Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/111

 Pottery. 93 any approach to a moulding about the rim and middle (Figs. 102 and 103). The excavations at Inter-Rogas have yielded frag- ments of red clay, which seem to have belonged to gourd-shaped Figs. 102 and 103. — Portions of Vases. From Baux. Fig. 104.— Vase restored. vases, which may be thus restored (Fig. 104). * These pieces are a decided improvement upon trays and vessels ; the body is harder, fashioned with a more practised hand, almost inducing the belief of its having been turned on the wheel, whilst the graven form or design, made when the paste was soft, is more satisfactory. This design, if so may be called a double row of small concentric circles, interposed by a herring- bone pattern and two rows of single strokes to fill up the space, almost covers the body of the vase, which is well baked, of a good red colour, and probably of later date than the preceding. The same device, but feebler and somewhat confused, is seen on handles, together with dots laid out in rows and oblique strokes. 2 Similar dots and concentric circles may be called the first beginnings of all art productions — those that presented themselves more readily to the imagination of the artist in his attempt at producing variety of form and ornamen- tation. We met them in Assyria and Cyprus, 3 and in the monuments of most nations ancient and modern. Nothing for- bids the possibility that the Sardi potter discovered this device unassisted from Fig. 105. — Fragment of above Vessel. From Baux. 1 The restoration is due to M. Baux, the possessor of some of the fragments under notice. 2 Baux, La Poterie des Niiraghes, etc., Figs. 1 and 2. 8 Hist, of Art, torn. ii. Fig. 375 ; torn. iii. Figs. 497, 513, 522.