheel-made wares with
red or black slip, of peculiar form.[833]
Among the Painted Pottery by far the most widely-spread
local fabric is that styled by Mr. Myres the white-slip ware,
which appears in the tombs of the later Bronze Age, and is more
than any other associated with Mycenaean vases. In cemeteries
such as Enkomi, Curium, and Maroni[834] it has been found in
large quantities in almost every tomb, and its range is not
limited to Cyprus. The characteristics of this ware are a black
gritty clay, worked very thin, and a thick white creamy slip
with which it is covered both inside and out; it is exceedingly
brittle, and perfect specimens are comparatively uncommon.
The ornament is laid on in a black pigment, often turning to
red by the action of fire; the most common form is that of
a hemispherical bowl with a flat triangular handle, notched at
the apex. Almost the only other forms are a long-necked flask
or bottle of the lekythos type and a large jug with cylindrical
body (like an olpe) and a flat thumb-piece above the handle.
Mr. Myres[835] points out that the scheme of decoration seems
intended to imitate the binding and seams of a leather bowl;
it usually consists of a band of various patterns (lattice-work,
zigzags, lozenges, or lines of dots) round the rim, from which
similar bands descend vertically, but do not meet at the bottom.
Similarly the handle seems intended to represent two pieces
of flexible wood bound together. In the case of the jugs the
patterns follow a similar principle, giving the effect of a decoration
in panels to the upper part. Specimens of this ware are given
in Plate #XI:pl11#., Nos. 5, 6.
Beyond the confines of Cyprus isolated specimens of this ware
have been found at Athens, Hissarlik, Thera, Lachish in Palestine,
and at Saqqara and Tell-el-Amarna in Egypt, in the last-named
instance along with Mycenaean vases.[836] The resemblance of some
white-slip wares to the Dipylon vases is not a little curious.[837]
But it can hardly be thought that the one influenced the other.
.bn 303.png
.pn +1
The other local painted wares are by no means so common.
They are, in fact, almost limited to specimens of an unpolished
white ware, with fine cream-coloured clay, on which patterns
such as groups of straight or wavy lines, chevrons, chequers,
and triangles filled with hatched lines are painted with a
pigment varying from dull black to dull red. The commonest
forms are one-handled bowls and small bottles, either globular
or sausage-shaped. The latter are distinguished by often having
long tube-like spouts attached and by the numerous perforated
projections for the attachment of strings, handles being generally
absent at first, but when they are introduced the projections
remain as an ornamental survival. In a few isolated specimens
the surface is covered with a polished slip. Others again are
covered with a black glaze,[838] on which are painted in dull red
groups of short parallel lines, which (as Mr. Myres points out)
seem to have been executed at a single stroke with a cluster
of brushes.
.tb
The Mycenaean pottery which has been found on not a few
sites in Cyprus, and of late years in such surprising quantities
at Enkomi and in the neighbourhood of Larnaka and Limassol
(Maroni, Curium, etc.), belongs properly to another section of
this chapter, and would not call for discussion in this connection,
but for the fact that in Cyprus it presents certain features
which seem to be almost exclusively local. At all events it
is advisable to consider how far Mycenaean pottery in Cyprus
differs from that found in Rhodes, Crete, or Mycenae.
Two points claim our attention in the first instance: (1) that
in point of technique the Cypriote finds fall absolutely into line
with those in other parts of the Mycenaean world; (2) that
the range of subjects depicted on the vases found in Cyprus is
wider and in a measure more developed than elsewhere. To
what extent we may be permitted, bearing both facts in mind,
to predicate a local fabric of Mycenaean pottery in Cyprus,
must for the present remain an open question; at the same
time it seems extremely probable that the larger vases, which
it will be necessary to discuss in detail, are, if not of local
.bn 304.png
.pn +1
manufacture, at all events a fabric made specially for exportation
to Cyprus, as we shall see was the case with a later variety of
black-figured Attic ware.
The peculiarity of the Cypriote-Mycenaean pottery is that
whereas on other sites the decoration is confined to linear
ornaments, and animal or vegetable subjects drawn almost
exclusively from the aquatic world (such as cuttle-fish, shell-fish,
or seaweed), in Cyprus we find represented not only animals,
such as bulls, deer, goats, and dogs, but even human figures,
both male and female, and monsters such as Sphinxes and
Gryphons. Having regard to what M. Pottier[839] calls the law
of the hierarchie des genres, it does not seem impossible that this
may imply a late survival of Mycenaean art in Cyprus, and
although this view has been hitherto strongly contested in
certain quarters, it finds support from other evidence obtained
in recent excavations. The whole chronology of Cypriote
pottery is still in a very unsettled state, and until it can be
definitely shown that the Cypriote Geometrical style began concurrently
with the appearance of Geometrical pottery in Greece,
it is still admissible to urge that Mycenaean art prevailed here
for some time subsequent to its disappearance from the greater
part of the Hellenic world. For this the accepted date is the
end of the tenth century B.C., but it is not necessary to extend
its influence in Cyprus more than two centuries longer, i.e.
beyond the eighth century, at the latest.
If we accept the view generally held that the Mycenaean
civilisation was Achaean, and that after the Dorian invasion
its representatives were driven in an easterly direction and
settled on the coast of Asia Minor; and if again we regard
this as an historical version of the Greek traditions of the
Trojan war and the subsequent migrations of the Achaean
heroes[840]; we may then consider that the stories of Teucer’s
foundation of a new Salamis and of an Argive colonisation of
Curium find their verification in the Mycenaean settlements
recently discovered on those two Cypriote sites. The extent
.bn 305.png
.pn +1
and richness of the old Salamis at Enkomi at any rate seems to
suggest that it may have flourished as a Mycenaean settlement
for some centuries.
But to return to the pottery. Two forms are eminently
characteristic of the Cypriote varieties. Of these, one—the
“false amphora” (p. #271#)—is not peculiar to the island, but is found
wherever Mycenaean pottery has penetrated; though especially
common in Cyprus, it is in fact the most popular of all
Mycenaean shapes. The other is a large krater, found in two
varieties, either a straight-sided deep bowl with wide mouth
and no neck, or a spheroidal vessel on a high stem, with a low
straight neck of less diameter than the body. It is this latter
class which appears to be of local manufacture and presents
such a variety of painted decoration.
Up to the year 1895 only some half-dozen of these kraters
were known, one of which was found by General Cesnola in
the rich necropolis at Agia Paraskevi near Nicosia[841]; another
he alleged to have come from Amathus, but it was no doubt
found at Maroni, not so far distant, where for many years a
Bronze-Age cemetery has been known. In the above-named
year two more came to light at Curium,[842] one of the same type as
General Cesnola’s, with figures driving two-horse chariots; the
other having in addition the unique subject of a series of women,
each figure in a separate panel, represented as waving their
arms or holding flowers.[843] These were speedily followed by
the rich and valuable series from Enkomi now in the British
Museum, since which time other interesting specimens have
been obtained for the Museum in various excavations or have
found their way into the hands of local collectors (see Plate #XII:pl12#.).
.pm onplate XII
.il id=pl12 fn=plate12_306.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Mycenaean Vases from Cyprus (British Museum).
.pm offplate
Native imitations of the Mycenaean vases, which have been
described as “sub-Mycenaean wares,” have been found in considerable
numbers on most of the sites where the genuine
Mycenaean ware exists. They fall technically under the heading
of painted white ware (p. #251#),[844] the difference being that
.bn 306.png
.bn 307.png
.bn 308.png
.pn +1
the decoration is in matt colour (varying from black to red)
on an unpolished drab ground. The patterns mostly follow
Mycenaean models, but some are new. They are well represented
on the Mycenaean site at Curium,[845] especially in one
or two tombs of transitional character, and in some cases the
decoration is of a distinctly Geometrical type, illustrating the
development of the succeeding style. In any case it is not
difficult to distinguish them from the genuine Mycenaean fabrics.
.tb
In these so-called sub-Mycenaean vases we can trace the
best evidence of the transition from the Bronze Age to the
succeeding or Graeco-Phoenician period. But on the whole
the line of demarcation is clearly defined, as for instance
by the forms and position of the tombs, which become larger
and lie deeper; by the appearance of iron implements and
bronze fibulae; and by the fact that all the native pottery
is now made on the wheel. Relations with continental Greece
are evidenced by the occasional importation of Geometrical
pottery of the Dipylon type (as in the great vase found at
Curium), dating from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. As
we have already seen, the first Hellenic settlements in Cyprus
seem to have followed on more or less immediately after the
Dorian invasion, in the sites of Salamis, Curium, Kerynia,
Paphos, and others which afterwards became the capitals of
small Hellenic kingdoms.
On the other hand, the Phoenician thalassocracy, which began
about the ninth century B.C., never had much foothold in Cyprus,
less at any rate than was formerly supposed. Politically at
all events the Phoenician influence was comparatively small,
even in their settlements at Kition and Amathus[846]; we read
of expeditions of the kings of Tyre in the tenth and eighth
centuries, the object of which was to force the former town
to pay tribute; but subsequently they were compelled by the
Assyrian domination under Sargon to retreat westwards. In
the seventh century a new power arose in the shape of Egypt,
.bn 309.png
.pn +1
and in the sixth Cyprus became a tributary of Amasis.[847]
Throughout, however, relations with Greece were maintained,
and we read that in 501 B.C. the Cypriote princes joined the
Ionians in their revolt against Persia, a fact which shows the
strength of the Hellenic element.
Nevertheless the term “Graeco-Phoenician,” which has been
adopted to describe the art of this period, is convenient, and
can hardly be improved upon, if we bear in mind that the
term “Phoenician” really represents the combination of
Egyptian and Assyrian elements of art which filtered through
that race into Cyprus, and in which sometimes the one, sometimes
the other has the predominance. This is seen perhaps
more clearly in the sculpture, metal-work, and terracottas, as
for instance in the incised bronze and silver bowls,[848] than in the
pottery. Painted pottery was never a feature of Oriental art,
and the Phoenician influence in the pottery is confined to
borrowed motives of Oriental character, like foreign words in
a language. Another proof that Cyprus resisted the Phoenician
domination is afforded by the curious fact that though the
Greeks of the mainland adopted the Phoenician alphabet
entirely, in Cyprus, on the other hand—where, above all, we
should have expected to find it—its place is taken by a
syllabary, the forms of which appear to bear some relation
to the Lycian, Carian, and Pamphylian alphabets. That this
syllabary, which is universally employed for inscriptions down
to the fourth century, is of a very high antiquity is shown by
its close affinities with the newly-discovered Cretan script, and
by the fact that single characters of a similar type are often
found engraved on the handles of Mycenaean vases in Cyprus.
Each character represents a syllable, not a letter (except in
the case of vowels), and the dialect is thought to be largely
influenced by Aeolic.
Mycenaean influence, as might be expected, was slow to die
out in Cyprus, and the pottery is no exception. It is seen
.bn 310.png
.pn +1
not only in the patterns, such as the concentric circles—an
invention of the Cypriote-Mycenaean pottery, which forms a
favourite and almost universal motive at a later date—but in the
subjects and technique. The practice of painting figures in outline,
not in silhouette, as in the birds and beasts of the Enkomi
kraters, the use of dull red and black pigments on an unglazed
light-coloured surface, and many other details are an heritage
from the Bronze Age, extending over many a succeeding
century. With these are combined the influences of the early
Attic pottery,[849] in the panels of Geometrical patterns, and the
later rosette and conventionalised lotos-flower, which, with the
concentric circles, form the stock-in-trade of the “Graeco-Phoenician”
potter. The British Museum collection includes
one or two remarkable isolated specimens which illustrate
this principle. It is for instance instructive to compare the
Sphinxes on a krater from Enkomi[850] with those on a large
amphora lately acquired from the Karpas,[851] or the oinochoe from
General Cesnola’s collection with a chariot-scene (Plate #XIII:pl13#.),[852]
with those from Mycenaean sites similarly decorated. On the
other hand, the extraordinary large vase from Tamassos,[853] with
its crudely and childishly drawn figures, combines a curious
admixture of Greek and Oriental motives, and early as it
must be, is not Mycenaean in conception or technique.
Oriental influence is not, however, altogether wanting in
the pottery. The lotos-flowers and rosettes, of which we have
already spoken, are derived respectively from Egypt and
Assyria, and the conventionalised palm-trees, which also appear,
are of course purely Oriental. So too, again, the typically
Oriental subject of the sacred tree between two animals appears
in various forms. But here again we are met with the surprising
fact that the Oriental element is far stronger in Greece than
in Cyprus, as will be seen later in the account of the early
Hellenic fabrics; and no doubt it is due to this cause that
.bn 311.png
.pn +1
the Geometric style was not driven out from Cyprus as it was
from Greece, but continued for many centuries.
In attempting a detailed description of the Graeco-Phoenician
pottery, it will be seen that any chronological system is impossible.
The conservative tendency of Cypriote art caused
the same methods of decoration to be employed with extraordinary
persistency during a period of time which saw the
whole development of Hellenic vase-painting from its earliest
beginnings to its decline, and though there is a certain amount
of variety, there is no development properly speaking, and the
latest fabrics are, artistically speaking, on the same level as
the earliest. It might be thought that the evidence of excavations
would compensate for this absence of artistic criteria;
but such is not the case. As a general rule in tombs containing
imported Greek vases, the dates of which can be fixed
within reasonable limits, native pottery is conspicuous by its
absence, as may be seen from the results obtained at Curium.
In any case, in the tombs richest in Hellenic pottery, as at
Poli, the local wares are largely of a definitely late character,
and so far distinct from the Geometrical and Orientalising
fabrics as to form a class by themselves. Another difficulty
which has to be taken into account, is that caused by the
frequency of re-burials in Cypriote tombs. Of this there were
countless instances at Amathus and Poli, so much so that
explorers of the latter site were actually led to believe that
the Geometrical pottery was contemporaneous with remains
of the Hellenistic age with which it was frequently found.[854]
But where trustworthy evidence can be obtained, it entirely
militates against this possibility.
The principal sites[855] on which “Graeco-Phoenician” pottery
has been found are: Amathus, Curium, Dali (Idalion), Kition,
Lapathos, Poli (Marion-Arsinoe), Paphos, Salamis, Soli, and
Tamassos. Other sites are not at present identified, but the
finds were made in the neighbourhood of the modern Achna,
Ormidhia, and other villages, and in the Karpas. Of these
sites the richest are Amathus, Dali, Curium, and Poli; but
in the finest collection of vases of this class, that of General
.bn 312.png
.pn +1
Cesnola at New York, the alleged sites are not always to be
accepted with certainty.
.il id=fig075 fn=fig075_312.jpg w=350px ew=70%
.ca FIG. 75. JUG WITH CONCENTRIC CIRCLES: GRAECO-PHOENICIAN PERIOD (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Graeco-Phoenician pottery is, as has been said, exclusively
wheel-made, and almost always supplied with a “base-ring.”
Reliefs and incised ornaments are never found, but instances of
moulded wares, combining the vase with the statuette, are not
wanting, especially
among the later varieties.
The designs
are usually painted in
a non-lustrous black
pigment, varied with
the use of opaque
purple and white,
corresponding to the
pigments employed
by Hellenic potters.
The ground is either
white, without any
polish or slip—as in
the painted white ware
of the Bronze Age
and sub-Mycenaean
fabrics—or else
covered with a more
or less lustrous red
slip, varying from a
bright orange or deep
red to a dark brown
(the latter usually
with unpolished surface).
Purple is employed only on the white wares, white
only on the red. The typical decoration of the white wares
consists of lotos-patterns, tree-ornaments, and water-fowl.
Generally speaking, these are earlier than the red. On the
lustrous red wares the decoration is usually confined to simple
patterns of concentric circles, vertical and horizontal, maeander
crosses, lozenges and triangles. Fig. #75:fig075#, from Curium, is a
.bn 313.png
.pn +1
typical specimen of the more elaborate types, and another is
shown in Plate #XIII:pl13#.
The forms are at first very varied, but gradually crystallise
into some half-dozen main types: dishes, bowls on stems,
lekythi with one or two handles, jugs with globular bodies,
and large amphorae with vertical side-handles. Of these the
jug is by far the commonest. Among the peculiar forms in
the earlier tombs (eighth to sixth centuries) may be mentioned
aski in the form of birds or oxen (the latter a Mycenaean
survival), and a kind of flask with barrel-shaped body, on which
the decoration of concentric circles, etc., does not follow the
usual horizontal system of classical pottery, but is disposed
vertically, in contradiction to all artistic feeling (see Plate #XIII:pl13#.).
The circles are often very fine and close, and were produced
by holding a brush full of paint close to the surface of the
vase as it was turned on the wheel. The drawing of the circles
in different planes, without regard to the lines of the vase, was
easily effected by placing it in different positions. In the period
of Hellenic importations the principal form is the jug with ovoid
body and modelled spout, and flat dishes are also common.
.tb
Unpainted pottery is almost as common as painted in the
Graeco-Phoenician period, and calls for a few words of separate
treatment. For the most part it comes under the heading of
Domestic Ware, or earthenware vessels similar to those in
ordinary use at the present day. They are made of plain,
unrefined, usually reddish, clay, without any slip or polish,
and include various forms of jugs, bowls, and plates, as well
as the large wine-amphorae with pointed bases universally
found at all periods. Many lamps and small “cup-and-saucer”
double bowls occur in this category. In the earlier tombs of
the Transitional period, pottery of a black-slip ware, with reeded
body, is frequently found, chiefly in the form of jugs and kraters.
Plain black wares, like the Italian bucchero, are also rarely
found; as are vessels covered with a fine red slip and polished.
.tb
In most of the painted pottery of the Graeco-Phoenician
period, especially in its earlier phases, the technical methods
.bn 314.png
.bn 315.png
.bn 316.png
.pn +1
are those which we have already described in speaking not
only of the “sub-Mycenaean” or Transitional fabrics, but also
of the painted white ware of the Bronze-Age tombs. That is
to say, that the decoration is in dull colour on a lustreless
and (usually) unpolished white or drab ground. The colour,
however, is usually not red, as in the earlier stages, but black,
red being used chiefly as an accessory or for picked-out details.
The latter varies from a pale brick-red to deep purple. The
system of decoration is often extremely elaborate, although
the range of subjects is limited. Apart from geometrical or
conventional patterns, such as the stylised palmette, lotos-flower,
stars, or trees, we only find water-fowl, fish, a few quadrupeds
such as bulls or deer,[856] and finally human figures. But
the last are exceedingly rare, and confined to the white wares,
the best example being perhaps the very Oriental design of
two warriors driving in a chariot,[857] or the worshippers rendering
homage to seated deities on the fine vase from Ormidhia
(Fig. #76:fig076#).[858]
.pm onplate XIII
.il id=pl13 fn=plate13_314.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Cypriote Pottery: Graeco-Phoenician Period (British Museum).
.pm offplate
The system of geometrical decoration on some of the earlier
vases, especially the large jars, is often extremely elaborate,
covering every available inch of the surface[859]; the patterns
consist of rosettes, panels of lozenge-pattern or chequers,
triangles of hatched lines, dotted circles, etc., all combined in
parallel bands or friezes, much in the same way as on the
Dipylon wares. The disappearance of this elaborate style,
together with human figures and figures of animals, is perhaps
to be accounted for by the importations of Hellenic wares which
began in the sixth century, and relegated the local fabrics to a
subordinate position, just as in Greece the early Geometrical fabrics
were obscured by the Mycenaean pottery (see below, p. #279#).
Some interesting specimens, forming a late survival of these
earlier Geometrical wares, were found at Amathus in 1894.[860]
.bn 317.png
.pn +1
They include one which has a parallel in a vase found at
Phocaea by Prof. Ramsay,[861] and originally thought to be Ionic
in origin; the decoration consists of a head of Hathor the
Egyptian goddess in a panel, with debased geometrical patterns.
There can be no doubt now that the fabric is Cypriote, probably
of the fifth century, and not without traces of Ionic influence.
Another shows a remarkable development in the direction of
naturalism, and the subject is unique in Cypriote pottery: men
banqueting under a palm-tree.
.il id=fig076 fn=fig076_317.jpg w=450px ew=80%
.ca
From Baumeister.
FIG. 76. CYPRIOTE VASE FROM ORMIDHIA.
.ca-
These probably date from the fifth century, the period which
seems to be represented by the later Geometrical red wares with
concentric circles, now slowly dying out under the influence of
.bn 318.png
.pn +1
Hellenic importations, and exceedingly rare in tombs where
Greek vases are found. At the same time a great transformation
comes over the contents of the tombs, which themselves begin
to increase in size, with a shorter δρόμος, to which a flight of
steps leads down. Other tombs—and this is often the case
where Greek importations are found, as at Curium—are merely
in the form of ramifying passages cut in the earth, without any
structural remains. Sixth century and earlier Greek fabrics,
such as the Geometrical, Corinthian, or Ionian wares, are very
rare; but the imported Dipylon vase found by General Cesnola
at Curium[862] is a notable instance. Black-figured vases when
found are almost invariably of a late and careless type, characteristic
of the last efforts of that style in the fifth century.
There is, however, a remarkable exception in the case of a
small class of jugs, which are in shape an exact imitation of
the globular Cypriote jugs with concentric-circle decoration[863];
the long narrow neck and trefoil mouth, with its incised eyes,
are retained, but the decoration is purely Attic, in the style
of B.F. vases of 520–500 B.C. These are found at Poli and
Amathus, and appear to have been made specially at Athens
for importation to Cyprus. Poli (Marion) was for some reason
a great centre for Athenian imports in general, and has yielded
many fine specimens of Hellenic pottery (see p. #67#). Red-figured
vases signed by Chachrylion, Hermaios, etc., have been found
here,[864] and at Curium a fine R.F. krater with the name of
Megakles (καλός)[865]; also some fine white-ground specimens // Tr: kalos
at Poli.[866]
By the fourth century, if not earlier, the Geometrical and
Hellenic vases are almost entirely replaced by a new class
of wares, which may be termed “Graeco-Cypriote,” in contradistinction
to the Graeco-Phoenician. The same red clay,
covered with a more or less polished red slip, still obtains, but
the painted decoration is confined to olive-wreaths in brown
or plain bands of colour. We also witness the revival of
.bn 319.png
.pn +1
an old practice, in a partial return to the taste for plastic
decoration on vases. In many of the fourth-century tombs
are found large pitchers, with a spout modelled in the form
of a woman holding a jug, out of which the liquid was
intended to pour (Plate #XIII:pl13#.).[867] These are sometimes richly
decorated in polychrome, red, blue, green, black, pink, and
white; but the colouring is apt to flake off and disappear.
The imported wares of the fourth century are confined to plain
cups and bowls of glazed black ware with stamped patterns,
such as are often found in Greece and Italy. In the Hellenistic
period (300–146 B.C.) painted vases are practically unknown,
though a few rare specimens have turned up at Curium[868];
and it is not long before they are entirely replaced by the
glass vessels and common wine-amphorae of the large and
elaborate Roman tombs.
.sp 2
.h4
§ 2. Primitive Pottery in Greece
.ce
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.pm start_summary
Troy: Schliemann, Ilios; Dörpfeld, Troja 1893, and Troja und Ilion
(1902), i. p. 243 ff.; Dumont-Pottier, Céramiques, i. p. 3 ff.; Pottier, Louvre
Cat. i. p. 74 ff.
Thera: Fouqué, Santorin; Dumont-Pottier, Céramiques, i. p. 19 ff.;
Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vi. p. 135 ff.; Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, Myken.
Vasen, p. 18; Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 119 ff.; Hiller von Gaertringen,
Thera, vol. ii. (1903), p. 127 ff.; Ath. Mitth. xxviii. (1903), p. 1 ff.
Melos: Excavations of British School at Phylakopi (J.H.S. Suppl.
Vol. iv. 1904). See also Dümmler in Ath. Mitth. xi. (1886), p. 15 ff.
.pm stop_summary
The earliest remains of pottery on Hellenic soil are to be
sought chiefly in the Cyclades and on the site of ancient Troy.
We have already had occasion to allude to the latter in speaking
of the earliest Cypriote fabrics, and it is therefore fitting that we
should now give it our first attention.
The site of Troy, now known as Hissarlik, was, as is well
known, first explored by Dr. Schliemann in his laudable endeavours
to prove the truth of the early Greek legends of the
Trojan War. Although doubtless there are visible links between
.bn 320.png
.pn +1
the Homeric poems and the discoveries at Hissarlik, and
although it is not necessary to deny all credence to the historical
truth of the “Bible of the Greeks,” yet it is now generally
recognised that Dr. Schliemann’s pardonable enthusiasm sometimes
led him to hasty conclusions. For instance, Dr. Dörpfeld
in his more recent investigations proved that if any remains
are to be connected with the tale of Troy, it is those of the
sixth, not of the second or burnt city.[869] Nine layers in all have
been traced, of which the five lowest may be termed prehistoric,
the third, fourth, and fifth being mere villages on the ruins
of the first two. In the lowest and earliest of all, which may
be roughly dated 3000–2500 B.C., flint implements were found,
together with rude black pottery: hand-made utensils baked
in the open, with rings for suspension in place of handles.
The second city belongs to the period 2500–2000 B.C., and
it is this which has yielded pottery analogous to the earliest
examples from Cyprus (p. #238#). It is of the same rough
hand-polished black ware, with decoration either of a plastic
character or engraved in the clay while wet and filled in with
white paint. Apart from this there are no traces of painted
decoration, or of any slip; but the colour of the surface varies
with the firing. The patterns consist of zigzags, circles, and
other rudimentary geometrical ornaments. A few wheel-made
specimens were found, but the majority are made by hand.
What artistic sense was evinced by these primitive potters was
shown exclusively in the forms, and in the tendency which is
especially conspicuous in primitive times, though it lingered on
through the history of Greek art, and again broke out in the
period of the decadence, to combine the ceramic and the plastic
idea, and to give to the vase the rude resemblance of the human
form.[870] That this was no far-fetched idea is shown by the
universal nomenclature which permits us to speak of the mouth,
neck, shoulder, body, and foot of a vase—a principle which has
been extended by general consent to countless inanimate objects.
Thus we find the Hissarlik potter incising eyes on the upper
.bn 321.png
.pn +1
part of the vase, or affixing lumps of clay to give a rude suggestion
of ears, nose or breasts, or bands to denote necklaces.
The handles often seem intended for rudimentary arms, and
we are tempted to see in the hat-shaped covers of the vases
the idea of a head-covering. Schliemann even went so far as
to regard them as actual idols, and was led by the superficial
resemblance of some to the form of an owl into identifying
them with figures of the “owl-eyed” (γλαυκῶπις) Pallas Athena // Tr: glaukôpis
(cf. Fig. #77:fig077#). But this interpretation has not found favour for
many reasons, and the accidental
combination of forms
is obviously only an artistic
phase. There are also many
similar shapes, such as plain
jars and jugs, and deep funnel-shaped
cups with two graceful
handles.
.il id=fig077 fn=fig077_321.jpg align=l w=250px ew=50%
.ca FIG. 77. “OWL-VASE” FROM TROY.
M. Dumont[871] classifies the
fabrics as follows: (1) ordinary
vessels, plates, etc.; (2) large
jars or amphorae; (3) primitive
kraters, deep cups, etc.;
(4) spherical vases with base-ring
[?] and long neck[872];
(5) long two-handled cups;
(6) vases reproducing the
human form; (7) vases in the form of pigs and other animals;
(8) exceptional forms, such as double vases; (9) vases with
incised patterns, on one of which a Sphinx is engraved.
Figs. 78–80 give examples of classes (5), (7), and (8); Fig. #77:fig077#
a specimen of class (6).[873]
.il id=fig078 fn=fig078_322.jpg align=r w=200px ew=40%
.ca FIG. 78. FUNNEL-VASE FROM TROY.
The Hissarlik pottery may be regarded as a local development,
partly parallel with that of Cyprus,[874] partly derivative
.bn 322.png
.pn +1
therefrom; of Oriental influence there are no traces, but the
connection with Thera and Cyprus
is indisputable.
.il id=fig079 fn=fig079_322.jpg align=l w=250px ew=50%
.ca FIG. 79. VASE IN FORM OF PIG, FROM TROY.
Passing over the unimportant
traces of the three succeeding
settlements, we find in the sixth
city a great advance. The plastic
forms disappear, and generally
speaking the shapes become more
classical. Besides plain pottery
with matt-black polished surface
we meet with painted vases with curvilinear and vegetable
patterns. The remains of genuine Mycenaean pottery, the
fortifications and buildings,
with great halls in the style
of Mycenae and Tiryns,
bear out Dr. Dörpfeld’s
contention that this is the
Troy of Homer. Two
points among the pottery
finds of this period are
worth noting; firstly that
they included a fragment
of Cypriote “white-slip”
ware, secondly that Geometrical
patterns mingle with the Mycenaean in the upper layers.
.il id=fig080 fn=fig080_322.jpg align=r w=125px ew=25%
.ca FIG. 80. VASE WITH TWO NECKS (TROY).
The three remaining layers cover respectively
the archaic period, the developed Hellenic and
Hellenistic periods, and the age in which the
city of Ilium was refounded by the Romans.
Dr. Dörpfeld found some interesting local fabrics
dating from the fifth century, examples of which
had previously been obtained by Mr. Calvert
for the British Museum.[875]
.tb
Of almost equal antiquity with the remains
at Hissarlik is some of the pottery discovered in the Cyclades,
.bn 323.png
.pn +1
and especially at Thera. Here, indeed, we meet with the earliest
known examples of Greek painted pottery (Crete excepted), and
that, as we shall see, of a remarkably developed type.
The island of Thera may be described as a sort of prehistoric
Pompeii buried under volcanic deposits, which have completely
transformed the configuration of the island. The results of
preliminary excavations by the French in 1866 showed that
the cataclysm which overwhelmed the island must (on geological
grounds) have taken place about the twentieth century B.C.,
and that the remains of pottery must be anterior to this event.[876]
Herodotos[877] states that Kadmos founded a settlement in the
fourteenth century, and the Minyae again about the twelfth,
and the island must have been uninhabitable for a long time
previously.
The houses and other remains of civilisation discovered
below the volcanic deposits show an advance on Hissarlik
(second city) and the earliest Cypriote culture, and the pottery
is no exception. The vases are wheel-made, fired at a moderate
heat in closed furnaces (sometimes baked in the sun), and
plastic forms are almost wanting.[878] Many are pierced with holes
in the bottom, for what purpose is not known. They were often
found in situ, mixed with stone implements, and with evidence
of having contained grain. The forms are very regular, a
cylindrical shape being specially affected, and they are made of
a badly levigated clay, covered with a greyish slip, on which the
patterns are laid in matt colours—white, black, or red—without
any incised markings.
.il id=fig081 fn=fig081_324.jpg w=350px ew=70%
.ca
>From Baumeister.
FIG. 81. VASES FROM THERA.
.ca-
M. Dumont distinguishes four varieties of ornament: simple
patterns, such as bands, hatchings, and dots; volutes, wave-patterns,
and intersecting circles; vegetable motives, such as
long narrow leaves or flowers; and animals, including deer,
and ducks or swans. Generally there is a strong predilection
for vegetable motives, and in this naturalistic tendency we may
see the prelude to the Mycenaean period. Among those now
at the French School at Athens, which has the best collection,
.bn 324.png
.pn +1
are several interesting examples illustrated in Fig. #81:fig081#.[879] One
is a trefoil-mouthed jug with running quadrupeds in black,
and red bands, on a grey ground; another jug is painted with
birds in black, the details in red and white. A sort of cream-jug
is decorated with water-plant patterns; a cylindrical jar with
oblique wreaths; and a dish with seaweed. A funnel-shaped
.bn 325.png
.pn +1
vase and a beak-mouthed jug are obvious prototypes of
Mycenaean forms.
The chief differences from the Hissarlik vases are in the forms
and methods of decoration, but resemblances may be noted in
the long narrow necks, and the rings for suspension, as in the
plastic forms when they do occur. That the fabric is a local
one hardly admits of doubt, but it is interesting to note the
occurrence of a bowl of white-slip ware from Cyprus in Thera,[880]
and conversely the appearance of a vase of Thera fabric at
Mycenae.[881] Thus we have evidence of extensive commercial
relations. Some tombs of the Hellenic period seem to have
been dug right down into the volcanic deposit, for they contained
pottery with Geometrical decoration.[882]
The discovery of primitive stone idols in Thera shows that it
belonged to the Cycladic civilisation, which extended from 2500
to 1600 B.C., filling up the gap between Hissarlik and Mycenae.
It has been suggested that these Cycladic peoples were Carians,[883]
subsequently driven to the Asiatic mainland by Minos, who
typifies the rising power of Crete and the Mycenaean world.[884]
This Cycladic civilisation is also exemplified in the earliest
finds from other islands, such as Amorgos, Syra, Paros, and
Antiparos, and in other instances noted early in the century
by the observant traveller Ross.[885] The pottery from these sites
is, however, less advanced than that of Thera, but varies in
character. Painted patterns were found on vases from Amorgos
and Syra, the latter in the form of brown foliage on yellow
ground.
It would not be right to conclude this section without some
notice of the remarkably interesting pottery excavated at
Phylakopi in Melos by the British School in 1896–99, which
is important as forming a connecting link between the Cycladic
wares and the fully-developed Mycenaean style. Space forbids
.bn 326.png
.pn +1
more than a brief abstract of the results obtained, which have
just been given to the world in an admirable publication.[886]
Mr. C. C. Edgar, to whom the task of studying the pottery was
allotted, distinguishes four main groups:
.in 6
.ti -2
1. (a) Primitive pottery of the cist-tomb type, corresponding
to that of Hissarlik; (b) more advanced ware of the same
kind.
.ti -2
2. Painted Geometrical wares.
.ti -2
3. Local pottery in Mycenaean style with spiral and naturalistic
designs, falling into two divisions, earlier and later.
.ti -2
4. Imported Mycenaean pottery of the third and fourth styles
(see below, p. #271#).
.in
Generally speaking the pottery is of local make, and Phylakopi
seems to have been an important centre in the early Mycenaean
period, having considerable intercourse with Crete. The earliest
wares (class 1) include plain pottery, hand-made, with burnished
brown surface or simple incised patterns; those of class 2 are
painted in lustrous or matt black on a white slip, or in white
on lustrous black or red, with simple patterns; they appear to
be hand-made. The Mycenaean pottery is more or less akin
to that found elsewhere in the Aegean.
.sp 2
.h4
§ 3. Crete
.ce
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.pm start_summary
Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 64 (finds in 1878 at Knossos); Milchhoefer,
Anfänge der Kunst; Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, Myken. Vasen, p. 22;
Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 173; Mon. Antichi, vi. p. 333 ff.; J.H.S. xxi.
p. 78 ff., xxiii. p. 157 ff.; British School Annual, vi. p. 85 ff., vii. p. 51,
and ix. p. 297 ff.; Proc. Soc. Antiqs. xv. (1894), p. 351 ff.
.pm stop_summary
In turning our attention next to the island of Crete, we are
confronted with a new element in Greek archaeology; namely,
the results of the recent discoveries, which as yet have hardly
become material ripe for use in a general handbook. On
the other hand, their singular importance deserves full recognition.
It must, therefore, be borne in mind that much
in the succeeding section is merely the embodiment of previous
.bn 327.png
.pn +1
researches, and that the new evidence can only be briefly
summarised.
Allusion has just been made to the thalassocracy of Minos
and its bearing on the history of early Greek civilisations,
and the recent discoveries have done much to show that the
prince who built the great palace at Knossos in the early days
of Mycenaean civilisation, if he is not actually the Minos of
Greek legend, yet represents the rising power which extended
its dominion over the Aegean and drove the Carian people to
the mainland. This supremacy of Crete from the fifteenth
to the eleventh century was artistic as well as political. The
Crete of Minos was, moreover, the point of contact between
the Aegean peoples and the Oriental races; and in the story
of the Minotaur we may perhaps see a reflection of the human
sacrifices offered to the Phoenician Moloch or Melkarth. The
familiar passage in Homer[887] which deals with the ethnography
of Crete speaks of four component elements, which may be
explained as (1) the Eteokretes, or aborigines of the island,
to whom the early civilisation exemplified in their ceramic
and glyptic products is mainly due; (2) the Kydonii or Leleges,
brought by Minos from the islands[888]; (3) the Achaeans or
mainland Greeks of the period of the Trojan War; (4) the
Dorians, whose connection with the island dates from the
eleventh century onwards.
Even before the recent excavations pottery had been found
in Crete which dated from the dawn of the Mycenaean period,
and from the island’s early connection with Egypt was thought
to be contemporaneous with that of Hissarlik and Thera. From
the circumstances of its first appearance in any quantity at
Kamaraes, in the plain of Ida, it has usually been named after
that place. Dr. Orsi discovered two fragments of Hissarlik type
at Phaestos,[889] also a vase of island type, one of Thera type,[890]
and some early Cypriote wares.[891] Large numbers of fragments of
this ware in the Museum at Candia were first noted by Dr. Orsi
.bn 328.png
.pn +1
and Mr. J. L. Myres about 1894.[892] The extensive discoveries
made by Messrs. Hogarth and Welch for the British School
at Athens in 1899–1900 (see p. #60#) have added still further
to our knowledge of the ware; and these, taken in conjunction
with Mr. Arthur Evans’s extensive finds at Knossos
(1899–1902), have enabled a recent writer to draw up a
tentative classification of all the prehistoric pottery of Crete.[893]
In his paper Mr. Mackenzie divides the pottery into three
main classes, which he distinguishes as Neolithic, Early and
Middle Minoan, and Late Minoan. The first-named extends
down to about 3000 B.C.; the second covers the period 3000–2000
B.C.; and the third (including Mycenaean pottery of the
usual types) lasts down to 1500 B.C., about which time the
Cretan supremacy came to an end, and the Mycenaean centre of
gravity was shifted to the mainland of Greece.
(1) Pottery of the Neolithic period is quite exceptional in
Aegean localities; yet the evidence from the excavations is
so unmistakable that there can be no question of its great
antiquity. It consists of common household vessels of grey
clay, hand-made and burnished; at first devoid of decoration,
but subsequently fragments appear with incised patterns filled
in with white. These, it may be noted, may help to date the
analogous wares from Troy and Egypt. The black surface
becomes more and more lustrous, and in some cases a sort of
rippling effect is produced in the soft clay with a blunt instrument[894];
finally an age of decline manifests itself, but at the
same time an advance is made from filling in hollows with
white to painting in colours on the flat surface.
(2) The pottery in this stage is still hand-made; but the clay,
which is of a brick or terracotta colour, is greatly improved, and
shows that a potter’s oven must have been employed. The
most remarkable feature is that, along with the white or polychrome
patterns on dark ground, the origin of which has been
noted, there appear vases with patterns in lustrous dark colour
on buff ground, like the Mycenaean wares. Hitherto it had
been supposed that the latter process was much later than the
.bn 329.png
.pn +1
other[895]; but the Cretan evidence admits of no doubt as to
their synchronism, even at this early stage of painted pottery
in any form. The pre-Mycenaean character of the Early
Minoan deposits is, for instance, proved by the entire absence
of plain pottery of Mycenaean types. It is then clear that Crete
developed both independently of, and with far greater rapidity
than, the rest of the Aegean at this period. The painted
patterns are usually of a Geometrical character.[896]
The middle deposits of the third millennium, found above the
floors of the first palace, are, like the preceding, both polychrome
and monochrome in their decoration. The former include most
of the types formerly known as Kamaraes ware, the patterns
being mainly but not exclusively Geometrical; the curvilinear
are rather later in date. The commonest shape is one resembling
a tea-cup.[897] In the next stage relief-work is introduced
to enhance the polychrome effect, probably in imitation of
metal. In the latest deposits a great decline is manifest, and
the monochrome vases tend to assert themselves to the exclusion
of the others.
That the period under discussion must have been one of great
length is shown by the depth of the “Minoan” deposits; they
are, moreover, so extensive at Knossos, and so scanty and
isolated are examples from other sites, that it cannot be doubted
that here we have the centre of the fabric. As regards their
date we have good evidence from early Aegean deposits in
Egypt. By means of Professor Petrie’s finds at Kahun in the
Fayûm, which include specimens of the best Minoan ware,[898]
we are able to place the height of the period about 2500 B.C.
.pm onplate XIV
.il id=pl14 fn=plate14_330.jpg w=348px ew=70%
.ca
From Brit. School Annual, ix.Stand for Vase; Kamaraes Ware.From Palaiokastro, Crete.
.ca-
.pm offplate
The appearance of the so-called Kamaraes ware is unmistakable,
with its bright, almost gay, aspect, and the contrast of
the colours with the lustrous black ground. The pigments
employed are four in number—milky white, yellow ochre, brick-red,
and purple-red. These vases are mostly made on the
wheel, and the buff-coloured clay is fairly well levigated, as is
.bn 330.png
.bn 331.png
.bn 332.png
.pn +1
the slip, on which the pigments are directly laid; its lustre often
almost rivals that of the best Hellenic pottery. Mr. Evans
found some specimens in 1902 of an extremely delicate character,
almost as thin as an egg-shell. The colours are, however,
sometimes dull and powdery, and apt to flake away except when
fired. The forms are of a Cycladic type, the favourite being a
two-handled globular vase with spout, and a pear-shaped one-handled
vase, also with a spout[899] (see also Plate #XIV:pl14#.[900]).
The decoration is, as has been indicated, plastic as well as
pictorial; the relief ornaments are often of an elaborate type,
as may be seen in some of Mr. Hogarth’s finds.[901] Some vases
are merely covered with knobs, or with a sort of honeycombing
in relief[902]; in others toothed or bossed bands are employed,
either simply or combined into complex patterns. In any
case this plastic element is quite a new departure. The pictorial
designs include geometrical and linear patterns, zigzags,
network, concentric circles, spirals, and swastikas; leaves,
rosettes, and other vegetable forms; fishes, and even in one
case a human figure.[903] The chief field of decoration is the
shoulder of the vase.
Although varying in the extent of their naturalism, the patterns
exhibit considerable boldness and power of drawing; they
seem to be drawn chiefly from floral or textile sources, and
are closely parallel to the Thera vases, but more advanced.
Some motives are of Mycenaean character, such as the use of
rows of white dots[904]; on the other hand, the style of the fishes
and human figure is more like that of the Geometrical vases.
Mr. Hogarth notes that metal types of Kamaraes cups appear
in the hands of Kefti tributaries in the paintings of the tomb
of Rekhmara (about 1550 B.C.), and he even found their
Neolithic prototypes at Kephala, near Knossos.[905] He also
traces a connection with the early Aegean pottery of Phylakopi
in Melos. The Kamaraes pottery can be shown not to
.bn 333.png
.pn +1
have survived the incoming of the new Mycenaean influences,
but the patterns rapidly became conventionalised, and are
replaced by the new motives of the Mycenaean wares. It
may further be noted that fragments of Kamaraes ware have
turned up not only in Egypt, as at Kahun (already mentioned),
but at Tiryns, in the fifth and sixth Acropolis graves at
Mycenae, and at Curium in Cyprus.
(3) The pottery of the “Late Minoan” period from the palace
of Knossos falls into two groups—the “palace” style, and the
ordinary Mycenaean fabrics. The former class of vases has
been found in considerable numbers in the second palace, and
also at Zakro and other sites. The vases are painted in a
lustrous brown-to-black glaze on a buff hand-polished slip, with
fine and elaborate naturalistic designs, including vegetable
patterns, birds, and fishes; others, again, are more architectonic
in character.[906] We also find adaptations of the Kamaraes style,
with bands of white paint laid on the black varnish, the usual
forms being a flat bowl and a small cup with flat handles like
the Vaphio cups.[907]
In their decoration the most highly developed varieties of the
“palace” style show a parallelism with the wall-paintings, the
patterns consisting of rosettes, spirals, and conventional flowers;
in some very naturalistic examples this is strongly marked,
the designs of olive and myrtle wreaths and bulbous plants
showing an almost Japanese fidelity to nature. Others, again,
have marine subjects—seaweed, shells, and rocks. Lastly, there
are the representations of the double axe, which Mr. Evans
has shown to be a religious symbol.[908]
The whole of this pottery belongs to the third or highest
period of Mycenaean pottery, a time when decadence was
actually beginning to set in, concurrent with the end of the
eighteenth dynasty. At this time all over the Aegean area, in
Melos, Egypt, and elsewhere, the styles of pottery were perfectly
uniform, and had clearly been imported from one centre.
.bn 334.png
.pn +1
In the light of recent discoveries we can no longer doubt that
this centre was Crete, and the previous history of its pottery
and the early development of its technical processes, as well
as its geographical position, point in the same direction. About
the year 1500 B.C. the site appears to have been invaded and
abandoned, with the consequent result that Mycenaean civilisation
now spread all over the Aegean, centring chiefly in Greece,
where it lasted several centuries longer. Of its influence on
Cyprus we have already spoken.
Mycenaean vases had turned up in Crete for some time
previous to 1899 in a sporadic fashion[909]; but these, being for the
most part of the ordinary type, do not call for separate consideration.
There is, however, one class that appears to be
peculiar to the island. It consists of large “false amphorae”
and other vases, made of a rough coarse-grained clay, and
decorated in the “third Mycenaean” style with large cuttle-fish;
at Knossos this was found only outside the palace, and was
probably a coarse household ware. A good specimen has also
been found at Curium in Cyprus.[910]
.h4
§ 4. MYCENAEAN POTTERY
.ce
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.pm start_summary
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, Mykenische Thongefässe (1879), and
Mykenische Vasen (1886); Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 47 ff.; Perrot, Hist. de l’Art,
vi. p. 893 ff.; Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 181 ff. General reference should
also be made to Schuchhardt, Schliemann’s Excavations (transl. E. Sellers);
Schliemann’s own works; Hall, Oldest Civilisation of Greece; Tsountas and
Manatt, The Mycenaean Age; and other works.
.pm stop_summary
We have already had occasion to deal to some extent with
Mycenaean pottery in connection with Cyprus and Crete, but
it is now necessary to review it as a whole in the light of the
.bn 335.png
.pn +1
present state of our knowledge of this wonderful civilisation
and its products. To enter here upon the wide and much-debated
questions to which the discoveries of the last thirty
years have given rise is of course beyond our province; but
the pottery of the people to whom the name Mycenaean has
been somewhat loosely given is of so homogeneous a character,
although found in all parts of the Mediterranean, that it may
be treated as a phase of Greek ceramics, independently of
considerations of ethnography and chronology. First found
in any quantity at Ialysos in the island of Rhodes, its exact
position in the history of early art was not then recognised;
but when the marvellous discoveries of Heinrich Schliemann
at Mycenae became known to the world, including large
numbers of similar vases, Sir Charles Newton readily recognised
that the Ialysos vases in the British Museum belonged to the
same class. It was not long before the whole number of vases
of this type, now christened Mycenaean, was collected in a
“Corpus” by two German scholars, with numerous illustrations;
but since that time the excavations of “Mycenaean” sites in
Cyprus and Crete must have doubled or even trebled the material
available.
The pottery at Mycenae was found in four different positions,
implying consecutive chronological stages, ranging roughly from
the fifteenth to the tenth or even ninth century. On these
grounds Furtwaengler and Loeschcke[911] distinguished four main
classes; but it will be seen that these are capable of even more
subdivision. There are, in fact, two main classes, distinguished
by the use of matt and lustrous colour respectively; and of the
first of these two, of the second four, subdivisions are possible.
Class (1) is indeed comparatively rare,[912] and only found at
Thera and in the oldest tombs on the Mycenaean Acropolis;
it represents the transition from the pottery of Troy and Thera
to that of Mycenae. The subdivision is a purely technical
one: (a) vases of pale coarse clay, with patterns in a brown
.bn 336.png
.pn +1
colour, some hand-made[913]; (b) wheel-made vases of a reddish
and finer clay, the designs in black and pale red, occasionally
white.[914] The decoration generally resembles that of the Thera
vases, and animals occasionally appear.
(2) The vases with lustrous painting may be classified as
follows:
.fs 95%
.in +5
.ti -2
(a) Badly levigated clay; floral motives in matt-white or red-brown
on black ground.[915] A fine example of this class was recently
excavated at Maroni in Cyprus, a large krater with a figure of
a bird outlined in white on either side (Plate #XII:pl12#.).
.ti -2
(b) Similar clay, but coated with a white or yellow slip on which
geometrical or floral patterns are painted in lustrous black.[916]
.ti -2
(c) Fine clay with polished yellow surface; designs in black turning
to red or yellow, with occasional details in white; chiefly
marine plants and animals, but occasionally (especially in
Cyprus) human figures.[917] This class is by far the most
numerous of all, but is not found in Thera. It corresponds
with the period 1400–1000 B.C.
.ti -2
(d) Clay grey or reddish, less brilliant, as is also the black; large
figures of quadrupeds and human figures.[918] The vases are
sometimes painted inside, which is a sign of late date.
.in
.fs 100%
The structure of these vases is very varied, and no less than
122 different forms may be distinguished in the illustrations
to the Mykenische Vasen. Most characteristic and popular
is the “false amphora,” as it is generally termed (German,
Bügelkanne), a vase with spheroidal body, of varying size,
with the peculiarity that the ordinary neck and mouth on the
top are closed by a flat handle arching over the vase, and
the only aperture is a spout on one side (see Plate #XV:pl15#. and
Fig. #82:fig082#). These are very widely distributed, but their decoration
is as a rule very simple; they appear depicted on the
paintings of Egyptian tombs of the eighteenth dynasty, and
this has often been used as an argument for the dating of
.bn 337.png
.pn +1
Mycenaean vases. But they must have remained in favour for
a considerable period. Other favourite shapes are: a funnel-shaped
vase with handle at the top, doubtless a reminiscence
of a Hissarlik type (p. #258#); a tall graceful two-handled goblet
or kylix, almost invariably decorated with cuttle-fish (see
Plate #XV:pl15#.), as the funnel-vases are with murex (purple dye)
shells; a beaked jug (German Schnabelkanne), derived from
Thera; a squat jar or pyxis, with three small handles (cf.
Fig. #82:fig082#); and a tall pear-shaped vase with three handles on
a high stem, which is perhaps the prototype of the hydria. The
large kraters are, as we have seen, peculiar to Cyprus. Rarer
forms are a sort of mug, and a combination of the false amphora
and pyxis. Mention should also be made of the painted
λάρνακες or ossuaria found in Crete by Mr. J. H. Marshall // Tr: larnakes
// Tr: larnakes
(p. #268# above) and by Dr. Orsi.[919]
The technique presents several entirely new features, such
as the use of a slip as a basis for the colours; the polished,
brilliant, and even surface; and above all the lustrous black
varnish, which was the peculiar pride of Greek potters, and
is now a lost art. The comparative monotony of the colouring
is probably due to a purely technical reason, namely, the
difficulty of resisting the action of fire; otherwise such an
artistic people would doubtless have exhibited the same richness
of colouring in their pottery that we find in their frescoes.
The Mycenaean pottery is deservedly held in high estimation
for its picturesque and naturalistic style, which in its reproduction
of animal and vegetable forms often rivals Japanese
art. Although its scope is remarkably wide, yet there is
a strong preference for marine subjects—the cuttle-fish, the
murex shell, the nautilus, and various kinds of seaweed or such
plants as the Vallisneria spiralis (Chapter #XVI:vol2_ch16#.). In Fig. #82:fig082#
two good examples in the British Museum are illustrated—one
from Egypt, the other from Kalymnos.[920] Altogether there
is an originality and poetry of ideas such as never appears
again in Greek art; but that is not a peculiar possession of
the potters, as the metal-work, gem-engraving, and fresco-paintings
testify—above all, such masterpieces as the Vaphio
.bn 338.png
.bn 339.png
.bn 340.png
.pn +1
gold cups, or some of the wall-paintings recently discovered
in Crete.
.pm onplate XV
.il id=pl15 fn=plate15_338.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
MYCENAEAN POTTERY
(British Museum).
.ca-
.rj
To face page 273.
.pm offplate
Religious ideas, on the other hand, are strangely conspicuous
by their absence. Mycenaean mythology is so far almost nonexistent
in the art; and although attempts have at times been
made to detect traces of early cults, as in the figures of men
dressed as animals,[921] or the representations of the double axe,[922]
they have not as yet met with universal acceptance. More
improbable is the curious idea recently mooted,[923] that the subjects
of the vase-paintings indicate an acquaintance with such
theories as those of biological evolution.
.il id=fig082 fn=fig082_340.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 82. MYCENAEAN VASES WITH MARINE SUBJECTS (BRIT. MUS.).
Mycenaean pottery has been found on a very large number
of sites throughout the Mediterranean. The most productive
have been Mycenae, Crete, and Cyprus, especially the cemetery
at Enkomi in the latter island. Other Cypriote centres are
Curium, Agia Paraskevi near Nicosia, Maroni, and the
neighbourhood of Dali and Larnaka (see p. #66#). In Attica the
Acropolis of Athens and the beehive tombs of Spata and Menidi
.bn 341.png
.pn +1
have been most fruitful, and finds have been made at Haliki
and elsewhere. In the Peloponnese the chief site is Tiryns, and
many fragments have also been found at Nauplia; in Central
Greece several sites in Boeotia, such as Orchomenos, may be
mentioned. Of the Aegean islands, Rhodes and Melos are
most conspicuous, especially the sites of Ialysos in the former
island, Phylakopi in the latter. In Asia Minor, Mycenaean
remains are rare, except at Troy, but in Egypt there is ample
evidence of a close commercial relation, as in the finds at
Tell-el-Amarna, in the Fayûm, and elsewhere. In the Western
Mediterranean, Syracuse has yielded numerous fragments, and
occasional finds have been made in Italy.[924]
Having reviewed the extent of Mycenaean influence, the
next question we must consider is which, if any, was the centre
whence this pottery was exported. It had been for some time
observed that the early varieties of Thera, and those of Crete
and Cyprus (v. supra), showed strong indications of local origin;
but on the whole the Mycenaean pottery proper is remarkably
uniform and homogeneous. It is perhaps possible to detect
technical differences between the pottery, e.g., of Athens and
Rhodes, but they may be only differences of date rather than
fabric. Furtwaengler and Loeschcke regarded Argolis as the
centre of manufacture, at least for the later lustrous varieties[925];
Pottier, on the other hand, writing before the recent discoveries,
thought that Crete was, after Thera, the original centre, and
Argolis only subsequently, the pottery of Rhodes lying midway
between. In the light of the Cretan discoveries it is now
possible largely to disregard previous theories. We have seen
that Mycenaean pottery found in Crete has a pedigree which
no other region can claim, and that it can only have a local
origin. We have also seen that the Cretan supremacy came
to an end about 1500 B.C., and that, though the pottery may
have continued to be made in the island, it ceased to be an
exclusive centre, and for the remainder of the Mycenaean
Age the art, learned in Crete, spread to other Aegean centres—Mycenae,
Rhodes, and Cyprus.
A far more difficult question to decide is the ethnographical
.bn 342.png
.pn +1
one, together with the consideration of the relation of the
Mycenaean civilisation to others in which the same decoration
appears (as in the case of the spiral). One point seems to be
abundantly clear, viz. that Mycenaean decoration owes nothing
to Oriental influences. That there was a close relation with
the East has already been indicated, and is much more apparent
in other forms of Mycenaean art; but no student of this art
in general can doubt that it is, as has been pointed out, purely
spontaneous and unique, the art of a people of genuine artistic
genius. Among the art of ancient races it stands alone in
this respect, that of Egypt and Assyria, its only prominent
rivals, being always essentially conventional; and herein lies
its special distinction.
That the Mycenaeans were a maritime people admits of no
doubt. It is shown by the position of their chief centres, by
the evidence of their extensive commercial relations, and, as
far as concerns their pottery, pre-eminently by the subjects which
form the staple decoration. Hence of late years an attempt
has been made to substitute for “Mycenaean” the more
comprehensive term “Aegean,” and there is much to be said
in its favour. As regards the actual ethnographical position
of the race, Quot homines, tot sententiae, may almost be said.
They have been identified with the Achaeans, the Pelasgians,
the Phoenicians, the Carians, and as combinations of Phrygians
with Cretans, of Phoenicians with Greeks of Asia Minor.[926]
But few of these terms have real historical value, and such
identifications do not really advance the solution of the
question.
A more real ground of battle is that afforded by the question
of date, though on this point scholars now show a greater
tendency to fall into line, and a period culminating in the years
1400 to 1100 or 1000 B.C. is now very generally accepted.[927] The
question necessarily turns largely on the evidence afforded by
Crete and Egypt, and so far as this is trustworthy it all points
in the same direction. But it would be beyond the scope of
.bn 343.png
.pn +1
a work of this kind to do more than briefly summarise the
general results of archaeological criticism.
An interesting study of Mycenaean ornamentation has been
made by Dr. Riegl,[928] who deals generally with the principles
underlying its vegetable motives, and points out that here
we first meet with scrolls or continuous bands of foliage applied
to a decorative purpose. These motives are peculiar to Greek
art, and in Mycenaean design their origin is to be sought.
In this way we may regard it as the immediate forerunner
of Hellenic art, although its development was temporarily
arrested by the Dorian invasion, just as the people who produced
it formed the basis of the Hellenic race. The naturalism
of Mycenaean ornament, which is seen both in continuous and
in isolated patterns, is in marked contrast to the convention
of Egypt, where the same motives may be in use. It is not,
in short, the motive, but its treatment, which shows the independence
of Mycenaean art. There are, again, other patterns,
such as the spiral, which cannot be traced in Oriental art, and
seem to be purely original, at least as far as concerns the Eastern
Mediterranean.
Another recent writer, Dr. S. Wide, has noticed that where
Mycenaean influence was originally strongest, as in Crete and
Rhodes, there its characteristics were most strongly impressed
upon the art of the succeeding period, and he is inclined to
place the centre of the fabric in these islands or on the coast
of the adjoining continent of Asia. At all events the Mycenaean
influence shows itself more in the pottery of the islands than
it does in Attica; and, in Crete and Rhodes in particular, instances
have been found of undoubted survivals of typical Mycenaean
ornaments in later pottery.[929]
.fm
.fn 820
See Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 14.
.fn-
.fn 821
Cf. Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, iii. figs.
487–93.
.fn-
.fn 822
Cf. Perrot, op. cit. iii. figs. 498–503.
.fn-
.fn 823
See Hall, Oldest Civilisation of Greece, p. 72.
.fn-
.fn 824
See Athen. Mitth. xi. p. 249 ff., and
Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vi. p. 648. A fragment
of late Bronze-Age Cypriote pottery
was found at Hissarlik (Dörpfeld, Troja
und Ilion, i. p. 286, fig. 182).
.fn-
.fn 825
See Meursius, Cyprus, i. chap. 20;
Heuzey, Cat. des Fig. ant. du Louvre,
p. 115.
.fn-
.fn 826
Strabo, xiv. 6, p. 683.
.fn-
.fn 827
Archaeologia, xlv. p. 127 ff.
.fn-
.fn 828
Similar red polished wares were found
in the New-Race tombs of Egypt (seventh
to tenth dynasty), but in spite of the
likeness it cannot be said that one is
borrowed from the other (Cyprus Mus.
Cat. p. 16).
.fn-
.fn 829
See Hall, Oldest Greek Civilisation,
p. 69; Journ. Hell. Stud. xi. pl. 14;
Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 38.
.fn-
.fn 830
The resemblance to Italian bucchero
ware is probably only accidental. See
Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.
.fn-
.fn 831
E.g. A 66 in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 832
Hall, Oldest Civilisation, pp. 72, 98.
.fn-
.fn 833
E.g. B.M. A 67–8.
.fn-
.fn 834
Cf. Excavations in Cyprus, pp. 34 ff., 72.
.fn-
.fn 835
Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 39.
.fn-
.fn 836
Myres, ibid.
.fn-
.fn 837
Cf. for instance the jug given in
Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 408, fig. 29.
.fn-
.fn 838
E.g. B.M. A 134: cf. Cyprus Mus. Cat. 401–2.
.fn-
.fn 839
Cat. des Vases du Louvre, i. p. 250:
see below, pp. 284, 315.
.fn-
.fn 840
The Trojan legends were familiar in
Cyprus, as the Κυπριακά of the local
Cyclic poet Stasinos shows.
.fn-
.fn 841
Cf. Perrot, Hist, de l’Art, iii. pp. 714–15,
figs. 525–26.
.fn-
.fn 842
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 73.
.fn-
.fn 843
Recent discoveries by Mr. Arthur
Evans at Knossos (Brit. Sch. Annual,
1901–2, p. 15) seem to suggest that these
panels may be meant for windows or
storeys of houses. Cf. also the bronze
from Enkomi (Excavations, p. 10).
.fn-
.fn 844
Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 59.
.fn-
.fn 845
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 74.
.fn-
.fn 846
See Athen. Mitth. xi. (1886), p. 248;
cf. also Meursius, Cyprus, i. chap. 10;
Heuzey, Cat. des Fig. ant. du Louvre,
pp. 116–17.
.fn-
.fn 847
Cypriote pottery with concentric
circles has been found at Nebesheh in the
Delta. It was brought by the Cypriote
mercenaries, enrolled by Psammetichus,
in the seventh century (Eg. Expl. Fund,
4th Mem. pl. 3, p. 20).
.fn-
.fn 848
Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, iii. p. 769 ff.
.fn-
.fn 849
M. Pottier (Louvre Cat. i. p. 92)
thinks that Greek influence may explain
all the stages of Cypriote pottery from
the Mycenaean period onwards. See
also on this subject Dümmler, in Ath.
Mitth. xi. p. 284.
.fn-
.fn 850
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 8, fig. 14.
.fn-
.fn 851
B.M. C 244.
.fn-
.fn 852
B.M. C 121 = Perrot, Hist. de l’Art,
iii. pp. 716–17, figs. 527–8.
.fn-
.fn 853
B.M. C 120 = Rev. Arch. ix. (1887),
p. 77 ff.
.fn-
.fn 854
Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 26.
.fn-
.fn 855
Ibid. p. 21.
.fn-
.fn 856
See Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, iii. figs. 510–13;
ibid. figs. 520–23 (human figures);
Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 55, pls. 44–6; Excavations
in Cyprus, pp. 75, 104 ff.;
J.H.S. v. p. 103.
.fn-
.fn 857
See above, p. #249#. Cf. Layard,
Monuments of Nineveh, pl. 10 = Nimroud
Gallery of B.M., slab 4a.
.fn-
.fn 858
Perrot, op. cit. iii. p. 711, fig.
523.
.fn-
.fn 859
E.g. Perrot, op. cit. iii. figs. 507,
523, pp. 699, 711; Excavations in
Cyprus, pp. 104–5, figs. 151–52.
.fn-
.fn 860
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 105, fig.
152.
.fn-
.fn 861
B.M. C 268 = J.H.S. ii. p. 304.
.fn-
.fn 862
Cyprus, pl. 29.
.fn-
.fn 863
See O.-Richter, Kypros, the Bible,
and Homer, p. 497, and frontispiece to
text volume; also B.M. Excavations in
Cyprus, p. 105, fig. 152.
.fn-
.fn 864
B.M. E 34; Branteghem Cat. 30;
Klein, Meistersig.^{2} p. 221.
.fn-
.fn 865
Louvre A 258.
.fn-
.fn 866
E.g. J.H.S. xii. pl. 14; Jahrbuch,
1887, pl. 11.
.fn-
.fn 867
See Hermann, Gräberfeld von Marion,
p. 46 ff.; B.M. Excavations in Cyprus,
pp. 78, 109.
.fn-
.fn 868
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 78, Fig. #110:fig110#.
.fn-
.fn 869
Troja 1893, p. 86; Troja u. Ilion,
i. p. 18. On the pottery generally see
the latter, p. 243 ff.
.fn-
.fn 870
Its evolution is well illustrated by
the Canopic vases described in Chapter
XVIII.
.fn-
.fn 871
Céramiques, i. p. 6: see for examples
ibid. pp. 7, 11.
.fn-
.fn 872
A jug with beak-shaped mouth, called
by the Germans a Schnabelkanne. The
base-ring to which he alludes is not
apparent. Cf. for the type Fig. #81:fig081# below,
from Thera.
.fn-
.fn 873
See Schliemann, Ilios, pp. 340, 372,
375, 384.
.fn-
.fn 874
Cf. Cyprus Mus. Cat. p. 18.
.fn-
.fn 875
ibid., p. 118; ibid., i. p. 310; B.M. B 83 ff.; and see p. 339.
.fn-
.fn 876
See Fouqué, Santorin, passim;
Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 28; Hiller von
Gaertringen, Thera, i. p. 36 ff.
.fn-
.fn 877
iv. 147–48.
.fn-
.fn 878
One is given by Dumont-Pottier, pl. 2, fig. 13.
.fn-
.fn 879
See Dumont-Pottier, p. 21, figs. 32–3, pls. 1, 2.
.fn-
.fn 880
Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, Myken.
Vasen, pl. 12, No. 80.
.fn-
.fn 881
Fouqué, op. cit. p. 127, note.
.fn-
.fn 882
On the later pottery from Thera see
generally Hiller von Gaertringen, Thera,
ii. p. 127 ff.; Ath. Mitth. 1903, p. 1 ff.
.fn-
.fn 883
Dümmler (Ath. Mitth. 1886, p. 45)
calls them “Leleges”; but he places
Minos in the Geometrical period.
.fn-
.fn 884
Cf. Hdt. i. 171, and Thuc. i. 4–8.
.fn-
.fn 885
Ath. Mitth. 1886, p. 15; Ross, Reisen
durch die Inseln, passim; Athens Mus.
Nos. 23–9, 136, 142–43; J.H.S. v.
p. 53 ff.
.fn-
.fn 886
J.H.S. Suppl. Papers, vol. iv. (1904).
.fn-
.fn 887
Od. xix. 172 ff.
.fn-
.fn 888
Hdt. i. 171.
.fn-
.fn 889
Mon. Antichi, vi. p. 342, pl. 12,
figs. 50, 52.
.fn-
.fn 890
Ibid. pl. 11, figs. 44–5.
.fn-
.fn 891
Ibid. pl. 10, fig. 23; pl. 12, figs. 57,
59.
.fn-
.fn 892
Mon. Antichi, vi. p. 333 ff., pls. 9–11;
Proc. Soc. Antiqs. 2nd Ser. xv. p. 351 ff.
.fn-
.fn 893
J.H.S. xxiii. p. 157 ff.
.fn-
.fn 894
Ibid. pl. 4, figs. 6–14.
.fn-
.fn 895
See, for instance, Furtwaengler and
Loeschcke, Myken. Vasen, p. vi.
.fn-
.fn 896
J.H.S. xxi. p. 97, fig. 31, will serve
as an example.
.fn-
.fn 897
Ibid. xxiii. p. 171.
.fn-
.fn 898
Ibid. xi. pl. 14, figs. 5–10, p.
275.
.fn-
.fn 899
Cf. Mon. Antichi, vi. pl. 9, fig. 8;
pl. 10, fig. 14.
.fn-
.fn 900
>From Brit. School Annual, ix. p. 308.
.fn-
.fn 901
J.H.S. xxi. pls. 6, 7, p. 84 ff.
.fn-
.fn 902
Mon. Antichi, vi. pl. 9, figs. 2, 6;
pl. 10, fig. 14.
.fn-
.fn 903
Ibid. pl. 9, fig. 10.
.fn-
.fn 904
Ibid. p. 339.
.fn-
.fn 905
Brit. School Annual, vi. p. 85.
On the Kefti, see ibid. viii. p.
157 ff.
.fn-
.fn 906
See for examplesJ.H.S. xxiii.
p. 192 ff.
.fn-
.fn 907
Brit. School Annual, vi. p. 88.
.fn-
.fn 908
J.H.S. xxi. p. 99 ff. See the larnax
published by Mr. Bosanquet in Brit.
School Annual, viii. pls. 18–9: cf.
ibid. vii. p. 52.
.fn-
.fn 909
See Furtwaengler and Loeschcke,
Myken. Vasen, pls. 13–4; Ath. Mitth.
1886, pl. 3 and pl. 4 (a large pithos with
reliefs, for which compare p. #152# above);
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1880, p. 125, 1892,
p. 295; Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vi. p.
451 ff.; Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 176.
.fn-
.fn 910
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 74, fig. 128.
cf. Furtwaengler and Loeschcke, op. cit.
pl. 14, No. 88; Brit. School Annual,
vi. p. 91.
.fn-
.fn 911
Myken. Vasen, p. vi. ff. The evidence
from Crete, however, appears to upset
this chronology, the vases with lustrous
painting being there found on a level
with the matt paintings on dark ground.
.fn-
.fn 912
For examples see Furtwaengler and
Loeschcke, Myken. Thongef. pls. 1; 4,
13; 5, 20; 7, 40; 11, 52.
.fn-
.fn 913
Myken. Thongef. pl. 1, fig. 6; Myken.
