Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/282

 Representations of Human Life. 229 whose discovery marks an epoch in archaeology. Their shape and general appearance are well seen in PL XV., where they are shown exactly as they looked when they reached Athens in 1888. Their yellow hue is broken by dark patches, resulting from their long burial under ground ; the relief, whose salience is so strongly marked as to break and destroy the contour of the vase, is frankly indicated. The entire figuration is spread out on two parallel bands in Figs. 362, 363.^ The shape and dimensions of the cups are precisely similar, and but for the ornament we should scarcely tell them apart. The one to the left (PL XV.) is eighty-three centimetres, and its diameter at the upper rim is 104 centimetres ; the diameter and aperture of the second goblet are equal to those of the first, save that the height is less by three millimetres. The difference between their respective weights is so slight — four centimetres — as to be imperceptible to the eye. Above and below the figures of the first cup (PL XV., to the left) runs a band, adorned with fillets, which plays the part of plinth below and of cornice above. This ^ M. Tsoundas was the first to publish the Vaphio vases {^Epevyai cV r^ AaKfaviK^ k-a o rdifxtg tov Ba^ctbv, in ^Efrjfuplg, 1889). ^^^ memoir is accompanied by a drawing made under his direction by M. Gillidron, with intelligent and scrupulous fidelity. The only defect of the plate is its having aimed at reproducing both the general contour of the vase and the outline of the figures adorning it, with all their inner detail as well. The lustrous tones of the yellow are some- what conventional, and mar rather than help the effect, so that the full outline of the image can only be seen at a certain angle. This led M. Foucard to try another mode of reproduction. M. Defrasse, a student of the French School at Rome, happening to be in Greece at that time, was requested by him to draw the two vases. These drawings were published in the Bulietin de correspondance helUnique^ 1891. Pis. XI. and XII. of the Bulletin SLppcar in our PI. XV. As regards Pis. XIII. and XIV. of the Bulletin^ they reproduce the whole ornament- ation of the goblets after the system used in the Greek plate. But here the form, being left untinted, detaches itself better on the background. Our Figs. 362 and 363 are reductions of M. Defrasse's drawings. At M. Foucard's desire, I wrote some remarks to accompany the publication of these capital sketches {Les Vases dor de VafiOy 1891). My task was facilitated in that I was able to use M. Tsoundas' learned and well-pondered dissertation on the goblets in question. But now that the vases have been for more than three years in the hands of archaeologists, it seemed best to sum up the discussions to which they have given rise, all the more that quite recently fresh monuments have been discovered offering useful points for comparison. Since then, discoveries and dis- cussions have grown apace. The principal papers and memoirs wherein, as far as we know, the Vaphio vases have been considered, were indicated in a note to our article.