Chapter XII
.); 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.
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PLATE XXVIII
[Illustration]
From _Furtwaengler and Reichhold_. THE FRANÇOIS VASE IN FLORENCE.
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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 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, 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. 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.
(1) The so-called Tyrrhenian amphora, found in the Corintho-Attic and “affected” varieties, with elliptical body (Plates XXIII., XXIX.).
(2) The panel-amphora, with cylindrical handles.
(3) The panel-amphora, with broad grooved handles (probably a later development) (Plates XXXI-II.).
(4) The red-bodied amphora, distinguished by its straight neck sharply marked off from the shoulder (Plate XXIX.).
(5) The Panathenaic amphora, with small mouth and foot and widely swelling body (Plates XXXIII-IV.).
(6) The _prothesis_-amphora, a tall, elongated type, used in connection with funeral ceremonies (see above, p. 159).
(7) The Nikosthenes type (Plate XXX.).
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) 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!”
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 there is always a pattern of double palmettes and lotos-buds (see