Vasen, pls. 23–4.
.fn-
.fn 914
Myken. Thongef. pl. 8; pl. 11, 52;
Myken. Vasen, pl. 23.
.fn-
.fn 915
Myken. Thongef. pl. 6, 32, 34.
.fn-
.fn 916
Myken. Thongef. pl. 12; Myken.
Vasen, pls. 7, 25.
.fn-
.fn 917
Schliemann, Tiryns, pl. 22, p. 99,
fig. 20; Myken. Thongef. pls. 2, 4;
Myken. Vasen, pls. 26–34, 39–41.
.fn-
.fn 918
Myken. Vasen, pls. 37–41.
.fn-
.fn 919
Mon. Antichi, i. p. 201 ff., pls. 1–2.
.fn-
.fn 920
See J.H.S. xvii. pp. 75, 76.
.fn-
.fn 921
Cook in J.H.S. xiv. p. 81 ff.
.fn-
.fn 922
Evans in J.H.S. xxi. p. 99 ff. Recent
discoveries seem to leave little room for
doubt as to the correctness of Mr. Evans'
theories.
.fn-
.fn 923
Rev. Arch. xxvi. (1895), p. 1 ff.;
xxx. (1897), p. 81 ff.: cf. ibid. xxviii.
(1896), p. 24 ff.
.fn-
.fn 924
See J.H.S. xxiv. p. 125.
.fn-
.fn 925
Myken. Vasen, p. ix. ff.
.fn-
.fn 926
See for a summary of the theories,
Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 200 ff.
.fn-
.fn 927
See Hall, Oldest Civilisation, chap.
iii.; Pottier, op. cit. i. p. 209; and
Arch. Anzeiger, 1892, p. 11 ff.
.fn-
.fn 928
Stilfragen, p. 112 ff.
.fn-
.fn 929
See Wide, in Ath. Mitth. 1897, p. 233;
and for some general considerations on
Mycenaean pottery and its achievements,
Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 247.
.fn-
.bn 344.png
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch07' pn=+1
CHAPTER VII | RISE OF VASE-PAINTING IN GREECE
.pm start_summary
Geometrical decoration—Its origin—Distribution of pottery—Shapes and
ornamentation of vases—Subjects—Dipylon vases—Boeotian Geometrical
wares—Chronology—Proto-Attic fabrics—Phaleron ware—Later
Boeotian vases—Melian amphorae—Corinth and its pottery—“Proto-Corinthian”
vases—Vases with imbrications and floral decoration—Incised
lines and ground-ornaments—Introduction of figure-subjects—Chalcidian
vases—“Tyrrhenian Amphorae.”
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
.h4
§ 1. The Geometrical Period
.ce
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.pm start_summary
Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vii. p. 154 ff.; Ann. dell’ Inst. 1872, p. 138 ff.;
Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 94 ff.; 1899, pp. 26, 78, 188; Ath. Mitth. 1881, p. 106;
1892, p. 285; 1893, p. 73 ff.; 1896, p. 385 ff.; Pottier, Louvre Cat. i.
p. 212 ff. For Boeotian Geometrical pottery, Böhlau in Jahrbuch, 1888,
p. 325 ff.; for early Argive wares, Waldstein, Argive Heraeum, i. p. 49 ff.
.pm stop_summary
The Dorian invasion of Greece, which is generally supposed
to have taken place in the twelfth century—the traditional date
is about 1100 B.C.—was, like the contemporaneous Etruscan
immigration (Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.), only an episode in the general
displacement taking place throughout Europe. In Greece it
caused a dispersion of the Achaean race, chiefly in the direction
of Asia Minor, which, as we have already seen, probably gave
rise to the stories of the Trojan War and subsequent adventures
of the Achaean leaders. In other words, the Mycenaean civilisation
was driven to seek a new home elsewhere, and to lay
the foundations of a new artistic development in the cities of
Aeolis and Ionia. But its disappearance from Greece was not
complete, and Hellenic Greece was from the beginning an
amalgam of the old and new elements, the Achaean (or Ionian)
.bn 345.png
.pn +1
and the Dorian, in which one or the other had at different
times or in different places the pre-eminence. The Ionian
element represents the civilisation of the Mediterranean,
succeeding to that of the Mycenaean world; the Dorian, the
influence of Central Europe.[930]
It has hitherto been a truism of archaeology that the Dorians
brought with them from Central Europe a new form of art,
of which the chief characteristic is that of rectilinear and geometrical
decoration, forming, it is obvious, a marked contrast to
the curvilinear and naturalistic Mycenaean designs. This new
principle was thought to be most conspicuously illustrated by
the pottery which now replaces the Mycenaean. But certain
recent discoveries have given occasion for some scepticism in
regard to the acceptance of this idea as conveying the whole
truth; and even if they do not radically alter preconceived
ideas, they are at least worthy of consideration.
At Aphidna in Attica a find has been made of very rude
pottery, without glaze or varnish, but with decoration of a Geometrical
character, sometimes painted.[931] Although earlier than any
other pottery in Attica, it need not be pre-Mycenaean in date;
it seems more likely to be a contemporary survival. Early wares
have also been found in the islands, as in Aegina, with Geometrical
ornament in matt-colour; nor must we forget that the Geometrical
principle was known in Cyprus and the Cyclades, as also
at Hissarlik, at a very remote age. From these data Dr. Wide
has ingeniously drawn the conclusion that the Geometrical style
was always indigenous in Greece,[932] pointing out that it was more
likely and more in accordance with historical precedent that the
Dorians, like Rome in later days, accepted the art of the people
they conquered[933] than that they introduced their own and forced
it upon the subjugated race. This theory has the additional
merit of disposing of a difficulty which had always been felt. If
the Geometrical pottery was Dorian, how do we account for its
reaching its height in Attica, which was never at any time Doric,
.bn 346.png
.pn +1
or influenced by Doric characteristics? But if it can be shown
to be indigenous in Attica, the difficulty disappears.
Again, it is necessary to explain the varying character of
Geometrical pottery in different parts of Greece, as compared
with the homogeneity of the Mycenaean wares. If, as was supposed,
the Geometrical style came full-grown into Greece, why
should this be? Dr. Wide therefore maintains that there were
in Greece concurrently a Bauernstil or domestic art, aboriginal
and industrial, which produced the rude geometrical fabrics,
and a Herrenstil or art de luxe, exotic and ornamental, which
we know as Mycenaean. With the upheaval and dispersion of
the Achaean aristocracy this art practically died out, but the
humbler industry held its ground, and gradually forged its
way to comparative excellence, perhaps learning much from
Mycenaean technique.
The real novelty of the developed Geometrical pottery which
now manifests itself in Greece consists in its evolution as a style,
and the combination of the patterns into an artistic system,
with a continuous progress towards symmetry and rhythm.
Geometrical patterns are indeed the property of all primitive
peoples, and are no less spontaneous and universal in their origin
than the folk-lore stories which we find adopting the same or
similar forms in all parts of the world. In Greece, no doubt,
the cultured traditions of Mycenaean art had in course of time
their due effect, and both in technique and in ornament left
their impress on the inferior fabrics,[934] as we have seen to have
been the case, especially in the Greek islands. It is an influence
which is not confined to the pottery, but made itself felt, for
instance, in architecture. It can hardly be doubted that in
the Lion Gate of Mycenae we find the prototype of the Doric
column; and the parallel with the Geometrical pottery can be
further followed up when we consider that Doric architecture
also became the common property of Continental Greece, and
also realised its highest perfection at Athens.
The Geometrical pottery has been found in great numbers in
Attica and Boeotia, in the islands of Aegina, Melos, Thera,
.bn 347.png
.pn +1
Rhodes, and Crete,[935] in Argolis and Laconia, in Sicily and
Etruria, and also isolated specimens in Cyprus and the Troad.[936]
That found in Italy and Cyprus is certainly exported from the
mainland. It has been observed that each region has its own
peculiar variety of the style, and this is especially conspicuous
in the examples from Attica and Boeotia.[937] The first writer who
attempted to deal with it scientifically was Conze,[938] but owing to
its clearly-defined characteristics it has always been more or less
correctly treated by the older schools of archaeologists. But
with a more extended outlook over the fabrics of early Hellas,
many problems have arisen in connection with it which have
called for more recent discussion, and the writings of Kroker,
Böhlau, and Wide in particular should be studied.[939]
At Mycenae fragments of Geometrical pottery were found
both on the surface and in the palace, among the débris of
the huts built on its site; while in the island of Salamis there
is a cemetery of distinctly transitional character, containing
false amphorae with linear decoration and combinations of the
spiral with the maeander.[940] It may be noted that a similar
transitional cemetery was found by Mr. Paton at Assarlik in
Caria,[941] and that the “sub-Mycenaean” pottery of Cyprus (p. #246#)
has been shown to exhibit the same combination of features.
These facts fall into line with what has already been said as to
the survival of Mycenaean art in these fabrics.
>From the fact that large quantities of this ware have been
obtained from the tombs of the Kerameikos near the Dipylon
Gate of Athens, chiefly between 1870 and 1891, it has frequently
been styled Dipylon ware; but it is questionable whether this
title should not be reserved for varieties peculiar to this site.
These Dipylon tombs were in the form of deep quadrangular
.bn 348.png
.pn +1
trenches, and the bodies had been sometimes inhumed, sometimes
cremated, the bones being placed in vessels of bronze or
clay, containing smaller objects. Above the trenches was a layer
of earth mixed with burnt offerings, on the top of which, outside
the tombs, were placed the large painted vases (representing the
tombstones or stone sepulchral vases of later times) which
now form a prominent part of the collections at Athens and
in the Louvre.[942]
.tb
Turning to treat of their general characteristics, we note that
the vases are all wheel-made, of a carefully-prepared red clay
covered with a lustrous and impermeable yellow slip, on which
the designs are painted in the same lustrous black as the
Mycenaean wares. Later, but rarely, white is introduced as
an accessory. As regards the shapes, there is less variety than
in Mycenaean pottery. They include the typical forms of
Dipylon vases, a large wide-mouthed krater on a high stem,
and an amphora with cylindrical neck and side-handles; also
the lebes, the cylindrical jug or olpe, the wide bowl or skyphos,
and the pyxis or covered jar. Open-work stands for vases are
often found in the Cyclades.[943] On the covers of the pyxides
a group of two or three rudely-modelled horses sometimes forms
the handle. In considering the forms generally, it is permissible
to say that the potter of the day was in advance of his Mycenaean
predecessor, although the painter was not.
The decoration follows a development which permits of the
division of Geometrical vases into three periods, in which we
follow Kroker[944]: (1) for a long time it is exclusively limited
to Geometrical patterns, and (2) even when quadrupeds and
birds are introduced they are still only decorative (as in
Boeotia); (3) finally, while the animals take a subsidiary place,
human figures and large compositions spring into prominence.
But this final development is chiefly characteristic of Athens.
Wide distinguishes four varieties of the Dipylon ware: (a)
amphorae, with black varnished bodies and designs only on the
neck; (b) “black Dipylon ware,” mainly varnished, but more
.bn 349.png
.pn +1
decorated than (a); (c) large vases, with linear decoration or
figures all over in horizontal friezes (the tomb-amphorae);
(d) as the last, but with vertical panels, divided like metopes.
His view is that these represent a continuous development, but
that the style did not last long in Attica. Returning to Kroker’s
classification, it must be borne in mind that the three classes are
not successive in point of time, only in artistic development; the
plain linear decoration survived throughout, and is often found
in tombs contemporaneously with the figure subjects.
The patterns are mainly, though not exclusively, rectilinear,
and sometimes extremely elaborate. The favourite are a large
bold maeander, chevrons, chequers, and arrangements of hatched
lines; also squares, with diagonals and much ground-ornament.
Among the simpler motives are lines of dots, triangles, lozenges,
and various forms of crosses; but concentric and “tangent”
circles occur not infrequently, the latter being clearly derived
from the Mycenaean spiral, and one vegetable motive appears
in the form of a conventionalised leaf, later developed into a
rosette. M. Perrot[945] gives a very instructive diagram of the
typical scheme of ornamentation on the neck and body of a
vase, including most of the principal varieties. It should also
be noted that these patterns occur frequently on the field of
the designs as ground-ornaments, to cover the vacant spaces.
In the arrangement of the patterns an architectural instinct
is clearly at work, the influence of the Doric metope being
especially prominent. They are usually arranged, as the
diagram (Fig. #83:fig083#) shows, in horizontal bands round the neck
and body, like the bands of painted ornament on the entablature
of a temple. The metopes and triglyphs are represented
by large square patterns of ornament, separated by narrow
vertical strips of simpler motives (cf. Fig. #84:fig084#). The introduction
of the frieze principle proper is a later development. Generally
speaking, there is an invariable tendency towards symmetry and
refinement in the arrangement. When figure subjects begin to
be introduced, it betokens a great advance in decorative art,
especially over the Cypriote and other varieties of the style.
.bn 350.png
.pn +1
In the tendency to a horror vacui, the style is inferior to
Mycenaean, as also in the figure-drawing, of which more anon.
The absence of any plant-ornament is most characteristic, as
showing the great change from the Mycenaean spirit; but it
was not long before this element was destined to reappear and
virtually usurp the field of decoration.[946]
.il id=fig083 fn=fig083_350.jpg w=248px ew=70%
.ca
From Perrot’s Hist. de l’Art.
FIG. 83. SCHEME OF ORNAMENTATION ON GEOMETRICAL VASES.
.ca-
.bn 351.png
.pn +1
In regard to its ornamentation the Geometrical style may
be said to have attained success. It is not so, however, with
its representations of living form, least of all those of human
beings. But this is only in accordance with the principle which
M. Pottier styles the hierarchie des genres, a principle which is
universal in all early development of Greek art, and to which we
have already referred (p. #245#: see also p. #315#). Briefly it is this:
first, the predominance of pure ornament and the perfecting of
the same; secondly, the employment of animal forms and the
relegation of ornament to a subsidiary place; thirdly and lastly,
the rise and development of human forms, the other animals
ceasing to form the main theme of decoration, and sinking to
the level of mere decorative adjuncts.
.il id=fig084 fn=fig084_351.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca FIG. 84. GEOMETRICAL VASE WITH PANELS (BRIT. MUS.).
Hence we find that figures of animals when first introduced
on Geometrical vases are of a conventional and ill-drawn
character, but show a gradual progress and development.
Human forms again, which now appear for the first time, are
only seen in a very rude and undeveloped stage, from which
there is continuous development throughout the archaic period
till perfection is reached in the fifth century. Their original
extreme conventionality may be the result of a training in
Egyptian canons of art.
The favourite animal motives are the horse, the deer, and
water-fowl. The first also appears in a plastic form, surmounting
the covers of vases and forming a sort of handle. Usually
a single animal is seen in a metope-like panel (cf. Fig. #84:fig084#),
.bn 352.png
.pn +1
and the frieze system is seldom found at this period. A curious
conception is that of a lion or wolf devouring a man, whose
legs are seen protruding from its mouth, and this appears to
have been adopted by the Etruscans, on whose archaic bronze-work
and bucchero vases it sometimes occurs.[947] The lions on
the Geometrical vases, it may be noted in passing, are obviously
drawn without knowledge, and borrowed from Asiatic art; the
same conventional type obtains at a later date, as in the Burgon
lebes (below, p. #296#).
Human figures are almost confined to the large vases from the
Dipylon cemetery, which are evidently a purely local product;
almost the only exceptions are two from Boeotia (see below,
p. #288#), and one from Rhodes in the British Museum (A 439).
The infantile and barbarous style of the figures recalls in a
measure the primitive marble idols from the Cyclades; there
is seldom any actual distinction of sex, the narrow waist,
wide hips, and tapering limbs being apparently common to
both. The figures being painted in plain silhouette, there is
no attempt at rendering features. Where it is intended to
represent a warrior, the body is completely hidden behind a
shield of the Boeotian type
.pm ii ornament_352_shield.jpg 'Boeotian shield' '' ','
a ready resource of the artist
for avoiding anatomical difficulties, which was also adopted
later by his seventh-century Corinthian successors, except that
in the latter case the shield is circular.
The subjects include battles and naval scenes, dances of
women hand in hand, and funeral processions. From the
combination of ships with funeral scenes, it would seem that
they were sometimes used for carrying the dead. A remarkable
lebes recently acquired by the British Museum[948] is decorated
with a large ship-of-war with two banks of rowers (bireme),
and appears to represent a warrior landing therefrom on shore.[949]
The funeral scenes on the great Dipylon vases are exceedingly
elaborate, and exhibit a corpse drawn on a bier, accompanied
by chariots and bands of mourning women beating their heads.[950]
.bn 353.png
.pn +1
By a conventional attempt at perspective the figures are often
placed above the central group when they are supposed to be
on its farther side, just as, in the fresco from Tiryns, and an
“Island-gem” of the Mycenaean period, a man leading a bull
is represented over its back.[951]
Two very interesting specimens of Geometrical fabrics are
in the museum at Kopenhagen,[952] late indeed and almost
transitional in character, but still typical. One is a deep
two-handled cup or bowl with long panels on either side, in
two tiers; the upper ones are filled with ornaments and animals,
and in the lower are several subjects—combatants, lyre-players,
a dance of armed men with shield and spear, two lions devouring
a man (see above), and men with jugs and lustral branches
preparing for some religious rite. The other is a jug, with very
little ornamentation except on the background of the designs,
which also include several subjects. On the neck is a man
holding horses; on the shoulder, dogs pursuing a hare; and on
the body, combats on land and sea.
In the range of subjects a general correspondence with epic
poetry is to be noted,[953] as in the funerals and combats; but there
are some important discrepancies, such as the quadriga in
place of the Homeric biga, the types of the ships, and in the
appearance of horsemen, which are of course unknown to
Homer.[954]
The Geometrical vases found in Boeotia form an important
and distinct local variety, which calls for separate treatment.
The existence of this local style was first suspected by Furtwaengler
in 1878 on seeing the first finds made at Thebes,
and it has since been studied with great care and detail by
Böhlau.[955] Among these finds were, in addition to the recognised
local pottery, ordinary (imported) Dipylon vases, and later
Proto-Corinthian and Corinthian wares, as well as bronze fibulae
and terracotta figures, to which subsequent reference must be
.bn 354.png
.pn +1
made. Similar pottery was also found in large numbers on
the site of the temple of Apollo at Mount Ptoös in 1885–91,
and other examples have turned up at Tanagra. It has been
suggested, though on somewhat slight grounds, that Aulis was
the centre of the local fabric; and, further, it was supposed by
Böhlau, who is supported by Perrot,[956] that the Boeotian wares
represent a primitive phase of the Geometrical pottery, anterior
to the Dipylon, and consequently that Boeotia is the original
home of the style as a whole. But in view of what has been
said above, and generally of the relation of the Boeotian pottery
to the Dipylon, and to the later Proto-Corinthian, it seems
doubtful if this view can be maintained. Moreover, it has been
pointed out by M. Holleaux,[957] in discussing the Ptoös finds,
that the pure Geometrical vases were found at a lower level
than the typical local wares, and were never found either with
them or with the analogous terracotta figures. This certainly
points to the later origin of the Boeotian pottery.
The local clay differs from that of Athens both in nature
and appearance, being less well levigated and of a reddish-yellow
colour, as compared with the warm brown of the Dipylon.
Further, the designs are not laid directly on the clay, as in
the latter, but on a thin creamy-yellow slip, as in Mycenaean
and Ionian pottery. The technique is, generally speaking,
inferior, as is also the black pigment used; the work is rough
and hasty, the drawing careless and inaccurate.
The vases are mostly small, at least compared with those
of the Dipylon, and the favourite shape is the kylix, with or
without a stem. Out of seventy-two examples given by
Böhlau, no less than fifty-five take this form. He traces its
development from a deep bowl with “base-ring,” which seems
to be related to the Cypriote white-slip one-handled bowls; but
the Boeotian type has at first two small finger-pieces in place of
handles, afterwards replaced by a single handle for hanging up.
The majority, however, have no less than four handles, and
that they were still intended for suspension is shown by the
method of decoration which can only be properly seen in this
position (cf. Fig. #85:fig085#).
.bn 355.png
.pn +1
.il id=fig085 fn=fig085_355.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Jahrbuch.FIG. 85. BOEOTIAN GEOMETRICAL VASES (BERLIN MUSEUM).
.ca-
There is a wearisome uniformity in the patterns, and indeed
in the decoration generally. Only two examples are known
from Boeotia with human figures,[958] and the rest belong to the
intermediate class, with its combination of animals and decorative
patterns. On the exterior is usually a broad frieze, divided by
bands of ornament into four or five fields, in which are birds
or palmette patterns; these panels are not necessarily arranged
with reference to the position of the handles. The patterns
comprise rows of vertical zigzags, dotted lozenges, chevrons,
latticed triangles, rosettes, and scrolls, the first-named being
specially characteristic of Boeotia. It is to be noted that the
typical Athenian motives, the maeander and the ornamented
square, do not occur; in fact, these bowls have no analogies
in the Dipylon ware. But it is also interesting to observe the
appearance of a new vegetable element in the form of friezes
of palmettes and lotos-flowers.[959] The importance of this feature
is due to the extensive part it was destined to play in the
ornamentation of Greek vases all through the sixth century.
Some of the palmettes are remarkably advanced, and the whole
pattern is even emancipated from the confinement of the frieze,
and treated freely without regard to space.[960] Böhlau, in his
.bn 356.png
.pn +1
analysis of the ornament as a whole, notes its independence
of the Athenian vases, though remaining a parallel and closely-related
development.
Individual vases do not call for much comment, but there
is a curious coffer of terracotta from Thebes in Berlin (Fig. #86:fig086#),[961]
painted with figures in this style. The subjects include the
Asiatic Artemis, a hare-hunt, a woman leading a horse, a horse
tied up, and two serpents erect, confronted. The ground is
filled in with rosettes, crosses, and other ornaments, such as the
so-called swastika.
.il id=fig086 fn=fig086_356.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Jahrbuch.
FIG. 86. COFFER FROM THEBES: BOEOTIAN GEOMETRICAL STYLE
(BERLIN MUSEUM).
.ca-
While on the subject of the Boeotian vases it is worth while
to call attention to the remarkable parallels presented by two
other classes of objects also found in that region: bronze
fibulae and terracotta statuettes. The former may be regarded
as important chronological evidence, inasmuch as their development
can be clearly traced from their first appearance at the
end of the Mycenaean period (about the tenth century), and
similar types have been found in Rhodes, at Olympia, and elsewhere.
The characteristic of the Boeotian fibulae is the flat
.bn 357.png
.pn +1
plate which forms the foot (in some cases the central part or
bow), and is generally of a quadrangular form, decorated with
an engraved subject, usually animals or birds of a similar type
to those painted in the panels on the vases. More rarely ships
or human figures are found.[962]
The terracotta figures (p. #123#), on the other hand, bear a
different relation to the pottery. They are flat board-like figures
(σανίδες), known to the modern Greek digger as “Pappades,” // Tr: sanides
the high head-dress which they wear suggesting to him the
well-known hat of the orthodox “Papas” or priest. The flat
surface of the body gives scope for ornamentation representing
embroidered robes,[963] and the patterns employed are just those
which are seen on the vases; and, moreover, the method
of painting is the same, the figures being covered with a buff
slip, the patterns in black with purple details. It should be
remarked that some of these figures are comparatively developed
in style,[964] and that they are practically later imitations of the
decoration of the vases.
.tb
In considering the Geometrical vases as a whole, we are struck
with the laudable aspirations of the artist, who, though unable
to execute his new ambitions with complete success, yet shows
in his work the same promise of the future that is latent in all
early Greek art. His best achievement is in the ornamentation.
Oriental influences as yet count for very little, though they are
perhaps to be discerned in the human figures, as already noted;
Kroker also thinks that the nude female figures on the larger
vases are due to Oriental art.[965] In any case they are not to be
traced until late in the period, and first, as might be expected for
geographical reasons, in the fabrics found at Kameiros in Rhodes.
The question of chronology must next be considered. That
the developed Geometrical style succeeds to the Mycenaean, and
forms a link between it and the early Attic attempts at black-figured
ware, of which we shall subsequently treat, is sufficiently
.bn 358.png
.pn +1
clear. It may also be laid down that the Dipylon ware
represents the last stage of Geometrical decoration, being in
point of fact too far advanced to be regarded as a purely typical
Geometrical ware. Such data as the finding of iron in the
tombs, or the evidence of finds at Troy,[966] also tend to place
the beginning of the style at least as early as the tenth century.
It has also been noted that the figures correspond closely
with the bronzes of Olympia which are dated about the ninth
century, and this, if accepted, necessitates placing the simpler
linear decoration back as far as the tenth. The lower limits of
the style may be roughly fixed by the evidence from the tombs
of Etruria, discussed in Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#., at about 700 B.C.
Next, there is the evidence afforded by the ships,[967] which it
should be noted are all of the bireme or διήρης form, with two // Tr: diêrês
banks of oars. The invention of the trireme, as we learn from
Thucydides (i. 13, 5), was due to Ameinokles, about the year
704 B.C. Hence Kroker’s dating of the Dipylon vases about
the year 700 can hardly be accepted. But the eighth century
may be taken as representing the latest period of the Geometrical
pottery, both in Attica and Boeotia. The curious inscription
engraved on a Dipylon vase from Athens is dealt with elsewhere
(Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.); undoubtedly the earliest known Attic inscription,
its value as evidence is limited to that of a terminus ante
quem, from the fact that it was probably engraved at a subsequent
time to the manufacture of the vase.
The question of centres of manufacture is one that has
already been the subject of some discussion,[968] the result of which
has been to show that there is no complete homogeneity in
the wares from different sites, and consequently no one central
fabric. The colossal funerary vases, which, it may be remarked
in passing, stand at the head of a long line of funerary fabrics
and show the Athenian fondness for this class of vase,[969] were
not, and could not have been, generally exported, in spite of the
notable exception at Curium. The ordinary wares might have
.bn 359.png
.pn +1
been made in some one place (probably a Dorian centre, not
Attica or Boeotia); but we have seen that most finds, as in
Rhodes, present local peculiarities.[970] Athens at this period was
not sufficiently advanced to become the centre of large potteries,
and did not become so, as we shall see, before the age of the
Peisistratidae; such vases as were made were strictly confined
to special purposes. It is a curious fact that very little
Geometrical ware was found on the Acropolis.
The Geometrical pottery of Cyprus has already been discussed
in its relation to that of Greece (pp. #249#, #253#)[971]; but
there is yet another region which passed through a Geometrical
period similar to that of Greece, and that is Etruria (see
Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.). It is, however, better illustrated by the metal
products of the Villanova period, such as the bronze discs and
large cinerary urns, than by the local pottery, which never
reached the same level as in Greece; in the former the same
combinations of elaborate ornament with rude animals and yet
ruder human figures may be witnessed, and it is possible that
importations from Greece may have had a share in influencing
these products. They cover the period from the tenth to the
eighth century B.C.
.h4
§ 2. Attica, Boeotia, and Melos
Following on to the Geometrical vases both in chronological
and artistic sequence is a small class of Athenian vases, which,
more for convenience than with regard to strict accuracy, have
been styled Proto-Attic. The term has this much of truth in it,
that the group may be said to stand at the head of, and in
direct relation to, the long series of painted vases produced
in the Athenian potteries for some two centuries afterwards.
It is only of late years that a sufficient number of these vases
has become known for them to be studied as a separate class,
and even when Böhlau first drew attention to them, in 1887,
.bn 360.png
.pn +1
only two or three were known. The list up to date is as follows
(the order being roughly chronological):—
.dv class="smallfont">
.ta r:3 l:15 l:10 l:12 l:25 s='geometrical vases'
1. | Athens 467 | | |
| (Couve’s Cat.)| Amphora | Kerameikos |Ath. Mitth. 1892, pl. 10.
2. | Berlin 56 | Amphora | Hymettos | Jahrbuch, 1887, pl. 5.
3. | Athens 468 | Hydria | Analatos (Phaleron)| ibid. pls. 3, 4.
4. | Athens 464 | Lebes | Thebes | ibid. pl. 4.
5. | Athens 469 | Amphora | Pikrodaphni | Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1893, pls. 2, 3.
6. | Athens Mus. | Amphora | Kynosarges | J.H.S. xxii. pls. 2–4.
7. | Athens 650 | Fragment | Aegina | Benndorf, Gr. u. Sic. Vasenb. pl. 54.
8. | Athens 657 | Amphora | Kerameikos |Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 57.
9. | Athens 651 | Amphora | Peiraeus | Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1897, pl. 5.
10.| Berlin 1682 | Lebes | Aegina | Arch. Zeit. 1882, pls. 9, 10.
11.| B.M. A 535 | Lebes | Athens | Rayet and Collignon, p. 43 = Fig. #87:fig087#.
.ta-
.in +2
We may also add to this list Athens 652–664, a vase from Aegina
(Ath. Mitth. 1897, pl. 8), B.M. A 1531 (Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1898,
p. 285), and another at Athens (ibid. p. 283).
.in
.dv-
It will be noticed that the majority are of the amphora
form, and that all without exception have been found in or
near Athens, which leaves little room for doubt as to their
origin.
A close connection with the Dipylon vases may be observed
in the first three, not only in shape and technique, but in
decoration. In No. 2, which we may take as typical of the
oldest form of the Attic amphora, a combination of Geometrical
and Mycenaean ornament is to be observed, but the figures
of the warriors are purely Hellenic, like those of the Euphorbos
pinax (p. #335#). The shape of No. 3 is typical of the Geometrical
vases, with its long neck and slim body, and it is perhaps
more accurately called a three-handled jug than a hydria,
though at the same time it is clearly the prototype of the
later Attic hydria. The panel on the neck of the vase (also
.bn 361.png
.pn +1
seen in No. 6) is also a Geometrical feature, and the figures
therein are quite in the Dipylon style. On the other hand,
in the arrangement of the designs in continuous friezes without
vertical divisions we trace the incoming influence of a foreign
style—the Rhodian or Ionian. Other motives again, such as
the birds and the vegetable ornaments, have nothing of the
Geometrical or Ionian about them, and may perhaps be directly
derived from Mycenaean vases. But the typically Geometrical
lozenges, zigzags, etc., still hold their own. In No. 6 Mr. Cecil
Smith notes that the ornamentation covering the field of the
design is partly rectilinear and geometrical, partly floral and
of Mycenaean origin. The spiral pattern which here closes
the design, and is also seen on No. 1, is again an instance of
Mycenaean influence, and is a motive which became exceedingly
popular. In another seventh-century class, the so-called Melian
vases, it is absolutely overdone, but the more restrained Attic
tradition is preserved for many years as an appropriate decoration
for the division of the designs under the handles, especially
in the red-bodied amphorae of the developed B.F. style. This
vase has some other unusual features, such as incised lines,
which are also found on some early Attic fragments from the
Acropolis,[972] but seem to appear equally early at Corinth, so that
it is impossible to say certainly if the process is an Attic
invention. At all events it is not Ionian, as its place is taken
on the east of the Aegean by lines of white paint (e.g. in the
Clazomenae sarcophagi). Curiously enough, in this same vase
(No. 6) may be noted attempts at this very process, here, no
doubt, as on the Ionian vases, due to Mycenaean influence
(see p. #331#); but it is unique in early Attic work.[973] The
peculiar treatment of the eye and hair is also worthy of
attention.
To sum up the characteristics of the Proto-Attic vases, it may
be said that they represent the transformation of the Attico-Dorian
element into the Attico-Ionian, just as we shall see
in the next stage a further transformation under new influences
into Attico-Corinthian (p. #324#). The Ionian influence brings with
it into Attica not only a revival of Mycenaean elements, but also
.bn 362.png
.pn +1
traces of Orientalism.[974] The general appearance of the decoration
links it with the Geometrical, but closer examination shows
the admixture of spirals, rosettes, and lotos-flowers with the
lozenges and zigzags, while the Geometrical animal-types are
combined with new ones from Ionia, such as the lion, and the
funeral scenes and combats are supplanted by Centaurs and
winged genii of Assyrian character.[975] Further, there is a distinct
tendency to get rid of the old silhouette and to draw in outline,
a practice typical of Ionia and a direct heritage from Mycenaean
vase-paintings. As in the Rhodian vases, the bodies are rendered
in full colour, the heads in outline; while the practice
of covering the field with ground-ornaments is also a peculiarly
Rhodian characteristic. These latter, however, gradually
disappear, as do the Geometrical conventions in the drawing
of the figures.
The amphora-type develops steadily onwards from the Berlin
Hymettos amphora, which, as has been pointed out, is the oldest
Attic variety. In some of the forms, as in No. 5, there are traces
of a metallic origin, shown by the open-work handles and other
details.[976] Generally speaking, there is a tendency towards the
colossal, and towards emphasising the figure-decoration, not
only by increasing the size of the figures, but by confining the
subject to one side. M. Pottier thinks that this is due to
architectural influences, and suggests a comparison with a
temple-façade. But the local traditions are still strong, and in
spite of the influence of the lively and original Ionic style, the
vases remain “continental” at bottom, the drawing always soberer
and more powerful throughout. In many respects there is, as we
shall see, a close parallelism with the so-called Melian fabrics.
No. 11, the large Burgon lebes in the British Museum (Fig. #87:fig087#),
is one of the latest representatives of the Proto-Attic class; its
Ionic-looking lions and “Rhodian” wealth of ground-ornaments
.bn 363.png
.pn +1
seem to suggest Asiatic influences, the presence of which has
been accounted for above. Moreover, the loop-pattern on the
reverse is distinctly Proto-Attic, and finds its parallels on vases
found at Eretria,[977] as well as on others of the class under
consideration.
.il id=fig087 fn=fig087_363.jpg w=450px ew=80%
.ca FIG. 87. BURGON LEBES (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Another interesting point in connection with the Proto-Attic
vases is the introduction of mythological subjects, as on No. 6
(Herakles and Antaios), No. 8 (Herakles and the Centaur
Nessos), No. 10 (Perseus and Athena, and a Harpy[978]). The
only parallel to this early appearance of myths on vases is
to be found in the Melian class (see below, p. #301#), the Aristonoös
krater (see below) and the Euphorbos pinax (p. #335#), which,
however, is of later date. It will be seen that they only occur
in the later group of the Attic vases.
.pm onplate XVI
.il id=pl16 fn=plate16_364.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Wiener Vorl.The Aristonoös Krater (in the Vatican).
.ca-
.pm offplate
On two of these it is to be noted that inscriptions occur,
identifying the figures (Nos. 8 and 10). These are the oldest
painted inscriptions on Attic vases, but henceforward they
increase in number, at least in the Athenian and Corinthian
fabrics; they are always more characteristic of the mainland
than of Asia Minor.[979] There are two early signed vases which
may possibly represent the work of Athenian artists prior to the
.bn 364.png
.bn 365.png
.bn 366.png
.pn +1
time of the François vase, the cup by Oikopheles at Oxford,[980] and
the famous vase of Aristonophos,[981] Ariston of Kos (ὁ Κῷος), // Tr: o Kôos
Aristonothos, or Aristonoös as various scholars interpret the
name.[982] The former, however, is somewhat archaistic in
character, with careless rather than incompetent drawing, and
hardly earlier than the sixth century; and the latter has been
claimed with much probability as Ionian work, on account of
the treatment of certain details, as well as on the ground of
the name Ariston of Kos (if this interpretation be accepted).
The inscription is not conclusive either way, and it may also be
here remarked that the krater has several points of resemblance
with the well-known “Warrior” vase of Mycenae (Fig. #88:fig088#),[983]
.bn 367.png
.pn +1
which is probably later in date than the rest of the pottery from
that site, being found outside the Acropolis. The Aristonoös
vase (Plate #XVI:vol2_ch16#.) is usually dated in the seventh century, and is
interesting for its subjects as well as for its artistic position. On
one side is a sea-fight, a subject only common on Greek vases in
the Geometrical period, and therefore obviously derived from that
source; on the other, the blinding of Polyphemos by Odysseus,
a subject popular in archaic vase-painting (see Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.),
and found in Cyrenaic and other early examples. At first sight
this vase would certainly seem to be of the Proto-Attic class,
showing the transition from Geometrical to developed Attic
style; but the Mycenaean and Ionian elements must not be left
out of consideration. As regards the Warrior vase, M. Pottier
has given good grounds for showing that it also is to be
reckoned as Proto-Attic. But we must not leave out of sight
the view urged by Furtwaengler,[984] that the Aristonoös vase
is of an Argive fabric. When the Heraion finds are published,
they may afford more evidence on this point. Meanwhile, it
may be remarked that the circumstances of the finding of the
Warrior vase may support this view.
.il id=fig088 fn=fig088_366.jpg w=500px
.ca FIG. 88. VASE FROM MYCENAE, WITH WARRIORS.
Closely connected with these early Attic fabrics is a very
interesting series of small vases which, from the place of their
discovery, are usually known as Phaleron ware. They are
nearly all small jugs, and number some fifty, mostly at Athens,
but there is a representative series in the British Museum.
More conspicuously, perhaps, than the Proto-Attic, they illustrate
the growing tendency to combine Geometrical and Oriental
influences. In form and technique they are Geometrical, but
in the ornamentation there is a large admixture of Oriental
elements. It has been said that “the whole character of these
vases seems to reflect an influence of the style of Oriental vases
on painters accustomed to the Dipylon style,”[985] and it is largely
in the arrangement of the decoration that the former is
apparent, as well as in the introduction of new motives and
patterns.[986] See for examples Plate #XVII:pl17#. figs. 2, 4, 5.
.bn 368.png
.pn +1
.il id=fig089 fn=fig089_368.jpg align=r w=200px ew=50%
.ca
From Ath. Mitth. 1890.FIG. 89. VASE OF PROTO-ATTIC
TYPE FROM VOURVA.
.ca-
The usual scheme consists of a panel with figures on the neck,
a band of ornament round the shoulder, and below that parallel
bands of lines or other ornaments, with zigzags or rays round
the foot. A typical example is A 471
in the British Museum, with a cock
on the neck, and below, dogs pursuing
a hare.[987] On a cup of Geometrical
form, with conventionalised plants
and ground-ornaments of Geometrical
character, are two deer fleeing from
a lion, and there is also a pyxis with
chariot-scenes obviously derived from
Mycenaean vases. But most curious
and interesting is a jug with two
bearded heads and a woman with
very small body, apparently playing
flutes.[988] The general effect is quite
unique, but the drawing is rude and
childish to a degree; the middle head
is almost Semitic in type. It would
seem that here again we have a
Mycenaean influence at work, and in
general the appearance and style of
these vases undoubtedly recall the
figured vases from Cyprus.[989]
Another series of vases in close
relation to the Proto-Attic fabrics is
that found at Vourva, near Marathon[990];
they are important as forming a
connecting link with the next development
of Attic vase-painting, the Tyrrhenian amphorae described
at the conclusion of this chapter. They have been studied by
Böhlau,[991] and more recently by Nilsson,[992] and these writers have
.bn 369.png
.pn +1
shown how they represent the influence of Ionic ideas, derived
through Euboea. On the other hand the friezes of animals,
which are so characteristic of this class, are clearly derived from
Corinthian sources, but are distinguished from those on Corinthian
vases by the absence of accessory colours. Fig. #89:fig089#[993] may be
taken as a typical example. They appear to be contemporary
with the later Proto-Attic vases, such as the Burgon lebes, on
which also traces of Ionic influence have been noted.
.tb
>From the Geometrical period onwards the manufacture of
painted vases seems to have been continued intermittently in
Boeotia down to the fourth century. It would be taking too
great a liberty with chronology to deal with all Boeotian fabrics
here, and the later must fall into their place with the contemporary
Attic fabrics. But there is a small class which seems
to take its origin directly or indirectly from the Geometrical
pottery; and as it belongs to a period anterior to the perfected
B.F. style, it may be treated here as analogous in development to
the Proto-Attic vases.
A favourite shape among the Boeotian Geometrical wares was
that of a jug with long cylindrical neck and somewhat flat body,
of a form clearly imitated from metal.[994] This shape, which
is also often found in Proto-Corinthian fabrics (see below,
p. #308#), was utilised by a potter named Gamedes, whose
signature is found on a vase from Tanagra in the Louvre,[995]
in the Boeotian alphabet of about 600 B.C. It is decorated with
the figure of a herdsman driving before him a bull and a flock
of sheep, the figures being in black silhouette, with details
indicated by white markings within incised lines. This is quite
a local peculiarity,[996] and seems to be due to a combination
of Corinthian and Ionian influences. Gamedes has also signed
his name on an unpainted aryballos of the typical early
Corinthian globular form (see p. #197#) in the British Museum
(Plate #XVII.:pl17# fig. 6), and a similar vase in the Louvre is signed
.bn 370.png
.bn 371.png
.bn 372.png
.pn +1
by Menaidas.[997] Yet another Boeotian potter, Theozotos, has a
signed vase with a similar subject to the Gamedes jug, but
the style is more advanced.[998]
.pm onplate XVII
.il id=pl17 fn=plate17_370.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Early Pottery from Greece (British Museum).1, 3, “Proto-Corinthian”; 2, 4, 5, “Phaleron” Ware; 6, Boeotian, signed by Gamedes.
.ca-
.pm offplate
Another typically Boeotian form found in the same period is
a kantharos,[999] also obviously imitated from metal and decorated
with figures of animals or palmette-and-lotos patterns of a
peculiarly local type. The style of the animals is, like that of
the Gamedes vase, also peculiar and local; but both in decoration
and technique these vases seem to reflect Corinthian
influence.
.tb
A small but remarkable class of vases, which seem to stand
almost by themselves, is that known as the Melian amphorae.
Four vases of this type now in the Athens Museum[1000] were found
in Melos many years ago, and were recognised as a separate
class and described as “Melian vases” as long ago as 1862
by Conze.[1001] Since that time a splendid example has been added
to the list, found in the same island in 1893[1002]; and to this must
be added several fragments recognised at different times, including
one from Naukratis in the British Museum.[1003] All the
complete vases are large amphorae, about three feet high, but
of elegant proportions, with two handles branching out low
down on the body. The figures are painted in brown on a
pale yellow ground, and enhanced with dull red and purple
accessories, some of the details also being incised. In two
cases the subjects are mythological, one representing Apollo
with his lyre in a chariot accompanied by Artemis and two
Muses[1004]; another the Asiatic Artemis (see Chapter XII.)[1005];
another, the one found in 1893, has the subjects of Hermes and
Athena, and Herakles carrying off Iole. Deities in chariots are
a typical Melian subject. The figures are of quite original
.bn 373.png
.pn +1
design, in no way imitative, and the costumes seem to indicate
a period between Homer and the sixth century. They may
be roughly dated about the middle of the seventh.
They exhibit a combination of highly-developed Geometrical
ornament with vegetable motives from the East and Mycenaean
details, such as the spiral, which, as has already been noted
(p. #294#), attains almost to a rank growth over the vacant spaces
of the vases. The human forms are conceived with a remarkable
degree of freedom. In general appearance they are not unlike
the large Proto-Attic amphorae, but much richer and freer in
style; they may be also said to approach the finer Naukratite
or Rhodian vases, such as the Euphorbos pinax with its quasi-Homeric
subject and lavish use of ornament.[1006]
The decoration is more advanced than that of the Proto-Attic
class, the palmettes, for instance, being more freely treated.
Riegl[1007] notes that the palmettes and lotos-flowers are derived
from Egypt, but transformed and Hellenised, and that the
spirals are not Geometrical, but are naturalised into plants. The
characteristic arrangement of the ornament in long vertical
stripes he traces from Egypt through Mycenaean art; it
develops later into the plait-band of the Clazomenae sarcophagi
(Plate #XXVII:pl27#.). In brief, the ornament of the Melian vases
forms a direct link between Mycenaean and Hellenic ornament.
An altogether new light has been thrown on this group by a
large series of fragments of painted pottery found in 1898
in the island of Rheneia, which undoubtedly form part of the
contents of graves brought over from Delos in 426–25 B.C., as
recorded by Thucydides (iii. 104). They have been recently
made the subject of careful study by Mr. J. H. Hopkinson,[1008]
who recognised them as belonging to the Melian class, and
identified parts of at least ten distinct vases. The scanty
preservation of fragments of complete vases is, in his opinion,
due to the fact that they had been originally placed outside
the tombs like the Dipylon vases. Like the complete examples,
they are characterised by their fine slip and brilliant polychrome
technique, the system of frieze-decoration with Geometric
.bn 374.png
.bn 375.png
.bn 376.png
.pn +1
ornaments and spirals, the free and spirited drawing, and their
purely plastic forms, showing no signs of imitation of metal.
They also bear out the isolated character of this fabric, in
which all the vases seem to be on the same level of excellence,
without any signs of transition at either end.
.pm onplate XVIII
.il id=pl18 fn=plate18_374.jpg w=279px ew=60%
.ca Melian Amphora (Athens Museum).
.pm offplate
Mr. Hopkinson draws the conclusion, in which he may prove
to be justified, that this pottery is of Delian manufacture, but if
so, that the clay must have been imported, as the local clay is,
and always has been, too poor in character. At all events,
the Cycladic origin of the fabric can hardly be a matter of
doubt, and it is clear that the intermediate position of these
islands would account for a combination of Geometrical and
Ionian elements, so far as such exists. But the strongly
individualistic character of the vases compels us to seek some
other influence for their real origin, and it seems on the whole
probable that they represent a separate and independent descent
from Mycenaean pottery, starting with the spiral as the basis
of ornamentation. Some evidence of this descent may be traced
in the native pottery of Phylakopi, to which allusion has been
made in the previous chapter (p. #263#).[1009]
.h4
§ 3. Corinth
.ce
BIBLIOGRAPHY
.pm start_summary
Wilisch, Altkorinthische Thonindustrie (1892); Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii.
p. 417 ff.; Dumont-Pottier, Céramiques, i. chaps. xi. and xvi.; Rayet
and Collignon, p. 39 ff. For “Proto-Corinthian” pottery see references
given in text.
.pm stop_summary
As a commercial and artistic centre, no one city during the
early archaic period entered into serious rivalry with Corinth,
which was at a very remote date in relations with the East, and
was one of the first of the Greek states to extend the system of
colonisation in the Mediterranean, by the foundation of Corcyra,
Syracuse, and other important outposts. The epoch of this
supremacy and of its commercial prosperity extends from the
eighth to the sixth century B.C., being coincident with the rule
.bn 377.png
.pn +1
of the great tyrants, Periander, Kypselos, etc. In the course of
the sixth century, when the Athenian tyranny rose to such a
great height under Peisistratos, Corinth, with equal rapidity,
sank to a subordinate position, and her artistic supremacy
passed to the growing power of Athens. Hence it is fitting
that Corinth and its famous potteries should be the subject
of our next section.
Two causes contributed to the importance of Corinth as a
centre of ceramic industry—the excellence of its clay (see p. #205#),
and its position as a commercial port at the junction of the
Peloponnese and Central Greece. Pollux[1010] selects Corinthian
clay for commendation, and other writers speak of different
varieties of pottery as Corinthian. Hence it is not surprising
that large quantities of pottery should have been found here, the
local origin of which is established by the inscriptions in the
Corinthian alphabet which are frequently painted upon them;
and not only that, but similar pottery has been found almost all
over the Mediterranean, being more widely distributed than any
other fabric except the Athenian B.F. and R.F. vases. The list
of sites as given by Wilisch is as follows: Athens, Eleusis,
Aegina, Argos, Kleonae, Tiryns, Mycenae, Thebes, and Tanagra
in Greece; Euboea (Karystos), Melos, Corfu, Crete, Rhodes,[1011]
Samos, and Cyprus among the islands; Hissarlik, Smyrna,
Pontus, and the Crimea; Alexandria, Naukratis, and Carthage;
Syracuse and Selinus in Sicily, and Sardinia; and many
places in Italy, such as Bari, Nola, Capua, Cumae, Beneventum,
Cervetri, Vulci, Orvieto, Corneto, and Viterbo. M. Pottier
thinks that this wide distribution is due, not to the merit of
the vases themselves, which are often of poor style, but to
the merchandise which they contained. This might, at any
rate, account for the great preponderance of small oil-flasks,
a form which took the place of the Mycenaean “false amphora.”
The Corinthian vases are not, however, strictly homogeneous,
and, in fact, fall into certain distinct categories. The earliest
.bn 378.png
.pn +1
class found at Corinth stands quite by itself, and has been
termed “Proto-Corinthian,” though the justice of this title has
been strongly combated by some scholars. On many of the
Sicilian and Italian sites a class of small vases[1012] is found which
differs from the authentic Corinthian examples of the same
forms, and may not impossibly denote local fabrics. If this is so,
they would stand in the same relation to the genuine Corinthian
as the Boeotian Geometrical vases to those of the Dipylon,
forming a sort of supplementary fabric. At all events, such
imitations of a popular ware might reasonably be expected.
M. Pottier maintains that five distinct varieties of clay may
be observed, which partially serve as a basis for classification,
apart from questions of style and ornamentation. They are
as follows: (1) small vases of a greenish-yellow clay found in
Greece, especially at Corinth, but rare in Italy; (2) vases of
cream-coloured clay from Boeotia, and large kraters from
Cervetri; (3) vases of reddish clay from Boeotia, Euboea, and
Etruria; (4) vases of white and grey clay, very numerous in
Italy; (5) vases of yellow clay, chiefly found in Italy. Some
of the “Proto-Corinthian” wares belong to Class (1), but as a
rule they are marked off from the rest by technique as well as
decoration. This first class is without doubt exclusively local,
and represents the κέραμος Κορίνθιος of Pollux; the same clay // Tr: keramos Korinthios
is even used at Corinth at the present day. On one of the
Penteskuphia pinakes (see p. #316#), the clay of which differs
from the rest, a potter is represented making an aryballos of
“Proto-Corinthian” form[1013]; but the majority belong to the second
class, which is also local, and includes the large kraters of
advanced style with Corinthian inscriptions. In colour and
porosity the clay resembles that of Boeotia. The red clay of
Class (3) suggests a connection with Chalkis, a question which
needs future consideration (see below, p. #321#); (4) and (5)
present analogies to the native clays of Italy, and include all
the local imitative fabrics. The older varieties with merely
.bn 379.png
.pn +1
linear decoration are most largely found at Corinth and Syracuse,
and the later with incised lines and figures of animals or
men are comparatively rare. But as far as the present state
of our knowledge permits, it is certainly possible to claim as
Corinthian, at least in a sense, all the varieties of fabrics which
have been hitherto mentioned, except probably the “Proto-Corinthian.”
In describing these fabrics in detail, it will be found more
convenient to ignore the technical differences, and adopt the
more chronologically accurate system of classification which
follows the development of the decoration. We thus obtain five
distinct classes,[1014] which may be summarised as follows:—
.fs 95%
.in +6
.ti -4
1. “Proto-Corinthian” wares (called by M. Pottier the Corinthian
Geometric style). 750–650 B.C., and later.
.ti -4
2. Corinthian vases with incised scale-patterns or imbrications.
.ti -4
3. Corinthian vases with floral decoration, ground-ornaments, and
figures not incised.
.ti -4
4. Similar vases, but with figures incised.
[Classes 2 to 4 roughly cover the seventh century.]
.ti -4
5. Corinthian vases without ground-ornaments, and with large friezes
of animals or human figures; incised details. 600–550 B.C.
.in
.fs 100%
1. Although the priority of the so-called Proto-Corinthian
or Corinthian Geometrical pottery is certain, the term is,
strictly speaking, applied to vases of different dates, which are
only connected by form with the original fabrics.[1015] The distinction
lies in the fact that the earlier vases have linear
decoration without purple accessories or incised lines, both of
which occur in the more developed examples as the result
of the revolution effected by the Corinthian painters.[1016] They
therefore fall into two main classes, of which the earlier includes
the larger vases with purely Geometrical decoration of a simple
type, doubtless reflecting the original local Geometrical pottery,
.bn 380.png
.pn +1
and sometimes with zones of animals. The figures are merely
in black silhouette. In the later class the vases are small, sometimes
diminutive, but of developed style, with zones of animals
of the later Corinthian type, and with purple accessories and
incised lines. The earlier class date from the eighth to the
seventh century B.C.; the later cannot be older than the sixth.
For the dating of the earlier group some evidence may be
derived from the results of excavations at Syracuse, founded
from Corinth in 735 B.C. In its earliest cemeteries, as also at
Megara Hyblaea, numerous Proto-Corinthian vases of the
earlier class have been found.[1017] In Italy Proto-Corinthian
wares were found in trench-tombs of about 750–650 B.C., and
in the earlier chamber-tombs (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.). The older
class disappears by the end of the seventh century, when the
typical Corinthian aryballos (see p. #197#) takes its place.
Besides Corinth and Syracuse, Proto-Corinthian vases have
been found in considerable numbers at the Argive Heraion,
at Thebes, and in the island of Aegina, and more rarely at
Tiryns, Athens, Eleusis, Tanagra, Smyrna, and Hissarlik. Out
of thirty in the Berlin Museum, eight certainly came from
Corinth. Taking this into consideration, and also the Corinthian
origin of Syracuse, it is evident that there is, apart from their
style, a strong presumption in favour of their Corinthian origin.[1018]
As long ago, however, as 1877 Helbig cast doubts on this
and proposed to locate them at the rival commercial centre
of Chalkis.[1019] He was followed by Dümmler, Klein, and others,[1020]
but recently Aegina[1021] and Boeotia[1022] have also been suggested,
the latter at least for the earlier class. Yet more recently the
pendulum has swung in another direction, that of Argos,[1023]
chiefly in view of the extensive finds at the Heraion (not yet
published). Two specimens have recently been made known
which bear inscriptions, but neither yields very definite
.bn 381.png
.pn +1
evidence. One is a signed vase (with the name of Pyrrhos[1024]),
in which the alphabet is mixed, but mainly Chalcidian in
character; in the other[1025] the inscriptions are fragmentary, but
though the letter Σ appears in Argive, not Corinthian, form, // Tr: S
the Λ is not of the peculiar Argive
.pm ii glyph_sigma_argive.jpg 'Argive Σ' '' ''
type, but
.pm ii glyph_lambda_sicyonian.jpg 'Sicyonian Λ' '' '.'
The Pyrrhos
inscription cannot be much later than 700 B.C., and thus
ranks as the earliest known “signature.” Mr. Hoppin,[1026]
arguing from the Heraion finds, regards the Proto-Corinthian
fabrics as a direct offshoot of Mycenaean pottery, not as
forming a link between the Geometrical and the Corinthian.
The term, however, may be preserved, as implying priority in
point of time, and it cannot be said as yet that the Corinthian
theory is absolutely disproved.
.pm onplate XIX
.il id=pl19 fn=plate19_382.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
“Proto-Corinthian” and Early Corinthian Vases (British Museum).1–3, 5, Early Corinthian; 4, 6, “Proto-Corinthian.”
.ca-
.pm offplate
The dominating form is that of the alabastron or lekythos,
a pear-shaped vase with flat round lip and flat handle. The
aryballos form is also known, as are the skyphos, pyxis, and a
small krater. A characteristic shape is the jug with flat base
rising in pyramidal form to a long cylindrical neck, with trefoil
lip and handle.[1027] The earlier group, although of “Corinthian”
technique, usually have only “Geometrical” ornament, such as
water-birds or simple patterns; hence they have been held, for
instance, by M. Pottier, to represent the true type of Corinthian
Geometrical pottery. But it does not seem that the Geometrical
style was ever popular at Corinth, and there are many signs that
the Proto-Corinthian fabrics were to a great extent influenced
directly by Mycenaean wares. The patterns, which are in black
monochrome, are on the smaller vases limited to bands, rows
of dots, or a kind of “tongue”-pattern of stylised leaves. The
Proto-Corinthian vases found in Aegina[1028] form in some respects
a class by themselves, being often of considerable size; they also
include some unusual varieties, such as cups, and even amphorae.[1029]
.bn 382.png
.bn 383.png
.bn 384.png
.pn +1
They usually have Geometrical decoration in the form of zigzags,
maeander, chevrons, triangles, or parallel rays; on the larger
ones are found friezes of animals, such as dogs pursuing deer,
bulls, or water-fowl.
.in +2
.fs 90%
[Examples of this class are: B.M. A 487, 1050 ff. (see Plate #XVII:pl17#.
figs. 4 and 6, #XIX:pl19#. fig. 1); Louvre E 13, 18, 32, 309, 375, 390, 396
(Atlas, pls. 39, 40); Berlin, 316–35; Ann. dell’ Inst. 1877, pls. C, D,
U, V; Ath. Mitth. 1897, pl. 7 (B.M. A 1530, of Aegina type).]
.fs 100%
.in
The second class is one of considerable interest. It consists
of a series of miniature vases, of which some twenty in all are
known, of the pear-shaped lekythos form, with minute but
skilfully-executed figures in a very advanced style. At their
head for beauty and delicacy of execution stands the exquisite
little Macmillan lekythos in the British Museum,[1030] a masterpiece
of its kind. There is also a fine specimen in Berlin (No. 336),
others in the Louvre[1031] and the Syracuse Museum (the latter
from the local excavations), and three very fine ones have
recently been acquired by the Boston Museum.[1032] But for size
and richness, if not for beauty, all these are surpassed by a
marvellous vase in the Chigi collection at Florence.[1033] This
is a jug or oinochoë, decorated with no less than four friezes,
two of which are broad, with numerous figures, the two alternate
forming narrow borders to these, with hunting scenes. The
colouring is most remarkable, the figures being painted in black,
yellow ochre, and bright crimson on a cream ground, with a
lavish use of incised lines, and on the upper narrow frieze the
animals are actually painted in pale buff on a black ground.
The upper large frieze represents a combat, with serried ranks of
warriors and horsemen advancing to meet each other, those on
the right all having elaborate emblems on their shields (birds,
ox-heads, Gorgon-heads, etc.). On the lower friezes the figures
fall into groups: a four-horse chariot and a row of boys on
horseback; a Sphinx; hunters slaying a lion; and lastly a
.bn 385.png
.pn +1
fragmentary group, clearly representing the Judgment of Paris
(see Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.). It is the figures of this group which bear the
inscriptions alluded to above. As an instance of the extreme
richness and delicacy of the painting, attention should be called
to the chariot-horses in the lower frieze, which are drawn slightly
in advance of each other, and painted respectively yellow, black,
red, and yellow.
The Macmillan lekythos, in spite of its diminutive size, is
decorated with no less than three friezes of human figures and
animals, as well as other ornaments; the main design represents a
combat of warriors; the next, a race of boys on horseback; the
lowest, dogs pursuing a hare, and a crouching ape. The total
height of the vase is barely 2¾ inches, and yet every detail in these
friezes is marked with surprising care and accuracy, the shield-devices
of the warriors, for instance, being drawn with wonderful
minuteness. The three Boston vases are interesting for
their subjects: on one is Bellerophon slaying the Chimaera;
on the next, a hero attacking a lion with a human head on its
back (a monster no doubt suggested by the Chimaera); the
third has the favourite early subject of Herakles’ combat with
the Centaurs. In all these vases the use of a red colour on
the human figures should be noted, a technical device which
we have already noted in the figures on the Melian amphorae
(see above, p. #301#).
It is abundantly clear that such work could not have been
produced in the eighth, or even the seventh, century; the style
is virtually that of the subsequent black-figured vases, and we
are therefore forced to the conclusion that these miniature vases
were made under the more or less direct influence of the later
Corinthian wares proper, at a time when that style was
developing into the black-figured.
With the Proto-Corinthian ware may be linked a series of
vases in the form of animals, human heads, etc., which imitate
Oriental porcelain vases and show an early development of the
plastic art which is remarkable for its advanced style (see
pp. #127#, #492#). The decoration of these vases is usually of a
simple Geometrical character. They are found in Rhodes and
on many other sites, such as Eretria, Vulci, and Nola.
.bn 386.png
.pn +1
2. Vases with incised imbrications.—The importance of this
class is betokened by the appearance of the incised line, which
as a matter of pure technique is of course only a revival from
the primitive fabrics, but as an adjunct to figure-decoration in
order to express details is an entirely new feature (see above,
p. #306#, and below, p. #313#). It was probably derived from
metal-work, in which it had long been familiar, as the Boeotian
Geometrical fibulae and the early Corinthian or Chalcidian
bronze reliefs testify. Although destined largely to revolutionise
design, it was at first used with restraint. In the vases under
consideration it is confined to the imbrications[1034] or scale-patterns
with which the body is largely covered (Plate #XIX:pl19#. fig. 3).
They were produced by means of a compass in which the graving-tool
was fixed, the edge of each scale forming an arc of a circle,
the centre points of which are usually visible. This scale-pattern
is not a new feature in the decoration of vases; it appears in a
painted form on many Mycenaean specimens,[1035] and was also
adopted by the Ionian painters of Daphnae in the Egyptian Delta
(see p. #352#). But as a more satisfactory result was obtained by
incising, the Corinthian variety soon became exceedingly popular.
The effect is often enhanced by the use of red colour.[1036] In some
cases this ornament is combined with painted friezes of animals
(as in the Louvre vase E 421). The shapes employed are
various, but a new and conspicuous variety is the large jug or
olpe, with circular lip and large discs attached on either side to
the tops of the handles. Attempts have been made to dissociate
this fabric from Corinth, by attributing it to Rhodes, Ionia,
and Sicily[1037]; but although it is certainly true that large numbers
were found in Rhodes and in Sicily, the claims of neither prevail
over those of Corinth, and the most that can be said with any
certainty is that some are local imitations. It is, moreover, possible
to discover their prototypes in the Proto-Corinthian wares.
3. Vases with floral decoration, but no incised lines (about
700–650 B.C.).—Towards the end of the eighth century may be
observed an influx of Oriental motives, transforming the
.bn 387.png
.pn +1
Corinthian style, just as at Athens it transformed the local style,
producing the Phaleron ware. Its effect can also be observed in
Etruria (Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.). It is largely due to historical causes,
such as the development of Greek commerce and colonial expansion,
and generally to the fusion of Dorian and Ionian elements.
Hence the prominent characteristic which distinguishes the
new variety from the Proto-Corinthian; namely, the employment
of vegetable ornament, not from direct observation of nature,
but conventionalised. These patterns seem to be largely drawn
from Oriental textile embroideries, and mainly take the form of
rosettes, leaves, and flowers strewn all over the field; according
to some writers, this is the explanation of the phrase spargentes
lineas intus,[1038] used in connection with the Corinthian painters
Aridikes and Telephanes. Ground-ornaments are almost unknown
in Oriental art; but their adoption from the embroideries
would only exemplify the principle, universal in early art, of
imitating in one material the salient features of another. It has
been suggested that these flowers and leaves are intended to
represent the ground on which the animals are walking. If this is
so, the effect is due to a principle already existing in Mycenaean
art—the conventional rendering of perspective by placing objects
whose real position is beyond the principal subjects in the
same vertical plane with them. Another favourite pattern,
either as a ground-ornament or as part of the subordinate
decoration, is a combination of the palmette and lotos-flower,
picked out with purple accessories[1039]; this pattern is purely conventional,
and often assumes colossal dimensions in relation to
the size of the vase. The purple accessories, which now become
very common, may possibly be connected with another traditional
Corinthian invention, that of Ekphantos, who used
a red pigment made from pounded earth (see p. #395#).[1040]
As regards shapes, the alabastron and aryballos[1041] are preeminently
.bn 388.png
.bn 389.png
.bn 390.png
.pn +1
popular; the flat-bottomed jug, the pyxis or covered
jar, and the skyphos or kotyle, are also found (see Plate #XIX:pl19#.
figs. 1, 2, 5). There arises now a tendency in the larger vases
to divide the body into zones or friezes, which henceforth
become a characteristic feature. The subjects are strictly
limited to animals such as the lion, or various types of birds;
and friezes of running dogs and other quadrupeds now become
the typical Corinthian motive.
.pm onplate XX
To face page 312
.il id=pl20 fn=plate20_388.jpg w=285px ew=50%
.ca
1. COVERED JAR OF CORINTHIAN FABRIC.
2. “RHODIAN” OINOCHOE.
(British Museum).
.ca-
.pm offplate
4. Vases with floral decoration and figures with incised
lines (about 650–600 B.C.).—In this next stage, the date
of which corresponds with the later trench-tombs and older
chamber-tombs of Etruria (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.), there is a
marked tendency of the vases to increase in size, and several
new forms are either introduced for the first time or increase
in popularity. Besides the ever-popular aryballos and
alabastron, there are various forms of covered jars, the
cylindrical pyxis, and the so-called lekane, a sort of tureen;
also various drinking-cups, the kotyle, the so-called kothon, and
the kylix, the last a new type. Its prototype is perhaps to
be sought in the shallow four-handled bowls of the Boeotian
Geometrical ware, and it is marked by its bent-over rim and
low foot.[1042]
The decoration loses all restraint, and the prevailing idea
with the artist is the horror vacui which impels him to fill up
every vacant part of the surface, at the expense of utterly conventionalising
his figures and ornaments and distorting their
forms (cf. Plate #XIX:pl19#. figs. 1, 5, and #XX:pl20#. fig. 1). The vases
contrast unfavourably with their Ionian contemporaries, in which,
however profuse the ground-ornaments, the importance of the
figures is never lost sight of, and they never fail to strike the eye.
Incised lines and purple accessories are employed freely, and
even the rosettes are always marked by cross-wise incisions.
Incision as a method of ornamenting vases was of course
always known from the earliest times, but it was not until now
employed within and round painted designs. Hitherto the only
alternatives were plain silhouettes (as in Geometrical vases) or
half-opaque, half-outlined figures (as in Mycenaean and some
.bn 391.png
.pn +1
early Ionian vases). The former, however, were too conventional,
the latter too elaborate, and the new method of painting plus
engraving reconciled the two, being at once more realistic and
more rapid. It is generally supposed that this method was a
Corinthian invention (compare its use in the imbricated vases,
p. #311#), but it is not unknown in early Attic vases, and Böhlau
attributes its origin to an early Ionian tendency to imitate
metal ware.[1043] But this was an anomaly, and the Ionians
never took to the incising method, preferring outline designs
or inner lines of white paint (see p. #331#). In any case the
Corinthians were the first to adopt it and popularise it.
The subjects, which now begin to present greater interest,
include all kinds of animals and monsters, arranged in friezes,
and by degrees human figures, and even scenes from mythology,
make their appearance. Some vases have only decorative
ornament, such as a flower of four long, pointed petals, which
is frequently found on the aryballi.[1044] The animals include the
lion, panther, boar, bull, ram, deer, goat, swan, and eagle; the
monsters are Gryphons, Sphinxes, or Sirens, and a sea-deity
of which the upper part is human (both male and female), the
lower is in the form of a sinuous fish-tail, and the figure is
often winged in addition.[1045] It is possible that in these figures
we may see the local sea-deities Palaemon and Ino-Leukothea.
The human figures are either single, ranged in friezes, or in
groups; the favourite types are combats of two warriors and
Bacchanalian dances; hunting scenes; and warriors setting out
in chariots. The mythological scenes include the combat of
Herakles with the Centaurs,[1046] and scenes from the Trojan War,
such as the combat of Ajax and Aeneas, or the episode of
Dolon.[1047]
So far, then, in the three groups of Corinthian fabrics proper,
.bn 392.png
.pn +1
we are able to trace the working of M. Pottier’s law of the
hiérarchie des genres,[1048] the law which was made by M. Dumont
the basis of his work Les Céramiques de Grèce propre (vol. i.,
dealing with the earlier fabrics). According to this law, the
decoration of vases advances by a logical process from linear
patterns to floral ornament, and then from animals to human,
and finally mythological, figures. Another feature in this group
is that inscriptions now appear for the first time. They became
exceedingly popular at Corinth, and on most of the vases with
figure-subjects they may be found, each person bearing a name,
whether the scene is mythological or not.[1049] The fashion seems
to have received an impetus from the chest of Kypselos, which
was largely a Corinthian work, and often shows close parallel
with the vases (see below). We have a signed vase with figures
in this style by Chares (Louvre E 609), and others by Timonidas
(Athens 620), and Milonidas (a pinax in Louvre).[1050] The abundance
of these inscriptions has done much to increase our knowledge
of the somewhat peculiar Corinthian alphabet (see
Chapter XVII.).
Among the vases of this period one of the most remarkable
is the so-called Dodwell vase in Munich (Fig. #90:fig090#),[1051]
found at Mertese, near Corinth, about the year 1800, and purchased
by the explorer Dodwell. It is a cylindrical jar or box
(pyxis), with cover, decorated round the sides and on the top.
