Chapter XVIII
.). Many of these are unpainted, or rather are covered with a white slip and then painted in _tempera_ like the ordinary terracotta figures; they are, in fact, figurines in essence, vases by accident; whereas in the first-named group the vase idea retains the predominance. But it is almost impossible to draw the line. A fine early instance of imitation of metal in early Greek pottery is the British Museum jug from Aegina (A 457) terminating in the head of a Gryphon.
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PLATE XLVI
[Illustration:
GREEK VASES MODELLED IN VARIOUS FORMS (BRITISH MUSEUM). 1, 6, SIXTH CENTURY; 2, 4, 5, FIFTH CENTURY; 3, FOURTH CENTURY. ]
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During the sixth century painted figurine vases are rare, though there are not wanting various examples of the class just described, which belong to this period; but at all events hardly any examples can be traced to Athenian manufacture during the age of B.F. vase-painting. Towards the end of the century, however, the fashion was reintroduced by the potter Charinos, who belongs to the transitional period (about 525–500 B.C.). A vase signed by him, which was found at Corneto, is in the form of a female head surmounted by a _kalathos_.[1503] It was made in a mould like the terracotta figures, but the painted decoration, which is remarkably elaborate and minute, is entirely B.F. in character. The patterns on the head-dress include maeander, stars, ivy-leaves, lozenge and net patterns, and a minute frieze of animals, painted in black on the clay ground. A similar vase, but later in date, is in the Berlin Museum[1504]; in this example we may note the introduction of R.F. ornamentation, in the palmettes and diapering round the top.
These two stand at the head of a series of similar vases extending throughout the succeeding periods down to the end of the age of painted vases. They compare for style with the heads of the female statues found on the Acropolis, which belong to the same period. Two other potters, Kaliades and Prokles, made similar vases.[1505]
The fashion started by Charinos continued throughout the fifth century, but the plastic conception tended to become subordinate to the ceramic, and it became more and more customary to decorate the non-plastic portions in the manner of the vases. Of this development the most noteworthy example is the beautiful rhyton in the British Museum in the form of a Sphinx (E 788), the upper or vase part of which is ornamented with the subject of Kekrops and Erichthonios. The body of the Sphinx is covered with a fine white slip, and the details are picked out with red and gilding. This vase dates from about the middle of the century. There also exist many examples of rhyta or kanthari, formed of a head or two heads back to back, usually a Maenad and a Seilenos.[1506] Another favourite type is that of a jug in the form of a negro’s or Aethiopian’s head[1507]; and there are also rhyta which terminate in the head of a lion, mule, or other animal finely modelled (Plate XLVI., figs. 2, 5).
Towards the end of the fifth century there is a reversion to the purely plastic figure-vase, usually in the form of a lekythos with spherical body, to the front of which the figure is attached (Plate XLVI., fig. 4). The vase is usually covered with black glaze, and the figure with a white slip like the terracottas, with polychrome colouring. Examples of this class are the series of lekythi representing Aphrodite Anadyomene in a scallop-shell, of which there are examples at Athens and Petersburg,[1508] and the fine vase in the British Museum (E 716) with the bust of Athena Parthenos. A series of smaller lekythi, of which the British Museum possesses examples (G 2–7), represents Eros on a dolphin, the young Dionysos in a sort of canopy, Europa on the bull, a boy with a dog, and other subjects; the technique is similar to that of the larger specimens, with pink and green colouring. They form charming little objects, and are often well executed.[1509]
In Southern Italy many of these types are continued, the most popular being that of the rhyton ending in an animal’s head (p. 193), of which many examples have been found in Apulia. They usually have some simple design painted on the upper part, such as a figure of Eros. There are also numerous examples of vases in the form of animals or human figures (Plate XLVI., fig. 3), some of which are in black glazed ware with patterns in white like the vases of Egnazia, others being covered with white slip like the terracottas. With the decay of painted decoration the plastic element gradually predominates more and more, until the vase form becomes, so to speak, purely accidental. Thus in the third century the fabrics of Canosa, of which we have spoken in a previous chapter (p. 118), entirely hold the field, and the vases pass out of the sphere of the history of vase-painting.
