362 Prof. Hausmaiin on the Composition of the Aiicient 
bited by the Greeks, nor that the style of their paintings and 
their inscriptions sufficiently demonstrate their Grecian origin ; 
yet it is probable, that the art of fabricating painted vessels of 
earthen-ware was not confined to that portion of Italy, but al- 
so extended to other districts, since, in many places remote from 
it, vases of the same general desciiption have been dug up, 
which, however, possess so much diversity of character, with re- 
gard to their forms and paintings, as to induce the inference, 
that they had not been transmitted to those parts by commerce. 
Nor was this art confined to ancient Italy alone, but was also 
practised in Greece and thence made its way into some of the 
neighbouring districts of Pontus -^h. The painted vases found 
in these countries are essentially the same as those discovered in 
Italy. 
The vases found in different parts and situations of Italy differ 
more or less from each other, both with respect to the quality 
of their material, and to the workmanship and style of painting ; 
the cause of which difference is to be sought for in the different 
natural qualities of the materials, or in a different degree of per- 
fection in the art. For the art of forming vases of pottery-ware, 
and of ornamenting them with paintings, may not only have ex- 
isted in various degrees of perfection in different places at the 
same time, but the state of this art had also, without doubt, 
been very different at different periods. And not only have 
earthen vases of very different degrees of fineness been manu- 
factured at the same time and in the same places, but also plain 
vases, without any paintings, in all other essential respects agree- 
ing with the painted ones, and destined for the same general 
purposes. 
Of the painted earthen vases, dug up in different parts of 
Italy, those found in Lower Italy and Sicily are the finest. The 
best of all, however, are those found at Nola^ both in respect to 
the excellence of their materials, and the elegance of their forms, 
together with the beauty of the paintings and tlie lustre of their 
varnish-like coating. Many of them are so perfectly preserved. 
* Clarke’s Travels, vol. iv. — Walpole Memoirs. 2d Edit. — Antiq. of Athens, 
p. 322. — Ritter’s Vorhalle Eiiropaischer Vdlkergeschichten von Herodotus, p. 232. 
-j- Ritter, as above, p. 231. 
