124 
GREEK ANTIQUITIES. 
[UPPER 
SECOND VASE ROOM. 
This room contains the later Greek Fictile Vases, the Greek 
and Roman Terracottas, the Greek and Roman Mural Paint- 
ings, and a number of miscellaneous antiquities. In this 
Collection a large number of Fictile Vases and other anti- 
quities from the Blacas, Temple, and Castellan i Collections 
have been incorporated. 
The Greek Fictile Vases are arranged in Wall Cases (60—72, 
1—23), and in the detached Cases in the centre. A large 
proportion of the subjects represented relates to Dionysiac 
festivals, to Venus and Cupid, or to funeral offerings. 
The figures are painted in red or white on a black ground, the 
details being sometimes picked out in crimson or yellow. The 
black varnish is less brilliant than in the earlier styles, and 
the shapes of the vases less elegant ; the ornaments are more 
florid, the composition more pretentious and elaborate, and 
the drawing mannered and often careless. These charac- 
teristics mark the decline of the art of vase-painting. 
Cases GO-TO contain the black modelled ware, among which will be 
found many shapes imitated from vases in metal. Among them is a 
series of vases found at Capua, remarkable for elegance of shape and 
richness of gilt ornament. Cases 71-2 contain a series of vases from 
the Cyrenaica. 
On the Table Cases in this room are the following select 
vases : — 
Table Case A. 1. Krater : Death of Priam and meeting of Menelaus 
and Helen : reverse, Olympic Deities, meeting of two heroes, and 
battle of Greeks and Amazons. (Minervini, Bullettino Archeologico 
Napolitano, 1858, p. 145.) 2. A terracotta urn from Athens, con- 
taining bones. 
Table Case B. 1. A collection of terracotta figures found in tombs 
at Tanagra in Boeotia. They are remarkable for grace and refinement 
in the composition and modelling. 
2. A terracotta group of two female figures playing with astragali 
or knucklebones. Capua. Castellani. • 
Table Case C. Two Panathenaic amphorae, both inscribed with the 
name of the Arcbon Pythodelos (b.c. 336). From Cervetri. Castellani. 
A third, with the name of the Archon Niketes (b.c. 332). From 
Capua. Castellani. 
Table Case D. 1. Krater: The initiation of the Dioscuri at the 
lesser mysteries at Agra; reverse, Dionysos, Plutos, and other figures. 
— rourtales. 