Round the body are two friezes of animals, with numerous
flowers as ground-ornaments; on the top of the cover is a
frieze representing a boar-hunt, in which eight fancifully-named
personages take more or less active part. Of these Philon lies
dead under the boar’s feet; Thersandros attacks it with a
sword in front, and Pakon discharges an arrow at it from
behind. Behind him Andrytas hurls a spear, and he is followed
by four inactive figures, all draped and unarmed—Dorimachos,
Sakis, Alka ... and Agamemnon. The scene is closed by
a heraldic group of two Sphinxes. It will be observed that
.bn 393.png
.pn +1
here, as in other contemporary scenes with human figures, the
ground-ornaments are already showing a tendency to die
out; perhaps under the influence of Ionia, where it was soon
discovered that they interfered with the effect of figures in
action. The alphabet of the inscriptions enables us to date
this vase about 650–620 B.C.
.il id=fig090 fn=fig090_393.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 90. THE DODWELL PYXIS (COVER).
The pinakes, or votive tablets, from Penteskuphia, of which
mention has been made elsewhere (p. #51#), form an important
feature in this group, both from their subjects, their inscriptions,
and the method of painting. They appear to range in date
from 650 to 550 B.C., and fall into three classes in point of
style. The earliest have designs in rude silhouette without
incised lines; in the second only the contours of the figures are
.bn 394.png
.bn 395.png
.bn 396.png
.pn +1
incised; the third are like the vases, with incised lines and
purple details. In a few cases the clay is red, not drab-coloured.
Some are decorated on both sides, but the majority on one
only, and they were clearly intended for hanging up in a temple.
Two of them are signed by artists, Timonidas and Milonidas,[1052]
and there are other interesting inscriptions, besides the ordinary
dedications to Poseidon and Amphitrite (see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.).
The subjects are partly the same as on the vases, but the
majority fall under two heads: (a) Poseidon and Amphitrite,
standing or in a chariot (Fig. #115:vol2_fig115#); (b) genre scenes from
Corinthian industries, such as miners digging out clay, potters
and painters at work, and vessels exporting pottery over the
sea (cf. pp. #207#, #216#, and Chapter XV. #§ 5:vol2_sec15_5#). Of the subjects
common to the vases, Oriental animal-types and horses occur
most frequently; also rosettes and floral ground-ornaments.
.pm onplate XXI
.il id=pl21 fn=plate21_394.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca 1. Imitation Corinthian Krater, Return of Hephaistos; 2, Corinthian Krater with Boar-hunt (British Museum).
.pm offplate
5. The vases of the fifth class (600–550 B.C.) are characterised
by the prevalence of human and mythological subjects, with
large friezes of animals, a general use of incised lines, and an
absence of ground-ornaments. They are mostly of considerable
size, but small vases still continued to be made during
the sixth century, as is seen in the “Proto-Corinthian” lekythi.
The amphora and hydria now first make their appearance; the
later lekythi approach more to the Attic form.[1053] One or two
other typical shapes may also be noticed, such as the column-handled
krater (Plate #XXI:pl21#.) and the trefoil-mouthed jug with a
panel on one side of the vase only; the prototype of the former
we have seen in the krater of Aristonoös. Another important
feature is the general use of a red ground in the place of the
old creamy white; and yet another, the use of white accessories,
especially for the flesh of female figures. It should be noted
that this white is always applied directly on the clay, as in
Ionian fabrics, not as in the Attic, upon the black varnish.
We may bear in mind that it was about this time that the
Athenian Eumaros marem a femina discrevit, according to Pliny;
but his date is uncertain, and the bearing of this invention on
the vase-paintings is not to be accepted without hesitation.
For the faces of male figures purple is often used, and, generally
.bn 397.png
.pn +1
speaking, the vases tend to present a polychrome appearance.
This again is an Ionian characteristic.
The subjects now take a much wider range, and include
almost every variety known in the earlier part of the sixth
century. Friezes of animals seldom form the main motive of
decoration, but are placed in subordination either on the
shoulder or low down on the body. Some of the older types
still linger, such as the monsters and fish-tailed sea-deities, and
also that of a heraldic group of two animals with a palmette
and lotos pattern between, suggesting the old Assyrian motive
of two animals guarding the sacred tree. Generally, there is a
great advance in composition; but two traditional principles
are still observed—the juxtaposition of figures turned in the
same direction, as in Oriental compositions, and a symmetrical
disposition of the two sides converging to a centre, a “Continental”
principle already seen in the Dipylon vases. The
subjects taken from daily life include combats, banquets, Bacchic
or grotesque dances, hunting-scenes, warriors setting out for
battle, and processions. Some appear now for the first time,
as, for instance, the banquets. Among the mythological scenes,
Herakles and his adventures find most favour; scenes from the
Trojan cycle are far from uncommon; and other myths of more
isolated character are those of Amphiaraos, Perseus, and the
Theban cycle (Tydeus killing Ismene). Many of the mythological
scenes are really only genre scenes with names added;
for instance, the krater in the Louvre with Herakles’ reception
by Eurytos (E 635), is only an ordinary banquet-scene in
composition, but for the inscriptions; and so with many others,
as we have also observed in the preceding class.
It may suffice to describe one vase in detail as typical of
the later Corinthian wares. This is the so-called Amphiaraos
krater in Berlin,[1054] a column-handled krater of considerable
size and very richly decorated. It belongs to a series exceptionally
well represented in the Louvre (E 613–39; all found,
like this, at Cervetri), and illustrating the absolutely latest
development of Corinthian pictorial art. Its special interest
is that it affords a close comparison in several points with
.bn 398.png
.pn +1
the chest of Kypselos. The subjects are disposed in two
rows all round the vase, of which the upper is the more
important, containing two mythological subjects. These, which
are unequally divided, one occupying more of the circumference
than the other, are the Departure of Amphiaraos and the
Funeral Games for Pelias,[1055] the ἀγὼν ὁ ἐπὶ Πελίᾳ of Pausanias.[1056] // Tr: agôn ho epi Pelia
On the lower frieze are seven boys taking part in a horse-race,
seven groups of combatants, and two marching hoplites. It will
be noted that there is no frieze of animals.
The Amphiaraos scene depicts that hero in the act of
ascending his war-chariot, in which the driver Baton stands; he
turns to look at his family behind, consisting of two daughters,
a son, and an infant in the nurse’s arms, and last of all his wife
Eriphyle, who stands in the rear with the pearl necklace, the
price of her treachery. Her children seem to be supplicating
for her. In the background Amphiaraos’ house is indicated by
a Doric building. The correspondence of this scene with the
description of the Kypselos chest[1057] is extraordinary; the latter
might almost be a description of the vase. An interesting
feature of this painting is formed by the animals which are
scattered over the scene: a hare, a hedgehog, an owl and
another bird, a serpent, a scorpion, and a lizard or salamander.[1058]
The funeral games for Pelias adjoined the Amphiaraos scene
on the chest, just as they do here, except that the scene on the
vase is only an excerpt from the contest of the Pentathlon,
which is there complete. We have here only the wrestling (by
Peleus and Hippalkimos), and in place of the other scenes a
chariot-race, with the judges waiting to decide the result; as
on the chest, tripods are standing ready as prizes for the victor.
It must not, of course, be supposed that these scenes are
directly copied from the chest—the discrepancies are too great,
although the parallels are very interesting; but the only object
of such comparisons is to assist us to an idea of the appearance
of these great contemporary works of art.[1059]
.bn 399.png
.pn +1
One of the chief features of this class is the almost total
disappearance of the ground-ornaments. Sometimes indeed
a frieze of animals with the old profusion of rosettes is
combined on the same vase with a design of figures on a
clear field; but, generally speaking, rosettes are not found
with the figure subjects. Their place is almost supplied by
the inscriptions, which become more and more extensively
employed, even for animals. Accessory colours are used in
a purely conventional fashion, not to reproduce nature, but—probably—to
reproduce metal-work. Thus we may surmise
that white is intended to give the effect of silver (or ivory)
and red that of copper (or gold), just as such substances were
used on the chest of Kypselos in order to give variety and
picturesqueness to the surface. The black then represents the
ground of bronze or wood.
The sixth-century Corinthian vase-paintings have a special
importance at the present day, because they are almost the
only remnant left to us of the artistic products of the city
at that time.[1060] Though not of course to be reckoned as
examples of the higher art, they yet reflect it in some
measure, and help us to reconstruct such works as the chest
of Kypselos, almost every subject on which finds a parallel
in the Corinthian vases. And it is possible that they are
important in another respect. We know from Pliny that
there was a very influential school of painting centred at
Corinth in this century, which is represented by the names
of Kleanthes and Aridikes, Ekphantos, Aregon, and perhaps
also Kimon of Kleonae. Although Professor Robert[1061] has endeavoured
to show that the traditions are untrustworthy, and
places Kimon in the seventh century, Kleanthes later, the
probability is that they may fairly be upheld, and Pliny’s
dates accepted. Allusion has already been made to the inventions
traditionally associated with Aridikes and Ekphantos;
but Kimon belongs to a later development of painting
altogether, and must be reserved for a later chapter. Of
Kleanthes it is only stated that he “invented linear drawing,”
whatever that may mean; Pliny, our informant, was perhaps
.bn 400.png
.bn 401.png
.bn 402.png
.pn +1
hardly aware himself, and is no more definite as to the
period at which he lived. We can only, therefore, assume
that he marks the epoch of some new departure or advance
in contour or outline drawing.[1062]
.pm onplate XXII
.il id=pl22 fn=plate22_400.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Chalcidian Vase: Herakles and Geryon; Quadriga (Bibliothèque Nationale).
.pm offplate
There are a few vases which, on account of various
peculiarities, can only be described as “imitation Corinthian.”
Among these may be mentioned one with an inscription in the
Sicyonian alphabet (Berlin 1147), and a krater in the British
Museum (B 42 on Plate #XXI:pl21#.) with designs on a white ground,
which from the similarity of its style to the Berlin vase may
be linked therewith.[1063] The late F. Dümmler was of opinion that
these two vases were made at Sikyon. There is also the group
of vases from Caere in the Campana collection of the Louvre,
which have usually been regarded as imitations of Corinthian
ware made in Italy; but M. Pottier in his catalogue makes
no distinction between these and the genuine Corinthian
fabrics.
.h4
§ 4. Chalcidian Vases
A very puzzling class of vases, about which little is at present
known, is that formed by the so-called Chalcidian group. They
are so named from the fact of their bearing inscriptions which
may undoubtedly be referred to the alphabet of Chalkis in
Eretria; but there is no evidence that they were actually
made there. We know, however, that Chalkis was a great
art-centre and rival of Corinth in the seventh and sixth
centuries, and was especially famous for work in metal. As,
therefore, more than one of these vases bears evident indications,
in the shape of the handles, the ornamentation, and
other details, of an imitation of metallic originals, there may
be some ground for the attribution. Only a dozen or so of
these vases with Chalcidian inscriptions are known, and
several of them are in character almost to be ranked with the
developed B.F. Attic wares; their date cannot therefore be earlier
.bn 403.png
.pn +1
than the middle of the sixth century, probably about 560–540
B.C. On the other hand, they often present a close
parallel, especially in the ornamental patterns, to the later
Corinthian wares,[1064] whence it seems probable that they form,
like the so-called Tyrrhenian amphorae (see below), a connecting-link
between Corinth and Athens. While as yet it is impossible
to obtain a definite idea of the characteristics of “Chalcidian”
vases, the attempt to classify other uninscribed vases with them
can only be very tentative, although there is more than one
in the British Museum, in the Louvre, and elsewhere, which
presents some feature especially typical of the inscribed
examples.[1065]
The prevailing shape is the amphora, all but one of the
inscribed group coming under this heading, in which the
outline of the body approaches nearer to a pure ellipse than
is usual in this form; the typical ornaments are rows of
oblique zigzags and a peculiar variety of the lotos-pattern.
An occasional rosette in the field preserves a trace of
Corinthian influence. The subjects are mainly mythological,
such as the combat of Herakles and Geryon, battle-scenes
from the Trojan legends, etc.; and two points are worth
noting as apparently characteristic of the group: (1) the
tendency to represent fallen figures in full face, which is very
rare in archaic vase-painting; (2) the type of Geryon, who is
winged, and not, as in the Attic vases, “three men joined
together,” as Pausanias describes the figure on the chest of
Kypselos, but a triple-headed, six-armed monster.
The most typical example of the class is the amphora in
the Hope collection at Deepdene,[1066] with scenes from the
Trojan War. Ajax stands over the body of Achilles, defending
it from the attacks of Glaukos, whom he has wounded,
and of Paris, who has just discharged his bow; behind the
latter advance Aeneas and two other Trojans with spears,
while a fourth falls back wounded. Achilles and the two
.bn 404.png
.pn +1
wounded men are all shown in full face.[1067] The combat is
watched by a stiff archaic figure of Athena, with serpent-fringed
aegis, and behind her, standing apart, is Diomede,
having his wounded hand bound up by Sthenelos. The
drawing on the whole is accurate, and the style more
vigorous and less conventional than that of the Attic vases.
Two of the group represent Herakles encountering Geryon:
an amphora in the British Museum (B 155) and one in the
Bibliothèque at Paris (202). In the latter the figure of Athena
is almost exactly repeated from the Deepdene vase, and behind
her is a group of cattle. The reverse of this vase represents
a quadriga seen from the front (a typical Chalcidian subject).
Both sides of the vase are illustrated in Plate #XXII:pl22#.
Until the whole series of Chalcidian vases is properly studied
and estimated,[1068] it is difficult to give an adequate account of
this important group; we append, however, a list of those
bearing inscriptions in the alphabet, and a few others for
various reasons associated with them.[1069]
.bn 405.png
.pn +1
.h4
§5. “Tyrrhenian Amphorae”
There is a large and important class of vases, not differing
in technique from the Attic B.F. vases proper, yet clearly of
earlier date, and while not exclusively Attic in all their
characteristics, yet sufficiently so to suggest that they are
closely connected therewith. The problem which these vases
have for a long time presented is whether they merely represent
an early stage of the Attic B.F. fabrics, linking them to the
“Proto-Attic,” or whether they owe their origin to foreign, e.g.
Corinthian, sources.
About eighty vases, nearly all amphorae, have been recognised
as presenting the characteristics of this class, and all have
been found in Italy, chiefly at Cervetri and Vulci; hence they
have been known for many years. As long ago as 1830 the
name “Tyrrhenian amphorae” was applied to them by Gerhard,
meaning thereby a sort of cross between Greek vases proper
and those of obviously Italian origin. The name has adhered
to them, and was also used generally to describe the characteristic
form of amphora, with its cylindrical neck and egg-shaped
body[1070]; but it was not long before it began to be realised that
the vases bore inscriptions in the Attic dialect, and, further, that
the subjects on them had much in common with the later
Corinthian fabrics. Thereupon sprang up the idea, fostered by
Loeschcke,[1071] that the vases were made by Athenian potters, but
that they were largely indebted to Corinthian—or, as Loeschcke
called them, Peloponnesian—prototypes.[1072] For the last ten
years or so they have been generally known as “Corintho-Attic,”
but Thiersch, the most recent writer on the subject,[1073] reverts
to the old name of Tyrrhenian, using it of course in a purely
conventional sense. His conclusion is that the class is to be
regarded as “old Attic,” rather than imitative of Corinthian,
and he shows clearly that it must be regarded as a development
of the Vourva vases (p. #299#), as will be seen from an
.bn 406.png
.bn 407.png
.bn 408.png
.pn +1
examination of the vase given in Fig. #89:fig089#, p. 299; but that it is
entirely free from Corinthian influence can hardly be maintained.
We have seen that the Vourva class borrowed from Corinth
the friezes of animals which are also characteristic of this
group, and it is possible that this influence continued to make
itself felt. At all events, this ware belongs to the first half
of the sixth century B.C., and stands in close relation to the
François vase, and others which represent the earliest school of
Attic B.F. artists. Its specially Attic characteristic are, according
to Holwerda, (1) the inscriptions, (2) the clay, (3) the types
of the lotos and other ornaments, (4) the importance given to
one subject, (5) the thin proportions of the figures.[1074]
.pm onplate XXIII
.il id=pl23 fn=plate23_406.jpg w=303px ew=90%
.ca “Tyrrhenian” Amphora: Death of Polyxena (Brit. Mus.).
.pm offplate
The vases are for the most part decorated in the same manner,
with an elaborate lotos-and-honeysuckle pattern on either side
of the neck, and several friezes of figures, usually three, covering
the body, of which all but the principal one are composed of
animals or monsters. The principal frieze is always the upper
one, covering the body from the neck to the middle. The
friezes are more numerous on the earlier examples; they become
fewer as Corinthian characteristics give way to Attic. Altogether,
these vases are remarkably homogeneous, both in style,
in shape, and in technique, and it has even been suggested
that the whole series is the work of one man; nor is this an
impossibility.
An interesting feature is formed by the inscriptions,[1075] which
are of frequent occurrence. They tend, however, to degenerate
into meaningless collocations of letters, which some have thought
to represent Corinthian inscriptions misunderstood; but the
alphabet is pure Attic throughout, except for the double forms
on the Berlin amphora (see below), and a Chalcidian
.pm ii glyph_gamma_chalcidian.jpg 'Chalcidian Γ' '' ''
for Γ
on a vase in the British Museum. The artist is fond of giving
his figures surnames, and thus we find Hermes styled
Κυλλήνιος, “of Kyllene,” Nestor Πύλιος, “of Pylos,” and Ajax // Tr: Kyllênios: Pylios
[Ὀ]ιλιάδης, “son of Oileus,” a feature which hardly occurs on // Tr: Oiliadês
any other class of vases. The meaningless inscriptions are
not easy to account for; certain groups of letters are repeated
.bn 409.png
.pn +1
over and over again, and it has been suggested by Thiersch
that they are analogous to the friezes of animals, with their
repetitions and combinations. They also seem to serve a
decorative purpose by filling up spaces.
The subjects are mainly mythological, with many features
of interest. For several the artist seems to have had a decided
preference, such as the combats of Herakles with Amazons
and with the Centaur Nessos, that of the Lapiths with the
Centaurs, the adventure of Troilos and Polyxena from the
Trojan legends. Bacchic scenes are altogether wanting, but
on many examples a Corinthian type is adopted in their place,
representing grotesque dancing figures in various attitudes.[1076] Of
scenes from daily life, combats of armed warriors and young riders
galloping prevail above all others; the latter are, as on the
Caeretan hydriae (p. #355#), little more than decorative. Generally
speaking, it is doubtful if Loeschcke’s idea of types borrowed
from the Peloponnese can be maintained; it is true that
some scenes which occur on the chest of Kypselos may be
found, but the treatment is not quite the same; and some
subjects seem to be rather from an Ionic source. The animals
or monsters which form the subordinate friezes include the
Sphinx and Siren; the lion, panther, goat, and deer; the eagle,
swan, and cock.[1077]
Some of the vases call for more than passing mention,
especially the remarkable Berlin vase (Cat. 1704) with the Birth
of Athena, and the richly decorated specimen recently acquired
by the British Museum, with the Death of Polyxena. The former
seems to be the earliest example of its subject, and in the
number and arrangement of the figures it resembles the fine
early Attic amphora in the British Museum (B 147). Its chief
interest is epigraphical, in the use of the double forms (Corinthian
and Attic) in the same word of the letters E
.pm ii glyph_eta_corinthian.jpg 'Corinthian E' '(' ')'
and Κ (Ϙ).[1078]
Over the figure of Hermes is written Ἑρμῆς εἰμὶ Κϙυέλνιος
(sc. Κυλλήνιος), as already noted above. This vase may be
.bn 410.png
.pn +1
regarded as having established the “type” for the subject
so long popular on Attic vases, until Pheidias created a new and
more ideal version.[1079] The Museum vase (Plate #XXIII:pl23#.) has a very
remarkable representation of a subject rare in Greek art, with
several unique features.[1080] The body of Polyxena is carried in
a rigid horizontal position by Ajax Iliades (sc. son of Oïleus)
and two others, to the tomb of Achilles, over which Neoptolemos
stands to perform the fatal deed. Phoenix, Diomede, and
Nestor “of Pylos” are spectators of the act.
The style of the vases as a whole is coarse and clumsy,
though it often rises to a greater standard of merit; the lines
are often mechanically drawn and lifeless, which may be to
some extent the result of imitation. Details of drapery are
seldom shown, except that the dresses are often richly decorated
with incised patterns, but the folds are never indicated.[1081]
.fm
.fn 930
Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 222–3.
.fn-
.fn 931
Wide, in Ath. Mitth. 1896, p. 385 ff.;
see also ibid. 1893, p. 138.
.fn-
.fn 932
Cf. the results from the Argive
Heraion (Waldstein, i. p. 49 ff.).
.fn-
.fn 933
Cf. Horace, Ep. ii. 1, 156: Graecia
capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes intulit
agresti Latio.
.fn-
.fn 934
M. Pottier notes the unexpected
repetition of curvilinear elements in
Geometrical pottery (Louvre Cat. i. p.
223).
.fn-
.fn 935
For Melos, see Jahrbuch, 1886,
p. 112; for Thera, H. von Gaertringen,
Thera, ii. p. 127 ff.; Ath. Mitth. 1903,
p. 1 ff.; for Crete, Brit. School Annual,
1899–1900, p. 91.
.fn-
.fn 936
Cesnola, Cyprus, pl. 29; B.M. Excavations
in Cyprus, p. 103, fig. 150;
Dörpfeld, Troja und Ilion, i. p. 304.
.fn-
.fn 937
See Wide’s study of the pottery in
the Athens Museum, Jahrbuch, xiv.
(1899), pp. 26, 78, 188; xv. (1900),
p. 49.
.fn-
.fn 938
Zur Geschichte d. Anfänge d. Kunst,
p. 1 ff. (Sitzungsber. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss.
Wien, 1870, lxiv. p. 505 ff.).
.fn-
.fn 939
See Bibliography.
.fn-
.fn 940
Perrot and Chipiez, vii. pp. 51, 208.
.fn-
.fn 941
J.H.S. viii. p. 68 ff.; cf. Ath. Mitth.
1887, p. 223 ff.
.fn-
.fn 942
See p. 35, and Ath. Mitth. 1893, p. 73 ff.
.fn-
.fn 943
E.g. B.M. A 383, 384; Louvre, A 490,
491; Ann. dell’ Inst. 1872, pl. K, fig. 12.
.fn-
.fn 944
Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 95.
.fn-
.fn 945
Hist. de l’Art, vii. p. 165, reproduced
in Fig #83:fig083#. The part bracketed denotes
the ornamentation of the neck.
.fn-
.fn 946
See Riegl, Stilfragen, p. 150 ff.
.fn-
.fn 947
E.g. B.M. Cat. of Bronzes, 600.
.fn-
.fn 948
J.H.S. xix. pl. 8.
.fn-
.fn 949
For other instances of ships on Dipylon
vases, see Chapter XV. #§ 7:vol2_sec15_7#; also
Mon. Grecs, xi.–xiii. (1882–4), p. 40 ff.;
Rev. Arch. xxv. (1894), p. 14 ff.
.fn-
.fn 950
Cf. Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, vii. p. 57.
.fn-
.fn 951
Schliemann, Tiryns, pl. 13; J.H.S.
xvii. pl. 3, p. 70.
.fn-
.fn 952
Arch. Zeit. 1885, pl. 8.
.fn-
.fn 953
Jahrbuch, i. (1886), p. 119.
.fn-
.fn 954
The most important of the Dipylon
vases have been published in the Monumenti,
vol. ix. pl. 39, and Annali,
1872, pl. 1, besides the others already
mentioned. See also Cesnola, Cyprus,
pl. 29; Louvre Cat. A 516–19, 526, 575;
Athens Cat. 196–214, 350, etc.
.fn-
.fn 955
Jahrbuch, 1888, p. 325 ff.
.fn-
.fn 956
Hist. de l’Art, vii. p. 212.
.fn-
.fn 957
Monuments Piot, i. p. 35 ff.
.fn-
.fn 958
A 575 in the Louvre, with funeral
scenes; Fig. #86:fig086# below.
.fn-
.fn 959
See Riegl, Stilfragen, p. 173.
.fn-
.fn 960
Riegl, fig. 81.
.fn-
.fn 961
Cat. 306; Jahrbuch, 1888, p. 357.
.fn-
.fn 962
On these fibulae see B.M. Cat. of
Bronzes, p. xxxix, and Nos. 119–21,
3204–5.
.fn-
.fn 963
This would seem to suggest a textile
origin for Geometrical patterns, at least
on Boeotian vases.
.fn-
.fn 964
E.g. B 57–8 in Brit. Mus.
.fn-
.fn 965
Jahrbuch, i. (1886), p. 99 ff.: see
also, for relations with Egypt, p. 114.
.fn-
.fn 966
Dörpfeld, Troja und Ilion, i. p. 304 ff.
.fn-
.fn 967
See Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 232,
and Ath. Mitth. 1892, p. 285.
.fn-
.fn 968
Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 106; Pottier, op.
cit. p. 229.
.fn-
.fn 969
In the B.F. period, pinakes and
prothesis-amphorae (Athens 688–690,
845–847; Berlin 1811–26, 1887–89); in
the R.F. period, the white lekythi.
.fn-
.fn 970
See Pottier, op. cit. i. p. 135 ff.
.fn-
.fn 971
See also Ath. Mitth. xiii. (1888),
p. 280.
.fn-
.fn 972
Ath. Mitth. 1895, pl. 3.
.fn-
.fn 973
See J.H.S. xxii. p. 35.
.fn-
.fn 974
Ionian influence in the early part of
the sixth century is also indicated by the
finds of Rhodian and Naucratite pottery
on the Acropolis at Athens; and in
another way by the style of the vases found
at Vourva and others from Eretria: see
Böhlau, Aus ion. u. ital. Nekrop., p. 116;
Nilsson in Jahrbuch, 1903, p. 124 ff.
.fn-
.fn 975
Cf. Athens 464, 469; Jahrbuch,
1897, pl. 7; Notizie degli Scavi, 1895,
p. 186, as examples of the transition.
.fn-
.fn 976
Cf. the large Boeotian πίθοι, (Plate #XLVII:pl47#., and Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1898,
p. 497 ff.).
.fn-
.fn 977
Athens 665–66: cf. 469.
.fn-
.fn 978
See Chapter XIV.
.fn-
.fn 979
See Chapter XVII.
.fn-
.fn 980
Ashmolean Vases, No. 189.
.fn-
.fn 981
In the Vatican (Helbig, i. p. 435,
No. 641). Reinach, i. 179 = Wiener
Vorl. 1888, 1, 8.
.fn-
.fn 982
For the interpretation of the inscription
see J.H.S. x. p. 187 (Ramsay);
Arch.-epigr. Mitth. aus Oesterr.-Ungarn,
1888, p. 85 (Dümmler); Class. Review,
1900, p. 264 (Richards). The last explanation
(Aristonoös) seems the most
natural. See Chapter XVII.
.fn-
.fn 983
Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 133: cf.
Pottier in Revue Arch. xxviii. (1896),
p. 19. The technique of the vase is not
strictly Mycenaean, as the use of yellow
colour for details implies.
.fn-
.fn 984
Berl. Phil. Woch. 1895, p. 201.
.fn-
.fn 985
See Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 58.
.fn-
.fn 986
That they are an immediate development
of the Dipylon style is indicated
by various features of the later Attic
Geometrical vases (Jahrbuch, 1886,
pp. 98, 120).
.fn-
.fn 987
Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 48, fig. 8 = Plate
XVII. No. 5.
.fn-
.fn 988
Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 46.
.fn-
.fn 989
See p. #246#; and cf. for example Excavations
in Cyprus, p. 73, figs. 126–27.
For a later Ionic vase of similar type see
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1884, pl. 7 (below,
p. #339#).
.fn-
.fn 990
Ath. Mitth. 1890, pls. 10–12; 1893,
pl. 2.
.fn-
.fn 991
Aus ion. u. ital. Nekrop. p. 115 ff.
.fn-
.fn 992
Jahrbuch, 1903, p. 124 ff.
.fn-
.fn 993
Ath. Mitth. 1890, p. 10.
.fn-
.fn 994
Cf. Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1897, p.
446, and Plate #XIX:pl19#. fig. 5 (Corinthian).
.fn-
.fn 995
Wiener Vorl. 1888, pl. 1, figs. 2 and
7: cf. Berlin 1651 = Bull. de Cor. Hell.
1897, p. 448.
.fn-
.fn 996
It also occurs at Daphnae: see
below, p. #352#.
.fn-
.fn 997
Wiener Vorl. 1889, pl. 1, fig. 1.
.fn-
.fn 998
Louvre F 69. For other signatures
see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.
.fn-
.fn 999
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1897, p. 450:
cf. Athens 612 and a Berlin vase = Anzeiger,
1891, p. 116. On this shape see
above, p. 187.
.fn-
.fn 1000
Cat. 473–76. Plate #XVIII:pl18#. gives No.
474.
.fn-
.fn 1001
Melische Thongefässe. See also
Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 213; Jahrbuch,
1887, p. 211.
.fn-
.fn 1002
Athens 477 = Mylonas in Ἐφ. Ἀρχ.
1894, pls. 12–4, p. 226 (admirably reproduced
in colours).
.fn-
.fn 1003
Cf. Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 212.
.fn-
.fn 1004
Athens 475.
.fn-
.fn 1005
Berlin 301 = Reinach, i. 380, 4.
.fn-
.fn 1006
Cf. also J.H.S. viii. pl. 79 and B.M.
A 762–64, 790.
.fn-
.fn 1007
Stilfragen, p. 154.
.fn-
.fn 1008
J.H.S. xxii. p. 46 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1009
Cf. J.H.S. xxii. p. 66.
.fn-
.fn 1010
x. 182.
.fn-
.fn 1011
On the relations of Corinthian and
Rhodian pottery, see Wilisch, Altkor.
Thonindustrie, p. 127. The Corinthian
vases found in Rhodes are roughly contemporaneous
with the so-called Rhodian
fabric.
.fn-
.fn 1012
E.g. Louvre E 460, 467; Berlin
1156 ff. Furtwaengler, Dümmler, and
Wilisch call these Italo-Corinthian, but
Böhlau regards them as Aeolic, Orsi
and Gsell as Sicilian. See Pottier,
Louvre Cat. ii. p. 422.
.fn-
.fn 1013
Gaz. Arch. 1880, p. 106.
.fn-
.fn 1014
Wilisch, Altkor. Thonindustrie, p. 6 ff.,
limits these classes to three: Proto-Corinthian,
Yellow-ground, and Red-ground;
he arrives at this by combining
Classes 2, 3, and 4 in one.
.fn-
.fn 1015
Cf. Couve in Rev. Arch. xxxii. (1898),
p. 214.
.fn-
.fn 1016
Cf. Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 16, of Aridikes
and Telephanes, spargentes linear intus.
But it is not certain that this passage
refers to the use of incised lines.
.fn-
.fn 1017
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1877, pls. C, D;
Mon. Antichi, i. p. 780.
.fn-
.fn 1018
J.H.S. xi. p. 173; Gsell, Fouilles de
Vulci, p. 481.
.fn-
.fn 1019
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1877, p. 406; Italiker
in der Po-ebene, p. 84.
.fn-
.fn 1020
Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 18; Klein, Euphronios,
p. 68; Wilisch, p. 11.
.fn-
.fn 1021
Ath. Mitth. 1897, pp. 262, 265 ff.;
and Anzeiger, 1893, p. 17.
.fn-
.fn 1022
Rev. Arch. xxxii. (1898), p. 228.
.fn-
.fn 1023
Ath. Mitth. 1897, p. 262; Berl. Phil.
Woch. 1895, p. 202; Amer. Journ. of
Arch. 1900, p. 441.
.fn-
.fn 1024
Rev. Arch. xl. (1902), p. 41.
.fn-
.fn 1025
Ant. Denkm. ii. pls. 44–5.
.fn-
.fn 1026
Amer. Journ. loc. cit.
.fn-
.fn 1027
It is interesting to note that this
form quite disappears, and is not revived
until the glass vessels of the Roman
period. Cf. J.H.S. xi. p. 175: see also
p. #300#; and for this and the other shapes,
Plates #XVII:pl17#., #XIX:pl19#.
.fn-
.fn 1028
Ath. Mitth. 1897, p. 265 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1029
In some specimens Ionian influence
seems to manifest itself: cf. for instance
the Ionic palmette in Ath. Mitth. 1897,
p. 279. Studniczka notes that the
purely monochrome outline drawing of
the Aegina vases is like that ascribed by
Pliny to the early Corinthian painters
(Ath. Mitth. 1899, p. 376).
.fn-
.fn 1030
Plate #XVII:pl17#. fig. 3 = A 1050 = J.H.S.
xi. pls. 1, 2: cf. also ibid. p. 179.
.fn-
.fn 1031
Mélanges Perrot, pl. 4, p. 269, and
see p. 271, note 2; Rev. Arch. xxxii.
(1898), p. 213.
.fn-
.fn 1032
Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1900, pls. 4–6,
p. 441.
.fn-
.fn 1033
Ant. Denkm. ii. pls. 44–5.
.fn-
.fn 1034
So called from the imitation of overlapping
roof-tiles (imbrices).
.fn-
.fn 1035
E.g. B.M. A 193, 223; Louvre A 275.
.fn-
.fn 1036
E.g. Louvre, Atlas, pl. 40, E 347.
.fn-
.fn 1037
Mon. Antichi, iv. p. 271 ff.; Böhlau,
Ion. u. ital. Nekrop. p. 91.
.fn-
.fn 1038
Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 16. See p. #306#,
note #1016:f1016#.
.fn-
.fn 1039
Cf. Louvre E 350 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1040
Studniczka (Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 151)
connects Ekphantos with Melos (cf.
the inscription in Roberts, Gk. Epigraphy,
i. p. 32). On the connection
of Corinth with Melos, see Wilisch,
p. 123 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1041
The aryballos is also found in early
Boeotian fabrics (subsequent to the Geometrical
period): cf. the Gamedes vase
in the B.M. (p. #300#.), and that of
Menaidas in the Louvre.
.fn-
.fn 1042
See Wilisch, p. 24; examples in Athens Mus., Nos. 621, 622, 640 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1043
Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii. p. 437 ff.;
but see Ath. Mitth. 1895, p. 125, and
Böhlau, Ion. u. ital. Nekrop. p. 98.
.fn-
.fn 1044
E.g. Athens Mus. 502 and 507;
Berlin 1034 ff.; J.H.S. xii. p. 312 (from
Cyprus); and cf. Wilisch, p. 41.
.fn-
.fn 1045
See Él. Cér. iii. 31–32 B, etc., and
Chapter XII.
.fn-
.fn 1046
J.H.S. i. pl. 1.
.fn-
.fn 1047
Louvre E 600; Wilisch, figs. 47–9.
In some of these the inscribed names
may be purely fanciful. The Corinthian
potters were particularly fond of idealising
ordinary scenes in this way. Cf.
for Trojan scenes Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#. and
Hermes, 1901, p. 388.
.fn-
.fn 1048
See above, pp. #245#, #284#.
.fn-
.fn 1049
Cf. the Dodwell pyxis described
below.
.fn-
.fn 1050
Cf. also the aryballos of Ainetas,
B.M. A 1080 = Ann. dell’ Inst. 1862,
pl. A, and the series of pinakes described
below.
.fn-
.fn 1051
Cat. 211; Dodwell, Tour, ii.
p. 197; Baumeister, iii. pl. 88, fig.
2046.
.fn-
.fn 1052
Wiener Vorl. 1888, pl. 1.
.fn-
.fn 1053
Cf. B.M. B 30 and B 586.
.fn-
.fn 1054
Cat. 1655 = Wiener Vorl. 1889, pl. 10 = Reinach, Répertoire, i. p. 199.
.fn-
.fn 1055
See Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.
.fn-
.fn 1056
v. 17, 9.
.fn-
.fn 1057
Paus. v. 17–19.
.fn-
.fn 1058
Cf. the Arkesilas vase described
below, p. #342#.
.fn-
.fn 1059
See on this subject H. S. Jones in
J.H.S. xiv. p. 30 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1060
Cf. the Thermon metopes (p. #92#).
.fn-
.fn 1061
Arch. Märchen, p. 121: see p. #395# ff.
.fn-
.fn 1062
See on the achievements of the early
Greek painters as described by Pliny,
Jex-Blake and Sellers, Pliny’s Chapters
on Greek Art, p. xxviii.
.fn-
.fn 1063
But see Ath. Mitth. 1894, p. 510, and
J.H.S. xviii. p. 287, note. The other
vases classified in the Museum Catalogue
as imitations (B 43–6, 49–53) are more
probably of Ionic or quasi-Ionic fabric.
Athens 655 is in style not unlike B.M. B 42.
.fn-
.fn 1064
See Wilisch, Altkor. Thonindustrie,
p. 133 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1065
Furtwaengler, Gr. Vasenm. p. 161,
points out that the Chalcidian fabrics are
not like those of Corinth and Athens,
exhibiting growth and development,
but a small group coming from one
workshop.
.fn-
.fn 1066
Mon. dell’ Inst. i. 51 = Reinach,
i. 82.
.fn-
.fn 1067
It is curious that the Chalcidian
artists only attempted this novelty in the
case of helmeted warriors.
.fn-
.fn 1068
A publication by Loeschcke is in preparation
(1904). See also Furtwaengler’s
remarks on this group (to which he adds
some examples) in Gr. Vasenmalerei,
p. 161. For the inscriptions see
Chapter XVII.
.fn-
.fn 1069
The list in Klein’s Euphronios, p. 65,
is as follows:—
(1) Mon. dell’ Inst. i. 51 (Deepdene):
Combat over body of Achilles.
(2) Gerhard, A.V. 105–6 = Reinach, ii.
58, 253 (Bibl. Nat. 202): Geryon;
quadriga (Plate #XXII:pl22#.).
(3) B.M. B 155: Geryon; Perseus and
Nymphs.
(4) Gerhard, A.V. 190–91 = Reinach,
ii. 95 (Bibl. Nat. 203): Warriors
arming.
(5) Ibid. 322 = Reinach, ii. 160
(Wurzburg 315): Departure of Hector.
(6) Ann. dell’ Inst. 1839, plate P =
Reinach, i. 259 (Kopenhagen 64).
Skyphos: Tydeus and Adrastos.
(7) Leiden 1626 (Reinach, ii. 268):
Sileni and Maenads.
(8) Durand Coll. 145.
(9) Gerhard, A.V. 237 = Reinach, ii.
120 (Munich 125). Hydria: Zeus and
Typhon; Peleus and Atalanta.
(10) Bull. dell’ Inst. 1870, p. 187,
No. 32 (in Florence).
(11) Gerhard, A.V. 95–6 = Reinach, ii.
53: Contests of Herakles with hydra
and Amazons.
To these may be added (12, 13) B.M.
B 75 and B 76 (both inscribed); (14)
Munich 1108; (15) Vienna 219; (16)
Jahrbuch, ii. (1887), p. 154, note 82;
(17) B.M. B 154 (inscriptions Attic, but
style resembling No. 1); (18) Gerhard,
A.V. 205, 3–4 = Reinach, ii. 105, 2
(inscriptions Ionic, but style Chalcidian);
(19) Kopenhagen 115 = Daremberg and
Saglio, i. p. 821, fig. 1026; (20) Arch.
Anzeiger, 1889, p. 91 (in Berlin); also
Louvre E 793–813 (according to Pottier).
See on the subject generally Pottier,
Louvre Cat. ii. p. 551, and for the inscriptions,
Kretschmer, Gr. Vaseninschr. p. 62.
.fn-
.fn 1070
For a description of the shape of
this particular kind of amphora, see
p. #160#.
.fn-
.fn 1071
Arch. Zeit. 1876, p. 108.
.fn-
.fn 1072
On the relation of Attic vases to
Corinthian, see Wilisch, Altkor. Thonindustrie,
p. 137.
.fn-
.fn 1073
Tyrrhen. Amphoren (1898).
.fn-
.fn 1074
Jahrbuch, 1890, p. 237 ff.; Pottier,
Louvre Cat. ii. p. 564.
.fn-
.fn 1075
See Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.
.fn-
.fn 1076
See, J.H.S. xviii. p. 287. The dance
is that known as the κόρδαξ.
.fn-
.fn 1077
On the ornamental patterns typical
of this group, see Thiersch, Tyrrhen.
Amphoren, p. 69 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1078
Cf. the
.pm ii inscr_326_zdeus.jpg ΖΔΕΥΣ '' ''
(Ζδεύς)
on E 852 in the Louvre; and see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.
.fn-
.fn 1079
M. Reinach, in a recent article
(Revue des Études Grecques, 1901,
p. 127 ff.), maintains that the vases with
this subject are of Megarian origin. See
also Arch. Zeit. 1876, p. 108 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1080
See for fuller discussion J.H.S.
xviii. pl. 15, p. 282.
.fn-
.fn 1081
See on the subject of these vases
generally, Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 329 ff.;
Jahrbuch, 1890, p. 237 ff.; J.H.S. xviii.
p. 283; Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii. p. 564;
and above all, Thiersch, Tyrrhen.
Amphoren (1898).
.fn-
.bn 411.png
.sp 4
.h3 id=ch08 pn=+1
CHAPTER VIII |VASE-PAINTING IN IONIA
.pm start_summary
General characteristics—Classification—Mycenaean influence—Rhodian
pottery—“Fikellura” ware—Asia Minor fabrics—Cyrenaic vases—Naukratis
and its pottery—Daphnae ware—Caeretan hydriae—Other
Ionic fabrics—“Pontic” vases—Early painting in Ionia—Clazomenae
sarcophagi.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
Having traced the history of vase-painting in Greece Proper
down to the middle of the sixth century B.C., the point at which
a tendency towards unification of style becomes perceptible,
we must now turn our attention to the remains of the art on the
other side of the Aegean, among the representatives of the
Ionian race and in the centres of Ionian influence. To a
certain extent it is difficult to treat the subject at all in a
handbook, as, owing chiefly to want of material, the existence
of an Ionian school of vase-painting has only been realised of
late years, and it is as yet too early to sift proofs from theories,
or to give a succinct and systematised account of the development
and achievements of this school. The most that can be
attempted is to present the reader with a review of the accumulated
materials, and to point out what groups of vases may be
regarded as exhibiting “Ionian” characteristics, or at all events
such as permit of their being connected together.[1082] It must be
borne in mind that some of these fabrics, such, for instance, as
the Rhodian wares, have not actually been found in Ionic
settlements; in other words, the name Ionian is to be applied
to certain styles or schools, in the main associated with that
race, apart from considerations of ethnography.
.bn 412.png
.pn +1
On one point scholars are in general agreement—namely,
that Ionic art is a direct survival of Mycenaean. This was
recognised as long ago as 1879 by Furtwaengler[1083] and by
Lenormant,[1084] who pointed out that the silver cauldron dedicated
by King Alyattes at Delphi must have been quite Mycenaean
in character, although not earlier than the seventh century.
It was decorated with aquatic animals and plants. There
was in Ionia no disturbing element, such as the Dorian
invasion introduced into Europe, between Mycenaean culture
and the spread of Oriental influences. The Greek cities in
Ionia owe their origin to that upheaval, but their culture was
not affected by it; and their founders brought their Mycenaean
civilisation with them fresh from Greece to their new homes
in Miletos, Ephesos, Phocaea, Chios, and Samos. This was in
the eleventh and tenth centuries B.C., and the Panionion, or
union of Ionian cities, lasted down to the sixth century (when
it was broken up by the Persian invasion), besides stretching
out its feelers over the Mediterranean, to the Egyptian Delta
and elsewhere. The actual centres of pottery-manufacture are
not, however, easy to determine, and much may depend on the
results of future excavations. That there was more than one
is fairly obvious, and it will probably appear that Clazomenae,
Miletos, and perhaps Phocaea, played the most important parts.
As regards the characteristics of the Ionian wares, a rough
division may be made into two classes, corresponding to the
buff-clay and red-clay Corinthian wares respectively. In the
earlier, the vases are always covered with a creamy-white or
drab-coloured slip, on which the figures stand out in lustrous
black paint.[1085] The most typical fabric is that of the Rhodian
wares, found in such large quantities in that island, but not
necessarily made there. In the later group the place of the
white slip is taken by a red coating or glaze similar to that of
the Attic and later Corinthian wares, but somewhat brighter.
The principal subdivisions may be classified as follows
.bn 413.png
.pn +1
(the arrangement is M. Pottier’s, with one or two small
differences):—
.fs 95%
.in +2
.nf
I. 1. Rhodian wares.[1086]
2. Samian and “Fikellura” wares.[1087]
3. Asia Minor fabrics:
(a) Caria.[1088]
(b) Knidos.[1089]
(c) Larissa.[1090]
(d) Myrina.[1091]
(e) Pitane.[1092]
(f) Phocaea.[1093]
(g) Troad.[1094]
4. Vases found in the Crimea.[1095]
5. Naukratis wares.[1096]
6. Clazomenae sarcophagi.[1097]
II. 1. Cyrenaic wares.
2. Daphnae wares.
3. Caeretan hydriae.
4. So-called “Pontic” vases.
5. Developed B.F. Ionian fabrics from Clazomenae, Kyme, Naukratis, Rhodes, etc.
6. Italo-Ionic vases of the decadence and Etruscan imitations.[1098]
.nf-
.in -2
.fs 100%
The subdivision between the earlier and later fabrics is,
roughly speaking, between those with white and red ground,
and between those in which ground-ornaments are used or not.
Generally speaking, all the second class have more in common
with the Attic B.F. vases than with “primitive” fabrics.
Before proceeding to the consideration of these fabrics in
.bn 414.png
.pn +1
detail, it may be as well to note some of the general characteristics
of Ionian pottery. In the use of incised lines and
accessory pigments we may note two points: firstly, the absence
for some time of any attempt at incised lines, their place being
taken partly by contours drawn in outline on the clay; secondly,
the use of white lines or patches for details. The incised
lines, when they do appear, seem to be derived from Corinth.
We may, perhaps, detect their arrival in the vases with imbrications
(see p. #311#), which were imported thence to Rhodes; but
another theory is that they were derived from engraved work
in metal. Practically their place had been, and to some extent
continued to be, taken by the white paint, which, be it noted,
is obviously a Mycenaean survival or revival.[1099] It frequently
occurs on the pottery of Ialysos and Enkomi, in precisely the
same manner as we see it used in Rhodes or on the sarcophagi
of Clazomenae. Sometimes both the incised lines and the
white-paint details are found on the same vase, as is seen in some
of the Rhodian jugs, or on a pinax from Naukratis.[1100] The white
pigments are usually laid directly on the clay, not on the black,
as at Athens. They are used for flesh tints, but not to distinguish
sex (cf. the Caeretan hydriae, p. #355#, where men are
painted white, as on the Melian vases they are yellow).
As regards the ornamentation, the persistence of Mycenaean
motives is exceedingly remarkable.[1101] It is seen especially in the
fabrics of Rhodes and Naukratis, with their wealth of ground-ornaments,
and is found not only in the more conventional
motives such as spirals, or scale-pattern, but also in the
vegetable patterns. There is generally in the floral decoration
of the vases a tendency towards the naturalism of Mycenaean
pottery. Animals, when decoratively treated, are usually
arranged in long friezes, contrasting with the Corinthian method
of grouping them heraldically in pairs.[1102] In the human figures
Oriental influence is frequently prominent, as in the hybrid
beings which so often adorn the vases, or in such types as the
“Asiatic Artemis”; or, again, in small details, the conical
.bn 415.png
.pn +1
caps and shoes with turned-up toes, which recall the figures
on the monuments of Lydia and Phrygia. Oriental costumes
generally are reproduced with great fidelity. As a rule the
proportions are gross and heavy, as compared with the slimness
of figures on Attic vases, wherein a curious contrast may be
observed with the characteristics of Ionian and Continental
architecture and sculpture, in which these features are reversed.
There is, moreover, a conspicuous absence of stiffness in the
Ionian compositions—rather, a remarkable freshness, vigour,
and originality quite in advance of their time. Another point
of contrast with the Attic vases is the absence of any differentiation
of the sexes in the shape of the eye, which is always oval
(cf. p. #408#).
In the choice of subjects the same law may be observed to
prevail as in the Corinthian wares—that of the hiérarchie des
genres. Mythological subjects appear first about the middle
of the seventh century, in the Euphorbos pinax. Later we
find actually scenes of a quasi-historical character, as in the
battle-scenes on the Clazomenae sarcophagi and the Cyrenaic
Arkesilaos vase. Throughout there is a remarkable absence of
inscriptions, which are only found at the most on some half-dozen
vases. The height of the Ionian style may be said to
have been reached in the seventh century, lasting up to about
the middle of the sixth; thence there is a rapid downfall, due
mainly to historical causes, and the traces of its influence are
only to be sought in Italian imitations of an inferior kind, and in
some of the Attic black-figured vases, such as those of Amasis
and Nikosthenes.
But the influence that was exercised during all this period by
Ionian art in general on Greece is not easy to estimate; it is
not confined to the pottery, but is found in sculpture and architecture
as well as the minor arts. There are numerous passages
in ancient writers bearing on the activity of early Ionian artists,
such as Theodoros and Rhoikos of Samos, and their works,
which often took the form of offerings of Asiatic princes to the
Greek temples. The Ionic school of sculpture, illustrated by
the early temple at Ephesos, the “Harpy” Monument, and other
notable works, as well as the great Amyclaean throne, which
.bn 416.png
.pn +1
Bathykles of Magnesia was commissioned to erect, established
the fame of early Greek sculpture in no small degree; and
Ionic architecture, though slower to win its way to favour in
Greece Proper, reached a high degree of excellence at an early
period on the eastern shore of the Aegean. Of painting in
Ionia, apart from the vases, we propose to speak later. In
literature and in civilisation generally Ionia was, up to the
middle of the sixth century, far more advanced than any part
of the Greek mainland.
.h4
§ 1. Rhodes and Asia Minor
The distinctive pottery of Rhodes,[1103] which, whether of local
manufacture or not, is found almost exclusively in that island,[1104]
represents the union of Mycenaean elements with a new feature,
that of Oriental influence. Although primarily due to the
dispersion of the Phoenicians by Assyria in the eighth century,
this Orientalising of Ionia is purely artistic and industrial, not
political, and is due to the commercial activity of the Phoenicians.
The pottery represents a sort of transition between Assyrian
and Greek decorative art, the essentially Greek elements in
which are a survival of Mycenaean ornaments and a Mycenaean
faculty of observation of nature, especially in the
animal world. From the East were derived such features as
hybrid monsters (the Sphinx, Siren, etc.), animals such as the
lion, isolated motives like the lotos-flower and the rosette, and
generally a tendency to imitate textile fabrics with long
bands of decoration, in which the ground is strewn with these
rosettes and other ornaments. We have already seen that
these features also made their mark on the Corinthian style,
but they are more especially characteristic of Rhodes. Human
figures are exceedingly rare.
In regard to the shapes a great advance is made towards
the classical types; the parts of the vase are more clearly distinguished,
and the forms are few and consistent. The special
.bn 417.png
.pn +1
Rhodian shape is the oinochoë, a large jug with trefoil lip and
spherical body, decorated with two or three friezes of animals
(see Plate #XX:pl20#. and p. #177#); next in popularity is the circular
plate or pinax. The ornamentation is always in lustrous black
paint on the characteristic white or drab-coloured slip, with a
free use of purple for details. White is little used as an accessory—there
seems to have been a prejudice against its use
when the ground of the vase was also white—but incised lines
occur more freely. On the other hand, the heads of animals
are almost always outlined in black on the clay ground, a
feature derived from Mycenaean pottery, and interior details
are also frequently left in the ground of the clay, as in the
Geometrical style. We have already mentioned instances in
which the two methods are found on the same vase.
The typical Rhodian oinochoae, like the contemporary Corinthian
vases, owe much to the imitation of the textile embroideries
of Assyria, of which we have already spoken under the
other head (p. #312#). These had become familiar in Rhodes
through the agency of the Phoenicians, but it is also possible
that the Ionians were themselves proficient in this industry.
The bands of lotos-ornament and friezes of animals also appear
on the porcelain vases found in large numbers at Kameiros (p. #127#),
which are sometimes most elaborately ornamented, and are
clearly of Phoenician origin; the seventh century was, in fact,
the time when the Greek world was most dominated by Oriental
influences.
The ornamental patterns on the vases of this class fall under
two heads—the smaller independent ground-ornaments, and the
more elaborated bands of vegetable ornament. The former are
best illustrated by the Euphorbos pinax, presently to be described;
in contrast to the unvarying Corinthian rosette, they show a
considerable variety of treatment, and are partly variations on
the rosette theme, partly geometrical, like the fragments of
maeander, or crosses with hooked arms, which recall in form
the ubiquitous swastika. The band of lotos-flowers and buds
actually occurs at a much earlier date in Boeotia, as we have
seen, but it is at Rhodes that it first assumes the characteristic
Greek form. On the pinakes a development of this motive,
.bn 418.png
.pn +1
forming a fan-shaped combination of radiating leaves, is usually
employed to fill in the “exergue” below the designs; a similar
ornament is found on the black wares with incised patterns,
and it is the forerunner of the pear-shaped radiations painted
on the small bowls of a more recent date.[1105]
A typically Ionian motive is the plait-band, found at Naukratis
and on the Clazomenae sarcophagi, and introduced from Assyria.
The Mycenaean spiral, so prominent in Attica and Melos, retires
into the background, or loses its geometrical significance, and
becomes a mere vegetable motive, an adjunct to the floral
combinations of bud and flower. The Rhodian vases are, in
fact, the first in which spiral motives were freely used for
calyx-ornaments, as, generally speaking, they were the first in
post-Mycenaean times to raise floral motives from mere ground-ornaments
to independent decoration.[1106]
The series of pinakes yield the most interesting examples
of Rhodian vase-painting; they are usually decorated with a
figure of a ram or other animal on a large scale (Plate #XXIV:pl24#.),
the exergue or lower portion of the field being filled in with
a suitable pattern, such as a sort of fan-pattern of spreading
rays or fronds (see above), or a free variation of the Egyptian
lotos-flower. But one is of surpassing interest and importance,
the famous Euphorbos pinax as it is generally called, which
was found at Kameiros, and is now in the British Museum.
The subject is the combat of Menelaos and Hector over the
body of Euphorbos,[1107] a scene from the Iliad, but not reproduced
in accurate detail, as, indeed, is seldom the case in archaic art.
The figures are drawn partly in outline, with a lavish use
of purple for details, and the whole of the ground is filled
in with various ornaments, rosettes, etc., one at the top of the
scene taking the form of a pair of eyes, with a conventionalised
floral pattern between. Additional interest is given to the
design by the fact that the figures are named, the words being
in the Argive alphabet (see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.).
.bn 419.png
.pn +1
This inscription does not necessarily affect the question of the
place of fabric of the pinax, as it has been shown that the
Argive alphabet was used in Rhodes in the seventh century[1108];
but it enables us to fix its date about B.C. 650, and the whole
of the Rhodian ware may be regarded as belonging to the
seventh century. It has, indeed, been suggested that the subject
is copied from an Argive metal relief, and this might account
for the unexpected presence of an inscription.
As to the place of fabric of Rhodian ware generally, it has
been more than once suggested that it is to be sought, not
in Rhodes, but in the neighbouring Ionian city of Miletos.[1109]
Dümmler’s theory of an Argive origin, resting as it does
almost exclusively on the Euphorbos inscriptions, is practically
negatived by the absence of any similar pottery in the extensive
finds at the Argive Heraion. Miletos, however, was in close
connection with Rhodes, and in favour of the argument is the
remarkable parallelism of the pottery of Naukratis, which was
undoubtedly in close association with Miletos; it was, in fact,
first colonised by Milesian Greeks, and the Milesian Apollo
was worshipped there. But further evidence is needed before
this view can be regarded as other than a mere hypothesis.
At all events, no convincing argument has as yet been urged
against the pottery being of local manufacture. In date, as
has been said, it covers the seventh century, being thus contemporaneous
with the Melian and earlier Corinthian fabrics.
.pm onplate XXIV
.il id=pl24 fn=plate24_420.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca 1. Pinax from Rhodes; 2. Bowl from Naukratis (British Museum).
.pm offplate
In one of the extensive cemeteries of Kameiros, known as
Fikellura, there were found quantities of a class of pottery
which has since been generally known by that name, but is
probably not a local fabric. It has also been found in large
numbers in the island of Samos,[1110] where Rhodian vases are
comparatively rare, and owing to this more recent evidence the
ware has been regarded as probably of Samian origin. Several
specimens were also found on another Ionian site, that of
Daphnae in the Egyptian Delta, but are quite distinct from
.bn 420.png
.bn 421.png
.bn 422.png
.pn +1
the local fabric of that place. The date of the tombs in
Samos is the second half of the sixth century, and it is noteworthy
that from the ornamentation of these vases all Oriental
influence has disappeared. On the other hand, they seem to
represent the last lingering vestiges of Mycenaean influence.
The majority are in the form of amphorae, but other forms,
such as jugs and lekythi, are known. The technique is that
of the Orientalising vases, with the typical Ionian creamy-white
slip; the black has a tendency to become brown, or
even red, and purple accessories are employed. Incised lines
do not appear, but details are marked by spaces left in the
ground of the clay. The subjects are simple in character and
arrangement, usually one or two animals (or sometimes human
figures) on either side of the body, the spaces being filled in
with palmettes, spirals, or other ornaments. The ornamentation
is strikingly characteristic, especially the network patterns on
the necks of the vases, the scale-patterns, and the bands of
crescents which we also find in use in Lesbos and at Daphnae.[1111]
They form altogether a clearly-distinguished group, but sometimes
show signs of late date, if they are not actually to be
regarded as archaistic. Examples are given in Fig. #91:fig091#.
.il id=fig091 fn=fig091_422.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 91. VASES OF SAMIAN OR “FIKELLURA” STYLE (BRITISH MUSEUM).
.bn 423.png
.pn +1
The system of decoration is curiously reminiscent of the
Mycenaean vases,[1112] as exemplified in the great prominence
given to the ornament as the main decoration, the scrolls and
palmettes recalling the seaweed and other vegetable patterns
on the former. This prominence of ornament is always an
Ionian characteristic, retained as late as the Caeretan hydriae
(p. #354#), with their bold bands of palmettes and lotos-flowers
round the very centre of the body. The scale-patterns, another
Mycenaean legacy, we shall meet with again at Daphnae, where
similarly they cover the most prominent part of the vases.
The most representative series of Fikellura vases is that in
the British Museum, from Rhodes, Naukratis, and Daphnae;
there are also some in the Louvre (A 321–34).[1113]
Dr. Böhlau, in his treatise on Ionian pottery,[1114] discusses as a
class certain vases which, in accordance with his theory, he
terms “Later Milesian.” At all events, they demand attention
from the remarkable way in which they combine Ionian and
Corinthian characteristics, sometimes, as we have seen, on the
same vase. They have been found in Rhodes, Naukratis, and
Italy, but the place of their manufacture is variously assigned
to Corinth, Naukratis, and Miletos.[1115] An oinochoe found in
Rhodes, with the incised lines in one animal-frieze and the
details left in the colour of the clay or shown in black outline
in the other, seems to incline to an Asiatic origin, at least as
regards its shape[1116]; on the other hand, the fine krater in the
Louvre[1117] is of a form more usually associated with Corinth.
The upper half of the latter is Corinthian in style, the lower
Rhodian, and thus there is not much to choose. But on the
evidence adduced by Dr. Böhlau[1118] it would seem to be more
probably of Ionian fabric. It may be that further evidence
will enable us to assign these vases of mixed style to Naukratis,
always a meeting-place of styles or fabrics; but it has not as
yet been definitely ascertained to what extent the earlier fabrics
.bn 424.png
.pn +1
of that place are local in origin. Meanwhile, the group is one
that fully deserves separate consideration. Dr. Böhlau points
out that it is characterised by the half-palmettes at the handles
of the vases, by the Mycenaean-like spirals, and the inferior
careless ground-ornaments, and generally by its deviations from
the normal Rhodian types.
The black ware with patterns in purple and white and incised
lines which has been mentioned as found in Rhodes is regarded
by Böhlau[1119] as Aeolic. It is, as we shall see, paralleled at
Naukratis by wares which there is good reason for regarding
as of Lesbian origin. The typical form of decoration, the
fan-shaped palmette, also occurs at Daphnae. In any case
there is clearly an attempt at the imitation of metal vases,
the polychrome colouring being intended to reproduce the
effect of bronze inlaid with gold and silver. But before it can
be established as an Aeolic fabric more results must be obtained
by excavation in that part of Asia Minor.
In various places on the mainland of Asia Minor (see
p. #62#) vases of early fabric have been found, about which
at present little is known, except that they usually show
some points of comparison with the recognised Ionian fabrics,
and may therefore be regarded as of local manufacture, or at
least from some place on the coast of Asia. An attempt has
indeed been made by Böhlau to recognise in these also an
Aeolic fabric, centring in the neighbourhood of Kyme and
Myrina. An example is to be seen in the remarkable vase
found at Myrina,[1120] with the bust of a man painted in outline,
which resembles in shape the Fikellura vases, and is probably
intermediate between the Rhodian and this fabric. Similar
pottery finds have been made at Larisa, at Pitane, and in
the Troad. At Larisa and Myrina Böhlau notes vases of
the earlier Rhodian style, and at Larisa others which show a
distinct independent derivation from Mycenaean pottery, especially
in the ground-ornaments. On the site of Troy Dr.
Dörpfeld found fragments of pottery of a Rhodian type with
ornaments of pear-shaped leaves, such as occur on late sixth-
.bn 425.png
.pn +1
century bowls from Kameiros[1121]; also a vase with a female head
resembling that from Myrina, and another of Naucratite character.
There appears to have been a local fabric in the sixth
century—or perhaps even later—of flat bowls with bracket-handles,
on which are painted figures of birds, etc., in coarse
black pigment without any incised lines or accessories; a series
of these is in the British Museum, and others were found by
Dr. Dörpfeld (see above, pp. #61#, #259#).
In Caria the Ionian style is represented by finds at Stratonikeia
and Mylasa,[1122] with ornamentation of Mycenaean character,
which appears to have reached a similar stage of development
to the earlier Graeco-Phoenician vases from Cyprus; many
analogies may be noted. That the Mycenaean influence was
strong in Caria is also shown by the pottery of transitional
character found by Mr. Paton at Hissarlik.[1123]
At Temir-Gora (Phanagoria) in the Crimea a vase was found
in 1870 with paintings in brown on buff ground, representing
a hare-hunt, panthers, and other animals.[1124] The style has
evident affinities to that of the “Rhodian” vases, and
Phanagoria being a Milesian colony, this is only natural.
But it seems to be a local product, not an importation; the
panther, for instance, is unknown on Rhodian vases proper.
.h4
§ 2. Africa
The fabrics of the Ionian school are not confined to Asia
Minor as regards their place of origin. In the Greek colonies
which were founded in Africa in the seventh and sixth
centuries we find evidences of great industrial activity, and in
some cases extensive remains of painted pottery, which exhibit
a close connection with the fabrics more closely associated with
Asia Minor. There is, however, one group of vases which
seems to stand by itself, and which, though it may be ranked
with the Ionian fabrics from its use of the white slip and
.bn 426.png
.pn +1
from the original naturalistic treatment of the subjects, yet
shows a marked independence both in technique and in
decoration.
The vases grouped under this head have been found chiefly in
Etruria, but more recently several examples have come to light
in the Ionian colony of Naukratis in the Egyptian Delta and in
Samos.[1125] As long ago as 1881 it was proposed by Puchstein to
connect them with the Theraean colony of Kyrene on the north
coast of Africa, on the ground of the subject depicted on the
finest and most remarkable of them—the Arkesilaos cup of the
Cabinet des Médailles at Paris. When, however, the Naucratite
specimens turned up, it was thought that they might after all
be a local fabric of that colony, especially as that place was
known to have had a close connection with Kyrene, whence
about 570 B.C. came the queen of Amasis, who was a great
benefactor to Naukratis. But to urge only one of the opposing
arguments, there seems to have been little or no export of
pottery from Naukratis, although imported specimens have
been found there of almost every early fabric known. It was
reserved for the ingenuity of Dr. Studniczka[1126] to identify a
scene on a fragmentary cup found there with the figure of the
nymph Kyrene, the patron goddess of that city, and thereby
to establish definitely the origin of this class. Curiously enough,
no remains of the early colony of Kyrene have ever been discovered;
but when, if ever, they are brought to light, it may
be confidently hoped that further evidence will be obtained.
The Cyrenaic vases, as they are now generally styled, are
for the most part kylikes of a slender and graceful form,
owing much apparently to metal originals, as indicated by
the use of palmettes at the ends of the handles, and by their
form and ornamentation in general. The designs are painted
in black on a slip varying in tint from deep buff to a pale
cream-colour, with firmly-drawn incised lines and a plentiful
use of purple for details. The drawing is remarkably spirited,
and the subjects mostly marked by naïveté and freshness. The
popularity of mythological scenes is remarkable; we find
.bn 427.png
.pn +1
representations of Zeus, Atlas and Prometheus, Kadmos, Pelops,
and other heroic figures, besides the remarkable vases which
deal with local legend and history.
.il id=fig092 fn=fig092_427.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Baumeister.
FIG. 92. ARKESILAOS OF KYRENE SUPERINTENDING HIS COMMERCE
(FROM A KYLIX IN THE BIBL. NAT.).
.ca-
The Arkesilaos vase[1127] (Fig. #92:fig092#) demands something more than
a passing description. It represents the king of Kyrene superintending
the weighing of the silphium-plant, which was a
valuable source of his revenue. Although there were four sovereigns
of that name, the choice is practically limited to one, the
.bn 428.png
.pn +1
second of the name, who reigned about 580–550 B.C. The
scene takes place on a ship ready to sail, of which the yard-arm
and part of the sails are visible; from the yard hangs a large
balance, inscribed with the word σταθμός, in each pan of which
is a large mass of some substance, which has generally been
interpreted as representing the silphium. But as a matter of
fact it is open to doubt whether it is not really wool, or some
similar article of merchandise. On the left of the scene, on a
folding-chair, sits the king, with flowing locks and large hat,
before whom a man named Sophortos stands, with a gesture
implying that he is making a statement relating to the
transaction. On the right are four men variously occupied,
two carrying bags of the stuff tied at the neck; one of these
is named Σλιφόμαχος,[1128] a word of uncertain meaning, but
apparently having some reference to the silphium. A horizontal
line is drawn below the scene, and in the lower part of
the circle we see perhaps the storing of the merchandise in
the hold, under the superintendence of an official named
Φύλακος (guardian); two men are carrying bags to add to a heap of
three already stored away. In the upper part of the design and
behind Arkesilaos are depicted various birds, a monkey, a lizard,
and a panther, perhaps to give local colouring to the scene.[1129]
The whole is conceived with wonderful naïveté and freshness,
so much so that early writers regarded it as a parody or burlesque
of a serious subject; but this can hardly be the case.
Several other scenes on the Cyrenaic vases merit description,
did space permit; but it must suffice to refer to the list of
subjects already given. The majority of the specimens are in
the Louvre, which possesses no less than ten cups, besides three
larger vases, decorated with animals and ornaments only. There
are also four in the Cabinet des Médailles, of which, besides the
Arkesilaos cup, one representing Polyphemos devouring the companions
of Odysseus and the subsequent blinding (all in one
scene) is of conspicuous interest. The British Museum possesses
two or three cups and several fragments from Naukratis,
including the important one restored by Studniczka as representing
the local nymph holding branches of silphium and
.bn 429.png
.pn +1
pomegranate, and surrounded by flying daemons, male and
female, or Boreads and Harpies (Fig. #93:fig093#).
.il id=fig093 fn=fig093_429.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 93. CYRENAIC CUP WITH FIGURE OF KYRENE (BRITISH MUSEUM).
Of this series the Arkesilaos cup is the only one with inscriptions.
They are without doubt in an alphabet of Peloponnesian,
not Ionian, character, as is shown, for instance, by the
.pm ii glyph_chi_euboean.jpg ψ '' ''
for Χ in
Σλιφόμαχος. But this may be explained by reference to the
history of the city, which in the seventh and sixth centuries received
a considerable influx of the Dorian element, especially from
Sparta, whose alphabet may have been adopted for general use.
The total number of specimens in existence is about forty;
some of which, however, are merely fragmentary examples.[1130]
.bn 430.png
.pn +1
Allusion has already been made to the extensive finds of
pottery at Naukratis, among the most remarkable of recent
years, which have done much to increase our knowledge of
Ionian industrial art. As has been said, almost every other
early fabric is represented there, from the Melian and Corinthian
wares to those of Rhodes and other Asiatic sites, including
a large series of Athenian vases or fragments down to the
latest times. But with these were present in overwhelming
numbers specimens of an entirely new fabric which could only
be regarded as local in its origin. Of the pottery with figure
subjects three stages can be traced, all characterised by the
Ionian cream-coloured slip, of which the earliest is remarkably
like the Rhodian wares, the next is distinguished by its polychrome
decoration on a white ground, and the third represents
a sort of transition from the quasi-Rhodian style of decoration
to the regular black-figured ware, and is parallel in many
respects to the sister-fabric of Daphnae (see below).
