DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0055
46
NAUKRATIS.
One piece of white and buff figure on black ground
is ruder than the worst yet known; and the rough
red pottery of the Eoman age is covered with
debased scrolls, sprays, and leaves, painted on in
black and white, which have an evident parentage
in Greek art. One of the most curious develop-
ments was the use of appliquee figures: before
the entire debasement of art, one example shows
that such were finely designed, on a large scale, on
vases, and painted red and black; but later,
probably after the first century a.d., a hideous
style prevailed of ill-defined small figures stuck
on to vases, and thickly and coarsely painted in
red, purple, black, and white; they recall the
work of the end of the second and beginning of
the third century more than anything, and may
well be of that age. The subjects are children,
msenads, furniture, &c, and are often indelicate.
One piece of late architectural work was found
by accident, up in the Eoman level. It is a capi-
tal of a pilaster, of florid and debased style, with
the higher relief of it added in plaster, as the very
soft, friable Alexandrian limestone would not bear
undercutting. It is now in the British Museum.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PAINTED POTTEEY OF NAUKRATIS.
By Cecil H. Smith.
56. Mr. Petrie, in his paper upon the general
aspects of Naukratian pottery, has already shown us
what is to be learnt of the different fabrics there
represented from the circumstances of their prove-
nance in relation to each other; it remains for me
to say a few words as to the position of the painted
fragments in the general history of Greek painted
vases.
No other branch of archaeology has probably
made so rapid an advance into importance as this
has done within the past ten years or so; the
mythological interest of the black and red figured
vases is of course no new thing; but either because
the importance of all other material was under-
rated, or because in more recent discoveries richer
stores of this material have come into our hands,
it has been reserved for this decade to realize for
the first time how much light may be thrown upon
the history of the Hellenic race by these otherwise
insignificant witnesses. The vases with black
and red figures, although numerically the most
imposing in every collection, are in reality the least
in importance from an historical point of view,
because they belong to a time which is already
amply illustrated by abundance of other docu-
mentary evidence; moreover, these two centuries or
so, from 500-300 b.c, are in reality but a small
portion of the field which vases cover; what, for
example, do we know of the fascinating dark ages
before the Persian invasion; of the beginnings of
Hellenic art and life; and of art in Greece before
the Hellenic nation existed; as we go further and
further back, actual documents of these remote
times become more and more scanty, until at last
we are left, as Tiryns shows us, with vase paint-
ings as almost the only living testimony of those
shadowy peoples whose traces linger in the pages
of Herodotos and in the wondrous " Cyclopean "
masonry.
The study of vases is then still growing, or
rather perhaps I should say, just beginning to
grow; and all fresh contributions of evidence are
of great importance, whether they confirm, or, as
must often be the case, upset our preconceived
ideas; in order therefore to save ourselves from
wasted labour, we cannot be too cautious in dis-
tinguishing suggestions or theories from proven
facts. It is necessary to premise this warning,
because in speaking of the vases of Naukratis we
are dealing with a mass of material which is after
all fragmentary, and which is at the same time
most tempting in its suggestiveness; there is
scarcely a single complete vase in the collection,
and very few among the painted vases which give
us the important datum of shape ; as I have
several suggestions to make, I should wish then
that my remarks should be considered merely
as suggestions, and as subject to modifications
NAUKRATIS.
One piece of white and buff figure on black ground
is ruder than the worst yet known; and the rough
red pottery of the Eoman age is covered with
debased scrolls, sprays, and leaves, painted on in
black and white, which have an evident parentage
in Greek art. One of the most curious develop-
ments was the use of appliquee figures: before
the entire debasement of art, one example shows
that such were finely designed, on a large scale, on
vases, and painted red and black; but later,
probably after the first century a.d., a hideous
style prevailed of ill-defined small figures stuck
on to vases, and thickly and coarsely painted in
red, purple, black, and white; they recall the
work of the end of the second and beginning of
the third century more than anything, and may
well be of that age. The subjects are children,
msenads, furniture, &c, and are often indelicate.
One piece of late architectural work was found
by accident, up in the Eoman level. It is a capi-
tal of a pilaster, of florid and debased style, with
the higher relief of it added in plaster, as the very
soft, friable Alexandrian limestone would not bear
undercutting. It is now in the British Museum.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PAINTED POTTEEY OF NAUKRATIS.
By Cecil H. Smith.
56. Mr. Petrie, in his paper upon the general
aspects of Naukratian pottery, has already shown us
what is to be learnt of the different fabrics there
represented from the circumstances of their prove-
nance in relation to each other; it remains for me
to say a few words as to the position of the painted
fragments in the general history of Greek painted
vases.
No other branch of archaeology has probably
made so rapid an advance into importance as this
has done within the past ten years or so; the
mythological interest of the black and red figured
vases is of course no new thing; but either because
the importance of all other material was under-
rated, or because in more recent discoveries richer
stores of this material have come into our hands,
it has been reserved for this decade to realize for
the first time how much light may be thrown upon
the history of the Hellenic race by these otherwise
insignificant witnesses. The vases with black
and red figures, although numerically the most
imposing in every collection, are in reality the least
in importance from an historical point of view,
because they belong to a time which is already
amply illustrated by abundance of other docu-
mentary evidence; moreover, these two centuries or
so, from 500-300 b.c, are in reality but a small
portion of the field which vases cover; what, for
example, do we know of the fascinating dark ages
before the Persian invasion; of the beginnings of
Hellenic art and life; and of art in Greece before
the Hellenic nation existed; as we go further and
further back, actual documents of these remote
times become more and more scanty, until at last
we are left, as Tiryns shows us, with vase paint-
ings as almost the only living testimony of those
shadowy peoples whose traces linger in the pages
of Herodotos and in the wondrous " Cyclopean "
masonry.
The study of vases is then still growing, or
rather perhaps I should say, just beginning to
grow; and all fresh contributions of evidence are
of great importance, whether they confirm, or, as
must often be the case, upset our preconceived
ideas; in order therefore to save ourselves from
wasted labour, we cannot be too cautious in dis-
tinguishing suggestions or theories from proven
facts. It is necessary to premise this warning,
because in speaking of the vases of Naukratis we
are dealing with a mass of material which is after
all fragmentary, and which is at the same time
most tempting in its suggestiveness; there is
scarcely a single complete vase in the collection,
and very few among the painted vases which give
us the important datum of shape ; as I have
several suggestions to make, I should wish then
that my remarks should be considered merely
as suggestions, and as subject to modifications