1-OTTK1IY. 



rOTTKKY. 



Hade in Sicily, in the vicinity of Naples, and elsewhere ; and the mod 

 ptltHnlT-' rUy were thon of Mount Colin near Athciw, Corinth, 

 Cnidu*. Srao. and Copto*. The raw* wen made by the tame pro- 

 OMK ai those of tern cotU, but are of a redder or paler cUy. After 

 they bad been sufficiently dried in the sun they were painted, on<l th 

 upper Mirface, to about Jrd the thickness of the vase, waa faced with a 

 finer clay to rewire the colour. The figure* intended to be painted 

 were tint traced on the wet clay with a tool in a alight outline, or in a 

 dotted line, and the colours laid on with a reed formed like a bnuh. 

 Some of the colour* were glazed and others flat. The principal colours 

 were fawn, maroon colour, and black, which varies from a deep jet to 

 deep green or leaden hue. This was made of manganese, oxide of 

 iron, or carbonaceous substances. The other colours used, flat and 

 not glased, were white made of a fine pipe-clay or alumina, crimson 

 produced by an oxide of iron, yellow ochre, blue and green oxides of 

 copper, a light brown ochre, light red made of ground terra cotta, and 

 a bright scarlet produced from an iron oxide. Uilding was occasionally 

 employed, especially on the later rases. The glued colours were mixed 

 or covered with a siliceous or thin alkaline glaze, and the vases were 

 ant to the furnace and baked at a low temperature, apparently with- 

 out saggers. Qlazed vases of this kind were manufactured in Oreece, 

 from the 8th or 9th century till the 1st century B.C., but very different 

 in paste, style, shape, and colouring. The earliest vases contempo- 

 raneous with the heroic age of Greece, and found at the oldest sites, 

 are ef a pale clay, clumsy shape, generally of Urge size, and painted in 

 light red, brown, or dark coloured ornaments of large proportions. 

 With these are occasionally very small figures of animals, which by 

 degrees are drawn of larger size, but still of the same thin proportions. 

 These vases, which have no inscription, and were succeeded by others 

 of Corinthian fabric with a pale clay, the body covered with a siliceous 

 fMing of a cream or lemon colour, the figures and ornaments painted 

 in a dark brown, maroon, or black colour, the subjects of which were 

 at first friezes of animals, ztndia of larger size and fuller proportions, 

 with backgrounds strown with flowers. After they returned from the 

 kiln, the potter cut with a sharp tool incised lines in the dark figures 

 and ornaments to mark out the details and relieve the monotony of the 

 figures, and touched up parts with a flat crimson colour. The later 

 vases of this style have human figures introduced with animals, and 

 Doric inscriptions as old as the 6th century B.C., and subjects derived 

 from Asiatic sources, or the oldest legends : some of these vases are 

 supposed to be late imitations, and great difference is observable in the 

 local fabrics of Corinth, the Isles, and Italy. By degrees the potter 

 changed the tone of the clay, introducing a pale salmon-coloured earth, 

 and ceased to use animal friezes except in a subordinate manner ; the 

 art also improved, although resembling the Aegimcan and Selinuntine 

 remains. By degrees thin style attained its full development by the 

 employment of a rich orange red clay, and of a dark black for figures 

 and backgrounds, a freer use of white and red flat colours, a more 

 finished style of art, with figures of better proportions, and the abundant 

 use of inscriptions, giving the names of the figures represented, of the 

 artists, potters, the celebrated beauties of the day, speeches, and ex- 

 clamations. The attitudes are still, rigid, the eyes seen in profile, the 

 forms full and muscular ; the accessories, parts of the form, and of the 

 draperies, are coloured in crimson, and the flesh of females white. There 

 are clearly traces of two or three fabrics in these vases of earlier ones, 

 the most remarkable is that at Florence, the work of the potter H ergo- 

 timos and the artist Olaucythes, representing in several friezes the 

 arguments of an epic poem, reciting the adventures of Achilles. Several 

 artists of this style, such as Amasis, Execias, and Hieron painted with 

 great vigour; the principal shapes are Jfydriir, or water vases with 

 three handles, amphora) with two; anothoir, or wine jugs; and rylint, 

 or cups ; other shapes called eyalhi and mtaloi are of rarer occurrence. 