All this pottery was discovered in favissae or rubbish-heaps
attached to the sanctuaries of Apollo, Aphrodite, Hera, and the
Dioskuri, especially the two former. As the vases had been
rejected as useless or crowded out by new ones, they are almost
all broken and fragmentary. But it is interesting to note that
on numbers of the earlier potsherds from the Apollo temple
the words Ἀπόλλωνος ἐμί, “I am Apollo’s,” have been roughly // Tr: Apollônos emi
scratched, as if the priests had wished to mark them as sacred
and preserve them from profane uses, although no longer
required. Even more frequent on all the sites are dedications
to the respective deities, with the formula ὁ δεῖνα ἀνέθηκε τῷ // Tr: ho deina anethêke tô Apollôni
Ἀπόλλωνι, or τῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ, in the Ionic alphabet (cf. Fig. #16:fig016#, // Tr: tê Aphroditê
p. 139). On palaeographical grounds the inscriptions may be
dated as ranging from about 600 to 520 B.C., but there are
some difficulties with regard to the date of the foundation of
the settlement.
Strabo (xvii. 1, p. 801) assigns the foundation to Greeks of
Miletos, about 620 B.C., but the words of Herodotos (ii. 178)
are to the effect that Amasis (564–526 B.C.), “who was a phil-Hellene
... gave those who arrived in Egypt the city of
Naukratis to inhabit.” If this means that no Greeks had lived
.bn 431.png
.pn +1
there before his time, we cannot place any of the pottery earlier
than 570; but it does not seem unreasonable to take the words
to mean that the city already existed, and that Amasis merely
recognised the right of Greeks to reside there. Herodotos also
tells us that by permission of Amasis the Milesians independently
founded the temenos of Apollo. From the evidence of the
excavations Messrs. Petrie and Ernest Gardner felt themselves
justified in placing the foundation of the city about the middle
of the seventh century, a date which certainly seems to be
required by the character of the earliest pottery. The disappearance
of the local fabrics and their replacement by Attic
importations would then fall about 520 B.C.
.il id=fig094 fn=fig094_431.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 94. FRAGMENT FROM NAUKRATIS, ILLUSTRATING “MIXED TECHNIQUE.”
In the earliest class a distinction, as in Rhodes, is to be noted
between figures without incised lines, but with faces in outline,
and figures with incised lines, the two being sometimes combined
on one vase, as in Fig. #94:fig094#. It has already been shown that the
former must be earlier in origin than the latter. On the other
hand, in the polychrome white ware (see below) the incised lines
.bn 432.png
.pn +1
again disappear; but the more advanced style of the drawing
and choice of subjects testifies to its being a later variety.
There can, however, be no doubt that the influence of Rhodes
(or whatever was the fabric-centre of “Rhodian” pottery) was
very strong at Naukratis, and if we adopt Böhlau’s theory of
a Milesian origin for the Rhodian wares, this is fully accounted
for by the history of the place. Consequently the two fabrics
are very difficult to distinguish, and, in fact, the difference is
mainly in point of style.
There is, however, a class of wares found at Naukratis which
does not seem to be of local origin. This is the so-called Polledrara
fabric, or black ware resembling that found in Etruria, and especially
in the tomb of that name at Vulci (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.).
It has also been found in Rhodes, where black wares are by no
means uncommon, some closely resembling the Italian bucchero
in character. It is hardly likely that this ware is Naucratite in
origin, although the Polledrara tomb contains objects undoubtedly
exported from Egypt. Professor E. A. Gardner[1131] has pointed
out that one of the black-ware vases bears an inscription
showing that it was dedicated by a Mytilenaean, and others
have inscriptions in Aeolic dialect. Hence he deduces the
theory that this black ware was made in Lesbos, and exported
thence both to Rhodes and to Naukratis. He also points out
that it is really distinct from the Italian variety both in style
and technique, as, for instance, in the Italian use of blue.
But there is a class of pottery, unfortunately only represented
by fragments, which appears to be developed partly from the
“Lesbian” ware, partly from the early Naucratite fabric, and
must certainly be of local origin. It has never been found
elsewhere,[1132] and the combination of “Lesbian” and Rhodian
elements also points to this conclusion. The vases, which seem
to have been large bowls, are covered on the inside with a
black varnish, on which patterns of purely decorative character
(palmettes, pear-shaped rays of Rhodian or Aeolic form, etc.)
are painted in white and red. The outside, on the contrary, is
.bn 433.png
.pn +1
covered with a white slip, the designs being painted, partly in
outline, in various tints, such as flesh-colour, dark brown, purple,
dark red, yellow, and even opaque white. In spite of the
retention of the Rhodian system of outlines and absence of
incised lines, the style is remarkably advanced, and the treatment
of details often most careful and elaborate; moreover, the
subjects are almost exclusively human figures, although the
fragmentary nature of the remains renders the interpretation
in many cases almost impossible. They seem to stand on the
same level as the Daphnae pottery (see below), both in style
and range of subject.[1133]
To return to the vases of “Rhodian” type, a few typical
characteristics may be noted, showing their development. The
earliest specimens are decorated exclusively with animals,
painted in the Rhodian fashion, with heads and other parts
in outline and details only indicated by leaving them in the
colour of the clay. The typical ground-ornaments are the cross
with hooked arms, the spiral, and a pattern of diagonals with
chevrons between.[1134] Later, a preference is shown for large
vases, usually bowls or kraters, sometimes also large plates, with
friezes of animals and Sphinxes on a corresponding scale. The
Rhodian style still obtains, with the addition of purple accessories.
The favourite animals are the lion, bull, boar, and
Cretan goat; a broad plait-band or guilloche as border is of
frequent occurrence; and in addition to the ground-ornaments
already mentioned, various forms of rosettes and borders of
maeander are found. On a large bowl dedicated to Aphrodite
by one Sostratos (Plate #XXIV:pl24#.), besides lions, Sphinxes, and
water-fowl, two dogs are seen attacking a boar; the drawing
is more advanced than in most examples.[1135]
The next stage in which the incised lines begin to appear is
best illustrated by the fine plate with a seated Sphinx,[1136] where
they are combined with outlined contours (in the head), and
details rendered by white laid on the black, as also are the
.bn 434.png
.pn +1
patterns round the rim. Another large plate (A 986) has a
dance of men and a frieze of animals with incised lines and
purple accessories, but the surrounding patterns (lotos-flowers
and palmettes, tongue-pattern, etc.) are in plain black.
Lastly, there is the stage which forms a transition from the
earlier or “Rhodian” style to the black-figured, in which for
a time the influence of Corinth seems to make itself felt. The
figures are painted in black, which often turns to red through
faulty firing, on a warm buff ground, sometimes with purple
accessories. The favourite shapes are the lebes or deinos with
flat rim, and the column-handled krater so popular at Corinth
in the sixth century, with flat-topped handles, on which human
heads or animals are painted. Corinthian influence is sometimes
also seen in the designs, as in the Sphinxes of B 100; or in other
ways, as in the olpe A 1534, with a ram in a panel on one side
of the handle. Another curious example is the column-handled
krater A 1533, with two friezes of animals, of which the lower is
more Ionic in type. The British Museum collection also contains
numerous fragments (B 102–3) in this local style, together with
a few of other fabrics,[1137] among which an interesting representation
of Odysseus passing the Sirens may be noted; also a series of
chariot-scenes and horsemen, which in style recall the Caeretan
hydriae (see p. 355). The merging of the local style in the
fully-developed black-figure Athenian style is clearly visible
in these fragments, which are interesting from their parallelism,
though not their resemblance, to those of Daphnae.
Among the later Ionic fabrics, of practically fully-developed
black-figure style (i.e. with buff ground, incised lines, and accessory
colours), not the least interesting is the group of vases
and fragments from Daphnae in the Egyptian Delta, now in
the British Museum.[1138] Like the pottery of Naukratis, they
illustrate the relations between Ionia and Africa in the sixth
century, but even in a more marked degree, inasmuch as they
were more directly influenced by local circumstances.
.bn 435.png
.pn +1
This pottery was discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie in 1886,
on a site known as Tell Defenneh, representing the Tahpanhes
of the Hebrew prophets and the Daphnae of Herodotos,[1139] from
whom we learn that a fort was found here by Psammetichos I.
at the beginning of the sixth century. As Naukratis guarded
the west of the Delta, so did Daphnae the east, with the highway
to Syria. Herodotos[1140] also speaks of camps garrisoned by Ionian
and Carian troops; and if we might identify these with Daphnae,
we should have a terminus post quem for the pottery, as the camps
were desolated by Amasis about 560 B.C. On the other hand,
the pottery is hardly to be dated so early from its style, and
it is important to notice that it is practically unrepresented
at Naukratis, that meeting-place of all early fabrics.
The chief problem with which we are confronted in regard to
the Daphnae pottery is whether it is a local fabric or imported.
Opinions of scholars are somewhat divided, Dümmler and
Endt declaring for the local fabric,[1141] Zahn for importations
from Clazomenae.[1142] The close connection with the fabrics of
Asia Minor, such as the Caeretan hydriae and the Clazomenae
sarcophagi, cannot be denied, and there are many small details
which are peculiar to Ionic vases; but, on the other hand, there
is much that is peculiar to this group and tells in favour of a local
origin. It is also important to bear in mind that the Daphnae
pottery has little in common with that of Naukratis, in spite of
the relation of both to Ionia.
.il id=fig095 fn=fig095_436.jpg align=r w=300px ew=70%
.ca
FIG. 95. “EGYPTIAN SITULA,” FROM DAPHNAE
(BRITISH MUSEUM).
.ca-
It will perhaps be convenient to take the groups of Daphnae
fragments one by one, noting the general characteristics and
individual peculiarities of each. First we have a group of
tall cylindrical vases[1143] (one or two of which are completely
preserved), of an obviously Egyptian form, which has been
called a situla or pail (Fig. #95:fig095#). The clay is of a drab colour,
brittle, and badly levigated, and covered with a dark brown
varnish laid on a coating of glaze. Owing to chemical causes
this varnish has in almost all cases disappeared, carrying with
.bn 436.png
.pn +1
it most of the designs, which can only be distinguished by the
incised lines. The figure subjects are confined to panels on
either side of the neck, and usually consist of heraldic groups
of animals or winged monsters. Round the body are patterns
of lotos-flowers and fan-shaped half-rosettes of Rhodian type.
The technique, however, and other points recall the Geometrical
vases, and this is
especially marked in
one case (B.M. B 104 =
Fig. #95:fig095#), where the
panels are bordered
and filled in with
ornamental patterns
of Geometrical style.[1144]
The whole appearance
of this vase, in which
the varnish is preserved,
is that of the
Geometrical style; the
method may have
been learned through
Rhodes. On the other
hand, some subjects are
of Egyptian type, such
as the hawks (B 106_{2}),
and the pair of combatants
with their nude
bodies and shaven
crowns (B 106_{1}).
Secondly, there is a
group of tall slim
amphorae, of purely
Greek style,[1145] with a characteristic scheme of decoration, consisting
of panels on the neck, usually containing a Sphinx or
Siren, and two friezes round the body, divided by a band of
dots; the neck is always divided from the body by a moulded
.bn 437.png
.pn +1
ring, below which is a polychrome tongue-pattern in black, white,
and purple alternately. An example is given in Plate #XXV:pl25#.
It is important to note here that the white colouring, of
which lavish use is made, is laid directly on the clay, as in
other Ionic vases; incised lines are only employed for inner
details, not for contours. This group is obviously of later
date than the situlae, and the points of correspondence between
it and the Caeretan hydriae and sarcophagi of Clazomenae (see
below) are very marked. Sometimes the place of the main
design is taken by a panel of scale-pattern,[1146] rendered in colour
only, curiously reminiscent of Mycenaean vases. Two other
points are worth citing here as presenting the same feature:
the two-handled cup with tall stem on B 115_{2}, which is clearly
the Mycenaean type of kylix, and the borders of white dots
laid on the black which sometimes occur on the draperies.
The clay is of a warm yellow colour, well levigated and polished,
and the general appearance of the vases is bright and pleasing.
The lower frieze on the body usually takes the form of a row
of animals, especially of geese feeding; but where the main
design is replaced by a scale-pattern, dancing figures are
usually found.
Thirdly, there is a squat form of amphora, with cylindrical
neck and wide body, which has been distinguished by the name
of stamnos.[1147] Most of the vases of this form found at Daphnae
are of the “Fikellura” type described above (p. #337#), and are
obviously importations, whether from Samos or Rhodes; but
others (nearly all fragmentary) are of the same type as the
amphorae. On both shapes a motive is sometimes introduced
which is clearly learned from the Fikellura vases, that of a row
of crescents, which, instead of being merely painted in black,
are treated, like the tongue-pattern, in polychrome.[1148] The only
other shape found is the hydria, of a type differing greatly from
the Caeretan (see below) with its flat shoulder at right angles
to the body; but the same typical wreath of pointed leaves
.bn 438.png
.bn 439.png
.bn 440.png
.pn +1
occurs on both (cf. B 126–27). The list is completed by a
few fragments of imported B.F. vases from Athens.
.pm onplate XXV
.il id=pl25 fn=plate25_438.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Ionian Vases.1. Situla from Daphnae (British Museum); 2. Deinos in South Kensington Museum.
.ca-
.pm offplate
The subjects comprise several interesting mythological
themes: Odysseus and Kirke,[1149] the Calydonian boar-hunt,
Boreas and one of his sons, Bellerophon and the Chimaera.
There is a curious series of nude figures on horseback, painted
white throughout, accompanied by warriors and dogs; they
have usually been interpreted as feminine, but are not so
necessarily, as Ionian painters used white indiscriminately for
either sex.[1150] Dionysiac scenes are popular, but monotonous,
and often very coarse; the Satyrs are of the Ionic type, with
horses’ hoofs, and very bestial in appearance; their place is
often taken by grotesque dancers, as on the Corinthian vases.
Among small details the Oriental embroidered saddle-cloths[1151]
should be mentioned, as also the curious hook (φάλος) in front // Tr: phalos
of the warrior’s helmet on B 11; both are found on the Clazomenae
sarcophagi, and the latter is typical of Ionic art.[1152]
.h4
§ 3. Later Ionic Fabrics
What is in many ways the most remarkable group of Ionian
vases is formed by the Caeretan hydriae, so called because they
have been found almost exclusively at Caere (Cervetri) in
Etruria. They form a very homogeneous group, and their
typical features are unmistakable. Originally they were
thought to be of local, i.e. Etruscan, manufacture, or even
imitations of Corinthian vases. But since the sarcophagi of
Clazomenae and the pottery of Naukratis and Daphnae have
been made known and studied, it has been established beyond
doubt that they stand in close relation to these undoubtedly
Ionian fabrics.[1153] If further proof were wanted, it is to be found
in a class of Etruscan vases which are clearly imitated from
them (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.).
.bn 441.png
.pn +1
They were first collectively discussed in 1888 by Dümmler,
who gave a list of fourteen, assigning them to Phocaea; a more
complete list of twenty has since been drawn up by Endt,
who to some extent endorses Dümmler’s views, but is inclined
to attribute them to Clazomenae, on the opposite side of the
Gulf of Smyrna, thus bringing them into closer relation with
the sarcophagi. Whichever be the correct view, there is no
doubt that they come from this region, and the existence of a
ceramic fabric at Clazomenae, as attested by the sarcophagi
and a few painted fragments of pottery, is in favour of Endt’s
attribution. We have also to set by the side of this the absence
(so far) of any pottery at Phocaea. In any case the place
must have formed part of the Naucratite confederation, and
it was perhaps influenced much by Rhodes.[1154] That the vases
have all been found at Cervetri need excite no surprise, as
there is abundant evidence that certain fabrics were specially
favoured by different places, and apparently made for exclusive
importation.
>From the circumstances of discovery of some of them they
may be dated about the middle of the sixth century B.C.; the
style is remarkably advanced, and shows the rapid development
of Ionian art as compared with that of Continental Greece.
As regards the form of the hydria, it is characterised by the
egg-shaped body, the division of neck from shoulder by a
moulded ring, the low flat-ribbed handle at the back, and the
high concave foot. Even more marked is the system of
ornamentation. The main design runs in a broad frieze
round the body, broken at the back by a palmette pattern
under the handle, on either side of which are usually grouped
two similar or opposed figures, distinct from the principal
subject. The rest of the surface is given over to floral patterns,
which assume great prominence on these vases. The normal
arrangement is as follows: inside the mouth a large tongue-pattern
in red, bordered with black; on the neck, palmette-and-lotos
pattern; on the shoulder, ivy-wreaths or other plants,
treated in a naturalistic manner; round the lower part of the
body, a broad band of large palmettes and lotos-flowers
.bn 442.png
.bn 443.png
.bn 444.png
.pn +1
alternating, forming a very effective pattern and enhanced
with white and purple details. An illustration in colours of a
typical specimen is given on Plate #XXVI:pl26#.
.pm onplate XXVI
.il id=pl26 fn=plate26_442.jpg w=475px ew=90%
.ca
To face page 354.
CAERETAN HYDRIA.
(British Museum.)
.ca-
.pm offplate
The range of subjects is wide and original, both in choice
and method of treatment. We find among mythological scenes
the return of Hephaistos to heaven, the rape of Europa, the
contest of Herakles with Busiris, and the hunt of the Calydonian
boar.[1155] Other subjects, such as combatants or horsemen, are
more in the manner of the Clazomenae sarcophagi. A curious
feature of the group is the entire absence of friezes of animals.
The realistic treatment of the Egyptians on the Busiris vase,
and the introduction of apes and other African animals into
some of the scenes, clearly indicate a relation with that part
of the world, obviously through the medium of one of the
Greek colonies of Egypt. Naukratis, as we have seen, was
largely colonised from Phocaea, and some of the later fragments
from this site[1156] show a parallelism with the hydriae.
Among the smaller details which are typically Ionian may
be mentioned the horse-hoofed type of Seilenos (as at Daphnae);
the four-winged deities and winged boars[1157]; the favourite types
of stag-hunts,[1158] horsemen, and combats, all appearing on the
sarcophagi; the running dogs and the owls on horses’ backs;
the high-peaked cap of women and shoes with turned-up toes.
All these are generally, but not invariably, characteristic of
the Ionian fabrics, as is the peculiar treatment of boys’ hair,
which is tied in a tuft at the back.
In regard to technique the chief point is the extensive use of
accessories, which give a bright and varied appearance to the
vases. And we must also note the general use of white for
flesh, of men as well as of women, the white being laid on the
black varnish in the Attic fashion, and not on the clay, as usual
in Ionia. The clay, too, is not covered with the characteristic
creamy slip, but with a red glaze approaching more nearly to
the “continental” fabrics. Incised lines are used with great
.bn 445.png
.pn +1
care, and folds of drapery are always indicated; the male eye is
always oval, and undistinguished from the female.
Two groups of fragments from sites in Asia Minor, though
differing in some degree from the Caeretan hydriae, yet obviously
stand in close relation. Of these, one set, forming a large krater
of the Corinthian type, was found at Kyme in Aeolis[1159]; they
appear to be later than the hydriae, i.e. about 500 B.C., but the
style and technique are not dissimilar, except that the white is
here laid on the clay ground and the drawing tends to freedom
and carelessness.[1160] Folds of drapery are not indicated; the
typical Ionic motive of a large bud in the field is found.[1161] They
may be described as a local differentiation from the hydriae,
representing the transition from the sarcophagi[1162] to B.F. fabrics,
or rather, perhaps, forming a link between the Caeretan group
and that next to be discussed. The other set was found at
Clazomenae,[1163] and appears to stand midway between the
Daphnae pottery and the hydriae; it is probably of local origin,
and also exhibits points of comparison with the sarcophagi. The
influence of this fabric has been traced in some Attic B.F. vases
which represent a similar scene—the harnessing of a chariot.[1164]
There are also various groups of vases (mostly amphorae) of
advanced B.F. technique, but thoroughly Ionian characteristics,[1165]
which seem to trace their descent mainly from the Caeretan
hydriae, although the scheme of ornamentation is widely
different. In the majority the most striking feature is the
adoption of the panel-design, the rest of the vase being covered
with black. This is clearly non-Ionic, and probably due to
the growing influence of Attic vase-painting, in which it early
became a marked feature; but it is usually combined with a
distinct neck, on which is a smaller design, and this, on the other
hand, is a non-Attic idea. These vases were all most probably
.bn 446.png
.pn +1
made in the Clazomenae region; they are, however, rather
to be regarded as forming links between the Ionian fabrics
proper and the Attic B.F. vases, and are the predecessors of a
group of vases of fully-developed B.F. technique which are yet
more Ionic than Attic in feeling and treatment (see below, p. 387).
Among these may be mentioned two groups of kylikes, one
found in Rhodes and richly decorated with figures within and
without, the form suggesting a metallic original.[1166] The other
consists of a series of kylikes decorated on the outside with large
eyes (formerly thought to be of symbolical import), at the head
of which stands the well-known Würzburg cup, with the subject
of Phineus attacked by the Harpies.[1167] This vase bears remains of
inscriptions in the Ionic alphabet; the cup is of a form afterward
introduced at Athens by Exekias, in which the off-set rim
and high foot of the other group are replaced by a wide-spreading
bowl of plain convex section, with a low foot. Once adopted at
Athens, this type remained firmly in favour throughout the R.F.
period.
It has often been remarked that inscribed vases are remarkably
rare among Ionian fabrics; there are not more than six at the
outside, including the Euphorbos pinax, the alphabet of which
we have seen to be Argive.[1168] But there are two vases the
alphabet of which apparently belongs to the island of Keos,
being one of the Ionic or Eastern group, and of these one[1169] may
well be associated with the later Ionic fabrics. The other,
however, is in a style which is usually associated with the
Chalcidian group[1170]; there is the typical feature of the fallen
warrior with face turned to the front. If the two can both be
assumed to have been actually made in Keos, the geographical
position of that island would account for the combination of
these Eastern and Western elements.[1171]
.bn 447.png
.pn +1
A complete and detailed list of the Caeretan hydriae and of
the allied types may be found in Endt’s book (pp. 1, 21, 29, etc.);
but a brief summary may also be found useful:—
.fs 95%
.in +5
.ti -3
1. Caeretan hydriae: B.M. B 59 (Plate #XXVI:pl26#.); Louvre E 696–702;
Vienna 217–18; Ant. Denkm. ii. 28 (in Berlin); Mus. Greg. ii.
16, 2a; Jahn, Entführung der Europa, pl. 5a; Endt, figs. 1–2,
5–8; four others unpublished. See also generally Dümmler
in Röm. Mitth. 1888, p. 166 ff., and Pottier in Bull. de Corr.
Hell. 1892, p. 253 ff., and Louvre Cat. ii. p. 534.
.ti -3
2. Later Ionic B.F. fabrics, chiefly amphorae, kraters, hydriae, and
deinoi, from the region of the Gulf of Smyrna: Louvre E 736,
E 737, E 739; Vienna 215; Munich 573, 583, 685; Berlin
1674, 1885, 2154; Würzburg, iii. 328 (= Reinach, ii. 97) and
331; Reinach, ii. 156; J.H.S. vi. pp. 181, 185, and Anzeiger,
1893, p. 83 (in Berlin); Louvre E 754–81; Berlin 1676 = Reinach,
ii. 22, 3–5; and the fragments from Kyme and
Clazomenae already discussed. See besides Endt, Pottier in
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1893, p. 423 ff.; Zahn in Ath. Mitth. 1898,
p. 38 ff.; Karo in J.H.S. xix. p. 146 ff.
.ti -3
3. Kylikes of Attic-Ionic style: (a) Rhodian: B.M. B 379-B 382:
see J.H.S. v. p. 220 ff.; (b) later type, with eyes (see p. #374#);
Würzburg, iii. 354 = Furtwaengler and Reichhold, pl. 41
(Phineus cup) and 349; Berlin 1803, 2054, 2056; Munich
428, 468, 630, 553, 711, 1239, 1316, 1027, 1239; and others
given by Böhlau; to which may be added the British Museum
cups with eyes, B 427 ff., and the amphora B.M. B 215.
.ti -3
4. Keos fabric (?): Louvre E 732 = Reinach, i. 162; Gerhard, A.V.
205, 3–4.
.in
.fs 100%
There are also numerous vases scattered about our museums
which are of a debased and inferior B.F. type, and on good
grounds have been thought to be of Italian manufacture, whether
Etruscan or South Italian. The former usually display unmistakable
local characteristics, and there is a class so sharply
defined that its Etruscan origin is undoubted, in spite of its
affinities to the Caeretan hydriae. A full description will be
found in the chapter on Etruscan pottery (XVIII.). Others
again have more in common with the class next to be discussed;
and, generally speaking, they may all be found to show Ionian
affinities. But the line is not easy to draw: debased B.F. vases
.bn 448.png
.pn +1
may have been produced in Ionia, as they undoubtedly were at
Kameiros[1172]; but, on the other hand, the extensive export of
Ionic wares to Cumae, Cervetri, and other places may have
incited the Italian potters, as in the case of the Etruscan class
just mentioned, to unsuccessful attempts at imitation.
There remains yet one class of Ionic vases to be discussed, a
class which can be clearly defined, but for which as yet no
satisfactory name has been found. Like the Caeretan hydriae,
they were first discussed by the late F. Dümmler; but his
grounds for assigning them to the region of Pontus—whence
they have been provisionally styled “Pontic”—have not found
general acceptance.[1173] They were also originally, like the
Caeretan group, thought to be Etruscan, a view which at first
sight might seem justified by their rough execution; but style
and other reasons preclude such a possibility. On the other
hand, it is quite possible that some of them are imitative fabrics
made in Southern Italy. All at present known have been found
in Etruria.
The group is formed by a series of about twenty amphorae
and sixteen oinochoae, to which Endt appends a list of twenty
or so which may either be of this fabric or Italian imitations.
Another example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South
Kensington, is illustrated on Plate #XXV:pl25#. The list might
doubtless be extended. That they date from the first half
of the sixth century seems indicated by the discovery of
one at Orvieto, together with an early Corinthian cup. Like
so many of the Ionic fabrics, they exhibit a fondness for bright
colouring, with an extensive use of accessory colours. In
some cases Corinthian influence seems to have been at work,
especially in the technique. Incised lines are sparingly and
carelessly employed, and seldom for contours. Among the
subjects mythological scenes are rare, but one of the British
Museum examples (B 57) has a curious subject—the contest
of Herakles and the Lacinian Hera (the Roman Juno Sospita),
assisted respectively by Athena and Poseidon. Winged male
.bn 449.png
.pn +1
figures are not uncommon, and the typically Corinthian subject
of grotesque figures dancing is occasionally found. But the
specially characteristic feature of the group is formed by the
friezes of animals. Of these there are usually two on each vase,
more rarely one; sometimes they are interspersed with figures
of men, not representing any definite subject, but as an imitation
of stamped metal vases (as on the Bucchero vases of Etruria,
Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.). The animals are so characteristic as in
themselves to mark off this class as distinct; sometimes they
are naturalistic, sometimes conventional, and repetitions in one
frieze are very rare.
The favourite quadruped is a deer; Gryphons of a peculiar
type and Sphinxes are frequently found, and on some specimens
a subordinate frieze of quails.[1174] On the necks of the amphorae
heraldic groups of panthers or other animals confronted are
sometimes seen, varied by palmette and lotos patterns. The
latter form the chief decorative motive; but a combination of
maeanders and stars (see Chapter #XVI:vol2_ch16#.) is often found on the
oinochoae, and this, it is interesting to note, also appears on
the Clazomenae sarcophagi. On one of the vases published
by Dümmler there is represented a combat of Greeks and
mounted Barbarians; the latter he identified as Scythians, and
mainly on this ground attributed the group to the northern
coast of Asia Minor. But they are more likely to be from
Phocaea, or Kyme, or one of the neighbouring cities. The
oinochoae appear, from the absence of human figures, to be
earlier than the amphorae, and the number of friezes often
exceeds two; there are also a few minor distinctions.[1175]
.bn 450.png
.h4 pn=+1
§ 4. Early Painting in Ionia
It is now time to turn, by way of supplementing our account
of Ionic pottery, to the history of the art of painting in general
among these peoples, so far as it is illustrated by literary records
and by existing monuments other than the vases. That the
latter do afford us considerable information on the subject of
painting in Ionia is amply shown in the foregoing pages;
but there is yet another group of monuments which the
material of which they are made would alone entitle to
inclusion in this work, apart from the valuable illustration
they afford of certain aspects of Ionic pottery.
In the light of modern researches, we are prepared to find in
Ionia a great centre for the art of painting in the archaic
period. That this region inherited the characteristics of
Mycenaean art has already been so abundantly shown that
we need not hesitate to believe that, among other branches
of art, that of fresco-painting was firmly established in the
Asiatic colonies. The art of which Crete, Mycenae, and Tiryns
have furnished such remarkable examples is hardly likely to
have died out. Hence it need excite no surprise when we
read that as early as about 700 B.C. Kandaules, the king of
Lydia, purchased for its weight in gold a picture painted by
Bularchos representing a battle of the Magnetes.[1176] That such
an elaborate subject should have been treated at this early
date, when the vase-painter had not emerged from his earliest
limitations, is, if we may accept Pliny’s account, a most
remarkable proof of advanced art. Saurias of Samos is also
mentioned as an early painter,[1177] who “invented silhouette
drawing,” and Philokles the Egyptian, who “invented linear
drawing,” was probably a Naucratite, and his “inventions”
may be reflected in the outlined paintings on white ground
which have been described above. Lastly, we read that about
515 B.C. Mandrokles of Samos painted a picture which represented
Dareios watching his army crossing the Bosphoros,[1178]
and Kalliphon of Samos, probably a contemporary, painted
scenes from the story of Troy.[1179]
.bn 451.png
.pn +1
Combining these traditions with what we also know of Ionic
painting from the pottery, we should expect to find that its
characteristic form was that of figures in black silhouette or
outline on a ground covered with white slip; and, further,
that the subjects treated were by no means of an elementary
character, but comprised elaborate battle-scenes or groups of
warriors, and even historical themes. Now, these conditions
are exactly fulfilled in the group of terracotta sarcophagi
excavated during the last twenty years at or in the neighbourhood
of Clazomenae, on the Gulf of Smyrna. It is practically
certain that all have come from this district,[1180] and no attempt
has ever been made to connect them with any other site.
Further, we have already seen that there are reasons for
attributing some of the vase-fabrics to this place, or at least
for connecting them closely with the sarcophagi; and thus
there are good grounds for regarding Clazomenae as one of
the principal centres of Ionian art.
The sarcophagi which have come to light up to the present
number over twenty, inclusive of fragments, but very few are
anything like complete. There are fine specimens at Berlin,
Paris, Vienna, and Constantinople, with paintings round the flat
rims; but all are overshadowed by the magnificent example
recently acquired by the British Museum,[1181] which is absolutely
complete, with a massive gabled cover, and decorated over
almost every inch of its surface with subjects or ornamental
patterns. Its dimensions are: body, 7 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. 9 in. by
2 ft. 9 in.; cover, 8 ft. by 4 ft. by 2 ft. The only undecorated
portions are the central panels on the sides of the coffin and
the bottom, but in some other parts the designs are largely
worn away. It is made of a coarse brick-like clay of very hard
consistency, which is completely covered, except on the bottom,
with a thick white slip to receive the paintings. The figures
are painted throughout in black silhouette, without any method
of reproducing inner details except by traits réservés, i.e. by
.bn 452.png
.pn +1
leaving them unpainted on the white ground; but the greater
part has been imperfectly fired, so that the black has become
bright red.
On the long sides of the interior are representations of
funeral games, such as contests with spears and a chariot-race;
the shorter sides have groups of warriors on horseback and
on foot. The chariot-races are also repeated along the flat
rim of the coffin, the exterior and the space above the interior
designs being ornamented with bands of egg-and-dart moulding
and the typical Ionic pattern of maeander interspersed with
stars, which we have already met with in the pottery (p. #360#).
The main designs on the cover are in two rows, those on one
side having almost entirely disappeared; on the complete
side the upper band represents an episode from the story of
Dolon, the lower an ordinary scene of combat.[1182] The gable-ends
have groups of Centaurs and horsemen, and along the
lower edges of the cover, underneath, are further scenes from
the Doloneia, groups of Sphinxes and Sirens, and bands
of ornamental pattern (rosettes, maeander, etc.). Of the
many minor details of interest in these paintings this is
not the place to speak; but they have been fully discussed
by Murray (op. cit.), especially peculiarities of armour and
costume.
It is possible that the battle-scenes on this and other sarcophagi
may, as Murray and S. Reinach[1183] have suggested, have
some bearing on the question of the painting by Bularchos
already mentioned. It would, at all events, help to explain
the selling of the painting for its weight in gold, if we may
regard it as painted on terracotta; but it is not safe to say
more than that the sarcophagi confirm the story to the extent
of showing the popularity of such subjects in early Ionian art.
Many of the motives on the British Museum sarcophagus
are found repeated again and again throughout the series,
especially the battle-scenes; groups “heraldically” composed,
such as a warrior between two chariots or horsemen, or pairs of
.bn 453.png
.pn +1
Sphinxes (Plate #XXVII:pl27#.), or animals confronted, are of constant
occurrence. There are also various minor motives constantly
repeated, such as helmeted heads of warriors (Plate #XXVII:pl27#.),[1184]
pairs of horses, one looking up, the other down (this being
a convenient position for silhouettes), or dogs running under
the horses.
M. Joubin,[1185] considering the group of sarcophagi as a whole,
recognises a triple development in form, technique, and
decoration, enabling him to divide them into three classes.
In regard to technique we observe throughout a remarkable
combination of two methods, the details of figures being
expressed either by outlining or by leaving in the colour of
the clay, as in the earlier Rhodian and Naucratite vases
(see p. #331# ff.), or by lines of white paint laid on the black.
The latter method, which is not unknown on the vases
(see p. #347#), was no doubt used in place of incising, which
would have been a difficult matter in the hard clay.[1186]
In the oldest group, then, the usual method is that of
outlining or “reserving” on the clay; the second group may
be regarded as transitional[1187]; and in the third group, which
in style answers to the Caeretan hydriae and later Ionic
fabrics, the use of white for details, and even of purple,
is general. But it is noteworthy that, for the groups of
animals at the bases of the sarcophagi or elsewhere, the old
“Rhodian” method of the earlier examples is retained. This,
it may be remarked, is in accordance with a principle by
which an older technique tends to survive in subordinate
decoration, just as on R.F. vases friezes of animals or ornamental
patterns are frequently painted in the old black-on-red
method.[1188]
.pm onplate XXVII
.il id=pl27 fn=plate27_454.jpg w=230px ew=50%
.ca Sarcophagus From Clazomenae (British Museum).
.pm offplate
In the decoration the development is in the direction of
scenes with human figures, in preference to friezes of animals
and floral patterns; the compositions advance from single
figures to large groups, and accessory figures are introduced,
.bn 454.png
.bn 455.png
.bn 456.png
.pn +1
like the dogs under the horses. Finally, we have the long
friezes of figures which are so characteristic, for instance, of
the British Museum sarcophagus. Mythological scenes, except
the Doloneia, are conspicuously absent; battles, chariot-races,
and hunting-scenes have the preference, as well as the heraldic
groups of animals.
Nor is the development confined to the main decoration; it
may be traced both in the form of the sarcophagi and in
the subordinate ornamentation.[1189] The older examples approach
more to the human form, with a shouldered opening at the
top indicating the place for the head; but towards the end
of the series the rectangular form predominates—the opening
enlarges, and the upper edge projects over the lower.
The British Museum example and one in Constantinople[1190]
are very elaborate, with mouldings and carefully-considered
architectural proportions. The origin of the form is doubtless
to be traced to the Egyptian mummy-cases, or perhaps to
Chaldaean sarcophagi; but the Cretan cinerary urns (p. #145#) are
also on the same plan, and may have formed an intermediary
link.
In point of date the sarcophagi seem to extend over the
greater part of the sixth century. We have seen that some
present the same characteristics of painting as the earlier
Rhodian and Naucratite fabrics; others fall more into line
with the Caeretan hydriae and Ionic B.F. pottery. In any
case the sarcophagi form our best standard for determining
the sequence and relation of the Ionic fabrics, and at the
same time furnish an argument for regarding Clazomenae as
one of the principal centres of Ionic pottery. M. Reinach is
of opinion that none are later than about 540 B.C., at which
time the people of Clazomenae, menaced by the invading power
of Persia, migrated to the neighbouring islands. But one or
two instances of advanced technique seem to point to a
later date.
.bn 457.png
.pn +1
The list of Clazomenae sarcophagi as at present known is
as follows[1191]:—
.ta r:5 l:17 r:9 r:9 l:30
| | Reinach’s List.|Joubin’s List. |
1.| Brit. Mus. (1895)| — | — | Terracotta Sarcophagi, pls. 1–7.
2.| Brit. Mus. (1900)| — | — | —
3.| Brit. Mus. (1902)| — | — | Plate #XXVII:pl27#. of this work.
4.| Brit. Mus. | 7 | 12| Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 46, 4 = J.H.S. iv. pl. 31.
5.| Brit. Mus. | 8 | 13| Ibid. pl. 46, 3 = J.H.S. iv. p. 20, fig. 15.
6.| Brit. Mus. | 9 | 13| Ibid. pl. 46, 5 = J.H.S. iv. p. 19, fig. 14.
7.| Louvre | 10 | 11| Bull. de Corr. Hell., 1890, pl. 6.
8.| Louvre | 11 | 3| Ibid., 1892, p. 240.
9.| Louvre | 12 | 1| Ibid., 1895, pls. 1–2, p. 71.
10.|Louvre | 13 | 2| Ibid., 1895, p. 80.
11.|Berlin | 1 | 8| Ant. Denkm. i. pl. 44.
12.|Berlin | 2 | 9| Ibid. pl. 46, 2.
13.|Vienna | 15 | 10| Ibid. pl. 45.
14.|Smyrna | 14 | 14| Ibid. pl. 46, 1.
15.|Constantinople | 3 | 7| Mon. dell’ Inst. xi. pl. 53 = J.H.S. iv. p. 8 ff.
16.|Constantinople | 4 |4, 5| Ibid. pl. 54 = J.H.S. iv. p. 2 ff.
17.|Constantinople | 5 | — | Röm. Mitth. 1888, p. 163.
18.|Constantinople | 6 | 6 | Revue des Études Gr. 1895, p. 161.
19.| ? | 16 | — | J.H.S. iv. p. 15.
20.| ? | 17 | — | J.H.S. iv. p. 20.
21–3.|In the market |18–20 | — | See Revue des Études Gr.i.e.
.ta-
To which may be added:—
.ta r:5 l:17 r:9 r:9 l:30
24. | Brit. Mus., from Kameiros | — | — | Terracotta Sarcophagi, pl. 8.
.ta-
.bn 458.png
.pn +1
We have seen in the course of this chapter the gradual
evolution of Ionic vase-painting, from the time of lingering
Mycenaean influences down to the period when it ceased to
have any existence as a separate style, and having reached the
same point of development as Attic vase-painting, was soon
merged in the latter. It is probable, however, that this was
largely due to political circumstances, which put an end to
Ionic art and industry generally about the close of the sixth
century. The conquest of Ionia by Harpagos in 545 B.C.
was the event which led to this result, and consequently to
the dispersion of Ionic artists, partly into Greece, partly into
Italy. The migration of the Phocaeans in particular caused
an influx of Ionian culture into the semi-barbarous regions
of Italy, and contributed to the production of the imitative
vase-fabrics to which allusion has been made.
M. Pottier, in summing up the rôle played by Ionian Greece
in the history of art, regards it as the principal agent of
transmission of culture between the East and Europe, and
thus the true civiliser of Europe, influencing both Doric Greece
and Etruscan Italy. Thus we may see in Ionia the parent of
modern civilisation.
.fm
.fn 1082
See M. Pottier’s excellent résumé in his Louvre Cat. ii. p. 486 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1083
Bronzefunde von Olympia, p. 45:
cf. Olympia, iv. p. 109.
.fn-
.fn 1084
Gaz. Arch. 1879, p. 208: cf. Athenaeus,
v. 210 B, and Pottier, Louvre Cat.
ii. p. 487.
.fn-
.fn 1085
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1890, p. 378.
The painting on a white slip marks an
important development, and a rupture
with all previous styles (ibid.).
.fn-
.fn 1086
Pottier, Louvre Cat. i. p. 129 ff.;
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1883, p. 179; Dumont-Pottier,
i. p. 161 ff.; Böhlau, Ion. u.
ital. Nekrop. p. 73 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1087
Böhlau, p. 52 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1088
Ath. Mitth. 1887, p. 226.
.fn-
.fn 1089
Rev. Arch. xxv. (1894), p. 26.
.fn-
.fn 1090
Böhlau, p. 86 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1091
Pottier, ii. p. 277.
.fn-
.fn 1092
Böhlau, i.e.; Pottier and Reinach,
Nécropole de Myrina, p. 505.
.fn-
.fn 1093
See above, p. #254#; probably a
Cypriote fabric.
.fn-
.fn 1094
Dörpfeld, Troja und Ilion, i. p. 310.
.fn-
.fn 1095
Stephani, Comptes-Rendus, 1870–71,
pl. 4 = Reinach, Répertoire, i. p. 34.
.fn-
.fn 1096
Naukratis I., II.; J.H.S. x. p.
126 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1097
See below, p. #362#.
.fn-
.fn 1098
For bibliographies of Class II. see
below, pp. #344#, #349#, #358# ff.
.fn-
.fn 1099
See Monuments Piot, i. p. 45.
.fn-
.fn 1100
Cf. Fig. #94:fig094# below; J.H.S. vi. p. 186,
viii. pl. 79; and Monuments Piot, i. pl. 4.
.fn-
.fn 1101
See Pottier, op. cit. p. 503.
.fn-
.fn 1102
See Röm. Mitth. 1887, p. 180.
.fn-
.fn 1103
See generally Pottier, Louvre Cat.
i. p. 129 ff. A list of Rhodian vases is
given in Ann. dell’ Inst. 1883, p. 179.
.fn-
.fn 1104
For fragments found in Cyprus see
J.H.S. xii. p. 142; B.M. Excavations in
Cyprus, p. 104, fig. 151.
.fn-
.fn 1105
Cf. examples in Cases 43–4 in the First
Vase Room, Brit. Mus.
.fn-
.fn 1106
See generally Riegl, Stilfragen,
p. 160.
.fn-
.fn 1107
Il. xvii. 60 ff.: see Chapter XIV.
The vase is published by Salzmann,
Nécropole de Camiros, pl. 53; Baumeister,
i. p. 730, fig. 784.
.fn-
.fn 1108
Ath. Mitth. 1891, p. 118: cf. Jahrbuch,
1891, p. 263, and Berl. Phil. Woch.
1895, p. 201.
.fn-
.fn 1109
The latest supporter of this view
is Böhlau (Aus ion. u. ital. Nekrop.
p. 73 ff.).
.fn-
.fn 1110
Böhlau, op. cit. p. 53 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1111
Böhlau regards this pattern as
“Mycenaean,” on the ground that it
does not follow the lines of the vase.
.fn-
.fn 1112
Cf. Furtwaengler and Loeschcke,
pl. 21, fig. 188, and Mon. Antichi, vi.
pl. 11, figs. 30, 34.
.fn-
.fn 1113
See Böhlau’s list, op. cit. p. 53 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1114
i.e. p. 79.
.fn-
.fn 1115
Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii. p. 524; Naukratis
I. p. 50; Böhlau, i.e.
.fn-
.fn 1116
J.H.S. vi. p. 186, fig. 3 (now in
Berlin). Cf. Fig. #94:fig094# on p. 346.
.fn-
.fn 1117
E 659 = Monuments Piot, i. pl. 4,
p. 43.
.fn-
.fn 1118
Op. cit. p. 85.
.fn-
.fn 1119
Op. cit. p. 89 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1120
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1884, pl. 7;
Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii. p. 274.
.fn-
.fn 1121
See examples in B.M. (Second Vase
Room, Cases 24–5). The B.M. also
possesses similar vases found in the
Troad.
.fn-
.fn 1122
Ath. Mitth. 1887, p. 223.
.fn-
.fn 1123
J.H.S. viii. p. 68 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1124
Stephani, Compte-Rendu, 1870–71,
pl. 4, p. 178; Reinach, i. 34.
.fn-
.fn 1125
Böhlau, Aus ion. u. ital. Nekrop.
p. 125.
.fn-
.fn 1126
Kyrene (1890), p. 17 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1127
Baumeister, iii. p. 1664, fig. 1728;
Reinach, Répertoire, i. p. 81; and see
bibliography in De Ridder’s Catalogue,
i. p. 98. It is a matter for much regret
that no satisfactory publication of this
vase has as yet been made. The best is
in Babelon’s Cab. des Antiques de la
Bibl. Nat. pl. 12.
.fn-
.fn 1128
I.e.Σιλιφιόμαχος.
.fn-
.fn 1129
Cf. the Amphiaraos krater (p. #319#).
.fn-
.fn 1130
The list is as follows: B.M. B 1–7;
Bibl. Nat. 189–92; Louvre E 660–72;
Petersburg 183; Munich 737 and 1164;
Vienna 140; two each in the Vatican,
Florence, and Würzburg (Nos. 2, 4, 9,
10, 13, 26 in Dumont’s list); one in
Brussels (Gaz. Arch. 1887, pl. 14); Anzeiger,
1898, p. 189 (Berlin); Dumont-Pottier,
i. pp. 301, 305, Nos. 17 and 32;
Louvre E 667 = Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1893,
p. 238; Jahrbuch, 1901, pl. 3, p. 189, and
see ibid. pp. 191, 193; Böhlau, Aus ion. u.
ital. Nekrop. p. 125 ff.; and a doubtful
example in B.M. B 58. For an exhaustive
bibliography of the subject, see Pottier
in Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1893, p. 226.
.fn-
.fn 1131
J.H.S. x. p. 126.
.fn-
.fn 1132
Other examples of Naucratite wares
have been found in Rhodes (J.H.S.
loc. cit.), Cyprus (J.H.S. xii. p. 142),
and at Athens on the Acropolis (Ath.
Mitth. 1889, p. 341).
.fn-
.fn 1133
These fragments will be fully
illustrated in colour in the forthcoming
vol. i. of the B.M. Catalogue
of Vases.
.fn-
.fn 1134
Cf. A 763 in B.M. = Naukratis II.
pl. 5, 1.
.fn-
.fn 1135
A 762. Other good examples are
A 764, 790, 792.
.fn-
.fn 1136
A 985 = J.H.S. viii. pl. 79.
.fn-
.fn 1137
One Melian; B 102_{5} and 102_{29} (with
Corinthian inscriptions); B 102_{13}, 102_{27},
102_{32} (Daphniote), etc.
.fn-
.fn 1138
See generally Tanis II. (Fourth
Mem. Egypt Expl. Fund), pp. 48 ff.,
61 ff., pls. 25–31; Jahrbuch, 1895, p. 35 ff.
and Ant. Denkm. ii. pl. 21; B.M. Cat.
of Vases, ii. p. 41; Endt, Ion. Vasenm.
p. 18.
.fn-
.fn 1139
ii. 30, 107.
.fn-
.fn 1140
ii. 154.
.fn-
.fn 1141
Jahrbuch, 1895, p. 35 ff.; Endt, Ion.
Vasenm. p. 18.
.fn-
.fn 1142
Ath. Mitth. 1898, p. 51: and cf.
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1892, p. 256.
.fn-
.fn 1143
B.M. B 104–6.
.fn-
.fn 1144
Cf. for the crosses in the field the
Boeotian example given in Fig. #86:fig086#, p. 287.
.fn-
.fn 1145
B.M. B 107–15.
.fn-
.fn 1146
See Böhlau, Aus ion. u. ital. Nekrop.
p. 65. He derives this pattern through
the medium of the “Fikellura” vases.
.fn-
.fn 1147
B.M. B 116–25.
.fn-
.fn 1148
This is also occasionally found at
Naukratis, and appears on a fragment
from Mytilene in the British Museum
(B 99) of Daphniote style.
.fn-
.fn 1149
Jahrbuch, 1897, p. 55.
.fn-
.fn 1150
See Zahn in Ath. Mitth. 1898, p. 50.
.fn-
.fn 1151
Cf. the Xanthos reliefs, Brit. Mus.
Cat. of Sculpt. i. No. 86.
.fn-
.fn 1152
See Endt, Ion. Vasenm. p. 17, and
cf. coins of Methymna.
.fn-
.fn 1153
Cf. Endt, Ion. Vasenm. pp. 5, 13 ff.,
who points out the similarity in subject
and decoration, as also in details of
colouring, armour, etc., with the other
groups.
.fn-
.fn 1154
Revue des Études Grecques, 1895, p. 182.
.fn-
.fn 1155
Vienna 217–18; Louvre E 696. For
list of subjects see Bull. de Corr. Hell.
1892, p. 254.
.fn-
.fn 1156
B.M. B 103_{14} for instance.
.fn-
.fn 1157
Cf. Louvre E 739. Also found at
Daphnae as a shield-device (B.M. B 115_{2}),
and on coins of Clazomenae (see Endt,
p. 24).
.fn-
.fn 1158
Cf. Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1892,
p. 259.
.fn-
.fn 1159
Röm. Mitth. iii. (1888), p. 159 ff.;
now in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 1160
Op. cit. p. 172.
.fn-
.fn 1161
It is found also on the sarcophagi (cf.
Terracotta Sarcophagi in B.M. pls. 1, 2),
on the quasi-Ionic vase, Gerhard, A. V.
205, and on B.M. B 379 (see below).
.fn-
.fn 1162
Cf. for instance Mon. dell’ Inst. xi.
53–4.
.fn-
.fn 1163
Ath. Mitth. 1898, pl. 6, p. 38 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1164
Vol. II. Frontisp.; Reinach, ii. 124.
.fn-
.fn 1165
Cf. especially Berlin 2154 (Endt,
op. cit. pl. 1, figs. 11–13) and Gerhard,
A. V. 194 = Reinach, ii. 97. They have
been discussed by Endt (op. cit. pp. 21,
29), by Pottier in Bull. de Corr. Hell.
1893, p. 424 ff., and by Karo in J.H.S.
xix. p. 146 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1166
B.M. B 379–82; J.H.S. v. pls. 40–3.
.fn-
.fn 1167
These have been recently collected
and discussed by Böhlau (Ath. Mitth.
1900, p. 40 ff.), who notes a total of
seventeen. His list is certainly incomplete,
as some examples in the British
Museum might have been added. See also
Furtwaengler, Gr. Vasenmalerei, p. 220,
who attributes the Phineus cup to Naxos.
.fn-
.fn 1168
See Ath. Mitth. 1900, p. 93.
.fn-
.fn 1169
Mon. dell’ Inst. vi.–vii. pl. 78: see
Fig. #111:vol2_fig111# and Chapter XVII.
.fn-
.fn 1170
Gerhard, A.V. 205, 3–4 = Reinach,
ii. 105: see p. 323.
.fn-
.fn 1171
See on Ionian inscribed vases, Endt,
Ion. Vasenm. p. 38; Böhlau, loc. cit. p. 93.
.fn-
.fn 1172
E.g. B.M. B 348–58, 439–50.
.fn-
.fn 1173
Röm. Mitth. 1887, p. 171 ff. Furtwaengler
regards the whole class as
South Italian (Antike Gemmen, iii. p. 88);
Pottier (Louvre Cat. ii. p. 538) wavers
between Kyme and Italy.
.fn-
.fn 1174
B.M. B 57; Gerhard, A.V. 185:
cf. B.M. B 58, which is difficult to
classify.
.fn-
.fn 1175
A complete list of this group is given
by Endt (p. 39 ff.), and may be briefly recapitulated:—(1)
Amphorae: B.M. B 57;
Cambridge 43; Bibl. Nat. 171–73;
Berlin 1673, 1675; Munich 123, 155;
Vienna 216 and Kaiserhaus 278; Würzburg,
iii. 79–80, 84; four in Rome (see
Röm. Mitth. 1887, pls. 8–9); others in
Brussels, Karlsruhe, and Orvieto. (2)
Jugs: B.M. B 54–6; Bibl. Nat. 178;
Munich 173, 176, 1047, 1291; Würzburg,
iii. 36 and 40; others in Karlsruhe,
Florence, and Boulogne. (3) Ionic or
Italian allied fabrics: Berlin 1677–79
and numerous others in Munich and
Würzburg, enumerated and illustrated
by Endt, p. 55 ff. figs. 27–40: cf. also
Louvre E 703 = Reinach, ii. 92 = Endt,
p. 65. To his list must be added the
vase on Plate #XXV:pl25#.
.fn-
.fn 1176
Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 55.
.fn-
.fn 1177
Athenag. Leg. pro Christo, 17, 293.
.fn-
.fn 1178
Hdt. iv. 88.
.fn-
.fn 1179
Paus. v. 19, 1, x. 26, 6.
.fn-
.fn 1180
The British Museum possesses a sarcophagus
of the same type from Kameiros
in Rhodes (Murray, Terracotta Sarcophagi,
pl. 8).
.fn-
.fn 1181
Published by A. S. Murray in
Terracotta Sarcophagi in Brit. Mus.
pls. 1–7, and in Monuments Piot, iv.
p. 27 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1182
See Murray’s description and commentary,
op. cit. p. 7 ff., and in Monuments
Piot, iv. p. 40.
.fn-
.fn 1183
Revue des Études Grecques, 1895,
p. 161 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1184
Cf. the archaic Rhodian vases in
the form of helmeted heads (e.g. B.M.
A 1117, 1118, 1121; Pl. #XLVI:pl46#. fig. 1).
.fn-
.fn 1185
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1895, p. 89.
.fn-
.fn 1186
Cf. J.H.S. vi. p. 185.
.fn-
.fn 1187
Examples of the earliest are Nos.
9–12, 16–18 in list below; of the second,
Nos. 8, 13, 15 in list below.
.fn-
.fn 1188
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1892, p. 240 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1189
The principal decorative patterns are
the guilloche or plait-band; maeander,
often combined with stars, as on the
“Pontic” vases; palmettes; a bold egg-and-dart
pattern of Ionic type. For an
Egyptian prototype of the maeander-and-star
pattern, cf. Perrot, Hist. de l’Art, i.
fig. 541.
.fn-
.fn 1190
Mon. dell’ Inst. xi. 53 = No. 15
below.
.fn-
.fn 1191
The following bibliography may be
useful: J.H.S. iv. p. 1 ff.; Bull. de
Corr. Hell., 1892, p. 240 ff., 1895,
p. 69 ff.; Murray, Terracotta Sarcophagi
in Brit. Mus. p. 1 ff., and id. in Monuments
Piot, iv. p. 27 ff.; Revue des
Études Grecques, 1895, p. 161 ff.
.fn-
.bn 459.png
.sp 4
.h3 id=ch09 pn=+1
CHAPTER IX | ATHENIAN BLACK-FIGURED VASES
.pm start_summary
Definition of “black-figured”—The François vase—Technical and stylistic
details—Shapes—Decorative patterns—Subjects and types—Artists'
signatures—Exekias and Amasis—Minor Artists—Nikosthenes—Andokides—“Affected”
vases—Panathenaic amphorae—Vases from the
Kabeirion—Opaque painting on black ground—Vase-painting and literary
tradition—Early Greek painting and its subsequent development.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
The term “black-figured” is generally applied to the Athenian
fabrics of a certain well-defined character and a comparatively
restricted period, but in point of fact is strictly applicable to
several of the classes already discussed, such as the Chalcidian
and the later Corinthian and Ionian wares. It is, indeed, in
some respects inadequate as a definition. We must remember
that it was originally introduced at a time when the Greek vases
in public museums consisted mainly of two classes—the one with
figures painted in black silhouette on red ground, the other with
figures drawn in outline and surrounded with black, so that they
stand out in red. Between these two classes the terms “black-figured”
and “red-figured” offered an obvious and useful
distinction. By way of illustration, it may be advantageous
to make a comparison between the two main varieties of black-figured
Attic amphorae (see pp. #161#, #221#), as, for instance, they
are grouped on the two sides of the Second Vase Room of the
British Museum, and those with red figures in the Third Room.
In the one class of black-figured amphorae the whole vase stands
out in the natural red colour of the clay, whereas the red-figured
amphorae are covered with black colour, so as to conceal the
whole of the red of the clay except where it is left to fill in the
contours of the figures. In other words, the one class, which we
.bn 460.png
.pn +1
may term “red-bodied” amphorae, are red all but the figures;
the other class are black all but the figures. There is, however,
an intermediate class, which no doubt suggested the arrangement
of decoration on the red-figured amphorae (see below, p. #411#),
and which we may call “black-bodied” amphorae. Here the
whole body of the vase is covered with black colour, except a
framed panel, which is left in the red to receive the black figures.
It is clear, then, that this second class of black-figured amphorae
approaches more nearly in aspect to the red-figured, although it
does not follow that they were necessarily a late or transitional
development.
But in regard to our definition, it is necessary to reckon with
the fact that there are not only vases of an earlier stage of art
which have black figures painted on a (more or less) red ground,
but that there are others in which the figures are painted not on red,
but on a white slip. In particular we may instance the Cyrenaic
vases and some of the Naucratite wares. We thus lose the sense
of an exact contrast between black figures on red ground and red
figures on black; and, moreover, the term acquires almost too wide
a connotation to be of any value for a system of classification.
The term “black-figured” must therefore be used to some extent
conventionally, to denote a certain class of vases made at Athens
during a certain period and with certain characteristics. The
latter may be summarised as follows: (1) black varnish entirely
filling in the contours of the figures; (2) red glaze (or white slip)
employed as background; (3) details indicated by accessory
pigments of white and purple, and incised lines; (4) subjects
almost exclusively human and mythological figures.
The history of vase-painting in the middle of the sixth
century B.C. is largely the history of a gradual centralising of
that art in one place from a number of scattered local fabrics.
This was mainly brought about by one cause—namely, the
extraordinary advance in art and culture at Athens under
the beneficent rule of the tyrant Peisistratos and his successors
(565–510 B.C.). Previous to this time Athenian art was very
limited in its scope, and in the domain of painting had so
far produced nothing except the great Dipylon funeral vases,
their immediate successors (the “Proto-Attic” wares), and the
.bn 461.png
.pn +1
“Tyrrhenian” vases, which, as we have seen, were largely under
the influence of Corinth. Attic importations into Italy cannot
be traced until the black-figure style is well developed.
The immediate result of this advance was to attract artists
from all parts of Greece—not only from Corinth, whose power
was now on the wane, but also from Ionia, whose artists were
driven to seek refuge elsewhere by the encroaching conquests of
the Persian monarchs. Thus we shall see that certain artists,
like Amasis and Nikosthenes, infused a large amount of Ionic
element into their productions, just as in others we see the
influence, more or less marked, of Corinth. But one marked
characteristic of the Attic sixth-century vases is the entire
disappearance of Oriental influence.
At the head of the new development stands the famous
François vase in Florence (Plate #XXVIII:pl28#.), to which allusion
has been made already (p. #73#). Its date can hardly be
later than the middle of the sixth century, probably somewhat
earlier, and the two artists Klitias and Ergotimos, who were
responsible for its production, are among the earliest of whom
we have any record at Athens. The alphabet of the inscriptions
leaves no doubt that it is a purely Athenian work, and the
technique is also purely Attic, as are some of the subjects;
but there are not a few small points which betray the influence
of a Corinthian artist, such as the arrangement in several friezes.
The winged goddesses, Sphinxes, and animals are non-Attic,
but not necessarily Corinthian. It is, however, chiefly interesting
for its wealth of subjects, which are mentioned in another chapter
(Chapter #XII:vol2_ch12#.); with these every available space is decorated.
The style has been described as “dry, precise, and careful,” the
artist as “exact and well instructed.” Closely related to this vase
is one in the British Museum representing the Birth of Athena
(B 147). Although the subjects (exclusive of those on the cover)
are only two in number, the minuteness of treatment in detail
and the richness of the composition show that it belongs to the
same school.
.pm onplate XXVIII
.il id=pl28 fn=plate28_462.jpg w=500px ew=90%
From Furtwaengler and Reichhold.The François Vase in Florence.
.pm offplate
In regard to technique, two points distinguish Athenian vases
at all periods above other fabrics. Firstly, the admirable clay,
traditionally obtained from Cape Kolias in Attica, and mingled
.bn 462.png
.bn 463.png
.bn 464.png
.pn +1
with red ochre (rubrica) in order to produce its ruddy hue; this
clay was eminently suited for taking a glaze, which was of course
an essential preliminary for painting the surface. Next, the black
varnish, with its exquisitely lustrous sheen, which was brought
to a pitch of perfection in the subsequent period, and always
affords such an admirable counterfoil to the red of the clay,
though it has not been altogether popular with the modern
photographer, owing to its reflecting qualities.
As regards the figures, they were seldom left entirely black,
though black is at all times their prevalent aspect. The accessory
whites and purples are used in varying degrees at different
times, and it may be laid down as a general rule that purple is
more affected on the earlier vases, white on the later. A like
principle obtains with the accessories on red-figured vases. In
the later examples, moreover, they are much more sparingly
used, perhaps owing to the influence of the new technique, and
by the end of the sixth century they disappear altogether. The
more careful artists pay greater attention to the use of incised
lines, and prefer to produce effects of richness and delicacy by
elaboration of details and patterns in this manner.
At first there is a tendency to use purple in large masses, and
even for the flesh of men; but it is generally employed for folds
or portions of drapery, and for throwing up different parts of
animals’ figures, or of the decorative patterns, such as palmettes
and lotos-buds. White is employed for the hair of old men, for
rocks and details of buildings, for the long garment worn by
charioteers, and above all for the flesh of women. The latter
we have already seen (p. #317#) to be an invention traditionally
attributed to Eumaros, who probably lived about the middle
of this century; but whether it was first introduced at Athens
or Corinth is uncertain.
Throughout the period there is a steady advance in drawing,
but more in the direction of carefulness and refinement than
in accuracy and truthfulness to nature; that is to say, that it
always remains conventional. We shall see later that, even after
the red-figured style came in, a certain archaic stiffness still prevailed
for a time, both in the old and new methods. On the
other hand, there is a degenerate class of black-figured vases,
.bn 465.png
.pn +1
found chiefly on Greek sites, in which the drawing is free almost
to carelessness, and it is clear that these illustrate the last efforts
of the black-figured method in Greece in the fifth century; but
the vases are all rough and hasty productions, altogether devoid
of merit or interest.
The treatment of drapery may generally be regarded as a
fair indication of date. The chiton is at first straight, with rigid
stripes or casual patches of purple; then patterns are incised or
painted in white; the waist is usually very small, and often bound
tightly with a broad girdle.[1192] By degrees the lines indicating the
folds of the skirt take an oblique direction, as if to indicate
motion, while the himation or mantle—which is adopted in
addition by the women to wear over the chiton—is made to fall
in long formal folds with diagonal edges, known as πτέρυγες. // Tr: pteryges
It is curious that the more advanced style of drapery is usually
found on the red-bodied amphorae, the older types on the black-bodied.
In the hydriae, which preserve the panel form of
decoration throughout, a progress is visible from the most rigid
severity to comparative freedom.
The shapes most frequently employed by Athenian potters
are very limited in number—as, for instance, when compared with
the Corinthian and other earlier fabrics. The really popular
forms are limited to five: the amphora, hydria, kylix, oinochoe,
and lekythos. Besides these we find the krater (usually with
columnar handles), the deinos, the skyphos or kotyle (with its
variant the mastos), the kyathos, the pyxis, and the pinax, and
occasionally also the alabastron; but these are practically all.
Some of these remain constant throughout, but others in their
form and system of decoration present interesting varieties of
development. In all cases there is an evident aim at improving
upon the somewhat inartistic Corinthian forms, in the direction
of grace, lightness, and architectonic symmetry.
The different types of Attic amphora have been described
elsewhere (p. #160#), but may be briefly recapitulated here.
.dv class='smallfont'>
(1) The so-called Tyrrhenian amphora, found in the Corintho-Attic
and “affected” varieties, with elliptical body (Plates #XXIII:pl28#., #XXIX:pl29#.).
(2) The panel-amphora, with cylindrical handles.
.bn 466.png
.pn +1
(3) The panel-amphora, with broad grooved handles (probably a later
development) (Plates #XXXI:pl31#-#II:pl32#.).
(4) The red-bodied amphora, distinguished by its straight neck
sharply marked off from the shoulder (Plate #XXIX:pl29#.).
(5) The Panathenaic amphora, with small mouth and foot and widely
swelling body (Plates #XXXIII:pl33#-#IV:pl34#.).
(6) The prothesis-amphora, a tall, elongated type, used in connection
with funeral ceremonies (see above, p. #159#).
(7) The Nikosthenes type (Plate #XXX:pl30#.).
.dv-
The hydria, oinochoe, and krater almost universally adhere
to the panel form of decoration, but the lekythos is red-bodied.
In none of these is there much change visible, except in the
later hydriae, some of which assume the curvilinear form of
the R.F. “kalpis” (see p. #166#). The evolution of the kylix
is, however, of considerable interest, especially in view of its
subsequent importance.
Before the sixth century this form was unknown at Athens,
its nearest equivalent being the skyphos, or deep two-handled
bowl with low base. But in course of time two forms of the
kylix make their appearance, one apparently earlier than the
other, and probably derived from a Corinthian prototype. At
Corinth the kylix took the form of a large shallow bowl,
with bulging outline and flat lip, on a very low foot. This
type was also known in Ionia, as at Samos and Naukratis.
It was usually decorated with friezes, internal or external,
sometimes with a Gorgon’s head in the centre. The Athenians
adopted this form, but raised it on a high stem, proportionately
reducing its diameter (p. #190#). At the same time they greatly
reduced the surface available for decoration, either covering the
whole with black varnish, except a narrow red band on the
exterior, or else leaving the whole of the exterior red, but
confining the figures strictly to the upper part. This became a
very favourite fashion, and in course of time a school of painters
arose whose practice was either to paint a row of diminutive
figures (or even a single figure, as Fig. #96:fig096#) on the upper band
and sign their names below, or else to leave the cup quite plain
except for the signature on one side and a motto on the other,
such as χαῖρε, καὶ πίει εὖ, “Hail, and drink deep!” // Tr: chaire kai piei eu
.bn 467.png
.pn +1
These artists are known as the minor or miniature painters,
and among them are found the names of Archikles and
Glaukytes, Eucheiros, Hermogenes, Tleson, and Xenokles.
At first they preferred not to decorate the interior, but then
a small medallion with a figure of an animal or monster, such
as a Sphinx, is introduced. Interior designs, however, were
not at any time popular in this style.
The second type of kylix is purely Ionic in origin (see
above, p. #357#). It is distinguished from the others by the
absence of a lip, by its low, thick foot, and by the greater
width and shallowness of the bowl (p. #191#). With a very slight
modification it obtains throughout the red-figure period. Its
form is clearly derived from the libation-bowl, or phiale, with
the addition of foot and handles; and it appears first in Ionia
in the large cups ornamented with eyes, the best of which
is the Phineus cup in Würzburg (see p. #357#). The Cyrenaic
cup (see p. #341#) seems to be half-way between the two types,
having a high stem and a very slight marking off of the lip.
The introduction of this form into Attica was apparently
due to Exekias, who belongs to the middle of the B.F. period,
and has left a very fine specimen, decorated with the Ionic
eyes and a beautiful interior design of Dionysos sailing over
the sea (see p. #381#). They are invariably red-bodied externally,
and, in contradistinction to the other form, decorated
all over, inside and out. Some of the larger varieties have
an inner frieze surrounding the medallion[1193]; but in many of
the smaller examples the practice is to paint a Gorgon’s face
in the interior, leaving the rest black. On the exterior, not
only are the Ionic eyes generally to be seen, but also the
whole scene is filled in with a background of interlacing
branches or foliage—a common characteristic of later B.F.
vases, and supposed to be also Ionic in its origin.
