STUDY OF GREEK VASE-PAINTING. 655 



black-figured, a red-figured, and a polychrome, developing from 

 red-figured. This is the earliest attempt at a correct chronology, 

 and, roughly speaking, these divisions are still good. There had 

 been previous attempts at chronology, made by d'Hancarville, who, 

 considering them Italian, dates the vases as lasting " from some 

 centuries before the foundation of Rome " till the reign of Sep- 

 timius Severus ! Other attempts at chronology were made by Mil- 

 lingen, the Due de Luynes and especially by Kramer* and Baron 

 De Witte, whose classification is very practical.^ 



We have now come to the greatest name of all, perhaps, that of 

 Otto Jahn, who brought out in 1854 the first scientific catalogue to 

 be written, that of the Vasensammlung of the Pinakothek in 

 Munich. Jahn's chronology is, in the main, the same as that of 

 Gerhard, but he falls into the same error as his contemporary in 

 Berlin in making the dates of the Attic black-figured and red-fig- 

 ured styles about a century too early in each case. Although a 

 catalogue of vases in the possession of the Elector of Brandenburg 

 had been written as far back as 1701, nevertheless Otto Jahn's 

 Munich catalogue is the first scientific catalogue ever to be written. 

 It serves two purposes ; for it is not only a catalogue, but the intro- 

 duction which precedes the description of the vases is the first sys- 

 tematic handbook to be written. This introduction was for many 

 years the standard text-book on the history and chronology of 

 Greek ceramics ; while the catalogue proper minutely describes each 

 vase in the collection, and at the back is a series of plates, giving 

 the shapes of the vases, with each shape numbered. Against each 

 vase in the text of the catalogue is given the shape, according to its 

 number in the plates. Another series of plates copies the inscrip- 

 tions found on the vases. This catalogue served as a model for 

 about thirty years. All important catalogues were written in that 

 manner, with plates of shapes and inscriptions in the back. The ul- 

 timate development of this form of catalogue is Furtwangler's of 

 Berlin; but the first catalogue of the British Museum, and the cata- 

 logues of Naples, Petrograd, and many other museums were of 

 the same order. 



* " Der Stil und Herkunft der griechischen Vasen," Berlin, 1837. 

 5 Sale Catalogue of Durand Coll., 1836. 



