114 



A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



In figure 186 the red bands rise vertically from the lower zone, cross the light 

 upper zone and fuse with a red band that encircles the short neck. Four-sided 

 panels, four in number, are thus produced. The details of the decoration on each 

 cannot be determined, owing to the almost complete loss of the black paint. 



A new element entering into the technique of the decorator is shown in figure 

 187. The light zone in the color of the slip includes the neck, and is considerably 

 larger than the red zone below. It is separated into two panels by vertical 

 bands in the color of the slip instead of in red, while the red is used as a true 

 delineating color on each panel. Having been polished down before the paint 



Fig. 186. Vase ornamented with four four-sided panels. 

 Lost color ware. '/> 



Fig. 187. Globular vase ornamented with a design 

 suggesting a conventionalized alligator. Lost color 

 ware. '/> 



was thoroughly dry, the outlines are blurred in places and some of the red has 

 been carried out onto the light ground. The design, suggesting a conventionalized 

 alligator, was never wholly finished in red and is not quite the same on the two 

 sides. When being retraced in wax, the missing parts were added and now 

 appear in the light ground color. The whole figure was surrounded by a narrow 

 band (in light) now partially effaced in places from exposure or handling. The 

 black interspacial areas are reduced in size by dashes of the brush that left light 

 bands of varying lengths. 



There are four distinct zones on the globular vase shown in figure 188 ; a red 

 zone reaching from the rim almost half-way to the plane of greatest diameter, a 

 rather broad light zone, a narrow red zone representing also the peripheral band, 

 and the bottom light again. The broad light zone (now black except the design) 

 is decorated with the labret- or spool-shaped motive already mentioned in con- 

 nection with Plate XXX (fig. /). The artist repeated the motive in a horizontal 

 series by adapting the size and number of figures to the space at hand. The 

 result is that the last one to be made is considerably reduced in size. The narrow 

 red zone below is ornamented with a row of lozenge-shaped figures. 