In all or nearly all of the vases just described we observe the same principle at work—namely, the tendency to imitate metal in terracotta. It is one that is constantly recurring throughout the whole history of Greek ceramics, with more or less persistency and prominence. Sometimes, as in the Melian, Proto-Attic, and other fabrics, the imitation is limited to the form of the handles, which is, strictly speaking, inappropriate in terracotta, though frequently found in early bronze vessels.[1510] It is seldom found in Ionia, but in Western Greece there are many examples during the seventh and sixth centuries, as in some of the Proto-Corinthian and early Corinthian wares,[1511] This is doubtless in a large measure due to the influence of the great centres of metal-work at that time, Corinth and Chalkis. We are not, therefore, surprised to find the tendency exemplified in the pottery fabrics of those two centres, and at Chalkis, as has already been noted (p. 321), it is especially conspicuous in the form and minor details of the vases. At Athens examples are rare, with the exception of the vases of Nikosthenes, who not only copies complete vases in metal, as in his peculiarly-shaped amphorae and in a small _phiale mesomphalos_ in the British Museum,[1512] but is also addicted to adorning the handles of jugs with female heads in relief, as on specimens in the Louvre and elsewhere.[1513] After the sixth century the tendency is far less conspicuous, owing to the high esteem in which vase-painting was then held, and little is seen of attempts at imitating metal until the revival of the plastic element in pottery in the fourth century. An almost unique exception is the Berlin krater from Corinth (2882), which must date from the fifth century. It is of black ware, with designs in relief round the body.[1514]
The tendency also manifests itself in a marked degree in another direction in early Greek art—namely, in that of ornamenting vases with reliefs. So much evidence of this has been yielded by discoveries on Greek soil that it is now certain that this method of decoration had its origin in Greece, and not in Etruria, although the close resemblance between early relief-wares from Rhodes and the large πίθοι of Cervetri (see p. 153) had led archaeologists in the past to regard Etruria as its original home. The Etruscans always preferred modelled vases or relief decoration to painted ware, as their _bucchero_ fabrics show; but we know that they had no inventive power, and even in this they have proved to be only imitators.[1515]
Turning to details of the early Greek vases with reliefs, we may note that there are two varieties: firstly, those in which the reliefs are made by rolling a cylinder round the vase, the design being repeated over again; secondly, those in which the reliefs are made from separate moulds, and attached with some kind of cement.[1516] In both classes the shape usually affected is that of a large πίθος (cf. p. 151), of a somewhat coarse red clay. It is the first variety which so closely resemble the πίθοι found at Cervetri, and which are now known to be the prototypes, not imitations, of the Etruscan examples.[1517]
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PLATE XLVII
[Illustration:
From Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. ARCHAIC PITHOS WITH RELIEFS FROM BOEOTIA (ATHENS MUS.). ]
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In Greece fragments of the first class have been found on the Acropolis at Athens, the recurring design being a two-horse chariot which a warrior mounts, with a scorpion in the field. The similarity in the clay, the shape, and the technique of the reliefs with the Cervetri vases is remarkable; the subject is one common on Corinthian vases. Other fragments have been found at Tanagra, and there is a good example in the Louvre with a series of figures, representing a dance of women, all of similar types, yet not from the same stamp, but different moulds.[1518] The variations of detail in dress and hair show conclusively that the cylinder process is not employed here, but that the figures are freely modelled from a single type. The costume is that typical of the women on early B.F. vases (cf. p. 372). Some very fine examples of πίθοι with reliefs, dating from the end of the seventh century, have been published by De Ridder.[1519] They are all from Boeotia, and are similar to those made in Rhodes, but with the characteristic ornamental handles of metallic form. Here again the figures are freely modelled with variations of detail, and they afford interesting points of comparison with the painted vases and with the early bronze reliefs which are variously attributed to Corinth and Chalkis.