222 Notices respecting New Books. 



the vul2:av aera, are the ornament of our cabinets. The dry and 

 arg'rllaceous matter of which they are formed, and the excavations 

 in which they were contained, i'lave ensured to them, as it were, 

 an eternal duration ; wliereas, if we except Herculaneum and 

 Pompeii, the oxidation caused by the humidity of the earth has 

 every wliere destroyed almost all vases of bronze. 



During the last century and a half, collections have Ijeeli formed 

 of painted Greek vases : endeavours have been made to guess at 

 the processes em])loved by the potters : but time alone has re- 

 vealed them to us. It was necessary to possess a very great num- 

 ber, to discover among them some which showed vestiges of the 

 first labour; and to have eyes sufficiently exercised to be able to 

 recognise and describe them ; it is only within these few years 

 that this could be done. 



First a clay was chosen, in which baking would produce the 

 colour desired, red, black, or yellow. When this clay was not to 

 be had, they introduced into that which tiiey were forced to em- 

 ploy, ochres (oxides of iron) lo produce the colour. The vase 

 thus formed was placed in the oven, where the first baking gave 

 it so much consistency that the fluid colours would not sink in. 

 From the hands of tb.e potter these vases were transferred to those 

 of the painter. The painter traced upon them, with a metal 

 point, in dotted lines, the oval of the head and the parts of the 

 limbs which were to be covered by the drapery; sometimes thi^ 

 sketch is done with a coloured line, but of a colour different irom 

 that of the ground : then he designed round this oval and the 

 other dotted lines, with the pencil, a broad black line. This 

 sketch and first o])eration are still visible on two vases in this col- 

 lection, but they are generally hidden by the colours, which uere 

 laid on flat without degradation. Tb.ose vases are considered as 

 the most ancient which are of only one colour, that of the clay 

 of which they are made. Soon after thev were painted black : 

 hence comes the name of /l/^vic, which Hesychius gives to the 

 vases placed in the tombs ; and the poor retained the use of them, 

 while the rich em}jloyed tiiose which were adorned witli figures. 

 The most common vases are still sought after on account of the 

 beauty of the forms. 



The vases adorned with j}ainted figures are those which are the 

 most highly valued. Anticiuaries are agreed in considering as the 

 most ancient, those of which the ground is yellow (the colour of 

 box), and the animals painted on them, oftener than human fi- 

 gures, of a brick red. Mr. Dodwell found several in tombs near 

 Corinth : the inscriptions painted upon some of them indicate the 

 highest antiquity. 



The vases of the second period have a yellow or white ground, 

 and the figures are black; their inscriptions are for the most pare 



not 



