A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF GREEK 



VASE-PAINTING. 



By STEPHEN BLEECKER LUCE. 

 {Read April ig, 1918.) 



The subject of this paper needs no apology, for the study of 

 Greek vase-painting is of the highest importance to the classical 

 archffiologists and philologist/ Their appeal is wide, and includes 

 within the scope of their influence not only lovers of the classics, but 

 all who love art and beauty. In the first place, they are all that we 

 have left of the Greek painting of the Age of Pericles. This makes 

 them at once of immense importance to the archaeologist, who tries 

 with their aid to reconstruct in his mind the masterpieces of Polyg- 

 notes and Zeuxis. To the philologist and the lover of literature, 

 they are valuable as portraying the stories of mythology and his- 

 tory, often being far earlier than our extant literary sources for the 

 myths they represent ; to the student of manners and customs, the 

 scenes from private life that they show are of supreme importance ; 

 while the archaeologist finds pleasure and profit, not only from these 

 things, but from the study of their chronology and technique. It 

 has been truly said that the value of Greek vases is fourfold — 

 ethnological, historical, mythological and artistic.- 



This paper deals with an attempt to bring together, in a brief 

 and usable form, the history of the study of these painted vases as 

 works of art and monuments of antiquity from the beginnings of 

 archaeological research till the present day. This has been done be- 

 fore,^ but it seems to me that there is need of bringing together the 



1 1 shall not discuss in this paper the chronology of the Minoan pottery 

 of Crete, or the history of the discoveries of Evans at Knossos and Schlie- 

 mann at Mycenae; for the culture that produced this civilization of prehistoric 

 times is entirely different from that of the Hellenes, and is probably non- 

 Greek. 



2 H. B. Walters, " History of Ancient Pottery," Vol. I, pp. 10-16. 



3 Walters, loc. cit., Vol. I, chap, i, and the Introduction to Pottier's Cata- 

 logue of the vases in the Louvre. See also Fowler & Wheeler's " Greek 

 Archaeology," chap. i. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LVII, QQ, NOV. 29. I918. 