 The subjects are chiefly taken from the adventures of Bacchus, the ex- 

 ploits of Hercules, and the war of Troy, the contest of the gods and 

 giants, and of the Greeks and Amazons. These vases seem to have con- 

 tinued until the 5th century, B.C., when a new class of painted vases were 

 invented ; the figures were traced out as in the old style, but the back 

 ground was filled in with black colour, and the figures left the rich 

 warm red colour of the clay ; the inner details of the form were traced 

 with fine black lines of the same glaze, to which finer lines in a brown 

 glaxe indicating those portions less distinctly seen were added ; the 

 accessories are at Grst coloured in crimson, but white was subsequently 

 introduced. The art at first resembles that of the black figures, and 

 some painters used both styles on the same vases ; but by degrees, 

 especially after the age of Phidias, B.C. 460, the art rapidly improved ; 

 the eyes are no longer oblique but represented as in modern drawing, 

 and lashrs are introduced; full faces appear, the drapery of the 

 figures alter, the flesh of the female figures is the same colour as the 

 male. Inscriptions are rare, but the letters of the Liter and completed 

 alphabet are found. The principal shapes are ampkortr, Lrateret, 

 anoduxt, and Cflita, and some varieties of cups ; the kydria disappear 

 for the smaller talpida, and the amphore are of smaller proportion*. 

 These rases appear to bare been made from 480 to about 860 B.C. 

 Their subjects are taken from the same sources, with the addition of 

 others from the No*ui, or return of the Greeks, the Odyssey, the 

 Orestoid, Peneid, and the Gymnasium. Many of the paintings seem 

 to bo copies from memory of the pictures of Pnlygnotus, Parrhasius, 

 and Zeuxis. As the style continued to improve the figures became 



larger and more grandiose; and finally, of more slcn.l- i and elegant 



M-. with elaborate drones and uiinufo ami lim-li. - 

 resembling those of the coins of Magna Gracia and Sicily. In tin' days of 

 Pyrrhus, an attempt in m.id. npeotivo by groups introduced 



at different height*, and the introduction of undulating lines, stones, 

 and other objects ; while interiors are represented, and the pictures, as 

 in modern art, crowded with accessories or mingled with arabesque*. 

 Some of these rase* exhibit local costumes ; the size of the crater*, 

 amphoric, and larger rases transcends that of the last style ; the subjects 

 are principally those of the later myths of the Tragedians. Nearly 

 contemporary with these vases are those having their body covered 

 with a Irul-oma, or coating of white, on which figures have been traced 

 in rod outline and then painted with |H>lyclirouie flat colours. Tii.-y 

 are principally lecythi, and used for the dead. Other vases of tlm 

 class, of small size, are moulded in shape of gods or animals. 'II..- 

 close of the vase art in Greece and Italy appears to be about the _n.l 

 century B.C. The florid style had then degenerated into a coarse 

 scrawl, with subjects taken from the comic stage; and at lost the 

 potters substituted moulded vases entirely coloured block with rmlilt- 

 mala stamped at the handles, or painted with opaque flat colours, 

 * arabesques, doves, and heads on the black glaze of the vase* ; 

 some are accompanied with archaic Latin inscriptions, evidently after 

 the conquest of Cani|>.ini.-t by the Unmans. At all periods there were 

 numerous vases entirely painted black, called libya, of less value 

 than the vase* painted with figures, but distinguished by the ln- 

 their glaze, that of Nola being remarkably black and bright, and at : ].. 

 later period in S. Italy of a leaden hue. In imitation of the in 

 vases, which superseded those of clay, the later ones hav. 

 or bas-reliefs stamped in separate pieces and affixed while the clay was 

 moist, or even stamped with figures in intaglio to imitate e. 

 precious stone which were engraved like gems. During tli. 

 flourishing period of the art the names of about fifty potters and thirty 

 vase painters are known as exercising the art. The trade was lucrative, 

 the prices on the whole being about the same as modern earthenware. 