[1520] One in Athens (_Cat._ 462) has the interesting subject of Artemis Diktynna; another (_Cat._ 466 = Plate XLVII.), an accouchement scene. Similar finds have been made in Kythnos, Tenos, Crete, and Rhodes,[1521] the ornamentation being for the most part purely geometrical, but sometimes with Centaurs or human figures.[1522] In none of these examples is there any peculiarly Etruscan feature; all is purely Hellenic, presenting close analogies not only with metal-work in relief, but also with the Oriental art to which the Greek work of that age was so much indebted, as in the case of the cylinder process.[1523]
A new method of decorating vases, which first makes its appearance towards the end of the fifth century, is by means of _appliqué_ reliefs. It is doubtless due to the influence of sculpture, and perhaps more especially to that of the bronze reliefs which on vases and mirror-cases were now becoming popular. The former influence is clearly at work in the great Kertch vase with the contest of Athena and Poseidon (Plate L.), where we may see in the two central figures, which are modelled in relief and applied to the surface of the vase, an undoubted reminiscence of the western Parthenon pediment. There are also vases from Athens, Kertch, the Cyrenaica, and Southern Italy,[1524] in which the figures are either partially or wholly modelled in relief, like the vase of Xenophantos or a fine lekythos in the British Museum (G 23) representing the rape of Kassandra by Ajax. Another fine specimen, found at Cumae and now at Petersburg, has a group of Eleusinian deities in relief on the shoulder.[1525] Yet another example, recently found at Lampsakos, has the Calydonian boar-hunt as its subject; the figures are in relief on a gilded ground.[1526]
The imitation of metal technique[1527] is even more marked in the vases of Southern Italy than in those from other parts. At Capua, Cumae, and Metapontum amphorae, hydriae, and oinochoae are found, covered with a very brilliant black varnish, but without any painted decoration; the only ornament is in the form of gilded wreaths and other simple patterns, or designs in relief. The British Museum has a fine series from Capua with garlands of foliage and ornaments in the form of festoons and pendants, the whole forming, as M. Collignon says, “a brilliant and luxurious system of decoration which contrasts with the sober taste of the Attic potters.” Some of the hydriae are clearly of local fabric, imitations of the Campanian hydriae of bronze.[1528] The forms are often very elaborate, with ornamental handles, ribbed bodies, and moulded stems. An oinochoë has been found with an inscription which gives the names of leῖa for smooth-surfaced vases, ῥαβδωτά for those ribbed or fluted. Heavy imitations of the gilt and relief wares have often been found at Alexandria,[1529] and isolated specimens occur in Attica, Rhodes, and the Cyrenaica.
The growing fashion of using only vases of chased gold and silver in preference to painted pottery made itself more and more felt both in Greece and Italy during the Alexandrine period. The same tendency which we have already noted, to reproduce as far as possible the characteristics and appearance of metal, may be observed in all the pottery of this period. Not only do the subjects moulded in relief reproduce the appearance of the chased and _repoussé_ designs, but the shapes are those of the metal vases, and even in the black glaze there are attempts to produce a metallic effect. It is clear that the pottery of this period presents throughout the effect of a striving after outward show on the part of those who were unable to afford the more precious metal for their household utensils, and were forced to be content with imitating it to the best of their ability in the humbler material.
In Greece this tendency is best illustrated by a series of vases known as Megarian or Homeric bowls, of hemispherical form,[1530] without handles. The former name was given to them by Dumont[1531] and Benndorf,[1532] but with little authority beyond the fact that several were found at Megara. But they might on equally good grounds be called Boeotian, others having been found at Thebes and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. They have also been found in Kalymnos, Crete, and Cyprus, but the majority are from Thebes, Tanagra, and Anthedon. Professor Robert thinks they may be identified with the _vasa Samia_ so often mentioned by ancient writers (see