Chapter XIV
.), and found in Cyrenaic and other early examples. At first sight this vase would certainly seem to be of the Proto-Attic class, showing the transition from Geometrical to developed Attic style; but the Mycenaean and Ionian elements must not be left out of consideration. As regards the Warrior vase, M. Pottier has given good grounds for showing that it also is to be reckoned as Proto-Attic. But we must not leave out of sight the view urged by Furtwaengler,[984] that the Aristonoös vase is of an Argive fabric. When the Heraion finds are published, they may afford more evidence on this point. Meanwhile, it may be remarked that the circumstances of the finding of the Warrior vase may support this view.
[Illustration: FIG. 88. VASE FROM MYCENAE, WITH WARRIORS.]
Closely connected with these early Attic fabrics is a very interesting series of small vases which, from the place of their discovery, are usually known as =Phaleron ware=. They are nearly all small jugs, and number some fifty, mostly at Athens, but there is a representative series in the British Museum. More conspicuously, perhaps, than the Proto-Attic, they illustrate the growing tendency to combine Geometrical and Oriental influences. In form and technique they are Geometrical, but in the ornamentation there is a large admixture of Oriental elements. It has been said that “the whole character of these vases seems to reflect an influence of the style of Oriental vases on painters accustomed to the Dipylon style,”[985] and it is largely in the arrangement of the decoration that the former is apparent, as well as in the introduction of new motives and patterns.[986] See for examples Plate XVII. figs. 2, 4, 5.
[Illustration:
From _Ath. Mitth._ 1890.
FIG. 89. VASE OF PROTO-ATTIC TYPE FROM VOURVA. ]
The usual scheme consists of a panel with figures on the neck, a band of ornament round the shoulder, and below that parallel bands of lines or other ornaments, with zigzags or rays round the foot. A typical example is A 471 in the British Museum, with a cock on the neck, and below, dogs pursuing a hare.[987] On a cup of Geometrical form, with conventionalised plants and ground-ornaments of Geometrical character, are two deer fleeing from a lion, and there is also a pyxis with chariot-scenes obviously derived from Mycenaean vases. But most curious and interesting is a jug with two bearded heads and a woman with very small body, apparently playing flutes.[988] The general effect is quite unique, but the drawing is rude and childish to a degree; the middle head is almost Semitic in type. It would seem that here again we have a Mycenaean influence at work, and in general the appearance and style of these vases undoubtedly recall the figured vases from Cyprus.[989]
Another series of vases in close relation to the Proto-Attic fabrics is that found at Vourva, near Marathon[990]; they are important as forming a connecting link with the next development of Attic vase-painting, the Tyrrhenian amphorae described at the conclusion of this chapter. They have been studied by Böhlau,[991] and more recently by Nilsson,[992] and these writers have shown how they represent the influence of Ionic ideas, derived through Euboea. On the other hand the friezes of animals, which are so characteristic of this class, are clearly derived from Corinthian sources, but are distinguished from those on Corinthian vases by the absence of accessory colours. Fig. 89[993] may be taken as a typical example. They appear to be contemporary with the later Proto-Attic vases, such as the Burgon lebes, on which also traces of Ionic influence have been noted.
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From the Geometrical period onwards the manufacture of painted vases seems to have been continued intermittently in =Boeotia= down to the fourth century. It would be taking too great a liberty with chronology to deal with all Boeotian fabrics here, and the later must fall into their place with the contemporary Attic fabrics. But there is a small class which seems to take its origin directly or indirectly from the Geometrical pottery; and as it belongs to a period anterior to the perfected B.F. style, it may be treated here as analogous in development to the Proto-Attic vases.
A favourite shape among the Boeotian Geometrical wares was that of a jug with long cylindrical neck and somewhat flat body, of a form clearly imitated from metal.[994] This shape, which is also often found in Proto-Corinthian fabrics (see below, p. 308), was utilised by a potter named Gamedes, whose signature is found on a vase from Tanagra in the Louvre,[995] in the Boeotian alphabet of about 600 B.C. It is decorated with the figure of a herdsman driving before him a bull and a flock of sheep, the figures being in black silhouette, with details indicated by white markings within incised lines. This is quite a local peculiarity,[996] and seems to be due to a combination of Corinthian and Ionian influences. Gamedes has also signed his name on an unpainted aryballos of the typical early Corinthian globular form (see p. 197) in the British Museum (Plate XVII. fig. 6), and a similar vase in the Louvre is signed by Menaidas.[997] Yet another Boeotian potter, Theozotos, has a signed vase with a similar subject to the Gamedes jug, but the style is more advanced.[998]
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PLATE XVII
[Illustration:
EARLY POTTERY FROM GREECE (BRITISH MUSEUM).
1, 3, “PROTO-CORINTHIAN”; 2, 4, 5, “PHALERON” WARE; 6, BOEOTIAN, SIGNED BY GAMEDES. ]
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Another typically Boeotian form found in the same period is a kantharos,[999] also obviously imitated from metal and decorated with figures of animals or palmette-and-lotos patterns of a peculiarly local type. The style of the animals is, like that of the Gamedes vase, also peculiar and local; but both in decoration and technique these vases seem to reflect Corinthian influence.
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A small but remarkable class of vases, which seem to stand almost by themselves, is that known as the =Melian amphorae=. Four vases of this type now in the Athens Museum[1000] were found in Melos many years ago, and were recognised as a separate class and described as “Melian vases” as long ago as 1862 by Conze.[1001] Since that time a splendid example has been added to the list, found in the same island in 1893[1002]; and to this must be added several fragments recognised at different times, including one from Naukratis in the British Museum.[1003] All the complete vases are large amphorae, about three feet high, but of elegant proportions, with two handles branching out low down on the body. The figures are painted in brown on a pale yellow ground, and enhanced with dull red and purple accessories, some of the details also being incised. In two cases the subjects are mythological, one representing Apollo with his lyre in a chariot accompanied by Artemis and two Muses[1004]; another the Asiatic Artemis (see