Tlie Patterns and Shapes of the IT art'. 



223 



remember how much earthenware was used in daily Hfe by the 

 Romans— for their floors, and drinking-cups, and oil and wine 

 flasks, and unguent vessels, and cinerary urns, and boxes for 



Patterns from Fra|ment9. 



money. The beauty, however, of the forms, even if it does not 

 approach that of the Upchurch and Castor pottery, should be 

 noticed. The flowing lines, the scroll-work patterns, the narrow 

 necks of the wine-flasks and unguent vessels, all show how well 



Patterns from Fragments. 



the true artist understands that it is the real perfection of Art 

 to make beauty ever the handmaid of use. 



Another thing, too, is worthy of notice, that the artist was 

 evidently unfettered by any given pattern or rule. Whatever 

 device or form was at the moment uppermost in his mind, that 

 he carried out, his hand following the bent of his fancy, llcncf 

 the endless variety of patterns and forms. No two vessels nvv 

 exactly alike. In inodcrn iiiMimfactnrcs, bowcvci-, flic smooth 



