December 1, 1896.] 



KNOWLEDGE, 



267 



when the monsoon ought still to have been exercising its 

 moist and sheltering influence. 



At the existing rate of progress, however, there is little 

 doubt that the possibility of predicting an early stoppage 

 as well as a diminished strength in the monsoon will be 

 shortly within the power of the Indian Meteorologist-in- 

 Chief ; and it is to be hoped that the successful example 

 of the bold experiment of predicting weather conditions 

 half a year ahead in India, will stimulate European 

 weather bureaux to advance beyond their present unsatis- 

 factory position. 



■ ♦ 



GREEK VASES.-IV. 



C— RED-FIGUKED VASES (FINEST PERIOD.) 



By H. B. Walters, M.A., F.S.A. 



IN the last article {see -July Number) we dealt with the 

 history of Greek vase painting down to the end of 

 the sixth century b.c, with some allusions to the 

 changes in the art that were taking place towards 

 the end of that century. In the present article this 

 question must be discussed at greater length, although the 

 sudden reversal of technical method involved in the change 

 from black figures on red ground to red figures on black 

 ground is not at first sight easy of explanation. We are 

 also met with chronological difficulties, owing to the results 

 obtained from the recent excavations on the Acropolis of 

 Athens. Into the details of this question, however, it 

 would be inadvisable to enter ; suffice it to say that it is 

 now acknowledged on all hands that the first appearance 

 of vases with red figures is not, as was formerly supposed, 

 subsequent to the Persian Wars {i.e., after 480 b.c), but 

 must be pushed back to the time when the Peisistratidae 

 ruled as tyrants in Athens, about 520 b.c. 



As to the origin of the red - figure technique, it is 

 susceptible of more than one explanation. We must 

 remember that it had no development from the black- 

 figure style, as no intermediate stage between the two is 

 possible. There is, however, a small class of vases in 

 which the figures are painted in opaque red colour on a 

 black ground, with which the whole surface of the vase 

 has been covered. We know from excavations that these 

 vases belong to the period 500-480 b.c, and some may be 

 even earlier ; it is, therefore, conceivable that it occurred 

 to the painter that it was more effective to let the red clay 

 of the background appear through the black, wherever he 

 would place a figure, than to paint the red on to the black. 

 But these vases are few in number, and there is no doubt 

 that the red-figured vases sprang at once into very great 

 popularity, and that the new invention, however brought 

 about, was too generally adopted at first to derive its origin 

 from a comparatively rare method. The transformation is 

 usually associated with a certain group of painters, who 

 appear to have used the two methods indiscriminately, 

 either painting whole vases with red or with black figures, 

 or combining them on one vase. 



Briefly, the method of vase painting during the period 

 under consideration is as follows : — The artist sketches his 

 design on the red clay with a fine pointed tool ; he then 

 surrounds this outline with black varnish, laid on with a 

 brush to the extent of about an eighth of an inch all round, 

 this being done to prevent the varnish when laid on over 

 the rest of the ground from running over into any part of 

 the design. Finally, details, such as features or folds of 

 drapery, are added with a brush in black lines on the red ; 

 and further details are often expressed either in a thinned 

 black pigment which becomes brown, or by application of 

 white or purple as in the last period. 



Thus we see that the technical process of the preceding 

 method is exactly reversed, and that the figures now stand 

 out in the natural colour of the clay against the black 

 ground. 



Throughout the period there is an extraordinarily rapid 

 advance both in artistic conception and power of execution, 

 due, no doubt, to the contemporary impulse given to the 

 more dignified art of fresco-painting by the rise of 

 Polygnotos and the other great Athenian painters of the 

 fifth century. Yet this improvement was finally to prove 

 the vase-painter's rain. At first the large and simple 

 compositions of the fresco-painters exercise a praiseworthy 

 influence on the conceptions of the vase-artists, besides 

 providing them with new hints for technical improvement, 

 such as additional colours or variety of ornament. But 

 the more truly pictorial the scenes on the vases become, 

 the more do they tend to deteriorate in merit ; the love of 

 over-refinement and the newly-acquired skill in drawing 

 drive the artist to produce hurried, careless compositions, 

 and to forsake archaic severity for crowded scenes or 

 groups of figures without meaning or interest. 



Contemporary with the red-figure method is one which 

 we have already not infrequently met, in which the figures 

 are painted on a white slip ; and this method also receives 



Fio. 1.— Lekythos (Oil-Fliisk) of "Strous;" Pi-rioil: Xike (Victory) 

 pouring Libation at Altar. About 4C0 B.C. 



a fresh impetus in the period before us, and even more 

 than the other brings before us the methods and processes 

 of the great painters. It must be remembered that in the 

 fifth century fresco painting was a comparatively simple 

 process, three or four colours alone being employed on a 

 white ground resembling that used on the vases. The 

 ground in either case being of the same character, it was 

 but a short step for the vase painter to employ the same 

 method of colouring, even though on a vastly smaller scale. 