>From the shapes we pass to the decorative patterns on
Athenian vases, which form a link with the important question
of subjects. As the methods of disposing the main designs
became fixed, so did the scheme of subsidiary decoration, until
it almost became stereotyped. Thus on the neck of an amphora
.bn 468.png
.pn +1
there is always a pattern of double palmettes and lotos-buds
(see Chapter #XVI:vol2_ch16#.), round the foot always rays or pointed leaves
shooting upwards. The former seems to have been a Corinthian,
or perhaps Chalcidian, invention; the latter is Ionic, and is
found as early as the Rhodian vases. On the shoulder of
the red-bodied amphorae is a “tongue”-pattern bordering the
field of design above, and below the field are rows of maeander-pattern
and lotos-buds, sometimes repeated. The characteristic
ornament of this class is, however, the arrangement of palmettes
and lotos-buds under the handles, which is often very delicate
and artistically conceived. A variation is found in the works
of Exekias, who replaces it by an elaborate system of spirals—a
pattern which, as we have seen, descended from Mycenaean
art, by way of the Melian amphorae, to Athens. In the panel-amphorae
the only ornaments besides those of the neck and
foot are those bordering the panels, usually along the top
only, and, in the case of those with large flanged handles,
on that part of the vase also. In the former case a band of
lotos-buds, sometimes alternating with palmettes, is most
commonly found; in the latter, rows of ivy-leaves or rosettes
occur on the sides of the handles, and a palmette at the point
of junction with the vase.[1194]
In the hydriae the ornamentation consists of rays round the
foot, with tongue-pattern on the top of the shoulder and round
the handles; to this are added bands of ornament down the
sides and along the bottom of the panel on the body. For
the sides the favourite pattern is an ivy-wreath; but network
is also used, and, on the inferior varieties, plain dots. Along
the bottom the favourite device is a scroll of palmettes, often
very artistic in character, the place of which is sometimes
taken by a frieze of animals.
The same decorative principles are seen in the other shapes,
but in a more limited degree. The ornament on a kylix is
almost confined to palmettes springing from each side of the
handles; but the interior designs are sometimes surrounded
with tongue-pattern. The panels on the oinochoae are often
bordered with ivy, network, or dots, as on the hydriae; on
.bn 469.png
.pn +1
the lekythos the ornament is confined to a row of lotos-buds
or palmettes on the shoulder.
Many vases of the B.F. period are decorated solely with
these patterns; but these are usually small and insignificant
specimens, with a band of palmettes or other pattern carelessly
painted, perhaps used for the tomb by those who could not
afford more elaborate specimens. In the tombs of Rhodes
and Cyprus small amphorae and lekythi are often found, the
bodies of which are covered with a plain network pattern in
black on a red or white ground.[1195] Others, again, seem to have
been executed with great care, and there is a beautiful example
from Vulci in the British Museum—a jug with a frieze of
palmettes and scrolls on a white ground (B 632).
To treat of the subjects depicted on Athenian black-figured
vases within a reasonable compass is not only well-nigh impossible,
but unnecessary, since it would practically be to
traverse the ground covered in another part of this work.
There are, however, some general considerations which must
not be passed over. While we bear in mind that they are
as comprehensive in their character as those on any other
class of Greek vases, it may not be amiss to point out in
what respects they vary, for instance, from the red-figured
Athenian vases or from those of the decadence.
The main point of difference is that in B.F. vases the
mythological element on the whole predominates, whereas in
the later periods it is fully counterbalanced, if not outweighed,
by the preponderance of subjects from daily life. The Attic
ephebos has not yet attained to the height of popularity which
he reaches on the red-figure kylikes of Euphronios and Duris,
and the softer side of Greek life, the life of the women’s
quarters, or the sentimental scenes of courting which begin
to prevail towards the end of the fifth century, are the products
of a later development of social conditions. Religion, it is
true, does not maintain on the vases the overwhelming importance
that it does in other branches of art, except in a
few classes relating to certain cults; nor has the cult of the
dead as yet found general expression. To what, then, do we
.bn 470.png
.pn +1
owe the preference for scenes from heroic legend, and the
myths relating to the gods? It is, perhaps, largely due to the
extreme conventionality of Greek art in the sixth century,
which embodies its conceptions in a series of fixed types, which
the artist repeats again and again from sheer inability to strike
out a new line for himself. But with the general and rapid
advance of artistic conception and technical power at the
beginning of the fifth century, the change at once becomes
apparent,—not, be it noted, with the beginning of the red-figure
style, which for a time preserves most of the characteristics
of its predecessor; but with the ripening of the powers
of a Euphronios and a Brygos, who paved the way for the
greater freedom and variety of conception exhibited in the
highest products of fifth-century vase-painting. At the same
time an ethical change is to be observed, especially in the
position now occupied by two deities who are entirely absent
from the B.F. vases—the god of love (Eros), and the goddess
of victory (Nike). To the popularising of these two conceptions
is mainly due the preponderance of the sentimental
and athletic elements of the subsequent age.
To return to the black-figured vases, we must now devote
a few words to the consideration of the feature to which
allusion has just been made, namely, the conventionalised
types and schemes of composition in which the various myths
and other themes are portrayed. Roughly speaking, they
fall into three classes: (1) subjects represented by one single
and constant type[1196]; (2) subjects represented by two or more
distinct types[1197]; (3) subjects which fall into two or more
episodes, each represented by a different type.[1198]
The question of the origin of these types is a difficult one
to answer. They appear to have sprung, like the fully-armed
Athena from the head of Zeus, in a matured form from the
brain of the Athenian artist. It is, however, possible that
the genius of some school of artists, such as those who conceived
.bn 471.png
.pn +1
the decoration of the chest of Kypselos or the throne
at Amyklae, may have influenced the vase-painters to a great
extent. We have already seen how closely the scenes on some
later Corinthian vases adhere to the description of Kypselos'
chest. It is also a curious fact that the simpler form of a
type is not necessarily the older. Some early types are of
a quite complicated or elaborate nature; and the only variation
apparent in a particular type is that of the number of bystanders
watching the event. This, again, is due to an accidental cause—namely,
the surface available for the painter, who, perhaps
unconsciously, took the architectural sculptures of a temple
for his model, and where his space resembled that of a
metope (as in the panel-vases) reduced the number of his
figures to a minimum, or where it took the form of a frieze
filled in the space with a convenient number of spectators,
the original “type” being preserved as a constant quantity
in either case.
A question which has always presented great difficulties to
students of vase-paintings is one that to a certain degree arises
at all periods, but more especially in the one under discussion—namely,
the difficulty of deciding whether certain subjects have
a mythological meaning or not. The difficulty is, of course, in
the first instance, due to the type-system. If the artist wished
to depict a marriage procession in daily life, he instinctively
had recourse to a familiar scheme for the purpose—namely, the
“chariot-procession” type consecrated to the marriage of Zeus
and Hera and similar Olympian triumphs. Or, again, scenes
of warriors departing to battle or engaged in the fray would
naturally be copied from such familiar types as that of Hector
parting from his wife and child, or the fight of Achilles and
Memnon over the body of Antilochos. Even inscriptions do
not lend the aid that might be expected, as in some cases they
are wrongly applied, or the names convey no meaning (as on the
Corinthian vases, see pp. #315#, #318#); and it is probable that in
many cases the intention was just to produce a sort of parable
or idealised picture of events of ordinary life, in order to give
more interest to a theme.[1199]
.bn 472.png
.pn +1
Much of the interest of Athenian vases is derived from the
inscriptions found upon them. These, which will be more
fully dealt with elsewhere (Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.), fall into three main
classes—artists’ signatures, names with καλός, and descriptive
names referring to the designs. On the last-named head no
more need now be said; the second is more appropriately dealt
with in the next chapter[1200]—although not a few καλός-names are
found on B.F. vases; and it only remains therefore to treat of
the artists whose signatures have come down to us.[1201]
We have already met with a few signed vases, among those
of Corinth and Boeotia, of which the earliest go back to the
beginning of the seventh century. Those of undoubtedly Attic
origin fall into three or four main groups, the representative
names in which may here be given.[1202]
.fs 95%
(1) Early artists:
.in +2
Klitias and Ergotimos, Taleides, Sophilos, Oikopheles.
.in
(2) Middle period:
.in +2
Amasis, Exekias, Kolchos, Nearchos, Timagoras, Tychios.
.in
(3) Minor artists, who painted kylikes almost exclusively:
.in +2
Archikles, Eucheiros, Glaukytes, Hermogenes, Phrynos, Tleson,
Xenokles, Sakonides.
.in
(4) Later artists, combining B.F. and R.F. methods, or painting in
transitional style:
.in +2
Andokides, Charinos, Nikosthenes, Pamphaios, Hischylos and
Epiktetos, Pasiades.
.in
.fs 100%
Kittos, who painted in black figures a Panathenaic amphora
of the later class (see p. #391#), belongs to the middle of the fourth
century.
Most of these artists use the formula ἐποίησε,[1203] implying that // Tr: epoiêse
the same man both made and painted the vase; but Exekias in
two cases (see below) says ἔγραψε κἀποίησε. The François vase, // Tr: egrapse kapoiêse
as we have seen, records the names both of painter and artist.
.bn 473.png
.pn +1
Some of these painters give the name of their father, and thus
we learn that Eucheiros (Class 3) was the son of Ergotimos
(Class 1), Tleson (Class 3) the son of Nearchos (Class 2).
The names Andokides and Nearchos are found among the
dedications on the Athenian Acropolis. We now proceed to
speak of these artists in detail.
In Class 1 Sophilos appears as the maker of a vase of which
fragments were found on the Athenian Acropolis.[1204] In style it
closely resembles the François vase, and its subject also appears
to have been akin—the marriage of Peleus and Thetis—to
judge from the figures of Horae still visible. Taleides, whose
work is of early character, painted an amphora representing
Theseus slaying the Minotaur and two men weighing goods in
a balance.[1205] Ergotimos, besides the François vase, signed a
kylix found in Aegina, and now in Berlin,[1206] with interior and
exterior subjects.
.pm onplate XXIX
.il id=pl29 fn=plate29_474.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Attic Black-figured Amphorae (British Museum).
1. In Style of Exekias; 2. In “Affected” Style.
.ca-
.pm offplate
In the next group are two very interesting names, those of
Amasis and Exekias, and both demand special attention, the
latter for the excellence of his work, the former as connected
with a special branch of Attic B.F. vases, which must be treated
by themselves. The vases of Exekias include four amphorae,
four cups (see Fig. #96:fig096#), and two fragments, together with a few
unsigned vases which for various reasons may be attributed
to him.[1207] The finest of his works is an amphora in the Vatican,[1208]
on one side of which are Ajax and Achilles playing draughts,
the one calling out // Tr: TESARA: TRIA
.pm ii inscr_380_tesara.jpg ΤΕΣΑΡΑ '' ''
“four!” the other
.pm ii inscr_380_tria.jpg ΤΡΙΑ '' ''
“three!”[1209]
On the reverse are the Dioskuri, with Tyndareus and Leda.
Besides the signature in iambic form
.nf c
.pm ii inscription_380.jpg 400 29 'ΕΞΣΕΚΙΑΣ ΕΓΡΑΦΣΕ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΙΕΣΕΜΕ' '' '' // Tr: EXSEKIAS EGRAPHSE KAI POIESEME
Ἐξηκίας ἔγραφσε καὶ ’ποιησέ με, // Tr: Exêkias egraphse kai poiêse me,
.nf-
the vase is inscribed with the καλός-name Onetorides. The // Tr: kalos
others are in the British Museum (B 210), the Louvre (F 53),
and Berlin (1720) respectively, and are all painted with mythological
.bn 474.png
.bn 475.png
.bn 476.png
.pn +1
subjects. A fragment of a deinos[1210] is interesting, as
having, besides the signature, an iambic line in the alphabet of
Sikyon (see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch18#.). Among the four cups, one in
Munich (339) is a masterpiece of its kind. It is of the later
form of B.F. kylix (see p. #374#), and represents on the inside
Dionysos in a ship which takes the form of a fish, the mast
and yard overgrown with the vine; on the exterior are large
eyes and groups of warriors. The other three are of the
earlier “Kleinmeister” type, and two are merely signed, without
subject.
.il id=fig096 fn=fig096_476.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 96. KYLIX BY EXEKIAS: “MINOR ARTIST” TYPE.
Exekias may be regarded as one of the most typical B.F.
artists. His subjects are mostly from the usual stock-in-trade
of the time, but distinguished above other examples by the care
and accuracy displayed in every detail, especially in the extraordinary
delicacy and minuteness of the incising and the
judicious but sparing use of accessory colour, as also by the
careful naming of the figures in almost all cases. He stands
midway between Klitias of the François vase and the transitional
work of Andokides and Pamphaios, and helps to carry
on the tradition of minuteness and accuracy in detail characteristic
of all these artists.
Amasis is an artist of similar calibre and temperament. His
.bn 477.png
.pn +1
style is more individual than that of any B.F. artist, and hence
it is possible to attribute to him many vases which he has not
signed. It is marked, like that of Exekias, by accuracy of
drawing and careful and delicate work in details[1211]; but his
subjects are more monotonous and his figures much more rigid
and conventional. There is much in his vases which suggests
a connection with Ionia, especially with the later fabrics discussed
above (p. #356#); and this point has been well brought out
by Karo.[1212] We have seven signed vases from his hand, of which
no less than four are jugs of a characteristic form—a form not
unknown in Ionic fabrics,[1213] but usually found among the later
Corinthian wares. It is of the form known as olpe, with the
design in a panel, on the right side of the handle only. An
example of his work is given in Fig. #97:fig097#.
.il id=fig097 fn=fig097_477.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 97. PERSEUS SLAYING MEDUSA: FROM AN OLPE BY AMASIS (BRITISH MUSEUM).
It has been thought by more than one writer that he must
have been a foreigner. The name, of course, suggests Egypt,
.bn 478.png
.pn +1
and his Ionic affinities would further suggest Naukratis or
Daphnae as his home; but he may well have come from Asia
Minor.[1214] His best-known work is the fine amphora in the
Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (222), with a representation of
Athena and Poseidon, and among the olpae, one in the British
Museum (B 471), with Perseus slaying Medusa (Fig. #97:fig097#), and
one in the Louvre (F 30), with Herakles’ reception by the
Olympian deities.[1215]
Of the other artists in this group, Nearchos is only represented
by a fragmentary vase from the Athenian Acropolis[1216];
Timagoras was the artist of two fine hydriae in the Louvre
(F 38–9), one representing Herakles wrestling with the fish-bodied
Triton; Tychios has also signed a hydria; Kolchos is
only known from one vase, but that a very fine jug with the
combat of Herakles and Kyknos (Berlin 1732). The design on
the last-named is not, as usual, confined to a panel, but is continued
all round the body.
The list of “Kleinmeister,” or minor artists, is a long one,[1217]
but few individual names are of importance. The most prolific
is Tleson, whose name appears on no fewer than forty cups,
fourteen of which have no design, but only the signature on
either side. Others have a design in the interior only, such
as a Sphinx or Siren; others, again, a figure of an animal—a
cock, hen, or ram—on either side above the signature.
Seventeen are ascribed to Hermogenes, nine with signature
only, and thirteen to Xenokles, of which eight have no design.
But that Xenokles sometimes had larger aims is shown by two
.bn 479.png
.pn +1
of the cups in the British Museum and the Deepdene collection,
as well as by an oinochoe which he made for the painter
Kleisophos to decorate. The Museum cup (B 425) has on one
side the three cosmic deities Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades; on
the other a subject of four figures which may be interpreted as
the return of Persephone from Hades. The Deepdene cup[1218]
has in the interior the procession of the goddesses to the Judgment
of Paris, and on the exterior Herakles with Kerberos and
Achilles’ pursuit of Troilos. Phrynos, an artist of similar style,
has one cup (B.M. B 424) with the Birth of Athena and the reception
of Herakles in Olympos, the figures being very diminutive,
as are those on the British Museum Xenokles cup. Eucheiros
and Sakonides[1219] show a preference for a female bust painted
in outline on either side of the cup, as does also Hermogenes.[1220]
Archikles and Glaukytes are associated on a fine cup in Munich
(333), which is remarkable for the number of figures each side,
the style being very minute and detailed. On one side is
Theseus slaying the Minotaur, on the other the hunt of the
Calydonian boar, appropriate figures being added each side
to fill in the spaces at the ends of the friezes. There are
seventeen figures in the first scene, and, exclusive of animals,
nine in the latter. A similar cup in the British Museum (B 400),
with continuous frieze, representing a battle (twenty fighters,
three chariots), is signed by Glaukytes alone. Other names are
Anakles, Charitaios, Ergoteles, Epitimos, Myspios, Neandros,
Psoieas, Sokles, Sondros, Thrax, and Tlenpolemos.
.pm onplate XXX
.il id=pl30 fn=plate30_480.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Vases by Nikosthenes (British Museum).
.ca-
.pm offplate
In the fourth class we are introduced to a very interesting
personality, that of Nikosthenes, the most prolific of all Greek
vase-painters known to us, and of the B.F. artists by far the most
original.[1221] He was, however, a potter rather than a painter, and
on many of his vases the designs are little more than decorative
motives. He favoured vases of metallic form,[1222] such as the phiale
.bn 480.png
.bn 481.png
.bn 482.png
.pn +1
mesomphalos, and invented a peculiar type of amphora, also derived
from a metallic origin, with broad, flat handles and slim
body, with moulded rings dividing the subjects (see Plate #XXX:pl30#.).
Altogether, seventy-eight examples with his signature are
known, of which forty-eight, or nearly two-thirds, are amphorae,
nineteen are cups, four jugs, and one a krater. To these must
be added two cups in mixed B.F. and R.F. technique, one made
for Epiktetos, and three kanthari in the R.F. method, of which
he was probably only the potter. That he had affinities with
the “minor artists” is shown by his making a cup with Anakles,
as also by the style of some of his paintings[1223]; while some of
his cups have only the signature.
The amphorae are all very much alike, with subjects of a
simple character—Sphinxes and Sirens, combats of warriors
or boxers, Satyrs and Maenads dancing, and Herakles with the
Nemean lion, a subject of which he seems to have been especially
fond. The large krater in the British Museum (B 364) is interesting
as an early example of the form with volute handles, and
for the manner of its decoration, with a narrow band of minute
figures on the neck only. In the Louvre there are two elegant jugs
representing the reception of Herakles in Olympos (F 116–17),
the figures being painted on a white slip in the Ionic manner.[1224]
This point is important, because it has been held by many
writers that Nikosthenes was of Ionian origin, and introduced
the white-slip method at Athens. Attempts have even been
made to connect him with Naukratis. The jug figured on
Plate #XXX:pl30#. is similar to those in the Louvre, and is probably
also Nikosthenes’ handiwork.[1225]
Whether this view can be maintained or not, there is no doubt
that towards the end of the sixth century the practice of using
a white slip does appear at Athens for vases with black figures,
and it is quite reasonable to associate its introduction with a
versatile and original artist like Nikosthenes. But the consideration
of this style of painting must be reserved for a later
page (p. #455#).
.bn 483.png
.pn +1
Pamphaios and Epiktetos, with their associates Hischylos,
Pheidippos, and Chelis, must, on the whole, be regarded as
belonging to the R.F. period, the majority of their works being
purely in that style; they will therefore be considered under
a subsequent heading. But the case of the remaining name in
our fourth class, that of Andokides, is somewhat different.
Among the signed examples we have from his hand only one
is purely B.F., three are in mixed style, and two are purely R.F.
It is clear, then, that he represents, better than any other artist,
the intermediate stage between the two styles, more especially
as a whole series of amphorae can be attributed to him in
which the two are combined, sometimes in what has been called
“bilingual” fashion—that is to say, that the design on both sides
of the vase is identical, except for the variation of technique.[1226]
There are, then, six vases signed by Andokides, of which one
is a kylix, the rest amphorae with designs in panels and broad
grooved handles. The B.F. amphora represents a chariot seen
from the front, in very minute, careful style.[1227] One of the
“mixed” amphorae (Louvre F 203) has three Amazons preparing
for battle (B.F.), and women in the bath, one of whom is
swimming, another diving (R.F.) [1228]; the other, a Dionysiac B.F.
scene, and Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and Ares on the R.F. side.
The “mixed” kylix[1229] is a remarkable example of the counterchanging
principle, the two halves of the exterior being exactly
reversed in technique, the dividing-line passing under the
handles.[1230] Of the two R.F. amphorae, one in Berlin represents
the contest for the tripod and a pair of wrestlers; the other, in
the Louvre, a combat and a musical contest.[1231]
.pm onplate XXXI
.il id=pl31 fn=plate31_484.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca
Amphora in Style of Andokides (British Museum).Obv.: Heroes Playing Draughts.
.ca-
.pm offplate
.pm onplate XXXII
.il id=pl32 fn=plate32_486.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca
Amphora in Style of Andokides (British Museum).Rev.: Herakles with Nemean Lion.
.ca-
.pm offplate
The characteristics of Andokides’ work are freedom of composition,
delicacy of drawing,[1232] and wealth of detail; but he is
always bound by conventionalities, and his power of observation
.bn 484.png
.bn 485.png
.bn 486.png
.bn 487.png
.bn 488.png
.pn +1
is stronger than his power of correct delineation. Furtwaengler
thinks his combinations of B.F. and R.F. were deliberately
chosen to show the superiority of the latter.[1233] His date may
be placed about 525 B.C., and it is probable that his name
appears on a marble base found on the Acropolis of Athens.
He seems to have learnt his art either from Exekias or Amasis,
probably the latter.
Scholars are generally agreed in attributing to him the series
of “bilingual” amphorae already mentioned, of which the most
notable examples are one in Munich (388) representing Herakles
banqueting, and one in Boston with Herakles and a bull.[1234]
Even more probable is the attribution to his hand of some
half-dozen amphorae of the type which he employed, with
different designs on either side, but B.F. and R.F. respectively.
The most interesting of these is an amphora in the British
Museum (B 193 = Plates XXXI.-II.), with the typical B.F. representation
of warriors playing with pessi on one side, quite in
the manner of Exekias (see above), and on the other Herakles
with the Nemean lion, in which scene the painter has attempted
a new departure. The lion is already subdued, and the hero
carries it in triumph on his shoulder, no doubt with a reminiscence
of the Erymanthian boar types (see Chapter XIV.).[1235]
.tb
A curious group of B.F. vases found exclusively in Italy, and
belonging apparently to the middle of the sixth century, is marked
by the extremes to which the mannerisms of the artists Exekias
and Amasis are carried. They are without exception amphorae,
and so similar in style that they must all have been produced
by one workshop, if not one hand. In spite of the excellence
of technique and careful drawing which they exhibit, showing
a really advanced stage of B.F. vase-painting, they are lifeless
and monotonous almost to grotesqueness. Karo, in publishing
the series,[1236] reckons forty-four in all, and points out the various
.bn 489.png
.pn +1
Ionian peculiarities they present, which mark them either as an
offshoot of the school of Amasis or a parallel development.
Originally known as “Tyrrhenian,” from the form of the
amphora (cf. p. #160#), they are now generally spoken of as
“affected amphorae,” in allusion to their peculiar and mannered
style. An example is given on Plate #XXIX:pl29#.
The subjects are all dull repetitions of certain “types,” often
without any apparent meaning, the personages being usually
warriors, horsemen, or ordinary draped figures, young and old.
Women are rarely seen; subjects of a Dionysiac character are
occasionally found, but mythological scenes never, except that
the “type” of the “Birth of Athena” is borrowed, copied, and
divested of all meaning by omitting the figure of the goddess
and depriving the others of their attributes.[1237] In addition to
this, Karo notes six prevailing motives: (1) two men in animated
discourse, occurring about forty times; (2) a warrior arming,
putting on a greave; (3) a warrior conversing with another man,
with spectators; (4) two warriors in combat; (5) a young rider
with second horse (Troilos?); (6) a reception of a guest, sometimes,
but rather doubtfully, identified as Ikarios receiving
Dionysos (see Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.).
The complete absence of inscriptions is an Ionic feature as
are the ornamental patterns, such as the tongue-pattern round
the handles; the fondness for winged figures also points in this
direction. The combination of good technique with feeble compositions
points to a late and imitative stage, and is contrary
to the Attic tendency to prefer new ideas and new subjects
to a high standard of technique. Among other characteristic
details we may note the tendency to give the human figures
tapering extremities, common to all archaic art, but here greatly
exaggerated; also the elaborate ornamentation of the draperies
with purple and white flowers or rosettes.
.tb
The Panathenaic amphorae, of which some mention has
already been made elsewhere (pp. #48#, #132#), form one of the most
interesting groups of black-figured vases.[1238] The Panathenaic
.bn 490.png
.bn 491.png
.bn 492.png
.pn +1
games, which were celebrated in the third year of each
Olympiad, were traditionally attributed to Theseus, but at
any rate were reconstituted by Peisistratos about 566 B.C.,
when rhapsodic contests were introduced. To these musical
contests with flute and lyre were added in 456 by Pericles.
The prizes were, as we know from Pindar, painted amphorae
containing olive oil, and there is an interesting inscription[1239]
which gives the number assigned as prizes for each contest.
Thus, for the pentathlon, the first prize was 40 amphorae, the
second 8; for the chariot-race, the first 104, the second 40;
for the foot-race, the first 50 to 60, the second 10 to 12.[1240]
That these vases were greatly valued and buried in tombs
we know from the number found under such circumstances.
About 130 in all are in existence.
.pm onplate XXXIII
.il id=pl33 fn=plate33_490.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Panathenaic Amphora (British Museum).Earlier Type (Obv. and Rev.).
.ca-
.pm offplate
The shape of the sixth-century amphora is peculiar, but not
exclusively used for this class[1241]; in height they vary from
twenty-five inches to about eight inches. Towards the end of
the century, and during the fifth, other forms were sometimes
employed, that of the red-bodied amphora and even the
“Nolan” being found. In the fourth century a great change
took place, the height being greatly increased and the body
becoming proportionately slim; the form exactly resembles
that of the contemporary Apulian sepulchral amphorae (Fig. #30:fig030#,
p. 162), with the addition of a conical cover. After the end
of the fourth century they appear to have been made only of
metal, but that they continued to be made we know both from
literature and monuments, such as the Athenian coins.
The designs are always in panels, the obverse representing
the goddess to whom the games were sacred, in her character
of Athena Promachos; the reverse, the contest in which the
prize was won (see Plates XXXIII.-IV.). Athena is represented
standing to the left, with crested helmet, spear raised aloft in
right hand, and shield on left arm, adorned with an emblematic
device; her drapery is usually much ornamented. Except
.bn 493.png
.pn +1
in the earliest examples there is a Doric column on either
side of her, surmounted by a cock, as the bird sacred to
Agon, the god of athletic contests; sometimes in place of it
a Sphinx, Siren, panther, or vase. In the fourth century we
sometimes find a figure of Nike or Triptolemos in his car
surmounting the columns. Down the side of the left-hand
column is usually placed the inscription (always preserving
an archaic form):
.pm ii inscr_390_ton_athenthen_athlon.jpg 'ΤΟΝ Α[Θ]ΕΝΕ[Θ]ΕΝ Α[Θ]ΛΟΝ' '' ','
τῶν Ἀθηνῆἄθεν // Tr: TON ATHENETHEN ATHLON tôn Athênêthen athlôn
ἄθλων, “(a prize) from the games at Athens.” On the earliest
known, the Burgon amphora (B.M. B 130), the word
.pm ii inscr_390_emi.jpg ΕΜΙ '' '' // Tr: EMI
is added. In the fourth century the inscription still reads
down the side of the column, but the letters are placed
parallel to it, not at right angles. Further, in this period it
often becomes customary to add on the right-hand side the
name of the archon in whose year of office the games were
held, thus enabling us to date the vase exactly.[1242] Of these,
some ten examples are known, ranging from 367 to 313 B.C.,
the list being as follows:—
.fs 90%
.ta lcclcl
Polyzelos | 367| B.C. | B.M. B 603 | Found at|Teucheira,
| | | | |Cyrenaica
Themistokles | 347| ” | Athens Mus. | ” | Athens
Pythodelos | 336| ” | B.M. B 607 and 608 | ” | Cervetri
Nikokrates | 333 | ” | B.M. B 609 | ” | Benghazi
Niketes | 332 | ” | B.M. B 610 | ” | Capua
Euthykritos | 328 | ” | B.M. B 611 | ” | Teucheira
Hegesias | 324 | ” | Louvre | ” | Benghazi
Kephisodoros | 323 | ” | Louvre | ” | Benghazi
Archippos | 321 | ” | Louvre | ” | Benghazi
Theophrastos | 313 | ” | Louvre | ” | Benghazi
.ta-
.fs 100%
The contests represented include the pentathlon, chariot-race,
foot-race, armed foot-race, torch-race, tilting on horseback, the
παγκράτιον, and musical contests (see Chapter XV., § #4:vol2_sec15_4#).
.pm onplate XXXIV
.il id=pl34 fn=plate34_494.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Panathenaic Amphora (British Museum).
Later Type (Obv. and Rev.).
.ca-
.pm offplate
The black-figure method is preserved throughout, in spite of
the development in drawing, that of the fourth-century vases
being perfectly free. In the latter there is a lavish use of white
.bn 494.png
.bn 495.png
.bn 496.png
.pn +1
and purple for details, especially on the figure of Athena; and
Nike, when present at the contests, is usually painted white;
but the tendency of later vases to neglect the reverse at the
expense of the obverse in the matter of decoration is strongly
manifested. The figure of Athena becomes greatly elongated,
until her head is actually painted on the neck of the vase,
and in all the vases after 336 B.C. she is turned to the right
instead of the left. Two signatures of artists are found—Sikelos
in the fifth century, Kittos in the fourth. There also
exist some miniature fourth-century examples of these vases,
the purpose of which is not obvious; on the reverse of one
in the British Museum is represented a runner in the
torch-race.[1243]
.tb
A peculiar local development of the black-figure style is to be
seen in the vases found on the site of the temple of the Kabeiri,
near Thebes, in Boeotia. From the style of the painting, which
is free and careless, they can hardly be earlier than the fifth
century, and may be later, the old style being preserved, as in
the Panathenaic amphorae, for religious reasons. The site was
excavated in 1887–88, and yielded a large number of vases and
fragments, together with Attic R.F. and plain black glazed
wares. Of the local fabrics the majority are of a Dionysiac
character, or have reference, more or less direct, to the cult
of the Kabeiri; many bear dedicatory inscriptions to the
presiding deities, such as τῷ Καβίρῳ or τῷ παιδὶ καὶ τῷ Καβίρῳ, // Tr: tô Kabirô: tô paidi kai tô Kabirô]
etc.
The material is a reddish-yellow clay of good quality, on
which the designs are painted in a pigment varying from
yellow-brown to the deep lustrous black of the best Attic
vases. Occasionally details in white or purple are added;
incised lines are used only for inner markings as a rule. The
shapes are confined almost entirely to one, a large deep bowl
with two small ring-handles, to which are attached projections
for the support of the fingers; it comes nearest to the pella
described by Athenaeus (see p. #186#). The decorative motives
are simple—vine-wreaths, ivy-wreaths, myrtle and olive, and
.bn 497.png
.pn +1
the wave-pattern; sometimes the reverse is only ornamented
with a pattern of this kind.[1244]
.il id=fig098 fn=fig098_497.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
FIG. 98. VASE FROM TEMPLE OF KABEIRI: PARODY OF ACHILLES AND CHEIRON(BRIT. MUS. B 77).
.ca-
The subjects are interesting from the fact that they are an
early instance (in vase-paintings) of intentional caricatures or
grotesques; this is shown not only in the manner of treating
the themes selected, but in the rude character of the drawing.
Among those drawn from myth and legend may be mentioned
Odysseus with Kirke (two instances) and traversing the sea
on a raft; Peleus bringing the young Achilles to Cheiron
(Fig. #98:fig098#); Kephalos hunting a fox; and Bellerophon slaying
the Chimaera. A favourite subject is that of Pigmies in combat
with cranes. But the most interesting is one which represents
the deity Kabeiros (answering to Dionysos) with his son (Pais,
i.e. Iacchos) at a banquet, accompanied by three symbolical
figures—Mitos, Pratolaos, and Krateia. Another fragment
shows a train of worshippers approaching the Kabeiros, in
the manner of the Asklepios reliefs.[1245]
.bn 498.png
.pn +1
The transitional stage from black to red figures is illustrated
by more than one class of vases. Those in which the two
methods are united on one vase have been discussed elsewhere,
in considering the characteristics of the artists who used both.
But there is another class corresponding to neither method,
and yet partaking of the character of both, in which the
figures are painted in opaque red or white pigment laid directly
on the surface of the vase, which is covered throughout with
black varnish (Plate #XXXV:pl35#.). Inasmuch as the method of painting
in colours is more suggestive of the B.F. vases, they are
classed therewith in some collections, as in the British and
Athens Museums; but since their appearance and style link
them more closely with the R.F. period, they are found in
others, as at Berlin, ranged with the latter class. In any
case they form a distinct group, in which the earlier examples
correspond more with the B.F., the later with the R.F., vases.
They are undoubtedly of Athenian origin, but to what extent
they affected the change from black to red figures is doubtful.
The practice of laying colours on the black varnish is, of
course, one that was quite familiar to B.F. artists; the analogous
procedure in the R.F. period was the laying of black pigment on
the red glaze, as was necessarily done for details such as devices
on shields. The transition was therefore easy in the case of a
vase covered with black varnish, to painting the figures only in
the opaque colours upon it, thereby enlarging the scope of the
process. The incised lines in which the figure was necessarily
sketched out before painting (and which frequently occur in
this class) led the way to the process by which the R.F. artist
engraved his design on the red clay before covering the rest
of the vase with varnish. In the case of female figures it is
obvious that this method was already practised, especially in
scenes in which they appeared entirely nude, and the whole figure
was painted white over the black silhouette, the black becoming
the real accessory where it was required for the hair, etc.[1246]
Dr. Six, who has studied this class, gives a list of about
seventy examples,[1247] including one signed by Nikosthenes
.bn 499.png
.pn +1
(Plate #XXXV:pl35#., fig. 2 = F 114 in the Louvre) which has a
figure of a woman painted in white each side, the style, be
it noted, being purely black-figured. In later specimens the
object seems to have been to imitate the appearance of
the R.F. vases, and to paint the figures in a similar but
opaque red colour instead of white.[1248] Other examples again
have figures only incised on the black, without any addition
of colour.[1249] In some of the earlier ones the use of black
as an accessory[1250] shows that the painter, so to speak,
“thought” in the B.F. style, but used white for black and
vice versa.
Most of the earlier examples have been found in Greece or
Magna Graecia; they are usually of the lekythos form, which
is always rare in Etruria. The later group chiefly consists of
small bowls (phialae) of very negligent style, but some are of
the typical R.F. forms, such as the “Nolan” amphora and the
stamnos. A considerable number of fragments were found on
the Acropolis of Athens, showing that even these late imitative
specimens, in spite of their rude, careless execution, cannot be
placed later than 480 B.C.
One of the most interesting examples is a fragment found
on the Acropolis of Athens,[1251] with an owl within an olive-wreath;
it had been dedicated to Athena by a potter whose
name is now lost. There is also a good series in the British
Museum (B 681–700), including a lekythos with Odysseus carried
under the ram, painted in polychrome.
.tb
Before embarking upon the history of the red-figured vases
it may be well to endeavour to see what light the vase-paintings
up to this point throw on the literary traditions
preserved for us, chiefly by Pliny, in regard to early painting.
There is, perhaps, no subject which that writer has treated
with greater vagueness; and we are forced to the conclusion
that he really knew nothing about it, and did not comprehend
the meaning of the earlier writers from whom he
.bn 500.png
.bn 501.png
.bn 502.png
.pn +1
borrowed.[1252] Still, it may fairly be supposed that the names he
mentions are those of real persons, even if his account of their
achievements is vague or imaginary. There are also a few
stray items of information given by Aristotle, Aelian, Strabo,
and Athenagoras.
.pm onplate XXXV
.il id=pl35 fn=plate35_500.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
Vases with Opaque Designs on Black Ground.1. Brit. Mus.; 2. By Nikosthenes, in Louvre.
.ca-
.pm offplate
Pliny[1253] begins by attributing to Corinth or Sikyon the
discovery of the possibility of producing figures by outlining
shadows, as in the story of Butades (p. 110). The next
stage, he says, was to fill in the outlines with single colours,
or monochrome. He next states that Philokles, an Egyptian,[1254]
and Kleanthes of Corinth “invented linear painting,” and that
they were followed by Aridikes of Corinth and Telephanes
of Sikyon, who, still without using any colours, introduced
inner markings and details,[1255] and inscribed names over their
figures. Ekphantos of Corinth introduced the use of a red
wash, employing a pigment made from pounded pottery
(testa trita),[1256] which may represent the purple so lavishly
employed on Corinthian vases. A later development was
that of monochrome painting—i.e. the use of a single
flat body-colour—introduced by Hygiainon, Deinias, and
Charmadas.
Aristotle, on the other hand, speaks of Eucheiros of Corinth
as the “inventor of painting.” The name reminds us of the
tradition of Demaratos, who took with him from Corinth to
Etruria a craftsman of that name. It is also interesting to
note that the name is borne by an Athenian kylix-painter
(see above, p. 384), the son of Ergotimos, who made the
.bn 503.png
.pn +1
François vase. Possibly he may have been the grandson of
the Corinthian artist.
Strabo (viii. 343) and Athenaeus (viii. 346 C) mention a picture
by Kleanthes (see above) which represented the Birth
of Athena,[1257] and can hardly have been later than the seventh
century—a period to which such evidence as we have would
allot the series of artists already named.
It must be borne in mind that the names of these early
artists are those of draughtsmen, not of painters. Even in
the time of Polygnotos drawing was the chief aim of all artists—as
the red-figured vases amply testify—and painting, as we
regard the art, only came into existence after the middle of
the fifth century. The development from liniarem, or “outline-drawing,”
to monochrome at first sight presents a difficulty,
as it seems to be opposed to the evolution of vase-painting,
which is from silhouette (as in the Dipylon ware) to outlines
(as in the Ionic vases). But even if it is not always intelligible,
we can still observe a distinct continuity in Pliny’s account.[1258]
After Ekphantos had introduced the filling-in of outlines
with red washes, and Hygiainon and his confrères had continued
painting with a single colour,[1259] a step further was made by
Eumaros of Athens, who distinguished the sexes and “introduced
all kinds of new subjects.” Here we may clearly
discern the introduction of white in the later Corinthian and
early Attic wares for female figures, and the growth of mythological
and genre subjects on the vases of the time.[1260] His
innovations of technique and subject may therefore be fairly
regarded as coincident with the great advance in vase-painting
made at Athens under Peisistratos and reacting upon Corinth.
It is interesting to note that the name of Eumaros occurs on
a marble base found on the Acropolis at Athens; and if this
.bn 504.png
.pn +1
can be the painter, his date would be fixed about 590–570
B.C.[1261]
In any case one thing is certain—that painting had not
yet developed into anything like a high art. It was still
purely decorative, and the few early paintings of which we
hear, such as those of Bularchos (p. #361#) and Kleanthes, were
not beyond the level of the Clazomenae sarcophagi or the
François vase in merit. We probably gain the best idea of
painting which was not merely decorative from the Corinthian
pinakes (p. #316#) and the Acropolis warrior-tablet,[1262] especially
as they are painted on the white slip or λεύκωμα, which we // Tr: leukôma
know to have been favoured by early Greek painters.[1263]
The relation of Pliny’s next artist, Kimon of Kleonae, and of
his improvements to the work of the vase-painters, has been much
discussed by writers on the red-figured vases; and they have not
been by any means unanimous in their conclusions, either as to
the nature of his “inventions” or as to the time at which their
influence made itself felt. They are described by Pliny in the
following words: “Cimon of Cleonae improved upon the inventions
of Eumarus. He invented catagrapha—that is, oblique images—and
varied positions of the features, looking back or up or down.
He distinguished limbs from joints, emphasised the veins, and
further reproduced folds and hollows in the drapery.”[1264]
The crux of this passage is of course the word catagrapha,
with Pliny’s Latin equivalent, obliquas imagines. At first sight
it would seem that the Latin rendering of the word connected
it with the rendering of the face in a new way, i.e. in three-quarter
aspect instead of the old profile of the silhouettes.
But this was not introduced into vase-painting until quite a
late period[1265]; it is found, for instance, on the Meidias vase about
440 B.C., and is certainly not earlier than the time of Euphronios,
whereas Kimon appears to have lived about 540–490 B.C.[1266]
.bn 505.png
.pn +1
Moreover, there seems to be some antithesis between the imagines
and voltus—i.e. varios formare voltus is not an explanation of
the imagines—and, on the whole, it seems more natural to take
the first word as a general term for figures. Obliquas imagines,
then, would obviously imply some kind of perspective, which,
when applied to the human figure, indicates foreshortening.
Now, this advance in drawing is first found in the earlier
work of Euphronios, i.e. about 500–490 B.C., though traces
of it are to be seen in the later work of the Epictetan cycle.
It will be noted in the next chapter that Epiktetos and his
contemporaries are still in the trammels of the old method.
Many of these vases even exhibit traces of a decadent style,
with rough and carelessly drawn figures. As Hartwig has
well pointed out, the real division of style comes, not before
Epiktetos, but between him and Euphronios. The Epictetan
cycle is transitional, and a time of preparation, firstly in the
change of technique, secondly in the evolution of cup-decoration,
thirdly in the discovery of new motives and extending the
scope of subjects. The new birth is seen in the form of
increased naturalism, and is parallel to the development of
sculpture under Pythagoras and Myron, who, like Kimon,
“gave prominence to sinews and veins.” We may therefore sum
up with Studniczka and Hartwig by saying that the reforms
of Kimon, which first manifest themselves in Euphronios and
his contemporaries about 500 B.C., imply a new theoretical
knowledge of linear perspective, which in practice displays
itself in a correct rendering of foreshortening.[1267] In minor
details the same advance is at this time apparent, in the
treatment of the eye, which now begins to be rendered with
some approach to truth, and in the accurate and detailed
rendering of muscles and anatomy, and of folds of drapery.
These are precisely the points in which Pliny regards Kimon
as having so greatly advanced his art, which, as Aelian tells
us, he “helped out of leading-strings.”[1268]
.bn 506.png
.pn +1
The first painter in polychrome was Panaenos, who also
introduced portraiture, but must still be regarded as a draughtsman
only; and, finally, Polygnotos, by such innovations as
giving expression to faces, and rendering transparent draperies,
gave the first real advance to the art. So far Pliny on the
beginnings of Greek painting; but its further developments,
and more particularly the relation of Polygnotos to the fifth-century
vase-paintings, must be more fully dealt with in a
succeeding section.
.fm
.fn 1192
E.g. B 130 in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 1193
B.M. B 426.
.fn-
.fn 1194
E.g. B 193–205 in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 1195
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 76, fig. 139.
.fn-
.fn 1196
As the Birth of Athena, B.M.
Vases, ii. p. 11, and Fig. #113:vol2_fig113# (Chapter
XII.).
.fn-
.fn 1197
Herakles and the Nemean Lion, ibid.
p. 13; Fig. #125:vol2_fig125# (Chapter XIV.) and
Plate #XXXII:pl32#.
.fn-
.fn 1198
Herakles and the Erymanthian Boar:
see Fig. #126:vol2_fig126# (Chapter XIV.).
.fn-
.fn 1199
See also on this subject Chapter #XII:vol2_ch12#. init.
.fn-
.fn 1200
General reference may here be made
to Klein’s Lieblingsinschriften, 2nd edn.
.fn-
.fn 1201
See id., Meistersignaturen, 2nd edn.,
for full details.
.fn-
.fn 1202
See also #table:vol2_listofartists# at end of Chapter
XVII., and Klein, Meistersig.^2 p. 32 ff.
The principal examples of signed vases
are illustrated in the Wiener Vorlegeblätter,
1888–91.
.fn-
.fn 1203
A unique exception is the early Attic
potter Oikopheles, who uses the word
ἐκεράμευσε (Oxford 189 = Ashmolean // Tr: ekerameuse
Vases, pl. 26).
.fn-
.fn 1204
Ath. Mitth. 1889, pl. 1.
.fn-
.fn 1205
Wiener Vorl. 1889, pl. 5, 1.
.fn-
.fn 1206
Reinach, ii. 120.
.fn-
.fn 1207
E.g. B.M. B 211 (Plate #XXIX:pl29#.).
.fn-
.fn 1208
Wiener Vorl. 1888, pl. 6, fig. 1.
.fn-
.fn 1209
Cf. Ar. Ran. 1400: Βέβληκ’ Ἀχιλλεύς
δύο κύβω καὶ τέτταρα. // Tr: Beblêk' Achilleus duo kybô kai tettara.
.fn-
.fn 1210
Wiener Vorl. 1888, pl. 5, fig. 3.
.fn-
.fn 1211
Adamek Unsignierte Vasen des A.,
p. 13 ff.) notes the use of fringed
draperies as especially characteristic of
Amasis. By this means he is enabled
to trace several other vases to his
hand.
.fn-
.fn 1212
J.H.S. xix. p. 143.
.fn-
.fn 1213
Cf. A 1532 from Naukratis in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 1214
Loeschcke and Karo connect him
with Samos, J.H.S. xix. p. 143.
.fn-
.fn 1215
See on Amasis, Klein, Meisters.
p. 43; Adamek, Unsignierte Vasen d.
A. (Prager Studien, Heft v.); Karo,
in J.H.S. xix. p. 135 ff.; Loeschcke in
Pauly-Wissowa’s Lexikon, s.v. Other
vases signed by Amasis are: Reinach,
i. 359, 1 and 453, 3; Boston Mus. Report,
1903, No. 45 (fragment of cup with
eyes); Würzburg, iii. 384; and one mentioned
in Jahrbuch, 1896, p. 178, note 1.
Unsigned vases attributed to him by
Adamek, Karo, and other writers are
B.M. B 53, B 151, B 197; Louvre F 25,
F 26, F 28, F 36; Berlin 1688–92, 1731;
Munich 75 and 81; Adamek, op. cit.
pls. 1, 2 (Berlin); Mus. Greg. ii. 3;
J.H.S. xix. pl. 5 (Würzburg); Reinach,
i. 513, 1–5 (Athens); and two others
mentioned J.H.S. xix. p. 139, Nos.
11, 12.
.fn-
.fn 1216
Wiener Vorl. 1888, pl. 4, fig. 2.
But see also Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1896,
pls. 6–7, p. 372.
.fn-
.fn 1217
Klein, Meistersig. p. 72 ff., reckons
seventeen, to which number two or three
must be added.
.fn-
.fn 1218
Klein, op. cit. p. 81, No. 13.
.fn-
.fn 1219
For a recently-discovered kylix
painted by Sakonides, with Kaulos (?) as
potter, see Notizie degli Scavi, 1903, p. 34.
.fn-
.fn 1220
See Arch. Zeit. 1885, p. 189·
.fn-
.fn 1221
Most of his vases are illustrated in
the Wiener Vorlegeblätter for 1890–91.
.fn-
.fn 1222
See Loeschcke in Arch. Zeit. 1881,
p. 35. He may have imitated Etruscan
bronze jugs, which were now being imported.
The Berlin vase (Fig. #136:vol2_fig136#,
Chapter XV.) seems to be an imitation
of the early Cyprio-Phoenician metal
bowls (ibid.).
.fn-
.fn 1223
E.g. B.M. B 364.
.fn-
.fn 1224
Loeschcke (Arch. Zeit. 1881, p. 36)
has pointed out that these are the most
archaic examples of the Attic white-ground
vases.
.fn-
.fn 1225
Fig. 2 on Plate #XXXV:pl35#. is also his work.
.fn-
.fn 1226
Perhaps the nearest analogy is the
“counterchanging” of heraldry.
.fn-
.fn 1227
Burlington Fine Arts Club Cat.
1888, No. 108; 1903, No. 21, p. 102.
.fn-
.fn 1228
See on the curious technique of this
design Ath. Mitth. 1879, p. 290, note 4.
.fn-
.fn 1229
Jahrbuch, 1889, pl. 4.
.fn-
.fn 1230
Note especially the treatment of the
large eyes in either case.
.fn-
.fn 1231
See on all these vases Amer. Journ.
of Arch. 1896, p. 1 ff.; also Furtwaengler
and Reichhold, Gr. Vasenm. p. 15 ff.,
and Jahreshefte, 1900, p. 69.
.fn-
.fn 1232
On his technique see Jahrbuch, 1899,
p. 157, and Furtwaengler and Reichhold,
op. cit. p. 19 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1233
Op. cit. p. 17.
.fn-
.fn 1234
A third example is given in Amer.
Journ. of Arch. 1896, pp. 40–41 (with
warriors playing dice).
.fn-
.fn 1235
The other examples are Munich 373,
375; Louvre F 204; a vase in Bologna
(Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1896, pp. 18, 19);
and one in Würzburg.
.fn-
.fn 1236
J.H.S. xix. p. 147 ff. See also B.M.
B 149–53; Gsell, Fouilles de Vulci, pls.
7–8, p. 502.
.fn-
.fn 1237
E.g. B.M. B 149, 157.
.fn-
.fn 1238
See generally C. Smith in Brit. School
Annual, 1896–97, p. 187 ff.; and for a
bibliography, Urlichs, Beiträge, p. 33.
.fn-
.fn 1239
Inscr. Gr. ii. (Atticae) pt. 2, No. 965.
.fn-
.fn 1240
It is not likely that all of those given
as prizes were painted. On the other
hand, the number of the amphorae may
denote the number of measures of oil
given, the painted vases being, like
modern silver cups, symbolical and
honorific (C. Smith, loc. cit.).
.fn-
.fn 1241
See p. #160# for a description.
.fn-
.fn 1242
A fourth-century fragment at Athens
has the name of the agonothetes instead
of the archon: ἀγωνο]θετοῦ(ν)το[ς τοῦ δεῖνος.
See Brit. School Annual, 1896–97,
pl. 16 (b).
.fn-
.fn 1243
J.H.S. xviii. p. 300.
.fn-
.fn 1244
Riegl, Stilfragen, p. 176, notes the
absence of all the usual B.F. patterns.
The ivy-wreaths represent an old Boeotian
tradition.
.fn-
.fn 1245
See Ath. Mitth. 1888, pls. 9–12;
J.H.S. xiii. pl. 4, p. 77 ff.; B.M.
B 77–8.
.fn-
.fn 1246
Six (see next note) quotes the
Berlin vase, 1843 = Él. Cér. iv. 18,
in illustration of this.
.fn-
.fn 1247
Gaz. Arch. 1888, pp. 193 ff., 281 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1248
E.g. B.M. B 691, 700.
.fn-
.fn 1249
Cf. Mus. Ital. ii. pl. 3 = De Witte,
Coll. à l’Hôtel Lambert, pl. 3.
.fn-
.fn 1250
Cf. B.M. B 693.
.fn-
.fn 1251
Six, op. cit. pl. 29, fig. 9.
.fn-
.fn 1252
His chief source was Xenokrates of
Sikyon, about 280 B.C.: see Jex-Blake
and Sellers, Pliny’s Chapters on Greek
Art, p. xxviii; Münzer in Hermes, xxx.
(1895), p. 499 ff.; id., Beitr. zur Quellenkritik
der Naturgeschichte des Plinius
(1897).
.fn-
.fn 1253
H.N. xxxv. 15: see ibid. 56.
.fn-
.fn 1254
Probably an inhabitant of Naukratis,
and connected with the Ionian school
of painting. See Smith, Dict. Antiqs.^3
ii. p. 401; Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii.
p. 582.
.fn-
.fn 1255
As opposed to mere silhouettes, e.g.
of the Dipylon vases. Some writers take
the words (spargentes lineas intus) to
refer to ground-ornaments (see above,
p. #312#).
.fn-
.fn 1256
On the possible connection of Ekphantos
with Melos, see above, p. 312.
Studniczka’s argument rests partly on
the early use of red on the Melian vases.
In reference to the use of the word
γρόφων in the Melian inscription, he // Tr: grophôn
thinks that the column supported a
votive painted pinax or vase. For testa
trita see Blümner, Technologie, iv.
p. 478 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1257
The earliest vase-painting with this
subject is one from Athens (Ἐφ. Ἀρχ.) 1886,
pl. 8, fig. 1). See Jahrbuch, 1887,
p. 153.
.fn-
.fn 1258
See Jex-Blake and Sellers, op. cit.
p. xxix.
.fn-
.fn 1259
These artists represent the Dorian
and Continental school, as opposed to
the polychrome Ionian (see Pottier,
Louvre Cat. ii. p. 584).
.fn-
.fn 1260
It has, however, been suggested
(Jex-Blake and Sellers, p. 101) that
figuras, the word used by Pliny, denotes
“positions” rather than “subjects.”
But this would seem more appropriate
to Kimon (see below).
.fn-
.fn 1261
As Studniczka maintains (Jahrbuch,
1887, p. 152): see also Hartwig, Meistersch.
p. 154.
.fn-
.fn 1262
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1887, pl. 6.
.fn-
.fn 1263
Athenag. Leg. pro Christo, 17, 293
(ed. Migne).
.fn-
.fn 1264
H.N. xxxv. 56.
.fn-
.fn 1265
Even full face is exceptional on the
earlier R.F. vases. Cf. B.M. E 67, 74,
and Hartwig, pl. 59, fig. 2.
.fn-
.fn 1266
He is perhaps mentioned by Simonides
of Keos (Overbeck, Schriftquellen,
379).
.fn-
.fn 1267
Studniczka says that catagrapha
is a scientific term = “projection of a
figure.” Cf. Stephanus, Thesaurus, s.v.,
and Jahn in Ber. d. sächs. Gesellsch.
1850, p. 138.
.fn-
.fn 1268
Lit. “released from milk and swaddling-clothes”
(Var. Hist. viii. 8).
.fn-
.bn 507.png
.sp 4
.h3 id='ch10' pn=+1
CHAPTER X | RED-FIGURED VASES
.pm start_summary
Origin of red-figure style—Date of introduction—Καλός-names and historical // Tr: Kalos
personages—Technical characteristics—Draughtsmanship—Shapes—Ornamentation—Subjects
and types—Subdivisions of style—Severe
period and artists—Strong period—Euphronios—Duris, Hieron, and
Brygos—Fine period—Influence of Polygnotos—Later fine period—Boeotian
local fabric.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
At first sight the sudden reversal of technical method involved
in the change from black figures on red ground to red figures on
black ground is not easy to explain. That it was a new invention,
not a development from the old style, is obvious, seeing that no
intermediate stage is possible. The theory has been promulgated
by a German writer[1269] that the idea arose from the effect
of the Gorgoneion painted on the inside of many late B.F.
kylikes. Undoubtedly the effect is that of the R.F. style, the
face itself being left red, surrounded by black hair, beyond
which the black is continued over the whole surface of the
interior.[1270] But this theory has not really much to support it;
the Gorgoneion is in the R.F. technique, and did not therefore
suggest it; and the earliest R.F. kylikes usually have B.F.
interiors, not R.F. It is exceedingly doubtful that the kylikes
had anything to do with bringing about the change.
Much more probable is the suggestion that the class of vases
with opaque figures on black ground (p. #393#) represents the
transition, if transition it can be called.[1271] We have seen that
some of these correspond more to the B.F. vases, others to the
.bn 508.png
.pn +1
R.F., and that in many cases their appearance is that of R.F.
vases. It may easily be conceived that it occurred to the
painter that it was more effective to let the red clay of the
background appear through the black wherever he would place
a figure than to paint the red on to the black. But these vases
are few in number; and as the R.F. vases sprang at once into
great popularity, the new invention must have become too
general at the very first to have been adopted from such a
comparatively rare method. There is also a greater tendency
to naturalism in that class than in the earlier R.F. vases. The
fact is that there had been going on throughout the course of early
art a tendency (to which B.F. vase-painting forms an exception)
in favour of drawing figures on a light ground against a dark
background. And even in the B.F. vases this tendency is not
altogether absent, as seen in the attempts at lightening the
figures by making them polychrome, i.e. with purple and white,
and also by the practice of covering the rest of the vase entirely
with black.
Now, we have already seen that Andokides was a painter who
liked to combine the two methods on one vase, and also that he
was one who invariably adopted the completely black variety of
amphora, for B.F. painting as well as R.F. His Louvre vase
with the women swimming is clearly one of the earliest R.F.
examples in existence. It is therefore much more likely that
he represents for us the author of the new method than
Epiktetos or the other artists who painted “mixed” kylikes
or who used both styles. On the other hand, it must not be
forgotten that it was really in the kylikes that the new style
rose into popularity.[1272]
Next to the question of how the new style was brought about
comes that of when it arose, and the length of its duration at
Athens. The chronology of R.F. vases rests on two considerations—the
inscriptions on the vases themselves, and the evidence
of history and excavations. Until within the last twenty years
it had been customary to regard the year 480 B.C. as the line of
.bn 509.png
.pn +1
demarcation between the two methods, and the earliest date for
R.F. vases. Yet as long ago as 1834 Ludwig Ross, finding a
fragment of R.F. pottery among the debris of the Persian sack
of the Acropolis, acutely deduced therefrom that this style must
necessarily have been in existence before the date of the sack, i.e.
before 480 B.C. His views, however, fell on deaf ears, and it was
not until the scientific exploration of the Acropolis in 1885–89
that his deduction was seen to be justified. The result of these
excavations was to show that among the mass of pottery found
in the pre-Persian stratum a considerable quantity belonged to
a comparatively advanced stage of R.F. painting, including
signatures of artists of the archaic and severe style down to
Euphronios. Some writers have thought that these fragments
may belong to the period between 480 and 460, when the
rebuilding of the site was begun; but so many show traces
of burning that it is far more probable that the earlier date is
correct.[1273] Allowing, then, for the necessary stages of development
up to the time of Euphronios, the beginning of the style
may be placed about 525–520 B.C., the date at which, as we have
seen, Andokides may be placed. Besides his name (see above,
p. #387#) that of Euphronios “the potter” was also found on a
base in the Acropolis excavations.[1274] The other limit of date will
be more conveniently discussed in a subsequent connection, and
it may suffice to say here that the gradual pushing back of the
terminus post quem points now to a much earlier terminus ante
quem than was formerly supposed. Reasons will subsequently
appear for placing the termination of the red-figure fabrics at
Athens in the closing years of the Peloponnesian War
(410–400 B.C.).
The evidence afforded by inscriptions is necessarily affected
in some degree by that of excavations, and chiefly important
for the relative dates of the vases. It is not palaeographical, but
is afforded mainly by one class of inscriptions, that of the καλός-names,
so far as they have an historical significance. These
.bn 510.png
.pn +1
names will be the subject of discussion elsewhere,[1275] and are
only alluded to here for their connection with the question of
chronology. It is a well-known feature of these καλός-names
that many are those of famous historical personages, such
as Alkibiades, Megakles, Miltiades, and Hipparchos.[1276] But, on
the other hand, any attempts to connect the vases with the
historical bearers of the names have met with little success;
there is also the danger of arguing in a circle—e.g. of saying that
because Miltiades’ name appears on a vase, it is therefore to be
dated in his youth, and because the vase belongs to the date
when Miltiades was young, therefore it bears the name of that
individual.
Where the importance of these names really comes in is in
their relation to particular artists or groups of artists. In this
way, as Klein and Hartwig have shown, connecting-links between
the artists can be traced and their chronological sequence assured.
This, taken in conjunction with questions of style and our fixed
dates obtained from other sources, enables us to extract a fair
working chronology from all the data. The subject must, however,
be dealt with in greater detail when considering the work
of individual artists, and only a few general statements can be
laid down here.
Many of the historical καλός-names, such as Hipparchos or
Glaukon, were probably very common at Athens,[1277] and we have
therefore no grounds for attaching importance to their appearance.
But in regard to the great painter Euphronios, whose
date is fairly certain, it is important to note that two different
names are connected with vases in his earlier and later manner
respectively, viz. Leagros[1278] and Glaukon. Euphronios began his
career about 500–490 B.C., and it probably covered some forty
years, from about 495 to 455. Hence we may place the time of
.bn 511.png
.pn +1
Leagros’ youth about 495–490, that of Glaukon about 465–460,
and it is remarkable that the latter appears as “son of Leagros”
in one or two cases.[1279] Now, we know that there was an Athenian
general Leagros who was στρατηγός in 467, and fell in battle
against the Edones in that year. Also that he had a son,
Glaukon, who commanded at Kerkyra in 433–432. In this case
the historical data fit in so exactly with the evidence of the
vases and of the Acropolis excavations[1280] that we need hardly
hesitate to accept the identity of these two names.
It has been assumed—and the assumption has hardly been
questioned—that the καλός-names are necessarily always those // Tr: kalos
of youths, i.e. of about seventeen to twenty years of age; this
view is supported both by the general character of the subjects
on the vases where they appear, and by the frequent use of the
analogous formula ὁ παῖς καλός. Dr. Hartwig has laid down // Tr: ho pais kalos
certain conclusions in regard to these names which have met
with general acceptance, and may be briefly restated here by
way of summarising the subject.
(1) All vases with the same καλός-name are limited to a
period of ten years, and consequently all those which are by
one artist belong to a definite circumscribed period of his life.
(2) All vases by different artists, but with the same καλός-name,
are approximately contemporaneous, i.e. within ten years.
(3) The appearance of two or more καλός-names on the same
vase indicates the approximate similarity of age of the persons
named, the greatest possible difference being ten years.
(4) All vases with the same καλός-name, whether by one artist
or more, can always be linked together by their style; the same
name does not appear on a man’s earliest and latest vases.
He further impresses the caution that the identity and position
of the παῖδες καλοί (i.e. whether or no they belonged to the aristocratic // Tr: paides kaloi
class) is a secondary question compared with that of the
development of painting which they help to elucidate.
The question of fabric is one that hardly needs discussion,
the evidence pointing so unanimously to Athens in all cases.
.bn 512.png
.pn +1
The apparent exceptions suggested by classes of vases found
almost exclusively on one site, like the “Nolan” amphorae or
the Gela lekythi, can easily be shown to be no real exceptions.
We have already met more than once with instances of
particular fabrics being favoured by particular places; and just
as Ionian vases were imported to Caere or Vulci, and a special
class of Attic B.F. vases made for Cyprus, so we may suppose
that certain Athenian makers had a monopoly of export to
Nola, to Gela, or elsewhere. Otherwise similarity of style,
of technique, of subject, of the alphabet of inscriptions, and
all other details point to a purely homogeneous fabric, and
that this was located in Athens itself is not a matter to be
seriously disputed. To this complete monopoly which Athens
enjoyed in the fifth century only one exception can be traced,
that of Boeotia, where local fabrics continued to be made at
Thebes and Tanagra. Of these one class has already been
discussed (p. #391#); the other will be treated of subsequently
(p. #451#).
We must next consider briefly the technical characteristics
and the forms of the Attic R.F. vases. As regards the former,
the method pursued during the period under consideration
may be summarised as follows. The artist sketches his design
on the red clay with a fine-pointed tool; he then surrounds
this outline with black varnish, laid on with a pen or brush,[1281]
to the extent of about an eighth of an inch all round, this
being done to prevent the varnish, when laid on over the
rest of the ground, from running over into any part of the design.
Finally, details such as features or folds of drapery are added
with a brush in black lines on the red, this process representing
the incised lines of the old style; and further details are often
expressed either in a thinned black pigment which becomes
brown and is sometimes only perceptible in a strong light, or
by application of white and purple as in the last period. In
the severe style purple is generally used; but at a later stage
this colour was dropped, and finally replaced by white. The
accessory colours were chiefly used for fillets in the hair, liquids,
flowers, and other small details, as well as for inscriptions.
.bn 513.png
.pn +1
Thus we see that the technical process of the preceding method
is exactly reversed and that the figures now stand out in the
natural colour of the clay against the black ground.
The advantages of the new method were obvious. As long
as the vase-painters continued content with stiff and hieratic
forms and mere silhouettes the black figures were sufficient.
The careful mapping-out of the hair and muscles, the decorations,
and all the details of shadow in painting and of unequal
surface in sculpture could be easily expressed by the new method.
But it is evident that these stiff lines were quite inadequate
to express those softer contours, which melted, as it were, into
one another, and marked the more refined grace and freedom
of the rapidly advancing schools of sculpture and painting.
By the change of colour of the figures to the lucid red or
orange of the background, the artist was enabled to draw lines
of a tone or tint scarcely darker than the clay itself, but still
sufficient to express all the finer anatomical details; while the
more important outlines still continued to be marked with fine
black lines. At first the style is essentially the same, the
forms precise, the eyes in profile, the attitudes rigid, and the
draperies rectilinear. The backgrounds may have been painted
in by an ordinary workman, and some specimens exist in
which it has never been laid on (cf. p. #222#). The artists seem
to have worked from slight sketches, and according to their
individual feelings and ideas, and as duplicate designs are
quite unknown, there was clearly no system of copying.
The correspondence of style in the figures on the earlier R.F.
vases to those of B.F. technique shows that the two methods
must have coexisted for a time, and this is further borne out
by the mixed vases of Andokides, Hischylos, and others, and
by the work of artists who employed either style, like
Pamphaios. The latter, for instance, seems to have adhered
to the old style by preference for hydriae and large vases,
but preferred to follow the new fashion in the kylix.
To quote a recent writer: “The new method opened up a
path for the freer exercise of the imagination,” and we can
see in the red-figure vases a gradual development of artistic
conception and power of expression, together with the shaking
.bn 514.png
.pn +1
off of all restrictions until the perfection of drawing is reached,
and “the red figures stand out against the black, unencumbered
with anything that might distract from harmony of colouring
or purity of outline.”[1282] It is the essential characteristic of the
new style that it is drawing rather than painting, and it stands
out as the final attainment of what the vase-painters had really
been striving after from the days of the Melian and early
Ionic wares—namely, the perfection of linear design. The same
principle is at work in the vases with white ground which
passed through parallel phases of development.
Among minor details of drawing in which an advance is
conspicuous is the treatment of hair, eyes, and drapery. In
the B.F. style the hair was indicated as a black mass, standing
out against the light background; but now that the background
had become black, a separation was necessary. At first this
was done by adhering to the old engraved line method, for
which came to be substituted a narrow unpainted line. Next,
an advance was made in the treatment of the hair itself, with
a view to more accuracy in detail, and the contours are
undulated or separate locks shown on the forehead. Sometimes
a kind of stippling process is adopted, by means of which the
hair is indicated by rows or clusters of raised dots, representing
close curls, such as are seen in Attic sculpture of the late
archaic period.
The general contours of the forms are slender; the foreheads
are low, the noses prominent, the eyes long, the chins
sharp, the legs short and thick, and the folds of the garments
stiff and rectilinear. Women are not distinguished in this
style either by their colour or by the shape of their eyes, in
which respects they are drawn just like the men, but exclusively
by their costume and form. The white hair of old men is
indicated by white markings on the black ground, and curly
hair, as noted, by little raised knobs of black paint (βόστρυχοι). // Tr: bostruchoi
The figures are generally small, but some of grandiose
proportions occur even in the earlier stages, though more
characteristic of the succeeding “strong” style. The principal
outlines are usually finished with wonderful spirit and truth,
.bn 515.png
.pn +1
but sometimes, as in the extremities, great carelessness is
visible. The general effect is much enhanced by the fineness
of the clay, which in the earlier R.F. vases is of a bright
orange-red, as also by the brilliancy of the black varnish.
.il id=fig099 fn=fig099_515.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From B.M. Cat. iii.
FIG. 99. DIAGRAM SHOWING DEVELOPMENT IN RENDERING OF EYE.
.ca-
The development of the form of the eye is most important,
as an aid to chronology (see Fig. #99:fig099#). In the B.F. period
it was invariably treated in two ways,—that of a man as a
complete circle, in front view, between the lids, of which the
upper is more arched than the lower; that of a woman is
almond-shaped. In the R.F. vases the eye in front view is still
maintained with figures in profile, but the sexes are not distinguished;
the pupil is painted black, and the lids drawn at
first like the B.F. male eye, then almond-shaped. The next
stage is to shift the pupil (which now becomes a ring with
central dot) into the inner corner. Lastly, this corner is
opened out till it assumes the correct profile appearance, and
then, about the middle of the fifth century, the pupil also attains
the correct form. About midway in this development, as
we have already seen, the power is acquired of moving the
position of the pupil to express looking upwards, downwards,
or sideways; the importance of this point as bearing on the
new developments of Kimon of Kleonae we have already
discussed. The eyelashes are not rendered until the correct
profile is attained, except in a few instances, such as the
Berlin cup of Euphronios (2282), where the lids are fringed
with short, vertical strokes.[1283]
In regard to the treatment of drapery, the earlier vases,
.bn 516.png
.pn +1
such as those of the Epiktetos cycle, retain the B.F. method
of rendering folds only in the skirts of the chiton, these taking
the form of parallel lines. Gradually the folds follow the
motion of the body; and finally, under Euphronios, comes a
marked advance, whereby contrasts of material are indicated.[1284]
He uses fine brown crinkly lines to represent the soft transparent
Athenian fabric which we also see worn by the archaic
female figures of the Acropolis.
