Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/338

 322 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. ewer, opposite the handle. Though roughly outlined, the double row of pointed teeth is distinct enough to suggest a carnivorous and ferocious animal ; as to the genus to which it belongs, it would be hard to say. The lion is out of the running ; his physiognomy was too familiar to make it possible for any Oriental artist to have so disfigured it. Stress is laid by some on the hump which appears on the back, and which is proper to one kind of bull as well as the bear ; the teeth of the former, however, are not nail- shaped, but large and flat. At first sight, there would seem to be a greater degree of probability in recognizing here a Bruin, an animal found in the Taurus range at the present day, and which formerly may have haunted the then well-timbered ravines of Tmolus and Latmos. There is nothing to forbid the con- jecture ; yet certain details, the disposition of the teeth, length of tail, and elongated body, ill agree with the bear hypothesis ; but if we suppose that the unskilful artist intended to portray a hyena, all difficul- ties would seem to vanish. Thus, when moving, the hyena arches her back as in our illustration ; never- theless, it is hard to ex- plain that if a hyena was FIG. 234. Carian pottery. Paton, p. 74. indeed meant, the artist should have omitted to in- dicate the characteristic and abnormal length of the fore-legs of the animal, that make it look when at rest as if standing on its hind legs. The pigments used in the decoration of these vases are of that dull opaque colour encountered on very antique Greek vases. Here black and white bands stand out on a light-yellow ground ; there the form is painted in with a brownish-red colour. In the largest specimen (Fig. 233), the form is in three tones ; the lines are dark violet, the animal and the bands round the body brick-red, whilst the dots scattered over the field of the triangles are light green. Colours of this kind were not fast, and are easily rubbed off; so that great care has to be exercised in cleaning the pieces. The shapes are generally very simple, and not devoid of elegance ; that of the three-footed specimen, with a single