HOLMES] • VASES DECORATED WITH LIFE FORMS. 123 



nertomakeitiir.'ttycci'taiii lliat a ivptiliaii f.n-in is intciiiled. Tliese 

 figures are fully ami >\ sl.inai irall\ invvcnir.! in a siicciclingsectiMii. 

 Many of tlu-se gl,.l>ul,-ir vasrs aiv unusually liaii.lscine. ^The pol- 

 ished ground is red or is vaiied with stripes or jjanels of the whitish 

 slip. Over this ground the whole surface was painted black and then 

 the lost color was employed to work out the design. The coiled 

 figures were produced by drawing the lines in the lost color. The 

 interspaces were then roughly gone over with the same pigment in 

 such a way as to leave the figures inclosed within rather uneven black 

 borders. The presentation of these ornaments brings jne naturally to 

 the consideration of a number of very puzzling forms which, if taken 

 alone, must inevitably be referred to vegetal originals. In Fig. 

 181 we have a handsomely shajied vessel, finished in a polished red 

 ground and decorated in the usual manner. In the main zone — here 



Fig. 181. Vase decorated with highly couventional life forms — }. 



rather high up on the vase — there is a series of upright figures re- 

 sembling stalks or stems with scroll-like branches spriunini; fn'iu the 

 sides. The stalks are probably the septa of the panels and the leaves 

 are the usual reptilian symbols. About the widest part of the body 

 of the vase is a band of ornament probal)ly representing an animal. 

 A still more remarkaldc ornaiiiciif is sliowu in Fig. is'i. The dec- 

 orated zone of the vcssrl tr"in wliicli this is la ken is divided into three 

 panels, each of which ccnitaiiis stciudike ligurrs tfnuinatingin flower 

 shaped heads and uniting in a most remarkable way animal deriva- 

 tives and vegetal forms. I am inclined to the view that here, as in 