Among the many improvements in drawing effected during
the R.F. period, a notable one is that of the introduction of
true perspective and more than conventional landscape. We
know from the shield of the Athena Parthenos that this began
to be understood at Athens by the middle of the fifth century,
as also from the paintings of Polygnotos, and hence we are not
surprised to find it appearing in the vases of the period when
that artist’s influence began to be felt. A fine example is
the krater from Orvieto in the Louvre, with an Argonautic
scene (see p. #442#); and even more beautiful is the Blacas
krater in the British Museum, which shows Selene disappearing
over the top of a hill, and the stars setting in the sea (see
Plate #LIII:vol2_pl53#.). These two vases also illustrate the introduction
of the new principle of placing figures at different levels which
was elaborated in the Meidias hydria, the vases of Kertch, and
to a still greater degree in those of Southern Italy. All these
details indicate the growing tendency towards a pictorial style,
which in the first instance was due to Polygnotos.
The shapes of the R.F. period are to a great extent the same
as in the last, but most of them are modified to some degree,
and some new ones are introduced. Moreover, the relative
popularity of certain shapes varies, the amphora and hydria of
the B.F. period being now surpassed in favour by the kylix,
the krater and lekythos receiving more attention, and certain
new forms, such as the askos and stamnos, appearing at different
stages.
For the first half of the period, from 520 to 460 B.C., the
kylix is pre-eminent, not only in point of numbers, but for the
attention devoted to its decoration. It is, as we have seen,
.bn 517.png
.pn +1
doubtful whether it was actually in the kylikes that the new
style came into being, but in any case they form the material
for the study of its earlier phases. The form is that of the
later B.F. varieties (see p. #191#), as used by Exekias and the
painters who used the large eyes in its decoration, tracing its
origin probably to an Ionic source.[1285] At first the decoration
is often confined to the interior, or the exterior designs are
little more than conventional, consisting of the eyes and a
simple motive or figure between.[1286] In the strong period there
is usually a connection between the interior and exterior
designs, the whole often forming successive episodes of a
story[1287]; but subsequently the old principle asserts itself, and
the interior subject becomes the important one. Slight variations
of form occur,[1288] as in the cups of Brygos, with their off-set
lip, or the delicate products of Sotades, the handles of which
are shaped like a chicken’s merrythought. In the latest
specimens the stem is often replaced by a flat broad foot, or
the bowl becomes flat and ugly, losing all the beauty of the
earlier graceful curves.
Among other drinking-cups the kotyle, kantharos, and rhyton
are most often found. The former was favoured by Epiktetos
and Hieron, and a kantharos is signed by Epigenes, others by
Nikosthenes and Duris. The kantharos, though a very beautiful
form, is never common in the painted vases, being perhaps
oftener made in metal. Among the kotylae we may mention
here a series painted with an owl and olive-wreath,[1289] which
obviously have some reference to the cult of Athena. They
have been identified, but on slight authority, with the Παναθηναϊκά // Tr: Panathênaika
mentioned by Athenaeus[1290]; but their real meaning
has not yet found a satisfactory explanation. The rhyton
strictly belongs to the series of plastic vases (see pp. #201#, #211#),
the lower portion being always modelled in the form of a head,
.bn 518.png
.pn +1
human or animal, or two conjoined. Some of these are signed
by artists, such as Charinos and Kaliades.[1291]
Of the amphora three main varieties are found. The earlier
type, which reproduces the “black-bodied” or panel-amphora
of the B.F. period, did not long remain in favour, and was
mainly used by Andokides and Euthymides and their associates.
The panel system of decoration is still retained, the
framework being formed of ornamental patterns as in the old
style. Secondly, there is the “Nolan” amphora, which came
in about 500–480 B.C., and was obviously an improvement
on the old “red-bodied” B.F. type. It is a very graceful,
slender form, with long neck, distinguished by the surpassing
excellence of its black varnish, and the impression
of taste and restraint given by its simple decoration of one
or two figures each side (see Plate #XXXVI:pl36#.). The third variety
is the so-called pelike (see p. #163#), a not very successful variation
of the amphora, but for some reason very popular in the later
stages. With its flat foot and bulbous body it stands in the
same relation to the amphora as does the so-called aryballos
(see below) to the lekythos.
Two forms that may be connected with the amphora are the
stamnos and the psykter (see pp. #163#, #172#). The former is
peculiar to the R.F. period in its earlier stages; the first
known example is signed by Pamphaios, a “transitional” artist.
Most of the known specimens attain a high average of excellence.
The psykter or wine-cooler is very rare, but there are
two fine examples signed by Euphronios and Duris.
The hydria in this period at first retains the B.F. form, as seen
in an example of about 500 B.C. signed by Phintias (B.M. E 159),
but the tendency to prefer a curvilinear outline is soon manifested.
The new development is conventionally known as a kalpis.
The shoulder having ceased to be distinct from the body, the
design becomes single, or else is confined to the upper part of
the field.
Of the krater we have at least four varieties, all belonging to
the more developed stages of the period. The earliest example
is the Antaios-krater of Euphronios in the Louvre, about
.bn 519.png
.pn +1
500 B.C., which is of the form known as vaso a calice (p. #170#);
but this and the other varieties never become really common
till the final stages are reached. The bell-krater, or vaso a
campana, is only found in the late fine period, and is then almost
the only kind of large vase made; the volute-handled krater,
which was developed from the old column-handled type, is seen
in some fine specimens. At first the design (as in the B.F.
example by Nikosthenes, B.M. B 364) is confined to the neck.
The treatment of the column-handled type is interesting as a
survival of archaism both in design and arrangement, with the
bordered panels and occasional B.F. friezes of animals.[1292]
Among the smaller vases, the oinochoë and lekythos with
their varieties, the askos and the pyxis, are the most important.
With the exception of the ordinary form of lekythos these
belong chiefly to the later stages, when the preference was for
a sort of miniature style. Very few of these bear artists'
signatures. The oinochoë differs little from the B.F. examples;
the pyxis is practically a revival of an old form favoured in
the Corinthian and other early fabrics. The latter are usually
decorated with domestic or marriage subjects, in reference to their
use by women for toilet purposes (see Plates #XLII:pl42#., #XLIII:pl43#.).
The lekythos was, as we shall see, the form exclusively
employed for the funeral vases, and largely also for others with
polychrome decoration on white ground. Those painted with
red figures belong mainly to the strong period (500–460), and
have been mostly found in Sicily, whither they were imported
by preference, like the amphorae made for Nola; a fine specimen
is given on Plate #XXXVI:pl36#. When this form came to be
adopted for the funeral vases, a new type arose with bulbous
or spherical body, conventionally known as an aryballos. In
the late fine style we have many examples of this form, with
rich polychrome decoration and gilding (Plate #XLII:pl42#.).[1293]
.pm onplate XXXVI
.il id=pl36 fn=plate36_520.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Red-figured “Nolan” Amphorae and Lekythos (British Museum).
.pm offplate
The ornamental patterns on R.F. vases do not, generally
speaking, call for so much attention as those of earlier style;
they are on the whole used with great restraint and little
variety, and are more subordinate to the designs than at
any other period of vase-painting. The principal motives are
.bn 520.png
.bn 521.png
.pn +1
the palmette, maeander, and egg-pattern; all others are comparatively
rare. It is interesting to note, on the early amphorae
and hydriae, and on the column-handled kraters down to quite
a late date, the survival of the old panel system with its borders
of ornament. Strictly speaking, now that the background was
black throughout, there was no necessity for enclosing the space
on which the figures were depicted; but the conservative
instincts prevailed, especially while the old shapes were retained.[1294]
Gradually, however, as these vases assumed new forms, the
borders were almost unconsciously dropped—first the sides,
then the top, and lastly the lower border, which maintained
its ground longer than the others. The same tendency, from
a formal framework to absolute freedom, is in fact to be
observed in all the vases; and in the later stages we note a
new development, that of an elaborate pattern of palmettes
under the handles, which assumes more and more prominence.
The evolution of the palmette on R.F. vases has been skilfully
traced by Dr. Winter[1295] in reference to the kylikes; but it is no
less interesting in the amphorae and similar forms. In both
cases it arose from the tendency to make the handles terminate
in stylised palmettes, which on the B.F. kylikes of the minor
artists are often a prominent element in the decoration.
Similarly, on the B.F. red-bodied amphorae we have the
symmetrical compositions of palmettes under the handles
radiating from a common centre. These were at first reduced
to a modest single palmette or a pair, but soon spread out
again, preserving at first the symmetrical grouping; subsequently,
with an increasing tendency to naturalism, the
palmettes, enclosed within graceful tendrils, form unsymmetrical
but highly pleasing compositions without any definite centre.[1296]
This development of ornament under the handles—to which
part of the vase it was almost restricted—can be traced during
the first half of the fifth century, till it reaches its height about
the middle. Where a band of ornament was required round the
base of the design, as on the large calyx-kraters, it takes the
.bn 523.png
.pn +1
form of a row of palmettes enclosed in tendrils, in the style of
modern arabesques; or the palmettes are arranged in pairs, set
obliquely, and each pair divided by a scroll ending in volutes.
Or, again, a row of somewhat squat palmettes, similarly enclosed,
alternates with lotos-flowers in the old style, as on B.M. E 169.[1297]
.il id=fig100 fn=fig100_523.jpg w=450px ew=80%
.ca FIG. 100. PALMETTES UNDER HANDLES (EARLY R.F. PERIOD).
In the kylikes the development of the handle-ornament first
begins with Epiktetos, who (as on E 3 in B.M.) first draws
a free palmette with separated leaves on either side.[1298] As
the tendency to cover the whole of the exterior space with
the design increased, the intervening space under the handle
came to be filled in also, by extending the tendrils of the
palmettes and terminating them with buds (Fig. #100:fig100#).[1299] Next,
a tendency to symmetrical composition each side is seen, the
palmettes being doubled in number[1300]; or, again, an attempt
is made at uniting the two isolated palmette-systems in one
harmonious whole, and at the same time to fill the intervening
space, by means of interlacing tendrils.[1301] The palmettes are
further increased to three or four each side, and in the arrangement
is seen the tendency to freedom even at the cost of
symmetry already noted, as in Fig. #101:fig101#.[1302] Thus is reached the
point at which the severe passes into the strong style. In
.bn 524.png
.pn +1
the latter the palmettes are often omitted altogether,[1303] especially
where the two exterior scenes are connected; or their place
is taken by some figure under the handle, as on vases by
Hieron or Brygos. Where the patterns do occur, they are often
stereotyped, as in the vases of Duris, who on nine examples
with handle-patterns repeats the same device in each case. In
the fine style, after 460 B.C., the symmetrical arrangement
recurs, the usual type consisting of a double palmette between
two large ones, with connecting and enclosing tendrils.
.il id=fig101 fn=fig101_524.jpg w=450px ew=80%
.ca FIG. 101. PALMETTES UNDER HANDLES (LATER STAGE).
Another method of tracing the chronological sequence of the
R.F. cups is by means of the maeander patterns which surround
the interior design and extend below the outside scenes (Fig. #102:fig102#).[1304]
A parallel development of this pattern may also be traced on
the amphorae and other vases, where it is used as a border below
the figures. In the severe style, as in the cups of Epiktetos,
this pattern has not yet made its appearance, and its place
is taken by a simple line of red; and in the vases of Euphronios,
.bn 525.png
.pn +1
on which it is first found, a simple maeander is employed. The
first to vary this was Duris, who alternates it with squares,
the centre of which is “voided” in the form of a red cross,
and this practice subsequently became invariable. The square
itself shows a development of form, the cross being first filled
in with a black centre, then made diagonal; next, the black
background is largely diminished, until it disappears, except
for dots between the arms of the black cross; finally, it changes
into the form of a chequered square, black and red, of which
the red squares are sometimes dotted.
The subjects on red-figured vases may not perhaps be so
varied or so full of mythological interest as those on the black-figured,
but yet present many features worthy of attention. At
the very outset we see the tendency towards scenes from real
life in preference to those from mythology; and on the whole
throughout the period the ratio of one class to the other is
exactly the reverse of the preceding period. Nor are the stock
subjects in either class the same. In regard to mythology the
cosmogonic themes of B.F. vases, such as the Gigantomachia and
the Birth of Athena, are replaced by such subjects as Eleusinian
and Attic local cults, the sending forth of Triptolemos or the
birth of Erichthonios. In the heroic cycles Herakles is no
longer the popular favourite, but is supplanted, for reasons presently
to be detailed, by Theseus. The Argonautika frequently
provides subjects for vases of the more developed style, in which
the influence of Polygnotos is felt; and the Odyssey begins
to rival the Iliad as a source of epic themes. The influence of
the stage is as yet hardly felt, though here and there scenes
may be traced to the influence of some Satyric drama.
.il id=fig102 fn=fig102_525.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From B.M. Cat. iii.
FIG. 102. DEVELOPMENT OF MAEANDER-AND-CROSS PATTERN.
.ca-
In subjects relating to Dionysos and his attendant Satyrs
and Maenads a considerable change is to be noted, in the
direction of a preference for violent action. The Bacchic
.bn 526.png
.pn +1
revellers of the B.F. vases, even at their highest pitch of excitement,
are generally stiff wooden figures, with mechanical and
restrained pose or action. But the exteriors of many cups of the
best R.F. period, such as those of Hieron or Brygos, are enlivened
by throngs of frenzied Maenads and wild drunken Satyrs, given
up to the most unrestrained and licentious merriment (see
Chapter #XIII:vol2_ch13#.).
Turning to the subjects of daily life again, it may be observed
that on the B.F. vases the preference is for battle-scenes,
warriors setting out for battle, or scenes of the chase; even
athletic subjects are in a great minority, except on the
Panathenaic amphorae. In the R.F. period the preference
is for athletic scenes, banquets, and the life of women and
children; we also find frequent illustrations of religious cults,
and scenes of sacrifice and libations. The R.F. vases of the
severe stage in the main follow on the lines of the later B.F.
period, except in the interiors of the kylikes of the Epictetan
cycle. In these we find very few instances of mythological
subjects, unless it be single figures of Satyrs. The main object
of the painter was to fill in the circular space as best he might,
and this space only admitted of a single figure, the rule being
observed that exterior and interior figures should be of similar
proportions. Hence the easiest solution was obviously to choose
a simple figure, such as that of a nude young man, and depict
him in various simple attitudes, running, leaping, carrying a vase
or musical instrument, or otherwise engaged in such a way as to
fill the space with his limbs or the objects he carried (see p. #426#).
In the “strong” style we observe a new principle at work, which
may be described in a single phrase as “the glorification of the
Attic ephebos or young athlete.” A new impetus had been
given to athletics at Athens by the Peisistratidae, who encouraged
a more extensive celebration of festivals, and thus we find a
growing fondness for the introduction of scenes from the
palaestra and stadium, often rendered with considerable spirit and
unconventionality, as in a group of boxers quarrelling,[1305] or on
another vase depicting the humorous side of the armed foot-race.[1306]
The introduction of scenes from the story of Theseus, which
.bn 527.png
.pn +1
now begin to be frequent, especially on the kylikes, is no doubt
due partly to this cause, though partly also to religious and
patriotic reasons. Theseus seems to have been regarded as
the typical Attic ephebos and athlete, and his contests as
analogous to success in the palaestra. Hence the grouping of
scenes from his labours after the manner of groups of athletes
variously engaged. It was formerly thought that the popularity
of the Theseus legends was due to the bringing back of his
bones from Skyros by Kimon, and their solemn burial in the
Theseion, which gave rise to a regular cult of the national hero.
But this took place in 469 B.C., and recent investigations have
shown that many of the Theseus vases must be placed at an
earlier date. He was, however, supposed to have appeared at
the battle of Marathon in aid of the Athenians, and this event
may have been quite sufficient to bring his cult into prominence.
Towards the middle of the fifth century several new types
are introduced—such as the youth as distinguished from the
ephebos, the girl as distinguished from the matured woman,[1307]
and the infant playing with toys. Juvenile games, such as the
top, hoop, and knucklebones, now become generally popular.
The evolution of the types of Eros and Nike virtually dates
from this time[1308]; hitherto Eros (as, for instance, on the kylikes)
has seldom appeared, and Nike is also hardly found before
the “strong” style. Meaningless groups of figures, conversing
or without particular action, are common on the exterior of
cups by Hieron and his contemporaries; and similar groups,
though, in accordance with the spirit of the times, more freely
and pictorially composed, become the recognised method of
decorating the small elegant vases of the late fine style. In
some of these an ancient practice is revived of attempting to
give interest to the scenes by adding mythological names to
the figures. But these are chosen quite at haphazard, sometimes
as vague personifications (see Chapter XII., under Aphrodite),
sometimes in such anomalous collocations as Thetis and
Hippolyte, or Danae, Helen, and Iphigeneia.[1309]
.bn 528.png
.pn +1
In the treatment of mythological scenes it is curious to
note how, almost from the first, the well-worn conventional
types of the B.F. style are discarded, the painter, with his
new-born capacities for drawing and free composition, instinctively
forming his own idea of his subject, and departing
from the lines on which his predecessors had worked. Some
subjects are almost entirely ignored, such as the chariot
procession (of Herakles or deities), the contests of Herakles
with Triton and the Cretan bull, warriors playing draughts,
and Odysseus and Polyphemos. The labours of Herakles are
largely replaced by those of Theseus. In other cases the
subjects are still popular, but the “type” is no longer preserved,
as in the case of the Judgment of Paris or some of
the labours of Herakles.
But it must not be supposed that the principle of recognised
“types” is altogether absent from the R.F. vases. There are,
in fact, certain motives which occur over and over again, only
with this difference—that they are not always employed with
the same signification. Thus the “pursuing” type, which is
as common as any on R.F. vases, may be either mythological
or ordinary. In the former case Eos pursues Kephalos, or
Menelaos Helen; in the latter a Seilenos pursues a Maenad,
or a warrior or hunter a woman. This type becomes almost
conventional, and the figures can only be identified when
inscribed. Theseus, Ajax, Orestes, Ion, Alkmaion, and
Neoptolemos all pursue women in the same manner. Again,
the B.F. type of Peleus seizing Thetis, sometimes found on
R.F. vases,[1310] is used for that of a Seilenos seizing a Maenad,
even the snakes into which Thetis transforms herself becoming
the ordinary attribute of the Bacchanal.
A different class of subjects, in which the subject remains
the same but the type varies, is also found on R.F. vases.
In such cases the various artists seem to have drawn their
inspiration from the same model; it might be a famous sixth-century
painting or sculptured group, but each has treated it
.bn 529.png
.pn +1
according to his own individuality. A good instance is the
subject of the sack of Troy, the principal episodes of which
we find depicted by the masters Euphronios and Brygos (Plate
LIV.), and on a hydria of somewhat later date.[1311]
Another characteristic of R.F. vases is the individualising
of barbarian types, a new feature in Greek art. It is possible
that this is largely the effect of the Persian wars, which
rendered the Greeks familiar with barbarian costumes.[1312] In
any case the fashion of wearing Thracian cloaks and other
outlandish garments seems to have been adopted by the
young men of Athens at the beginning of the fifth century,
and many of the cups of that period represent young horsemen
apparelled in this fashion (see Chapter XV.). There was also
in the fifth century a fondness for vases modelled in the form
of heads of negroes or Persians. Such subjects as those relating
to Orpheus, the rape of Oreithyia, Herakles and Busiris, or
combats of Greeks with Amazons or Persians, also illustrate
the popularity of these new ideas.
The only other class of subjects to which reference need
be made is that dealing with religious cults,[1313] such as libations
or sacrifices to deities or terminal figures, particular ceremonies
and festivals, or quasi-religious competitions of an athletic
or musical kind.[1314]
In regard to style, the Attic red-figured vases fall into four
principal groups, which are usually classified as follows (though
each group is sometimes subdivided):—
(1) The archaic or severe period (about 520–500 B.C.), in
which there is little advance in the drawing, which is stiff and
lacks technical freedom. Apart from the new experiments
in technique, it is marked by its wide and novel choice of
subjects, with great attention paid to details. The principal
artists whose signatures are found in this group are: (a) cup-painters—Epiktetos,
Hischylos, Pheidippos, Pamphaios, Chelis,
Chachrylion, Euergides, Epilykos, Hermaios, Sikanos; (b) other
.bn 530.png
.pn +1
painters—Andokides, Euthymides, Phintias (amphora and
hydria), Hypsis (hydria), Psiax and Hilinos.
(2) The strong style (about 500–460 B.C.), characterised by
a great and sudden advance in drawing and power of expression,
which leads the painter to attempt difficult subjects with
success. The difficulties of front-view or three-quarter drawing,
as opposed to the old profile-figures, are also largely overcome.
In the amphorae and other forms the compositions are restrained
and dignified, being often limited to one or two figures in large
style. The principal artists are: (a) cup-painters—Euphronios,
Oltos, Sosias, Phintias, Peithinos, Duris, Hieron, Brygos, Amasis,
Onesimos; (b) other artists—Euxitheos, Smikros.
(3) The fine style (about 460–440 B.C.) exhibits the culmination
of technique and composition, with great breadth and
largeness of conception in the larger vases, delicacy and refinement
in the smaller. Cup-painting has passed its zenith, and
yields comparatively few artists’ names. In this period the
influence of Polygnotos and the great painters begins to
make itself felt, in a tendency to more pictorial composition;
landscape is indicated, and figures are placed at different levels.
The influence of sculpture may also be traced. The chief artists'
names are: Aeson, Aristophanes and Erginos, Epigenes, Hegias,
Hermonax, Megakles, Polygnotos, Sotades, and Xenotimos;
Meidias and Nikias; Xenophantos.
(4) The late fine style (about 440–400 B.C.) is marked by
a great falling-off in every respect. The extraordinarily rapid
advance, both in artistic conception and in power of execution,
during the preceding fifty years, fostered by the concurrent
advance in sculpture and painting, hastened the vase-painter
to his ruin. With the attainment of perfection in drawing,
dexterity and grace are his sole aim, and in place of vigour
and originality we meet with over-refinement and mannerisms,
and florid pictorial compositions executed in a careless manner.
We now propose to speak in detail of the principal artists
of this period, a study of whose works will be sufficient to
give a clear idea of the achievements of the new style, at all
events down to the middle of the century.[1315] After that time
.bn 531.png
.pn +1
the signatures become so rare that the later vases are best
treated as a whole.
It is important to note, by way of preliminary, the various
methods of signature which the artists adopt (see also
Chapter XVII.).[1316] The ordinary signatures fall under four headings:
(1) ἐποίησεν; (2) ἔγραψεν; (3) A. ἐποίησεν, B. ἔγραψεν // Tr: epoiêsen: egrapsen
(4) A. ἐποίησε καὶ ἔγραψεν. In the archaic period ἐποίησεν // Tr: epoiêsen
covers the work of the potter and painter, except in the case
where the latter is specially mentioned. In the best period we
usually find ἐποίησεν on the kylikes, ἔγραψεν on the amphorae.
Euphronios and Phintias use either (1) or (2). The vase E 12 in
the British Museum has only the inscription, Πάμφαιος ἐποίησεν; // Tr: Pamphaios epoiêsen
but, as will be seen later, there is good reason for supposing
that the exterior was not painted by him. Different formulae,
it has been suggested, may represent different periods in a
man’s career, as in the case of Euphronios, who was at first
a painter in Chachrylion’s workshop, then worked independently,
and finally adopted Onesimos as a partner (see p. #434#).
The use of the imperfect ἐποίει in some cases is characteristic // Tr: epoiei
of the transitional period (see below, p. #430#).
In the archaic or severe period the typical name is that
of Epiktetos, who, as we have seen, is thought by some authorities
to have been actually the inventor of the red-figure
style. However this may be, he is the principal representative
of the development of cup-painting during this period—a
development which has been carefully traced by Klein.[1317] We
have no B.F. kylikes signed by him, although there are
four examples of “mixed” cups with B.F. interiors, three of
which were made by Hischylos, the fourth by Nikosthenes,
while Epiktetos was presumably responsible for the whole
of the decoration. He invariably signs with the formula
ἔγραψεν, from which we know that all his signed vases // Tr: egrapsen
are actually the work of his brush. Besides those already
mentioned, he painted two cups which bear Pamphaios’ name
as potter, and two more with those of Hischylos and Python
as potters—all R.F. throughout, one of the Pamphaios cups
.bn 532.png
.bn 533.png
.bn 534.png
.pn +1
retaining the old fashion of decoration with eyes on the
exterior. The vase made by Python[1318] is interesting from its
subject—the slaying of Busiris by Herakles.[1319] It belongs to
an advanced stage of his career, when the exterior designs
were assuming more importance and developing from decorative
compositions to regular friezes. Thirteen kylikes and ten
plates with designs like those on the interiors of the cups (Plate
#XXXVII:pl37#.), a kotyle with Pistoxenos’ name as potter, and two
amphorae, make up the total of Epiktetos’ performances.
.pm onplate XXXVII
.il id=pl37 fn=plate37_532.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Interior of Kylix of Transitional Style; 2, Plate by Epiktetos (British Museum).
.pm offplate
Murray thus describes the chief characteristics of Epiktetos'
work[1320]: “No painter is so uniform and at the same time
so peculiar in his manner as Epiktetos. His drawing is
always characterised by precision and fastidiousness. He loves
slim, youthful forms.... He prefers to draw his figures on
a small scale, where his minute touches produce at times a
startling vividness. He appears to have been influenced in
a measure by the older miniature vase-painters [the ‘minor
artists’] ... his manner is singularly precise and fastidious
... but his precision never fails him.... He uses skilfully
faint yellow lines for the inner markings of muscle and bone.”
Hartwig points out that he continues the development of a
refined archaism from Amasis (p. #382#). The period of his
activity may be placed between 530 and 500 B.C.Pamphaios, although the majority of his vases are in the
R.F. technique, really excelled in the old method. We have
from his hand two B.F. hydriae, four B.F. kylikes, two mixed
kylikes, fifteen R.F. kylikes (five with interior designs only),
two amphorae and a stamnos, and he also made two cups for
Epiktetos. He signs consistently ἐποίησεν. In the B.F. hydria // Tr: epoiêsen
in the British Museum (B 300 = Fig. #120:vol2_fig120#), he, as Murray says,
has indulged to excess his sense of refinement and grace, in
which he was unsurpassed. When he turned to red figures,
the new technique seems to have perplexed him, and he found
himself unable to use his faculty for minute detail. But
though comparatively coarse and decadent, there is a freshness
and vigour in his new conceptions, especially in the Museum
.bn 535.png
.pn +1
stamnos (E 437) with Herakles and Acheloos, which atones for
other deficiencies.
Most remarkable of all his signed works is the British
Museum kylix (E 12), with its exquisite exterior designs, of
which Murray says, “Surely in the whole realm of Greek
vase-painting there is hardly to be met with a finer conception”
than the figures of the two wind-gods or death-deities
carrying off the body of the dead warrior. Nor are the figures
of Amazons arming on the other side of inferior merit. So
marked, indeed, is the superiority of these designs to Pamphaios'
ordinary work, that most authorities are agreed in attributing
them to another artist belonging to a more advanced school—namely,
Euphronios. We have after all no certain proof
that the painting of the cup is Pamphaios’ handiwork, and we
can only say that, if it is, it betokens a most surprising outbreak
of artistic power.
Of the other artists in this cycle Hischylos appears chiefly
as a potter for other artists; for Sakonides he made a (B.F.)
kylix, for Epiktetos four, and for Pheidippos one. A B.F.
plate, two “mixed” cups, and one R.F. cup bear his name alone.
He always signs with ἐποίησεν, but it is not improbable that // Tr: epoiêsen
he was responsible for the interior B.F. designs on three of
the cups made for Epiktetos. Pheidippos is only known from
the one cup already mentioned. Euergides made three cups,
Epilykos three,[1321] Hermaios five[1322] (one of which bears a figure
of Hermes, perhaps by way of a sort of canting heraldry), and
Sikanos one plate. The cups by Chelis number five, of which
one has a B.F. interior.
Chachrylion, who stands on the verge of the next period,
calls for more detailed treatment, especially since the exhaustive
discussion of his work by Hartwig.[1323] Sixteen cups signed by
him are known, two having been discovered since Klein made
his list; he also acted as potter for Euphronios on one
occasion. He always signs ἐποίησεν, but we may assume that // Tr: epoiêsen
.bn 536.png
.pn +1
this includes the decoration of the vases. With him we enter
upon the period in which the use of “favourite names” by
vase-painters becomes regular, those employed by Chachrylion
being Leagros and Memnon. The former name is also used
by Oltos, Euthymides, and Euphronios, and the names of
Epidromos and Athenodotos belong to this period, if not to
this cycle. A number of vases with the name Memnon have
no signature, and these have usually been attributed en bloc
to Chachrylion. But it has been pointed out by Hartwig that
some of them must belong to an earlier stage, standing in
much closer relation to the B.F. vases. Besides the sixteen
signed vases, Hartwig assigns to him seven with the name of
Epidromos, and two others with that of Leagros in addition,
and another without name. A remarkable number of these
cups have no exterior decoration.
Chachrylion’s work is in character essentially transitional.
Some of his cups[1324] are in the style of the archaic decadence,
before the new influence of Euphronios, but he never freed
himself from the trammels of the severe style. He drops the
Epictetan method of decorating the exterior with large eyes
and animals bounding the scene, and uses large palmettes
under the handles; but his interior scenes are still bordered
with a plain ring, instead of the later maeander. He is never
altogether happy in his exterior designs; hence his preference
for interiors, in which, it may be noted, he is almost the first
to introduce more than one figure.[1325] His figures, like those of
Epiktetos, have slim proportions and small heads, the bodily
forms better rendered than the limbs. He seems to strike a
medium between the vigour of Pamphaios and the refinement
of Epiktetos, combining robustness and grace with a tendency
to largeness of style,[1326] which shows that he is preparing the
way for Euphronios.
In summing up the characteristics of the cups of severe
style, we note that they exhibit throughout a development in
technique and decoration rather than in style and drawing.
.bn 537.png
.pn +1
The earliest are little removed from the later B.F. kylikes
with interior designs and large eyes on the exterior, many
having in fact B.F. interiors. With the eyes occupying so
much space, it is rare at first to find anything like a composition
on the exterior; but gradually the eyes disappear, the
palmette ornaments (see p. #414#) decrease in size, and the figures
extend themselves into friezes, with definite action. We have
scenes of combat with a marked centre, like a sculptured pediment,
group of athletes or revellers, and mythological or heroic
subjects from the stories of Herakles, Theseus, and Troy.
In the interiors the development is somewhat different.
Beginning with a simple design of a simple figure within a
plain circle—at first an enforced necessity, but subsequently
due to choice—the tendency is to fill in the space more and
more as the power of drawing develops, and the painter casts
about for new ideas. Hence, as Klein[1327] says, “Here we have
carrying, lifting, hurrying, running, stooping, dancing, springing
... and all for the sole purpose of obtaining those movements
of the human body which the space of the vase demanded.”
We also note the almost entire absence of mythological scenes
in the interiors; repose or simple action is all that is aimed
at, whereas on the exteriors scenes of activity or even violence
are admitted.
Murray[1328] has pointed out some interesting parallels between
the kylix-interiors and contemporary coins and gems, which
show the vase-painter to have been in full accord with the
spirit of the times. Thus, to take the coins first, the Sphinx
of Chios is repeated on the B.M. vase E 10, the armed warrior
of Aspendos on E 11, the Diskobolos of Kos on E 78, and
the squatting Satyr of Naxos on a vase formerly in the
Bourguignon collection.[1329] Among fifth-century gems we find
such subjects as a youth kneeling and holding a jug, a woman
at a washing-basin, a Satyr with wine-skin, a youth fastening
his sandal, and an archer[1330]—all of which occur on the interior
.bn 538.png
.pn +1
of R.F. kylikes. The beautiful subject of the body of Memnon
borne by two genii (see above), although an exterior subject,
may also be mentioned here as paralleled in a fine gem.[1331]
In Klein’s valuable monograph on early R.F. cup-painting
there is a useful table[1332] setting forth the development of the
Epictetan cycle of cups, both in subject and arrangement.
His first class includes the purely B.F. cups of Nikosthenes
and Pamphaios, with the Gorgoneion in the interior and large
eyes on the exterior, which form the prelude to the R.F. series.
In the next stage a B.F. subject, such as a warrior, horseman, or
deer, takes the place of the Gorgoneion; the exteriors are R.F.,
but the eyes are retained, allowing only of a single figure each
side. Three of these are painted by Epiktetos, others by
Pamphaios and Chelis. The third stage has only R.F. interiors,
the exterior preserving the same character; instances may be
found among the works of Chelis and Pheidippos. Finally,
there is a long series of nearly eighty cups and plates, many
of the former with interior designs only, in which the eyes are
finally dropped, and the exterior subjects are developed into
regular friezes, being often mythological. These include the
majority of the works of Epiktetos, Pamphaios, and Chachrylion,
the latter of whom marks the transition to the next stage.
Turning now to the works of other artists in this period,
and passing over Andokides, whom we have already discussed
(p. #386#), we find that Euthymides is the most conspicuous name
after those of the cup-painters.[1333] Strictly speaking, he does not
belong exclusively to the severe period, at least in point of date,
though his style is comparatively behindhand; as we shall see, he
was partly contemporary with Euphronios. His style is curiously
similar to that of Phintias, as is shown by the fact that the
same unsigned vases have been attributed to both by different
authorities. Five vases bear his signature (in two cases ἔγραφε, // Tr: egraphe
in the others ἔγραφεη), and he gives the additional information // Tr: egraphen
that he was the son of Polios. He uses three καλός-names— // Tr: kalos
.bn 539.png
.pn +1
Megakles, Smikythos, and Phayllos, the first-named being
also employed by Phintias. Two of his vases (in Munich; see
Fig. #137:vol2_fig137#) are amphorae, one a hydria, one a psykter, and one
a circular dish or plate like those of Epiktetos.
The similarity of his work to that of Phintias suggests that
they were partners. A vase with the inscription τοὶ τήνδε, // Tr: toi tênde, Euthymides
Εὐθυμίδες, “This [vase I dedicate] to thee, Euthymides,” has
been attributed by Hartwig to Phintias, and may be an interesting
instance of the friendship existing between the two
artists. On the other hand, Euthymides seems to have viewed
with apprehension and jealousy the growing success of his junior,
Euphronios. On one of the Munich amphorae he places the
boast—by no means with justification—“Euphronios never made
the like” (ὡς οὐδέποτε Εὐφρόνιος). // Tr: hôs oudepote Euphronios
The height of his activity may be placed about 500–490 B.C.,
a date which suits the use of the name Megakles. This probably
denotes the grandfather of Alkibiades and uncle of Perikles, who
was ostracised in 487 B.C. The same name, as is well known, occurs
on the warrior-tablet found on the Acropolis[1334], and on the strength
of this Hoppin attributes the tablet to Euthymides.[1335] There is,
however, no proof that such tablets, which belong rather to the
higher branch of painting at that time, were made by vase-painters.
The style of Euthymides and his preference for the amphora
seem to indicate that he was much under the influence of
Andokides. He still clings to the old style in his methods of
decoration, as in the borders of the designs. His individuality,
says Hoppin, is best shown in his draperies, the details of which
are faintly indicated in red, and he shows some skill in foreshortening,
but his heads are too large. He also exhibits a
strong preference for mythological subjects, such as the arming
of Hector, but usually balances these subjects with a genre-scene
from the gymnasium or symposium.
His partner Phintias[1336] is distinguished from him in one
respect—namely, that he painted cups as well as other shapes.
But his cups have nothing in common with his Epictetan cycle,
.bn 540.png
.pn +1
and seem rather to have been under the influence of Euphronios.
We may therefore regard him as another connecting-link between
the severe and strong periods. Eight vases are actually signed
by him,[1337] though one of these has no subject, being merely
modelled in the form of a head (see below, p. #493#); but from
his use of Megakles and Chairias as καλός-names, and other
indications, Hartwig has been enabled to add to the number
no less than twelve cups and eleven other vases[1338].
The cups are mostly small, with interior designs only, and
those single figures; his composition is not a strong point, but
the single figures are good, especially the nude forms; his
draperies are stiff, but effective, and his heads are influenced
by Euphronios, as Hartwig notes.
A pair of painters that may be linked together are Oltos and
Euxitheos, the former the painter, the latter the potter, of a kylix
in Berlin (2264). We also have a magnificent kylix at Corneto,
with the name of Euxitheos as potter, probably painted by
Oltos; on one side of the exterior is an assemblage of the gods,
on the other a Dionysiac scene.[1339] In the British Museum is an
amphora, also made by Euxitheos (E 258; signed on handles),
with a single figure each side (Achilles and Briseis), and a krater
in the Louvre with the καλός-name Leagros seems to be by the
same hand.[1340] Hartwig, who regards Oltos as the painter in each
case, shows his connection on the one side with Andokides and
Euthymides, on the other with Hieron. He displays a preference
for large figures and for Dionysiac subjects.
The one vase of Hypsis, a hydria,[1341] must be of early date; the
shape, ornamentation, and arrangement of the designs are purely
B.F. in character. We have two vases of the alabastron form[1342]—an
unusual one for signatures—made by Hilinos and painted by
Psiax, and a kylix of Epictetan style in Munich signed by the
.bn 541.png
.pn +1
latter.[1343] The two former are each decorated with two figures in
a simple, severe, yet effective style; the latter has a B.F. interior
(figure of Seilenos), and R.F. exterior with the large eyes, and
a warrior on one side only. In the latter case the signature is
simply // Tr: PHSIAXS
.pm ii inscr_430_physiaxs.jpg ΦΣΙΑΞΣ '' ','
without a verb; on the Odessa vase the imperfect
tense ἐποίει is used, the casual use of which is a characteristic // Tr: epoiei
of the transitional period.[1344] Mr. Hoppin has given several reasons
for attributing an early date to those two artists (about 520–500),
not the least convincing of which is the use of a B.F. technique
and of the large eyes.
We now find ourselves at the point where Euphronios forces
his way to the front as the great master in the new school of
painting in which the influence of Kimon of Kleonae can be
traced.[1345] Hartwig compares this new departure of art to the
Italian schools of painting in the fifteenth century, in which
also naturalism and a knowledge of perspective become the
characteristics in which they differ most markedly from their
predecessors. The early work of the school of Euphronios,
which we may place about 500–480 B.C., is best illustrated by
the series of cups with the καλός-name Leagros, which must
belong to this time. This name is found on two of the vases
signed by Euphronios, the Antaios krater in the Louvre and
the Geryon kylix in Munich, of which Chachrylion was the
potter. The fact that it is found also on some B.F. vases[1346] seems
to argue, not for its appearance previous to this date, but rather
for the view that at the beginning of the fifth century there
was still a preference for the old method for certain shapes—the
amphora, hydria, and lekythos. It may also be inferred that
Euphronios had already appeared on the scene while Chachrylion,
Pamphaios, and Oltos were still painting more in the manner of
Epiktetos, and hence we are justified in regarding those artists
as belonging to the severe style, even though they overlap with
the succeeding period.
The labours of Hartwig and other scholars have now made it
.bn 542.png
.pn +1
possible to associate an extensive series of vases with the school
of Euphronios, but there are only ten in existence which actually
bear his signature.[1347] They are as follows (the order being roughly
chronological):—
.in +5
.ti -3
(1) Krater in Louvre, G 103: Herakles and Antaios; musical performance.
Pottier, Louvre Atlas, pls. 100, 101.
.ti -3
(2) Psykter in Petersburg, 1670: Banquet of Hetairae.
.ti -3
(3) Kylix in Munich, 337: Herakles and Geryon. Furtwaengler and
Reichhold, pl. 22 = Plate #XXXVIII:pl38#.
.ti -3
(4) Kylix in Louvre, G 104: Theseus’ adventures. Furtwaengler and
Reichhold, pl. 5; J.H.S. xviii. pl. 14.
.ti -3
(5) Kylix in Bibl. Nat., 526: Scene from Doloneia (fragmentary).
Klein, Euphronios,^2 p. 137.
.ti -3
(6) Kylix in Brit. Mus., E 44: Herakles and Eurystheus. Furtwaengler
and Reichhold, pl. 23.
.ti -3
(7) Kylix in Perugia: Achilles and Troilos scenes. Hartwig,
pls. 58–9.
.ti -3
(8) Kylix in Berlin, 2281: Sack of Troy (fragmentary).
.ti -3
(9) Kylix in Boston: Banquet scenes. Hartwig, pls. 47–8.
.ti -3
(10) Kylix in Berlin, 2282 (polychrome): Achilles and Diomede.
Hartwig, pls. 51–2.
.in
In the first three instances he signs ἔγραψεν, in the rest // Tr: egraphen
ἔποιησεν. // Tr: epoiêsen
The Louvre krater shows Euphronios in his early manner,
when, as Murray says, “he was in the mood of drawing
massive limbs and colossal proportions.” The “type” of the
Herakles and Antaios is interesting as a reminiscence of the
B.F. wrestling-scheme adopted for Herakles and the Nemean
lion (see Chapter #XIV:vol2_ch14#.). The chief variation is that the figures
are posed in a sort of elongated isosceles triangle, no doubt
with the intention of showing Herakles’ efforts to raise the
giant from the earth to which he so strenuously clings. In
the form of Antaios we already observe the capacity for
rendering a body accurately in different planes which was
one of the chief distinctions of the new school. On the other
.bn 543.png
.pn +1
hand, the agitated female figures in the background are depicted
in the old quasi-Egyptian attitudes, with bodies in front view
and heads in profile; yet in the treatment of their draperies
there is a great advance.
The Geryon cup (Plate #XXXVIII:pl38#.) is a wonderful combination
of picturesque and effective grouping with elaboration of detail,
and is so far the most naturalistic piece of work that any
vase-painter has produced. Here again the old B.F. “type”
is retained, at least for the Geryon, who appears as the “three
men joined together” of the Kypselos chest,[1348] one of whom falls
backward wounded. But the whole scene is vivid and instinct
with life; even Athena and Iolaos, instead of calmly watching
the contest, join in animated comment thereon, and the former
seems to be hastening forward to join in the fray. Not the
least effective part of the design is formed by the group of
Geryon’s cows on the reverse, which show that Euphronios
was a keen observer of nature and anatomy, and the varied
poses and skilful grouping of the herd are striking instances
of his art in composition.
.pm onplate XXXVIII
.il id=pl38 fn=plate38_544.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Kylix by Euphronios (in Munich): Herakles Slaying Geryon.
.pm offplate
As typical of his later manner (about 480–460 B.C.) we may
take the British Museum kylix and that in the museum at
Perugia. They bear respectively the καλός-names Panaitios
and Lykos, while the contemporary Berlin cup (2282) has
the name of Glaukon. These clearly form a new group,
distinct from the Leagros series, and, if the historical identification
of Glaukon (see p. #404# above, and Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.) is
correct, enable us to place them about 470–460 B.C. The
interior group of the British Museum cup shows us two
figures, a woman standing by the side of a man, who is
seated to the front and drawn in a very boldly foreshortened
attitude. Their physiognomy, in particular the large prominent
nose, is especially characteristic of Euphronios’ riper style, and
in the treatment of the drapery we distinguish a great advance
even on his earlier vases. Not only is it executed with perfect
freedom and naturalness, but even different qualities of material
are indicated, e.g. by the use of fine crinkly lines. The Theseus
kylix in the Louvre, which Hartwig regards as the highest
.bn 544.png
.bn 545.png
.bn 546.png
.pn +1
point of the R.F. style, a study in idealism rather than
naturalism, is also conspicuous for its excellence in this
respect.
The Troilos kylix in Perugia, which as far as can be
ascertained is the latest of Euphronios’ works, is interesting,
apart from its artistic treatment, as an instance of the current
tendency to combine interior and exterior scenes in one whole,
representing distinct or successive episodes of a single subject.
On one side of the exterior, Achilles, having emerged from his
ambush, drags the unfortunate boy by his hair to the altar
at which the tragedy is to be consummated; his horses betake
themselves off with flying reins. Meanwhile, on the other
side, Troilos’ Trojan comrades, as on the François vase, hastily
arm themselves in order to come to his rescue. But the interior
scene shows us that their efforts are in vain; the boy, in whose
countenance fear and agony are admirably depicted, is about
to fall a victim to the sword of his relentless foe, who in a
vigorous yet even graceful attitude raises his arm to deal the
death-blow. Of the vase as a whole Murray says, “There is
no mistaking in it the presence of all the best and strongest
qualities of Euphronios, though in a more subdued and more
poetic form. His draperies...are full of refinement and
beauty.”
It remains to say a word on Euphronios in another aspect—as
a painter in polychrome on white ground. The Berlin cup
No. 2282, sadly fragmentary as it is, bears not only the signature
of Euphronios, but the καλός-name Glaukon, to which we
have already referred. The method of painting, to which we
have referred on a subsequent page (p. #457#), was one just
at its height in the middle of the fifth century. The two
heads, which are the best-preserved parts of the cup, are
remarkable for their breadth and largeness of style, and for
their idealising tendency, which recalls the coins of a slightly
later period and such works of sculpture as the ephebos-head
from the Athenian Acropolis, to say nothing of the
sculptures of Olympia.
We must not, however, omit to notice here the views of some
recent writers, who are inclined to doubt whether the paintings
.bn 547.png
.pn +1
on some of these later vases are actually from Euphronios'
hand.[1349] It is certainly noteworthy that he has ceased to sign
ἔγραψε; but to maintain that the ἐποίησε, where no other // Tr: egrapse: epoiêse
painter’s name occurs, does not include the painting of the
vase, is to rest on somewhat negative evidence, and would
also lead to the refusal to recognise Chachrylion and other
noted artists as the painters of their signed vases. If, however,
this view is to be accepted, it would entail the attribution of
the scenes on the Troilos cup to Onesimos, who painted a cup
of similar style in the Louvre,[1350] of which Euphronios was the
potter. Hartwig thinks that the Berlin cup is not by
Euphronios, but would attribute to him a similar fragmentary
cup in the British Museum (D 1). The beautiful Aphrodite
cup in the same collection (D 2) bears the καλός-name of
Glaukon, but in view of what has been said any attempt
to attribute it to Euphronios would be dangerous.[1351]
We now have to deal with a trio of his contemporaries, men
of marked individuality and capacity, who display the same
instincts for naturalism and freedom of style, though no one of
them rises quite to the height of Euphronios’ genius.
Of these Duris has left a total of twenty-three signed vases,
of which no less than twenty-one are kylikes, the other two
being a kantharos and a psykter. He signs almost consistently
ἔγραψε, but ἐποίησεν in addition on the kantharos; he employs // Tr: egrapse: epoiêsen
three potters at different times—Python (who worked for
Epiktetos), Kleophrades (who worked for Amasis II.), and
Kalliades. Of καλός-names he uses no less than five, the first
two of which go together in his earlier period—Chairestratos
and Panaitios. The latter name, as we have seen, was used
by Euphronios. On the vases in his later manner the names
of Aristagoras, Hermogenes, and Hippodamas appear. He
seems to have been about ten years the junior of Euphronios,
but to what extent he was influenced by him is uncertain.
Murray traces the influence of the other in his later manner,
.bn 548.png
.pn +1
when he forsakes his old love of figures in repose for subjects
entailing violent action. Hartwig, on the other hand, attributes
this change to the influence of Brygos; and in any case, it is
certain that he never attained to the vitality and freedom of
Euphronios.
His style is so marked that it is possible—apart from the
evidence of καλός-names—to attribute to him many vases not
actually signed by him, as may be gathered from the study
of his work by Hartwig.[1352] In his earlier vases he shows a
strong preference for scenes from the palaestra, and only two
are mythological. According to Hartwig it is these vases that
show the closest parallelism with Euphronios, both in choice
of subject and in treatment. The later works show a great and
surprising falling off, and are frequently dull and comparatively
careless. They show, in fact, a change from the perfecting of
naturalism to mere mannerism, and this in spite of the change
in subjects from repose to violent action. It is probable that
he fell away from the influence of Euphronios to that of
Hieron and Brygos, lacking entirely, as he did, the genius
of the older artist. On the other hand, his choice of subjects
becomes much more varied, many being heroic or mythological,
and among these scenes from the labours of Theseus take
the place of the older athletic types (cf. p. 418). He is also
fond of banquet-scenes at all times, and found in them scope
for bold foreshortening as applied to figures in repose.[1353]
The best-known vase by Duris is a kylix in Berlin (2285 =
Plate #XXXIX:pl39#.), on the exterior of which are painted scenes from
a school. On one side a boy receives instruction in the lyre,
while another stands before his teacher reading from a roll on
which is inscribed the first line of an epic poem: Μοῖσά μοι ἀμφὶ // Tr: Moisa moi amphi Skamandroun eurrôn archomai aeidein
Σκάμανδρουν ἐύρρων ἄρχομαι ἀείδειν (see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.). On the
other side, the five figures on which exactly balance those on the
first, we have a lesson on the flute and in drawing or writing;
the seated figure in the middle holds a pen and an open tablet.
The fifth figure in each case is a bearded man, seated on a stool
watching the proceedings. In the field are suspended lyres,
.bn 549.png
.pn +1
writing-tables, and rolls of manuscript. There is also a
beautiful cup in the Louvre, the interior of which represents
Eos with the body of Memnon; the exterior, Homeric combats.[1354]
Of the three examples of his work in the British Museum, one
is occupied with the labours of Theseus (#Frontispiece:pl01#); another
(E 49) shows his love of slim nude figures, contrasted with careful
and formal drapery. The peculiar shape of the heads should be
noticed; also the treatment of the eye, as a circle with a dot in
the centre. Like Epiktetos, a slave of precision, he in nearly
all these cases avoids violence of action, and seeks after a quiet
gracefulness. His peculiarly fine technical skill appears to have
been much appreciated in his day.[1355]
Hieron has signed twenty-eight vases, all being kylikes except
three, which are kotylae. His invariable formula is ἐποίησεν, // Tr: epoiêsen
and the signature is generally incised on the handle of the vase.
Hartwig is inclined to attribute one or two cups with this
signature to another master, who had a preference for introducing
bald-headed figures[1356]; and, in regard to others, there is fairly
certain evidence that they were not painted by him. For
instance, a very fine kylix with the carrying off of Helen bears
the name of Makron as painter,[1357] and it is possible that others
are actually painted by that artist, who in any case must have
been a partner of his. His work is regarded by Hartwig as full
of individuality and excellence. Hieron, on the other hand, is
inclined to the repetition of certain types, little individualised.
He seems to have been trained in the school of Oltos rather
than that of Euphronios,[1358] except that he learned from the latter
the use of foreshortening. His only καλός-name is that of
Hippodamas, also used by Duris.
His subjects comprise scenes from myth and legend, musical
and conversational groups, and Dionysiac scenes. He is fond
of decorating his exteriors with rows of men and women of
a somewhat sentimental type, smelling flowers, or in amorous
converse. But he rises to higher flights in the Berlin cup (2290),
with Maenads sacrificing to Dionysos Dendrites, and still more in
.bn 550.png
.bn 551.png
.bn 552.png
.pn +1
the splendid kotyle in the British Museum (E 140 = Plate #LI:vol2_pl51#.),
with the gathering of the Eleusinian deities at the sending forth
of Triptolemos (see Chapter #XII:vol2_ch12#.).
.pm onplate XXXIX
.il id='pl39' fn=plate39_550.jpg w=500px
.ca
1, Kylix by Duris (in Berlin): School Scene.
2, Kylix in Style of Brygos (Corneto): Theseus Deserting Ariadne.
.ca-
.pm offplate
His figures exhibit a strongly marked type of head, large and
simple, perhaps developed from those of Duris. But it is in the
treatment of drapery that he chiefly excels, especially in the
British Museum kotyle and the Berlin cup. Particular mention
should be made of the elaborate garment worn by Demeter on
the former, with its rich figured embroideries (see Chapter #XVI:vol2_ch16#.);
and the robes of Persephone, though simpler in decoration, show
an even greater richness of treatment in the delicate lines of the
chiton and the graceful fall of the mantle. On a cup in Berlin
with the Judgment of Paris (Fig. #129:vol2_fig129#) he makes a notable
attempt at landscape, showing Paris seated on a rock, surrounded
by a flock of goats.
Brygos has only left eight cups, but they are on the whole
of a high order of merit. The Acropolis excavations yielded
a fragment of his work, showing that the beginning of his career
must be placed before 480 B.C. But although he retains some
archaisms from his early training, he stands, as Murray has
pointed out, on the threshold of the fine style, and in some of
his compositions there is a distinctly pictorial tendency. His
use of gilding (as on E 65 in B.M.) is also, as with Euphronios
in his polychrome cup, an evidence of advanced work.
He shows in his work more directness and actuality, as compared
with the stateliness and grace of Hieron and Makron,
and the infusion of earnestness and animation into his figures
is a typical characteristic.[1359] He pays more attention to his compositions
than to his single figures, but lacks the rhythm of
Euphronios.
His subjects are very varied, and cover almost all the vase-painters'
ground except the palaestra. Hartwig on this account
connects him with the school of Oltos, Hieron, and Peithinos,
who preferred erotic and Dionysiac to athletic subjects, and
points out that his use of bold foreshortening effects need not
connote the direct influence of Euphronios, inasmuch as
κατάγραφα were by this time the common property of vase-
.bn 553.png
.pn +1
painters. It is interesting to note that he uses no καλός-name,
and both he and Hieron seem to belong to a time when this
fashion was dying out; by the end of the “strong” period it had
practically disappeared.
To speak of his vases in detail, the British Museum cup has
been praised for the composition and drawing of its exterior
designs and its clever foreshortening. The exterior subject is
interesting as being derived from a Satyric drama. The difference
of scale between the figures of deities and those of the
Satyrs reminds us (though there is of course no question of
influence) of the similar treatment of the east frieze of the
Parthenon. It has been suggested by several writers that the
name Brygos implies a Macedonian origin for this painter, and
on these grounds a kylix in the British Museum (E 68) has been
attributed to him which bears inscriptions in the Macedonian
or some kindred dialect—Pilon for Philon, Pilipos for Philippos
(see Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#.). This cup is interesting for the introduction
of a new type, that of the young dancing girl.[1360] The beautiful
cup on Plate #XXXIX:pl39#. (fig. 2) has also been referred to him.
Among other interesting subjects are the Triptolemos cup in
Frankfurt, the cup with the Judgment of Paris (which may be
compared with that of Hieron), and the Sack of Troy cup in the
Louvre (Plate #LIV:vol2_pl54#.). This latter subject we have already seen
treated as a whole by Euphronios, though previously it had only
appeared in the form of isolated episodes; but the growing
tendency to pictorial treatment of such subjects is well illustrated
by the cup of Brygos and the later Vivenzio hydria in Naples.
Peithinos is a master who has been largely rediscovered by
Hartwig. Only one cup with his signature is known, a fine
example in Berlin (2279) with the Euphronian καλός-name
Athenodotos, and the interior subject of Peleus seizing Thetis,
treated with great decorative effect. Hartwig traces his style
in eight more cups, chiefly with erotic and banqueting subjects,
and points out among the former an early instance of sentimentality
in vase-painting in the figure of a love-sick man.
He characterises his style as “over-ripe archaism,” with a slight
reversion to the mannerisms of Exekias, and great attention to
.bn 554.png
.pn +1
detail in general. He sees in Peithinos the first instance of the
pictorial tendency of which we have spoken, contrasting him
with Euphronios and other painters who were always in the
first instance draughtsmen.
In the Berlin Museum there is a magnificent cup (2278)[1361]
purporting to be made by Sosias, a name which does not
otherwise occur.[1362] In the absence of indications of the painter,
Hartwig and Furtwaengler are inclined to think that the
decoration may be the work of Peithinos; but this can hardly
amount to more than a matter of individual opinion. It is one
of the most sumptuously decorated cups of this period that we
possess, but the exterior is unfortunately greatly damaged. In
the interior Achilles is represented binding up the wounded
arm of his comrade Patroklos. The expressions of the figures
and the remarkable foreshortening of Patroklos’ right leg are
indications of the admirable skill of the painter, whoever he
may have been. On the exterior is an assemblage of gods and
goddesses to receive Herakles on his entry into Olympos,
including seventeen figures in all, distinguished by inscriptions.
In the later chapters of his great work Hartwig has disentangled
the styles of several masters of this period, though
not in every case is he able to give their names; but some
vases can be grouped together by means of καλός-names or by
special peculiarities, such as the use of a conventional foliage-ornament.
They are, however, for the most part of inferior
merit to those of the painters hitherto discussed. Among the
painters’ names are those of Amasis II., Apollodoros, and
Onesimos; the latter has already been mentioned in connection
with Euphronios.
Generally speaking, the chief characteristic of the cups of this
period is the tendency to treat the interior and exterior as
representing successive episodes of one theme,[1363] as in the Troilos
cup of Euphronios, or at least as having some connection, more
or less definite, as in the Theseus cup of the same master.
.bn 555.png
.pn +1
Both in exterior and interior designs the development of composition
is very strongly marked, and there is a notable tendency
to enhance the effect of interior scenes by rich decorative
borders. Even in the work of individual painters a great
development is to be observed, showing how rapid the growth
of artistic power was at this time; and thus we are able to
distinguish in Euphronios and Duris an earlier and a later
manner. As Hartwig has said (p. #95#), the period of progress
associated with the names of Euphronios and Brygos is characterised
by an individuality and freedom which were partly the
cause and partly the effect of a closer study of nature and an
increased capacity for rendering it.
Among other artists of the time, almost the only conspicuous
name is that of Smikros, the painter of two stamni, in the
British Museum (E 438) and Brussels,[1364] and also most probably
of a “Nolan” amphora in the Louvre (G 107), which is
inscribed
.pm ii inscr_440_dokei.jpg 'ΔΟΚΕΙ ΣΜΙΚΡΩΙ ΕΙΝΑΙ' '' ','
“This is evidently Smikros’ // Tr: DOKEI SMIKRÔI EINAI
work.” He signs in both the former cases with ἔγραψεν. // Tr: egrapsen
He appears, says M. Gaspar, as a rival of Euphronios and
Duris, but fails in the attempt to equal their achievements in
vividness, originality, and faithful reproduction of the human
figure. The Brussels stamnos is interesting as representing
inscribed persons from ordinary life, just as Phintias (see p. #429#)
introduces on a vase figures of the artists Tlenpolemos and
Euthymides. Klein also attributes to him a krater at Arezzo[1365]
with the καλός-name Pheidiades, which occurs on the signed
vases. It is remarkable for the treatment of the subject
(Herakles and the Amazons) in the style of the B.F. vases.
The next development of R.F. vase-painting, which presents
all the characteristics of the best period of Greek art and of the
highest point to which that art attained, is that called the fine
style. In this the influence of painting first really begins to
manifest itself, especially that of the Polygnotan school, which
covers the years 470–440 B.C. It is shown alike in composition
and in drawing, and to a lesser degree in the colouring; but the
general use of colours and gilding on vases really belongs to the
.bn 556.png
.pn +1
succeeding stage. As regards the drawing, the figures have lost
the hardness which at first characterised them; the eyes are no
longer represented obliquely, but in profile; the extremities are
finished with greater care, the chin and nose are more rounded,
and have lost the extreme elongation of the earlier schools.
The limbs are fuller and thicker, the faces noble, the hair of the
head and beard treated with greater breadth and mass, just as
subsequently the painter Zeuxis gave more flesh to his figures in
order to make them appear of greater breadth and grandeur, like
Homer, who represented even his women of larger proportions.[1366]
The great charm of these designs is the beauty of the composition,
and the more perfect proportion of the figures. The
head is an oval, three-quarters of which forms the distance from
the chin to the ear; the disproportionate length of limbs has
entirely disappeared, and the countenance assumes a natural
form and expression. The folds of the drapery, too, are freer,
and the attitudes have lost their old rigidity. It is the outgrowth
of the life and freedom of an ideal proportion, united with
careful composition. Before the introduction of the Polygnotan
style of composition, the figures are generally large, and arranged
in groups of two or three on each side, occupying about two-thirds
of the height of the vase; but the pictorial influence is
more in the direction of smaller figures, grouped at different
levels. Figures in full face are now much less uncommon. In
some of the larger vases with figures on both sides, such as the
kraters, the reverse side is not finished with the same care as the
obverse, being intended to stand against a wall, or at least to be
less prominently seen.
The career of Polygnotos extends from 478 B.C. to 447 B.C.,
as far as can be gathered from the various works on which we
know him to have been engaged. In 478 he painted frescoes
for the temple of Athena Areia at Plataea, in 474 he decorated
the Theseion and Anakeion at Athens, in 460 he worked with
Mikon on the Stoa Poikile, and from 458 to 447 he was engaged
on his great paintings of the Ἰλίου Πέρσις and Νέκυια for the // Tr: Iliou Persis: Nekuia
Lesche at Delphi.[1367] As all these paintings are described more
.bn 557.png
.pn +1
or less in detail by Pausanias, their subjects form a valuable clue
to the investigation of his influence on the vases.
.il id=fig103 fn=fig103_557.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
FIG. 103. KRATER OF POLYGNOTAN STYLE IN LOUVRE:
THE SLAYING OF THE NIOBIDS.
.ca-
At first, indeed, this is limited to single figures or motives[1368];
it is not until about 470 that his method of composition, with its
rough perspective and variety of level, finds its way on to the
vases. The oldest vase on which these new features appear is
the krater from Orvieto in the Louvre,[1369] which has usually been
placed about 470, though at first sight it appears to be later; but
certain small details of an archaic character point the other way.
The main subject is a group of Argonauts, which has been
variously interpreted, but Robert suggests that the scene
represents their preparations for departure, and is thus able to
associate it with a painting by Mikon in the Anakeion, on which
that subject was employed. The various vases which depict the
story of Theseus’ visit to Amphitrite[1370] are referred also by
Robert to an original by Mikon in the Theseion (about 470 B.C.).
The cup of Euphronios (p. #431#) and the Girgenti krater represent
a stage of the subject contemporary with that painter; on
the Bologna krater we have a reduced version of his work; and
.bn 558.png
.pn +1
on the Tricase vase from Ruvo, which belongs to the school of
Hermonax (see below) a simpler form of the myth occurs,
contemporary with the preceding.
The technique and colouring of Polygnotos’ works find their
reflection principally in the polychrome vases (see below, p. 455).
On the red-figured vases of this period we must look for his
influence rather in the arrangement and poses of the figures, the
methods of indicating locality, and the attempts at perspective.
Professor Robert’s ingenious reproductions of his paintings[1371] may
be profitably compared with such vases as the Orvieto krater, the
Blacas krater in the British Museum (E 466 = Plate #LIII:vol2_pl53#.), or the
somewhat later hydria of Meidias (see below). The principle
adopted was that of arranging the figures, not in even rows or
in proper perspective, but at different levels, those in the background
being sometimes half hidden by rising ground. It is
a principle which we shall find even more fully developed in the
South Italy vases of the succeeding century; but it was at the
time of its appearance quite sudden and unexpected, contradicting
at first sight the decorative principles of vase-painting.
Polygnotos was also fond of indicating characteristics of his
personages or allusions to their history by means of subtle
touches or actions. Thus Phaedra was represented in a swing,
Eriphyle with her hand on her neck (with reference to the
necklace), Theseus and Peirithoos in sitting postures, and so on.
This is quite in the manner of the fifth-century vase-painter.
Finally, the late F. Dümmler has pointed out that his influence
is possibly to be traced in another manner on certain vases, viz.
in the use of the dialect of Paros and Thasos for the inscriptions
instead of Attic forms.[1372] It should be borne in mind that he was
a native of Thasos, and would naturally have used his native
dialect for the inscriptions over his figures.
The following is a list of vases showing Polygnotan influence:
(1) In types and motives only (470–460 B.C.)[1373]:
.in 6
.ti -4
B.M. E 170, 450, 469; Berlin 2403 = Reinach, i. 450;
Naples 2421 = Reinach, ii. 278 and 3089 = Millingen-
.bn 559.png
.pn +1
Reinach, 33; Reinach, i. 184 (two vases), 218, 221;
Jahrbuch, 1886, pl. 10, fig. 2; Millingen-Reinach, 49–50;
Furtwaengler, 50^{tes} Winckelmannsfestprogr. pl. 2[1374];
Louvre A 256 = Jahrbuch, 1887, pl. 11 (Dümmler).
.in
(2) In method of composition (460–440 B.C.)[1375]:
.in 6
.ti -4
B.M. E 224, E 466, E 492; Berlin 2588 = Reinach,
i. 217 and 2471 = Coll. Sabouroff, i. 55; Naples R.C. 239
= Reinach, i. 482; Jatta 1093, 1095, 1498 = Reinach, i.
175, 119, 111; Petersburg 1792, 1807 = Reinach, i. 1, 7;
Reinach, i. 522, 5 (in Bologna); Ant. Denkm. i. 36 (ibid.);
Reinach, i. 191; and reflecting the style of Polygnotos
or of Mikon: Reinach, i. 226–27 = J.H.S. x. p. 118
(Louvre); Reinach, i. 232 = J.H.S. xviii. p. 277.
.in
To these may perhaps be added:
.in 6
.ti -4
Naples 2889 = Raoul-Rochette, Mon. Inéd. pls. 13–4;
Athens 1921 = Reinach, i. 511; Berlin 2326 (see
Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 172).
.in
In this stage, as has been noted, artists’ signatures are far more
rare than in either of the two preceding, and cup-painters in
particular are few and far between. The καλός-names, too, have
almost entirely come to an end. Of the cup-painters the only
known names are those of Aeson, Erginos and Aristophanes,
Hegias, Hegesiboulos, Sotades, and Xenotimos, and of these
four (Aeson, Hegesiboulos, Hegias,[1376] and Xenotimos[1377]) are only
represented by single specimens. Two very fine cups, made
by Erginos and painted by Aristophanes, are in the museums
of Berlin and Boston respectively,—the former decorated with
scenes from the Gigantomachia within and without (Fig. #112:vol2_fig112#);
the latter has in the interior Herakles rescuing Deianeira from
Nessos, on the exterior a battle of Centaurs and Lapiths. An
unsigned duplicate of this vase was acquired by the Boston
.bn 560.png
.bn 561.png
.bn 562.png
.pn +1
Museum at the same time.[1378] The vase by Aeson is decorated
with scenes from the labours of Theseus.[1379]
.pm onplate XL
.il id=pl40 fn=plate40_560.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca
Cups by Sotades.1, In Boston; 2, Brit. Mus.: Polyeidos in the Tomb of Glaukos.
.ca-
.pm offplate
Sotades stands apart from his contemporaries as an artist
of much individuality, with a tendency to great refinement
and delicacy in his work. He has left one R.F. kantharos and
some half-dozen vases of the white-ground type, two with
very interesting subjects (see also p. #457#); all but the first were
formerly in M. van Branteghem’s collection, and these are
now divided between the British and Boston Museums. He is
remarkable for his extremely delicate cups, with handles in the
form of a chicken’s merrythought, and he also made two phialae
with white interior and moulded exterior painted in rings of red,
white, and black; on the interior of one of these a cicala
(τέττιξ) is ingeniously modelled so as to appear resting there // Tr: tettix
(Plate #XL:pl40#.). Hegesiboulos, one of whose vases was also in
the Van Branteghem collection,[1380] seems to have been an artist
of similar tendencies.
Of the rest, Epigenes' name appears on a small kantharos in
the Bibliothèque Nationale, and those of Megakles and Maurion
on pyxides. Among the painters who exercised their skill on
larger vases the most noteworthy is Polygnotos, who has left
an amphora and two stamni. The similarity of his name to that
of the great contemporary painter has naturally led to conjectures
as to a possible connection of the two, which has been
discussed by Professor Robert in publishing two of the vases
with his signature.[1381] His conclusion is that they belong to the
period 460–450 B.C., in which the influence of the painter is
beginning to make itself felt, but only in isolated figures and
motives, not, as in a class of which we shall presently speak,
in the composition of scenes. The earliest of the three is the
stamnos in Brussels, with the subject of Kaineus overwhelmed
by the Centaurs[1382]; next comes the stamnos with the combat of
Herakles and the Centaur Dexamenos[1383]; and lastly the British
Museum amphora,[1384] which retains an archaic form, but in its
.bn 563.png
.pn +1
style and drawing presents no traces of archaism.[1385] In the
reverses of his vases, with their tendency to meaningless and
carelessly drawn figures, we seem to trace the beginnings of
the decadence. Hermonax, who painted four stamni and a
“pelike,” seems to be closely associated in style with Polygnotos.[1386]
Professor Robert would also attribute to a pupil of Polygnotos
three fine R.F. cups of about 445 B.C.—the Kodros cup in
Bologna (Chapter XIV.) and two in Berlin (2537–38), with the
subjects of the birth of Erichthonios, and Aegeus consulting
the oracle of Themis.
