Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/638

Rh 614 POTTERY [HELLENIC. arts among the Greeks as to the fact that the vases were no longer made by able artists, but were turned out in large quantities from the hands of an uneducated class of artisans. This was probably partly owing to increasing wealth and love of display, which created a demand for gold and silver plate rather than for the cheaper but more artistic beauty of painted clay. Dates of The dates of Greek vases are difficult to fix, partly from a vases. natural tendency to archaism, which varies with the productions of different places, and partly because in some cases there was an artificial reproduction of old &quot;styles and methods. The following chronological classification, which is commonly accepted, is only very roughly correct, and is not applicable in all instances : (1) black figures on red ground, about 8th century to 440 B.C. ; (2) red figures on black ground, of the best period, c. 440-300 B.C. ; (3) period of decadence, c. 300-100 B.C. Fine moulded black vases, and vases with polychromatic paintings of good style, were made towards the end of &quot;the 4th and early part of the 3d century B.C. Shapes Shapes of J r ases and their Use. From the 5th century and after- und uses, wards but little scope was left to the fancy of the individual potter in the forms of his vases. One special pattern was pretty closely adhered to for each sort, though, of course, modifications in shape took place as time went on. Fig. 30 gives the forms of the chief Hydria. Lecyth us. Ci/liz. Lebes. Ampho ra. Cantharus. Crater. Aryballus. (Enochoe. FIG. 30. Principal shapes of Greek vases and their names. sorts of vases ; a large number of others exist, each with its special name. Amphora and hydriie are the largest and most im portant, and have the grandest picture -subjects painted on them. The cylices frequently have paintings of wonderful delicacy and beauty ; the later Athenian lecythi are remarkable for their poly chromatic decoration. The uses of the painted vases is a very difficult question ; few show any signs of wear, though they are made of soft clay easily scratched, and most of those which are represented in use on vase-pictures are plain black without any paintings. A beautiful little pyxis, or perfume-box, in the British Museum, shows in its pictured scene of a lady s toilet several painted vases, which are set about the room as ornaments, and have flowers or olive-branches in them (see fig. 31). Many vases Fio. 31 . Painting from a small toilet-box or pyxis, showing painted vases used to decorate a lady s room. On the left is a gilt pyxis with a tall lid, and an cenochoe on a low table ; on the right two tall vases (lebes) on a plinth. All except the pyxis are decorated with painted figures, and contain flowers. are blank on one side, or have on the reverse side a painting of inferior execution, apparently because they remained set against a wall or in a niche. Nearly all those now existing came from tombs, and it is probable that the ornamental vases were selected for sepulchral purposes, while a plainer and less decorated class was employed for actual domestic use. Panathcnaic Amphorae. This is a very important class of vases, 1 Pai extending over a long period, from the^ 6th to the end of the 4th ath century B.C. Fig. 25 above gives the earliest known specimen, am] They all have on one side a figure of Athene Promachos, and on the other a scene from the public athletic games. They are inscribed TON A0ENE0EN A0AON EIMI, and some of the later ones have the name of the eponymous archon as well, e.g., LTY0OAHAOS APXnN on an amphora from Ore, now in the British Museum. Pythodelus was archon in 336 B.C., and so the date of the vases thus inscribed can be accurately determined. A number found at Benghazi and Teuchira in the Cyrenaica are now in the British Museum and the Louvre. Some of the archons names on them are these Nicocrates (333 B.C.), Nicetes (332 B.C.), Euthy- critus (328 B.C.), Cephisodorus (323 B.C.), Archippus (321 B.C.), and Theophrastua (313 B.C.). The figure of Athene on all of them is rudely painted in pseudo-archaic style the figure in black and white, with incised lines, on a red ground ; the other side is painted in the same way, but is not archaic in drawing. Long vowels occur in the archons names, but sometimes the same amphora has the obverse inscription written in the old way. They are all poor as works of art. One in the British Museum is of special interest from the design painted in white on Athene s shield. This is the celebrated sculptured group of Harmodius and Aristogiton by Critias and Nesiotes, of which an ancient copy exists in the Naples Museum, though the bronze original is lost. Subjects of Vase-paintings. These are of great interest, and are Sul almost endless in number ; only the scantiest outline can be given of here, and, with so wide a range, any classification is necessarily pai imperfect. The following list includes the majority of subjects, ing (1) Stories of the gods, scenes such as the Gigantomnchia or the birth of Athene. (2) Scenes from the heroic age, as the achievements of Theseus and Heracles, the wars of Thebes, the battles with the Amazons, the voyage of the Argonauts, the Trojan War, the return of the Greeks from Troy, and the like. (3) Dionysiac subjects, such as orgies of Dionysus and dances of satyrs. (4) Scenes from real life, such as the vintage, olive-gathering, marriages, feasts, dancing, hunting, sacrifices, and theatrical subjects. (5) Funeral subjects, as mourners bewailing the dead or bringing offerings to a tomb. (6) Scenes from the gymnasium and various athletic exercises. (7) Allegorical subjects, with figures of happiness, wealth, youth, and the like. (8) Historical subjects, which, however, are rare : a very fine vase in the Louvre, of the best period, has Croesus on his funeral pyre ; the cylix of Arcesilaus has been mentioned above ; Anacrcon playing on his lyre, and followed by his pet dog, occurs on several fine vases ; the meeting of Sappho and Ah-anis is also represented ; other portrait - figures appear, chiefly of poets and philosophers, many with inscribed names which are now unknown. (9) Humorous subjects : these are common on the vases of the latest period and are usually very coarsely painted ; caricatures of mytho logical subjects frequently occur in which the gods are represented as dwarfs or hunchbacks. - Places where Greek J ascs have been found. Till within the last Lc &amp;gt;i twenty years most were discovered in tlie tombs of Magua Gracia, tie Sicily, and Etruria. Capua, Nola, and Yulci supplied a very large quantity of vases of the finest sort with the most rich and brilliant enamel. Special characteristics of style and technique can be traced in the production of special localities, but these differences are not very important. Of late years Attica, the isthmus of Corinth, and other places on Hellenic soil have yielded a great many fine vases ; the islands of the ^Egean Sea and the western shores of Asia Minor are rich in sepulchral stores of these and all branches of Greek art. Athens possesses a fine and rapidly- increasing collection chiefly from Attica. The British Museum collection is on the whole the finest for Greek vases of all periods, though it is very poor in Etruscan pottery. The other chief collections of Europe are in the Louvre, at Naples, in the Vatican, at Florence, and Turin ; Munich, Vienna, Berlin, and St Peters burg also have very fine collections ; and there is a small one in the Bibliotheque, Paris. SECTION VI. PREHISTORIC AND ETRUSCAN IN ITALY. Very many of the numerous vases discovered in the tombs of ETRURIA (q.v.) are imports either from Greece and its islands or from the neighbouring country of Magna Grrecia. Nevertheless there is a large class of pottery which is distinctly native, extending over a very long period, from quite prehistoric ages down to the time when the Roman rule extended throughout the peninsula. This 1 See Ann. Inst., 1830, p. 209, and 1877, p. 294 ; also Mon. Inst., x., tables xlvii., xlviii. 2 See Heydemann, Humoristische Vascnbilder, Berlin, 1873.