 These vase* have been found in Italy as far north as the ancient Hadria, 

 throughout Greece proper, and Asia Minor, to the Taurus, in the Isles 

 of the Archipelago, and as far east as Panticapioura. 



The pottery of the Greeks did not, however, enjoy the entire mono- 

 poly of the Italian market, for various kinds of wares were made in the 

 peninsula ; in the north, the Etruscans manufactured a red gritty 

 ware distinguished by the presence of micaceous particles of a v 

 Hand, and terra cotta of a red colour, into tiles, busts, statues, 

 and architectural mouldings. Etruscan statues in clay, called 

 Tutranica, were supposed to be of the highest antiquity, and decorated 

 the early temples at Rome. The most celebrated were the star 

 Jupiter Capitolinus, made by Vulcanius or Turianus of I 

 Veii, the quadriga on the acroterium of the temple, the Hercules of 

 the Forum Boarium, and a Janus. Bas-relief frieze.-;, made from 

 moulds, have been found at VeUetri and other Etruscan siU- 

 numerous sarcophagi of terra cotta, generally small, but sometimes of 

 life size, destined to hold the ashes of the dead, and gaudily paint. .1 in 

 tempera, and either modelled or moulded, have been discovered in th,- 

 Etruscan territory. Vases of many shapes in imitation of the Greek, 

 both of glazed and plain wares, were made by the Etruscan potters. 

 The glazed vases, called by the Italian antiquaries national, are of a 

 paler clay, and glazed with a black colour of an ashen or leaden hue, 

 with subjects derived from the Etruscan mythology, accompanied with 

 Etruscan inscriptions. 



Besides these vases, the Etruscan and Sabine of the earliest 

 period resemble in paste and texture the Scandinavian and Celtic found 

 distributed over the surface of the European continent, distinguished 

 by rude forms, apparently borrowed from works in wood or metal, 

 and ornamented with studs, knobs, engraved or punctured ornaments. 

 The most remarkable of these vases were those found near the Alli.m 

 Lake, resembling the ancient tuyurla with their pent roofs, and contain- 

 ing the ashes of the dead ; they were found in 1817, surrounded with 

 smaller vases, and placed inside large two-handled vases for protection, 

 under beds of lava, and were referred to the most remote age. 

 These vases were baked at a low temperature, and modelled as v. 

 turned on the lathe. The black ware of the Etruscans was mode of a clay 

 mixed throughout with oxide of iron and manganese, and breaking 

 with a Muck fracture ; polished externally. The walls of the vases ore 

 thick in some localities and thin in others ; they are ornamented with 

 incised or punctured lines, or ornaments disposed in friezes or bas- 

 reliefs round the body. Beside* the ornaments on the body of the 

 vase, the handles, lips, and other parts are fantastically decorated 

 with relief ornaments, representing men and animals, in a style more 

 ornamental than convenient, and attempting in clay to imitate the 

 metallic work of Asia and Greece; the subjects being chosen n-oni 

 the oldest myths of Greece or Asiatic deities. Many vases are 

 ornamented with friezes of small figures about one inch high inado 

 from a cylindrical stamp revolving on the clay. This ware appears 

 to have continued from B.C. 060 to 395, the fall of the Etruscan 

 power. Some examples have Etruscan inscriptions incised upon them, 

 but only the names of possessors. Works of terra cotta have l<--n 

 discovered in other Italian sites, as at Anl.-a, amidst the Sat 

 and at Capua, but there is nothing to distinguish them in type or 

 design from the Hellenic art of Magna Gnocia. 