Nikias, of whom we have only one example, a bell-shaped
krater in the British Museum (formerly in the Tyszkiewicz
collection),[1387] is evidently, from the form of the vase and the style
of the paintings, an artist of the latest stage of R.F. vase-painting
at Athens. He is, however, remarkable in one respect,
namely the form of his signature,[1388] which gives not only his
parentage but—a unique instance among vase-painters—his
deme:
.ce
Νικίας Ἐρμοκλέους Ἀναθλύσιος ἐποίησεν. // Tr:: Nikias Ermokleous Anathlysios epoiêsen.
The subject of the vase is the torch-race, one often found on late
Athenian kraters, and seldom at an earlier date.
Lastly we have a hydria from the hand of Meidias, in the
British Museum, which originally formed part of the Hamilton
collection (Plate #XLI:pl41#.). Winckelmann estimated it above all
other vases known to him, and regarded it as illustrating the
highest achievement of the Greeks in the way of drawing.
His criticism is hardly even now out of date, in spite of the
enormous number that now challenge comparison with it, as
far as concerns the beauty and richness of the drawing and
of the composition. The artist, says Furtwaengler, “revels in
a sea of beauty and grace; youth and charm are idealised in
his work.” In point of style it belongs to the epoch of the
Peloponnesian War, about 430–420 B.C., but so admirable
is the work that it can hardly be placed so low as the
.bn 564.png
.bn 565.png
.bn 566.png
.pn +1
contemporary vases of “late fine” style, with their patent
evidences of decadence. Meidias may therefore fairly be included
with the foregoing.[1389]
.pm onplate XLI
.il id=pl41 fn=plate41_564.jpg w=450px ew=80%
.ca Hydria by Meidias (British Museum).
.pm offplate
The subjects represented are arranged in two friezes all round
the vase, the upper containing the rape of the Leukippidae
by the Dioskuri—a subject which had been chosen by Polygnotos
for his painting in the Anakeion.[1390] Not only this, but
all the vases with the same subject are doubtless largely
indebted to the painting for their ideas, especially in the system
of composition with figures at different levels.[1391] On the lower
row the front view shows Herakles in the garden of the
Hesperides, and at the back is a group of Athenian tribal
heroes.[1392] All the figures have their names inscribed; these,
together with the artist’s signature, were only first noticed
by Gerhard in 1839. Among the details of treatment are to
be noted the exquisitely fine lines for the folds of drapery,
and the elaborate chequers and other patterns representing
embroidery, the occasional use of gilding, the attempts to
impart expression to faces by means of wrinkles, and the
characteristic rendering of the hair with wavy dark lines of
thinned black on a brown wash.
The last artist of Athenian origin who remains to be
mentioned is Xenophantos, a contemporary of Meidias, whose
name appears on a vase found at Kertch and now in the
Hermitage at Petersburg.[1393] Here he expressly calls himself
an Athenian, and it has therefore been supposed that the
vase was made on the spot, otherwise it would not be obvious
why he should proclaim his nationality (see below, p. 464).
.bn 567.png
.pn +1
The chief feature of the vase—a lekythos of the “bellied”
type so common at this stage—is the use of figures moulded
in relief and applied to the surface, in conjunction with gilding
and a lavish use of white colour. The subject is the Persian
king hunting.
The vases of the late fine style, into which the “fine”
style merges about the year 430 B.C., may be divided into
two classes,—that of the larger vases, chiefly kraters, in which
the pictorial traditions of the Polygnotan vases are carried on
and developed, and the influence of contemporary art makes
itself felt; and that of the smaller types, such as the pyxis
and the wide-bellied lekythos, in which new features and new
subjects are introduced (cf. Plate #XLII:pl42#.).
The former class is chiefly made up of the vases found in
Southern Italy, in the Crimea, the Cyrenaica, and the Greek
islands, which are apparently of Athenian, not local, fabric; but
they are comparatively rare at Athens and in Greece Proper,
where the smaller vases have been found in considerable
numbers. It may be found convenient to deal first with the
latter, as more typically Athenian, while the larger vases serve
as a connecting-link with the succeeding fabrics dealt with
in the next section.
In these vases linear drawing reaches its limits in respect
of perfect freedom and refinement of detail; but it is at a
severe cost. The artist seems to have lost interest in his
subject when it no longer required an effort to execute it, and
is content to decorate his vase with a few stock figures in
conventional attitudes, uncharacterised by action or attribute.
Frequent faults of design may be observed, such as coarseness
of drawing or negligence in the laying on of the black varnish.
The artist works by routine, and appears to be nonchalant
and bored. Mythological scenes become exceedingly rare, and
are confined to Dionysos or Aphrodite with their attendant
personifications, and the compositions are fanciful or decorative
in character, without any suggestion of particular events or
actions. The all-pervading presence of Eros is another feature
which is new to vase-painting, but henceforward his position
is established. An even greater novelty is the preponderance
.bn 568.png
.pm onplate XLII
.il id=pl42 fn=plate42_568.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca
VASE OF “LATE FINE” STYLE.
(British Museum).
.ca-
.pm offplate
.bn 569.png
.bn 570.png
.pn +1
of subjects connected with the daily life of women or children—the
toilet, the occupations of every-day life, or nuptial ceremonies;
and a whole series of small jugs, themselves in all
probability toys, depicts the various games in which the
Athenian child delighted—the hoop, the go-cart, and the ball,
or his pet animals (cf. Plate #XLII:pl42#.).
The shapes most popular in this group are, as we have
indicated, the oinochoë, the wide-bellied lekythos, and the
pyxis (Plate #XLII:pl42#.). Milchhoefer, in a most important article,[1394]
regards the lekythi as more instructive than any other group
for illustrating the later developments of R.F. vase-painting.
Beginning with early examples of the fine style,[1395] they extend
to the very end without any gaps, the tradition being further
continued in Apulia. They exhibit a development from simple
to rich compositions, from “strong” style to perfect freedom.
In the latest examples, such as that by Xenophantos, we see
the straining after novelty which marks the decadence, in
the introduction of figures in relief applied to the surface of the
vase, as well as in the increase of polychromy and gilding.
Among the finer vases we may note a hydria at Karlsruhe
(259) with the Judgment of Paris, in which may be traced the
hand of Meidias; the lekythos in the British Museum from
Cyprus (E 696), with Oedipus slaying the Sphinx, in which the
figure of Athena with its white coating is clearly reminiscent of
the gold-and-ivory Parthenos statue; and two pretty lekythi
from Apollonia, in Thrace, with the subject of incense-gathering.
There are also two pyxides in the British Museum (E 773–4),
on which are groups of women, with fancy names added to give
interest to the scene: thus Klytaemnestra, Danae, and Iphigeneia
occur all together, and the Nereids are engaged in the every-day
occupations of the women’s apartments.
>From a technical point of view, the principal change is in
the increased use of gilding and polychrome colouring. The
former, employed exceptionally by Euphronios and Brygos,
now becomes the rule, and concurrently the use of white
for flesh-tints, as in the figure of Athena just mentioned, and
.bn 571.png
of red, green, and blue for draperies, becomes more and more
general. The gilding was applied for small details, such as
wreaths, and for the hair; and the places where it was to be
applied were marked by low relief. It was fixed in the form
of gold-leaf by means of a yellowish gum. Jahn, who some
years ago collected the list of vases with gilding,[1396] reckoned
fifty-one known to him, chiefly from Kertch; and Heydemann
and Collignon[1397] have since added several to the list, chiefly
from collections at Athens. They have been found not only
in Athens and Kertch, but at Corinth, Megara, Hermione,
Thebes, and in Acarnania and Thrace.
In the larger vases of this period the pictorial method of
the preceding phase is, as might have been expected, greatly
developed. Among the vases of undoubted Attic origin we
have, first of all, the Meidias hydria and its companion vase,
the Karlsruhe hydria with the Judgment of Paris[1398]; and,
secondly, the great Gigantomachia vase from Melos in the
Louvre, which contains no less than forty-seven figures.[1399]
Another fine instance is the polychrome Kameiros vase in the
British Museum with the subject of Peleus and Thetis. Robert[1400]
sees in the two latter a possible influence of Parrhasios, who
is known to have paid great attention to drawing, and, in
reference to the Kameiros vase, draws attention to the plastic
silhouette effect of the figures. Parrhasios’ art consisted in
giving this effect by his linear drawing.[1401] The influence of
Zeuxis is less apparent, though from his earlier date it might
more naturally have been expected.[1402]
It is, however, still more instructive to trace in this group
the influence of the Parthenon sculptures, which, where it
can be observed, enables us to date the vases approximately
as at any rate not earlier than 438 B.C. On the other hand,
it must be borne in mind that sculptor and painter may
.bn 572.png
.pn +1
often have gone back to the same original type. This explains
the appearance of apparently Pheidian motives on vases of
an earlier style—such as riding youths, water-carriers, etc.—or
the similarity of composition on one of the Parthenon
metopes and a vase of undoubtedly earlier date.[1403] But in one
or two instances there can be no doubt of such influence, most
notably in the Athena and Poseidon vase from Kertch (see
below, p. 464). It cannot be without significance here that
the two figures are actually in relief on the vase, and the
parallelism with the pediment (so far as we know the design)
is so close that a copy of it was manifestly the vase-artist’s
intention. Mention has already been made of a figure of the
Parthenos on a vase of this period, and another instance, though
not on a painted vase, may be noted in the polychrome bust
of the goddess in terracotta from Athens, now in the British
Museum.[1404] Some instances of this type on vases may be earlier
than the statue; it was not created by Pheidias.[1405]
.tb
It has already been mentioned that there is one exception
to the Athenian monopoly of vase-making in the fifth century,
and this is in the local fabrics of Boeotia. Of the Kabeirion
vases, which, though in the B.F. technique, belong to this
period, we have already spoken. There remains a small
class—only five examples are at present known—which appears
to have been made at Tanagra. All five evidently came
from the same workshop, and in three cases the provenance is
certainly known. Two are in the British Museum (E 813–4),
and three in the Museum at Athens.[1406] With the exception of
E 814 in the British Museum, which is a pyxis, all are small
two-handled cups, with low feet. The designs are outlined
on a background of yellow clay in a black-brown pigment,
the lines being coarsely drawn. Inner details are indicated
by means of thinned-out pigment. That they are of Boeotian
origin is further shown by the ornamentation: the pyxis has
.bn 573.png
.pn +1
round the sides rows of vertical wavy lines, such as are often
seen on the Boeotian geometrical fabrics (p. 288), and also an
ivy-leaf which recalls the Kabeirion ware. The ornamentation
of the hangings round the chair on Athens 1120 exactly
resembles the patterns indicating the drapery on some of the
early Boeotian terracottas.[1407] The subjects, on the other hand,
seem to suggest Athenian prototypes: in the designs much
archaism is to be observed—such as defects in perspective,
the rendering of the eyelashes, and the drawing of the feet
in profile, but with toes in front. Numerous small details
point to a date late in the fifth century, which, in view of
the conservative tendencies of Boeotia, is not unlikely.
.il id=fig104 fn=fig104_573.jpg w=400px ew=80%
.ca FIG. 104. BOEOTIAN KYLIX (BRITISH MUSEUM): GIRL PLAYING KOTTABOS(?).
.bn 574.png
.pn +1
The subjects are of some interest, and include two figures
of Herakles, one bearded, the other youthful; a girl playing
kottabos (Fig. #104:fig104#); and a cultus-image of an enthroned
Chthonian goddess (Demeter or Persephone), holding a torch,
ears of corn, and poppies. These vases have been collected
and fully discussed in an interesting article by Dr. S. Wide.[1408]
.fm
.fn 1269
Klein, Euphronios,^2 p. 31 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1270
See Berl. Phil. Woch. 1894, p. 112.
.fn-
.fn 1271
See Norton in Amer. Journ. of Arch.
1896, p. 37.
.fn-
.fn 1272
Furtwaengler, in Berl. Phil. Woch.
1894, p. 112, in repudiating the idea
that the new style was first introduced
in the kylikes, seems to have misunderstood
Hartwig’s arguments.
.fn-
.fn 1273
Jahrbuch, ii. (1887), p. 159 ff. The
alternative view is upheld by Klein,
Lieblingsinschr.^2 p. 26 ff., and he is followed
by Murray, Designs on Gk. Vases,
p. 6. Klein compares Epictetan vases
with the work of Mikon, and also bases
his argument on the story of Kimon and
the bones of Theseus (see p. #418#).
.fn-
.fn 1274
Inscr. Gr. i. (Atticae), Suppl. pp. 79,
154; Jahrbuch, loc. cit. p. 144.
.fn-
.fn 1275
Chapter #XVII:vol2_ch17#. See also especially
Klein, Lieblingsinschriften (2nd edn.
1898); Hartwig, Meisterschalen; Wernicke,
Lieblingsnamen; and B.M. Cat.
of Vases, iii. p. 24.
.fn-
.fn 1276
On the identity of these names in
particular, see Klein, Lieblingsinschr.^{2}
p. 27 ff.; Murray, Designs, p. 6; J.H.S.
xii. p. 380.
.fn-
.fn 1277
Hartwig (p. 11) points out that vase-painters
also bear well-known names, such
as Hieron, Andokides, Aristophanes.
.fn-
.fn 1278
The name of Leagros also occurs on
late B.F. hydriae, e.g. B 325 in B.M. It
is used by four R.F. painters in all.
.fn-
.fn 1279
E.g. Branteghem Cat. 57.
.fn-
.fn 1280
See Hartwig, Meistersch. p. 3, and
id. in Mélanges d’Arch. 1894, p. 10. He
also cites a vase in Berlin (1906) which
bears the name Stesileos καλός. This
may refer to the S. who fell at Marathon.
.fn-
.fn 1281
On the instrument employed, see above, p. #227#.
.fn-
.fn 1282
C. Smith in B.M. Cat. of Vases, iii. p. 1.
.fn-
.fn 1283
See also B.M. E 15, E 458.
.fn-
.fn 1284
Cf. Pliny’s In veste rugas et sinus inventit, of Kimon.
.fn-
.fn 1285
See Ath. Mitth. 1900, p. 40 ff., and
above, p. #357#.
.fn-
.fn 1286
See below, p. #427#, for fuller details
of the early development.
.fn-
.fn 1287
Cf. the Troilos kylix of Euphronios
(below, p. #433#).
.fn-
.fn 1288
See B.M. Cat. of Vases, iii. p. 11.
.fn-
.fn 1289
See B.M. Cat. of Vases, iii. p. 14;
Urlichs, Beiträge, p. 37; and cf. p.
135 for a mention of a vase stamped
with an owl and olive-branch, and
supposed to be an official choinix
measure.
.fn-
.fn 1290
xi. 495 B.
.fn-
.fn 1291
See Reisch in Röm. Mitth. v. (1890), p. 313 ff., and below, p. #493#.
.fn-
.fn 1292
Cf. B.M. E 471 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1293
See Jahrbuch, 1894, p. 60.
.fn-
.fn 1294
See what has been said above on
the changes in the form of the amphora,
hydria, and krater.
.fn-
.fn 1295
Jahrbuch, 1892, p. 105 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1296
E.g. Vienna 234, 339 (the latter
given in Fig. #101:fig101#).
.fn-
.fn 1297
See also some valuable notes on the
subject in Riegl’s Stilfragen, p. 191 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1298
B.M. E 4–5; Arch. Zeit. 1885, pl. 16,
fig. 3.
.fn-
.fn 1299
B.M. E 17–19; Berlin 2263, 4220;
Louvre G 18; Helbig 246 = Mus. Greg.
ii. 70, 2. All these are cups with the
name of Memnon καλός.
.fn-
.fn 1300
Berlin 2262.
.fn-
.fn 1301
B.M. E 22, 41; Berlin 2264–65;
Louvre G 17.
.fn-
.fn 1302
E.g. Munich 1160 (by Hischylos)
B.M. E 37–8, 40.
.fn-
.fn 1303
As on E 69, 78.
.fn-
.fn 1304
See also Chapter XVI. #§ 3:vol2_sec16_3#.]
.fn-
.fn 1305
B.M. E 6, 78.
.fn-
.fn 1306
B.M. E 818.
.fn-
.fn 1307
See Hartwig, Meistersch. p. 321;
and cf. B.M. E 68, 718.
.fn-
.fn 1308
See Furtwaengler, Eros in d.
Vasenm.; Knapp, Nike in d. Vasenm.
.fn-
.fn 1309
B.M. E 772–73.
.fn-
.fn 1310
Notably on the fine kylix by Peithinos
in Berlin (Hartwig, Meistersch. pl. 24).
Cf. B.M. E 462, 510, and Furtwaengler
and Reichhold, Gr. Vasenm. pls. 44–5 =
Munich 408.
.fn-
.fn 1311
Cf. also, for varied treatment of the
same subject by two artists, B.M. E 44
(ext.) with Louvre G 17.
.fn-
.fn 1312
See Hartwig, Meistersch. p. 515 ff.;
and for further details, Chapter #XV:vol2_ch15#.
.fn-
.fn 1313
See Chapter XV. #§ 1:vol2_sec15_1#.
.fn-
.fn 1314
E.g. B.M. E 406 (Lampadedromia);
E 298, 460, 469, 270 (musical contests).
.fn-
.fn 1315
General reference may be made to Klein’s Meistersig., 2nd edn., supplemented by
Hartwig.
.fn-
.fn 1316
Cf. also C. Smith in B.M. Cat. of
Vases, iii. p. 21.
.fn-
.fn 1317
Euphronios,^2 p. 14 ff., with list of
cups in Appendix.
.fn-
.fn 1318
B.M. E 18.
.fn-
.fn 1319
The type, it should be noted, is
purely B.F. in character.
.fn-
.fn 1320
Designs on Gk. Vases, p. 8.
.fn-
.fn 1321
The Louvre cup F 129, inscribed
Ἐπίλυκος καλός, cannot be assigned to // Tr: Epilykos kalos
him, although Klein did so. See Monuments
Piot, ix. pp. 157, 168 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1322
Él. Cér. iii. 73; B.M. E 34; Branteghem
Cat. 28; fragment acquired by B.M.,
1896; Boston Mus. Report, 1903, No. 52.
.fn-
.fn 1323
Meisterschalen, chap. iv.
.fn-
.fn 1324
Nos. 8–11 in Klein’s list, according
to Hartwig, p. 63.
.fn-
.fn 1325
The earliest example seems to be
Reinach, i. 223 = Wiener Vorl. D. 5
(a cup by Pamphaios).
.fn-
.fn 1326
As in the Epidromos cup (B.M. E 25).
.fn-
.fn 1327
Euphronios,^2 p. 26: cf. Plate
#XXXVII:pl37#.
.fn-
.fn 1328
Designs on Gk. Vases, p. 4.
.fn-
.fn 1329
Reinach, i. 460, 1.
.fn-
.fn 1330
See Cesnola, Cyprus, pl. 39, fig. 8,
pl. 40, figs. 11–12; the Satyr and archer
are among recent acquisitions of the
British Museum.
.fn-
.fn 1331
Ann. dell’ Inst. 1883, p. 213.
.fn-
.fn 1332
Euphronios, p. 289 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1333
See Hoppin’s monograph on this
painter, passim. In addition to the five
signed vases (for which see Klein, Meistersig.
p. 194) he gives the following
as probably Euthymides’ work: B.M.
B 254–56, 767; Munich 410 = Furtwaengler
and Reichhold, pl. 33; Berlin 2180;
Reinach, ii. 133.
.fn-
.fn 1334
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1887, pl. 6.
.fn-
.fn 1335
See also J.H.S. xii. p. 380.
.fn-
.fn 1336
See Hartwig, chap. ix. throughout;
also Jones in J.H.S. xii. p. 366 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1337
Klein only knew of four, but Hartwig
(p. 168) has added to his list.
.fn-
.fn 1338
A hydria in Munich (No. 6) is also
probably his work. It represents his
colleague Euthymides and another potter,
Tlenpolemos (see p. #440#). Cf. the vase
mentioned above, dedicated by Phintias
to Euthymides.
.fn-
.fn 1339
Reinach, i. 203.
.fn-
.fn 1340
See also Hartwig, pl. 6.
.fn-
.fn 1341
Gerhard, A.V. 103 = Reinach, ii. 57.
The vase in Ant. Denkm. ii. pl. 8, is
probably not his work, as has been suggested.
The ornamentation of the hydria
is not given accurately by Gerhard (see
Klein, Meistersig. p. 198).
.fn-
.fn 1342
Karlsruhe 242; Arch. Anzeiger, 1894,
p. 180 (at Odessa).
.fn-
.fn 1343
Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1895, p. 485.
.fn-
.fn 1344
It is used by Andokides, Chelis, Euthymides,
Pamphaios, and Nikosthenes.
.fn-
.fn 1345
See Klein, Euphronios, passim;
Hartwig, chaps. vii. xviii.; Murray,
Designs on Gk. Vases, p. 11.
.fn-
.fn 1346
E.g. the B.M. hydria B 325: see
Klein, Lieblingsinschr^2. p. 70.
.fn-
.fn 1347
Hartwig, p. 152, mentions another
possible instance, an amphora in the
Louvre. All the vases except (9) are
published in Klein’s Euphronios, and
all except (8) and (9) in the Wiener
Vorlegeblätter, ser. 5, pls. 1–7. A few
more recent publications are noted in
the list.
.fn-
.fn 1348
Paus. v. 19, 1.
.fn-
.fn 1349
Hartwig, op. cit. p. 487; Furtwaengler
in Gr. Vasenm. p. 110 (denies
the B.M. kylix to Euphronios).
.fn-
.fn 1350
Hartwig, pl. 53.
.fn-
.fn 1351
As noted on p. #457#, it has been
attributed by Furtwaengler (with some
probability) to Sotades. For other attributions
of vases to Euphronios, see
Hartwig, chaps. vii. and xviii.
.fn-
.fn 1352
Op. cit. chaps. x. and xxi.
.fn-
.fn 1353
A good instance of this is E 50 in
the British Museum.
.fn-
.fn 1354
Wiener Vorl. vi. pl. 7.
.fn-
.fn 1355
Murray, p. 12.
.fn-
.fn 1356
See his chap. xvii.: “Der Meister mit dem Kahlkopf.”
.fn-
.fn 1357
Hartwig, p. 301.
.fn-
.fn 1358
Ibid. p. 305.
.fn-
.fn 1359
Murray, p. 15.
.fn-
.fn 1360
See Murray, Designs, p. 16; Hartwig, p. 321.
.fn-
.fn 1361
Ant. Denkm. i. pls. 9, 10.
.fn-
.fn 1362
Except in one insignificant instance:
see Rayet and Collignon, p. 187.
.fn-
.fn 1363
Murray (Designs, p. 5) notes the
same characteristic in the cups with genre
subjects, as in the B.M. examples E 33,
39, 49, 51, 54, 55, 61, 68, 70, 71, 78.
.fn-
.fn 1364
See Monuments Piot, ix. pls. 2–3,
p. 15 ff·
.fn-
.fn 1365
Lieblingsinschr.^2 p. 126 = Reinach,
i. 166.
.fn-
.fn 1366
Quint. Inst. Or. xii. 15.
.fn-
.fn 1367
This chronology is taken from Robert’s
Marathonschlacht, p. 69.
.fn-
.fn 1368
Cf. Jahrbuch, ii. (1887), p. 170 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1369
J.H.S. x. p. 118. The reverse is
illustrated in Fig. #103:fig103#.
.fn-
.fn 1370
See J.H.S. xviii. pl. 14, p. 276 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1371
See his monographs on the Nekyia
and Iliupersis = Hallisches Festprogramm,
Nos. 16 and 17 (1892–93).
.fn-
.fn 1372
E.g. B.M. E 492; Reinach, i. 217.
.fn-
.fn 1373
See Robert in Mon. Antichi, ix.
p. 24; id.Marathonschlacht, p. 55.
.fn-
.fn 1374
The type of Orpheus on this vase is
clearly derived from Polygnotos; the
figure standing with one foot raised, like
Antilochos in the Nekyia, is a well-known
motive of his. See Furtwaengler,
op. cit. p. 161.
.fn-
.fn 1375
See Robert, Nekyia, p. 43; Dümmler
in Jahrbuch, 1887, p. 170 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1376
Stackelberg, pl. 25.
.fn-
.fn 1377
Branteghem Cat. 84 = Ant. Denkm,
i. 59: see also ibid. 85.
.fn-
.fn 1378
Report for 1900, Nos. 17–8.
.fn-
.fn 1379
In Madrid (Ant. Denkm. ii. pl. 1).
The vase E 84 in the British Museum
is very similar, and the style also has
affinities with that of Aristophanes.
.fn-
.fn 1380
Cat. 167.
.fn-
.fn 1381
Mon. Antichi, ix. pls. 2–3, p. 5 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1382
Op. cit. pl. 2.
.fn-
.fn 1383
Ibid. pl. 3.
.fn-
.fn 1384
E 284 = Reinach, ii. 123.
.fn-
.fn 1385
Naples 3089 = Millingen-Reinach, 33
is probably also by Polygnotos.
.fn-
.fn 1386
The British Museum pelike with the
Birth of Athena (E 410) and the Tricase
vase (J.H.S. xviii. p. 279) may perhaps
be his work.
.fn-
.fn 1387
Froehner, Tyszkiewicz Coll. pl. 35.
.fn-
.fn 1388
For facsimile see Chapter XVII.
.fn-
.fn 1389
The following vases are in the style
of Meidias, though not necessarily from
his hand: Athens 1287 = Reinach, i. 342;
Naples, S.A. 311 = Reinach, i. 474, 7;
Jahrbuch, 1894, p. 252; Karlsruhe 259 =
Furtwaengler and Reichhold, pl. 30;
Reinach, i. 472, 1; 476, 2; 477, 2;
493, 3; Dumont-Pottier, i. pl. 8; Furtwaengler
and Reichhold, pl. 59.
.fn-
.fn 1390
Paus. i. 18, 1.
.fn-
.fn 1391
See Robert, Marathonschlacht, p. 97;
Nekyia, p. 42. On late R.F. vases with
double friezes see Winter, Jüngere attische
Vasen, p. 69, and Röm. Mitth.
1897, p. 102. The principle is frequently
adopted in the vases of Apulia
(e.g. Plate #XLV:pl45#.); for early Apulian examples
see p. #485#.
.fn-
.fn 1392
See J.H.S. xiii. p. 119.
.fn-
.fn 1393
Cat. 1790 = Ant. du Bosph. Cimm.
pl. 46 (in colours) = Reinach, i. 23.
For a curious imitation of this vase, see
Naples 2992.
.fn-
.fn 1394
Jahrbuch, 1894, p. 57 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1395
Naples 3135, according to him, is
contemporaneous with the B.M. Aphrodite
cup (D 2), about 460 B.C.
.fn-
.fn 1396
Vasen mit Goldschmuck (1865).
.fn-
.fn 1397
Gr. Vasenbilder, p. 2, pl. 1, fig. 3,
pl. 9, fig. 1; Rev. Arch. xxx. (1875),
pp. 1, 73, pls. 17–20. See also Berlin
2661 = Rayet and Collignon, p. 257,
and 2705 = Reinach, i. 426, 2.
.fn-
.fn 1398
Of similar style are the fragment
Naples 2664 = Reinach, i. 181, and
Athens 1259 = Reinach, i. 506.
.fn-
.fn 1399
Mon. Grecs, 1875, pls. 1, 2.
.fn-
.fn 1400
Marathonschlacht, p. 74.
.fn-
.fn 1401
Cf. Quint. xii. 10, 3, and Pliny, H.N.
xxxv. 67.
.fn-
.fn 1402
See Robert, Iliupersis, p. 35.
.fn-
.fn 1403
Cf. Michaelis, Parthenon, pl. 4, 25,
with a vase in the Vatican (Baumeister,
i. p. 746); and see Jahrbuch, 1887,
p. 177, and Roscher, i. p. 1355.
.fn-
.fn 1404
E 716 = J.H.S. xv. pl. 5.
.fn-
.fn 1405
See Jahrbuch, 1894, p. 69.
.fn-
.fn 1406
Nos. 1119–20, and one uncatalogued.
.fn-
.fn 1407
Cf. B.M. Cat. of Terracottas, B 57–8.
.fn-
.fn 1408
Ath. Mitth. 1901, p. 143 ff., with pl. 8.
.fn-
.bn 575.png
.sp 4
.h3 id=ch11 pn=+1
CHAPTER XI | WHITE-GROUND AND LATER FABRICS
.pm start_summary
Origin and character of white-ground painting—Outline drawing and polychromy—Funeral
lekythi—Subjects and types—Decadence of Greek
vase-painting—Rise of new centres—Kertch, Cyrenaica, and Southern
Italy—Characteristics of the latter fabrics—Shapes—Draughtsmanship—Influence
of Tragedy and Comedy—Subjects—Paestum fabric—Lucanian,
Campanian, and Apulian fabrics—Gnathia vases—Vases
modelled in form of figures—Imitations of metal—Vases with reliefs—“Megarian”
bowls—Bolsena ware and Calene phialae.
.pm stop_summary
.sp 2
.h4
§ 1. White-Ground Vases
The method of painting on a white ground, which was brought
to such perfection in the fifth century, really requires a section
to itself, its development being parallel to, yet different from,
that of the painting in red on black. Its genealogy can be
traced almost throughout the period of Greek vase-painting,
beginning with the Ionian fabrics of Rhodes and Samos, through
the more developed vases of Naukratis and Kyrene, until it was
introduced at Athens in the latter part of the sixth century,
perhaps, as we have seen (p. #385#), by Nikosthenes. The method
was not, of course, new then to Continental Greece. It was the
one usually employed for painting votive tablets or pictures on
wood, the surface of the tablet being prepared by covering it
with a thick slip of creamy-white lustrous character, known as
λεύκωμα.[1409] Thus it is used in one of the few examples known
of Attic painting, apart from the vases, the Warrior pinax from
the Acropolis, which may be dated about 500 B.C., and stands
midway between frescoes and white-ground vases (see above,
.bn 576.png
.pn +1
p. #397#). Possibly the idea of the white slip was to get the
effect of painting on marble such as we see in the tombstones
of Lyseas and Aineos.[1410]
This method was adhered to throughout the fifth century by
all the great painters, such as Polygnotos, and hence the importance
to us of the white-ground vases of that time, as reflecting
their methods, and in a miniature form the appearance of their
works. In the fifth century the all-important consideration in
a picture was perfection of design and composition; colouring
was relatively unimportant, and the technical processes exceedingly
simple, three or four colours alone being employed. Cicero[1411]
tells us that Polygnotos, Zeuxis, and Timanthes only used four
colours—black, white, red, and yellow. It is interesting to note
that these are just the four colours we ordinarily find on the
polychrome vases, the flat tints so frequently employed being no
doubt suggested by the mural paintings.
To go back to the earlier Athenian vases with white ground,
we observe that at first the method of painting in silhouette,
in the manner of the ordinary B.F. vases, obtains exclusively.[1412]
About the beginning of the fifth century this method is superseded
by what we may regard as a transitional class, in which
the figures are painted partly in silhouette, partly in outline, the
simple black-on-white design being preserved, with a very occasional
use of purple or yellow.[1413] According to Winter, the origin
of outline drawing of this kind may be found in the partly
outlined female heads which are found on some of the minor
artists’ cups, such as those of Sakonides, Eucheiros, and
Hermogenes.[1414] We need not go as far as he does in explaining
the catagrapha of Kimon (see p. #397#) as the replacement of mere
silhouettes by outline drawing, so as to give individuality and
variety to faces; but the vases which he publishes are remarkable
for the highly developed character of the heads depicted
.bn 577.png
.pn +1
thereon.[1415] One in particular is more like a head by Euphronios
than one of the Epictetan cycle, to which it must belong in
point of date. But it must be remembered that Epiktetos and
his school were still hampered by archaic conventions, while the
painter on a white ground was carving out the way to perfect
freedom.
The shapes employed for the new white-ground technique
are much the same as those used in the previous period—the
kylix, the lekythos, the oinochoë, the pyxis, and the alabastron.[1416]
But of these only one retains its popularity for any length of
time; in fact, after the middle of the fifth century it is the only
one employed at all. This shape is the lekythos, on which,
indeed, alone the whole development of white-ground painting
can be traced from the B.F. types down to the fourth century,
when it finally disappears. Although not exclusively the
sepulchral vase (as may be seen from the appearance of other
vases on tombs in the painted funeral scenes[1417]), yet for some
reason it came to be regarded as the proper shape for such
purposes, and the fashion of making white lekythi exclusively
for the tomb, and decorated as a general rule with funerary
subjects, prevailed for about a hundred and fifty years. We
have elsewhere (pp. #132#, #143#) noted instances of its use recorded
by Aristophanes.
The introduction of polychromy is a gradual development.
At first, as we have seen, colour is very sparingly employed,
only in the use of a brownish yellow (produced by thinning out
the black) for details or washes, or of a purple or pinkish brown.
Subsequently the outlines are drawn in black or brown, and
filled in with black, brown, or purple washes; the occasional
use of a clear, thick, white pigment, standing out against the
cream background, is also to be noted[1418]; and next a wash of
bright red or vermilion is employed. In the final stages of
polychrome painting, during the fourth century, the range
of colours is greatly extended, and blue or green are employed
.bn 578.png
.pm onplate XLIII
.il id=pl43 fn=plate43_578.jpg w=212px
.ca
VASES WITH POLYCHROME DESIGNS ON WHITE GROUND.
(British Museum).
.ca-
.rj
To face page 456.
.pm offplate
.bn 579.png
.bn 580.png
.pn +1
in addition to those already named. The outlines are also
painted in the vermilion colour already mentioned, instead of
the black in previous use. Up to the end of the fifth century
the colouring always preserves a character of soberness and
austerity; and such a feature as the use of gilding[1419] is quite
exceptional.
Some of the white-ground kylikes are only partially so; the
exterior is painted in the ordinary R.F. manner, of the “strong”
style, as in the case of the Anesidora cup in the British Museum.
On the other hand, a fine cup at Gotha has a red-figured interior
and polychrome exterior.[1420] In the Munich collection there are
three very beautiful cups of this kind.[1421] The interior subjects are
respectively Europa on the bull, a frenzied Maenad, and Hera.
The cup with the Maenad is attributed by Furtwaengler to the
style of Brygos, and may therefore be dated about 470–460 B.C.
It is rare to find a large vase decorated in this method, but there
is a very fine krater of the calyx type in the Museo Gregoriano
at Rome,[1422] which has been attributed to the middle of the fifth
century (contemporary with Euphronios’ later manner); the
subject is the delivery of the infant Dionysos to the nymphs
of Nysa, and is painted throughout in polychrome on a white
ground. Of late years some very fine pyxides in this style have
been found in Greece,[1423] often decorated with marriage scenes, the
style of the painting being contemporary with Duris and Brygos.
But for beauty and delicacy all are surpassed by some of the
smaller cups, above all the Aphrodite cup from Kameiros in
the British Museum,[1424] in which refinement and grace are combined
with boldness of conception and accuracy of drawing in a marvellous
degree. Or, again, the group of cups and bowls by
Sotades (see above, p. #445#),[1425] some with mythological or other
.bn 581.png
.pn +1
subjects painted in minute and graceful style, others of fantastic
or unusual shape and decoration, form a unique series among
the white-ground vases.[1426]
To sum up in the words of A. S. Murray the characteristics
of these vases[1427]: “There was thus in the white vases an
exceptional opportunity for purity of outline in the drawing,
and it is not without reason that they are regarded as the best
representatives we yet possess of the great age of Greek fresco-painting,
in which also purity and sweep of outline on a white
ground, simplicity of composition, and a limited scale of brilliant
colours, were the chief characteristics.”
It remains now to speak of the funeral lekythi as a distinct
class, their subjects and method of treatment.[1428] Although it was
formerly customary to speak of “vases of Locri” or “vases of
Gela” in speaking of examples found on those sites, it is almost
certain that they are all really of Athenian origin.[1429] Apart from
the fact that the great majority have been found at Athens,
there are no special peculiarities about those from other sites
which would justify any such distinction of fabrics. The same
remarks apply to the numerous examples which have been
found of late years at Eretria in Euboea, and have caused some
recrudescence of the theory of non-Attic origin.[1430] But Eretria
was so near to Athens that importation must have been quite a
simple matter. In regard to the Locri vases, it has been noted by
M. Pottier[1431] that they seem to represent an inferior, though still
Athenian fabric, in which the white is more lustrous and less
flaky than in the better examples, and the outlines are in black
exclusively. Black silhouettes are occasionally found, and the
subjects are not necessarily funerary.
The funerary subjects fall into four classes; they will be
enumerated in Chapter XV., where examples of each class are
.bn 582.png
.pn +1
given, but may be briefly recapitulated here, in order to note
some artistic considerations.
(1) The Prothesis, or laying-out of the corpse (Plate #LV:vol2_pl55#.).
(2) The Depositio, or laying of the body in the tomb: chiefly
in the Thanatos and Hypnos type (see Fig. #123:vol2_fig123#, Chapter XIII.).
(3) The Journey to Hades; Charon in his bark (see Fig. #122:vol2_fig122#,
Chapter XIII.).
(4) The Cult of the Tomb, this being by far the most common
of the four classes (see Plate #LV:vol2_pl55#. and Fig. #19:fig019#, p. 143).
The Prothesis type is an old one, occurring not infrequently
on black-figured vases, especially on the slim “prothesis-amphorae”
which are sometimes found at Athens. M. Pottier
reckons ten examples, to which may be added a fine specimen
now in the British Museum (Plate #LV:vol2_pl60#., fig. 1). The Depositio
type is somewhat rare; it is occasionally found in B.F. vases,[1432]
but is usually idealised, the body being carried by winged genii,
to whom the names of Thanatos and Hypnos are usually given.
The type, as has been pointed out elsewhere, is originally
mythological, being derived from that of the burial of Memnon.
Some half-dozen examples are known (see Chapters XIII., XV.).
Of the Charon vases M. Pottier reckons twenty-one, which he
classifies under three heads: (1) Charon on the left in a boat,
which two or three persons enter. (2) Charon on the right
in a boat; persons ready to enter. (3) The deceased is seated
on a stele at which women make offerings; Charon approaches
in his boat.[1433] The conception is essentially a pictorial one,
and it may reasonably be inferred that it is a reflection of
Polygnotos. The same subdued pathos and the same style
of composition are characteristic of his paintings. Pausanias,
in describing his Nekyia in the Lesche at Delphi, says:
“There is water, which seems intended for a river, evidently
the Acheron, and reeds growing therein ... and there is a
boat on the river, and the ferryman at the oar.”[1434]
.bn 583.png
.pn +1
In the vases representing the Cult of the Tomb (Plate #LV:vol2_pl50#.
and Fig. #19:fig019#), the normal type is that of two or three persons
bringing offerings, wreaths, vases, etc., to a stele[1435] ornamented
with coloured sashes, or engaged in conversation thereat; sometimes
one sits on the steps of the stele. The persons with
offerings are usually feminine; where men occur, they are
either attired as warriors, or stand leaning on a spear or staff,
conversing with the women. The correspondence of some of
these compositions to the “type” of Orestes and Electra
meeting at the tomb of Agamemnon has more than once been
noticed, but it does not seem here to be a case of borrowing
the heroic “type,” as in the Thanatos and Hypnos instance.
Where such scenes can be identified on vases,[1436] they are all
of late date and mostly of South Italian manufacture; and we
may rather suppose that the contrary was the case, and that
the lekythos “type” was idealised and borrowed for the Orestes
scene. Moreover, the popularity of the latter subject is probably
largely due to its treatment by the tragic poets.
Among other details of interest in these scenes may be
noted the appearance of the εἴδωλα or ghosts of the deceased, // Tr: eidôla
represented as tiny hovering winged creatures. M. Pottier has
noted eighteen instances, and the number has since then been
greatly increased.[1437] The invariable youthfulness of the figures—which,
it may be remarked, are always purely impersonal;
and mere types of mourners—is noteworthy as a characteristic
of later fifth-century art, which tended to create ideals of
youth and beauty.[1438] This, of course, is everywhere apparent
in sculpture, as in the Parthenon frieze and the works of
Polykleitos; and reminiscences of Pheidian youthful types
may be suggested by some of the figures on the lekythi.[1439]
In the figures of deities the same change was going on, as
in the case of Hermes, and even the aged and grim figure
.bn 584.png
.pn +1
of Charon is toned down on the funeral vases to a more
humane conception. It has also been suggested that the
choice of youthful figures is due to the thought that youth
is the period when bereavement produces its simplest and
most natural effects.
The influence of the sepulchral stelae of the fifth and fourth
centuries soon begins to be apparent in the lekythi, especially
in the scenes of tomb-offerings.[1440] Like the vases, the stelae
always varied in merit, some being refined and artistic compositions,
others poor and commonplace. The choice of subjects,
indeed, differs in some degree, the subjects on the stelae relating
chiefly to the previous life of the deceased, those of the vases
to the actual death and burial. But there are many lekythi,
the subjects on which are more like those of the stelae, not
being strictly funerary.[1441] Thus we see the deceased as a warrior
charging with a spear or on horseback, like the Dexileos of
the Kerameikos; the young hunter pursuing a hare; the lady
at her toilet with mirror or jewellery in hand, attended by
her maidens, like the charming Hegeso (Plate #XLIII:pl43#.); or the
warrior parting from his spouse.
Regarding the funeral lekythi in their artistic aspect, we
note, as M. Pottier points out, two main characteristics—restraint
and uniformity of composition. The space for the
decoration being limited to about two-thirds of the whole
circumference, the figures are necessarily few in number,
varying from one to three, but very rarely more. Emotion
and pathos are produced by the simplest means. Murray
instances the prothesis lekythos in the British Museum (Plate
LV. fig. 1) as an example of deep pathos expressed in a simple,
yet strong and rapid manner, and two others (D 70 = Plate
LV. fig. 2, and D 71) as showing almost tragic emotion expressed
only by a few outlines. Uniformity of composition is manifested
in the repetition of types, often copied from familiar
models, yet with an infinite variety of detail (as, for instance,
.bn 585.png
.pn +1
in the form of the stelae) which does not affect the constancy
of the main idea. In this respect they may be compared with
the terracotta Tanagra figures, of which many are turned out
from the same mould; yet by varying the pose of the head or
position of the arms the artist was able to avoid the absolute
identity of any two figures.
The lekythi can hardly be classified chronologically; we
cannot say to what extent the rougher examples may be
earlier, and vice versa; but even in the poorest examples
skill and lightness of touch are always discernible. The classification
given by M. Pottier,[1442] however, may serve as a general
indication of chronological succession and development. He
collects them under three heads, as follows:
(1) The paste is of a light red colour, the walls thin, and
the white slip unpolished; the main design is first sketched,
then painted, the outlines being usually in red. The ornaments
are palmettes and maeander, in black and red, the subjects
almost exclusively funerary. The slip and colours are delicate,
the style fine, and the polychromy restrained.[1443]
(2) The paste is grey, the walls thicker; the white is
sometimes polished, and the outlines black or brown. The
ornaments are palmettes and maeander, with crosses or stars,
in black only. The subjects are funerary or from daily life,
with figures of deities; the style is still fine, but the polychromy
is more varied.[1444]
(3) The clay is red and light, the white unpolished, the
outlines yellow. The slip is not extended to the shoulder,
on which is a tongue-pattern in black; the maeander is careless.
The subjects are either funerary or from daily life, the style
negligent; the designs are almost entirely monochrome.[1445]
.h4
§ 2. The Decadence of Greek Vase-Painting
We have now reached the point at which the centre of
ceramic industry is no longer to be found at Athens, but
.bn 586.png
.pn +1
must be sought in distant colonies in various parts of the
Mediterranean. The extinction of vase-painting as a decorative
art at Athens was brought about as much by political events
as by sheer artistic decadence at the end of the fifth century.
It had until recent years been customary to assume that red-figured
vases continued to be made at Athens through the
greater part of the fourth century; but the evidence of excavations
on many sites has been too decisive for the maintenance
of such a view. That certain classes of ceramic products,
such as the Panathenaic amphorae and the funeral lekythi, still
continued to be made we have already seen; but these are
only exceptions, and due entirely to their religious associations.
The evidence for the revised chronology has been summarised
by Milchhoefer in a paper already referred to,[1446] in which he pointed
out the importance of historical considerations. Even during
the Peloponnesian War the manufacture and export of painted
vases must have been much crippled, and the absence of the
later Athenian wares from the tombs of Etruria clearly shows
that commercial relations between the two countries had
ceased.[1447] Similarly intercourse with Campania largely ceased
after the Samnite invasion of 440 B.C., and relations with
Sicily must have been entirely broken off after the outbreak
of hostilities with Syracuse in 427.
Again, in the city of Rhodes, which was founded in B.C. 408,
no Attic vases have been found, while all those from Kameiros
must be earlier than that date.[1448] In Athens itself no R.F.
vases of any importance have been found in fourth-century
tombs, although some fragments of fine style are reported
from the tomb of Dexileos, which is not earlier in date than
394 B.C.[1449] Hence the conclusion is irresistible that no good
Attic R.F. vases can be assigned to the fourth century, which
is only represented at Athens by the funeral lekythi, the
.bn 587.png
.pn +1
Panathenaic amphorae, and a few isolated, generally inferior,
R.F. specimens.
The new centres of vase-painting, from about 400 B.C.
onwards, are three in number—the Crimea, the Cyrenaica in
North Africa, and Southern Italy. Among the vases from the
Crimea[1450] are some of the most magnificent that we possess,
which in spite of their florid style and careless technique are
really of considerable merit. They can, however, hardly be
considered to rank more highly than the best of the products
of Southern Italy, which we are now about to consider; in
other words, they belong to a later stage of development
than the “late fine” style of Attic R.F. vases, as represented
by the Rhodian “pelike” with Peleus and Thetis in the British
Museum, and the Gigantomachia vase from Melos in the
Louvre. The fine krater with the contest of Athena and
Poseidon at Petersburg (Plate #L:vol2_pl50#.) is clearly a reminiscence
of the Parthenon pediment, and, allowing for the difference
of style, cannot be earlier than the closing years of the fifth
century. Again, there is the vase signed by Xenophantos,[1451]
who, as we have seen, expressly calls himself an Athenian,
and on this ground has been regarded as a resident in
Panticapaeum (Kertch). The reliefs with which this vase is
partly decorated are examples of a tendency which hardly
came into existence before the fourth century; the subject also
is more suggestive of local taste.
It may be an open question whether these vases were imported
from Athens, but at least the vase of Xenophantos
testifies to the existence of a local fabric at Panticapaeum,
and it is not at all unlikely that the general upheaval brought
about by the Peloponnesian War led to a dispersion of
Athenian artists, and thus to the continuance of their art in
other lands, but not in Athens itself. We shall see that this
largely accounts for the origin of the fabrics of Southern Italy.
In any case Panticapaeum was a place of considerable importance
in the fourth century, being the chief place whence
.bn 588.png
.pn +1
the Athenians obtained their supplies of grain, as we learn from
the orations of Demosthenes, such as the Contra Phormionem.
With the Cyrenaica circumstances were no doubt little
different. But the vases from this site, though similar to those
of the Crimea, are mostly inferior, of small size, and often
of very rough character. Like the former they exhibit a
preference for polychromy and gilding. Similar fabrics are
also found in the Greek islands, such as Karpathos and Telos,
in the Troad, and elsewhere,[1452] but for the most part of a very
inferior character.
In the tombs of Southern Italy many vases are found
representing the same stage of development as those of the
Crimea and Cyrenaica, varying from large kraters with fine if
florid designs, often enhanced by a lavish use of white pigment,
to inferior and almost worthless specimens. Inasmuch
as these vases are not distinguished by any stylising tendencies
such as enable us to classify the other fabrics of
Southern Italy and assign them to particular districts, and on
the other hand bear the same relation to the later R.F. vases
of Athens as do those of the Eastern Mediterranean, it is
evident either that all these fabrics were imported from
Athens or that Athenian artists had been driven to settle in
these respective regions. And since it is exceedingly unlikely
that the exportation of pottery from Athens can have gone
on to any extent in the fourth century, it seems, on the
whole, most probable that the latter is the true version.
We may, then, establish a class of vases intermediate between
the R.F. fabrics proper and the local Italian fabrics, which
represents the manner in which Athenian artists carried on
their traditions under new circumstances, and serves to explain
how the new Italian schools came into being.[1453]
These vases are often characterised by a refinement of
drawing and simplicity of conception which recall the earlier
R.F. period, and in such cases accessory colours, elaborate
draperies, and the filling-in of the field with miscellaneous
objects are studiously avoided. Even the decorative patterns
.bn 589.png
.pn +1
show considerable restraint. It is probable that some of these
belong to the latter part of the fifth century, even if they are
not actually imported from Athens. But there are others of a
distinctly florid kind, in which we may trace the influence of
Meidias and his school. The compositions are crowded with
figures, often placed at different levels (without indication of
ground-lines), and there is a general tendency to elaborate
decoration, both by means of white pigment and by richly
embroidered draperies. As examples may be cited two fine
kraters in the British Museum, one with a scene from the lesser
Mysteries at Agra (F 68), another with Thetis and the Nereids
bearing the arms of Achilles (F 69). The bell-shaped krater
is by far the most favourite form, although practically a new
one in Greek ceramics; contrary to the usual rule, the reverse
often has a definite subject, in which accessories are used,
although the tendency had begun some time before the end
of the fifth century to neglect the decoration of the reverse in
kraters and other large vases.
In its new home in Southern Italy this branch of Greek
art had lighted on a very favourable soil. The great colonies
such as Tarentum, Capua, Cumae, and Poseidonia, founded
almost in the dawn of Greek history, were not only as completely
Hellenic as Athens and Corinth, but in luxury and
splendour even surpassed them at this period. Hence, art
flourished in such towns far more readily than in the distant
and comparatively barbarous regions of South Russia and
North Africa. In the character of their productions we shall
see the nature and condition of the inhabitants of Southern
Italy reflected. The chief aim is splendour and general effect;
and both the size and colouring of the vases indicate to some
extent the luxury and magnificence in which the people lived.
It must not, however, be supposed that vase-painting was a
new art introduced to this region by Athenians in the earlier
part of the fourth century. In another chapter we shall speak
of the early attempts at imitation of Greek vases on the part
of the semi-barbarian natives of the peninsula, and reminiscences
of these early attempts crop up from time to time
under circumstances of greater development, as will be seen.
.bn 590.png
.pn +1
Moreover, a constant stream of importations from Athens
(small indeed as compared with that to Etruria, but still steady)
had been finding its way to the Greek colonies of Southern
Italy and Sicily; special fabrics were made for export to Nola,
Gela, and other places; and thus the local artists had all along been
undergoing an unconscious training which enabled them to take
up the industry at the point where the Athenian artists left off.[1454]
The local fabrics of Southern Italy fall into three main
classes, corresponding to the geographical divisions of Apulia,
Lucania, and Campania, which three, with some modifications,
include all that come under discussion in the present section.
Before, however, entering upon the question of the criteria on
which this classification is based, a few general considerations
may be touched upon by way of preface.
The study of South Italy fabrics is to some extent a new
one. At the beginning of the last century, when scarcely any
vases had been found outside Italy, the majority of both public
and private collections consisted of vases of this period. Of
those now exhibited in the Fourth Vase Room of the British
Museum, at least one-fifth are from the collections of Sir
William Hamilton, Charles Towneley, and Richard Payne
Knight; and in such publications as those of D'Hancarville,
Tischbein, Inghirami, and Millin, a great majority of the plates
are devoted to them. Hence their importance was much
over-estimated; but, on the other hand, no attention was paid
to questions of style or provenance, and they were only regarded
as pretty pictures. Subsequently to the discoveries at
Vulci, and the gradual growth of the scientific study of vase-painting,
the later vases suffered greatly from neglect, as
yielding less interest than the early fabrics and the products
of the best Athenian artists, and even at the present day it is
rare to find them made the subject of serious study. The only
writer, in fact, who has attempted in recent years to apply to
them the critical methods of modern archaeology is Signor G.
Patroni of the Naples Museum, who has availed himself of the
opportunities afforded by the extensive series under his care.[1455]
.bn 591.png
.pn +1
The vases from Southern Italy, which from their style may
be regarded as undoubtedly local non-Attic fabrics, are all
distinguished by certain common features. In all there is
seen a perpetual striving after effect rather than beauty, manifested
in the size and splendid appearance of the earlier
Apulian products, in the largeness of style and bold drawing
of Lucanian artists, especially the school of Paestum, and in
the gaudy colouring of the Campanian vases. The later Apulian
wares are chiefly remarkable for varied and exaggerated shapes.
Common to all vases alike is the fondness for ornamental
patterns, such as the egg-pattern, wave-pattern, maeander,
palmettes, and wreaths of laurel, myrtle, or ivy; though even
these are guided by certain rules, much as on the black-figured
vases. On the large bell-shaped kraters the decoration almost
invariably consists of a laurel-wreath round the lip, maeander
below the designs, and palmette patterns under the handles;
and every shape of vase has its characteristic decoration. The
Campanian vases show the least tendency to formal ornament,
and the Lucanian run to the opposite extreme. The column-handled
kraters are almost alone in retaining the archaic
scheme of decoration in panels with borders of ornament, to
which they adhere throughout the R.F. period; but the panels
are occasionally employed for hydriae or oinochoae. In most
cases, however, the luxuriant palmette patterns under the
handles form an adequate frame for the design with the
maeander band below. A female head frequently occurs as
a decorative motive, especially in the Apulian vases; either
forming the main decoration, or placed under the handles, or
adorning the neck, encircled with foliage. So too the figure
of Eros is employed on the later Apulian vases purely as a
decorative motive.
The shapes of the vases present a very great variety, as
compared with the Athenian fabrics.[1456] The bell-shaped krater
enjoyed a short vogue, and is only found in the earlier examples;
but besides the column-handled type already mentioned, the
calyx-krater (vaso a calice) and the volute-handled (a rotelle)
form occur from time to time. Among the early Apulian vases
.bn 592.png
.pn +1
a variety of the latter, with medallions (mascherone) in place
of the volutes, frequently occurs; these are often of gigantic
size, decorated with several rows of figures, and nearly all the
finest existing specimens are of this form. It is also the usual
type for the sepulchral vases (see below). The medallions are
ornamented with Gorgons’ masks and other devices, coloured
on a white slip. A peculiar local variety of the krater, with
four handles, is found in Lucania only (see p. #172#).
Other vases for holding liquids are the situla, lebes, amphora,
and hydria, forms which are more or less familiar. The
amphora is slender, with more or less elliptical body; in Campania
it is small and squat-shouldered, the body almost
cylindrical, but in Apulia it is usually very tall and elegant
(cf. Plate #XLV:pl45#.). An occasional variant has a cylindrical flat-topped
body, with elaborate handles in the form of scrolls;
the so-called pelike is a more common type, but somewhat
inelegant. The hydria is usually a degenerate version of the
R.F. kalpis, but at Paestum the Attic type still obtains. A
new form is that known as the lekane, a jar for holding
sweetmeats; it has vertical handles and a cover of elaborate
form, often surmounted by a small vase. Of similar type is
the so-called lepaste, a circular covered dish on a high stem.
Among the smaller vases may be mentioned the oinochoë,
of which there are one or two varieties, notably the graceful
prochoos, with its high handle and foot, and the equally
ungraceful epichysis, with its long beak-like mouth and pyxis-shaped
body; both of these are confined to Apulia. The
lekythos retains the bulbous body and low foot of the later
R.F. period; the askos in various forms is fairly common.
Two new varieties are a sort of alabastron without a handle
but with flat base, and a jar with a handle over the mouth.
Of drinking-cups the kantharos and rhyton are popular among
the later Apulian wares; the kotyle is rare, and the kylix has
almost entirely disappeared, its place being taken by a gigantic
circular dish, elaborately decorated inside and out. These
are obviously designed with a view to general effect, and
seem to have been intended for hanging up against a wall.
In regard to the technique the general method is that of
.bn 593.png
.pn +1
the later R.F. vases; but in the majority all idea of simplicity
and refinement is lost, and the tendency to exaggeration and
showiness is manifested both in drawing and colouring.
Throughout there is a fondness for large masses of white,
and this pigment is used not only for the flesh of women and
of Eros, but for architectural details and other objects, such
as temples, shrines, and lavers. Yellow is largely employed
for details, especially for features or hair, and for picking out
the ornamental patterns; purple, too, is not uncommon. Attempts
at shading are occasionally found.[1457] Accessory colours
are, however, seldom found on the reverses of the vases, which
are always drawn and painted with the greatest carelessness.
The drawing is entirely free, and in fact errs on the other
side, becoming careless and faulty; the forms are soft, and the
male figures often effeminate. An extreme facility of hand
has indeed proved the ruin of the vase-painter. The love of
the far-fetched betrays itself in variety of posture and elaborate
foreshortening; and in the richly embroidered draperies and
studied settings of some scenes the influence of the theatre is
obviously to be traced. Frequent attempts are made at perspective,
especially in buildings of which the insides are shown,
but the attempts are seldom successful. As a rule the artist
is content to indicate figures in the background by placing
them on a higher level, or only showing the upper half of the
figure. On many vases with mythological subjects, especially
those of Apulia, a row of deities is thus represented, as if
seated on the θεολογεῖον of the stage. Landscape is represented // Tr: theologeion
by rocks, stones, and flowers scattered about, trees and buildings;
but in most cases the painter prefers the old system of merely
giving a clue to the scene, representing the palaestra by jumping-weights
or oil-flasks suspended, women’s apartments by sashes,
toilet-boxes, or small windows, and so on.
The pictorial effect of the scenes on many vases naturally
gives rise to the question to what extent the artists were
indebted to the great painters of the fifth and fourth centuries.
In some cases the paintings seem to be more naturally adapted
for large canvases than for the limited surface of a vase; but
.bn 594.png
.pn +1
more than this, in others the subjects actually lead our thoughts
directly back to the works of great masters of which we have
record. The influence of Polygnotos and his school has indeed
died out, but the emotional tendencies of the fourth-century
painters and their fondness for new and difficult subjects found
a ready echo in the conceptions of the Apulian vase-painters.
It may suffice to quote a few instances from the British Museum
collection. Thus on one vase (F 479) we find a representation
of the infant Herakles strangling the snakes, a theme selected
by the great Zeuxis, and also to be seen in one of the paintings
from the house of the Vettii at Pompeii. Or, again, the famous
sacrifice of Iphigeneia and the death of Hippolytos, subjects
which employed the brushes of Timanthes and Antiphilos
respectively, are depicted in a truly pictorial manner on two
kraters (F 160, F 279). In each case we are able to note a
correspondence with the description of the pictures given
by Pliny; in the last-named, also, with a picture described
by Philostratos. Were more known of ancient pictures, it is
possible that other examples would be readily found; but that
some such influence was exerted can hardly be questioned.
Again, in the later vases with opaque designs on black
grounds (see p. #488#), most of which are merely decorated with
wreaths, festoons, or masks, we are at once reminded of the
Pompeian wall-paintings, or rather of their predecessors in
the Hellenistic Age, since the vases must be earlier than most
of the pictures of Pompeii. There is a vase of late date in
the British Museum (F 542) which, with its elaborate treatment
of light and shade effects and its border of arabesques, not
only in its subject (a young shepherd and his dog), but also
in method, suggests a close connection with the Pompeian
frescoes.[1458]
Another influence at work on the vases of the period besides
that of the great painters was that of the stage, in which both
tragedy and comedy play their part. The influence of tragedy
as represented on the Greek stage is seen not only in the choice
of subjects, but in the composition of the scenes and the
costumes of the figures. This is especially the case with the
.bn 595.png
.pn +1
large Apulian vases with mythological subjects. The architectural
arrangements, with a temple, altar, or statue in the
centre, the embroidered draperies and gorgeous tiaras worn
by the principal personages, and the abundance of dramatic
or even passionate action, can only be due to the influence of
the stage. But it is only to Euripides that we can ascribe
this influence. There appears to have been a great revival
of his plays towards the end of the fourth century, especially
in Magna Graecia, and the extent of the effect of this revival
on the vase-paintings has been discussed by several writers.
The tendency of the age to passion and pathos, seen in the
Pergamene sculptures and other great works of art, as well
as in the paintings of a Parrhasios or a Timanthes, would
naturally find an echo in the subjects treated of by Euripides.
Of the existing dramas, we find scenes drawn more or less
directly from the Hecuba, the Hercules Furens, the Hippolytos,
the two Iphigeneias, the Medeia, and the Phoenissae. Many
others can be traced to the lost dramas, as for instance (to
quote only from examples in the British Museum) the Alkmena,
the Oineus, the Antigone, the Andromeda, the Oinomaos, and
the Lykourgos.[1459]
It has been observed that on many vases of this period on
which mythological subjects are represented, although the
theme is essentially tragic, yet the treatment has a somewhat
grotesque, not to say burlesque effect. A notable instance
is the well-known vase of Assteas in Madrid, with Herakles
destroying his children (Fig. #107:fig107#). This quasi-comic element,
which appears to be quite unintentional, is often accompanied
by considerable largeness of scale, exemplified in the size of the
figures, the expression of the features, and the drawing
generally. It may be that a certain element of exaggeration
attended the revival of tragedy in Southern Italy,[1460] caused by
unsuccessful attempts to retain the lofty manner and large
style of the old productions. Hence too, perhaps, the fondness
.bn 596.png
.pn +1
for burlesques of tragedies among the comic writers of the
period, reflected in another class of vases.
In the vases with comic subjects it is not necessary to have
recourse to the Attic Comedy, New, Middle, or Old, to account
for their introduction; an explanation lies nearer at hand. It
is true that the costumes worn by the actors are closely related
to those of the Old Comedy,[1461] and that one or two subjects may
possibly be traced to the Frogs of Aristophanes (see Chapter
#XV:vol2_ch15#.). But it is not likely that these plays were ever revived
in Southern Italy, as were those of Euripides. They were
essentially topical, and their political and social satire would
have been lost on a later generation. On the other hand, we
know that a kind of farce, known as the φλύαξ was especially // Tr: phlyax
popular with the people of Tarentum and other towns of
Southern Italy in the fourth century, either dealing with
subjects of daily life or burlesquing mythology and heroic
legends. It was during the performance of one of these in
the theatre at Tarentum that the spectators saw the Roman
fleets entering their harbour in 302 B.C.[1462] The best-known
writer of phlyakes was Rhinthon, whose Amphitruo was the
original of Plautus’ play of that name; a scene from this
may be portrayed in a vase in the Museo Gregoriano at
Rome.[1463] His plays, to judge from the titles, were mainly
burlesques; but all literary remains have perished, and we
can only form an idea of them from the vases.
In many of these scenes the actual stage is represented; in
others we have merely the figure of a comic actor, sometimes
in a grotesque attitude. The figures almost invariably wear
masks and padded stomachs, their dress consisting of a close-fitting
leather garment with sleeves and tight trousers, over
which is a short loose tunic (see Fig. #105:fig105#); on their feet are
the traditional socci or low shoes of comedy, and there is one
instance of an actor wearing gloves. The subjects of these
vases have been dealt with elsewhere,[1464] and need not be
.bn 597.png
.pn +1
recapitulated here; the example given in Fig. #105:fig105#, a burlesque
of Herakles and Auge,[1465] may serve as typical. They have a
peculiar style of their own, and can hardly be classed with any
of the known fabrics, though found all over Southern Italy.
One is signed by the painter Assteas of Paestum, but we
look in vain for evidence of his usual style thereon. They
may all be regarded as belonging to the fourth century.
.il id=fig105 fn=fig105_597.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Jahrbuch, i.
FIG. 105. BURLESQUE SCENE: HERAKLES AND AUGE.
.ca-
Turning to the subjects in general on these vases, we note the
systematic supplanting of the old heroic myths by new subjects
of a dramatic and emotional nature. As in the case of the
gods Zeus and Athena are replaced by Apollo, Aphrodite, and
Dionysos, so instead of the labours of Herakles and Theseus
we find themes drawn from the stories of Troy and Thebes, or
the legends of Pelops, Hippolytos, Pentheus, and Lykourgos.
The taking of Troy in particular is a popular subject on the
large vases, as are single episodes, such as Ajax seizing
.bn 598.png
.pn +1
Kassandra. Among entirely new subjects, introduced from
the tragedies, are those relating to Alkmena, Pelops, Oedipus,
and the later Theban heroes.
Cosmogonic myths such as the Gigantomachia and the Birth
of Athena entirely disappear, as do many of the myths connected
with the gods; on the other hand, such subjects as the
contest of Apollo and Marsyas, the Judgment of Paris, Triptolemos,
or Europa and the bull, retain their popularity. Herakles
is conveyed to Olympos by Nike instead of Athena; but his
labours and combats are seldom represented. The typically
Attic subjects, Theseus, Eos and Kephalos, and the Birth of
Erichthonios, disappear as might have been expected, as does
the wrestling of Peleus and Thetis. Combats of Greeks with
Centaurs and Amazons are favourite subjects, but often little
more than decorative.
Dionysiac scenes are very frequent, but usually in the form of
groups of figures without any particular meaning; Aphrodite,
and even Apollo, similarly occur in the midst of Nymphs and
attendants, without special characterising of the figures. A
peculiar feature of the period is the almost universal presence of
Eros. Whether the scene be mythological, Dionysiac, or from
daily life, he is an almost invariable participant, and on the later
Apulian vases frequently occurs as a single decorative figure.
Scenes from daily life are, if anything, more common than
mythological subjects. Banquet-scenes and revels are very
popular, and the kottabos is sometimes introduced (see Chapter
XV.). A departing warrior is sometimes represented on
Lucanian and Campanian vases (see Fig. #108:fig108# and Plate #XLIV:pl44#.),
but chariot and battle scenes are comparatively rare. Among
the Apulian vases occur a large class of subjects formerly
characterised on insufficient grounds as “toilet scenes” of
Aphrodite or Helen. Many no doubt actually represent scenes
from women’s daily life; but the commonest type is that of
a seated woman and a standing youth exchanging presents of
fruit, mirrors, sashes, or toilet-boxes. The presence of Eros
in most cases suggests scenes of courting and the offerings of
lovers; but as a rule they are purely fanciful, like the designs
on Dresden and Sèvres china.
.bn 599.png
.pn +1
Athletic scenes, in which a race or contest, is going on, are
practically non-existent; but groups of athletes, or rather of
ephebi, usually wrapped in mantles and conversing together,
furnish the stock decoration of the reverse of the kraters and
other double-sided vases, a practice already begun in the
Athenian R.F. vases, and now become invariable.
Two classes of subjects to which allusion has not yet been
made, and which are almost confined to the large Apulian
vases, have an important bearing on the purpose for which
these vases were made—namely, for use at funerals. The first
class includes scenes from the under-world, and in this series
are some of the most magnificent of existing vases (see
Plate #LII:vol2_pl52#.). The subjects and the manner of their representation
have been fully discussed elsewhere (Chapter XIII.);
they are treated in the same theatrical style as the mythological
scenes already discussed.
The second class is confined to scenes representing offerings
at the tombs of the departed, which may take two forms.
In the simpler, which is characteristic of Lucania and Campania,
and especially of the hydria form, the tomb is a stele, like those
of the Athenian lekythi, at which the relatives of the deceased
meet to mourn or make offerings (Fig. #20:fig020#). The “type” is
that of Orestes and Electra at the tomb of Agamemnon,
but only in one or two cases is it possible to suggest this
interpretation. On the Apulian vases, almost exclusively on
the large kraters and amphorae, but sometimes also on the
hydriae, a more elaborate treatment of the subject is employed.
The centre of the scene is occupied by an Ionic distyle building
representing a ἡρῷον or shrine devoted to the worship of an // Tr: hêrôon
ancestor or family “hero.” In the entrance of this building
(which is painted white to denote marble) stands or sits the
figure of a young man or a woman holding some attribute—a
cup or piece of armour—or standing by a horse. These
figures are usually painted white throughout like the building,
which seems to imply that a statue or relief is represented
rather than an actual human figure.[1466] On either side of the
shrine figures are represented bringing libations. Sometimes
.bn 600.png
.pn +1
the actual tomb of the deceased is represented with a plant
growing in it; or, again, a lady is represented at her toilet
with her maid, as in the Athenian sepulchral reliefs (Fig. #106:fig106#).
Each person is represented with his appropriate costume or
attributes—the warrior with horse or armour, the hunter with
dog, the lady with articles of toilet.
.il id=fig106 fn=fig106_600.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca FIG. 106. APULIAN VASE WITH SEPULCHRAL SCENE (BRITISH MUSEUM).
In spite of the absence of “banquet” or “greeting” scenes,
the parallelism with the Attic reliefs is very marked, and the
sepulchral character of these vases is indubitable. It is, further,
natural to suppose that there is some reference to the worship
of a ἥρως or deceased ancestor, such as is known to have been a // Tr: hêrôs
universal custom among the Greeks.[1467] Reliefs have been found
at Tarentum with subjects which obviously have this reference.
