660 LUCE— BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 



the small provincial museums, such as Chiusi, Corneto, Orvieto, 

 Perugia and others, like Taranto in southern Italy and Syracuse in 

 Sicily, all of which have splendid collections. Last of all, the Ger- 

 mans have come into the field, and a new catalogue of Munich was 

 in progress before the war, the first volume of which, by Sieveking, 

 made its appearance in 191 2, and is a fine example of the modern 

 illustrated scientific catalogue. The best work of the Germans, 

 however, is in albums, of which Furtwangler and Reichhold's 

 " Griechische Vasenmalerei," with explanatory text, continued by 

 Hauser after Furtwangler's death, in 1907, is indispensable to any 

 worker with vases, and a magnificent piece of work, while Riezler's 

 " Weissgrundige Attische Lekythen," combining handbook and al- 

 bunj, is also a very useful work. 



But the genius of the present day lies toward handbooks, in 

 which either the whole field, or parts of it, are studied and dis- 

 cussed. The Germans, with their minute plodding, and absolutely 

 uninspired thoroughness, have produced handbooks for the most 

 part on small sections of the field such as inscriptions on vases, sig- 

 natures, dedicatory inscriptions or KaXos-names, and the like ; very 

 useful books, but for the most part of no literary merit, although 

 the scientific archaeologist must know them from cover to cover. 

 Of these books, the most important is Paul Hartwig's " Die griechi- 

 schen Meisterschalen des strengen rothfigurigen Stils," which has 

 a text and an atlas of plates, and is invaluable for the study of 

 technique. 



England has given us, in H. B. Walter's " History of Ancient 

 Pottery" (London, 1905), a reworking of Birch's out-of-date hand- 

 book, which is, even today, the standard text-book on Greek vases, 

 not even superseded, in my opinion, by Perrot's " La Ceramique 

 D'Athenes" (Vol. X. of Perrot and Chipiez's " Histoire de I'Art 

 dans I'Antiquite") which appeared in 1914, just before the lamented 

 death of its author, and which is a very important book. But Wal- 

 ters remains the standard text, although there are many imperfec- 

 book, which is, even today, the standard text-book on Greek vases, 

 in the years since it appeared. England has also produced probably 

 the most inspired worker in vases alive today, though perhaps not 

 as universal in his knowledge as some of the workers in France, 