Apart from these two classes, however, the majority of the vases
of Southern Italy seem to have been made originally for
ornamental purposes, such as the decoration of a house, as is
implied by the distinction in the artistic merit of the two sides.
.bn 601.png
.pn +1
Artists’ signatures in this period are exceedingly rare; only
three, in fact, are known. Of these one may be briefly dismissed—Lasimos,[1468]
who signed a fine Apulian vase in the
Louvre, with sepulchral and other scenes; his style is hardly
distinctive enough to admit of identifying any others as his work.
But in the other two names, those of Assteas and Python,
we find more interest. Five vases exist with the signature
of Assteas, and one with that of Python, and it is interesting
to note that they both use the form ἔγραψε (see Chapter #XVII.:vol2_ch17#). // Tr: egraphe
The list is as follows:
.fs 90%
.in +9
.ti -9
Assteas. (1) Krater from Paestum in Madrid. Reinach, i. 168 =
Baumeister, i. p. 665, fig. 732 = Fig. #107:fig107#. Herakles
destroying his children.
.ti -2
(2) Krater from Paestum in Naples (3412). Wiener Vorl.
B. 2. Phrixos and Helle.
.ti -2
(3) Krater from S. Agata dei Goti in Naples (3226).
Millingen, Anc. Uned. Mon. i. 27. Kadmos slaying
the dragon.
.ti -2
(4) Krater from S. Agata dei Goti in Berlin (3044). Wiener
Vorl. B. 3, 1. Scene from farce (parody of Prokrustes?).
.ti -2
(5) Lekythos from Paestum in Naples (2873). Millin-Reinach,
i. pl. 3. The garden of the Hesperides.
.in
.in +9
.ti -9
Python. Krater from S. Agata dei Goti in the British Museum (F 149).
J.H.S. xi. pl. 6. Alkmena on the funeral pyre.
.in
.fs 100%
The characteristics of Assteas’ work are very marked, and,
curiously enough, Python’s differs little from it. Both are
essentially pictorial artists, trained in Greek traditions, and
inheriting from Attic painters like Meidias the love of elaborate
and minutely rendered draperies and picturesque grouping
of figures at different levels. In the latter detail we also
seem to see signs of the influence of Polygnotos.
There are many other vases in our museums which present
the same features of style and treatment as these.[1469] Besides
.bn 602.png
.pn +1
those already mentioned, the fondness for half-figures in the
background, the large heads, pronounced features, and heavy
masses of hair in the figures on these vases connect them
unmistakably with the school represented by the two artists.
It is not the style of Lucania or of Campania, still less that
of Apulia; and yet it is clearly an Italian fabric. Some
previous writers have maintained that Assteas came from
(or was resident at) Tarentum, arguing thus partly on epigraphical
grounds, partly on the ground of his employment of
scenes from the farces,[1470] which, as we have seen, were popular
in that city. But having regard to the fact that three out
of five of Assteas’ vases were found at Paestum, and that he
combines certain characteristics of Lucanian and Campanian
fabrics, we may fairly assume that he (and therefore also Python)
resided in that city, which lay on the border of the two districts.
We are thus enabled to establish a style of Paestum distinct
from the other Italian fabrics—a conclusion at which the
present writer and Signor Patroni arrived independently some
years back. The latter has pointed out that several small
details also point to that city—such as the gaily plumed
helmet worn by Herakles on the Madrid vase, which resembles
those worn by local warriors on paintings found in that city.[1471]
And in the Naples Museum there are several other vases
in the style of Assteas from Paestum.[1472] Signor Patroni dates
Assteas about 350–320 B.C., Python a little later.
.il id=fig107 fn=fig107_603.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
From Baumeister.
FIG. 107. VASE BY ASSTEAS IN MADRID: HERAKLES DESTROYING HIS CHILDREN.
.ca-
The Madrid vase and the Python krater are in their way
masterpieces, and form almost the finest examples we possess
of South Italian vase-painting. Both are extraordinarily rich
in colouring as well as in detail. The former (Fig. #107:fig107#)
represents, as has been said, Herakles destroying his children
the subject being treated in a manner which to us appears almost
grotesque, not to say comic. But it is probable that this is due
partly to the element of exaggeration which has been ascribed
to the revival of tragedy (see p. #472#). The whole conception
.bn 603.png
.pn +1
is obviously theatrical, with the setting of Herakles and his
child, the principal figures, against a background formed,
after theatrical models, by the front of the palace, through
openings in which appear the horrified faces of Alkmena
and Iolaos, and that of Mania, the goddess of madness.
Herakles has already set fire to a confused pile of household
furniture—tables, chairs, and wool-baskets—and a child clings to
him in agony, while Megara tears her dishevelled hair; but their
pleadings have no effect. In the Python krater the action is less
violent and theatrical, but there is the same gaudiness of colouring
and richness of embroidered costume. Alkmena is seated
on the pyre, to which Amphitryon and Antenor are about to
set light, and raises her hand in supplication to Zeus, whose
bust is seen above. In answer to her prayer the Hyades or
rain-nymphs pour down water from their pitchers to extinguish
the flames. It should be noted that in this painting we have
several successive stages of time combined in one (cf. Vol. II.
p. #10:vol2_10#); the pyre is not yet lighted, but the water is already
descending to extinguish it.
.bn 604.png
.pn +1
We now proceed to describe in detail the characteristics
of the three principal fabrics, beginning with that of Lucania,
as the earliest in character, if not necessarily in point of time.
Lucanian vases stand nearer to the latest Attic fabrics than
do those of the other districts, and do not present the same
local peculiarities; nor do they sink like the others into a
state of decadence and barbarism, but are very conservative
in their style.
We note in them a much greater unity of style than in
the vases of Campania, and everything points to one centre
of fabrication. This is most probably Anzi, where the largest
number have been found. Information as to provenance is
unfortunately often vague, but few other places are given as
sources (see p. #83#), almost the only other names being those
of Pisticci and Pomarico. But the number of vases that it is
possible to attribute to Lucania is not large in any case.
The designs are usually somewhat severe and restrained,
and characterised by a certain stiffness of drawing and largeness
of scale. The heads of figures are abnormally large, with
great staring eyes and masses of hair rendered without detail.
The draperies are comparatively free from ornamentation, only
broad black borders and patterns of small dots being admitted.
The clay is of a rich red colour, but accessory colours are
exceedingly rare. Hence they present a great contrast to
the Apulian and Campanian, with their masses of white and
generally gaudy appearance. Another peculiarity is that fillets
in the hair are rendered simply by leaving a narrow band
across the head in the colour of the clay. The figures often
stand in the air without the usual dotted ground-lines, but
sometimes the ground is represented by a heap of loose stones.
A favourite device is that of a half-shield seen in the upper
part of the scene, as a sort of indication of locality or action.[1473]
Fig. #108:fig108# gives a typical example of Lucanian vase-painting.
Among the favourite shapes are the bell-shaped krater and
the amphora, also the hydria and column-handled krater. The
hydria is generally employed, as in Campania, for sepulchral
subjects. The vases are mostly of large size, whence a corresponding
.bn 605.png
.pn +1
largeness of the figures; whereas Campanian vases
are generally small, and make up for the absence of imposing
figures by their colouring. An entirely new shape, peculiar
to this style, is the four-handled krater, to which the name
of nestoris has been somewhat absurdly given[1474]; it is undoubtedly
a local form, being found in the indigenous pottery
of the district.[1475] There are two varieties, one with a high
neck, the other with sloping shoulder and no neck. The
handles are usually ornamented with discs painted with
rosettes, and the designs are in panels surrounded by ornament,
sometimes on the second variety with a lower frieze
of figures. Generally speaking, secondary ornamentation is
largely employed on these vases, especially on the last-named
shape. The palmette patterns under the handles are usually
very luxuriant.
.il id=fig108 fn=fig108_605.jpg w=500px
.ca FIG. 108. DEPARTURE OF WARRIOR, FROM A LUCANIAN KRATER (BRITISH MUSEUM).
The vases of Campania present in many ways a striking
contrast to those of Lucania. Their chief characteristic is, as has
been noted, love of picturesque effect and variety of colour, even
to the extent of introducing attempts at shading (see above,
.bn 606.png
.pn +1
p. #471#). The vases are mostly small, and none of the large
kraters or amphorae belong to this class. The favourite shapes
are the hydria, lekythos with bulbous body, and amphora; the
latter is clearly an imitation of the Attic “Nolan” amphorae,
which were so largely imported into the district, but the body
is usually more symmetrical. The clay is usually of a buff or
dull yellow ochre tone, and red and yellow washes are frequently
used, as well as large masses of white; these tints are laid on
very carelessly, and the white is of a kind that is apt to flake
off and disappear. Yellow, purple, and white are largely used
as accessories, and the drawing has a tendency to become very
careless. The lines of the ground are indicated by occasional
strokes of white, or by rocks strewn with flowers. Ornamental
patterns are not so popular as in Lucania; the favourite is the
wave, and the palmettes under the handles are thick and ugly,
with angular leaves. Some decorative motives seem to be derived
directly from nature.
The subjects are often interesting and uncommon, introducing
recondite or unusual myths; many of the vases with comic scenes
appear to belong to this class, and one in the British Museum has
an Oscan inscription. Local peculiarities of costume and armour,
which Signor Patroni calls Osco-Samnite, are often found; for
instance, warriors wear a very short chiton with broad girdle, a
helmet with waving crest and tall side-plumes of Italian type,[1476]
and a remarkable breast-plate formed of three circular plates
of metal arranged in a triangle.[1477] These same peculiarities are
found on the wall-paintings at Paestum, and there are indications
that Virgil was familiar with them.[1478]
Signor Patroni, by dint of an exhaustive study of the Naples
collection, has made a tentative classification of Campanian vases
according to fabric; he distinguishes those of Cumae, Saticula
(Santa Agata dei Goti), and Abella; but those of Capua, Nola,
and Neapolis appear to have no distinctive style. The Cumae
fabric, for studying which the Raccolta Cumana in Naples gives
.bn 607.png
.pn +1
exceptional facilities, is represented by the long, straight-bodied
amphorae, the hydriae with female heads under the handles, and
kraters on which the design is framed by stylised floral patterns
or heavy palmettes. Among the characteristic patterns are the
wave, large flowers in profile, and ground-ornaments generally,
such as ivy-leaves, branches, and small windows. The strong
tendency to polychromy seems to be the result of using the late
Attic polychrome vases as models. In the colouring a new feature
is the use of a carmine red, which, according to Patroni, is only
found in the Cumae fabrics.[1479] Mythological subjects are rare,[1480]
sepulchral common, and shrines are found on these alone; but
the majority have scenes from daily life,[1481] banquets, return of
warriors, etc. It is on these that the local costumes are usually
found.
The Saticula fabrics are very uniform,[1482] practically all bell-shaped
kraters with red clay; colours are sparingly used, and
then only white; a maeander takes the place of the wave-pattern
as a border; ground-lines are usually indicated. Of subjects
Dionysiac have the preference. The vases of Abella are of late
date, chiefly hydriae of very pale clay with accessory colours;
among the typical patterns are arabesques ending in white
daisies. They sometimes show reminiscences of the Paestum
style.[1483]
.pm onplate XLIV
.il id=pl44 fn=plate44_608.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
South Italian Vases (British Museum).1, 2, Apulian Vases; 3, Campanian.
.ca-
.pm offplate
There are a few peculiar fabrics which we may also attribute
to a Campanian origin, including rude imitations of the B.F.
style, chiefly small amphorae with single figures; imitations of
Nolan amphorae, reproducing both their form and their scheme
of decoration[1484]; and bell-shaped kraters imitating the Attic style,
which Signor Patroni has associated with Saticula. The imitations
of Nolan amphorae have a slim body, twisted handles, and
a sharply set-off shoulder forming a right angle with the neck
instead of a graceful curve. As in their prototypes, the subjects
are confined to one or two figures each side. The lustrous black
.bn 608.png
.bn 609.png
.bn 610.png
.pn +1
glaze of the Attic vases is admirably reproduced. There is also
a class of vases with designs painted in opaque red on the black
ground, reproducing the method of the transitional vases described
on p. #393#.[1485] They are very rude in character, with roughly incised
details and subjects of a simple kind; the red pigment appears to
have been made from fragments of pounded pottery (testa trita).
There is, however, one remarkable exception—a small phiale in
the British Museum,[1486] dating from the third century, with the
subject of a shepherd-boy with his dog. The design is carefully
painted in opaque red and white in the style of the Pompeian
wall-paintings, and the effect of light and shade produced by
hatched lines is both remarkable and unique. A krater found
at Civita Castellana (Falerii),[1487] the paintings on which are in
Campanian style, is unique in having Latin inscriptions over the
figures, a group consisting of Zeus (... SPATER, Die]spater),
Ganymede, Eros (CVPIDO), and Athena (MENERVA). The
subject is conceived rather in the style of the Etruscan mirrors
than that of the painted vases, and is obviously under local
influence. As Falerii was destroyed in 243 B.C., a terminus ante
quem may be obtained for the date of the vase, as for others
found on this site (see p. #75#).
The vases of Apulia are not only more numerous, but of
more merit and greater interest than those of the other two
classes. In them may be observed two or three stages of
development, beginning with a fifth- or early fourth-century
group of Attic type, consisting of large amphorae with two
friezes of figures.[1488] Both in shape and method of decoration
these form the prototype of the large kraters and amphorae
which comprise the second class; they are distinguished from
the latter by severity of treatment and absence of colour. The
second class includes the large vases with mythological and
tragic subjects, the Under-world vases, and those with sepulchral
scenes; they are all richly decorated from head to foot, with
two main rows of figures, smaller subjects on the neck, and
.bn 611.png
.pn +1
ornamentation over every available space. The theatrical
characteristics of which we have spoken above (p. #472#) are best
illustrated by some of this series.
The third class includes some large vases, such as the so-called
pelikae and the large phialae, and the smaller forms, the
oinochoë and its varieties, and kanthari, rhyta, and other kinds
of drinking-cups. Some shapes are peculiar to this class. In
spite of the great variety of shape, there is a remarkable
poverty of conception in the subjects, which show a tendency
to become purely decorative, and are mainly confined to the
vague “courting” scenes or “toilet” scenes, or to single figures
of Eros and Nike. On the smallest vases the commonest
subject is often that of a female head covered with a cap, sometimes
of a relatively colossal size, and this also occurs,
surrounded by foliage, on the necks of the large vases. The
shapes, as in the case of the epichysis (p. #179#), often tend to
ugliness and over-refinement.
The conception of Eros on the later Apulian vases is one of
their chief characteristics (cf. Plate #XLIV:pl44#.). An almost invariable
participant in every scene, his form assumes an androgynous
character; his hair is arranged in feminine fashion, and his
person adorned with necklaces, earrings, and other jewellery.
Among other peculiarities we may note the double line of
white or yellow dots for ground-lines; the characterising of
Oriental figures by tiaras and cross-belts; the general treatment
of the hair of women, at first long, thick, and wig-like, but
later gathered up in a cap, from which the ends float out
behind; the thick but effeminate proportions of the men; and
the small heads of the horses.
.pm onplate XLV
.rj
To face page 486.
.il id=pl45 fn=plate45_612.jpg w=350px ew=80%
.ca
APULIAN AMPHORA.
PERSEPHONE IN HADES.
(British Museum).
.ca-
.pm offplate
There does not seem to be any possibility of distinguishing
different centres of fabric in Apulia. Nor can Tarentum have
been a centre of vase-fabrics, although Lenormant stoutly upheld
its claims, as the chief centre of Greek civilisation in that region.
But Tarentum has been the scene of much excavation, and
results do not point to that conclusion; most of the vases found
there are purely Greek. On the other hand, enormous numbers
have been found at Ruvo, and this was undoubtedly the chief
centre, though without a distinguishing style of its own. Ruvo
.bn 612.png
.bn 613.png
.bn 614.png
.pn +1
was famous for its red clay, and remains of furnaces and potteries
have been found there. Other sites where vases have been found
are Bari, Canosa, and Ceglie. At Canosa there was a preference
for the tall amphora with scroll-handles, the large phiale, and
the prochoös,[1489] and purple accessories were largely used here. It
is also interesting to recall that Canosa seems to have been the
centre for the large ornamental vases of terracotta painted in
tempera (p. #119#).
On some of the column-handled kraters[1490] local costumes appear,
probably representing the Peucetians, and having some affinities
with those of Lucania; the principal features are the tall pointed
cap and short striped chiton worn by both sexes. Another
group peculiar to Apulia is formed by the fish-plates[1491]—a
peculiar form of plate, with low stem, a sinking in the centre,
and edge turned over, all being painted with fish of various
kinds (Plate #XLIV:pl44#.). They were no doubt used for eating
fish, the sinking being for the sauce; but they may also
have been hung up as votive offerings in the temple of some
marine deity.
.tb
The last efforts of vase-painting on the soil of Magna Graecia
date from the latter half of the third century B.C. By this time
vase-painting had reached a stage of complete decadence, devoid
of style or taste, and rapidly verging on barbarism, as shown
in some specimens, which seem to be the efforts of local
craftsmen to copy the better examples, but with the same want
of success as the Etruscans.[1492]
Another direction which vase-painting took before it finally
disappeared is illustrated by a group of vases mostly found at
Egnazia (Gnathia) in Apulia, which clearly form a final stage
in the evolution of the local fabric just discussed. Originally
.bn 615.png
.pn +1
known from the place where the majority was found as vasi di
Egnazia or Gnathia vases, they were in the view of Lenormant
more probably made at Tarentum.[1493] But we have seen that
there is slight evidence of local fabric there,[1494] and their connection
with the fabrics of Ruvo and Canosa makes it more likely
that they came from that neighbourhood. It is therefore
probable that the old name is the correct one.
The characteristics of this group are: (1) the black varnish
with which the whole vase is covered; (2) the designs painted in
opaque colours—white, purple, and yellow; (3) the tendency to
imitate vases of metal, as seen in the vertically ribbed bodies
and other details of form. The important rôle played by the
black varnish is interesting, as showing the increasing tendency
to reduce the painter’s labour to a minimum, combined with
a striving after novelty and the rejuvenation of the art. The
practice, no doubt, arose from the discovery of the painter that
it was easier to paint the figures on the black in opaque colour
than to trace them out in the clay and work round them with
the varnish, especially in the case of the elaborate foliage
patterns which played so important a part in Apulian vases.
The subjects are usually confined to the shoulder or neck, at
least of the larger vases; but figures are comparatively rare.
One krater in the British Museum (F 543) which belongs to the
comic series is a notable exception; and there is a pleasing
subject on a skyphos in the Louvre[1495]—a cock and goose confronted,
and greeting one another with the respective salutations,
“Ah, the goose!” “Oh, the cock!” But in the majority of
cases the only designs are female heads, Erotes (Fig. #118:vol2_fig118#), birds,
comic and tragic masks suspended from wreaths, and simple
foliage patterns. The reverse of the two-sided vases is often
undecorated.
.il id=fig109 fn=fig109_616.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
FIG. 109. HYDRIA WITH OPAQUE PAINTING ON BLACK GROUND, FROM CURIUM
(BRITISH MUSEUM).
.ca-
It is interesting to note that specimens of this ware are
sometimes found on Greek sites, such as Athens, Myrina in
Asia Minor, Melos, and Cyprus. At Curium in the latter
.bn 616.png
.pn +1
island a fine hydria in this style, with figures on the shoulder
(Fig. #109:fig109#), was found in 1895.[1496] Whether these were imported
from Italy or made elsewhere is quite uncertain.[1497]
.il id=fig110 fn=fig110_617.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca
FIG. 110. PHIALE WITH LATIN INSCRIPTION: “THE CUP OF AEQUITIA”
(BRITISH MUSEUM).
.ca-
Another interesting but much smaller class which belongs to
the latter half of the third century is formed by a group of
.bn 617.png
.pn +1
vases, mostly small phialae, which are distinguished by bearing
painted Latin inscriptions.[1498] Some also have figures (Eros, a
female head, etc.), which are treated in the same manner as the
Gnatia vases. It is probable that Rome was the place of origin
of this class, in spite of the fact that most of them were found
in Etruria.[1499] But the Latin language at that time was more at
home in Campania than anywhere else outside Rome. The
inscriptions take the form: AECETIAI POCOLOM, Aequitiae
poculum (B.M. F 604 = Fig. #110:fig110#); IVNONENES POCOLOM,
Junonis poculum; and so on,—Saturn, Mercury, and other
Roman deities being included in the list. Reasons have been
.bn 618.png
.pn +1
given for dating this series in the First Punic War, 260–240
B.C.
.tb
Formerly it was universally supposed that the art of vase-painting
was brought to an end in 186 B.C. by the action of the
Roman Senate when they issued their edict against Bacchanalian
ceremonies, which undoubtedly affected Southern Italy. But
this was only a natural view to be taken by writers who associated
the painted vases with the Eleusinian mysteries and
similar ideas; on other grounds it is hardly tenable. Especially
in regard to the general putting back of the chronology of the
art, it is impossible to suppose that painted vases with mythological
subjects were still made in the second century. The
character of the mid-third-century vases just described is sufficient
to indicate that they represent the last stage to which
Greek painting could ever have reached.
.h4
§ 3. Figure-Vases and Vases with Reliefs
We propose to conclude this sketch of the history of Greek
vase-painting with a few words on a principle which, while
always present in Greek pottery, yet at all times lay in the
background, until the latest stages of the art, when it entered
on a phase of increased popularity. This is the principle of
combining the ceramic with the plastic art—in other words,
the manufacture of vases in the form of human or animal
figures or heads.
It has already been noted, in discussing the primitive pottery
of Troy (p. #257#), that the idea of associating the vase form and
the human form is a very old one. At Troy it is of course seen
in its most rudimentary stage, when correct modelling was a
thing quite beyond the potter’s scope, and he could only roughly
indicate features and limbs on the surface of the vase, which
thus always remained a vase, and the figure idea never gained,
as in later times, the predominance. In the Mycenaean period
the advance in modelling was great, but only reached a high
level in Crete. It is only since the discoveries at Knossos that
we have been able to account for the astounding group of
.bn 619.png
.pn +1
porcelain rhyta from the Enkomi tombs in Cyprus (see Plate #X:pl10#.,
fig. 4),[1500] which at first sight seem to have been made by a
sixth-century artist, so admirable and lifelike are they. Although
the rams’ heads bear the palm, the female heads are, for
the period, a tour de force, so advanced in type that it would
be pardonable to argue—apart from the circumstances of their
discovery—that they must belong to a later stage of art.
Apart from these, however, the principle did not find its
way into Greece before the seventh century B.C., and then
its origin is indubitably Oriental. It is best exemplified by
the discoveries in Rhodes, especially at Kameiros,[1501] where
vases of porcelain and terracotta are found modelled in the
form of helmeted heads or heads of animals (see Plate #XLVI:pl46#.,
fig. 1, and p. #127#). The type adopted is that of the aryballos
(p. #197#); it was no doubt a comparatively easy matter to model
its spherical body into the form required, applying paint where
necessary to bring out the details as on the vases. In the
Western Mediterranean the alabastron form seems to have been
more popular.[1502] It is often adopted for the Canopic vases of
Etruria (see Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#.). Many of these are unpainted,
or rather are covered with a white slip and then painted in
tempera like the ordinary terracotta figures; they are, in fact,
figurines in essence, vases by accident; whereas in the first-named
group the vase idea retains the predominance. But it
is almost impossible to draw the line. A fine early instance of
imitation of metal in early Greek pottery is the British Museum
jug from Aegina (A 457) terminating in the head of a Gryphon.
.pm onplate XLVI
.il id=pl46 fn=plate46_620.jpg w=500px alt='Plate XLVI'
.ca
Greek Vases Modelled in Various Forms (British Museum).1, 6, Sixth Century; 2, 4, 5, Fifth Century; 3, Fourth Century.
.ca-
.pm offplate
During the sixth century painted figurine vases are rare,
though there are not wanting various examples of the class
just described, which belong to this period; but at all events
hardly any examples can be traced to Athenian manufacture
during the age of B.F. vase-painting. Towards the end
of the century, however, the fashion was reintroduced by
the potter Charinos, who belongs to the transitional period
.bn 620.png
.bn 621.png
.bn 622.png
.pn +1
(about 525–500 B.C.). A vase signed by him, which was
found at Corneto, is in the form of a female head surmounted
by a kalathos.[1503] It was made in a mould like the terracotta
figures, but the painted decoration, which is remarkably
elaborate and minute, is entirely B.F. in character. The
patterns on the head-dress include maeander, stars, ivy-leaves,
lozenge and net patterns, and a minute frieze of animals,
painted in black on the clay ground. A similar vase, but
later in date, is in the Berlin Museum[1504]; in this example we
may note the introduction of R.F. ornamentation, in the
palmettes and diapering round the top.
These two stand at the head of a series of similar vases
extending throughout the succeeding periods down to the
end of the age of painted vases. They compare for style
with the heads of the female statues found on the Acropolis,
which belong to the same period. Two other potters, Kaliades
and Prokles, made similar vases.[1505]
The fashion started by Charinos continued throughout the
fifth century, but the plastic conception tended to become
subordinate to the ceramic, and it became more and more
customary to decorate the non-plastic portions in the manner
of the vases. Of this development the most noteworthy
example is the beautiful rhyton in the British Museum in
the form of a Sphinx (E 788), the upper or vase part of which
is ornamented with the subject of Kekrops and Erichthonios.
The body of the Sphinx is covered with a fine white slip,
and the details are picked out with red and gilding. This
vase dates from about the middle of the century. There
also exist many examples of rhyta or kanthari, formed of
a head or two heads back to back, usually a Maenad and a
Seilenos.[1506] Another favourite type is that of a jug in the form
.bn 623.png
.pn +1
of a negro’s or Aethiopian’s head[1507]; and there are also rhyta
which terminate in the head of a lion, mule, or other animal
finely modelled (Plate #XLVI:pl46#., figs. 2, 5).
Towards the end of the fifth century there is a reversion to
the purely plastic figure-vase, usually in the form of a lekythos
with spherical body, to the front of which the figure is attached
(Plate #XLVI:pl46#., fig. 4). The vase is usually covered with black
glaze, and the figure with a white slip like the terracottas, with
polychrome colouring. Examples of this class are the series
of lekythi representing Aphrodite Anadyomene in a scallop-shell,
of which there are examples at Athens and Petersburg,[1508]
and the fine vase in the British Museum (E 716) with the bust
of Athena Parthenos. A series of smaller lekythi, of which the
British Museum possesses examples (G 2–7), represents Eros on
a dolphin, the young Dionysos in a sort of canopy, Europa on
the bull, a boy with a dog, and other subjects; the technique
is similar to that of the larger specimens, with pink and green
colouring. They form charming little objects, and are often
well executed.[1509]
In Southern Italy many of these types are continued, the most
popular being that of the rhyton ending in an animal’s head
(p. #193#), of which many examples have been found in Apulia.
They usually have some simple design painted on the upper
part, such as a figure of Eros. There are also numerous
examples of vases in the form of animals or human figures
(Plate #XLVI:pl46#., fig. 3), some of which are in black glazed ware
with patterns in white like the vases of Egnazia, others being
covered with white slip like the terracottas. With the decay of
painted decoration the plastic element gradually predominates
more and more, until the vase form becomes, so to speak, purely
accidental. Thus in the third century the fabrics of Canosa,
of which we have spoken in a previous chapter (p. #118#), entirely
hold the field, and the vases pass out of the sphere of the
history of vase-painting.
.bn 624.png
.pn +1
In all or nearly all of the vases just described we observe
the same principle at work—namely, the tendency to imitate
metal in terracotta. It is one that is constantly recurring
throughout the whole history of Greek ceramics, with more
or less persistency and prominence. Sometimes, as in the
Melian, Proto-Attic, and other fabrics, the imitation is limited
to the form of the handles, which is, strictly speaking, inappropriate
in terracotta, though frequently found in early bronze
vessels.[1510] It is seldom found in Ionia, but in Western Greece
there are many examples during the seventh and sixth centuries,
as in some of the Proto-Corinthian and early Corinthian wares,[1511]
This is doubtless in a large measure due to the influence of
the great centres of metal-work at that time, Corinth and
Chalkis. We are not, therefore, surprised to find the tendency
exemplified in the pottery fabrics of those two centres, and
at Chalkis, as has already been noted (p. #321#), it is especially
conspicuous in the form and minor details of the vases. At
Athens examples are rare, with the exception of the vases
of Nikosthenes, who not only copies complete vases in metal,
as in his peculiarly-shaped amphorae and in a small phiale
mesomphalos in the British Museum,[1512] but is also addicted to
adorning the handles of jugs with female heads in relief, as
on specimens in the Louvre and elsewhere.[1513] After the sixth
century the tendency is far less conspicuous, owing to the high
esteem in which vase-painting was then held, and little is seen
of attempts at imitating metal until the revival of the plastic
element in pottery in the fourth century. An almost unique
exception is the Berlin krater from Corinth (2882), which must
date from the fifth century. It is of black ware, with designs
in relief round the body.[1514]
The tendency also manifests itself in a marked degree in
.bn 625.png
.pn +1
another direction in early Greek art—namely, in that of ornamenting
vases with reliefs. So much evidence of this has
been yielded by discoveries on Greek soil that it is now
certain that this method of decoration had its origin in Greece,
and not in Etruria, although the close resemblance between
early relief-wares from Rhodes and the large πίθοι of Cervetri
(see p. #153#) had led archaeologists in the past to regard Etruria
as its original home. The Etruscans always preferred modelled
vases or relief decoration to painted ware, as their bucchero
fabrics show; but we know that they had no inventive power,
and even in this they have proved to be only imitators.[1515]
Turning to details of the early Greek vases with reliefs, we
may note that there are two varieties: firstly, those in which
the reliefs are made by rolling a cylinder round the vase, the
design being repeated over again; secondly, those in which
the reliefs are made from separate moulds, and attached with
some kind of cement.[1516] In both classes the shape usually
affected is that of a large πίθος (cf. p. #151#), of a somewhat // Tr: pithos
coarse red clay. It is the first variety which so closely
resemble the πίθοι found at Cervetri, and which are now // Tr: pithoi
known to be the prototypes, not imitations, of the Etruscan
examples.[1517]
.pm onplate XLVII
.il id=pl47 fn=plate47_626.jpg w=354px
.ca
From Ἐφ. Ἀρχ.Archaic Pithos with Reliefs from Boeotia (Athens Mus.).
.ca-
.pm offplate
In Greece fragments of the first class have been found on
the Acropolis at Athens, the recurring design being a two-horse
chariot which a warrior mounts, with a scorpion in the
field. The similarity in the clay, the shape, and the technique
of the reliefs with the Cervetri vases is remarkable; the subject
is one common on Corinthian vases. Other fragments have
been found at Tanagra, and there is a good example in the
Louvre with a series of figures, representing a dance of women,
all of similar types, yet not from the same stamp, but different
moulds.[1518] The variations of detail in dress and hair show
conclusively that the cylinder process is not employed here,
but that the figures are freely modelled from a single type.
.bn 626.png
.bn 627.png
.bn 628.png
.pn +1
The costume is that typical of the women on early B.F. vases
(cf. p. #372#). Some very fine examples of πίθοι with reliefs,
dating from the end of the seventh century, have been published
by De Ridder.[1519] They are all from Boeotia, and are similar to
those made in Rhodes, but with the characteristic ornamental
handles of metallic form. Here again the figures are freely
modelled with variations of detail, and they afford interesting
points of comparison with the painted vases and with the early
bronze reliefs which are variously attributed to Corinth and
Chalkis.[1520] One in Athens (Cat. 462) has the interesting subject
of Artemis Diktynna; another (Cat. 466 = Plate #XLVII:pl47#.),
an accouchement scene. Similar finds have been made in
Kythnos, Tenos, Crete, and Rhodes,[1521] the ornamentation being
for the most part purely geometrical, but sometimes with Centaurs
or human figures.[1522] In none of these examples is there
any peculiarly Etruscan feature; all is purely Hellenic, presenting
close analogies not only with metal-work in relief, but also with
the Oriental art to which the Greek work of that age was so
much indebted, as in the case of the cylinder process.[1523]
A new method of decorating vases, which first makes its
appearance towards the end of the fifth century, is by means
of appliqué reliefs. It is doubtless due to the influence of
sculpture, and perhaps more especially to that of the bronze
reliefs which on vases and mirror-cases were now becoming
popular. The former influence is clearly at work in the great
Kertch vase with the contest of Athena and Poseidon (Plate
L.), where we may see in the two central figures, which
are modelled in relief and applied to the surface of the vase,
an undoubted reminiscence of the western Parthenon pediment.
There are also vases from Athens, Kertch, the Cyrenaica, and
Southern Italy,[1524] in which the figures are either partially or
wholly modelled in relief, like the vase of Xenophantos or
a fine lekythos in the British Museum (G 23) representing the
rape of Kassandra by Ajax. Another fine specimen, found at
.bn 629.png
.pn +1
Cumae and now at Petersburg, has a group of Eleusinian
deities in relief on the shoulder.[1525] Yet another example,
recently found at Lampsakos, has the Calydonian boar-hunt
as its subject; the figures are in relief on a gilded ground.[1526]
The imitation of metal technique[1527] is even more marked in
the vases of Southern Italy than in those from other parts.
At Capua, Cumae, and Metapontum amphorae, hydriae, and
oinochoae are found, covered with a very brilliant black varnish,
but without any painted decoration; the only ornament is in
the form of gilded wreaths and other simple patterns, or
designs in relief. The British Museum has a fine series from
Capua with garlands of foliage and ornaments in the form of
festoons and pendants, the whole forming, as M. Collignon
says, “a brilliant and luxurious system of decoration which
contrasts with the sober taste of the Attic potters.” Some of
the hydriae are clearly of local fabric, imitations of the
Campanian hydriae of bronze.[1528] The forms are often very
elaborate, with ornamental handles, ribbed bodies, and moulded
stems. An oinochoë has been found with an inscription which
gives the names of leῖa for smooth-surfaced vases, ῥαβδωτά for
those ribbed or fluted. Heavy imitations of the gilt and relief
wares have often been found at Alexandria,[1529] and isolated
specimens occur in Attica, Rhodes, and the Cyrenaica.
The growing fashion of using only vases of chased gold and
silver in preference to painted pottery made itself more and
more felt both in Greece and Italy during the Alexandrine
period. The same tendency which we have already noted, to
reproduce as far as possible the characteristics and appearance
of metal, may be observed in all the pottery of this period.
Not only do the subjects moulded in relief reproduce the
appearance of the chased and repoussé designs, but the shapes
are those of the metal vases, and even in the black glaze there
are attempts to produce a metallic effect. It is clear that the
pottery of this period presents throughout the effect of a
.bn 630.png
.pn +1
striving after outward show on the part of those who were
unable to afford the more precious metal for their household
utensils, and were forced to be content with imitating it to
the best of their ability in the humbler material.
In Greece this tendency is best illustrated by a series of
vases known as Megarian or Homeric bowls, of hemispherical
form,[1530] without handles. The former name was given to them
by Dumont[1531] and Benndorf,[1532] but with little authority beyond
the fact that several were found at Megara. But they might
on equally good grounds be called Boeotian, others having been
found at Thebes and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. They
have also been found in Kalymnos, Crete, and Cyprus, but
the majority are from Thebes, Tanagra, and Anthedon.
Professor Robert thinks they may be identified with the
vasa Samia so often mentioned by ancient writers (see Chapter
#XXII:vol2_ch22#.), and refers to the μαστοί dedicated at Oropos and
Paphos.[1533] All are of red clay, with a thin metallic black glaze
giving a quasi-metallic appearance; the hemispherical form is
only departed from in one or two instances.[1534]
The other name, Homeric, has been applied to them by
Professor Robert with reference to the well-known passage of
Suetonius, which describes Nero as using bowls (scyphi) called
Homeric because they were chased with subjects from Homer’s
poems.[1535] Our clay examples would then be reproductions of
the chased metal vases, used by those who could not afford
originals, and corresponding in some degree to modern plaster
casts. It is true that only five of the examples we possess
have subjects from Homer; but most of the others may be
so called as belonging to the Epic cycle. They thus differ
from most relief-vases of the period, in that the designs are
not purely decorative or repetitions of simple motives, but are,
so to speak, “illustrations of the classics.”
Professor Robert distinguishes two classes: (1) those with
figures made from separate stamps, attached to the vase after
.bn 631.png
.pn +1
it was made, and often repeated; (2) vases made wholly, figures
and all, in a mould, like the Arretine wares.[1536] In the latter case
they were doubtless made from the same moulds as the metal
vases, and of this we have an undoubted example, not indeed
among the “Megarian” bowls, but in analogous specimens from
Italy. It has already been noted (p. #134#) that in the British
Museum there are two examples of a silver bowl with repoussé
designs, representing round the interior four deities in chariots,
which form part of a silver treasure found at Èze in the south
of France; and that in the same collection there is also a clay
bowl (Cat. G 118 = Plate #XLVIII:pl48#., fig. 5) which exactly reproduces
the silver vase in shape, size, and decoration.
Among the subjects we have the rape of Persephone[1537]; the
sacrifice of Iphigeneia; Achilles and Priam[1538]; the flight to the
ships (from the Iliad), the sack of Troy and the sacrifice of
Polyxena; the destruction of the suitors (from the Odyssey).
>From the Theban legend we have the stories of Oedipus’s
childhood and the Seven against Thebes[1539]; other vases give
the labours of Herakles or his rape of Auge (Plate #XLVIII:pl48#.,
fig. 2)[1540]; and a jug made by Dionysios has the interesting
subject of Autolykos and Sisyphos.[1541] The British Museum
possesses a very interesting bowl with scenes taken directly
from the Phoenissae of Euripides,[1542] and other comparisons with
that author may be made in the case of the bowls with
Iphigeneia and Polyxena. Sometimes the scenes are inscribed
with verses from the poems or plays illustrated, or with a
prose description of the scene,[1543] or merely with the names of
the figures. The letters in all cases are raised. It is clear
that all these bowls belong to the same period and fabric, and
many small details point to the third century as their date.
We may bear in mind that this was the time of the great
revival of Homeric study at Alexandria.
.bn 632.png
.pm onplate XLVIII
.il id=pl48 fn=plate48_632.jpg w=500px ew=90%
.ca Greek Vases of Hellenistic Period: Black Ware with Reliefs (British Museum).
.pm offplate
.bn 633.png
.bn 634.png
.pn +1
In Italy the introduction of relief wares became general as
painting was abandoned, but did so gradually, not suddenly.
In the third century both existed side by side. The principle
of a purely mechanical process in pottery, which now first
appears in the manufacture from a mould, was not, strictly
speaking, a new one in Italy, nor yet in Greece. It is first
seen in the early Etruscan and Rhodian vases (see p. #496#)
with stamped and rolled-out designs repeated in long friezes.
And we shall see later how for several centuries moulded
vases, in the form of bucchero ware, formed the national
pottery of Etruria. There was always in Etruscan, as also in
Greek pottery,[1544] a tendency towards the imitation of metal,
and this tendency about the fourth century seems to have
spread over the rest of Italy, even to the Iapygian Peninsula.
Thus it is that the vases of Gnatia (p. #488#) are largely metallic
in form and treatment, with their ribbed bodies and other details.
To the same cause is mainly due the series of Capua and
Cumae vases which has already been discussed, with its
brilliant varnish and gilding. Signor Gamurrini actually gave
to the Italian black glaze wares the name of “Etrusco-Campanian.”[1545]
After the disappearance of bucchero ware similar
vases came to be made at Cervetri, Chiusi, Corneto, and
Bolsena, the principal art centres of Etruria. At Bolsena in
particular they have been found in considerable numbers;
and as this city (Volsinium novum) was only founded in
264 B.C., a terminus post quem for their date is afforded.
A group of vases found chiefly at the last-named place[1546]
does not appear to have been covered with black varnish,
but with a metallic preparation of gold or silver, which has
now mostly disappeared, and they are left with the plain
glazed clay. Some of these are not without merit. In the
general arrangement of the designs, usually in friezes round
the shoulder, there is obviously a reminiscence of bucchero
ware. The metallic preparation with which they were covered
may have been something of the kind which Athenaeus[1547]
.bn 635.png
.pn +1
describes in speaking of certain drinking-cups made at
Naukratis, which “were dipped [in some preparation] so as
to appear silver.”
In Italy the manufacture of vases of black ware with reliefs
appears to have centred at Cales in Campania during the
third century.[1548] The principal type is that of a bowl, not of
the hemispherical form, but shallow, with the designs in the
interior, either in the form of a frieze or of a central medallion.
These are usually called Calene phialae, but it is not certain
whether the majority were really made at Cales. At all events,
it is, like “Megarian bowl,” a convenient name for the class.
The British Museum bowl G 118, with the frieze of chariots
(see above), is a good example of the frieze type of design.
The subject, which is treated in a very spirited manner, is
the apotheosis of Herakles, who is conducted by Athena, Ares,
and Artemis to Olympos, accompanied by Victories. There is
also a good specimen in Berlin (Cat. 3882) with Odysseus
and the Sirens. Another with decorative patterns only, bears
the signature of the potter, L. Canoleios of Cales, in Latin
letters.[1549] Examples are also given in Plate #XLVIII.:pl48#, figs. 3, 5, 6.
Of the type with central medallions comparatively few complete
examples exist, but the British Museum possesses a series
of fragments on which the medallions have been preserved.[1550]
The subjects are usually those characteristic of the Alexandrine
period: Aphrodite, Adonis, and Erotes; Herakles and Hylas,
and others familiar from Theocritus; or Trojan scenes, such
as Thetis with the arms of Achilles or Paris attacked by
Deiphobos. A unique instance is that of Romulus and Remus
suckled by the wolf (G 125). Two names of potters occur—K.
Atilius and G. Gabinius. The date of these phialae is
probably that of the Second Punic War (about 230–200 B.C.).
The designs, being taken from moulds[1551] and inserted separately,
are frequently repeated. The fashion—obviously another
.bn 636.png
.pn +1
instance of imitation of metal[1552]—of adorning bowls with central
designs also takes other forms at this period. Simple heads
of deities or Satyrs are found, and there are also instances
of facsimiles of Syracusan coins. Two bowls in the British
Museum (G 121–22) have in the centre copies of a decadrachm
with the head of Persephone (Plate #XLVIII.:pl48#, fig. 4: cf. p. #210#).[1553]
Analogous to these in character and technique are the series
of small lamp-feeders or gutti, a variation of the askos form,
which are found chiefly in Southern Italy, but also in North
Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.[1554] In the latter case
they are usually distinguished by having an arched handle
over the back instead of the usual ring-handle at the side,
and the body is flatter. The Italian type has a deep ribbed
body, with a flat circular space on the top containing a design
in relief, made separately and inserted in the vase (Plate
#XLVIII.:pl48#, fig. 1). The range of subjects is wide, but the majority
are mythological: heads or masks of a Dionysiac character or
of Medusa form a large proportion of the whole.
Larger vases of black ware with reliefs inserted or attached
are sometimes found, but are not common. The British Museum
possesses two good specimens—a krater (G 29) with panels
inserted bearing mythological designs,[1555] and a large covered
jar (G 28) with the inscription BASSVS in Roman letters,
presumably the potter’s name. The subjects, in two friezes,
represent Erotes and festoons of vine-leaves, and Poseidon and
Victory, five times repeated.
.tb
The series of vases which we have been discussing are clearly
paving the way for the new development of pottery which
prevailed throughout the Roman period—that of the ware
formerly known as Samian, but now usually spoken of as
Arretine or (a more comprehensive term) Terra sigillata.
This will of course be more appropriately dealt with in a
subsequent chapter under the heading of Roman Pottery.
.bn 637.png
.pn +1
In the course of the second century the Roman dominion
spread over most of the Greek lands, and Greek art as an
independent entity almost ceased to exist. It is, however,
not a little remarkable at what a late date some forms of
distinctively Greek pottery lingered on in Hellenic regions,
such as Attica, Egypt, and Southern Russia. The subject
has hitherto received but little attention, and the materials
have hardly been collected with sufficient completeness to
admit of adequate discussion and classification.[1556]
.fm
.fn 1409
See Hesych. s.v.πινάκιον; Athenag. Leg. pro Christo, 17, p. 293; also p. 316.
.fn-
.fn 1410
See Loeschcke in Ath. Mitth. 1879,
p. 289 ff. The revision of chronology
since his article was written has only
served to give additional support to his
view, bringing the white vases nearer in
date to the painted stelae.
.fn-
.fn 1411
Brut. xviii. 70: see also Plut. de
defect. orac. 47, 436 C; Pliny, H.N.
xxxv. 50.
.fn-
.fn 1412
See B.M. Cat. of Vases, ii. B 613 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1413
Winter in Arch. Zeit. 1885, p. 195 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1414
Ibid. p. 187 ff.: cf. also Hartwig in
Jahrbuch, 1899, p. 160.
.fn-
.fn 1415
Arch. Zeit. 1885, pl. 12. Cf. B.M.
D 22, 32; Dumont-Pottier, i. pl. 11;
Rayet and Collignon, pl. 10, 1. The
severe type of face should be compared
with Attic coins of the fifth century.
.fn-
.fn 1416
Cf. Arch. Zeit. 1881, p. 35.
.fn-
.fn 1417
Cf. B.M. D 65 and Fig. #19:fig019#, p. 143.
.fn-
.fn 1418
E.g. B.M. D 21, 33.
.fn-
.fn 1419
As on the Anesidora cup in the British
Museum (D 4) and the Euphronios cup
in Berlin (2282).
.fn-
.fn 1420
Mon. dell’ Inst. x. 37 a; Annali,
1877, p. 287.
.fn-
.fn 1421
Cat. 208, 332, 336; published in
Jahn, Entführ. d. Europa, pl. 7; Furtwaengler
and Reichhold, pl. 49 (Fig. #121:vol2_fig121#);
and Overbeck, Kunstmythol. Atlas, pl. 9,
No. 19.
.fn-
.fn 1422
Rayet and Collignon, p. 223: see
Anzeiger, 1891, p. 69, where it is attributed
to Sotades.
.fn-
.fn 1423
E.g. B.M. D 11 = Plate #XLIII:pl43#. fig. 1;
Mon. Grecs, 1878, pl. 2 (in Louvre).
.fn-
.fn 1424
Also attributed by Furtwaengler to
Sotades (Anzeiger, loc. cit.).
.fn-
.fn 1425
Formerly in the collection of M.
van Branteghem: see his Sale Cat.
Nos. 159–66, and Plate #XL:pl40#.
.fn-
.fn 1426
A complete list of white-ground cups
is given by Hartwig, Meistersch. p. 499.
Among signed examples are the Euphronios
cup in Berlin (2282); those
by Sotades and Hegesiboulos (p. 445),
and also Mon. dell’ Inst. x. 37a (—νις
ἔποιησεν). // Tr: nis epoiêsen
.fn-
.fn 1427
White Athenian Vases, p. 5.
.fn-
.fn 1428
See generally Pottier, Les Lécythes
Blancs.
.fn-
.fn 1429
In the B.M. collection, D 52 is from
Locri, D 28, 47, 63, 87 from Gela.
.fn-
.fn 1430
E.g. B.M. D 33, 54–7, 62; Athens
1625 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1431
See Dumont-Pottier, ii. pp. 50, 53.
.fn-
.fn 1432
Notably Athens 688 = Reinach, i.
p. 164 (Mon. dell’ Inst. viii. pl. 4).
.fn-
.fn 1433
For references to this subject on the
lekythi see Chapter XIII., and for a
typical example, ibid., Fig. #122:vol2_fig122#. For
the different types see (1) Athens 1662–63;
(2) B.M. D 61; (3) Berlin 2680–81,
Athens 1661.
.fn-
.fn 1434
x. 28, 1.
.fn-
.fn 1435
On the forms of the stele see Brueckner,
Ornament und Form der attischen
Grabstelen.
.fn-
.fn 1436
As for instance Naples 1755 = Baumeister,
iii. p. 1848, fig. 1939. See also
Roscher, iii. p. 967; B.M. F 57.
.fn-
.fn 1437
Cf. also B.M. D 54; Pottier, pls.
2, 4; and see Chapter XIII.
.fn-
.fn 1438
We may recall the dictum of Aristotle
(Poet. 2) that Polygnotos painted men
better (or more beautiful) than reality.
.fn-
.fn 1439
E.g. B.M. D 54, D 56; and another
with horsemen unpublished.
.fn-
.fn 1440
It may be noted conversely that
Attic tombstones were often in the form
of lekythi (e.g. B.M. Cat. of Sculpt. i.
Nos. 681–82, 687 ff.).
.fn-
.fn 1441
See the list of non-funerary subjects
given by Pottier, op. cit. p. 5. Cf. also
B.M. D 21, 51, 57, D 19 and 24 (Nike),
31 (Iris), and 23 (priestess of Athena).
.fn-
.fn 1442
Lécythes Blancs, p. 103.
.fn-
.fn 1443
Examples are: Benndorf, Gr. u. Sic.
Vasenb. pls. 26, 33.
.fn-
.fn 1444
E.g. Athens 1626; Benndorf, pl. 18,
fig. 2, pl. 20, fig. 2.
.fn-
.fn 1445
E.g. Benndorf, pl. 24, figs. 1, 3.
.fn-
.fn 1446
Jahrbuch, ix. (1894), p. 57 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1447
Milchhoefer attributes this to Hiero’s
victory in 474; but the date seems too
early compared with other evidence.
.fn-
.fn 1448
The latest R.F. vase from Kameiros is
the polychrome “pelike” E 424 in the
British Museum. Furtwaengler (Gr. Vasenmalerei,
p. 205) gives reasons for dating
it in the third century; but the circumstances
of its discovery at Kameiros
render so late a date improbable, apart
from considerations of style.
.fn-
.fn 1449
Hartwig in Mélanges d’Arch. 1894,
p. 11.
.fn-
.fn 1450
See above, p. #60#, for the sites on
which they have been found; also the
plates of the Atlas to Stephani’s Compte-Rendu
and of the Ant. du Bosph. Cimmérien.
.fn-
.fn 1451
See above, p. #447#.
.fn-
.fn 1452
E.g. B.M. F 4–7, 23, 27–9.
.fn-
.fn 1453
See on this group of vases some very
illuminating remarks by Furtwaengler in
his Meisterwerke, p. 149.
.fn-
.fn 1454
See also what is said below (p. #485#)
on early Apulian fabrics.
.fn-
.fn 1455
See his Ceramica Antica, passim.
.fn-
.fn 1456
See generally Chapter IV., p. #162# ff.
.fn-
.fn 1457
Cf. B.M. F 193, F 210, F 542.
.fn-
.fn 1458
See also below, p. #485#.
.fn-
.fn 1459
The subject has been fully treated by
Vogel, Scenen Eurip. Tragödien; Huddilston,
Gk. Tragedy in Vase-paintings;
and Engelmann, Arch. Studien zu den
Tragikern: see also B.M. Cat. of Vases,
iv. p. 10.
.fn-
.fn 1460
See J.H.S. xi. p. 228.
.fn-
.fn 1461
See Körte in Jahrbuch, viii. (1893),
p. 61 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1462
Dio Cassius, frag. 39, ed. Bekker.
.fn-
.fn 1463
Helbig, ii. p.314, No. 121 = Schreiber-Anderson,
Atlas, pl. 5, fig. 8: see also
B.M. F 150.
.fn-
.fn 1464
See Chapter XV. #§ 3:vol2_sec15_3#. They are also
fully discussed by Heydemann in Jahrbuch,
i. p. 260 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1465
See also Vol. II. Fig. #134:vol2_fig134#.
.fn-
.fn 1466
Cf. a tomb with paintings at Tritaea in Achaia described by Pausanias, vii. 22, 4.
.fn-
.fn 1467
Cf. Roscher, Lexikon, i. p. 2441 ff.
(s.v. Heros); J.H.S. v. p. 105 ff.; Brit.
Mus. Cat. of Sculpt. i. p. 293 ff.; Furtwaengler,
Coll. Sabouroff, i. p. 17 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1468
Possibly a mistake for, or variation
of, the name Dasimos, which occurs on
a fourth-century bronze votive helmet
from Southern Italy in the British Museum
(Cat. 317).
.fn-
.fn 1469
E.g. B.M. F 150–6; Naples 1778,
1779, 1782, 1787, 3248; and others
given by Patroni, Ceramica Antica, p. 77.
A vase published by Inghirami (Vasi
Fitt. 1–3) is thought by Engelmann to
be the work of Python (Ann. dell’ Inst.
1874, p. 35). But this hardly seems
likely. The B.M. vase F 155 is much
more after his style.
.fn-
.fn 1470
Two of these vases in the British
Museum (F 150–51) are in the style of
Assteas. Furtwaengler assigns all, including
that signed by A., to Campania. It
is, however, more likely that they were
mostly made at Paestum. The one in
Rome with Zeus and Alkmena (see p. #473#)
may be by Python.
.fn-
.fn 1471
Mon. dell’ Inst. viii. pl. 21.
.fn-
.fn 1472
See note above and Patroni, p. 71.
.fn-
.fn 1473
E.g. B.M. B 159, 160, 174.
.fn-
.fn 1474
See above, p. #172#.
.fn-
.fn 1475
See Patroni, op. cit. p. 25, and
Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#. It appears in the vase-painting
given in Fig. #108:fig108#.
.fn-
.fn 1476
Cf. that worn by Herakles on the
Assteas vase, Fig. #107:fig107#.
.fn-
.fn 1477
See Plate #XLIV:pl44#. and B.M. Cat. of
Bronzes, No. 2845.
.fn-
.fn 1478
Mon. dell’ Inst. viii. pl. 21 and
Annali, 1865, p. 262 ff.: cf. Virg. Aen.
vii. 785; ix. 365. See also B.M. Cat.
of Vases, p. 20.
.fn-
.fn 1479
Naples 856; B.M. F 213 (?).
.fn-
.fn 1480
Naples 2293 and R.C. 141 = Reinach,
i. 387; Berlin 3023.
.fn-
.fn 1481
B.M. F 191 ff.; Naples 871, 2855,
3368.
.fn-
.fn 1482
Patroni thinks that such vases as
Jatta 1498 (= Reinach, i. 110, 4) have
formed the model for these Saticula
vases.
.fn-
.fn 1483
E.g. Naples 2852.
.fn-
.fn 1484
E.g. B.M. F 143–148; Naples 3093,
3129: see Arch. Anzeiger, 1893, p. 93.
.fn-
.fn 1485
B.M. Cat. of Vases, iv., F 523 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1486
F 542: see above, p. #471#.
.fn-
.fn 1487
Röm. Mitth. 1887, pl. 10, p. 231.
.fn-
.fn 1488
E.g. Reinach, i. 448 = Arch. Zeit.
1883, pl. 7; Dubois Maisonneuve, Introd.
pl. 69; Naples 3241 = Reinach, i. 384,
1–3; Naples 2416, 2418, 2894, 2918,
3247; see Patroni, Ceram. Antica, p.
33, and Furtwaengler, Meisterwerke,
p. 149.
.fn-
.fn 1489
E.g. B.M. F 237, 238 (wrongly attributed
to Campania in Catalogue).
.fn-
.fn 1490
See B.M. F 297, 301, and Ann. dell’
Inst. 1852, pls. M, N, P, p. 316 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1491
B.M. F 254–68; Berlin 3607–19;
Naples 2542–61; Petersburg 1693–1710.
Cf. Notizie degli Scavi, 1894, p. 107, and
Ath. Mitth. 1901, pl. 2 (an example from
the Acropolis at Athens); also a plate
inscribed underneath // Tr: IChThYAI
.pm ii inscr_487_ichthuai.jpg ΙΧΘVΑΙ '' ''
(Schöne
in Comm. Phil. in hon. Mommseni, p. 653). See also p. #194# and Chapter
#XV:vol2_ch15#.
.fn-
.fn 1492
See Chapter #XVIII:vol2_ch18#. For examples
of these degenerate vases see B.M. Cat.
iv. F 490 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1493
In this he is followed by Rayet and
Collignon (p. #328#).
.fn-
.fn 1494
Lenormant, however, states that they
have been found at Tarentum, as also in
the neighbourhood of Lecce and Bari
(Gaz. Arch. 1881–82, p. 103).
.fn-
.fn 1495
Rayet and Collignon, pl. 13, p.
330.
.fn-
.fn 1496
Excavations in Cyprus, p. 77, fig. 140.
.fn-
.fn 1497
See also B.M. F 553; Ath. Mitth.
1901, pls. 3, 4, p. 70 ff.; Pottier, Louvre
Cat. ii. p. 276.
.fn-
.fn 1498
See Ann. dell’ Inst. 1884, p. 5 ff.;
Rayet and Collignon, p. 332. Fourteen
or fifteen examples are known.
.fn-
.fn 1499
One was found by Lord Savile at
Civita Lavinia (Lanuvium) in recent
years (Notizie degli Scavi, 1895, p. 45).
They have also been found on the Esquiline
(see Röm. Mitth. 1887, p. 233).
.fn-
.fn 1500
Excavations in Cyprus, pl. 3.
.fn-
.fn 1501
For terracotta examples painted in
tempera see B.M. Cat. of Terracottas,
B 281–91; and compare B 286 with an
example from Cyprus, Perrot, Hist. de
l’Art, iii. p. 697. See also Berlin 1292 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1502
See for a terracotta example B 460
in B.M.; also B 203–4 from Rhodes.
Cf. Dumont-Pottier, i. chap. xiii.
.fn-
.fn 1503
Röm. Mitth. v. (1890), pl. 11,
p. 313 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1504
Cat. 2190: cf. Röm. Mitth. 1890,
p. 316.
.fn-
.fn 1505
Klein, Meistersig.^2 p. 216; Berlin
2202. A vase in the Louvre with the καλός-name Epilykos is probably by
Prokles (see Monuments Piot, ix. p. 142).
.fn-
.fn 1506
See Rayet and Collignon, p. 261:
for other examples, B.M. E 786, 792, 793;
Berlin 4044 = Coll. Sabouroff, pl. 69;
Mus. Greg. ii. 89, 1; and the Kleomenes
vase in the Louvre (if genuine). See
on this vase Mon. Grecs, 1897, pls. 16–7,
p. 53; Furtwaengler, Neuere Falschungen,
p. 21; Rev. Arch. xxxvii. (1900),
p. 181; Monuments Piot, ix. p. 138.
.fn-
.fn 1507
See Hartwig in Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1894,
pl. 6, p. 121.
.fn-
.fn 1508
Stephani, Compte-Rendu, 1870–71,
pl. 1; Ber. d. sächs. Gesellsch. 1853,
pls. 1–2 (with Eros, dove, and swan):
cf. the B.M. terracottas, D 89–91.
.fn-
.fn 1509
See Rayet and Collignon, p. 275,
and for other examples Stackelberg,
Gräber der Hell. pls. 49–52; Treu, Gr.
Thongef. pl. 1; Cab. Pourtalès, pl. 28.
.fn-
.fn 1510
Cf. the Proto-Attic vases, Athens 468
and 657, with the B.M. bronze vase-handles,
Nos. 258, 383.
.fn-
.fn 1511
Cf. the Aegina jug mentioned above,
B.M. A 1369 and the vase given in Rayet
and Collignon, p. 68; also the Tanagra
tripod, Berlin No. 1727, and Louvre
A 396 from Rhodes.
.fn-
.fn 1512
See B.M. B 295, 296, 382.
.fn-
.fn 1513
Louvre F 116–17; B.M. B 620. See
Arch. Zeit. 1881, p. #36#, and p. #385# above.
.fn-
.fn 1514
Cf. Coll. Sabouroff, pl. 74, 3: see
also Ath. Mitth. 1880, pl. 10;
Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1885, pl. 9, 11; B.M. G 22–3; Berlin
2704, 2884; Raoul-Rochette, Mon. Inéd.
pl. 49, 3.
.fn-
.fn 1515
Cf. Röm. Mitth. 1897, p. 253 ff.;
Mon. Grecs, 1885–88, p. 43 ff.; Rayet
and Collignon, p. 341; Bull. de Corr.
Hell. 1888, p. 491.
.fn-
.fn 1516
Cf. Dumont-Pottier, i. p. 186 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1517
See Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1888, p. 491
(Pottier).
.fn-
.fn 1518
Ibid. p. 497; also Mon. Grecs, 1885–88,
pl. 8, p. 44: cf. the Etruscan bucchero
vases, e.g. Pottier, Louvre Cat. ii. p. 316 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1519
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1898, pp. 439,
497.
.fn-
.fn 1520
De Ridder, De ectypis aeneis, passim.
.fn-
.fn 1521
Bull. de Corr. Hell. 1888, p. 500;
Ath. Mitth. 1886, pl. 4 (Crete).
.fn-
.fn 1522
E.g. B.M. A 587, 597 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1523
For a complete list of early vases with
reliefs see Mon. Grecs, 1885–88, p. 54 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1524
For examples see Rayet and Collignon,
p. 266; Jahrbuch 1894, p. 62.
.fn-
.fn 1525
Cat. 525 = Reinach, i. 11.
.fn-
.fn 1526
Monuments Piot, x. pls. 6–7.
.fn-
.fn 1527
On the later development of imitation
of metal in vases see Rizzo in Röm.
Mitth. xii. (1897), p. 253 ff.
.fn-
.fn 1528
See also on these vases Gaz. Arch.
1879, pl. 6, p. 38 ff., and Martha, L'Art
Étrusque, p. 488. They are styled by
Gamurrini “Etrusco-Campanian.”
.fn-
.fn 1529
Amer. Journ. of Arch. 1885, pl. 1.
.fn-
.fn 1530
To this the name μαστός has been // Tr: mastos
given: cf. p. #186#.
.fn-
.fn 1531
Céramiques, i. p. 393.
.fn-
.fn 1532
Gr. u. sic. Vasenb. p. 117.
.fn-
.fn 1533
Homerische Becher, in 50^{tes} Winckelmannsfestprogr.
(1890).
.fn-
.fn 1534
G 104 in B.M. and the jug by Dionysios
(Robert, op. cit. p. 90).
.fn-
.fn 1535
Op. cit. p. 1 ff.: cf. Suet. Ner. 47.
.fn-
.fn 1536
Clay moulds for these bowls have
been found at Athens, suggesting that
there was a fabric there. But they were
probably not confined to one centre.
See Ath. Mitth. 1901, p. 67, note.
.fn-
.fn 1537
J.H.S. xxii. p. 3.
.fn-
.fn 1538
Arch. Anzeiger, 1904, p. 191 (in
Oxford).
.fn-
.fn 1539
Cf. Mon. Grecs, 1885–88, p. 48.
.fn-
.fn 1540
Berlin 2891, from Crete.
.fn-
.fn 1541
See Robert, op. cit. p. 90. In the
same work will be found full descriptions
of most of the other bowls.
.fn-
.fn 1542
See Class. Review, 1894, p. 325.
.fn-
.fn 1543
E.g. G 105, in B.M.
.fn-
.fn 1544
See above, p. #495#.
.fn-
.fn 1545
See above, p. #498#.
.fn-
.fn 1546
B.M. G 179 ff.: see Ann. dell’ Inst.
1871, p. 5 ff.; Röm. Mitth. 1897, p. 260;
Notizie degli Scavi, 1897, p. 390.
.fn-
.fn 1547
xi. 480 E: see above, pp. #73#, #189#.
.fn-
.fn 1548
Gaz. Arch. 1879, p. 43. Recent
writers have maintained that “Calene”
ware is Greek in origin, and not confined
to this site. See Dragendorff in Bonner
Jahrbücher, xcvi. p. 25, and Rizzo in Röm.
Mitth. 1897, p. 259: cf. Berlin 3882.
.fn-
.fn 1549
Benndorf, Gr. u. sic. Vasenb. pl. 56.
.fn-
.fn 1550
Ibid. pls. 57–8.
.fn-
.fn 1551
For instances of moulds for these
medallions see B.M. Cat. of Terracottas,
E 72–4.
.fn-
.fn 1552
See Röm. Mitth. 1897, p. 260.
.fn-
.fn 1553
See Evans, Syracusan Medallions,
in Num. Chron. 3rd Ser. xi. p. 319;
also Rev. Arch. xxiv. (1894). p. 173.
.fn-
.fn 1554
See B.M. Cat. of Vases, iv., G 37 ff.,
and above, pp. #200#, #211#.
.fn-
.fn 1555
A similar example is in the Athens
Museum, from Crete (Invent. No. 2141).
.fn-
.fn 1556
Reference may be made generally to
important articles by Watzinger in Ath.
Mitth. 1901, p. 50 ff., and Dragendorff
in Bonner Jahrbücher, ci. p. 140 ff.; also
(for Egypt) to Amer. Journ. of Arch.
1885, p. 18 ff., and Furtwaengler in Gr.
Vasenm. p. 205 ff. See also Chapter
#XXII:vol2_ch22#., and #XXI.:vol2_ch21# init.
.fn-
.nf c
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.dv class="tnotes"
.h2 id='endnote'
Transcriber’s Note:
Errors which can be attributed to printer’s mistakes have been
corrected, as noted below. Lapses in punctuation are corrected
with no further mention.
In Volume II, the author has included as Fig. #173:vol2_fig173# a table of
alphabets used on Greek vases.
.if h
Inscriptions using archaic Greek characters which do not exist in the
unicode character set are provided as inline images, and as such are
not searchable. For instance, the character for pi (Π) resembles the
modern gamma (Γ).
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Inscriptions are presented in archaic Greek script, which more or
less follows that table. For instance, the character for pi (Π)
resembles the modern gamma (Γ). All inscriptions are given using
modern Greek characters. References to individual characters
may appear with very brief descriptions, derived where possible
from that table.
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The character upsilon (Υ) frequently appears as a modern Roman V.
On occasion, sigma appears in the form of a modern C (the lunate
sigma Ϲ).
Footnotes, which were numbered sequentially on each page, have been
resequenced to be unique across the text. Cross-references to those
numbers in the text have been changed to reflect this. The notes
themselves have been moved to the end of each chapter.
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Internal links have been provided for ease of reference.
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Many references refer to the second volume of this work, and when
viewed in a browser, the links will guide you to the locations
in Volume II on the Project Gutenberg site.
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Each plate was followed by a blank page on its verso, which have
been removed here. The position of each plate, as well as that of
all other figures, has been adjusted slightly to avoid falling in
mid-paragraph. The pages devoted to plates were not counted in
pagination.
.tb
The following anomalies regarding footnotes were observed:
On p. #153#, the reference to the third footnote (#521:r521#), referring the reader to
“Pottier Louvre Cat., p. 381 ff.” does not appear in the text. The
section discusses “Les vases à reliefs de style archaique en Italie
et en Sicile”. The reference has been added following the paragraph
ending with “designs of Oriental character”.
On p. #158#, the reference to footnote (#531:r531#) is missing from the
text. The reference has been added at the end of the sentence beginning
“Falkner found at Pompeii...”.
On p. #210#, the sole footnote is missing its number, which is added here
as #770:r770#.
On p. #214#, the reference to the first footnote (#775:r775#), referring the
reader to Alexandre Brongniart’s Traité des arts céramiques: ou des
poteries, i., p 552, does not appear in the text. The passage
discusses the analysis of the glaze, and it seems appropriate to add
the reference at the end of the paragraph beginning “This lustrous
glaze...”.
On p. #427#, footnote #1314:f1314# refers to a series of items, the last of which
(‘270’) seems either out of order, or a misprint for ‘470’.
The following table contains those textual issues which are readily attributed
to printer’s errors:
.ta r:10 l:40 l:20 s=errata w=90%
p. 96| which[,] were so light | Removed
p. 204 | It has been noted by J[o/a]hn | Corrected.
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// place holders for Volume II references
.nf b
chapter 12.
chapter 13.
chapter 14.
chapter 15.
chapter 16.
chapter 17.
chapter 18.
chapter 19.
chapter 20.
chapter 21.
chapter 22.
chapter 23.
chapter 24.
chapter 25.
chapter 26.
chapter 27.
chapter 28.
figure 111.
figure 112.
figure 113.
figure 115.
figure 118.
figure 120.
figure 121.
figure 122.
figure 123.
figure 125.
figure 126.
figure 129.
figure 130.
figure 132.
figure 134.
figure 136.
figure 137.
frontispiece (plate 49).
plate 50.
plate 51.
plate 52.
plate 53.
plate 54.
plate 55.
plate 60.
section 1 of chapter 15
section 3 of chapter 15
section 4 of chapter 15.
section 5 of chapter 15.
section 7 of chapter 15.
section 3 of chapter 16.
volume 2 p. 10.
volume 2 p. 248.
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